Chapter 314 - Ready

When the people in the huts left their homes to check what was going on, they were immediately attacked. They got hit in the legs and shoulders because the chances of them bleeding to death in those places were small.

It took a while since those who left most of the huts were older men and women, but eventually, some people that were actually willing to fight back appeared. A group of ten mages fired Fire Arrows toward the group before Vitalar's men could hit them, but Zaos blocked the attacks by spinning his sword a few times. They didn't use their Fast Cast skill, so Zaos job had been relatively easy.

Soon after, Vitalar's hit them. Even though that stopped them for a short while, those ten mages got up and prepared several other magic projectiles. While some of them even managed to fire several Fire Arrows, most of them failed because the pain made their concentration wane. Zaos once again blocked the attacks by spinning his sword.

While all that happened, Zaos noticed that some of the villagers left their homes and then began to escape further into the mountains. Zaos furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed that the village basically only had the elderly and kids.

"We can stop now," Vitalar said. "We can't take too many prisoners by ourselves anyway."

That village was supposed to have at least one hundred inhabitants. Still, Vitalar felt satisfied in capturing only fifteen of them. That seemed weird, but Zaos soon realized why he did that. He would use the captured villagers to lure people of other villagers into rescuing them. Or at least to silence them before they reveal any important secret, a group of followers of the demon god did the same thing several years ago before the mercenaries attacked the base.

When Zaos approached, he noticed that the fallen mages were in pain and couldn't move an inch. As expected, the bolts had been coated in poison. As if they were bags of trash, Vitalar's men put the mages inside a cart, one among each other and even without pulling out the bolts… that would cause pain, but it would be better if they close wounds.

"It seems you have something to say," Vitalar said.

"You might think that you are smart, but you can't even see that by treating our enemies this way, they will feel only eager to attack and destroy our villages," Zaos said.

"And?" Vitalar asked. "I don't have to worry about the villages. Ruvyn is the base to do that kind of thing. Not to mention, they won't attack anything as long as your soldiers do their job properly."

"That is a nice plan; of course, we can keep hundreds of soldiers allocated in the mountains for months," Zaos said. "It is not like the enemies having been holding a grudge against the rest of the world for thousands of years."

"They are able to do that because soldiers like you still exist and are too incompetent to exterminate them," Vitalar said.

"I can see that you are able to do a much better job," Zaos smiled. "With your strategy, you captured fifteen and let over ninety escape. Congratulations!"

Vitalar bit his lips in exasperation since he didn't have anything clever to say. Regardless, he had better things to do than argue with Zaos, so he gave the order for his men to pull the cart. The trip back will be a bit longer while carrying the prisoners, so Zaos decided to stay on guard.

After one week, they finally returned to the camp. Zaos found his lieutenants and the other half of the unit waiting for him. It seemed Vitalar had called for them before they left without telling Zaos… the man was really starting to get on Zaos's nerves.

"Hey, Captain," Cohnal said. "It is finally our time to take your place here."

"You seem in a bad mood. Did something happen?" Nyana asked while she was looking at the prisoners.

"It is nothing," Zaos said.

Once again, Zaos confirmed that there was something wrong with those people. Nyana didn't even show any sign of discomfort while looking at the prisoners. Their situation improved since Zaos decided to take the bolts from their bodies and heal their wounds to some extent. However, Vitalar was still drugging them with some poison that made them feel exhausted all the time. To think that his little sister could act that way… or was Zaos in the wrong and his way of thinking was inadequate for that world? He was a logical person, so he couldn't understand why one type of enemy was worse than others…

"I am going to lead you guys to your new posts," Zaos said. "Follow me and pay attention because these weeks won't be easy for any of you."

Zaos spent another week moving everyone around to the new posts and then another week moving those who worked back to the base for the last five weeks. He thought the asshole would demand him to return as soon as possible, but Vitalar wasn't crazy enough for that. Regardless, when Zaos returned to the camp before returning to the base, the prisoners were no longer there. Once Zaos was back to the base, he gave his soldiers a week off and then headed to the commander's office.

"It seems you managed to keep yourself from cutting him down," Ruvyn said. "Still, I can see that Vitalar had been more annoying than the cold winds of the mountains."

"Commander, why are we keeping prisoners?" Zaos asked.

"Oh, you don't know that? That is kind of shocking…" Ruvyn frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" Zaos asked.

"Well, because it means the king and your father don't think that you are ready for the truth," Ruvyn said. "The two great houses that serve the royal family directly, the four commanders and the most prominent families of the four regions know why we have to capture them, and they tell their kids when they come of age… you already seventeen, and your father didn't tell you anything about that. So, that only means that your father thinks that you can't become the head of the family."