3 -Great warrior, show Mercy!!

The morning in the Beli town was cloudy as usual when considering the season. Numerous sounds of clanking and gurgling sounded from multiple buildings in the area and they were getting ready for today's work before the sun even rose to the sky.

In a certain inn a fat merchant stepped down the stairs to have his fill of breakfast before anyone else, he knew from his experience that a small inn like this won't even heat up the food again after its cooked and he hated eating cold fare. There were not many people at the tables at the moment hence he didn't even have to wait before his food was served.

"Warm soup and bread. The perfect meal for this cold weather." The fat merchant clapped his hand before chomping on a big piece of soup soaked bread, a bright smile blossomed on his place. The man was unlike other's in his profession, though he seemed fat and lazy, the man had very low standards and will often stoop low to save even a penny, a cheap soup like this free of penny was food from gods for him.

As the merchant asked for a second serving, a sound of heavy metal clanking together sounded on the floor just above him, the steps were heavy as they moved to the stairs and got down in a steady manner.

"Owner!! Get the captain some meat and mashed potatoes!!" The fat merchant gestured at the inn owner as he saw the security head of the caravan to come down and then taking a seat beside him. Today was the day the caravan would leave this small town, hence he donned his armour the moment he woke up. The captain was a middle aged man with a clean shaven face, there were no marks or even scars on his face, if people wouldn't know him personally, they may assume him as a greenhorn due to his getup. But if these same people notice his armour, they may experience another story.

"This day feels ominous!" These were the words that came out of the captain as he looked outside at the dark cloud hung over the sky while he picked up a huge chunk of meat and started eating barbarically.

"Hah! Captain, you jest!" The merchant disregarded the man with a flick of his hand and then absorbed himself in his food once again. "Owner your heart is really big. How about you give me the recipe of this nice grub." He commended the owner of the inn while lifting a small piece of meat from his soup, who just replied with an awkward smile on his face.

"Mr. Yoshbindu is really great with words, trying to skip off the topic using a bowl of soup." The captain groaned at the merchant's actions but still put on a polite front. The captain didn't like to be ignored.

Noticing that his actions may have caused some discontent, the merchant continued with a pitiful smile. "Captain, you already know how off the schedule we are due to this rain, if we delay it more just because of a hunch of yours, then how can I make a profit?"

"I just don't think today is a good day, it may even rain." The man spoke pointing at the sky through the ceiling.

"It will not, the wind is dry-cold for a morning, these clouds are just temporary over our head." The merchant gave a weak answer to put down this frugal discussion. He then turned the discussion around and started talking about business and the arrangement they will be going with today. But unknown to them, a violent shriek had disturbed the other side of the town.

*****

"A total of 12 people dead in the surrounding alleys. 4 of them seems to belong to good households, while the rest are 3 working girls and 5 labourers." A city guard gave report to the guard captain as the bodies were thrown on the cart.

"You say this is a work of a thief?" The captain questioned his adjunct as he eyed the bodies suspiciously.

"Yes sir, all of their belonging seems to be stolen from their body, as we couldn't find anything of value on them." He spoke with a contemplative look, but when he noticed the glint in his captains eye he further added. "Captain, don't worry… no one had touched the bodies before I came here." The adjunct guard was scared as there were multiple cases where their own collages would ransack the body of a victim and blame the killer for it. This had happened multiple times, causing a murder case to turn into a robbery. Hence he explained before his leader came to conclusions a he still remembered the fate of the 2 who were found practicing these routines.

"Hmm…!! But the bodies seem to be too badly butchered for it to be a robbery." The man spoke as he wondered why there were no indication or any witnesses of this many people dying, but when he looked at the pub. 'These robbers found a good place, half of these drunk fucks would not even remember or care if someone is butchered in front of them.' The Guard Captain murmured under his breath.

"Lock down the whole town!! No one is to go in and out of this place without my consent."

"Yes captain."

*****

The sun had already risen for a while but the discussion of the merchant and the captain of the security team was still ongoing. There had been multiple people staying at the inn previously who came down to eat their fill, but not one in the group disturbed the discussion.

Suddenly the gate opened with a thud, and the foreman who was overseeing the work previous day and also the one who was annoyed by Wyakti came in running directly to the table, he was out of breath and couldn't even convey the words as he took large breaths in.

"Suni! First you calm down and then speak." The merchant surnamed Yoshbindu spoke in a calm tone, both he and the security captain were disturbed in their talks, but they didn't mull over it. Instead they were interested over what had got this little assistant of his to get so worked up.

"Mr. Bindu! …..hah!...The town is going on a lockdown soon, we need to move before the sun peaks the sky." His words caused Yoshbindu to frown as his heart grew uneasy, he didn't question Suni's words, he held significant amount of trust towards his assistant. Hence if what he said was true, he needed to make some changes to the plans somewhat.

"Why? What happened?" It was the security leader who asked this question, he had been feeling uneasy since the morning, he didn't know what may be the cause for it, hence hearing that the town will go on a lockdown his mind shined in clarity and curiosity welled up in his, even Yoshbindu who was silent for a moment grew attentive for the next response from Suni.

Suni who stood in front of these focused gazes continued. "There had been some robberies and murders in the south side of the town, they say it some bandits have sneaked in the village."

"Looks like we would need to wait some more." The captain commented as he gazed at Bindu, his face held a smirk implying "I told you so."

Yoshbindu's good mood of the morning disappeared, even the 5th bowl of soup with pieces of meat floating in it didn't made him happy as before. "When will the lockdown be lifted?"

Under the scrutinizing look of his boss, Suni replied. "I don't know for sure, but they are saying it will take at least a week or if the culprit…."

Suni didn't get to complete his sentence as Yoshbindu slapped the table and grumbled. "The fuck!.... Don't the gods have any one else to fuck over?" Inside Yoshbindu even cursed worse at the Guard Captain of the Beil town, but his words didn't come out as he was in a public place where the eyes and ears were everywhere.

"Mr. Yoshbindu, don't curse the gods, curse those goddamn thieves and even if the Guard captain was not going to lockdown the village, I would also not leave it now under these circumstances."

"I suggest you to wait until all of this commotion had died down, as no one can say that these men are not awaiting to ambush merchants like you." The captain eased up his posture as he placed his sword on the table.

Looking at the relaxed posture of the captain, Bindu creased up his brows but didn't say anything instead he contemplated his next step, he wished for those bandits to be captured, but he also knew to not depend on fate that much and a week of delay will totally destroy his business, if the contract is not fulfilled in time, he may even lose all his assets. He laughed weakly as he looked at the man eating his food with a blissful smile on his face. 'I don't have much of a choice.'

"Suni!! Take this!" Bindu threw a pouch of silver to him and asked Suni to bribe the guard of the north gate to delay the gate from closing up while he gets the caravan ready.

The captain was looked over with dismay over his face, but inside he was laughing. He wouldn't want to brag, but he somehow predicted something like this happening.

"Mr Dary! I will add another spirit stone and 10% increase in your reward, so please get your men ready we are leaving this place." Bindu didn't even wait for any kind of affirmation and stood up went away to make arrangements.

Dary the leader of the security team was left alone with his meat and potatoes. A small smile on his face and his heart still held some uneasiness in it. He didn't know what the future may entail but he was ready. Only left the table when he had his stomach filled.

"I shouldn't push Bindu too much, he is an amiable guy."

*****

It wasn't long before Yoshbindu exited the town in a rush through the north exit. His party consisted of only 35 people and 12 caravan that was managed by them, while the group of 40 mercenaries surrounded the party from all sides as they moved slowly on the wet road.

It was going to be a slow and painful journey, but at least the weather was on their side.

"As I said, the clouds were just temporary!" Bindu was back on his game again as he spoke in the same calm voice as before.

But oddly enough he didn't get any reply. "Captain?" Bindu was sitting in the leading caravan that was a lot bigger than the others, by his side sat his assistant Suni who was also the one driving this caravan. Bindu in lack of a reply moved his head away from the sky and toward Dary.

Dary was looking towards his right, gazing deep into the rice fields. He can see someone or something move in tall shoots of the rice maintaining the same pace as the caravan. The figure would have been completely hidden form him, if not for the rice parting away due to that things action, he wouldn't have noticed it.

"Jaroom! You go and check!" Dary gestured toward his right hand man while completely ignoring Yoshbindu in the moment, Yoshbindu also stopped moving his lips noticing the strange movement in the rice fields. 'We were being followed?'

Jaroom broke away from the group and rushed at the being hidden in the field, he can see that whoever was in the field, it was scared and startled due to his sudden rush. While Jaroom was running to the object, the rest of the caravan stopped and got in an alert position too.

"Let's see what have we hear!" Jaroom spoke in a grim tone as he pointed his lance in the direction the grass was parted up. He was going to impale the person in the grass.

But before he could do that, a small figure with a mound on his back came out of the field and prostrated in fear while watching the approaching lance. "Mighty warrior, have mercy!" A young voice came out of the trembling figure.

"A boy!!" Jaroom lifted up his lance before it was too late and rushed past the boy before turning around and coming close to the boy while galloping. Jaroom didn't put his guard down though, he had heard of the robbery that had happened last night, he thought that this body may be part of that group.

"State, why are you following us?" Jaroom questioned as he gave hand-signals towards his band to get on a high alert.

"I… I….!" The boy's voice was trembling; fear was apparent in his eyes as he dreaded the spear that was pointed at him.

Jaroom noticed the fear in the boys eyes, but he didn't move his spear away nor did he gave the boy any encouraging words. He continued in a commanding tone. "Remove that umbrella from your back!" The biggest reason Jaroom had his guard up against the 12-year-old was due to this bulge, he didn't know what this boy was hiding under it, nor did he think it be something pleasant.

The boy could feel the chill in Jaroom's voice, he with extreme precaution moved his hand and gently removed the umbrella.

"Hmm?" jaroom lowered his umbrella soon after seeing what was inside.

"Is this your relative?"

"Ye…yes warrior!... She.. she is my little sister!" Taking a sigh of relief after seeing that the spear was not pointed at his throat, Wyakti replied.

"Why were you following us?" Jaroom questioned again, hs murderous intent lowered than before.

"Great warrior!... my..my sister has weak legs, I heard there are miracle doctors in the cities, so maybe they can cure her defect." Wyakti spoke as he rubbed his sister head, who was trembling in fear on his back.

Looking at the 2 of them Jaroom gave another signal and then asked Wyakti to follow him to the caravan.

"Master I know this hunch back!! He came tomorrow to ask for work." Suni who was sitting added in the moment he noticed the hunchback boy who was facing multiple questions from Dary.

"Suni you know him?" Dary asked. He held some suspicion toward the boy that came out of nowhere and held leafy smell on his body.

"Yes master, but I didn't know he was carrying a little girl on his back. And I don't know when, but this boy disappeared instantly." Suni gave his confirmation. At which Dary's guard also went down, he had seen various kids like these who wanted to go to city for different reasons, this bods reason was a bit selfless, but he knew what will happen once he reaches there.

"Great Warrior I just need to go to city, that master asked for an exorbitant amount, so I thought of following you form the back."

"How much money do you have on you!!" Bindu who was listening all this while asked.

"Just 23 silvers." At his words, not only Suni, who considered the boy worse than a beggar, but even Bindu and Dary who were around them were startled.

"Isn't the amount enough?.. Just give me the money and you may enter our group." Bindu spoke as they had been already delayed 10mins, he wanted this talk to get over with.

But Wyakti didn't agree. He gave the reason that most of the money he saved was for the miracle doctor, he can't waste them for travel.

"Hah! Ok!! Jut give me 10 silvers… I will make an exception for you."

Wyakti prostrated in gratitude, before handing Bindu his money.

"Don't worry sister, we will reach the city soon!" Wyakti spoke as he handed his sister some resins and moved to the back of the group before following them again.

Suni didn't notice this, but the boy was already wearing different clothes, then the first time he met wyakti, nor Dary contemplated over the boy's smell.

They didn't know, but they just harboured the person who was responsible for all the deaths in the village last night.