90 Journey to Mifis (9)

As the night slowly came to an end and the moon dropped over the horizon, the sun stretched its light on the world as it started to rise from the other horizon.

Only then did the men finally moved and examined everything from the beginning, to Leon's horror he found out that two men died while they had been sleeping in their tents from those three scarred men. The only reason why it had been two and not three since the men slept in tents of three's except for the center tent where the old village chief took care of Boadicea., was because the third person was the ex-soldier who had been on the lookout this evening.

When Leon opened the flap to the tent, he felt nauseous and the night's stew started to rise to the top of his chest.

The two bodies were flat on the ground face down and the only wounds were a slash to the neck, which sounded rather calm but anyone who saw the room would be able to tell you they did not die calmly.

Anyone with enough brain could see roughly what happened and Leon also had a very good idea of what happened. There was a splatter of blood on the wall in a line, where most likely they had initially been attacked. However, the blood didn't end there as it was sprayed everywhere on the tent walls in a chaotic manner, most likely from when they were staggering around and desperate to live.

The patterns of the blood splatters were so chaotic and violent that it looked like a Jason Pollock painting, as the blood messily stained the walls. However right where their bodies lied, a huge puddle of blood had grown to cover a good portion of the floor in the tent, but since it had been quite a while since they had died the blood was already dried and dark red.

Even the bodies had turned pale and ice cold to the touch, to the point that a blind person would think they were touching a statue of ice. That wasn't even the worse of the scene, the smell the bodies gave off was enough to make Leon who had seen dozens of people die and fall in battle almost puke.

Since the group had been trying to get to Mifis as fast as possible, they hadn't been too concerned about hygiene and only took a few dips in a river when they saw one, but the already dirty smell of the tent combined with the decomposing body, dried blood, dirty clothes, etc made the tent so putrid that after a few seconds Leon had to leave the tent.

Some of the other men who took a look inside of the tent had run out to puke in a nearby bush, while the only person who didn't show any reaction to the awful smell and visuals was the old village chief who only shook his head in sadness.

Although they weren't his children, being a village chief made all the villagers under his care feel like family, but the village chief had experienced many things including the wars between Partha and Akkad during his youth and such a scene didn't even shake him.

The surviving men cleaned up the horrifying tent as best as they could with just water and a cloth, but eventually, they gathered up all the bodies and had to figure out what to do with them. Even though they were trying to figure out what to do, everyone stayed silent for a few seconds before someone spoke quietly.

"Should we bring back the bodies?"

However, the village chief shook his head.

"I'm not sure how long we'll be in Mifis for treatment and embalming the bodies is money we don't have…"

Although people wanted to bring the dead men back to their families, they couldn't say anything because they knew the village chief was right, even Leon would be broke if he helped the villagers. Embalming wasn't unheard of, but one needed money to pay for a rare magic user that could embalm the body with magic or a doctor who could do it, however, it cost a decent amount of money that only nobles, merchants, or wealthy mercenaries could afford let alone normal villagers already using their money for treatment.

The village chief however couldn't bear the idea of showing back at the village with nothing, so he looked at the men.

"We'll bring back any items the family could remember them by, whether it be rings, diaries, letters, or very personal items. We'll at least do that much."

Everyone thought it was better than nothing and went to look for any items to bring back, while the old village chief walked up to Leon.

"I'm going to sound like a broken instrument, but once again thank you for your he-"

Leon shook his head a little, at the old man's words.

"I'm not sure if I deserve the thanks, too many died…"

The old man gave Leon a pat in the back with one of his hands while the other one held onto the cane for support.

"I once felt something similar when I was a soldier in my youth... you did your best and if you weren't here more people would've died, including Boadicea and I."

Leon knew the man was right but still felt mad at himself for being so weak that bandits still wreaked havoc.

"Speaking of Boadicea, where is your granddaughter?"

The old man used his cane to point at the cart, which was stacked full with the packed-up tents and camp supplies, besides the bloody tent.

"I put her there, after the three were defeated, she already has enough problems."

Looking at where the old village chief pointed, Leon could see a tiny bit of scarlet-colored hair stick up over the side of the cart and Leon felt better.

After an hour of cleaning up everything, the villagers took all the bodies and put them in one corner, even the bandit's bodies were there since if they were infamous or wanted. The villagers would be able to get some extra coins for the way back and some of it might go to Leon as well.

With everything packed up, Leon got on his horse, the village chief still sat at the top of the cart, but a new man had to take the reins and start their journey into Mifis. Leon hadn't even reached his destination and felt like he had experienced so much. Now all he wanted to do was help the old village chief get to a doctor for the little red-haired girl and relax.