Chapter 7: Nigh

The Albion Military built a camp near the village where Damon and his children stayed. But even though they were soldiers of the empire, their allegiance wasn't currently with it. They are working on a mission given to them by the Phoenix Kingdom, one of the 3 Kingdoms of the western part of the continent, also allies of the Sunlight Empire, to find the princess who ran away from the arranged marriage between her kingdom and the Sunlight Empire, dead or alive. She was 9 at the time when she disappeared, and it's been 7 years since then. It was rumored that when she ran away, she also took the youngest prince with her.

Nobody knew where they were, until now.

They found out that one of the deceased guards of the oldest daughter of the current emperor of Albion was sighted somewhere in this village, specifically, the founder of the orphanage in the village. The orphanage's name is Sariel Orphanage, named after the angel Sariel, who, according to the bible of the church in the Silver Continent, was the one who sacrificed his life and his 12 angel wings to forever protect the children of the land and sky. His sacrifice was so noble that millions of people still believe in his existence to this day.

But, at the end of the day, those stories are nothing but hoaxes. There are no angels, devils, or gods, only the power of man can change the world. That's what the Albion Empire believes in anyway, that's why they crush any religion that comes to the Bronze Continent because they go against their ideologies.

A few days ago, they managed to poison someone in the orphanage. It was a girl that resembles the sketch they have of the princess, but older. After a bit of investigation, they managed to find out about her age and past. She is 16 years old, the same age as the princess, and was found by Damon when she was trying to find food in the garbage cans with her baby brother.

There was no mistaking it, this is the one they are looking for. So they waited for the poison to take effect and were just waiting for her to die in 15 days. No one can survive the fire blossom flower unless they are rich and have tons of money. But even then, there is only 1 type of cure in the world for the fire blossom flower and that can only be found in the Golden Continent.

There's no way she's getting any of that cure.

A Few Days Later…

"What do you mean she's cured!?" The commander of the army camp said in rage.

The commander was a rough-looking man. A scar was present on the left side of his face, forming a horizontal line. He wore a blue military uniform that has the flag of the Albion Empire on his breast packet; a white dragon head.  He also has two stars engraved on the forearm part of the uniform, signifying that he is a major general of the Albion Empire. He has reddish hair and black eyes.

He sat inside the tent his soldiers set up, on a chair completely made of hardwood. A table was present in front of him, on top of it were some documents he was working on.

A soldier stood in front of him, saluting, "Sir! The man we have been suspecting as Lieutenant General, Alexander, went into an alchemist's house and came out with a new pill that we also suspect cured the girl. But…"

"But what!?" The general yelled, enraged at the news.

"The girl has yet to wake up. It seems like the pill has a side-effect that we are not sure of but this might be a chance for us to attack now, major general. Just give me the word and we'll blow up this entire village into smithereens." The soldier said with confidence.

After hearing that, the general calmed himself down and shook his head, "No, we can't do that yet. While the girl's family said to take her dead or alive, they'd rather prefer her alive due to political reasons."

"Political reasons, sir?"

"Yes, they need her for arrange marriages. I think it barely worked out for them when they sent their oldest son to be married with some noble family in the Sunlight Empire, back when our young princess ran away." The general said, completely convinced with his reasoning.

"Then what should we do?" The soldier asked, confused,

The general's dark coal eyes glinted ominously as he said, "We will kidnap the princess, no matter the cost. She goes by the name of Flare, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"If she won't come with us, then we'll make her come to us herself, willingly. Soldier, prepare the equipment! We will be going to the village today!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldier saluted and walked out of the tent, ready to spread the order of his superior.

A few hours later…

I sat right by the corner of the room, reading the book Damon gave to me. This time, I'm reading the second story, "The Forlorn".

This story is about a race of creatures that resembles lizard men quite a bit, but they are ice blue. They live in a newborn world, where they were the first intelligent creatures to exist. But even then, the world was out there to get them. In every path they take, endless tendrils of hardships are wrapped around their legs, pulling them back from their only goal; to survive.

Maybe it was their primal instinct, but they always cling to this tiny piece of existence they have. When dry seasons came, they saved the little food they had for their children while they starved. When winter came, they shivered together as they surrounded the embers of the already extinguished fire, yet they survived the cold months by snuggling with each other to keep themselves warm.

And when spring finally came, food was plenty and water came rushing back. They ate, they drank, they celebrated, and they all expressed their happiness when they could finally see enough food for everyone else.

And then, everything would just repeat every year.

But even with all this, they were happy. They are forlorn, yes, but as long as they had each other, then they are happy. No matter the drought, the cold, or the hot sun drilling its heat into them, they were happy with just each other.

I noticed something about these two stories when I finished them all.

The first story, The Wanderer, ended with the protagonist dying at the end with all of his sanity gone. But the second story, The Forlorn, the protagonist there was the race of intelligent creatures, and the antagonist of that story was the world.

The Wanderer's protagonist was alone in a world full of danger and unpredictable predicaments, such as the nuclear zombies attacking him. At the end of the story, I saw that he was no more different than the mindless creatures that rode that world for he was already insane. He died without anyone taking any mercy on him.

While The Forlorn seems almost the same as The Wanderer, that couldn't be more wrong. The race of intelligent creatures had each other and they were there to exact mercy on their fallen brothers and sisters that sadly died due to the nature of their world. They didn't want more, they were satisfied with just each other.

But what I liked the most about The Forlorn is that it never ended, their lives just kept going. In fact, unlike The Wanderer, their story was just beginning.

Overall, I like the stories. I wonder who wrote it, the author's name is not in the book or the cover at all. Meh, I should just ask Damon later.

As I closed the pocketbook, I heard tutorial bot say: [Be careful, Auguste, enemies are coming]

What!? Where!?

[Outside of the village, I feel numerous powerful energies. One of them particularly stands out because they almost have the same amount of mana as Damon]

You're kidding, right? This is the countryside! Why would they send such a high-ranked soldier! Albion Empire is not that dumb, they wouldn't send their military to some backwater village!

[Yes, as you just said, the Albion Kingdom is not that dumb but they were not the ones who sent them, that I know. It most likely that the Sunlight Empire has some doing in this, but I'm not sure. For now, tell Damon what's happening]

I nodded and thought, 'Yeah, let's do that. But in case something happens to us, what should I do?'

[You'll have to dispel your clones and make a run for it, but I know you won't just leave the orphanage alone. For you to survive along with the entire orphanage, you need to be ready to kill at any moment. Humans, specifically. The soldiers won't hesitate to kill you, so why should you?]

'I know, I know. Recommend me any weapon that I can wield at the moment with my current KP.'

[Don't worry, I've already thought of that. You'll need a baby armor and a light dagger, each would cost you 15 KP. Would you like to buy it?]

'Do it.'

I successfully bought a baby armor that I equipped quickly and a light dagger that I could swing easily with only one hand. The dagger is sharp; I can easily cut a plastic toy with it. The armor is so-so but I think it will do its job to protect me.

The armor looks like a small leather chest plate, which looks cool on me. I look like a baby warrior, ready to take on a battalion of enemies! Muahahahaha!

Heh, enough jokes, I need to go to Damon as quickly as possible.