Cooperation (3)

As soon as he arrived home, Billy gave a summary to his mother. After that, he cleaned his body and went to sleep. Even though it was still afternoon, he slept until the morning of the next day. Around the same time, Camilla was preparing to leave and check things with Drew, but she didn't want to take the siblings with her. Drew was a bit prideful, and he didn't want to show his weakened state to his other kids.

"Billy, look after your siblings, okay?" Camilla asked. "Nikola passed here earlier and he said that you can rest for the week."

"Okay," Billy said.

That was almost like a vacation. Billy never had so many days off. The twins protested and cried for a while, saying that they wanted to see their daddy, but eventually, Billy calmed them down. Things were a bit noisy outside, so Billy went to check and noticed that the kids of the tribe were training near their homes. The kids of the other tribes probably were doing the same… in any case, Billy didn't find any sign of Alexander or Nikola. Apparently, Billy was the only one who got some days off… Around lunchtime, Camilla returned, and she looked relieved. Apparently, she trusted Anna more than Billy did.

"He will rest alongside the others wounded away for three more days," Camilla said. "Mother said that he would need a peaceful place to rest in order for the medicines to work properly."

Billy nodded since it made sense, but he still decided to check things with his father by himself on the next day. Regardless, Alexander, Lily, and Natalie showed up when the sunset. They worked during the day guarding the prisoners, and only a small number of guards protected the walls.

"We heard that you gained some days off," Lily said. "It seems that the grown ups recognized your skills."

"Rather than that, how are things with the prisoners?" Billy asked. "Did the lord already say anything?"

"No… I heard some guards saying that he will wait for a while to weaken their spirits," Natalie replied. "They are being given water and food, but less than necessary. It seems that the lord truly wants to use them to do something, but he doesn't want to force them…"

"It must be that…" Lily said. "East of here, there is a pretty large river that guards many magical beasts. I heard some people tried to cross it and then were killed. The river comes from the north and stretches to the south for many many days of travel… I heard that around three weeks of travel, you can find something called the ocean… a massive body of water that also guards numerous beasts. I didn't hear anything about what lies in the north, though."

That was the first time Billy had heard that… probably because his tribe was too busy trying to survive over the last few decades instead of exploring. Regardless, if he wanted the cooperation of the elementalists, couldn't he just have captured one? Maybe the bridge that the lord was planning to make was massive, and he would need more than a few of them to make it… With the right skills and tools, Billy probably could make it, but it might take a few months or years, depending on the size of the bridge. Nevertheless, such things weren't bothering Billy. He was more worried about the fact that the lord basically wanted to capture the non-combatants of the elementalists and make them his underlings… and while he achieved that, he sacrificed many lives. After ten years, Billy realized that his tribe wasn't helped out of goodwill… which was expected, but… it was annoying as well.

The next day, Billy went to check with his father, and he sighed in relief since the area around the wounds looked a lot better than before. The color of the skin was starting to look like before…

"It seemed that I was being over dramatic before," Drew said. "It will take a few months, but I will eventually return to fight."

"Yes," Billy nodded.

"Putting that aside, everyone has been praising you, I am proud, Billy," Drew said. "You aren't the type who would get carried away, but I still need to warn you of something. The lord will eventually call you to his mansion… I can see that you have your something in your mind, but you can't act based only on your interests."

"I know… I will keep my mouth shut," Billy said.

For the time being, Billy almost let out these words. The standing of his tribe will probably improve from now on, so he couldn't say what he wanted to the lord. At the very least, Billy knew that he would be rewarded for his recent accomplishments. Still, he didn't know what he should ask… he thought before that he would want some books about magic, but it would take a while to learn the written language of that world.

In the end, two days passed, and his father eventually returned home, and the twins looked pretty happy, even though he couldn't move all that much. He also looked relieved, so things ended up well.

The invitation to the lord's mansion arrived on the next day for some reason. Even some guards appeared to escort him. That probably wasn't a problem, only a sign that the lord was a busy person… Nevertheless, Billy frowned when he passed by the training grounds and found the remaining elementalists, still there, and they looked more haggard than usual. Considering that at least one-third of them were children below ten years old, Billy didn't want to believe that they decided to starve to death… or maybe the lord was running out of patience.