14 - The Merchant and the guardsman

Jane walked towards the walls of her home, as she did she mulled over all the things she had been through, first the harrowing experience of navigating the forest of death only to emerge on the other side and get captured by Centaurs and then meeting Merlin, a small smile formed on her face as she thought of Merlin, though she quickly shook her head and focused on the task at hand as she neared the closed gate she raised her hands above her head and spoke out loudly for all on the walls to hear

"My name is Jane, I was a member of the last expedition into the forest of death!"

The guards on the wall that pointed arrows and bolts at her seemed to believe her, the captain of the guard was also present and narrowed his eyes slightly before he yelled

"Jane? Is that really you!?"

Jane showed a smile and nodded, the captain of the guard was one of the biggest supporters of the cites orphanage, so of course, he knew most of the children that had been in their care, though the person next to him was less inclined to believe Jane as he yelled

"Hold steady men, it could be a mimic monster!"

Jane narrowed her eyes slightly as she glanced over at the slightly plump man that stood next to the captain of the guard, it was the city lord's secretary, a man named Almus who was infamous for abusing his brother, the city lords name to terrify and abuse the citizens, he had also won over most of the city guard much to the frustration of the captain of the guard, Almus continued

"Even if she isn't a monster, that doesn't explain why or how she was able to make it through the forest without the help of monsters!"

One of the guardsmen that were on the side of Almus muttered

"She could be a witch…"

Others nodded and sharpened their gazes at Jane, Jane sighed before she explained

"I've made it through the forest of death by the help of a wander by the name of Merlin!"

The guardsmen exclaimed, they had all heard the legends of the wanderers that came from other worlds and brought both peace and prosperity to the countries that they allied themselves with, even Almus and the captain of the guard was shaken by this so Jane continued

"Merlin the wanderer even slew a dragon a few days ago, we have brought the carcass in hopes that we could trade here"

Jane's eyes narrowed slightly before she spoke seemingly disappointed

"But if we can't pass through the gates of my old home we'll happily go to another city to trade"

Almus was temporarily frozen before he yelled at the guards 

"Open the gates, I'll personally welcome Merlin the wanderer into our city!"

He was almost frothing at the mouth, his eyes bloodshot, who could blame him, it was the carcass of a dragon, after all, the untold thousands of gold coins that could be earned from the materials of said dragon was enough for a person to live in luxury for several hundred lifetimes over

"Then I'll convey to Merlin that you are willing to trade… So?"

Almus paused before he asked

"So? So what?"

"Where's the merchant that we'll be negotiating with?"

Almus felt his fury rising but quickly calmed down before he yelled at a poor guardsman

"Go get the representative of the Cannon merchant company!"

"Y-Yes Sir!"

Jane put her hands down and crossed them in front of her chest as she waited, after about 10 minutes a merchant arrived following the guard, she looked more like a sellsword however as she had short black hair, an eyepatch over her right eye with a scar running down from her forehead past her right eye and along her cheek, her other eye was sky blue, and she wore a sword on her hip, she narrowed her remaining left eye and glanced past Jane over at the tanks that were parked in a straight line with their barrels pointed at the walls, a firing line, though neither the merchant nor the captain of the guard and certainly not Almus knew that the tanks were all zeroed in on the top of the walls with High-explosive shells loaded ready to fire, the merchants eye sparkled when she saw the dragon bones on the back of the Tiger 1 tank and then she directly jumped down from the wall landing in front of Jane and reached out her hand

"My name is Henrieta, I represent the Cannon merchant company in the city of Jera"

Jane shook hands with Henrieta before she gestured with her chin to follow after her, when Jane turned her back Almus gave a signal to one of the guards that then pretend to stubble before he 'accidentally' fired off his crossbow at Jane's back

"Watch out!"

Jane didn't turn around she simply swayed her upper body to the side slightly easily dodging the bolt that whizzed past her, then before anyone managed to react the guard that had 'stumbled' died, well one would assume so as a 20mm shell passed cleanly through the center of his chest, it was only when the roar of the cannon on the newly bought 20mm Puma was heard that the other guards reacted, though before they could loosen their bolts and arrows the roar of the captain of the guard was heard

"HOLD FIRE!"

  He could finally fell it, the reaper's scythe around his neck, the cold sweat purred down his face he gazed at the Tanks in the distance, just then Almus yelled

"She killed one of the guardsmen, Captain! Order your men to arrest her! Or I will!"

At that moment the captain of the guard turned to Almus and slapped him across the face with his hand, Almus flew to the side and landed heavily on the top of the wall, for a moment he didn't realize what had happened but when he did he was furious and yelled

"YOU DARE HIT ME!?"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, if you want to die do so alone!"

"Die? What are you talking about!?"

In response to Almus' outrage, the captain of the guard asked calmly instead

"...DId you see what hit Simon in the chest?"

"What does that commoner's death have to do with anything!? No, I didn't see what hit him, I'll have you arrested for hitting a noble!"

The captain of the guard sighed, then he took off his helmet and spoke resolutely

"I resign from my post, effective immediately"

Then he reached up and loosened his armor and took it off before he removed his sword belt and threw it on the floor in front of Almus before he jumped down the wall too, Almus stood up and still blinded by fury he yelled

"Kill them, KILL THEM!"

Merlin lay on his stomach on top of the turret of the Panther tank named Enis with his binoculars as he looked at Almus' raged filled face and sighed before he spoke

"2nd designated target, fire when ready"

The guards raised their crossbows but once again before they could fire Almus' chest disappeared, revealing a bloody void, he didn't scream as he was now without lungs, he simply bled from the corners of his mouth as he collapsed, mouth open though it was unknown what he was trying to say, then came the roar of the cannon again, this time the guardsmen panicked before they scattered like baby spiders and ran down the wall in terror, Merlin sighed, he had just ordered the killing of two people, still, he didn't feel anything, only slight happiness that Jane was okay, he sighed before he concluded

'I'm definitely too calm about this, oh well… Not that much difference between a Centaur and a man being hit by a 20mm shell'

Merlin sighed once again before he looked back through his binoculars at Jane that seemed to be busy chatting with the captain of the guard and the merchant Henrieta before he muttered

"Mark new targets, target one and two"

The 20mm barrel zeroed in on two of the three people that were walking towards the tanks while chatting, Merlin stood up and gazed at the three people with his tank commanders jacket waving slightly in the wind before he jumped down from the Panther tank, when he was down on the grass he folded his hands behind his back and stood still as he waited for the three people to arrive when they were about 15 meters away he spoke

"That's far enough"

Even though his voice was soft it still carried to the three people, two of them stopped while Jane kept walking, soon she arrived next to Merlin and spoke

"I told you I'd be okay"

"Yeah… That you did, though you still scared the shit out of me when you dodged that crossbow bolt, I was this close to setting the entire top of the wall on fire"

Merlin squeezed two fingers together in front of his eye as he spoke, Jane showed a smile and gestured to the two people that had followed after her, one was the captain of the guard and the other person was the merchant Henrieta that was keenly looking at the tanks now that she was closer