Town of Zelos

Our group of fourteen men marched towards nearby town of Zelos, trees became less and less frequent as we entered the plains which covered the land. For this entire time i remained silent still shocked and humiliated from previous experience with Ferdal and rest of the team, Ferdal now acted like a Captain while Captain Miller became a puppet unable to express protest nor any sign of dignity and pride.

Ferdal was the strongest out of everyone from our group so there's no point in fighting him since overall morale was pretty low. If we grouped all together against Ferdal we may stood a chance but no one dared to start rebellion against such powerful man, especially since Ferdal had good connections with chairman Francis which made him kind of untouchable.

Murder and betrayal is all i could think about when i looked at my crew and especially Captain Miller, once great figure and leader to me now became puny puppet without any dignity or sense of pride nor justice. Just thinking about it all made my blood boil from anger and strong need of revenge, Bilmo's corpse i buried before we left for the town. I picked medium sized stone who had a natural triangular shape and carved Bilmo's name and rest of the details using my sword.

Back in the day before Athena ruined academy, act like this would result in murderer being executed right in the spot. Back when each academic looked at other like one of his own, with desire to cherish and protect for rest of his life, was no a mere paradise for aviators remembering old ways of living. Before most powerful positions in the academy were Head of the Academy or some called it Principal, second to it would be General. But now it seemed like many of bad apples rushed in to take power and fame for themselves when Athena forced her tyrannical rule and opened the gates.

Shaking my thoughts aside i looked up and saw town's houses five hundred meters in front of us, closing the distance between us and town, Captain Miller issued notice of warning to us.

"Everyone be extra careful since enemy could be lurking inside houses."

We formed our stances and went into stealthy approach, Ferdal just looked all of us like fools and continued walking his own casual pace. Captain Miller was of course pissed off by his acting but not like he could do anything about it since Ferdal was much stronger than him. We decided to continue our current approach and let Ferdal do whatever he wants, I wished that some hiding enemy will kill him and release us from his tyranny.

At town's entrance we could see overgrown houses and area around them, trees growing from half ruined rooves and bushes covering most of surroundings along the town. Stone path which lead further into town was half ruined and some portions of it were missing and vegetation started growing from it. 

Noticing state of the town everyone except Ferdal deeply sighed feeling of regret of not being able to protect town itself and people from it. Four years ago this town was alive despite war thorn area around it, people used to live here and many aviators took residing inside it during their long trips. It consisted of around five hundred inhabitants, which was one of the bigger towns in this side of country. I personally never went inside it since i spent most of my time active in combat but only things i've heard about this city is that it's key point that elves seek to capture.

"This place looks dead, i doubt there's anyone living here."

Captain Miller released deep sigh as he looked upon abandoned houses engulfed in vegetation, rest of us looked around searching for any possible sign of human life here but without any success in doing so. 

"Our mission is to scout town itself too so we need to stick together and explore houses which are still intact and then make a small hideout before sending a signal to Captain Jone."

In that moment i remembered transmission crystal used for longer distance communication between two connected hosts. I don't know who holds the crystal but we could use it to report Ferdal and seek for assistance, i slapped myself inside my head for being so dumb to forgot about thing like that so i needed find out where crystal is.

"Can't we already report that town is ruined?"

I asked hoping of crystal holder to agree with me and use it to call the main fleet, everyone turned around to my sudden suggestion. Ferdal slightly smiled at my idea, probably noticing my advances and plan of reporting him as soon crystal links to other side.

"Hahahaahahhahahahahah."

Laughter erupted from silver haired man, cunning face forming unpleasant smile carried with mixed emotions spread trough whole crowd of fourteen people standing silently as they watched. 

"Do you take me for a fool eh?!"

Ferdal rushed and grabbed me by the collars pulling me with his immense strength similar to those of Athena's. I looked down on him and saw his eyes watching me with both sadistic and hateful look as his red eyes glanced on the moonlight.

"Crystal is with me and no one will use it besides me, and only when i decide and where i want, are we clear?!"

He dropped me on the floor making me hit it with my butt, i remained silent since i couldn't done nothing. Others watched this little show of ours and choose to remain neutral and better of quiet without angering Ferdal any further, Miller looked away and started walking towards inner town.

"Let's go."

He murmured and began walking towards inside of town with his dagger drawn, others followed him so did i who was now holding unsheathed sword in both of my hands. I held the sword very tightly as sudden anger and need or revenge flew trough me, i wanted to rush behind his back and cut down Ferdal in multiple pieces as well Captain Miller.

But my sudden outburst of emotions stopped when we noticed one of intact houses wooden doors opening slowly, making a creaking sound as they moved. Sudden tension risen as our drawn weapons pointed at possible danger coming from inside that house which door opened, i began to sweat and adrenaline rushed to my body, preparing it for possible sword fight.

 To my and others surprise an old man came outside from the house looking at us with clear surprise on his face, old man had purple eyes and he was bald, so bald that his head shined on moonlight. He wore rusty grey shirt and pants, being barefoot without any boots or shoes on him. Seeing this we lowered our weapons and dropped our fight stances which made the man happier since he was smiling to us now.

"Hello younglings, how may this old man help you?"

Weak voice came out from bald purple eyes man who now got closer to us, he inspected our looks and probably recognized our academic emblems. Captain Miller tried to speak but was cut off by Ferdal who coldly gazed at old man.

"Tell us old man is there anyone besides you living inside this town?"

Old man looked straight at Ferdal with somewhat confused glance and placed his hand on his chin, forming a thinking stance while looking in the fresh night sky.

"Last family who lived besides me died when bomb fell on their home, since then i live here alone. It's been a year since that happened and you guys are first people i see up close, tell me what do you seek here?"

Mentioning such tragedy didn't seem to bother this old man which confused me a bit, he may be in shock or something but losing so much wouldn't leave anyone flat hearted. Something seemed to click to me about this man and i stayed on high alert with him, not trusting him completely.

"That is none of your concern, we are official military of Arnes Dynasty and we have permission to do whatever we want without explaining anything to ordinary citizens."

Disrespectful as he gets, Ferdal spoke to old man who listened patiently without showing any emotion as he spoke. I watched closely as old man sighed and looked at him once again, second after that old man walked slowly back to his house and closed the door behind him. This made Ferdal pissed since he hated being ignored and he rushed towards the house where old man lived, trying to open it only to find it locked Ferdal casted his water bolt and broke the door handle.

We all followed his outburst and saw broken door handle fall to the ground leaving house doors open, to our surprise we couldn't see old man even if he entered the house second ago. Each one of us entered the house and saw that it's half ruined without any trace of anyone living inside it, dusty corners and cobwebs all over the place signed of no human life inside it. House was smaller and it took just couple of minutes to explore entirety of it, it consisted of three parts. One where it used to be bedroom, bathroom and dinning room, bathroom and bedroom were completely in debris and sections of the roof blocked them from entering. 

We all confusingly looked around and then at each other after being unable to find old man who entered the house, couple of minutes ago. I felt shivers sent down my spine as i experienced something beyond my understanding, others as well had look of unease on their faces even Ferdal who wasn't feeling pretty confident now that he experienced something he couldn't understand. 

"Everyone quiet, close the door and hide."

Mike said as he heard sounds of armor and heavy boots marching towards town's direction, everyone turned quiet as we carefully closed the door and looked trough dusty window covered by old curtain. Previous experience with old man seems like it came to an halt as pair of pointy ears appeared outside.