Pedro stands next to his friend, escorting Alice, Thalassa, and Selena. He admits that the village is indeed beautiful, despite its simplicity. Clearly, he feels like he’s in a medieval village; the wooden houses with their rudimentary architecture make everything strangely similar to medieval cultures. He looks around and notices some children standing in front of a house. There are three children, all appearing to be around the same age, no more than 10 years old. They are malnourished, clearly surviving on little. Suddenly, his attention shifts to Alice, who begins to approach the children with some granola bars.
"This is not a good idea," Pedro mutters to Alice, only to be ignored.
Gabriel looks at him, "Relax, man." He places a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Look!" He points to Alice handing a bar to a child who seems hesitant at first but then accepts the granola bar. Alice encourages the child to take a bite. As soon as the taste fills the child's mouth, they start eating faster. In moments, there’s nothing left. She then hands the rest of the bars to the other children, who do the same and eat everything. "The kids are just hungry," Gabriel says.
"Pedro," Gabriel says as he looks around. "I noticed something about this village."
"What?" Pedro asks, turning his attention to his friend.
"I only see children, women, and many elderly people here. I've only seen a few men our age or a bit older."
"I noticed that too. Almost all the men of military age aren’t here..."
"That's because most were conscripted by the imperial army," Thalassa interrupts the conversation. "And many were forced to serve the empire."
Pedro and Gabriel exchange glances, unsure of what to say.
"So I suppose most of them are still in this region somewhere," Pedro asserts. "The sooner this war ends, the fewer casualties this..." Pedro thinks of how to refer to this region. "This empire you serve will suffer," he finishes.
"I agree," Thalassa says, "and I don't serve the empire; I was just seeking resources for my tribe."
Gabriel becomes interested in this last statement and joins the conversation, interrupting Pedro before he can say anything. "You’re an elf, right?" he asks. "You live in a tribe and live for centuries like in the myths we have in my world?"
Surprised by the question, it reminds her that in the world these humans call ‘Earth’, other races don’t exist, but somehow they already knew about the existence of elves and many of the creatures that live here. She remembers being interrogated sometimes about the creatures of this world and how these humans knew so much and so little at the same time about them.
"An elf indeed lives a long time, but we are not immortal. An average elf lives a maximum of 2000 years. Our aging can be slowed, but that doesn’t mean we live forever."
Gabriel is fascinated by this information. "I wonder what else this new world has to offer; I confess I find it strange that many of our myths exist in this world."
"I don't understand you," Selena enters the conversation. "You act like children. You know nothing about this world, yet you’re here."
"We didn’t ask to be here. You attacked us first," Gabriel says.
"And we won’t leave our people behind. Many were kidnapped to this world, and we will bring everyone back, even if it’s just their remains."
"But why?" Selena asks. "They’re just slaves now if they’re lucky enough not to be killed..."
This last statement leaves Pedro and Gabriel stunned. Even Alice, who was just listening, displays a shocked expression. Thalassa notices and realizes something might be wrong.
"Slaves...?" Pedro asks in a shocked, lower tone.
"It actually makes sense... How didn’t we think of this before? They’re a feudal society; of course, their war prisoners become slaves. Damn, I’m so dumb!" Gabriel exclaims.
"I don't understand; it’s normal for the defeated in a battle to serve the victor or be sold to slave traders," Selena says, confused by the soldiers' reaction.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Alice interrupts and looks at Selena and Thalassa. "Selena, Thalassa." She calls out to make sure both are paying attention to her. "In our world, slavery was abolished almost 150 years ago, and it was a stain on our history."
Selena and Thalassa widen their eyes.
"There are no slaves in your world?" Selena asks, confused and shocked.
"No..." Alice says.
"That would explain a lot..." Thalassa murmurs to herself. "But this is new information. My government already suspected our people weren’t receiving the best treatment as prisoners in your kingdom. But slaves... that’s new. If they are slaves now, there’s no way we can negotiate with your government for their return. We hoped to find them, of course, but we still would have chosen diplomacy on this matter. But this changes the plan a bit."
"Still, I don’t understand why you care so much about your people. Unfortunately, they are scattered across the continent or dead," Selena says.
"They were kidnapped; they weren’t even soldiers. Damn, they were just living their lives normally when all this suddenly happened," Pedro says in a more aggressive tone.
"Calm down, my friend..." Gabriel places his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"In our world, we repudiate slavery. Everyone is free to be who they want, and that’s what helped us overcome many injustices that could have occurred throughout history," Alice says.
"I believe you," Thalassa says. "And I'm sorry I was part of this. We thought you were all barbarians, and we were wrong. Actually... I think we are the barbarians." She places her hand on her chest, reflecting on everything that happened.
"I'm not a barbarian," Selena retorts. "And neither are you, my friend."
"Nobody here is a barbarian, okay?" Alice says. "Look at these people; they might not have a notion of how many things in this world work, yet they choose to live and help each other. They are not barbarians. However, we must punish those who commit barbarities," Alice says, trying to comfort both.
"Well, let’s go back to the rest of the group. We’ve been here for a few hours already," Gabriel says.
---
“It looks like they’ve arrived,” João says, noticing the M113 approaching.
“About time,” Tiago replies.
Both are at the village entrance near the LMVs and the androids, while the rest of the team is inside the village. It took a few hours, but the M113 ambulance version finally arrived. It parks next to an LMV, and the driver nods and says, “They decided to bring a combat medic as well; he’s in the back of the ambulance.”
Tiago nods and heads to the back of the vehicle.
When the hatch opens, he sees two additional androids who quickly salute him. He finds it strange to receive salutes from machines. The medic also salutes him upon seeing him. “I’m Combat Medic Henrique, sir!”
He doesn’t appear to be more than twenty years old, which impresses Tiago a bit, as he already has two young men to deal with, and now another one has joined.
“At ease, son,” the man lowers his arm and steps out of the vehicle.
“So, it’s you, the driver, and two more androids.”
“Exactly, sir! The base command thought an additional doctor wouldn’t be necessary.”
Tiago lets out a slight laugh.
“Did I say something wrong, sir?” Henrique asks, confused.
“No, don’t worry. I’m just remembering when I was a newly graduated officer. You know, we’re probably short on doctors, and the command doesn’t want to admit it to their subordinates, so they asked you to tell me this.”
“I hadn’t considered that possibility, sir.”
“Yeah, it took me a while to learn the officers' tricks.” Tiago gives the medic a light pat on the shoulder. “Well, let’s go inside. I need you to help my field medical officer.”
Tiago turns his attention to the M113 driver.
“What’s your name, soldier?”
“I’m Corporal Lopes, sir.”
“Welcome to the team, Corporal. By the way, can you turn the armored vehicle around? It will be easier to load the patient on a stretcher when we bring her out.”
“And you two,” he calls to the androids who arrived together.
“Orders, sir?” one of the androids asks.
“Yes. Once the driver has positioned the M113, grab a stretcher from the vehicle and follow me. We’re going to bring a debilitated patient into the vehicle.”
“Understood, sir,” both respond with very realistic voices, almost without any hint that they are just machines.
-- February 26, 2030 – Princess Helena ---
Flying above a forest, the princess and her companions encounter a large formation of imperial Wyverns. The princess decides to approach the group’s commander.
When he learns that the princess is flying in this region, he is shocked; no one knew the princess would be here.
“So your orders are to cause as much damage to the enemy as possible?” the princess asks.
“Correct, Your Highness. According to our information, the enemy is building a base around the portal. After the capture of Matique, they control several routes and villages in the region.”
“Wait... the city has fallen into enemy hands?” the princess asks, shocked.
“Yes, Your Highness. I assumed you already knew about this?”
The princess remains silent. She knows the importance of that city in this region. Matique is an agricultural city that fed more than seven cities in the southern region of the empire. Of course, the empire holds dozens of agricultural cities, but losing even one can ruin logistics. But that’s not the only problem; the city contains important people and valuable information about various trade routes of the empire. Furthermore, this means that the great mage Colt is either dead or, worse, captured by these unknowns.
“How did you receive this information?” the princess asks.
“A few days ago, a contingent of the army created to cross the portal retreated to Valehur. A Wyvern garrison informed them, initially thinking they were organized thieves in large numbers. But that wasn’t the case. They said they had orders from Mage Colt to prepare defenses in the city and along the valley and forests separating Matique from Valehur and other important cities until imperial reinforcements arrived. A week later, we received news that the city had been captured by the enemy.”
Helena is at a loss for how to respond to all this information. If the city fell in such a short time, it means this enemy is extremely powerful or the soldiers defending Matique were cowards and surrendered the city out of fear of this new unknown enemy.
“Then General Lyrio gave us the order to attack any enemy unit we see and, if possible, cause damage to this enemy base. Of course, we are cautious; the enemy has some sort of anti-air defense in the portal region, according to reports from the initial battles.”
“And Captain Juliano was one of the Wyvern riders who crossed the portal and never returned. He was my mentor.”
“I’m sorry for him; he was a good man,” Helena says.
“Yes, but I believe that somehow he survived... he’s a clever and tough man.”
Helena’s griffon suddenly starts growling.
“What was that?” the commander asks, confused.
“I think he spotted something ahead.” Helena points in the direction.
Griffons have excellent vision and can see farther than most flying animals, including Wyverns and dragons.
“It must be one of those metal flying things,” the commander says.
“What do you mean?”
“We don’t know what it is, but the enemy has these flying machines. We’ve already shot down a few, and they weren’t manned.”
“Very strange. How can they build flying machines?”
“We don’t know, but they seem to act strangely and don’t attack us.”
“Sir, enemy object spotted!” shouts one of the scouts.
“Very well, send five formations to intercept it.”
“Isn’t that a bit much for a single enemy?” the princess asks, confused.
“They may be harmless now, but we don’t know if we’ll encounter just this type of flying machine.”
“What do you mean by that?” the princess asks, puzzled by this last statement.
“There are reports that the enemy has larger, manned flying machines, unlike these small, unmanned ones.”
Helena thinks about what she just heard while watching five Wyvern formations heading towards the target. Each formation consists of 8 to 10 Wyvern riders.
“Interesting, it makes me wonder how this new enemy fights...” Helena says to herself.