POV Vel

The moment I woke up all I felt was my head pounding and my face hurting. It took me a few moments to gather myself before I could open my eyes, but it was hard to tell if I had opened them or not, it was so dark outside.

What was I doing here? I did remember that something woke me up and then a sharp pain but nothing else. “Aaaa fuck me.” Just ahead of me only a few feet I could see glowing cat-like eyes. I tried to back off but there was a tree behind me.

“Relax I’m not here to frighten you.” Came a voice from the dark shape that I now realized looked like a human crouching down, but those eyes certainly weren’t human they were menacing. I had to struggle to not piss myself. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought it might jump out of my chest, but I forced myself to calm down. Looking around here there was nothing but trees but I could barely see anything, but I certainly wasn’t in the town. How had I gotten here?

I kept staring at the shadow. I turned myself a bit trying to reach my secret blade, but my fingers didn't touch any handle and I could feel panic starting to come over me again. Where for fire’s sake was it? Then I heard it again that voice. While it sounds normal for some reason it was scarier than my commander’s voice. “If you’re looking for your blade then I am afraid you must have dropped it when I was carrying you here.”

Must have dropped oh shit this dude is psychotic. What does he even want I’m a nobody. If he was with the town then he wouldn't have carried me here. “If you’re wondering who I am then there is a simple answer to that. I am your enemy.” The shadow said so casually it took me a moment to realize what that meant. An enemy, why would I be an enemy? Could he be one of the families back in the city-state? But no, why would he come here I haven’t done anything that’s special. Wait, is he from the territory we were sent to investigate?

“I see you have gotten it. Finally figuring it out. It must feel satisfying?” Said the shadow with so much sincerity he almost made me doubt myself. Is he reading my mind oh please for water and earth’s sake, not that? There was a momentary silence as I tried to figure out if he was reading my mind. I then saw the shadow's head tilt to one side and then an amused chuckle left his lips.

“I guess this is a bit different, isn’t it? I will have to account for the interesting things in this world. No, I cannot read your mind you can take it easy.” Answered the shadow like we were old friends. I could feel the panic creeping in again. Why was I here and why hadn’t he killed me if I was his enemy? “What do you want shadow,” I asked him but I could not get any power behind my words.

“I am so sorry I guess I haven’t been courteous enough with you. I am disappointed in myself. I have no idea how you knew my name is shadow, but since you already know mine let's meet properly. It's a pleasure to meet you my name is shadow I would be pleased to know what your name is.” Asked the shadow in a sweet voice that only the sincerest of people would you use.

“People call me Val and I am pleased to meet you as well.” Why did I say it like that what's happening? I have to do something otherwise. “You can relax now my good friends. I heard that you have come a long way I would enjoy hearing where you are from.” Asked the shadow while moving a bit closer. I still couldn’t see him better, but those eyes were even bigger now. What did he ask me?

“I’m from the Elrin city-state which used to be the duchy capital of the Elrond duchy. A former first-rank adventure team claimed the land and rules over a lot more towns and villages. We are quite strong.” I answered the shadow but as soon as I stopped, I understood what was happening. I had let my guard down, but he was acting so friendly yet terrifying. What was happening, is it an ability his using or perhaps even magic?

“Tell me more about the strength of this city-state,” he asked still sweetly but I shut my mouth I wasn’t going to answer any more questions. He was just going to kill me anyways. After a few moments passed I could see him starting to shake his head.

“I’m disappointed and we were having such a wonderful conversation. I guess we have to do this the hard way then.” His voice wasn't sweet anymore it was cold and deadly, and I could hear how he slowly pulled a weapon out of his scabbard.

I remembered my instructor's words. If anyone is ever going to torture you to get information the first thing I want you to think about is this if you tell the truth, you might get your countryman killed. This will help you resist if your conviction is strong enough but even if you start to break lie always lie because it's better to die than get all your brothers and sisters killed because you were too afraid.

I repeated those words again and again as he got closer. I could feel the blade on my foot which made me realize that I wasn’t wearing any boots. Why wasn’t I wearing any boots? I was expecting pain but there wasn't any. I looked up and while I could still not see anything but shadow his face was a bit more defined, but those eyes still dominated everything.

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“Since you do not want to be civil I will tell you what will happen. At first, I will start to slowly scratch you barely drawing any blood.” He then started to do that, but it wasn’t that bad. “But then every time you don't answer my question, I will take one of your fingers and start to cut around one of your finger joints. I will do it slowly until all the skin and muscles are loose and then I will shake your hand until your finger just pops off. And I will repeat that every time you don’t answer.”

All I could hear after that was my heart pounding it was almost like I couldn’t hear anymore the beating was so loud. What if I couldn’t hear his question? Who the fuck does something like that. I don't know how long it took but eventually, I started to calm down. The shadow was still waiting he hasn’t even moved an inch. Perhaps I can grab his knife and kill myself, but I can feel his strength I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

“Please don’t do this please.” I would have kept begging but he started to talk.” I see that you are a reasonable man all I want is answers to my questions and then you don’t ever have to see me again. But I’m afraid you also can't leave. You see you could always just lie to me and that would just not be a nice thing to do.”

“So, if you tell me the truth you will never see me again but if you lie to me well since I know that you will be staying with my friends in the northern village, I can always find you and then we can continue where we left off. I think I will start with the pinky finger it's always annoying when you have to start with a finger that is in the middle. It's hard to reach it properly the other fingers just get in the way.”

Oh no no no no no why me why did they pick me I didn’t want to come here why did I even join the army why didn’t I run? Maybe I can still run I looked around, but I felt his hand on my chin. He moved my face forcefully to look into his eyes. “You look at me so we can start.” He told me and I could almost feel the promise of death in his voice. I don’t want to die. Those adventurers can go to hell I wasn’t dying for them or anyone else.

POV Rich Dirt

I had to slow him down a bit as he started to spew out everything he could think about in an unending stream. I had broken him but at least I didn’t have to cut anything off otherwise he would have been even more delirious. I did not however like what he was saying. Not because I didn’t believe it to be true but because I considered them to be true. The situation wasn't good.

A standard team of five first-rank adventurers who had been doing jobs around the duchy capital for quite a while took the opportunity to take control after a huge mob of people killed the duke after he didn't open up the food stores to feed the starving populace.

They rapidly took control over the huge duchy capital that housed more than 20,000 people although the starvation and cold killed almost half. Before the plague apparently, the city housed 30,000 people but only 5000 of the original inhabitants survived. The rest of the 15,000 came there before the winter as refugees from different towns and villages.

Even during the winter, the former adventuring team quickly took over the surrounding areas which included multiple villages and towns. Luckily those weren’t so well inhabited but still, the population difference between us and them was laughable. Although there is some good news. It seems that everyone who couldn't support themselves during the winter and needed the help of the government was forced into slavery if they wanted to get some food.

There was of course a different opportunity given. You could join the army. And what an army it was. Almost 10,000 soldiers. 3000 were something similar to military police who were used to control the capital city and the surrounding villages and towns. That still left 7000 soldiers that were trained well enough and who would be getting a lot of experience at least the ones heading towards us.

1000 soldiers were given to the eastern border of the city-state the same to the west. 2000 were deployed to secure the southern border apparently their weakest defensive border. That left 3000 that was coming towards us. I was hoping that the people in between us would help reduce those numbers but I didn’t think that they would help too much at least in the killing department.

Apparently, there were seven places that could actually slow them down a bit and only one of those places would survive more than a few days. But that was still a good amount and more specifically it was a lot of ground to cover. They would need to leave a lot of those troops behind as they moved forward. We would have to see how it goes but there is a chance. There are supposed to be stronger places towards the coast, but I don’t think they would help as they were a bit too far away.

The adventurers themselves seemed capable enough but as always, the corruption of the power has already eroded them. I was glad to know that I was right about the other scout wanting to infiltrate using a refugee caravan. Apparently, a lot of refugees were on the move trying to escape from the coming battles as most of the smaller towns and villagers were just abandoned.

This sky started to get lighter and soon the sun would rise. It was a long night, and I had a lot to think about. It would be a difficult battle even if only 500 of them show up. It would be a lot simpler if I could get the goblins to help and hopefully, I can give them something that they want in exchange for at least 200 spear throwers. I had risen to see the sun but eventually, Vel stood up as well.

“Will you now be taking me to the village,” he asked completely drained. He could barely stand up. “What are you talking about? Oh, I had forgotten. I believe that you didn’t lie to me so there’s no need to take you to the village. We can just part our way here.” And even before he could do anything else I drove a knife into his throat. He collapsed like his strings have been cut. He looked at me in utter disbelief.

“You can rest now you won’t ever have to see me again.” I closed his eyes and quickly went back to dig up all his gear from the stash bit and then I came back picked him up and started to bring him to a better place so I could burn him without leaving any evidence.