Chapter 4: Village

It might be dangerous, but there’s no way we could move forward without more information and proper disguises. We need to infiltrate a village.

I ordered my men to stay put no matter what and put Bon in charge. At least that’s what I thought I said with my hand signals.

I got the cloak from the dead rogue so that I could slip into the village outside the forest.

Somehow, I need to get some long robes or cloaks for my brethren so that we can move comfortably without having to hide every time we see humans.

Picking up the few bags of gold coins from the rogue and random corpses got us some money that should suffice for cheap cloaks.

As I approached the village, I draped the cloak over me up to my face. It could all end here, but if this is successful, we would be much safer.

The village has walls. Most of them do so because living outside of the city increases your risk of encountering bandits or wild animals. So even villages are fortified and have their own militias.

There is a line because a lot of festivities are being held in all the villages and towns in the human kingdom.

The chatter of the victory of humans can be heard everywhere.

There was one thing that surprised me, though. I could see a line of chained Skeleton Warriors being escorted into the village. Some of them were carrying luggage.

I had eye-to-eye contact with one of them. I knew he saw the purple flame in my eyes, but I looked away and tried to stay away from sight by hiding in the crowd.

Its eyes... It looked so tired. Like, its flame was about to go out at any moment.

There was no way that I could help them. I apologized to them silently and continued with my errand. I need to be as discreet as possible here. I can't even talk myself out of trouble if I get caught.

I tried evading people by ignoring them and moving swiftly.

It was going quite well.

Villager 1: "Hey, have you heard the most recent news!?"

Villager 2: "Yeah, the Lords of the Monsters have been defeated!"

Villager 3: "Wooh! Glory to the Paladins! Glory to the Holy Knights!"

These guys seem to be so happy about the recent events that they don’t notice suspicious characters like me.

I wish all of them were like that.

But that was not the case.

Looking around, I could see skeletons being kicked around. Following orders from merchants. Carrying baggage and materials. Our race has become slaves to them.

"Mister, mister."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

A small human boy approached me.

"Are you a hero?"

"Hey, hey, are you strong, mister?"

This guy is annoying as hell. I continue to walk in the crowd in hopes of losing him, but he keeps following.

"Old man! Wait! Help me; I need someone to save my brother!"

OLD MAN!? That escalated quickly. I faced him and stared at him. He thinks that the purple flames in my eyes symbolize my strength.

He wore tattered clothes and no shoes. My common knowledge seems to register this human as a "beggar."

Poor and without family. Homeless and a parasite to the kingdom.

Hmm, this is quite vexing; people might notice if this guy keeps bugging me.

Even though it's not part of the plan, I nodded and signaled for him to point me where his brother is.

.

.

.

After an hour of walking, we arrived at a shabby-looking house with some beggar-looking guys standing guard.

These guys are called "thugs," it seems.

"Mister! These guys kidnapped my brother and kept him locked inside! Help him!"

The boy had tears in his eyes. I nodded in response to his request.

The thugs are laughing out loud while talking. They were passing liquor to each other while exchanging stories.

I walked towards them, and they got alerted. They seem intent on trying to stop me.

I kept walking towards them. One of the thugs couldn't take it anymore, so he took out his sword and charged at me.

I threw knives. He blocked three with his sword.

Thug: "Hahaha, you can’t hit me with your tricks, thief."

He looked behind him to call his friend to back him up, but...

His friend was already impaled on the wall.

Thug: "Wha-"

Before he could finish his sentence, I threw a knife at the back of his head.

We now stand in front of the door. I nod to the beggar kid to tell him to get ready. I forced myself to open the door.

There was nothing but junk here. Oh, there he is.

When I looked at this scene, the only word that could describe it was brutal.

The beggar’s kid brother was naked and mutilated. There are signs that he might have even been raped.

The beggar kid went to his brother’s corpse, asking him to wake up.

"Hey, hey, Shota. Shota. Shota. Wake up. Shota. Shota."

He kept calling his brother. He might not know the concept of death yet, but I don’t have any way to explain it to him.

I looked around the place and saw some cloaks. Even though they are tattered, these should suffice. I found enough cloaks for everyone; they were thin enough to fit in a ragged backpack. Which I also got from the dead rogue.

At least I won’t need to go to the market to buy cloaks. It might be too suspicious if a guy like me bought a lot of things without speaking. I’m also not sure about the concept of money yet.

"Shota! Ahhh!!!"

The kid began crying. I can’t stay here for too long. While I was about to leave, five guys went inside.

There was also this huge, bald guy. He’s a bit taller than me and stronger too. He brought four more thugs with him.

Big Thug: "Oi, oi, oi. You cloaked bastard. Who told you you could kill two of my boys?"

He now brandished his sword, getting ready for battle. Meanwhile, my hand is on the handles of my throwing daggers.

"We can work this out the easy way or the hard way."

Oh, how I wish we could talk this through.

"Give that boy to us, and we shall release you; alternatively, you may consume my blade. Choose."

I made weird crackling sounds from grinding my skull. I was trying to produce a laugh, but oh well.

I threw five daggers aimed at their heads. Two went down instantly, and the other two survived by blocking, and then they charged me.

Wielding shortswords, the lackeys slashed me again and again.

They were slow though; I was dodging them quickly, and then one of them tried slashing at my upper body and the other one at my lower body.

I slipped myself in the middle of the two blades and stabbed the daggers into their chests while I was in mid-air.

Now it’s just the bald guy and me.

"Rogue, huh? Who sent you? The guild?"

He charges at me now. He made huge swings, making it easier for me to dodge. Still, every swing is enough to send me flying.

Every time I dodge, I slash him a little bit, even though I’ve done it like eight times, yet he’s still not slowing down.

"Is that all? Come on! Bring it on."

He made a huge downward slash, which I dodged by sidestepping to the right. I slashed his left eye right after I dodged.

"Gah!"

He’s blind on the left side now.

If I could use this to my advantage, I could still win.

He made a fake swing to me, which I regretfully dodged because he was able to enter a kick to my upper body. It sent me flying.

All the while, the beggar kid brought his brother’s corpse to the corner of the house. He watched our fight from the corner.

"Go, Mister...! Kill the bad guy!"

Heh. I don’t need anyone giving me orders. Not anymore.

I dashed to his left, slashing multiple areas of his body while dodging his counterattacks. His attacks are getting slower now; I can finish this!

He made a downward slash again. This time, I didn't dodge. I parried it, slowing down the slash.

And after a few moments, I let my daggers go, making the sword reach my left shoulder.

Big Thug: "HAHAHA! Stupid, stupid! .... Wait a minute. There's no blood? Huh!?"

Then I removed my hood.

He saw my skeleton face, and I even opened my mouth so wide to scare him.

"Wahhh!"

The sword did not do any damage; we skeletons are resistant to piercing and slashing attacks.

Time to die, Baldy. I took out more daggers from my pouch, then I stabbed two into the neck of the frightened man. He fell face-first to the ground.

It was a hard-fought battle, but I learned a lot here.

Had that enormous thug attempted to strike or crush me, I would have been reduced to bone powder. I need to get out of here before more of these thugs come.

Then, as I was walking out of the house, the beggar kid shouted something.

"MISTER! Let me come with you! Teach me! I want to take revenge!"

I left him there—no need to bring a kid into a parade of skulls.

"MISTER! If you have any chance back in this village, find me! My name is Souta!"

After nodding to him, I went in the direction of the market to buy other goods. I realized I also needed weapons for my skeleton brothers. And shields too, because a lot was broken in the fight with those wolves and the rogue.