0037 The Arrival of Strangers
The center of the village is a large square, where several sales stalls were set up on the sides, leaving the center free for dozens of people to dance in what looked like a choreographed dance, and despite the cool night, the light breezes passing from time to time did not help to ease the heat that began to rise in the night.
A large bonfire, almost 3 meters high, helped to illuminate the entire center of the village, and the side streets contained oil lamps with colored glasses, giving a more cheerful tone to the whole place.
People dancing wore clothes of dozens of different styles, many had fur or feathers as decoration, either in robes, cloaks or hats, looking like a carnivalesque and exotic festival.
Those who did not participate in the dances in the square were on the side talking loudly, watching, drinking, eating, or buying small decorative objects at the sales stalls.
A makeshift wooden stage is located at one end of the square, where some musicians use their stringed instruments, wind instruments and some drums of different sizes, to rock the place.
Looking at the number of houses in the village, it was clear that the number of people on the streets is much greater than the number of possible villagers, indicating that many there may be residents of local farms, travelers, or even city dwellers visiting relatives from the rual region.
A few hours ago, Alex and Helena entered the village while watching Henry and the others from afar, but somehow they lost sight of him, and now they're lurking around the side streets in an attempt to find them.
"I haven't found them yet, have you seen anyone who appears to be some sort of local authority?".
"Helena, look at these people!
Everybody dressed up in these different costumes, how am I supposed to know who's an authority?".
"Maybe some knight?
But I really haven't seen anyone else wearing armor like that supernatural knight, and I honestly don't want to see another one anytime soon...".
"And that clueless policeman is not on any of these streets, the square is full of people, if he managed to get some other clothes, we will never find him again...".
Beside a water well, on a street further away from the square, the two were talking quietly to each other, in the village where people passed dancing or drinking, where the festivity was everywhere, the two stood out for being the only ones not enjoying the night and lurking in the most deserted streets.
With a few more turns through the streets, they tried to approach some people, but people started moving away from them as soon as they saw them fall in love, making any communication difficult, mainly because their faces are hidden by the hood of the black robe they were wearing, in fact, the two of them looked very suspects.
"I don't think we have anything else to do Helena, let's leave him alone, it's none of our business anymore...".
"Yes, we waste a lot of time worrying about him...".
*"Hey! You two come with me! I don't want bandits causing trouble in the village during my tenure as Village Chief!
On the night of The Memory of 100 Peoples holiday, a duo of bandits are choosing houses to rob as if they were choosing a meal from the menu!
It's very bold of you two! Men, take them!"*.
"Hi?".
A group of costumed men emerged from a street corner and quickly surrounded the two, the old man in the middle of the group has a likeable and exaggerated appearance, and as soon as he ordered the men to take Alex and Helena, he began to dance and turn his body to the beat of the background music.
The men did not take strong actions, they just approached and pointed a direction for the two to follow, not knowing what to do, both decided to follow their order, at least they managed to find some local authority.
*"Sir? We didn't do anything wrong!"*.
*"Yes, they haven't done it yet, who knows what they would do in a few minutes...
... Come on young people, forget the life of robbery and banditry, let's dance!"*.
Alex tried to make conversation, but soon realized that the man seemed more interested in dancing and enjoying the party than actually punishing the two of them for something they were supposedly to do, with that, they were silent until they entered one of the houses near the square.
Entering a large office-like room, the happy old man sat behind a desk and gestured for the men to bring chairs for the two young men to sit on, and the moment Helena and Alex sat down, he started talking without letting them explain themselves.
*"The Rice Farmers' Village is a humble place...
... Here live the families of more than twenty rice farms, west of Marro, and they are all very hardworking people...
... It makes me very sad to know that two handsome and healthy young men are committing crimes against such an honest people..."*.
As they pulled the hood revealing their faces, the old man couldn't help but comment on the beauty of the two, inside the office, despite still appearing in good mood, he seemed more serious this time.
*"Sir, we are not thieves!"*.
*"Yes, we just appear to be thieves!"*.
*"Shit Alex! This is serious!"*.
*"And I'm not being serious? Have you ever looked at our look with these robes?
And we also spent almost an hour walking up and down the streets like a cockroach!"*.
*"Hahh hahaha haha!"*.
The little conflict between the two made the old man laugh out loud, and behind them, the other men also laughed non-stop, leaving Helena embarrassed, and Alex shrugging his shoulders.
*"Like I said, we just appear to be thieves...
... But the reality is that we've never been here before, and before entering the village, we encountered a dangerous killer arriving here first...
... We lost sight of him in the crowd, and spent almost an hour looking for him, so that's what happened..."*.
After a few more seconds of trying to calm down from the guffaws, the old man looked at the two young men with a kinder look and beckoned one of the men near the door to come over.
*"Are you two with the merchant caravan?
They have been staying at the village inn for almost five days and were waiting for the holiday to arrive before leaving!"*.
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*"It's true Chief, here in the documents it says that they delivered some goods to one of the farms further south, but there are no details about the goods..."*.
*"No, we are not with them, we came running away from a supernatural knight and some black monsters!"*.
The man approached and took some documents from a table beside where he recorded all the travelers staying in the village, but Helena interrupted him making it clear that they were not together and mentioned a knight and the monsters, causing everyone in the office to look more seriously at these two strangers.
*"Alright young people, don't make suspense, tell me everything!"*.
Alex and Helena finally relaxed, earlier they had already agreed not to tell about the phenomenon and how they came to this strange place to avoid possible problems, but it seems that they have found the right people to tell some of the recent events.
Quickly, they started talking about how they woke up in an unknown place with several other people, then a supernatural knight appeared saying he was from some church, and also the part about the monsters taking people to the forest, finally, they told how they arrived in the village and about Henry, leaving the Village Chief and his men astonished.
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"Do it soon! Stop wasting my time!".
"Sir policeman, I don't know if we should...".
"It makes me disgusted! You are a scum!".
"Very good! Very good! So it looks like I'm going to have to remind you three who's boss here!
We are in an unknown place, full of strange supernatural things, we need to harden your weak minds!
And you woman! You can have the man you want and the wealth you want! Stop acting like an innocent! You agreed to follow me as soon as I said I was going to conquer a piece of land to command!
If I'm ordering you two to rape that woman, you're going to do it! Or you can walk out that door like that sucker who ran away from me before he entered this village!
I want to see if any of you can survive this world alone without me!".
In one of the village houses, a local woman is tied to the bed, and around the bed, Henry was ordering the other two men in the group to rape the tied woman, while another woman watched everything, in a kind of preparation to follow him in the future.
Obsessed looking for a signal with his cell phone, a man dressed in dirty and torn social clothes with some blood stains, felt disheartened when his cell phone battery died, with that, he fixed the position of the glasses on his face and sat in a chair while listening to Henry's nonsense.
The other is an ordinary man dressed in sweatshirts, his clothes were also dirty, apparently he wasn't hurt from the previous events, and hearing such orders, he tried to protest the idea, but the revolver in Henry's hand did not let him speak very loudly.
As for the woman, she is also dressed in social clothes looking like a secretary, and her clothes also have rips and blood stains, she was nervous about the possibility of witnessing a rape, but she is also determined to walk the easy life that Henry offered her earlier.
Taking a deep breath, she hardened her heart and walked away, making way for the men and waiting to watch the scene that could be constant from here on out.
The tied up woman is desperate, she was having fun with others at the party and went back to the house to do something, when opening the house door, she was surprised by this group of strangers.
She tried to scream, but the man giving orders hit her in the stomach too quickly and now, she finds herself tied up and her mouth full of clothes, preventing her from speaking or screaming.
Henry prepared this initiation for his new recruits, for him, when initiating a person into crime, one should start by doing the worst things, because if the recruit managed to do everything bad and started to enjoy doing such things, it would be easier to follow any other simpler order.
After several minutes of trying to get the men to rape the woman, he was already getting tired of their insecurity, but seeing the secretary walking away and moving towards the door, he clicked his tongue and smiled.
"How is it going to be? Will I need to take her clothes off? Do you want me to put your cock inside her too?".
The woman did not understand the language of her kidnappers, but the gestures made by the man speaking out loud gave her a general idea of what was going to happen to her, and in desperation she began to cry.
Weeenck!
A man opened the door of the house and entered feeling suspicious, as much as the creak was loud, the noise of music and screaming from the party drowned out the sound, he wanted to scream for his wife who was taking a long time to come back from the party, but he was surprised by the lights out, and imagined that his wife had already left and they missed each other on the way.
He is dressed in what appears to be a wolf's skin, with the top of the wolf's head serving as a hood, and the rest of the outfit looks like a sort of leather vest with a few small pockets.
Before he went back out into the street, he heard the scream of a man's voice coming from his room, and furious, he went to sneak in to see if his wife was cheating on him, but as he approached the bedroom door, his surprise it was much worse than he could have imagined.
He became maddened by the situation and much more furious with himself for doubting his woman.
Silently, he returned to the living room and headed towards a large storeroom, where there were many basic tools and weapons, from inside, he took a large wooden shield and an ax with almost half a meter in blade, possibly used for battle, prepared, he returned to the bedroom.
"Hey look there!".
Both of them had just given in to the insistent and armed Henry, and were heading towards the woman tied to the bed, when the man in sweatshirts touched the woman, the madman came through the door surprising the secretary who was pushed aside.
Pah!
Henry turned around in surprise as well and tried to shoot the man who ran towards him with his shield covering his face, the shot missed when the man knocked Henry down by running him over with his shield, causing the gun to fly close to the window in the bedroom.
The man in sweats holding the woman's clothes, was left with no reaction when an ax flew towards him, sinking into his chest and making him slam his body hard into the wall next to the bed.
"I did nothing! Help!".
When the man with glasses saw all that blood flying and splashing on his face, he panicked, seeing Henry's revolver next to the window, he ran to get it and then opened the window and escaped through it.
As for the furious husband, he didn't care about anything else and ran to untie his wife, with that, the secretary helped Henry up and they both ran out of the house.
Checking that his wife was all right, the man grabbed the ax lodged in the dead man's body and ran out of the house, not finding his wife's attackers nearby, he screamed and ran through the crowd with the bloody ax in hand.
*"Slag! I will kill you all!"*.
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*"I will repeat one last time! What does it mean, you're not Thomas?"*.
^"Boy, this time I'm going to kill you, even if I have to force things a little here..."^.
Jardel couldn't hear the entire conversation between them, but something he understood was in relation to hiding Thomas' identity from the Father, he was increasingly determined to cause trouble for Lucius, and with that, he approached them and made a point of speaking loudly for everyone to hear.
Everyone looked at them.
Alcione realized that a serious problem could develop now, but the time and place were not right for it, Freddy was alarmed at Jardel starting to emanate his bluish green power and rushed to put himself between him and Lucius.
The energy began to flow from Freddy's body, floated close to his arm, gathered and formed a large bluish green energy shield, and so he assumed a defensive stance looking directly into Jardel's eyes.
*"Watcher Jardel, stop!"*.
*"Sorry Father Alcione, but I'm under Father Alberto's command...
... What are your orders Father Alberto? Can I kill him now?"*.
^"Isn't it Thomas?"^.
Alberto heard the words, he was slow to understand the central issue of the problem that Jardel was accusing Thomas, all the unease he felt about thomas, turned inside his mind as he recalled the memories shared about him by Alicia in comparison to the Thomas he had come into contact with.
*"Isn't it Thomas? No, really, it's not Thomas!
But what the fuck is going on here?"*.
Hearing Alberto's words, Jardel smiled and his sword flashed, everyone started to tense up with the possible battle, while Alberto was still standing still digesting all the information about the previous Thomas and the current Thomas.
*"How many people! Are you here to play with me?"*.
Out of nowhere, a sweet, whispery voice sounded throughout the office, interrupting the conflict and making everyone look around in search of the voice's source.
*"Let's play? Play?"*.
*"There, look!"*.
The voice continued to wander innocently through the air, leaving a mysterious echo, Jeffrey who was holding some objects with Jenany, was facing the source of the sound, he quickly pointed to a large round window that was closed, and outside, a strange child was floating in the air.
*"This, this! You found me!"*.
His skin is extremely pale, his eyes are sunken, his short straight hair floated in a ghostly way, upon realizing that he was found by the people inside the office, the child's body dissolved in the air like smoke, disappearing completely.
*"Now, it's my turn...
... Everyone! Hide!"*.