The room was still completely dark, but this time, no noise could be heard.

I was still feeling a slight pressure in my forehead, but I knew there wasn't a finger touching my skin anymore.

- Hey, what the fuck was that? - I asked the woman.

I swung my left hand forward, as it was the hand not holding my precious meat, trying to find something to touch, but nothing came in contact. Nothing aside from darkness.

Turning my head around, the only source of light came from the entrance door.

- Lady, would you mind lighting some of the candles? I can't see shit like this - I said while swinging my arms.

After a few seconds with no response, my hand finally touched something that felt like a wall.

So I started to walk towards the door since it was the only place where there was some light.

I opened the door and left the place without a second thought.

To my surprise, the rain was pouring down. Only a few minutes had passed since I entered this place, and from a sunny weather with no cloud in sight, the sky was now dark carrying out the rain.

But that wasn't the only surprise.

- Wh-where is she? - A large man leaned against the wall that was in front of the witch's shop, soaked in water and mud, asked me in a trembling voice.

- You're talking about the old lady? I wish I knew that. - I told him.

Looking thoroughly at the man in front of me, I could find some resemblance to a fellow that I once met, he used to live near the gate where the access to the forest was easier.

- They made me do it! They made me do it all! - He screamed sobbing.

This was the first time that I witnessed such a big man crying as much as a little child would.

- Hey, hey, what do you what? Calm yourself down. - I tried to keep him under control.

- Th-this voice keeps whispering me these thing-gs, get that old cunt out here right now! - He shouted and pointed his right hand, which was holding a bottle of wine towards the door.

'So that is the reason for the mess.'

- Do you think I am a monster? - He looked at me with a pair of red eyes.

- Man, look at yourself. Come on, let's drop the bottle down and go home. - I got closer and tried to grab him by the arm.

My fingers grasped his clothes, but the man threw his body to the side, to escape from me.

A bit of mud and wine were splashed onto me due to his movement.

A strong and distinctive smell also reached my nose, something even capable of going through this rain.

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It wasn't the smell of booze, this one I knew well enough. It was something different, something I couldn't identify.

- I don't have a home anymore. - He seemed to remember something and started to cry again.

'Did this bastard follow some advice from the witch and lost everything playing cards?'

To be honest, I didn't care. I wasn't in the mood to take care of a drunk man, not on my day off. Especially with this much rain on me.

- But... they keep telling me that I will always have a place by their side... - He murmured while on the ground.

- Look, if you lost everything just like that and someone is offering you a place to stay while you get your shit together, then just go for it. - I gave my unasked advice.

He didn't move. His eyes kept looking down for a few seconds as if the man was thinking about something.

He slowly got up and started to walk away, almost falling at times, but he kept going nonetheless.

- Hey there, do you want help getting there? It might be tough for someone in... in your situation to get somewhere by this point. - I shouted, trying to get his attention.

But the man didn't look back, he continued to walk until my eyes couldn't see his figure anymore.

By the end of my only day off in the week, I had even fewer coins in my pocket than when the day started. Soaked in mud, water, and wine.

'What a damn waste of a Saturday.'

I looked back at the witch's door, nothing seemed to have changed, as there was no light coming from the cracks of the door.

'Fuck this.'

Under the heavy rain, I walked back home.

There was no one in sight the whole time, as no person in their right mind would risk getting a deadly flu from being outside in this weather. It was a lonely and wet walk.

After I got home I rushed to dry myself off and cook half the meat that I had bought. Most of its seasoning was already lost, as today's rain made sure of that.

On the very next day, I woke up a few moments before the sunrise, already annoyed that another working day had started.

I followed my usual routine.

After I cooked and ate the other half of yesterday's meat, I went to the Lord's castle.

Every soldier at the beginning of their shift must go there in order to receive instructions.

It usually was something fast, someone from Human Resources would be there waiting for you with a letter in hand, a letter with a few tasks that must be accomplished in between patrols.

But today things were clearly different. After entering the main door, I could see a frail old man sitting on a red chair.

He looked at me for a second and soon the man pointed to another door not too far from there.

- You must head there, soldier. - He said.

To be honest, I didn't know this fellow who was ordering me around, but there were so many people above my position that this might as well be one of them.

I just nodded and went to the room he pointed to, a place crowded with a bunch of other soldiers, from all of the shifts.

A few soldiers kept coming after I did, this strange atmosphere lasted for a couple of minutes until someone finally entered the place and closed the door behind his back.

It was the Lord, followed solely by a soldier called George.

George was the only second-grade soldier in town. All of the others were just third-grade, like me. So it was an uncommon sight to see him escorting the Lord so closely, George was usually in charge of matters like delivering messages to neighbor cities, leading expeditions, and some other stuff I never bothered paying attention to.

- Ahem... All of you must have already arrived by now. - Spoke the Lord.

The old man had an expression that I'd never seen on his face before. Even his voice seemed to carry some nervousness.

- The reasons why I gathered all of you soldiers here today are two. - He raised his hand and lifted two fingers.

- The south's cities tournament will be held in our town in three weeks from now. The bunch of you who wish to participate must speak with soldier George. - He instructed.

- As for the rewards, the county still didn't send us the list, but looking at the previous years, they shan't be bad. - After speaking about the first reason, the Lord lowered one of his fingers.

The room got in complete silence for a few seconds, no one seemed to believe the Lord would gather all of the soldiers for such a simplistic announcement that happened every year.

- Many of you must know Lenny, the lumberjack. - The man paused and looked at us oddly seriously.

- I never pictured myself being the carrier of such news, but this morning another lumberjack who lives nearby him found Lenny's wife and daughter... they were both dead inside the family's house.- The Lord continued.

As soon as the old man was done speaking, the silence amongst the soldiers was broken.