Chapter 86
A Tragedy in the Night
Erin, Ryle and Lexton waited impatiently for Zeldana to begin telling her story. Even though they wanted to hear her tale right away, the elf had stated that she needed something before she could begin. The three of them had wondered what it was at first, only to find out that she had been talking about a bottle of wine. Apparently, there was a wine cellar in the basement full of some very high quality alcohol that Zeldana had been more than happy to use for herself. This unfortunately didn’t bring much joy to Erin and her friends, who were getting annoyed by the needless stalling.
Zeldana took out a new bottle of wine and opened it. She drank a good amount of it in one go before setting the bottle down. It seemed like she was finally ready to begin her tale.
“...Well?” Erin asked, waiting for the story to begin.
“...What?” Zeldana asked in return.
“Are you going to start your story or not!?” the redhead asked as she was starting to get annoyed.
“My story?...Oh right! That story! The story about the people who used to live here, right? Sure I can tell you guys that,” Zeldana said, causing her listeners to perk up, getting ready for the tale. “Just right after I finish this bottle here…”
The elf was about to take the bottle in order to have another drink, only for Erin to quickly snatch it away. The redhead glared at the healer as she held the bottle out of her reach.
image [https://i.ibb.co/g7C1QpD/Ch-86-Pic-1.jpg]
“I think we have waited long enough for you,” Erin said angrily. “Now, are you going to tell us the story of this house or not!?”
“Fine, I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!” Zeldana said with a frustrated sigh. “No need to be such a meanie! Didn’t your parents ever tell you that stealing is wrong?”
“Oh, trust me. They know that VERY well,” Lexton said sarcastically. “In fact, it’s probably the only thing that they know is wrong.”
“You’re still holding a grudge over that?” Erin asked. “We’re just not comfortable with scamming people!”
“I know! But you’re completely fine with murder, aren’t you?” the kobold said back.
Although she kind of wanted to see where this argument would go, Zeldana knew that she needed to start telling her story. So after clearing her throat to get the attention of her audience, she got ready to tell them the history of the mansion they were staying at.
“Now, you’re probably wondering how I know what happened here, right?” the healer asked. “The reason I know exactly what happened is simple. I was here when it all happened.”
“How could you have been here? This house must have been abandoned for years!” Ryle asked.
“She’s an elf, Ryle,” Lexton said. “Along with a couple of other races, they live insanely long. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was around before any of the people that lived here were born.”
“Exactly!” Zeldana exclaimed. “Not only did I know the owner of this house, but I knew his parents before that! I’ve been around for quite some time, after all.”
“Wait… You mean to tell me that you’ve been here for years and yet you never bothered to clean this place at all?” Erin asked.
“...I hate housework, okay?” the elf replied. “Anyways, not only was I good friends with the parents of the person who built and owned this place, but I befriended the ones who lived here as well. Not only did they know about me through family connections, but they also knew about my time as a member of the resistance movement fighting against the Five Overlords. I had become quite known as a major player in there, so after the resistance fell and we were forced into hiding, the family here offered to give me shelter. While they themselves weren’t active participants in said resistance, they always supported us behind the scenes.”
“So that’s how you ended up living here,” Lexton said. “What exactly did you do during your stay here?”
“Freaking puppet shows… What do you think I was doing?” Zeldana asked sarcastically. “I’m a healer who can cure pretty much anything. Would you be shocked if I told you that I became their personal family doctor?”
“No need to be such a dick,” the kobold muttered as Ryle snickered at him.
“Anyways, I lived here for quite some time, until things went south suddenly,” the elf continued her story. “Somehow, the military found out about me living here and sent in people to handle me. Not only was there an active hunt for those who opposed the Five Overlords, but I was a very infamous member of the resistance as well. Once they heard about me, the military immediately sent a group of elite soldiers here to take me out.”
“I’m guessing this is where we get to the part where all of this happened,” Ryle said as she looked around the room at the signs of bloodshed.
“Bingo. I was sleeping in my hidden room in the basement, when the sudden commotion woke me up,” Zeldana said. “I could tell by the noises that the servants of the house tried to fight back, but were easily beaten by the soldiers. What happened to the family was much worse, though.”
Erin, Ryle and Lexton tensed up as they waited to hear what happened to the family. While the other two might have had some form of an image in their minds, the redhead had seen the horrid sights on the second floor and the attic. Now she just needed to know what truly had gone down on that night.
“After clearing out the resistance on the first floor, the soldiers quickly moved to the second floor where the family was,” Zeldana continued her story. “The father of the family tried to protect his family and fought back, but it didn’t end well. He was quickly beaten and dragged to the library on the second floor to be tortured for information.”
“What were they trying to gain by doing that?” Ryle asked.
“I’m sure that they were mostly doing that as a form of entertainment for themselves, but they did have a goal. In fact, they had two,” the elf answered. “First, they wanted to know where I was. And the other one was the location of the family fortune.”
“So they were basically just trying to rob this place then,” Erin said with a frown. “It wasn’t enough that they came here to kill people, but they also had to fill their own pockets with cash as well.”
“I don’t like what happened here any more than you do, but once you’re willing to kill, theft isn’t such a big thing anymore, right?” Zeldana said with a shrug. “When the man of the house wasn’t willing to speak up, the boss of the soldiers went to their bedroom, where his wife was. Whatever happened there is something I can’t even imagine, as the sounds that came from that room were nothing short of an absolute monster’s doing.”
Erin shuddered a bit, as she remembered the sight of that particular room. She didn’t even want to know what had happened there.
“Despite what they did to his wife, the man refused to give in. I don’t know if he was killed after that or if he died from his injuries, but only the children remained after that,” the elf continued her story. “The two kids of the house had gone to hide in the attic, but it didn’t take long for the soldiers to find where they were.”
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“Oh God… Please tell me that they didn’t do what I fear they did,” Ryle begged, desperately hoping that her fear was unfounded.
Erin already knew what most likely happened, but didn’t have the heart to tell her friend.
“Sorry to tell you this, but the kids didn’t make it out alive either,” Zeldana said. “The only good thing I can say is that the kids didn’t get as bad of a fate as their parents did. The soldiers executed the kids by hanging them from nooses in the attic. It isn’t much of a comfort, but it’s something at least, I guess.”
Silence fell over the room, as Erin, Ryle and Lexton processed the story they had just listened to. All three of them were thinking about different things in regards to what had happened. Ryle thought about how anybody could ever do something so horrible and how the victims must have felt. Lexton was wondering about the possible motives, such as why Zeldana was such a high priority target that the military would go to such lengths to get to her.
However, Erin was thinking about something completely different from her two friends.
“...Why?” the redhead said almost inaudibly.
“Why what?” Zeldana asked in return.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU DO ANYTHING!?” Erin screamed at the top of her lungs as she stood up from her seat. “You knew what was happening! You knew what horrible things they were doing to these people! People who gave you shelter and helped you! Why did you just abandon them when they needed you!?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Because it wouldn’t have been what they wanted,” the elf answered. “Weren’t you paying attention at all when I was telling you my story? No matter what happened to them, these people never told them where I was. They could have easily told the soldiers where I was in order to save their lives or at least make their deaths less painful. Yet despite everything that was done to them, they never gave in. Had I revealed myself, all of that would have been for nothing.”
The redhead felt like she just took a powerful blow to the guts at Zeldana’s response. She had been so overtaken by emotion that she was certain she was in the right, but had failed to take note of that one important detail. The fate that had fallen on the people of this house had certainly been a cruel one, but they had still held onto one thing to the end. To not reveal where Zeldana was hiding. Had they done so, then every horrible thing they had endured would have truly been for nothing.
One question still remained. Was the life of one healer truly worth it all?
“Besides, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference if I had tried to help them,” Zeldana said, breaking Erin out of her thoughts. “The military really wanted me out of the way, so they sent one of the most dangerous people they could to deal with me. One of the three warlords himself came here.”
“WHAT!?” Lexton exclaimed, surprising both Erin and Ryle. “Just what the hell kind of a person could you possibly be for a warlord to come after you!?”
“What’s the matter, Lex?” Erin asked. “Is that a big deal?”
“You bet your ass it’s a big deal! Warlords are essentially the biggest people within the military itself!” the kobold answered. “On each continent, there are only three people who can achieve that title! And they answer only to the Overlords themselves! For one of them to come chasing after a simple healer of the resistance is unheard of!”
“Hey, I’ll have you know that I’m no simple healer!” Zeldana said in a somewhat offended tone. “Do you think I earned the name “Zeldana the Holder of Life” by simply treating wounds? Hell no! Thanks to my skills, I became an important part of the whole resistance movement itself!”
“The hell do you mean by that?” Ryle asked.
“What I’m saying is that my skills as a healer were so special that the military felt the need to make me into a high priority target!” the elf answered. “As long as you were alive, there was pretty much no injury that I couldn’t heal! There were also countless assassination attempts on resistance leaders that ended in failure simply because I was there to heal the target! That’s why they gave me that title, as it was like I was holding life itself in my hands! I still have the highest bounty ever placed on a person’s head on me!”
Zeldana put on a posture that radiated pride and smugness. The others were a bit taken aback by the haughty attitude, as no normal person would brag about having a bounty on them.
“...Just out of curiosity, what’s the bounty on your head?” Ryle asked.
“Two million. Pretty impressive, huh?” the elf said with a smug smile. “I doubt anyone has ever come even close to it.”
“Erin has,” the blonde said bluntly. “In fact, the bounty on her head is bigger than yours.”
“...WHAT!?” Zeldana screamed. “How the hell is that possible!? How high is her bounty!?”
“Six million. So three times the size of yours,” Ryle replied.
This revelation seemed to shake the elf down to her soul, as her face had turned completely pale upon learning this. It took her a moment to process how something like this could have ever happened.
“But… How? Just what could she-” Zeldana struggled to speak, until she finally realized why such a thing had most likely happened. “Oh right… You were a bit of a special case. That must be why…”
Erin silently cursed inside her head at how careless the elf had been, while Ryle and Lexton shared a quick confused look.
“What do you mean by that?” Lexton asked. “How is Erin a special case?”
“...Never mind. I spoke about something that isn’t really important,” Zeldana said, realizing her mistake. “Anyways, now you all know the story of what happened here. Is there anything else I can tell you?”
“Well, I suppose there’s still one thing I’d like to know,” the kobold said. “Who exactly were these people? I get that they were wealthy and didn’t like the rule of the Overlords, but what kind of a family were they in the end?”
“The family that lived here, as you have probably guessed by now, were a very wealthy one,” the elf began to explain. “I’m not all that clear on the details, mostly because I didn’t care, but the person who made the family rich in the first place was the father of this family’s father. He had some sort of a successful pet shop or something in Burrow’s Deep that his son inherited. But once the Five Overlords took over, they had to shut it down. Luckily they had enough money saved up along with successful investments that they were able to live here without worry.”
Erin frowned a bit from hearing the history behind the family. She remembered how Lexton had told her about the way Burrow’s Deep had changed under the rule of the Overlords. Seems like there were more victims than just the people that were in the town.
“The family weren’t exactly fans of the new world rulers, for obvious reasons, and had been secretly assisting those who fought against them,” Zeldana continued with her story. “It was because of their loyalty for such a cause that they didn’t even hesitate to offer me a place to live here. I essentially became their personal doctor in exchange for food and lodging. They still wanted to help out members of the resistance, even if the movement had been crushed and the remaining members were made into outlaws with bounties on their heads.”
“If they were that dedicated to keep you safe, how did the military find out about you?” Ryle asked. “It doesn’t seem like they were the kind of people that would betray you.”
“The family might have been loyal to the resistance, but that didn’t mean their servants were,” the elf answered. “While they were good to their people and had earned their loyalty, such things can easily be broken by simple greed. One of the servants hoped to get a cut of the reward on me and squealed to the authorities. Luckily the place where I stayed was a secret room that only the father and the mother of the family knew about, so I wasn’t found. The warlord sent here was obviously pissed off over seemingly being fooled, so the rat bastard who told them about me got what they deserved in the end.”
Erin and her two friends had to take a moment to let the elf’s story sink in. So many big pieces of information had just been laid out on them. The horrors of what occurred in the building they were staying at, the fact that a warlord was sent out and how big of a deal Zeldana truly was.
“Can you tell us anything about the warlord?” Erin asked. “Any details could be of great use for us.”
“I’m afraid there’s not much I can tell you guys. I stayed here through the whole thing, so I never saw so much as a glimpse of him,” Zeldana answered. “All I heard was his underlings calling his name, Gotzmeyer. Besides that all I know are the tales and rumors pretty much everybody knows about the guy.”
“And those would be?” the redhead asked.
“Oh you know, the usual stuff. That he’s a very powerful warrior who decimates numerous opponents with ease and all that,” the elf said nonchalantly. “I suppose there’s one interesting bit of information, though. Unlike any of the other warlords, he has never bled on the battlefield even a single drop of blood. All the other ones have at least suffered some type of an injury, but not him. Because of this many believe that he is the strongest of all the warlords.”
Erin shuddered a bit. Things were starting to look even worse for her and her group. All their battles so far had been tough already, but they seemed to be nothing compared to what was waiting for them in the near future. Just how were they going to beat someone who had never been injured despite all the battles he went through?
However, there was something about his name that caught the redhead’s attention. It was almost like she had heard it before.
“Just out of curiosity, did the military take everything that was valuable?” Lexton asked. “Or is there a hidden vault somewhere that might still hold something that’s worth money?”
“Lex! Seriously!?” Ryle asked angrily. “Not only are you prolific con artist, but now you’re robbing the dead!? What’s the matter with you!?”
“Hey! It’s not my fault we’re pretty much broke and need money!” Lexton argued. “The way I see it, these people sure as hell don’t need the cash, so we might as well take it! It’s a long journey ahead of us and we need all the help we can get, okay!?”
The blonde was about to continue arguing, but was cut off by Erin. The redhead had a bit of a saddened look on her face, yet her gaze was filled with determination.
“Lex is right, Ryle,” Erin said. “We are facing some very powerful enemies right now and need every advantage we can get our hands on. While we are obviously not going to do just about anything to get what we want, taking from the dead is a small evil that we can manage to live with.”
“But Erin… Isn’t this a bit too much?” the blonde asked while giving her friend a pleading look. “I’d have no issues taking from bandits, the lackeys of the Overlords or any other horrid bastards, but these people weren’t like that. Can we rob good and innocent people win good conscience?”
“We aren’t robbing anyone! We’re just… We’re just acquiring resources,” the redhead said while struggling to keep her composure. “These people are already gone, so leaving anything useful here would just be a waste. Besides, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, seeing as they also fought against the Five Overlords.”
“Your friends are right, blondie. There’s no need for such holier than thou attitude here,” Zeldana said. “These are tough times in a tough world. Those who don’t do what is necessary due to some morals are not going to live long. And your buddy is completely right. I knew these people personally and I can promise you that they wouldn’t mind you taking their stuff. I mean, not like they need it, do they?”
“For some reason when you say that it doesn’t fill me with confidence,” Ryle muttered before letting out a deep sigh. “But I get it. We gotta do what we gotta do in order to survive, right? So where’s all the good stuff hidden then?”
“Oh! There’s nothing valuable hidden anywhere around here. It’s all gone,” the elf replied without any hesitation.
“You gotta be freaking-!” Ryle was about to start to angrily curse, but managed to calm herself. “Never mind… I guess I should have expected as much, seeing as how the military was behind the attack here. I doubt they would have left anything valuable behind.”
“I suspected as much myself, but just wanted to make sure,” Lexton said. “I suppose we need to figure out a way to help our funding.”
“With the exception of the secret vault that is,” Zeldana suddenly added.
“...THE SECRET WHAT!?” Erin, Ryle and Lexton all yelled in unison.
“Are you guys doing that on purpose or something!?” the elf asked angrily as she held her ears.