Chapter 40

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The fort was in no shape to resist us. Many soldiers were injured, and the few fit ones were too tired to fight us. They did nothing but stare at us and hope we didn’t come here to kill them. After we scoured the fort, we found another three tailfolk that was injured. One was missing an arm and was bleeding to death, the other was bitten on the arm, and the other was missing a leg.

“Thank you. I can die free.” The man smiled as they saw Lily. Lily broke the choker, but he was bleeding to death and soon passed away.

“Thank you for saving us. I can see hope at last. Please… free others. I never knew freedom. But from your eyes, I can feel it even for the briefest moment. I am grateful. My brother, I leave him to you. Our savior.” The other tailfolk died. The lightly wounded ones were crying beside him as Lily tried to rip her clothes for impromptu bandages. Horn stopped her and presented his and Sisca’s clothes instead.

As the mourning ended, We were brought to the noble’s chamber but found it empty. As Lily unsheathed her sword, Isaac screamed and answered that the noble with his two beautiful elven slaves and tailfolk were absolutely here just a moment ago.

We then went to a stable where a fat pig was packing his stuff together into a carriage with his two elven slaves and two tailfolk. He was about to run away with all his belongings, leaving this fort to its fate. The knight looked at him with cold eyes, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He was a noble, and the fort was about to lose anyway. Fleeing was natural.

“So, Is the assault over? Whew. I worried for nothing. I knew you could do it, Isaac!” He smiled as he went over to us and hugged Isaac. “So, who are these beast girls, elves, and dwarves? Are they this fort secret power? You should have used them since the beginning! I sacrificed over a hundred beasts for nothing! AAACK!!”

Lily unsheathed her sword and decapitated the pig with no words spoken. The saber flew with a beautiful trailing white arc that mesmerized me. A cold rage cooled down even more as she kicked the head to the side and freed the slaves.

“I am here to save you. Please come with us.” Lily put her warmest smile upon the slaves. The tailfolk cried as they hugged Lily, while the elven slaves cried on the ground while kneeling.

“W-wait. You killed Lord Nafgar!” Isaac held up his sword reflexively, but as they looked at us, he dropped it. He knew he had no chance of victory.

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Lily smiled while replying to him. She said, ”Lord Nafgar has died an honorable death fighting the undeath. He has chosen you, Isaac, as his next in command should he fall.”

Her smile was cold and the fakest of all the smiles I saw, but Isaac stopped trembling and smiled instead. He then saluted, “Indeed! Lord Nafgar is an honorable Lord. I shall protect this fort in his stead. Thank you, unknown mercenary!”

“Let us leave,” Lily said.

“We aren’t going to kill them? After all they did to our kin!!” Joseph and Horn were enraged, but Lhorne interjected him. “We aren’t like them. We honor our words. But remember, humans. Shall we meet again, you are dead!”

“Dear mercenaries. I have never done anything to these beautiful elves and tailfolk. It was Nafgar who defiled and trained them as his sex toys. I hope your hatred died with him and not us.” Isaac gave a customer service smile and saluted us. We left the fort from the front gate as the remaining soldiers kindly opened it to us.

Lhorne whistled for our horses to come. I marveled at its intelligence. This horse was just like that game where you played as an assassin. As the horse stood beside us with a trained motion, we put our captive in each of our horses. Only Lily was alone on her horse. She tried to offer her horses, but Jona refused. Lhorne explained that the fort might view her negatively if they saw Jona was without luggage when even the lord carried something.

As we left the fort, I could feel Lily’s rage calm down, and she began to exhale while feeling the wind again.

“Hold it! Wait! We need to talk! everyone, gather for a bit!” Joseph shouted. The fort was already a distance away. And in less than an hour, Fort Soleil will be in view.

“What is it, Joseph?”

“Ahem! When we were asked for a report or if you were asked by your friend later in the fort, please remember that you must not say that Lily intended to help the fort. Are we clear?” Joseph said. Lhorne finally went pale and trembled.

“Ah… are we…” Lhorne and Jona trembled at the implications. They knew that helping enemies was treason, and the punishment for treason was a dishonorable death sentence. Their family will be shamed, and their corpses will not receive a proper burial.

“No! If we look at it objectively, we assaulted their fortress, killed their commander, and saved our kin. This is by no means treason. It is just that Lord Lily is uneducated and uses the wrong language.” Joseph cleared his throat. Relief finally went back to Lhorne’s face.

“Yes. That is correct. We killed their commander and saved two elves! We should receive medals instead. Yeah! Remember guys. We never helped humans. We just killed some zombies on our way and went into the fort and killed their commander while fleeing with the captives!” Jona shouted. She emphasized that we attacked the fort to rescue captives.

“Remember! We never have any intention of helping humans!” Joseph and Lhorne hammered it once again while looking at Lily and the tailfolk mercenary trio. We nodded under the intensity of their glare.

As we went back to the fort, we were greeted as a hero as the command brought us for questioning.