The mercenary group Mohamed was sent with is called the Red Hawk mercenary group. they are the second best mercenary group in the continent, their leader Khalid is 1.78 cm tall with a slightly muscular build, he is a good looking young man with brown short hair and light brown eyes. he is very calm and is a smart and calculating man.
Mohamed's master usually deals with him when he wants to use their services so he was the one who invited him to his office and told him to take Mohamed with him. Khalid protested at first since he was just a 13 year old boy but he got offered a hefty sum for taking him and teaching him while they are on the battlefield. Carlos also made clear that he wasn't just any 13 year old and that he has been trained and is capable of taking down a fully grown man by himself effortlessly so he didn't have to worry about his capabilities. he also said "i have done everything to train him but he has yet to kill a man, so sending him to war will prepare him for future tasks that i will provide him with."
Khalid questioned him and said "but why war? why not let him kill any man in the city?" Carlos said "if you kill a man in the city you are labelled as a murderer and get thrown into jail but if you kill a man in the battlefield you are called a hero and you are rewarded." Khalid was astonished by his answer and said with a surprised look "I understand your reasoning even though you could use connections to make him get away with murder it is far better if he does good in the war and gets rewarded for it, then you will be the one to reap the benefits as he is your servant. I will take him with me but in the case something happens to him or he dies I am in no way shape or form responsible for that as long as that is clear then you have a deal".
with a smile creeping up his face Carlos extended his hand for a handshake but Khalid ignored it and just nodded in agreement while taking the money and left. after leaving Carlos's smile turned sinister as he thought "this fucker really dares to disrespect me, I will show him what it means to cross me, of course I have to take advantage of him first."
a week later, Khalid and with five of his group members came to pick up, before going out to meet them Carlos looked at him with a serious look while emanating an intimidating aura and said "I expect great results from you, so don't disappoint me. you have one task and that is to gain experience from this war, learn as much as you can from them and don't get attached to them since some day I may ask you to kill them. should you preform well you will be rewarded but should you fail to meet my expectations I will make the past torture look like child's play, so if you can't get good results you might as well just die out there. and don't think about running away, we've installed a tracking device on you as you are already aware of", bowing his head slightly Mohamed said "your word is my command, sir".
and with that he went outside to find four men and one woman standing outside of a vehicle as if waiting for someone, he knew that was them since he was given their description. as he approached them they all turned around to face him and they were astonished as they asked "who are you?", "what do you mean? I am Mohamed, I'm the one who will accompany you!" then suddenly a geeky looking guy with glasses who has curly brown hair and green eyes jumped in front of him and looked at him from top to bottom "we were told that it was a 13 year old boy would be coming with us but how come you look like you are 16 or 17 already. heck you are already as tall as I am", a smart looking woman with long straight brown hair and deep black eyes that were as deep as the ocean chuckled and said "well you are an adult inside a child's body I mean how tall are you? I remember it was 1.63 cm or something", all the group started laughing at her remark, while embarrassed he said "I am 1.65cm not 1.63cm besides you look like an Amazonian I've never seen a woman as tall as you what are you a palm tree?" . while they were mocking each other the leader Khalid interrupted and said "enough guys we have a guest with us behave appropriately will you now" then he faced Mohamed and said "sorry about this, they are a rowdy bunch but they are good people" Mohamed said" It's fine you have nothing to apologize for".
Khalid had a big smile on his face upon hearing that and said "thanks for understanding. I am Khalid the leader, the short one is Ali our tech guy while the woman is Jisoo; she is sort of like our nanny she takes care of all our needs and our money while keeping the guys in check whenever they get wild, even though she is a woman she can take on most men, the guy over there with the black hair and brown eyes that has a serious look is Sofian he is the vice leader of the group while that big guy is Jeramy he is our fighting expert as you can see from his build only top experts can take him down," "hmm...are these all of your group members?" Mohamed said with a curious tone "there are others but they are already heading to the airport as we speak. do you have any questions before we depart?" Mohamed looked at him and said "no I'm good let's go!".
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
while in the car Khalid who was sitting in the front seat next to Sofian who was driving asked inquisitively "are you really 13 years old? just like Ali I was taken aback too seeing how you are as tall as a 16 year old or even some adults plus you are pretty muscular", all of them looked at him with weird looks as he replied "well, I don't know how tall someone of my age should be since I don't have any friends, but I am probably 13 years old, and the reason why I am muscular is because I have been training everyday for years now", they all were a bit skepticale at first but believed him as he had no reason to lie. Ali then asked "how did you end up working for Carlos?", Jisoo interrupted before he could answer and said "hey, that's none of your business everyone has their circumstances you shouldn't pry like that" she then turned to Mohamed and said "you don't have to answer if you don't feel comfortable to do so". "it's fine, it's not like its a secret anyways".
they all listened curiously as he told them how he was born and how he was treated as a kid and then talked about his time with Omar and then he was kidnapped, although he left out the part where he was tortured and where it was Carlos who was the boss of his kidnappers and instead fabricated a story where he was sold into slavery and that Carlos was the one who bought him and trained him everyday for the past three years. it was a story that Carlos made so that if anyone asked he would say that. it was so that he would be painted as a savior in the eyes of those who heard it.
hearing his story made them all sad and Jisoo who was sitting next to him immediately hugged him and said "what kind of parents are those I am sure they didn't even bother searching for you, but don't worry I am here for you if you need me" Mohamed had never been hugged before in such a warm way, nobody showed any care for him, and as she hugged him he felt his heart tighten with pain, he tried to hide his emotions and maintain the composed look on his face but a single tear betrayed him as it fell down his left eye, he felt himself melt into her embrace as he buried his face into her chest in an attempt to hide his teary eyes; it was his way to protect himself from being seen as weak.
Mohamed had never felt so warm in his heart before he started to have feelings he never knew before as he thought 'is this how it would feel if my mother hugged me when I crawled to her crying while father beat me? maybe this is the thing that I was chasing before this feeling of security that I have never felt before, The feeling of being looked after, I wish I could stay in her embrace forever'.
while he was melting in her embrace they finally arrived at their destination; it was the international Samar airport it was very extravagant as it had glass buildings all over with high-end technologies, they went to an area where they had military aircrafts with soldiers and generals everywhere, you could sense the tension of the soldiers before going to war, it was in a secluded military base behind this airport. while the army of the kingdom had their aircrafts, the mercenaries had their own airplanes provided by Carlos.
as they were getting off of their vehicle Mohamed was still in her embrace and as she tried to let go of him he pulled her back, his inner child refused to let her go, he was like a child refusing to let go of his mother while embracing her, he felt that he had finally found a safe haven as he was hugging her. responding to his stubbornness she didn't let him go and instead caressed his head. after what seemed to be an eternity, he composed himself after realizing that he had to let go eventually, so he reluctantly let go of her. she felt his hesitance as she said "don't worry I'll be here whenever you need me I'm not going anywhere", reassured he got back to his stoic and composed self and said "sorry about that I don't know what got over me, don't worry I won't bother you with such trivial matters, besides we are heading to war so I need to be focused, don't do that out of the blue again" she felt slightly hurt with his response "ohh, you know you liked it you didn't even want to let go don't be such a tsundere on me" she said playfully. he looked at her with a serious and stoic face "don't get ahead of yourself just because I humored you won't make me trust and Love you all of a sudden, don't act all friendly with me we don't know each other that well, whether I liked it or not I still don't know you that well, I am not saying this to hurt you but we both need to focus on the war and not get too caught up in our emotions I hope you understand that".
upon hearing that she fell deep in thought about his words and realized that he made a good point and said "I get what you are saying but even in a state of war you need to have fun while you can its not good to be stiff all the time, I understand your point of view and I will respect your wishes but know that even after the war I will still offer you the hug if you need it." while still maintaining his stoic look he said "thanks but this is the first and last time I'll hug you I won't ask again don't worry.", 'I need to keep my expression the same and not change it, I have to put a wall between us the more attached I get the more it will affect me should I be ordered to betray them I'm sorry but I need to put a distance between us, the things I'm feeling will hinder me in the future I need to be better and not be swayed so easily, it's just a hug goddamnit!'. he then got off the car before she could say anything and met up with the guys outside.