Chapter 14 - I'm Sorry

Kuro's Village - Dawn

"Kuro! We've got a problem!" A small elderly man suddenly charges through Kuro's door, finally managing to rip the poor thing off its hinges. The wind scatters the various scraps of paper scarred across Kuro's desk causing him to curse, "Divines be damned! What now?!"

The elderly man looks up at him with a terrified face, "Wagons! From the forest! Lots of um! And they're flying the baron's colors!"

Kuro quickly staggers to his feet, rushing to a nearby chest that contains his finest clothes that were usually reserved for tax day, "Gather the villagers in the mess hall! Quickly!" he screams before rushing out into the downpouring rain, still buttoning his slightly wrinkled blouse as the terrified man looks on.

Kuro's Village - Village Outskirts

"H-How may we serve you, m-my lord?" Kuro appears out of the rain speaking in a quiet yet dignified manner.

Simon smiles while shaking his head, standing in front of the convoy of wagons, "Well, I can't say I've ever been called a 'lord' before." he lets out a light chuckle "Kuro, go ahead and direct the wagons towards the village."

"A-at once, my lord!" Kuro moves faster than Simon even thought possible for the man, causing more than one raised eyebrow. Suddenly something dawns on the elderly man, his gaze drifting upwards to stare at the face of the man in front of him.

"S-Simon?!" he shouts after managing to find his jaw.

Simon's smile remains as he watches the frustrated man in front of him. This is going to be good. "What? I'm right here, no need to yell, ust go ahead and tell them where to get these supplies unloaded before your 'lord' decides to go looking for more bandits."

Kuro’s head pivots in all directions, an expression of shock and confusion on his face as Simon places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. "Just do it. I'll explain everything later. Oh, I'm going to be taking over the mess hall for a bit. Sorry."

Simon lightly raps his fingers across the cloth covering a nearby wagon, causing a woman's head to briefly appear outside its protective boundary, her long rabbitlike ears fluttering in the wind. Kuro's mind goes blank as he nearly collapses before one of the terrified bandits quickly catches the man and holds him up.

Simon's glare sends a chill down the man's spine as he walks off, leaving the stunned Kuro behind while guiding a small detachment of wagons.

"We're almost there. Just hold on a bit longer."

Kuro's Village - Village Mess Hall

By the time Simon and the wagon train arrived at the mess hall, all of the villagers were quietly crowding around the odd sight.

Standing on one of the nearby crates, Kayae could be seen in tears watching as Simon approached. Simon sighs and shakes his head at the sight before partially lifting the cloth. Several of the villagers capable of seeing inside the partly covered wagon let out a mixture of cheers and gasps.

Smiling, he turns towards the woman inside the wagon and speaks softly.

"We're here. Anyone that can walk head inside and take a seat. Anyone who can't walk, feel free to stay where you are. We'll have you carried inside shortly."

One by one, the women began exiting the wagon before disappearing inside the mess hall. All of them were malnourished, dirtied, and beaten, but otherwise in high spirits after finally being freed. True to his word Simon began carrying out the women incapable of walking and set them down inside on whatever furniture was still available. After the last woman was removed from the wagon, he stood by the doorway and addressed the waiting villagers.

"Please treat them as one of your own. Several of them need food, medical attention, and rest, while all of them need to be cleaned and clothed. Kuro should be along shortly with several wagons filled with supplies. Please take from them what you need." Simon finishes speaking and quietly gives them a deep bow.

A muscular man Simon quickly identifies as Kuritn approaches him quickly, "Oi, would any of the men you brought back be Healers? I don't like spreading bad news but some of these girls aren't going to make it unless we get them to a healer, and fast." Several voices ring out in agreement along with dozens of nodding heads.

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"A what?" he replies with a raised eyebrow, "Do you mean like a doctor or a medic? I can perform basic first aid and some less complex surgeries with the right tools."

Several of the gathered villagers tilt their heads in confusion as Kuritn quickly grabs Simon by the hand and drags him out of the mess hall. Within a few moments, the two men find themselves back in Kuro's home. Kuritn gives the broken door a sideways glance before shrugging with a grunt. The man's sharp eyes give the house another once-over before a softly glowing barrier appears around them. Simon's eyes go wide at the sight and momentarily loses his composure before a firm hand on his shoulder brings him back to reality.

"No one can hear us in here but they can still see us. The broken door is unfortunate but no one else should be walking in here." Kuritn said in a serious tone while Simon experimentally poked at the barrier around them before noticing the sound of the rain, or rather the absence of the sound. "A sound barrier?" he mutters in astonishment before looking back to Kuritn who merely nods his head.

"Aye. It's one of my class abilities called Veil. Not a lot of uses these days but it got quite a lot of use back in the day if you know what I mean." he replies with a grin before turning serious again. "Simon, I know it's considered taboo to ask but, honestly, at this point, I have to. What level and class are ye? Every time I try to cast Identify on you all I get is a headache, a system error, and the feeling of a void being where you're standing. Is it some kind of observation skill? Can you disable it?" Kuritn lets out an exasperated sigh while pacing around the inside of the barrier."

Class abilities? System? Level?

"I know it's not an item since you arrived here naked as the day you were born aside from that corpse tag and even then I couldn't identify you. I don't know what kind of deal you struck with Kuro to stay here even after I told him about that but I simply can't watch you keep running around here without knowing if you're a threat. I really don't want to fight you after all you've done for us, especially after seeing what you can do and because I consider you a friend, but I will protect this village even if it kills me. I wasn't here for the first bandit attack but I'll be damned if I let something like that happen again-"

Kuritns rant is suddenly cut off by Simon's hand landing on his shoulder, "Alright, that's enough Kuritn. I have no idea what the fuck a 'system' is or what you mean by 'classes', 'levels', and 'abilities' but I'm guessing it's rather important if you're willing to fight me over it. But right now we don't have the time for this. We've got dying women in the mess hall and every second spent here is another second that we aren't helping them survive." Kuritn's already widened eyes looked as if they were about to jump out of their sockets as Simon continued. "I'm going to go ahead and make an educated guess and say that a 'healer' is someone who can treat the wounded like you created this 'barrier' right?"

Simon's hand squeezed the bewildered man's shoulder again before Kuritn nods his head rapidly.

"Alright, then let's go check and see if any of those bastards are healers." Simon lightly scratches his head after walking through the barrier. "Would have been nice to know about these 'Healers' before I butchered most of them," he says with a sigh before walking out the door, Kuritn in tow.

Kuro's Village - Village Mess Hall - Seven hours later

Kuro approached a battered table in the back of the hall with drinks in hand. In front of him, Simon and Kuritn sat exhausted by the table. Four loudly snoring men in robes lay sprawled out across the floor, clearly having passed out after a lengthy healing session. With a smile, the old Elder offers up a soft prayer to the gods above. All of the women that had arrived alive in the village were now soundly sleeping in whatever space they could find. He let out a soft cough before setting two drinks in front of the sitting men.

Kuritn merely looked up from the table for a moment to spot the drink before waving his hand and resting his head back on the table. What? Kuritn’s too tired to drink? That's a first. Kuro coughed again louder this time managing to attract Simon's attention. A loud groan escaped the tired old soldier's lip as he tried to stretch, only to find himself suddenly on the floor as the chair beneath him buckled under his weight. Kuro couldn't help but laugh at the sight and even managed to spot a sly smile on Kuritn's supposedly sleeping lips before the man managed to make it to his feet.

"Knew I should have sat on the dam barrel," Simon grumbled with a sigh while pulling broken pieces of wood out from his armor before turning his attention toward Kuro and the drink. "How many did we lose?" he said before quickly downing the drink.

Kuro's smile widens before hugging the man tightly, "None. Everyone that made it here survived." with a sigh he returns the hug before offering up his own prayer to the gods, chuckling softly to himself. Heh. If only Darlin could see me now. Praying to the Gods after I burned down the last church. She'd never let me live this down.

Suddenly a small presence appeared behind him.

Kayae.

"S-Simon... D-Did you find my Mom? I kept watching as they came out of the wagon b-but I didn't see her. I-I tried asking some of the women but they just kept shaking their heads at me."

Simon couldn't bring himself to look down at the quivering girl and closed his eyes, tightly pulling Kayae into a deep hug before muttering "I'm sorry." softly into her ear.

As the rain continued to fall on the village, a lone girl's cries of anguish could be heard beneath the thundering downpour overhead.