Reginald hated his job. Being a tax collector was one of the biggest mistakes of his life, not only did he get at least a dozen doors slammed in his face per village, he also received at least twice that many death threats a month. Despite almost being done with his rounds for the month, his mood was worse than ever. One of the villagers in the last village he went to decided to dump a bucket of animal piss on him, leaving him completely drenched and unable to escape the smell. During his twenty minute ride to the last village he noticed something strange starting to happen. The closer that he got to the last village, the less wildlife that he saw. This was originally a welcome sight as his horse often got spooked by the small rodents that infested this area, but as time went on he began to see the corpses. It started out small, just a rat here or there, but then he started to see horses dead in the middle of the road, some with bloated corpses strewn around them. This made him increasingly nervous, as well as nauseous due to the ever strengthening stench of death. After arriving in the village the scene was just about the same, all animals, people, and even plant life were dead. With multiple buildings on fire, and the corpses surrounding him, Reginald turned around and sped to Lyra as quickly as possible.
“What the fuck was all that. It wasn’t natural, that's for sure.” Reginald muttered as he rode towards the city. “It only takes an hour for me to get to Lyra if I ride west along the trails so hopefully the fire and whatever disease took that place won’t have the chance to spread too much before I can get some guards down there.” Even as he passes a couple of trading caravans he doesn’t slow down or stop muttering to himself, likely not even fully noticing their presence.
It took slightly longer than an hour to get into the city due to the guards not taking his claims seriously at first, but in the end Reginald was able to make use of his status as a tax collector for once. Even though the first set of guards didn’t seem to care about his story of the burning village, them saying “let the villagers handle it, we don’t get paid enough to make the trip out” Reginald decided to take a slightly different approach after sprinting to the next set.
“Guard! Guard! The village to the east refuses to pay their taxes, something about them not being properly protected by the city guards” Reginald tells the guards through ragged breaths.
The guard looks him up and down for a moment before seeing his badge. “We will send someone to check it out, I don’t really care if they don’t want to pay or not.” He scoffs. As he walks away to gather a party Reginald heads to the tavern, desperately desiring to block out what he saw today with whatever is strongest.
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During the trip towards the rundown village to the east Sebastian takes a moment to look over his fellow guards. All of them wear the same mass produced chainmail and carry a shortsword, not that any of them have ever actually had to use it. Whenever they have to deal with the occasional unruly village all it takes is a bit of posturing to get them back in line, occasionally a punch or two just to get the point across. After making brief eye contact with one of his newer guards the rookie decides to speak up.
“Why do we have to go all the way out here just because that stupid tax collector couldn’t do his job? I had plans to get blackout drunk at the tavern tonight and now we won’t be back until all the best tables are taken” He complains to his commander.
“Rookie none of us like it any more than you do, the only upside to this is that we can charge everyone an extra twenty bronze pieces for not paying up” He snickered slightly after telling him. Granted the guards weren’t supposed to take anything more than the amount set by the city, but it was a well known fact that corruption ran rampant in the city, so it’s not like they will get punished for lining their pockets.
After passing a group of traders the party fell silent, most of them likely thinking about how much extra they’re going to get paid for this little outing. It didn’t take long for them to start to notice signs of wildlife dead in the road as well as the stench created by the corpses.
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As the group entered the village the smell of over a dozen rotting corpses hit them at once. Sebastian was able to keep his lunch down, most of the other guards were not so lucky however, over half of them practically jumping off of their mounts in order to empty their stomach. As soon as the smell hit them a qualitative change passed over Sebastian. No longer was he the lax and borderline lazy captain they all knew, but instead, he was once again a commander on the front lines. While everyone else attempted to adjust to the stench, Sebastian was already scanning the area for threats, finding none, he turned to his party.
“Look, I know its bad, probably one of the worst things you will see in your life, but we have to search for survivors. Or at least evidence to tell us what happened here.” Sebastian takes a moment to look his group over before leading everyone into the desecrated village. After entering the village everyone spreads out and begins independently searching the silent houses, hoping for at least one survivor, but expecting none.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
It took around half an hour for the guards to sweep through the houses located within the city proper, with not a single living soul to be found. The squadron of guards all gathered around the final unchecked house, if it could even be called a house. The building was more of a small shack, the windows simple holes in the walls, and the door completely missing from its hinges. The decrepit nature of the house isn't what caught everyone’s attention, there was a large grouping of bodies surrounding this house, each holding various tools or weapons, as well as multiple corpses with defensive wounds inside the shack.
“Sargent I have something moving in here, it looks like a child” A panicked voice rings out of the house, clearly coming from one of the newest recruits.
“Move, get out of my way.” Sebastian pushes his way through the squad, briefly taking note of the demonic corpse with a sword wound in its chest and the bloodied woman on the chair. “Is the child alive rookie?” he asks with a mixture of hope and fear.
“ it is, he seems to be a newborn. I have no idea how he managed to survive on his own for multiple days like this though, doesn’t even seem very malnourished.” The rookie frowns as he wipes some of the blood off of the newborn. “It’s clearly part of the cursed race though.. What do we do with it? It might be less trouble if we left it behind.” The last part of his sentence is little more than a whisper as he’s ashamed to even say it, even though it is clearly on everyone’s mind.
“No, this child is an innocent. You all remember the oath that we swore when we became guards, we have to protect the citizens of the city as well as the area surrounding it. Everything and everyone that is in the noble’s land is our duty, even the cursed ones.” Sebastian walks forward and takes the child then turns to leave, pausing momentarily to grab a golden necklace off of the mother’s corpse. “I will deliver him to the orphanage in town, the lady that runs it has a good heart so I know that he will at least have a chance in life, even with his… complexion.” He turns to leave, more than happy to come back with at least one survivor.
The trip back to the city was relatively uneventful, the group only stopping a couple of times to check to see if any of the carriages on the side of the road held any survivors. Of course, there was not a single one to be found, not that anyone expected a different outcome.
“You all retire for the night, go get yourself a drink or something. God knows I will when I’m done dropping the cursed one off at the orphanage.” He solemnly looks at his squad, knowing what it's like to experience something like this for the first time. “If you’re lucky you’ll be able to drink enough to forget most of what happened today, for those of you that aren’t though, I’d get used to having trouble sleeping.” After finishing his closing remarks Sebastion quickly turns around and walks to the orphanage. The local orphanage is an old building located on the edge of the lower class housing district.
After making the twenty minute walk to the orphanage Sebastion glances up at the building, wondering if they will have enough space for the young kid. The building has three different floors which causes it to tower over the surrounding buildings in the area and is made almost entirely out of brick. Normally this would allow for lower firewood costs and a higher salary for the caretaker, but the current beastman employed oftentimes will use these funds to buy higher quality food for the children. Saedra is an oddity in that manner, while most caretakers provide the bare minimum required to keep the children alive, she grew up in the same orphanage so she is all too familiar with the struggles the children had to go through and refuses to add more by forcing them to sleep with constant hunger pains. As Sebastian approached the front door he glanced over to the window where Saedra usually lounges, basking in the evening sunlight. Needless to say, he wasn’t the least bit surprised when she was looking at him from the chair, having noticed his approach long ago.
“ Sebastian dear, have you finally come for that dinner you promised you’d have with me?” Saedra asks with a playful smile as she opens the door for him.
“I’m sorry but I’m here for something a bit more serious than dinner”. He motions to the sleeping demonkin in his arms. “I’m going to spare you most of the details but we were following up on a tax evasion report today and when we arrived at the village this guy was the only one left alive.” Sebastian grimaced at the thought before passing the child over. “I know that the orphanage is full already but there isn’t anywhere else that he can go, you’ll look after him won’t you?” he asked, eyes a mix of hope and lingering sorrow for the village.
“Like you even have to ask. You know I’ll always do what I can for those in need. I just hope the other kids won’t cause him problems because he’s-” she pauses for a moment. “- well, because of his looks”
“You’ve raised those kids well, I really don't believe you’ll have too many issues with them. After all, it's not like they haven’t been exposed to different races before. I will warn you though, later in his life if people come looking for him, or even try to directly buy him from you, I wouldn't put up a fight. You know as well as anyone what they want him for and what they will do to get him.” Sebastian stares in her yellow cat-like eyes for a moment before looking away. “I know you’ll grow to care about him, just like you do for all the children you take in, but you may end up having to let him go.”
Saedra was visibly conflicted by Sebastian’s statement. Even though she knew what he said was true, she still couldn’t bear the thought of giving up an innocent child to slavers. Even with the risk to her own life. “I’ll keep it in mind, thank you for the warning” She smiled politely at him before turning to go back inside.
As he watched the door close in front of him Sebastian let out a sigh. It was obvious that Saedra would protect that child with her very life, just like she would for all of the children in that orphanage, but he did all he could to try and help her. After standing on the doorstep lost in thought for a moment Sebastian decided that he deserved a drink. After all, most of his guards wouldn’t be fit to train in the morning if they took his advice to drink away their problems. After what they all went through today, one skipped training session is the least he could do for them.