Edmund walked out of the building through the hole he made before. Now, with Ethan’s help, looking around and seeing the number of monster corpses made him realize how many they were fighting in the first place. He didn’t notice before but there was a central path from the gate to the central structure he came out of.

‘This was crazy, Edmund; if it weren’t for you drawing the majority of their attention, we would be dead.’ Ethan sigh.

‘But I think me being here also made things difficult for your man because you needed to follow my pace; it was like a suicidal charge.’ With Ethan’s help, he started to walk toward the gate.

‘Yeah, if you think about it, you are right but still, a lot of things could have happened, like running out of ammo or too many injured to fall back; it wasn’t bad for you to be here.’ The soldier looked around.

Ethan saw the soldiers that came with the truck carrying others who couldn’t move or needed help to walk; everyone was helping one another, even the ones that were injured. He looked back for a moment and the villagers were right behind him; they were already helping one another walk. Asher was at the gate, using a belt in another soldier’s arm.

‘How is Samal doing?’ Ethan spoke, concerned.

‘If he doesn’t get Eliza to heal him, he doesn’t have five hours and he is not the only one.’ Asher shook his head.

‘Patch Edmund up; he is going to drive the truck as fast as possible to get us there.’ Ethan came closer to the medic.

‘Be gentle; this is my first time.’ Edmund chuckled.

Asher and the soldier that he was treating laughed and Ethan just rolled his eyes. Egor was one of those that were leaning on the wall at the gate; he didn’t appear to have any injuries, so Ethan came closer.

‘Sarge, what happened?’ The corporal kneel next to Egor

‘Some crazy ork threw a gigantic rock at me and now I’m having difficulty breathing, but nothing too crazy; I think some broken ribs... argh…’ The sergeant spoke, gasping for air.

‘Rest some more.’ Ethan gave him a pat on the shoulder.

One by one, everyone was put in the truck; the ones that were in better condition were on the roof of the vehicle. Edmund walked to the driver’s side of the truck but before he could open it by itself, it was on one of the drives. He helped him by giving him a hand to get in and going to the side, letting Edmund feel comfortable in the driver's seat.

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‘One of you needs to pat my shoulder from time to time because I can pass out from the blood loss and how tired am I? No one here wants to die, right?.’ He smiled.

‘Why are you like this?’ The one to his side spoke.

‘The duchess says something similar from time to time; I don’t quite understand.’ Edmund chuckled.

The other driver next to the door started to sweat while holding the truck door. Edmund looked through the mirror by the side of the truck door and saw the villagers and the old sergeant who was staying behind with his squad. He raised his hand while looking at Edmund's reflection.

There were three bangs coming from behind him and a small window opening. It was Ethan, with his tired eyes, looking at Edmund’s neck.

‘We can go now; don’t pass out while driving this thing.’ Ethan looked concerned.

‘Don’t worry, this guy here to my side has all of our fates in his hands.’ Edmund looked into the young corporal's eyes while smiling.

Ethan looked to the side and the soldier was looking at him and he was clearly nervous about the responsibility Edmund was putting on him. He couldn’t see the other one by the door but he imagined his face too and it wasn’t good.

‘I’m just joking; I’m fi... Edmund closed his eyes for a moment.

‘Wow, did you just pass out?’ Ethan widens his eyes.

‘No, I’m just joking with you.’ The young, white-haired man took a deep breath and started to drive.

In the city, more specifically in the mansion of the duchess, a room was asked for by Captain Alon to serve as the central command of communications for her military. Ariadne had no problem with that, as the mansion had too many empty rooms.

Ariadne entered the room, followed by her maid, Alya. Everyone looked at the duchess and saluted her by putting their hands close to their mouths, lowering their heads, and closing their eyes for a moment. More and more people did this when they saw her; it just started to happen one day when she was walking in the village.

At first, she was taken back by the salute. Alya said that in their spare time, some people even prayed to her. It increased after Eliza became a healer and started to treat people.

The only thing that could describe the sensation was mothely love; it was not natural; it’s a connection between her and the people because she noticed that people she never knew before made the salute to her and all she wanted to do was smile like a child was doing something interesting to her. It was really strange for the duchess.

‘How is the situation, Captain?’ Ariadne smiled.

‘Bartel’s platoon was successful in killing the monsters and rescuing the villagers with Edmund’s help.’ Alon bowed to her.

‘So... the peasant was useful... good.’ The duchess took out her fan.

‘Yes, The lieutenant said that if it wasn’t for him, the platoon would have been wipeout trying to push inside the fortress.’ Alon put his hand behind his back.

‘But are they all fine? I’m worried for them.’ She showed a worried expression to the captain.

‘Well, the majority had injuries; to be honest, if it wasn’t for the truck that Edmund built, half of the platoon would die on the way here.’ Alon turned to face the radio operators working on their desks.

‘What about the peasant? Is he injured?’ Ariadne tapped the palm of her other hand with the closed fan.

‘He got shot in the leg by accident in the middle of the chaos.’ He looked to her with the corner of his eyes.

Her expression was one of anger and concern; he just observed as the duchess walked toward the radio operator who talked to Edmund hours ago.

‘Can you please connect me with the driver of the truck?’ She put her hand on the young lady's shoulder and gave her a tender smile.

‘Oh…ah… Of course, Goddess.’ The radio operator started to use the tablet on her side that was connected to a radio.

‘Thanks.’ Ariadne squeezed her fan and took a deep breath.