Confrontation

(Amanda’s POV, continued from Change of Heart)

My whole family was brought to the questioning room with the imperial inquirer in it, together with several armed soldiers, and many blood-stained gruesome torture tools lying around. Our hands and feet are bounded with ropes and are held by one soldier for each of us. The imperial inquirer invited us to sit, but the chairs are all bloody, which I noticed are actually laced with retractable nails, that can spring forth and pierce its victim. None of us move, as we all know the nature of those chairs. The imperial inquirer then said that since we rejected his kind offer, we would have to stand, and they lock us to a wooden stand.

The imperial inquirer begins to inquire about every detail in the report and asks us when there is a discrepancy between our explanations and also between our reports. I can’t really remember how many times I was pierced and healed, then pierced again, but I cannot give in to them. The imperial army chief and Draka also presided over our questioning, and they also participate in our torture. The details too gruesome to even recall, and in the end, my brother ends up without his right leg, his left arm, and his right eye. My mom lost all her nails and hair. My father lost all his fingers and toes. I ended up with a bruised face and swollen eyes. They managed to corner me and gouged the details about Adam from me by using some other information source. Someone who knew about Adam must have sold him out.

The imperial inquirer managed to know that Adam has escaped to this village just yesterday, and have gone and wipe out the slave dealer to rescue his sister. The imperial inquirer released only me passed me a poisoned knife and tells me to kill the devil mage when he’s not aware with just a little wound from the poisoned knife. He wants me to bring back his head and his belongings to prove that he’s been killed. His sister is inconsequential, bringing her back or killing her and brings back a lock of her hair to prove the deed is what they need. If I managed to perform the deed, they would release my parents and brother. They threatened to kill one of them for each day I delay. He mentioned that the law of humanism in the kingdom doesn’t allow the killing of a human unless it’s the royal decree because of the threat of demons, but that law doesn’t extend to humans who helped the demons. He also mentioned that without killing, he has other means to extract information from me, and implore me to tell him everything without hiding it. I don’t feel compelled to tell him anything more than what he already knows, so I just take the blade and go out of the questioning room in order to do my supposed task.

I return back home to take some provisions and to rub some ointments on my face and body. I was so scared and clueless about what to do. Before I left, they even insert something into my body so that I cannot run away because they would know my location. I cried in one corner of my home, thinking about what is going to be of my future. If I want to rescue my family, I would need to betray and kill my best friend. If I abandon my family, the army will come and get me, and my family will all die in vain. I wish to just disappear from here. I made up my mind, and decide to go to the waterfall to meet Adam one more time. I carried my provisions and pass through the village entrance, and the imperial army records my passage.

I arrived at the waterfall and enter the cave with a yam leaf and found Adam still sleeping in the same spot in the cave. Lillie is also sleeping near Adam, but not beside him. I brought some meat pie for them to eat, and place them on a piece of banana leaf. I start kindling the fire and start picking some firewood to place at the fireplace. Adam is still sleeping like a log, probably exhausted from rescuing his sister and also his escape from the capital. Soon, his struggle will be in vain as I would be forced to put an end to all this. Lillie woke up from her sleep in her blanket, and toss around crying. I quickly go to her and console her. She cried in my bosom and hugged me tightly. I don’t know what face to make in this situation.

I ask Lillie for a lock of her hair and she shied away from me. She said I could take it if I give her a kiss. Wait? What? Give her a kiss? I am confused. She probably wants it on her cheek or forehead. I tried to give her a kiss on her cheek, but she refused. She said she wants a kiss to the lips. Now I’m really confused. I don’t mind giving her a kiss now, but I just don’t want to make her sad as I would never be able to return her feelings. I close my eyes and approach her face with mine to give her a kiss. My mouth hurts when my lips touched with hers. She noticed it and quickly releases her lips from mine.

Lillie asked me why do my eyes and mouth look swollen, and told her that I met with an adult wild boar and got hit hard by it. I assured her that I have applied the ointment and is healing, as I reapply it for her to see, and invoke the healing phenomena of the ointment. My wounds feel a bit better with that. I tried to assure her that it’s nothing, but inside my heart, the feeling is so conflicted. She seems satisfied with that. I take one of the meat pie to sate my hunger and pass one to Lillie. Lillie eats the meat pie happily, just like our childhood days. How I wish we could go back to those innocent days. After that, Lillie begins to cry, and I consoled her and assure that she is safe here.

Lillie wants me to company her for a swim, and I agreed. We both took off our clothes and undergarments, and get into the water. Lillie swims and swims in the water, washing her body in the fresh cold water. For me, it hurts to even go into the water. Lillie seems to be aware of my injuries, but I assured her that everything is alright. The healing herbal water that I prepared is used by both of us, and we both take a long bath to cleanse and heal our bodies. Adam is still sleeping even after all this. He’s going to finish his last moments sleeping like this, with a calm expression. He looks so charming when he’s asleep and has released all his tensed up expression.

Lillie and I spend our time soaking in the calm part of the waterfall and talk about our childhood, and we also occasionally discuss Adam, and also the attacks by the kingdom and army. It seems that Lillie still couldn’t forgive Adam, so I explain it from his perspective so that he can rest without being hated any further by his sister. I told her that the kingdom has been changing their ways recently, and Adam was a victim of circumstances. I also told her that Adam also suffered greatly at the hands of the kingdom, and has tried so hard to reach his family, only to witness the death of his parents and then rescue Lillie from the hands of the slave dealer. Lillie said she couldn’t forgive Adam because he just left his parents for dead because he’s not their biological son, and let the army violate her without defending her. I tried to correct her thinking, hoping for her to find solace before I end his miserable life.

Lillie refuses to accept my explanation and continues to blame Adam for her misery. I believe Lillie may have already known the truth, but she has no outlet to release her anger at and choose to do so at her brother that she once loved. It may not bode well for her in the future, and I hope she can learn to let go, or else she may go mad if the outlet for her anger is no longer there for her. Lillie starts getting angry at Adam and asks me to hit him with a rock, which I said I will do so after she sleeps. Lillie obediently followed my instructions and she got out from the water. We wipe our bodies with cloth and wear our undergarments and clothes. I put Lillie to sleep, and she wishes to cuddle with me to sleep. She is quick to fall asleep and soon starts sleep talking. She called herself a whore and a prostitute, and has sold her body to many men, and cried. I whisper to her ears that she’s not a whore or prostitute, but a pure maiden, one not defiled, and it is the demons that came and attack her, but it is all not real, and that she will wake from this dream all refreshed. Lillie then managed to fall asleep without having a nightmare.

Due to the tiredness of the day, and the many things that happened taking its physical and mental toll on me, while being held snugly by Lillie, I fell to the comfort of her warmth and closed my eyes. I woke up in the middle of the night when the fire has burned down, and the place is dark. I slowly let my eyes adjust to the surrounding darkness, and let the moons’ lights reflected on the waterfall to illuminate my surroundings. I can make out the silhouette of Adam, still sleeping soundly. I crept slowly out of the blanket and walk towards Adam. I can make out his face and neck out of the reflected light, and readied the knife. I’m sorry Adam, I have to do this to save my parents and brother. I will make sure to protect Lillie so you can rest easy. I will definitely repay this debt in my afterlife.

(Third Party’s POV)

Amanda can be seen walking back to Thrisand village late in the night, carrying with her a sack. She came to the village main entrance, and the imperial army soldiers manning the guard booth stopped her. They checked the content of her sack, write her name in the checklist, and try to feel a cop on her. Amanda takes out the poisoned dagger and places it near the place they are going to touch, and they backed off. She then requests to meet with the imperial inquirer. The soldiers tried to extort her by saying they are not motivated to ask him out, and just sit there. Amanda then walks herself to the place the imperial inquirer used for his questioning, but the soldiers then get up and stopped her from barging into the place. The imperial army chief then gets out of the building and sees Amanda. He touches Amanda’s belly with his hand.

“How do you feel, having it inside you the whole day?” (Imperial army chief said with a big grin)

Amanda shirks off his hand.

“Where is my family? I need to see the imperial inquirer” (Amanda)

“No need to hurry dear. There is a lot of time. Why not we have some fun first?” (Imperial army chief)

“Stop your harassment. I already did what you guys wanted, and I brought with me what you guys requested” (Amanda)

“Oh, sassy. You should show a bit of this spunkiness of your earlier. It will be more fun” (Imperial army chief)

“SHUT UP! I want my family! Now!” (Amanda)

“Hehe, what a wet blanket. Hey!, she’s here.” (Imperial army chief)

(Amanda’s POV)

Cassie just exited from the building, looking terrified and her dress tattered. The imperial inquirer came out next and asks me what is the matter. My heart burns at the thought of serving his whims. Even my friend was not spared from their brutality. They are truly barbarians, no worse than that. They are demons themselves, in human skin.

I place the sack of items for the imperial inquirer to check. He checks through all of them and seems to be dissatisfied.

“Where is his head?” (Imperial inquirer)

“He’s too powerful. I can’t do anything about that” (Amanda)

“Then your family will have to die” (Imperial inquirer)

“I brought you his weapons and equipment, and his sister’s lock of hair. He’s now left a broken man. Why do you have to make sure he die!?” (Amanda)

“Because the mage is a devil. He works for the Demon Lord and had spied on our kingdom for years” (Imperial inquirer)

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“You guys are the real devils” (Amanda said in a self-whisper)

“Okay, I will give you one more chance to redeem yourself. Get the devil mage out into this location tomorrow. I don’t care what you have to do, just get him there” (Imperial inquirer pointing to a location on the map on the wall)

“You must keep to your promise to release my family tomorrow” (Amanda)

“You don’t have to worry. After we have made sure the devil mage is dead, your family will be released immediately” (Imperial inquirer)

I feel skeptical about their promise, but I can only count on this to save my family. I was about to move when the imperial inquirer stopped me.

“Hey, where is his other weapon?” (Imperial inquirer)

“What? This is all of his weapons” (Amanda)

“He has two of these elastic items. That’s what the slave dealer’s goons told me. If you don’t have it, I will just take an arm from your brother.” (Imperial inquirer)

“Is it this?” (Amanda)

“Ah, do you purposefully hide it? How impudent. I will need to punish you” (Imperial inquirer)

“You didn’t see it among the items I brought. Don’t accuse me.” (Amanda)

“I don’t care. Give her a lashing.” (Imperial inquirer)

I got a lashing from the imperial inquirer. It’s painful, but it’s better than my brother losing an arm. I didn’t expect somebody knew about the mage’s personal belongings so well. I return back home to get some provisions, and then I got out of the village through the main entrance and put my name at the checklist again. It’s suffocating that our movement is tracked whenever we go out. For them, my movement is reported to them all the time, so they didn’t bother to assign somebody to spy on me. I walk towards our childhood playground, the waterfall, again. This time, I have to make sure I do it successfully, but I’m worried that the imperial army doesn’t keep their promise. I’m so scared.

(Adam’s POV, back to the timeline where Amanda explained everything to Adam)

Ah, now I get all that happened. Still, it’s very conflicting. I got many people in my mess again. The main cause of all troubles so far is the imperial army and the kingdom. The only solution is the elimination of these root causes. That’s the only way to put an end to all this, but I’m just one man.

“So you get it now don’t you” (Amanda)

“I’m sorry. I’m not there when you need me.” (Adam)

“No. We are responsible for ourselves. I am only a burden to you now. I can’t bring myself to kill you just like this. But I need to rescue my family. The imperial army is not trustworthy. I don’t know what to do.” (Amanda)

“You still got me. I will rescue your family. Brandon is my best friend” (Adam)

“Just kill me. The lizard’s tail was cut using this poisoned blade.” (Amanda holds out the poisoned blade to Adam)

“I don’t feel anything other than slight numbness on my tongue though.” (Adam)

The effect of the poison must have been reduced when cutting into the meat. Amanda said that the poison on the blade is very strong, as she killed a wild boar with a cut on it instantly, and the entire carcass can be seen swollen afterward. My resistance towards poison is quite high, so I guess it’s ok. I look at the blade. It seems to be emitting miasma, a substance that dissipate in the air but is black and murky, something like smoke, but is more sinister. They are usually something that comes from a long-dead body and can induce rotting of flesh, and in thick amounts, can sometimes make a corpse rise and perform its last wishes if it has any. This is why necromancer can manipulate a corpse or skeleton, they rewrite the last wishes to suit their whims and needs, and let the skeleton or corpse do the deed. It seems that this sharp blade has an aura of death in it. I used appraisal on it.

Named item – Skullduggery blade

Effect – Miasma poisoning (Extremely potent)

Attack – 256

Defense – 15

Dexterity – 212

Invoked phenomena – Shadow slash

This dagger is a named item. They even lend out such a dangerous item to Amanda. I wonder where their confidence stems from.

“Amanda, where do you get this dagger?” (Adam)

“Just kill me with it. I am just a burden” (Amanda)

“No one’s going to kill you. You are my, my bestie” (Adam)

“Huh!?” (Amanda)

I think I can make use of this dagger. I will not try my negative mana on it yet first. I was handling the dagger with my gloves on.

“I need you to care for my sister. So please don’t die on me before this” (Adam)

“Please. My body is transmitting our location to the imperial army as we speak, and I'm supposed to bring you to the pathway leading to the village by afternoon, or else they will start killing my family one by one.” (Amanda)

“Transmitting our location? Did they put a transmitter on you?” (Adam)

“What transmitter? I don’t know, but they insert a black object inside my body, and it can’t be removed” (Amanda)

“Where is it? Can you show me?” (Adam)

I did research before with magic to create a communication stone, and I managed to create one that can tell its location by extrapolating it with the map. The communication part is still unsuccessful, but it can at least indicate the location it transmits in the signal. The design is enhanced when the hero’s party was summoned, as they have knowledge of technology that we don’t have here. The hero took the credit of creating the so-called transmitter stone and presents it to the king. It was an old story though.

Amanda turns really beet red when I asked her to show me where the transmitter is located on her body. To my amazement, Amanda rolled up her skirt and pull down her underwear. I saw her feminine bit, and I was at a lost of words. Amanda is now covering her face with her palms, and she presents me her secret spot.

“It’s inside. I couldn’t take it out” (Amanda)

“Ermm, is it ok if I touch?” (Adam)

“Please help me take it out” (Amanda is still hiding her face)

I insert my fingers into her and touch her insides. Amanda shakes incessantly, so I hold her with my other hand. With two fingers, I can feel something inside her, and it’s quite large. I tried to pull it out directly, but Amanda screamed in pain the moment I tried to pull it. I tried to hold onto the object and let my negative mana corrode it. When I made the transmitter, the whole thing is made from a magic stone so it will be disabled if the magic stone loses its mana. I tried inserting my fingers deeper and grasping more surface area of that object. I cast magic to hasten the corrosion rate. The transmitter inside of Amanda got disabled and is easily removed without hurting her. The size and shape of the transmitter are different from the one I and Aaron created, and it looks quite crude in design. Blood is oozing out from Amanda, so I applied the ointment she has on her.

Amanda fainted partway through, as the activity is very intense on her. I wake her up after the ordeal is over, and she was ashamed of it. She hid at one corner of the wall, and I gently hug her from behind. I tell her that this is not her fault, and I have long ago accepted her. I also want Amanda to be happy, and don’t want her to feel left out. Amanda was crying, and she rarely cries. I know that she has a strong heart, but it doesn’t mean she can shoulder the entire burden all by herself. Amanda told me that the army would release her family if I am at the designated spot during the afternoon, and it’s going to be very soon. Amanda said that we had little hope, and she doesn’t know what to do. Without my items, I would be hard pressed to deal with the imperial army. Those dastard imperial army, the ones I must defeat in order to free us from oppression. The one that has wronged us on so many occasions after all that I have done for the kingdom. They are really are a bunch of lowlifes, worse than demons, even though I haven’t known one.

“Amanda, take Lillie and get away as far away as possible from here or the pathway leading to the village. Only come back once I have secured the battle, or abandon here and live in the forest if I have fallen and not returned” (Adam)

“How are you going to fight like this? I am also worried about my family, so I want to be there.” (Amanda)

“No, it’s too dangerous. I need you and Lillie to stay safe. You know how the imperial army behaves, right. Being there will lead to a situation where they can blackmail you.” (Adam)

“But, they are my family.” (Amanda)

“They are also my important friends and friend’s family. They are like family to me too. I will definitely do as much as I can to save your mom and father.” (Adam)

“Please save them, Adam. Please.” (Amanda)

“Yes, I will do my best” (Adam)

I go ahead to the designated location, after making sure I convinced Amanda to leave the waterfall cave with Lillie and head towards the thick forest where people seldom go. At the pathway area, it seems the geography is a flat plain. This is why they want me to come here. On a flat plain, the battle is an open area, and by using arrows or projectiles, the battle is already decided. They have numerical advantage and weapons type advantage, so they don’t need any geographical advantage. By facing me in the open, their two other advantages already far outstrip me, so this battle is theirs to win. I would need to quickly come out with a plan to avoid them from fully utilizing their advantages.

I saw the plains leading to my side. It’s easy for the cavalry to come and strike me from that side. From the front, I saw some small natural potholes that occur because of the rainwater. I place some bamboo spikes down there and covered the potholes with leaves. There were military spotters from far away, so I wear a less conspicuous shirt dyed with green colour to work on the field while camouflaging. I place suitable rocks here and there allow me to entrench my self in but also escapable if they decide to storm in. I need to find a way to avoid arrows and long-range attacks and then draw them in for a melee so that I can use the dagger. I place some booby traps I used to catch wild animals with at some locations.

I’m lucky that the imperial army hasn’t arrived yet, but their spotters are still there. I am worried that they may get wind of Amanda and Lillie’s location and decide to go after them. It’s difficult now that I can’t use my lens to help me look at right angles and look at faraway locations to can spot the army earlier. I was about to abandon this location and go after Amanda and Lillie, but I noticed a large congregation of people is moving out towards here. I know I have not prepared enough, and will never prepare enough for combat against an army, but I must do my best to distract them, and hopefully find a way to get Amanda's family away from the battle. I owed Brandon and Amanda big time for this disaster.

I quickly hide behind a rock and prepare some sharpened sticks to be placed as defensive tools. They may not be able to go against properly armoured knights, but at least it will slow them down and hurt those who forcefully try to attack me. The imperial army chief leads the imperial army and arrived at that location. I raised a blowpipe made from bamboo and prepared a few of the miasma poison-tipped darts. This art is something from my past life, called sumpitan. Using the blowpipe, I will try to snipe the leader of the imperial army and put them in disarray before they can engage me. Without wind magic, this art will compensate that handicap. With my blowpipe ready, I waited for the imperial army chief to come into firing range. Sweat trickles down my bow and face, as this first shot will determine the flow of the battle.

The imperial army chief is wearing a full body armour suit, so my best bet is to aim for the gaps in his armour pieces. The imperial army chief entered into my firing range, and I blow the blowpipe as hard as I could. The dart exited at high speed, and with my passive skills aim and sharpshooting, the dart is guided to the weakest spot in his armour. Just when it was about to hit its intended target, it hit something hard in the air and fell down. The soldiers picked it up and alerted their members. I saw the blue mana shield around the imperial army chief, and he’s wearing a large blue pendant that I know. That’s because I crafted it with my own two hands, and now it’s in the enemy’s hands. This is infuriating, as that item is my proudest creation for my sister to protect her from harm. That means they assaulted her so meticulously that they deplete the mana in the item.

Hundred of arrows come raining in my direction, and I hide behind the rock that I placed earlier for protection. Normal arrows cannot chip this rock, but enhanced and elemental arrows start to break the rock apart slowly. Then there is a huge explosion, and the rock breaks into smithereens, and I was flung several metres away from the site. It was a painful experience, and I quickly recover myself and run to the next defensive rock that I placed nearby before the next volley of arrows and magic phenomena hit me.

Before I can manage to reach the next boulder, I felt an ominous aura in the air, and I ducked quickly. Several slashes formed in the thin air, mixed with miasma, and they cut me lightly at several places. The miasma is usually a potent poison to the body, but luckily I just end up with bleeding, but not poisoned.

“The devil mage is immune to miasma poisoning, so his body is that of a demon now. This proof that the mage is a spy of the Demon Lord.” (Imperial army chief)

“Send out the family of that wench who cooperates with the devil’s spy.” (Imperial army chief)

I saw Amanda’s family is pushed to the frontline. Her father, mom, and her brother Brandon is line up at the front and urged forward with spears. Their condition is so terrible. They really tortured their citizens up to this point just to bring me down. I shed tears again, I thought I have already dried mine when I saw what they did to my family, but I wet my cheeks again today. The pitiful family of Amanda is pushed across the fields I set with booby traps and pitfalls with spears. They are being used as human shields to clear the traps set by me. I pray that they don’t fall into any of them, but my prayer is not answered.

“Kyaaahhhhh!” (Amanda’s mom)

“Uaaggghhhh!” (Amanda’s father)

“Hergghh!” (Brandon)

They all fell into the pit almost at the same time, and I closed my eyes, my tears couldn’t stop.

“Hey, the devil mage just murdered three peasants in cold blood. He must be purged from the land, or their souls will not rest in peace!” (Imperial army chief)

Enough of the bullshit craps nonsense spouting. It is you who did all that, but why it falls on my responsibility as the killer of the people. I don’t set up those things to murder the innocents in the first place. My mind is so infuriated that I don’t think right anymore. I just want everyone there dead, DEAD!.

Five groups of armies are approaching my location with their spears pointing and shields raised. Arrows are pouring in my direction as a suppression fire, and heavy hits of magical elemental phenomena are breaking my covers of rocks one by one. I moved zigzag across the covers I prepared and tried to get close to a group of soldiers. Luckily, the archer lines seem to have some misfire, and the volley of arrows missed me, and hit near a group of soldiers, causing confusion in the enemy ranks. I got close to one of the army clusters, and enter into their ranks. I have never fought in the frontlines in actual battles, but I have practiced in close quarter combat while training with the knights in the kingdom during my time as a hero party’s candidate. Mixed with some knowledge of jeet kune do, jiu jitsu, karate, taekwondo, and boxing, I begin to unleash a flurry of punches and slashes with my fist and dagger. A slight graze from this dagger puts them in grave agony and frothing from their mouth. I aimed at the gaps between their armours, or some unarmoured ones. This dagger is quite a dangerous item, and just now there are several invocations of the shadow slash, indicating that several individuals also own blades similar to this. I stab and cut as many of them as I can, hoping to thin out the imperial army so that they can’t pursue Amanda and Lillie. I am sorry to Amanda, as her family died and I wasn’t able to rescue them.

I keep at what I’m doing, trying to entangle the first army platoon into a melee brawl and wipe them out before jumping to another one. This does not bode well, as the imperial army chief managed to invoke the satellite mana shield that defends other assigned targets. I can intercept several before the mana shields can fully form, but fighting against a group of trained soldiers in melee takes all of my attention away, and several of them starts attacking me furiously without repercussion due to the activated satellite mana shield of the blue pendant. The fight has begun to go to a standstill, and they managed to make a distance between the melee army and me, allowing the archers and mages to target me with their projectiles without heavy collateral damage. I am basically exposed out in the field now, so in a few moments, this will be the last chapter of my life on this planet.