(Third party’s POV)

The village of Thrisand has just been in turmoil lately, and a battle is fought near it, so there are a lot of things happening. Adam is still known as the devil mage, but the villagers dare not oppose him, nor talk to him. He just does his job as usual. He led a group of soldiers to do some work like they were his slaves, but he personally doesn’t like this kind of relationship. However, he doesn’t really have a choice, as this is the only way they would listen to him. He tasked them with repairing the damages they had done to the village, and to prepare some countermeasures in case the kingdom wants to pursue his matter any further.

The soldiers were also tasked to hunt, help in farms, and also to look out for any new imperial army approaching. One of them is also tasked to find out where is his missing equipment the army took from Amanda when she was forced to cooperate with them to sneak them away.

(Adam’s the mage’s POV)

I went to Amanda’s place with Lucinda, the little healer girl in tow. She has changed back to her yesterday’s outdoor dress. After knocking and waited a moment, Amanda came out and hugged me. Her face looks tired, but she is happy. I brought for her some food that I prepared at home, and shared it with all of them. Lillie is also there, but she doesn’t really want to see me. I told them about what happened this morning with the village head, and also about me having collected the remains of my dad and mom. I showed it to my sister, in a sling I carried around with me. I plan to keep it with me all the time. I grabbed Lillie’s hands and touch the earthen jars with it, and together, we say our prayers. There were little sparkles I can feel from the jars.

After that, we talked about almost everything that happened recently, and due to talking about a certain topic, Amanda asked me to enter her room. It’s strange that nobody objected to this peculiar request. Once I entered her room, she told me to strip. Wait, I’m not such a frivolous man that would just strip inside a girl’s room. She takes off my clothes that I changed to the one in my house and starts checking my body all over the place. She looks worried, and she takes out a bottle of ointment from the drawer and starts to apply it over my body. It seems like the cuts and wounds over my body have increased, especially during the battle, where I go into melee action with the army. It is a miracle that my body never gives out during that time, as spears and arrows grazed me almost all the time. The wounds will leave scars after they are healed because they are quite deep. Amanda rubs the ointment all over my body and invokes simple magic to let the wounds absorb the ointment and heals faster natural. It didn’t escape my notice though, that Lucinda probably used heal on me this morning, as I can see that the pain and some deep cuts are now less obvious.

I thanked Amanda with a gentle kiss on her forehead and got out of her room. I will leave Lucinda at Amanda’s place to help heal Amanda’s family. I feel sorry for making Lucinda doing work here for free when she is supposed to go with the nun and heal people around. After leaving the earthen jars with my parents’ ashes with Lillie, I excuse myself from Amanda’s home and go out to the plains to find some horses plundered from the battle to be tied there. I took a horse with me and I intend to go look at what happened to the slaves from the slave dealer group.

Since I defeated the entire group of slave dealer and his mercenaries, I got ahold of 113 slaves from the slave dealer based on his list of slaves. His property is a lot, and he has many links and connections that were written in his notebook and contracts. I wonder how they all fare for the past three days since I failed to feed them any food during that time. The journey takes a short while only since it’s nearby at the village edge facing the capital. I got down from the horse and tied it to a nearby tree. I got to the main entrance of the slave dealer’s place for the first time. The place is quite like a temporary encampment, and the wooden structures are quite old. Guess they are used as a storehouse to keep the slaves that are to be brought to the capital.

There are several carriages and carts at a warehouse that are used to transport the slave now placed in the around the compound with cages on them. The place seems to have been ransacked, probably some thief or robber came after I defeated this place. This made me worried, other than food problem, they also face attacks from outside. I don’t want to put the slaves in a miserable state, but I can’t help it since I was so busy with the battle that it can cost me my life at any time. I went into the general compound of the buildings and saw that some crates have been moved here and there. I heard crying moans and some laughter from inside several buildings.

I hide behind the wall to avoid being seen. I want to know what’s happening to the place while I was gone. What I saw later shocked me. There were kingdom soldiers acting like bandits moving the cages around without a care. The slaves inside were suffering due to the effect of being away from the magic core that still has command over them. I begin to notice there were some cages that were opened, and the captives inside have turned pale and most likely dead. I somehow felt sorry for their fate. I turn to look at the other noises. There are more soldiers inside the other buildings. They are basically acting like bandits and looters.

I take my bow and arrows that I collected from the battlefield of the previous battle, and I plan to take them out one by one. I totally forgot that my fellow hero’s party candidate and me used to practice with bow and arrow as the basic training, and those who aspire to be mages are basically drilled in the arts of using bow and arrows for weeks until we are expert in it, one of the training that gained me the 'weapons master' skill. It has been some while, and it totally slipped my mind. The use of bow and arrows here is similar to my memories of my past life, but we grow too dependent on skills that we never test our limits to do the impossible.

The bow this time is a sturdier one made from hardwood. The bow can recoil back a lot if you pull it hard. I put some metal sheet on them to provide sturdiness and to prevent breaking if it somehow was pulled too hard. It was done in a hurry, and I never expect it to be of use so soon, so the look is not good and the work is shoddy. Without my lenses, I would need to predict their movements, and shooting through the walls may affect the trajectory. I tried to maximize my use of the passive skill “Aim” and “Sharpshooting” in this case. I nock and shoot my first arrow through the gap in the wall. It hit a soldier, and he died. The passive skill is too helpful in this case, and I would end up killing all of them. I continue to nock and shoot my arrows. I made sure to hide my face before I attack, and the soldiers are all shocked that a hooded person starts shooting at them. They arm themselves and hides at precarious spots that would also hurt the slaves, so I always have to reposition myself.

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Some of the soldiers have offense magic and support magic, and they begin to gain momentum in the fight with so many collaterals. I’ve been thinking if I should just fight without minding my surroundings. I begin to change my mindset, as I got some sort of revelation after analyzing my battle. I recall that I can sense something like the wind or air of those around me, and with the bow and arrow, I will shoot my arrows according to this feeling that I once knew well. I try to lower my sharpshooting’s effectiveness so that they don’t hit the slaves due to close proximity. I collected my thoughts and focus my mind, and then I nock and release my arrows just like an automatic rifle. The attack seems like random shooting at first, but the arrows curved at angles that are not predictable and all of them find their target at the soldiers. Some managed to deflect or block them, but some got hit and are either injured or dead

I hope not to cause death to any more people after the mass slaughter yesterday, but it seems like I would still need to fight this way. The remaining soldiers have all taken at least one slave as a human shield. I don’t want to continue fighting a pointless battle, and come out of hiding.

“Who are you? Are you here to claim the slaves?” (Soldier A)

“I’m just a passerby. I can’t stand idly while you guys commit such crime as attacking the slaves. Aren’t you all soldiers of the kingdom?” (Adam while in undercover)

“We have been taking charge of this place since the imperial army chief put us in charge. Answer our questions or we will attack you to death.” (Soldier B)

“I’m a traveler from the neighbouring village of Saida. My name is Nomu.” (Adam)

“A traveler with such skills is never heard of. Why do you come to this village? Killing a soldier of this kingdom is punishable by death. We are in the middle of subjugating the devil mage from this village. His name is Adam.” (Soldier A)

“Oh, subjugating a devil. But why hiding here instead of going out to deal with it directly?” (Adam)

“Are you deaf!? We are in charge here. You have murdered our colleagues who are soldiers of the kingdom so you will be punished by the law of the kingdom. Surrender yourself, or if you have other accomplices, ask them to surrender too.” (Soldier B)

“Haven’t you heard news regarding your imperial army chief?” (Adam)

“Don’t try to change the topic. He will contact us immediately after he caught or defeat the devil mage that betrayed the kingdom” (Soldier A)

“Not trying to put your morale down, but the imperial army chief is having fun in the village by showing his body to the soldiers and let them have their wiles with him.” (Adam)

“How dare you!? Take his head.” (several soldiers)

The battle resumed, and the soldiers engage me in melee quickly, knowing that an archer will have difficulty engaging in melee battle. After knowing that the soldiers have not even been notified with the main army’s destruction and disbandment, it would be easier to wipe them out, since it’s not a special unit sent by the kingdom to seek me out and destroy me.

Using the bow or arrow in melee combat is not advisable. Although there have been many combat style shown in my previous life that shows archer and bowman can use their bows for combat, but in real life combat here the bow’s wood part is large and can’t take continuous impact on its body, which will alter its dynamic in the long term if not outright damaged. Attaching blades or reinforce the bow may enable an archer or bowman to engage in melee when forced too, but it will alter the bow’s dynamic and it will also be too heavy to be used continuously.

For today, I will use the blade of Rage and Guilt to handle melee battle, and I don’t need to fear my identity exposed because the army here still doesn’t know of the infamous battle I had. I invoke the blades and stored my bow and quiver of arrows into the inventory, and with the blades I clash and slash the approaching attackers, catching them by surprise and I stab into their vital organ, ending them quickly. I would prefer non-violence, but leaving them alive is detrimental to the village. My blade of Guilt’s ability has been used up completely today, so I can’t use it to drown them in sorrow and subvert them. I may disable them now and subvert them tomorrow, but having too many of the attackers of the slave alive may traumatize their victims and made the condition worse. I have to work up my appraisal skills and see the status of those I’m about to kill. Those that have no offense or just minor offense will be spared and disabled for some 'talking' and subversion with the blade of Guilt if they are not open to talking.

I felt grateful that the appraisal skill is still working even though my current mana is very negative. This skill usually consumes mana to cast, but I have been known to use appraisal without needing to use mana, but it comes with a headache if I use it too often. This skill probably comes from my ability to look at the minute details of things, and my brain probably just convert the information into a proper grouping. At the end of my fight at the slave dealer warehouse, I managed to detain five men, and the rest is killed. Those soldiers killed have all committed crimes of serious offenses. I don’t like this atmosphere at all, but someone needs to get the job done and clean bad people.

There was an indication that I suddenly get in my head.

God of War approves of your action.

+2 to God of War’s grace

Ahh, this means currently I’m being watched at by two gods as their familiar and subordinate, and I just got God of War’s grace. This is the drawback from accepting God of War as my master in return for power. I wonder what action got the grace of the God of War.

I tied up the rest of those soldiers I disabled and put them in a cage in an enclosed room, and I tried to check on those slaves that have been injured or used as collateral during the scuffle. One of them is a girl that has small black horns on her head, very sharp canine tooth, black wings and tail made out of gelatin-like substance. Her wings have been clipped and are tattered. The soldiers earlier mentioned that she is one of the cargos that they must dispose of at all costs. They slit her throat before I can stop them, and she is now at death’s door, blood oozing out from the wound on her neck. If I’m not mistaken, she must be the demon that is mentioned in the list of slaves owned by the slave dealer.

The demon looks like a human female and is very sexy and alluring, similar to the fantasy people draw about succubus in my previous life. If this succubus has the same age growth and height as a human, she would be like 12 years old, but her body is already like a fully developed woman. I don’t really know where to look if I look at her in detail, so I just look at her face and try to understand what she is muttering. I don’t understand her words, and she seems only able to speak the demon language. Humans are forbidden to learn demon language, and knowing it is associated with traitor who works for the demon. I’m not a traitor of humans, and I’m not interested to learn the language of a race that has been terrorizing the humans for so long.

“Dehhhæ, dahhè, źhâd, gäh” (grand succubus)

“Such poor thing, dying here all alone. But you know, I have been betrayed even by those I believe are my friends, and the kingdom I serve. I can’t trust you, as your kind has been doing all kinds of atrocities against humans. Sorry” (Adam)

She seems to be in the last throes of her life, so in pity, I try to release her from her bindings, but alas the chain this time is as intricate as my sister’s. I don’t intend to release the slave seal immediately, but left her lying on a cloth I lay out so that she doesn’t feel too cold. I put her lying with her head up so that the blood flow can be slowed down, and put something to press on so that the blood doesn’t gush out, but it can’t prevent that. There is nothing I can do in this situation, and helping her outright is not what I want to do. I have been betrayed by humans, so the more I don’t want to help a demonkin who has long been known to cause humans sufferings. Though I have only seen them in battle, where they perpetrate atrocities, I have never seen them in their daily lives. Seeing her weakening and dying, I press my hands on the slave seal on her heart and let it slowly corrode away until the seal fell off, letting her die a free demon.

“uuuuhhhh.” (grand succubus)

After seeing her drop down on the cloth, I tend to other slaves who are also injured and give them basic treatment. I find food and water for them, but I can’t find any left in the kitchen or pantry. I go to the other buildings and check and they are all empty. It seems that they have finished off all the provisions that they can find. While going around the buildings, I noticed the presence of somebody I just knew three days ago. The three slave dealer’s subordinates that I have locked inside the cage. They seem to properly converse among themselves. I have put Pita worms in their food so that their voice cord will be clogged with them and they won’t be able to say anything. It seems that the imperial army had released them from their captivity and healed them. They are now acting like bosses and are now sitting on the slave dealer’s desk. I retrieve my bow and the quiver of arrows from inventory and store the blades. I nocked three arrows, and walk inside with it.