Part 4
[The kidnappers sure are organized, the cave entrance is filled with thugs.] Eden looks at the cave from a distance away, surprise shows on his face.
[How did their leader manage to recruit so many men?] Eden thinks. Whatever the case, he calmly approaches the cave entrance, no tricks, just as the message said. The men at the entrance spot Eden and start surrounding him after he comes close enough.
[There are 12 of you. Priority target, 4.08m 1:12,....Never mind, a circular swing can finish them all off if they try anything.] Eden thinks to himself while slowly touching his sword handle.
“A friend of the lumberjack? Too bad, I was hoping his wife would come instead.” One of the thugs says while laughing maniacally. “You got the money?”
“Yeah.” Obviously, Eden doesn’t have such an absurd amount of money, but if that’s what it takes to see Stratta, he doesn’t mind lying.
“Ok, come in, the boss is waiting for you inside. Remember, no tricks.” The thug says. He’s about to tell Eden to lose his weapon, but when he sees Eden only carries a sword with him, he laughs out loud and tells Eden to go ahead. Someone carrying a sword is never a threat to them.
Eden walks deep inside the cave, the kidnappers have fewer men than he thought. Most of them are standing at the entrance, he can see very few left inside as he walks to the boss’s room. Eden opens the door and sees a very obese man sitting in an oversized chair that can barely handle him. Oh god, that guy, just looking at him makes my...wait, wait, I’m still narrating, sorry. To his sides are two other men standing intimidatingly, each wielding a spear, and are observing Eden with caution. Furthermore, to the obese guy’s left is a man in lumberjack clothing, he’s lying on the ground with his hands and legs tied up. His face is full of bruises, and he’s quietly whimpering in pain.
[That’s definitely Stratta over there. Time to do this!] Eden thinks.
“Are you here for him? Just give me the money and I’ll let him go.” The obese man suddenly speaks after Eden has walked into the room. His face is the very definition of untrustworthiness.
“I want to speak with him first,” Eden answers confidently.
“YOU LITTLE...Fine, make it quick.” Their leader is furious at Eden’s insolence. However, he doesn’t want to kill intact goods when they’re still valuable for him, so he’ll give Eden his last request as a favor. A strong and good-looking boy like Eden is a valuable product for many potential customers.
Eden nods and walks towards Stratta. Despite being in pain and eyes covered in bruises, he can still notice Eden walking to him.
“Who...are...you?” Stratta tries his best to talk even though merely speaking would still hurt him.
“I have a message from your brother. Here,” Eden says as he takes out the piece of paper and puts it in Stratta’s pocket. Stratta seems happy as he thought Eden said his brother had sent him here to save Stratta.
But after the message is delivered, Eden just walks away.
“What are you doing?” The leader asks with a confused looking as Eden is about to open the door. Stratta is equally confused.
“I finished my job, so I’m leaving,” Eden answers nonchalantly.
“But what about the money?” The leader continues asking, still confused.
“Don’t have them.”
“What about the lumberjack?”
“What about him?”
…
“ENOUGH!” The leader yells, his patience has run out. “You two! Teach this piece of shit a lesson!” He then turns to the two men beside him and orders. They waste no time and charge at him, spears at the front.
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“I guess I have no choice if this is self-defense.” Eden sighs as he draws his sword, dodges the 2 spears coming at him, and makes a wide slash at the charging guards.
This time, his timing is a bit too early, so Eden couldn’t slice these men in half like how he did before. Still, it’s enough to finish them off, as the tip of his sword slices their chests open, and blood starts spewing out like fountains. The obese man’s guards fall down lifelessly, they’ll die within seconds due to blood loss.
“H-how? That’s impossible! Just who are you?” The leader, still sitting on his throne, watches in horror at what just happened. Stratta also saw it and could not believe his eyes.
Eden takes a quick look at the leader and tries to assess the situation. After a second, Eden sighs in relief, raises his sword at the lea-the slimy snail in front of him and says: “You’re going to die here, so can you just stay quiet and make it easy for me?”
“DON’T LOOK DOWN ON ME!” The piece of fat roars in anger as he takes out his giant hammer from behind the chair and screams: “MEN! MEN! Get in here quickly to kill this bug, NOW!”
Despite being a walking water jug, he moves pretty fast and steps his foot on Stratta’s head. “If you value this fool’s life then surrender. Or else I’ll crush him like a bug.” He says.
“Wait...” Eden looks at the leader, confused as if what that egg over there just did, doesn’t make sense. “Why would you want to do that?”
“What?” That bag of flour answers, also confused. His course of actions so far is very logical given the situation.
“...Are you...kidnappers?” Eden finally asks as if revelation has hit him like a lightning bolt.
“What? What else you think we are?”
Eden facepalms himself but smiles. “That makes things much easier for me,” Eden mumbles as he lunges forward, catching the baboon off guard. Eden stops right in front of him, grabs a layer of fat in his belly, and uses it to throw the sack of potato towards the door using a single hand.
The door opens just as the ball of fat flies towards the guards behind it. The leader knocks them all down. The few lucky guards who are unaffected start raising their spears, Eden then turns towards the door and smirks. He has completed the most challenging part, now is just the cleanup. While Eden thinks so, his right hand that he used to throw the skin ball back becomes numb. Eden has overstretched himself from throwing back then, so he changes the sword to his left hand and starts lunging towards the bandits still standing outside the room.
They all were no match for him even with his non-dominant arm. After a few minutes of sounds of metal clashing against metal, no kidnappers were left alive. He wanted to spare the ones crushed under their leader’s body, but they were already dead under such weight. The leader also, unfortunately, got stabbed by his subordinate’s spear. That’s too bad, Eden wanted to interrogate some of them to see if they had kidnapped anyone else, but they all got what they deserve. He feels no remorse for these criminals, people like them have caused too much pain to his village in the past. Eden’s hands begin shaking again after realizing the sheer amount of people he just killed, but stop much sooner than last time.
[I think...I can handle this life after all...]
While Eden is lost in thoughts, he notices Stratta is still being tied up, so he approaches Stratta and unties him, who then hugs Eden and thanks him over and over.
“I thought you were going to abandon me back then!” Stratta says while crying, half from the pain, half from happiness.
“Yeah, sorry about that, my mind just went blank. Please do me a favor and don’t tell anyone.” Eden laughs wryly. In truth, he was too engrossed in completing his first-ever personal errand that he just absolutely forgets about anything else surrounding him.
The two of them return to Stratta’s home late in the evening. Eden has to carry Stratta back as his legs hurt too much to walk. Still, Eden is surprised that Stratta can make so many movements already after being beaten up like that.
When the house comes into view, Eden sees a middle-aged woman crying at the front of the house. [That must have been Stratta’s wife, then.] The woman looks up and sees the men approaching her. She is shocked at first but soon wipes her tears and runs towards them.
Eden returns to town a few hours into the night after making sure the lumberjack will be fine. Stratta’s wife thanked him repeatedly for saving her husband. She offered some little money they had left as rewards for Eden, but he turned it down, only taking one copper coin.
“This will be your compensation, now you owe me nothing.” He said.
Stratta’s family is nowhere near as well off as Eden’s father. It wouldn’t be right for him to accept money from someone even poorer than his family. [Besides, they would need that money to nurse Stratta back to health.]
Eden also decides to go back to town instead of staying the night since Stratta’s house only has a single bed, and Stratta needs it to rest. And because Eden doesn’t see men that way. Eden goes to the farmer’s house, the one who hired him, and asks for the rest of his reward, for the delivery, that is. The farmer thanks him and gives what he promised. Eden also tells the farmer that his brother is injured, which his face turns to concern and thanks Eden for telling him.
[I feel like I have forgotten to do something back there. What was it?] Eden can’t help but think as he walks off.
Yes, you certainly did.
Eden returns to his room, takes off his equipment except for his sword which never leaves his side, and goes to the tavern for a quick cup of ale. As he opens the door, Eden notices the place is more lively today, around a dozen customers are having some drinks. The bartender he talked to yesterday is also here. Most importantly, a young woman is here tonight, she’s drinking on her own while everyone else is trying their best to avoid her. That woman is the one Eden was waiting to meet.
That woman is Lela.