As and Peter faced a small crowd of angry natives, the air around us grew cold. In front of the crowd stood a tall middle-aged man. He stood straight, his eyes were focused on and Peter as if ready to jump in if we took an aggressive stance.
“Go back to the fort! We don’t want you here!” soone shouted from the back, and as if a dam had broken, shouts started coming from all sides.
“Yeah, go back!”
“And return our houses!”
“We don’t want fucking butchers in our houses!” As soon as the curse left the crowd’s mouth, I was ready to flare my mana, but before , the tall guy standing in front turned back, shutting down almost all the voices with one look.
Suddenly, a lot of things beca clear. While this tall guy did not view the army in a positive light, he had his limits. Most important of all, the whole group of natives respected him. He was able to silence an angry mob with just one look.
“Peter, go back and make sure none of the soldiers co out,” I ordered. Then, taking the silence as an opportunity, I stepped forward and gave the tall guy a smile.
“I know we are not welco here. I have bad news for you all. This village will soon beco a supply hub for the Royal Army. This will only increase the soldier presence here,” I said in a strict tone.
While I was all for placating the natives, I could not let them think the Royal Army was an easy target.
Then I looked at the tall leader of the group. “What can I call you?” I said.
“Halvar,” he said.
Just one word, but the anger in his eyes was visible.
“If so of these houses belonged to people here, I can assure you most of them will be emptied within a few days. If there is an issue and there are people who do not have a place to stay, we can empty them right now,” I said.
I was not being polite here. The army was forbidden from taking over civilian houses, and if reported, all of us would be in for harsh punishnt.
Halvar looked at for so ti while so of the people at the back sneered.
“Do whatever you want with the houses. Just leave my people alone. We have already suffered enough.”
After saying that, Halvar turned around and spoke to the gathered people. “Co! I don’t want to see any of you near here.”
I also turned around and made my way back to the houses assigned to us. Over the next few days, I wanted to establish a working relationship with Halvar. He looked like the leader of the natives, and while he appeared angry at the Royal Army, he also seed level-headed. More importantly, he felt like soone I could negotiate with.
Before going into the house assigned to , I had a quick eting with the other sergeants about the plan for the day and how to proceed. Today, we were keeping things light. The only task we had was to survey the village and decide on the location for construction. Only a few people would take part: Rowan, the foreman, , and so of my squadmates. The rest of the squads would rest and recover.
Entering the house, I looked around properly for the first ti. The house felt like a family ho. I could see drawings on the wall made by children using charcoal. It had a kitchen and two bedrooms. I also realized this was the first house I had entered since my own had been taken from , since I had woken up in a heap of garbage with new mories.
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Finding a quiet corner, I dropped my backpack and, using it as a pillow and the floor as a bed, drifted into a quick afternoon nap.
A couple of days passed without any issues. The squads had settled into a routine, and we now had a proper rotation for guard duty. We had also familiarized ourselves with the surrounding area and figured out the logistics for food and water. Most importantly, we had decided on the location for construction.
Today, early in the morning, Rowan was conducting a eting inside the hall of one of the houses, going over the plan with the construction team and the sergeants. Among the construction crew, I could see Silas standing at the back, while Barry was missing.
It looked like Barry had already escaped and was loose sowhere in the village, working on his mission to integrate himself with the villagers.
“We will be constructing two barns for supply carts, three rooms for weapon storage, one longhall for the supply squad that will be stationed here, one large cellar, one smokehouse, and one workshop. I have selected a perfect location for construction. It is close to the east wall of the village. There is already one burned-down barn and a few old burned houses. We can remove those and start construction. We will also create a few wooden towers on the village wall for the security of the supplies. The location is close to the eastern gate, the only place in the village with the trees we will require for construction,” Rowan said while drawing a rough layout of the supply hub.
I frowned as I listened to Rowan’s words. In a not-so-subtle way, he had taken credit for work done by multiple people. While there was no doubt Rowan knew what he was doing, and I had hardly contributed anything to picking the location other than deciding the tower placent, the foreman and one of the privates from Rowan’s squad had played integral roles in coming up with the design.
“For this construction, we will require stones. How are we getting those? I do not think we have miners with us,” asked soone from the construction crew.
“The village has stone mines to the north and west, outside the walls. Most of the stone mined there is kept at the village head’s house. The village head will provide stone and clay for the construction,” Rowan replied.
“Now…”
Just as Rowan started speaking, the loud sound of the door opening caught everyone’s attention. Kael entered with a serious expression.
“Sergeants! We need all of you outside,” said Kael, looking at us.
“DON’T you see we have an important eting here?” Rowan shouted.
“Well, soone burned down the house at the corner where so of our excess weapons were kept,” Kael replied with a raised eyebrow, which had turned Rowan’s face red even before he spoke his first words.
But no one had ti to discipline Kael or worry about Rowan’s hurt feelings. As soon as Kael stopped speaking, we all rushed out to see what had happened.
Out of all of us, Aaron looked the most worried. After all, it was his squad’s was on watch duty, and if a house was burning, that ant either his squadmates were injured or they had been slacking off at work. Neither situation looked favorable for him.
Once we were out, we were greeted by complete chaos. So privates were running toward the fire, while others were just coming out of the houses, completely surprised by the event just like us. Once we approached the burning building, the chaos only increased.
Aaron’s squad and so of the village guards were trying to control the fire from spreading, while a lot of soldiers, for so reason, were stopping native villagers from approaching the fire.
Once the fire subsided, Aaron stepped forward, spreading his mana around his privates, and in a commanding tone he said, “Who was on watch? How did this happen?”
One of his privates stepped forward with his head lowered.
“Sergeant, we are sorry. But this felt like a planned attack, and we were caught off guard. First, we were distracted by a brawl between two groups just a short distance away. We went to stop the fight before it could escalate further. By the ti we returned, the house had caught fire. We are sorry, Sergeant, for leaving our position, but the brawl was getting worse, and if we had not intervened, soone might have died.”
The private’s words did explain why the rest of the soldiers were trying to control the crowd.
“Heroes!”
The voice of the village head pulled everyone’s attention, who was standing with guards on his side with the sa smile he had on the day we arrived.
“Young Sergeants Edward and Rowan, you both don’t have to look for the person behind the attack,” the village head said as he hobbled toward us.
“I already have him,” he said, waving his hand behind the crowd. I could make out so movent at the back, but my view was blocked by the villagers surrounding the area.
After a few seconds, four more guards pushed the crowd aside and dragged a prisoner covered in blood toward us. As soon as I saw the face of the supposed culprit, a sense of dread crawled down my spine.
“This is Halvar. These barbarians do nothing without his order,” the village head said.
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