Chapter 17: Episode 16: First Human Battle (3)
******* Carolus' POV ********
Never thought in my entire life that I will become a murderer.
I follow all the laws back in my world. Paid my taxes. Do everything I can to help society.
But right now, I'm chasing down some people who are trying to run away from me to kill them.
There no turning back now.
Killing is inevitable in this world. I learned that from all the monster I killed just to survive.
I have to take care of the people that are running away since I heard from that guy that I will face the wrath of Xaerin Kingdom if I hurt him. Can't have any of them escape to tell what happened here.
'Come on. Where are they?' I ask myself after a while since I still don't see any of them.
They can't be far.
It is really hard to see anything since the forest is so thick.
'There! I see one.' I told myself after seeing one of the soldiers who is riding his horse and started chasing him.
I also began to see other soldiers in front of him.
They are all running in the same direction.
Luckily, they didn't decide to split up otherwise it will be hard to track them all down.
I pulled an arrow in the inventory and ready to shoot my bow.
I pulled the string and aim at the last person on the back.
Then I fired.
The arrow hit the head of the soldier and immediately fall down in his horse.
Other soldiers suddenly noticed what is happening and they began screaming and frantically kicking their horses to move them faster.
But they can't outrun my horse.
I noticed that my horse can run twice as fast as theirs. I believe the reason for this is this horse lives in the middle of Forest of Monsters and learned to adapt to survive.
I decided to put away my bow and just used my sword since it is really hard to aim while riding a speeding horse.
I began to get closer to the soldiers.
They didn't even bother to look behind them or tried to defend themselves. They are probably so afraid of dying and just focused on escaping.
I can hear their plea and cries but I ignored them and just swing my sword to the nearest person.
It is instant death.
Their cries are getting louder but I just keep on swinging my sword.
It took a while to kill the rest of them since they started running away in different directions but I still managed to catch them one by one except for the last one.
He managed to stay quiet ahead of me and I didn't notice since I'm too busy with the other soldiers.
The last soldier is screaming something about a 'blue monster' but I ignored him and just halted my horse to stop.
I put away my sword and ready my bow.
Space ahead doesn't have a lot of trees and the target is quite clear.
I practice my bow every day so I'm confident that I can hit this guy in this distance.
I pulled an arrow from my inventory and ready to fire.
As I pulled the string of the bow and aim, I suddenly think of something.
'Maybe I should let this guy go and let him tell the story.'
Sooner or later, problems will occur if I decided to let Arthur and his people stay in my place. The people after them are desperate enough that they send someone to chase them inside this forest.
This way, they will start to think otherwise to send another group.
I put away my bow and arrow and just watch the last survivor galloping away in the field.
Arthur said that they took 3 weeks to reach my territory so it will probably take that guy about 2 to 3 days to get out of this forest since he is on horseback.
I turn around the horse and started to go back.
I also have to clean the bodies and loot their belongings though I don't have enough space in my inventory if ever I want to take all their loot.
I just have to make a chest and place it here somewhere and just make trips to store the items.
I can also just use lava to destroy the bodies since I have lava buckets in my inventory from my obsidian mining. I just have to dig a hole, place the lava and throw the bodies in.
After a while, the looting is unsuccessful since they don't have anything useful in them so I didn't even bother to collect the items. Even though I like hoarding things even how useless they are, I just don't feel like doing it today.
After destroying the bodies, I didn't collect back the lava and just covered up the hole. The lava will probably turn into obsidian after awhile even without pouring water on them.
I also decided to gather the horses that are left behind by their masters to bring them back home. They are about 8 of them so they will be very useful.
'I wonder how Arthur and his people feel about the things I've done?' This is what I'm thinking while I'm starting to travel home.
******** Arthur's POV ********
I'm staring at the "unconscious" man in front of me.
Lord Carolus said that he didn't kill him but I highly doubt it since he looks like he is already dead.
I crouch on the body and put my ear on his chest to see if I can hear a heartbeat.
Even with the armor on, I can faintly hear a steady thumping.
He is still alive.
I put him on my shoulder to carry him and began walking towards the castle.
I didn't have problems carrying him even though he is quite heavy since he is still wearing his armor.
I didn't lower the bridge or closed the gate since we still have to clean the bodies.
Lord Carolus said that the blood will attract the monsters but there still a lot of time before the sun goes down so there is nothing to worry about.
I tried opening the castle keep door but it locked.
I started knocking but there was no answer.
I began to worry and was about to use the key to open the door when suddenly it opened.
"Oh! It is just you Arthur. I thought you were someone else." I see Peyton with a huge relief on his face.
"What happened Arthur and who is that man you are carrying?" He asked me while staring at the man I was carrying.
I didn't answer him and just look past him to look for the others.
"They are fine. There on the second floor." He said after seeing me looking around the first floor.
"Tell everyone that it is already safe and they can come out now," I said to him after walking past him and started heading towards the stairs of the basement.
"What? What do you mean it is already safe? What happened to the army?" He asked me and I can see his mouth turning into a frown.
"You can all see for yourself," I answered him without turning to face him.
I suddenly remembered what happened a while ago.
I still can't believe the things that happened but I dismissed it in my mind since the most important thing right now is that my people are safe.
I can see Peyton still have a lot of questions but thankfully, he started walking up the stairs to tell everyone.
I managed to reach the basement but started to think about where to put this guy.
Most of the rooms here are empty so I can just put him anywhere in these rooms but Lord Carolus said to put him in the dungeon so he is probably meant the prison cells but there is a zombie in one of those cells.
I don't want to put this guy near a monster but I suddenly remembered that this man I'm carrying is here to hurt my people and started walking towards the prison room.
I opened the door of the prison room and see the zombie is laying on the ground on his cell.
He saw us and quickly got up and started banging on the bars.
I ignored him and just went to the cell beside him and opened the door.
I didn't bother to put the man down on the ground carefully and just toss him in his cell.
I managed to remove all of his armor and take his items in his inventory since he is still unconscious.
I remembered that this guy name is Merek and just stared at him for a moment.
'What did my people do for him to chase us all the way here?' I asked myself about this.
After a while, I locked the cell door and double checked the lock. I don't want this guy to escape. The cell door is meticulously made so he can't probably open the door by picking the lock though I doubt this guy knows about picking locks.
I also locked the prison door room and started to walk back outside.
I see most of my people standing near the gate.
I can see them staring at the carnage and their faces are full of horror.
Thankfully, I didn't see any of the children here. They are probably left behind on the second floor.
"Did you do this Arthur?" Peyton quickly asked me the moment I reach him.
"Do you really think I'm capable of this?" I didn't answer his question and just asked him.
'Did the old man really think that I'm the one who did this?'
He stared at me for a moment and return his eyes on the dead bodies littered on the ground.
He probably already guessed what happened here.
"Lord Carolus said that we need to clean these bodies otherwise we will attract monsters." The moment I said this, I can all of their face turn from horror to disgust.
"Look. I understand your reactions but we need to get rid of the bodies and I can't do it alone." I said to them while started walking to the nearest corpse.
All of them still have a lot of questions about what happened but thankfully, they started moving.
Lord Carolus said to burn the bodies so we started placing oak logs on the ground and started piling up the bodies on top.
Most of my people are still disgusted on touching the bodies and even some of them managed to puke but they still keep on working. They are probably motivated since they heard that monsters will start coming if we don't clean this.
We also cleaned the blood on the ground using water from the moat.
After gathering the bodies, I light up the logs using flint and steel and watched the bodies slowly burn away.
I can see Lord Carolus in the distance slowly coming here with ropes in his hand and a lot of horses towing on his back.
I quickly ordered my people to help him with the horses.
He then built a larger stable beside the small one to put the horses in.
We are all surprised by how quick he built it.
I didn't actually believe him when he said that he built this castle all by himself but now I do.
"Are you a soldier Arthur?" He suddenly asked me after building the horse stable.
"… Yes. A long time ago, my lord." I don't know why he suddenly asked me this question but I still answered him.
"I see. Then have you experienced on interrogating a prisoner?"
"You want me to interrogate the prisoner?" I was surprised that he suddenly asked me this.
"Ask him about what happened with the Kingdom of Astikuviel and why there are soldiers of Xaerin Kingdom here. You can also ask him any other questions. I leave the interrogation to you." He ordered me and he started walking towards the keep.
"Yes, Lord Carolus."
"I'll be in my room if you need me."
I stared at him while he is walking.
'He knows about the two of the Five Great Kingdoms.'
I started to wonder what other things he knows.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Nayamorac
Nayamorac This is the 16th episode.
I appreciate if the people following my novel will give an honest review so I can know how I'm doing. I would be very happy about it. I just hope you make your review as truthful as possible. I don't mind all the hate and will not take it personally.
Hope you all enjoy this episode.
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