The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

Chapter 277 - The Man Of The Rumors

                                When Zaos and Melisse returned to the base, they found their soldiers already moving. They still had to wait for one hour for the sunrise. Unless they were on a special mission, the soldiers couldn't leave the base at night. Another reason that Zaos didn't ask for permission was to not raise any suspicion among the garrison of the place.

"Did you find them?" Cohnal asked.

"Nine scouts," Zaos replied.

"That is a pretty high number… how didn't we notice them before?" Cohnal frowned.

"Don't ask me. I didn't notice their presence at all. Captain did everything by himself," Melisse said.

"Captain, huh…" Cohnal smirked.

"Shut up," Melisse said.

"Anyway, we still have to worry about the place we need to go, Captain," Cohnal said. "Not to mention, we need to be careful while we escort the villagers without alerting the others. Otherwise, the whole plan might fail at some point."

"The closest village to the enemy base is four hours away from them," Zaos said. "If something goes wrong, we will have plenty of time to retreat. The ideal would be to obtain another village to let our horses nearby rest."

"I guess we can use the last village in the end and then try to convince the nearby villagers to leave as well and come to the base," Cohnal said.

"Yep, let's put the carriage in front of the horses," Melisse said.

                                Cohnal and Zaos recognized that they couldn't plan that without convincing the people of the first village to leave their homes. Regardless, without wasting any more time, the whole unit began to leave the base once the sun began to rise.

                                Although they hurried, the unit only reached the last village two hours after lunchtime. Naturally, the people frowned when they saw so many soldiers and their horses. Still, Zaos assumed that convincing them wouldn't be that hard. After all, there were only thirty people in the village and around fifty houses.

"Good afternoon, my name is Zaos," Zaos said. "I would like to talk with all of you about the battle that is about to take place here… in this region."

                                Zaos jumped from Moody since he didn't like to talk with people while looking down on them. While his young age was a problem to be persuasive, people respected a tall soldier wearing black armor and a huge-ass sword.

                                Zaos waited for the people to assemble, and he only found people who were over sixty and kids who were younger than ten… he didn't want to think that some parents would leave their kids and their parents behind, so he only assumed that they gave up after trying really hard to convince all of them.

"Everyone, I would like to ask you to move for a few months to another village," Zaos said. "We will need to use the village to fight the mercenaries, and we won't be able to fight and protect you at the same time."

"You are the captain of this unit? It is a pretty small unity considering the number of enemies in Toules," A certain old man asked.

"I can't deny that, but that is the many soldiers we can afford without putting the whole region at risk," Zaos said. "We just moved to this region since the king asked us to fight for the region. That is why we more or less are soldiers that the commander of the region can afford to lose."

"You're already thinking of losing. Maybe you will get along with the commander if you stay there for a while longer," The same man said.

"If I were thinking of my safety alone, I wouldn't plan to use this village," Zaos said. "Well then… time is of the essence. Can you guys cooperate with us or not? I assure you that this is only a temporary measure."

"What will happen if you fight and destroy our homes? Where will we go if they are destroyed?" The man asked.

"I give you my word that if that were to happen, we wouldn't leave before rebuilding everything," Zaos replied.

"As if we can trust in the words of the soldiers nowadays," The older man insisted. "You people abandoned us, we don't see a single soldier in weeks, and it is a miracle that we are still alive. Not to mention the deserters. Back in my day, the prideful soldiers of the kingdom wouldn't join the enemies no matter what."

                                That was starting to become troublesome… Zaos respected the elderly, but he wasn't exactly a patient person when it came to most matters. In the end, Zaos approached the man and drew his sword.

"I give you my word that you will have your homes back once the war is over," Zaos said and then cut the palm of his left hand. "I can show you more of my blood to prove that I am serious, but I won't be able to fight properly if I were to do that. Can I have your people's cooperation? My soldiers will escort you to the next village if you decide to cooperate." 

                                The villagers looked around each other. While Zaos was young, he seemed a very serious soldier. He didn't seem like a person who would force them to leave, but they decided not to take that risk. Even though they were insane enough not to abandon their homes, considering that it was about to become a warzone.

"All right… we will leave our homes to you for a short while," The old man said.

                                Zaos sighed and then smiled before bowing his head slightly and then thanking them. After that, they relaxed more and then began to pack their things. The soldiers behind also sighed in relief.

"It seems things went well, Captain," Cohnal said.

"Captain… Zaos?" The old man frowned when he connected the words.

                                The old man and the other people of the village looked at each other. It seemed like they had heard a few rumors about someone with that name.. Still, only when they reached the next village, they notice that he was Zaos Sielders of the rumors.