Chapter 408 — Villagers

Wright crouched down in front of the child and waved the adults beside her back. He looked into the child's eyes — a pair of exceptionally bright, large eyes. The little girl was not pretty in the least; her rough, dry skin was even covered in a great spread of freckles, and her dry, tangled hair, like weeds, hid a quarter of her face. Yet those large eyes, peering out from behind the messy hair, left an impression that was impossible to forget.

Looking into those eyes, Wright asked, word by word: "The knights in white robes — are they knights of the Church?"

The little girl first shook her head blankly, then nodded hesitantly. "I don't know... but there were priests with them..."

At last someone among the survivors could hold back no longer and began to sob quietly. "We handed over our grain... we handed it all over..."

Wright understood what those seemingly disjointed words meant.

They had handed over their grain. When the noble coalition raised its army and marched out, no doubt the commoners on every piece of land had contributed grain and goods to serve as military rations. The nobles would levy these things on the pretext that "we send our troops to protect you," and many commoners would readily believe such claims (for even if they did not believe, it made no difference — the power of speech belonged to the lords). It was likely that even when the noble soldiers, routed at the front, came to plunder the village and set the houses alight, they still could not work out what had actually happened.

Even now, seeing Cecil's people appear before them, few of them would think that these "strangers" were the very ones who had fought their lord. Or even if they did think it, they would have no reaction to it. They would only lament their own misfortune and fear the nobles, the knights, and the blades and staves in the soldiers' hands. And the more complex web of interests above all that was something they could never figure out.

The only thing they could think of was that they had "handed over grain" before.

It seemed foolish, but behind the foolishness lay ignorance, and behind ignorance lay numbness.

The soldiers sent to scout the area around the village came back. Not far outside the village, in a pit dug into the earth, they had found several dozen corpses.

So many bodies could not easily be burned to ash in so short a time. The squad had not brought enough fuel, and no sufficient kindling could be found nearby, so the squad commander had no choice but to order the corpses left in the pit and buried where they lay, together with the three bodies found in the cellar.

When all of it was done, Wright sought out the commander. "I want to take those dozen or so people to Cecil, or at least as far as the front-line camp. There are people there who can escort them south."

Wright could not let go of those dozen-odd survivors. Their homes had been destroyed, they had no food and no medicine, and it was early summer, when wasteland wolves and other beasts, their vigor restored, were roaming the wilds. Without the protection of a village fence, houses, and lamplight, a dozen unarmed villagers would not last three days out in the wilderness. This was not Cecil, after all; the dangers of the wild were very great.

"We have to report in within the set time. That is army discipline," the commander said. He understood Wright's feelings well enough, but he had to stress the problem implicit in them. "Those civilians are too weak. They have no strength to march for the time being. If we take them along, we will certainly be delayed."

Wright had no rebuttal, but after a pause of two or three seconds the squad commander went on: "Still, if you are willing, I can leave a few soldiers with you. I will take the medical team ahead to report in at the camp, and you bring these people along behind. That is within discipline."

"Good, I have no problem with that," Wright agreed readily, then said with a grave face, "One more suggestion, Captain. Villages and towns plundered by routed noble soldiers, whose survivors hid or scattered, are probably not limited to this one. We should report the situation up the chain, and then do our best to find these places and save more people."

"Don't worry," the squad commander nodded. "I will report it up the chain."