Adonis, in his tailored made heavy overcoat walked with crisp steps through the thin, earthen path leading into the village, keeping his eyes alert and hands ready at all times.
However, contrary to his expectations, even as he went past the fences and entered the courtyard of an unknown hut, nothing untoward jumped out at him.
In fact, none of the villagers even seemed to notice this obviously strange boy, even as he walked past them.
They were too busy running towards something- something towards the center of the village.
Seeing their rush, Adonis also felt too timid to interrupt them.
Rather he subconsciously followed them, wanting to find a better opportunity to talk later as well as being curious to just see what they were running towards.
"Gather around! All men, women and children of the village! Gather around immediately! We have come from the Lord's manor! As the naive boy got near the crowd, suddenly he heard a very stern sounding voice pronounced with a thunderous boom from the very front of the crowd.
That instantly scared him, and he looked around to try and find the source of the sound.
He quickly spotted it to be from a very officious man, surrounded by a few men wearing chainmail under a simple tunic and holding large shields and long pikes.
The leader of the group was sitting on a beautiful white horse and the sight of this beautiful animal quickly mesmerized the boy, easing much of his worries.
This snow white mare did not have a single blemish on her skin, and appeared very strong and healthy, with powerful legs and a taut stomach, radiating a powerful, magnetic aura.
It stood still like a statue, only occasionally jerking its head or brushing its tail to sweep away the annoying insects and Adonis had to really control himself from simply not walking up and patting the radiant creature.
While her owner sat on top with crystal blue eyes that radiated a cool, indifferent authority, sharp facial feature almost like razor blades and an immaculately kept brown mustache, so large that it almost reached his side whiskers.
His face appeared very well groomed, and in a similar fashion, his attire appeared to be equally impressive.
He was fully clad from neck to toe in ashen plate mail, with many golden decorative fringes done around the seam and joints of the armor, making those parts shine under the sunlight.
A small polished, silvery emblem of a strange bird was engraved on his left chest, clearly denoting he belonged to some kind of organization, as proven by how this emblem was also printed on the tunics of the half a dozen men around him.
Like his men, he too carried a large shield on his back, but his weapon of choice was a long sword hanging by his waist, whose golden handle was studded with rubies, drawing many poor villagers' attention. There was awe, longing and even some greed in them.
The man pretended not to notice these lowly stares but very imperiously unfurled a scroll to read out,
"By the decree of His Majesty, Eminence Pontify III, His Lordship Baron Ludwig Veil has been called to war. We are to fight off the invasion of the Kremight Empire. The levies for your village have been thus set to 20 men to fight as soldiers and 20 women as servants and cooks. Let this be done!"
The instant this was read out, it caused an enormous ruckus among the villagers, making it feel like they had been struck by lightning.
Losing 20 good men was devastating for them. They needed these hands to work the fields and grow crops. Or else what would the wives and children they leave behind eat? And who will pay their expenses?
None of the other villagers were willing to take share of that burden.
As for the order of 20 women, well, they had another kind of trouble. There were some quite nasty rumours about what happened to servants and girls in such campaigns.
After all, an army of hot blooded men, returning to camp after a day of marching, fighting and killing, and then seeing a beautiful defenseless girl… what were they going to think?
By that point, even a goat would start to look very pretty.
Thus the villagers quickly began to argue among themselves, debating who was going to be among the 'lucky' 40.
"Silence! What is this commotion?" They however did not get to go too far in their fight, as the loud shout from that guard captain instantly stomped it down.
His eyes then blazed with an authority that none of the peasants dared to meet, as refolding the order papers back into his horse's snatched, he barked,
"Where is Mister Lew? Come forward!"
Swiftly out of the crowd came a particularly hunched back old man, his clothes quite shabby, his steps aided by a withered cane.
Representing himself as the leader of the bunch, the elderly man was just about to explain himself, "Lord… Sir Knight Tamaus…we…" chattering through his poor decayed teeth.
However,
"Why have you not chosen the levies like we ordered you?" The man on horseback furiously cut him off, not at all interested in excuses.
Adonis instantly noticed the poor old man visibly shivering at the shout.
But then plucking up his courage, the village elder straightened his weak back as best as he could and in defense of his village, pressed,
"Ser Tamaus we… we cannot give 20 men, sire. We can give more women and even grain…. but, we have already given close to 60 men in the last decade. And none… none have returned. We…"
"Bang! Cowards!"
Simply the insuination that the villagers were too afraid to go fight sent that guard captain into a fit of absolute rage and he sent out a sudden streak of white light, hitting the poor, old man squarely on the chest and causing his voice to let out a terrified scream.
The malnourished elder was sent flying several feet into the air like a rag doll,
Bang!
And then, as he fell on the dusty ground with a dull thud, his body thrashed like a fish out of water, sprouting out a few thin, thin streaks of blood, before… he went eternally silent.
The sight instantly caused a deathly silence to descend on the crowd; their eyes widened in shock, fear, and some even in rage.
This last sentiment was also shared by Adonis, who up until then had been watching the entire conversation with a sense of pure curiosity.
He did not really get what the men were talking about but that did not matter. He was more mesmerized by the simple sight of so many people gathered in one place, he had never seen this before, nor had he heard anyone speak in such a strong, captivating way.
The boy was even starting to admire this 'Knight Tamaus', finding the way he commanded respect really cool.
Until…
"Heh! Why did you kill that grandpa?"
The sight of the unprovoked attack caused the young, hot blooded boy to act without thinking.
His mind eschewed all consequences and he bravely stepped towards the man with eyes burning with righteous indignation, ready to bring him to justice.
"...." Each and every soul in the vicinity instantly whirled their head at the sound of this juvenile voice, eager to spot the source.
None for the life of them dared to imagine what kind of fool would dare to challenge the authority manor guards in such a blatant manner.
As a matter of fact, the guards were so tyrannical in their day to day that what the guard captain was not even that shocking to the older generations.
This was a recurring instance.
Hence when they saw the words had come from an unfamiliar young boy nobody had ever seen before, their eyes went wide with astonishment and confusion.
It was such an unexpected sight in fact that they could not even feel fear for the boy.
Only wild disbelief, as a brand new stunned silence deafened the air, seeming as if everyone had been robbed of their hearing altogether.
"Who are you brat!"
That fearfully still air was finalled cut using the snarling words of the guard captain, whose eyes now started to blaze with the fury of a thousand suns. As a prideful man, the fact that a mere child even dared to talk to him like that… sent him over the furious edge.
Thus, without even waiting for the reply, he shot another bolt of that while light, this time aiming straight for Adonis's head.
He wished to kill the boy, ask questions later. He could ask questions later!
That was his motto in life.
But an instant later, his fury turned to a bit of stunned amazement as he noticed this nondescript boy predict the movement of his arm and jump out of his shot in the nick time.
"Bad! Run kid! Now!" At the same time, the Protanyd being let out this alarmed shout inside Adonis.