Volume 3 Chapter 4 Everlight Village

Chapter 4 Everlight Village

I

Mister Edwardson took the three to his house.

His house was neat and clean.

There were a family portrait of him, a woman and a young girl on the wall. Obviously they were his wife and his daughter. Without doubt, he had gotten a happy family.

“Why did you release that scout? A Reauneian caught your friend, right? He is your enemies! How can you take pity on him?” complaint Mister Edwardson.

Stasha didn’t say anything. Explaining the reason to Mister Edwardson was a waste of time. After all, their brains worked differently.

“Anyway, you’re heroes who dare to sneak into Reauneia to save your friends, so I will serve you, though you have just done that awful thing,” sighed Mister Edwardson.

“Thanks,” whispered Floria.

Mister Edwardson and the three sat around a round table in the dining room.

After they sat down, the daughter of Mister Edwardson went into the dining room. She was about the age of Floria and Stasha.

She looked exactly like her picture. She had a pair of purplish eyes and long purplish hair.

“That’s Bianca, my daughter,” said Mister Edwardson.

“Hi,” greeted Bianca shyly.

After introducing her daughter, Mister Edwardson began to cook the dinner.

This was really a cozy house with the fire was burning warm in the exquisite hearth. There was an innocent smile lingering on Bianca’s face. Obviously, her father had treated her well and they two had formed a loving family.

The three had no idea where Bianca’s mother was right now. They didn’t ask because it was a impolite and sensitive question. Maybe her mother had already passed away …

However, the scene inside that torturing house filled with the blood and broken limbs of Reauneians had been imprinted in their brain. It was too horrible. Mister Edwardson must be a crazy violent psychopath.

But how could a violent psychopath foster such a naïve and innocent daughter?

The dinner was ready.

“Sorry I am bad at cooking,” apologized Mister Edwardson. The food he prepared was simple but hearty.

“Don’t say that, your food is good,” Floria forced a smile, her mind still haunted by those scenes of Mister Edwardson leading his villages to torture Reauneian captives.

Mister Edwardson sat down. He was observing the three. Somehow his gazing was cold and weird to the three.

“You seem to have some power, right? Though you all look normal and thin, you’re stronger than common humans, aren’t you?” probed Mister Edwardson.

“Yeah, you’re right. How do you know?” asked Floria.

“It’s obvious, since Stasha broke the wrist of a strong villager within merely one second. Are you some sort of elite super soldier like Sir Bellum?” pursued Mister Edwardson.

“Well, it kind of means that, in a way,” replied Floria. After all, she couldn’t tell Mister Edwardson the truth. Firstly, they didn’t trust this psychopathically violent guy; secondly, they are wanted criminals in Normania and thus it would be a stupid act to reveal their true identity.

“Wow, that’s awesome! Since that, your caught friend must be like you too? Does she have a power?” questioned Mister Edwardson .

“Yes, she is far more powerful than us. She has been captured by a man called Hoemuo,” answered Yanni.

“Hoemuo? That imperator of Reauneian Army? That’s a big shot,” revealed Mister Edwardson.

II

It was bedtime now.

Fortunately, there was a guest room in Mister Edwardson’s house with two beds.

They only knew two villages in Normania, which were Starshine Village and this Everlight Village.

The villagers in Starshine Village were like lifeless zombies. They lived in pure nothingness and hopelessness.

However, villagers in Everlight were different. They were vigorous but they were also mad and cruel. They were like bloodthirsty beasts living in a violent mental world.

Floria and Stasha would sleep on one bed while Yanni would sleep on the other.

When they were about to go to bed, someone knocked the door.

Yanni opened the door.

It was Bianca, Mister Edwardson’s daughter.

“Hi …” greeted Bianca shyly, her face flushing.

“Hi, what’s up?” asked Yanni.

“I’m sorry … but can you three do me a favour?” begged Bianca.

“For sure! Come in!” invited Yanni.

Bianca walked inside the room. She was a little nervous because the three were after all strangers to her.

“Sit down. It’s your house. Be at ease please,” Floria reassured her.

“Umm,” Bianca nodded.

She sat down on Floria and Stasha’s bed.

“It’s my fiancé. He’s a colonel of the Normanian Army and now he and his comrade-in-arms are stationed in Mildwind Town. I want him to left the army,” muttered Bianca.

“But why?” queried Yanni.

“Because everyone knows that Hoemuo is about to invade that place! It will be dangerous in that town and it’s suicide to stay there and fight! I’ve told him to stay away from the war many times but he doesn’t listen to me at all! You’re heroes enhanced by necrovirus and I’m sure that he will listen to you three,” explained Bianca.

“We’ll try. What is his name?” inquired Floria.

“His name is Marcus. It won’t be difficult to find him, since he’s a colonel,” answered Bianca.

“Why doesn’t he listen to you?” questioned Stasha.

“He thinks being a soldier and sacrificing for the country is a glorious thing. Nearly every Normanian soldier believes in this silly doctrine! But I know that you’re different than them! I hear that you’ve released that Reauneian scout, which means that you haven’t been brainwashed and you’re still rational,” blurted Bianca excitedly. It was difficult to imagine that she was in fact a shy introvert girl.

“Hey, relax, Bianca,” said Yanni soothingly.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be a little crazy when I’m excited,” apologized Bianca.

“You’re right, Bianca, many people here are insane. Do you know that house? You know, that house filled with Reauneian captives’ broken limbs and torn organs?” asked Stasha.

“Yes, for sure I know. My father builds this. He is insane too. But he is … He is a good father as well as a kind man. He won’t even hurt a dog and a cat but … It’s just that Reauneians seem to be inhumane monsters instead of humans in the worldview of my father and many other Normanians. Their moral values don’t apply to Reauneians,” sighed Bianca.

Bianca didn’t say anything after that. She stood up and left this house slowly.

The three looked at each other.

Accepting this quest wasn’t a wise act. After all, sneaking into a town was an adventurous act, since they were wanted by the government. Villagers might be uninformed but townspeople were not.

However, Bianca said that Hoemuo was going to invade that Mildwind Town. Perhaps they could stay in that town and wait for the invasion of Hoemuo. When Hoemuo came, they would beat him and save Aisling.

It was a good plan.

II

It was deep at night now.

The three were sleeping together in a two-bed room. Floria and Stasha were sleeping in one bad while Yanni was sleeping in the other.

Through the windows streamed rays of silver moonlight, which poured down on the ground like frost and snow.

Now it was summer and cicadas were humming, weaving a weird symphony. Those creatures lived short and they wouldn’t survive until next summer. To the elves, the lives of humans was short too. Perhaps to Aisling, the lives of humans was just like the lives of cicadas.

Those sounds of cicadas were quite annoying in fact, especially when they were sleeping in a room instead of camping in the wilderness.

Maybe they were just not used to sleeping in a soft clean bed.

Sometimes they could also smell something foetid. It was a smell mixed with blood and rotting body, which was probably from that house where villagers were torturing Reauneians they caught.

Unutterable images of scenes of torturing and lynching flooded into the mind of the three. Those images were gathering into a nightmare. They failed to fall asleep, and if they really fell asleep, there would be a nightmare.

It was not the violent villagers that had really scared them, but the degradation of values, or the fact maybe there were not empathy and kindness naturally in humans’ hearts at all.

Those cruel villages didn’t represent the minority of humans, those rare evil ones. On the contrary, they represented the majority of humans.

When one was born, he was evil, because humans were substantially bloodthirsty beast living in hierarchy and the bloodthirsty jungle law. Those innate parts of humans were unchangeable. It was the truth.

Besides the smell of blood, there was also the smell of mosquito coil.

Wind was passing through the window. It was cool on the face of the four. Nights in summer could be hellishly hot, moist and sultry. Luckily, those natural breezes could really cool them down. However, they still found it pretty hard to fall asleep.

In the wee hours, the clouds in the sky dissipated and the whole room was illuminated by the pure moonlight. In the moonlight, the three looked at each other and found out that all of them were still awake.

“So you two are still awake, right?” asked Stasha.

“Yes, it’s hard to fall asleep,” Floria nodded.

“It’s a sinister village,” commented Stasha.

“Yeah, for sure it is,” consented Floria.

“Maybe what Aisling thinks about humans is right. We humans shall not be the future of this world,” sighed Stasha.

“Unless we can get rid of the bestial parts inside us,” added Floria

“But is that possible?” questioned Yanni.

“I think at least we three have gotten rid of the bestial parts. So have many good people we know like Mister Berg, However, it is impossible for every human to abandon their dark sides. And that’s why one day this world may be destroyed by us …” replied Stasha.

“I’m missing Aisling,” said Yanni.

Since they mentioned Aisling in this conversation, Yanni had been thinking about her.

“So am I,” sighed Stasha.

“We will save her. I can feel that. Soon we will go to Mildwind Town, wait for Hoemuo’s attack and save Aisling,” Floria encouraged them.

“Will the army there agree to fight along with us? We’re criminals,” doubted Yanni.

“We have no choice. Besides, the colonel of the army there is the Bianca’s fiancé. We know Bianca, so that Marcus, the colonel, is more likely to trust us,” guessed Floria.

“But Bianca told us to persuade Marcus to leave the barrack, right?” queried Stasha.

“Yeah. That’s true. We’ll try to persuade him at first, but I doubt whether he will agree to leave,” responded Floria.

III

The next day, the three set out from Everlight Village and headed for Mildwind Town, where Hoemuo was about to invade.

Mister Edwardson had given them lots of foods which could feed them for approximately two weeks.

Mildwind town wasn’t very far from Everlight village and it took them only three hours to get to that town. It was a cloudy day so this trip was pretty pleasant. The sun was not scorching and the weather was cool.

They even arrived at the town before the noon. They had been to villages and cities, but it was their first time to visit a town.

This town was enclose by a circle of wall of about three metres. On the walls were several guard towers. It was during the daytime now so most of the guard towers were empty and only a few towers contained soldiers with bows.

Since Hoemuo was about to invade the town, there were lots of guards protecting it. Posted on the outer wall were pictures of wanted criminals.

There were murders, robbers, dangerous psychopaths who had escaped the asylum, and the four who had destroyed the Grey Factory.

Seemingly the pictures of Yanni, Floria, Stasha and Aisling had been posted on the wall for two years. They had been notoriously famous.

Since that, thy couldn’t just walk openly into the town. They had to sneak into it.

Stealthily, the three walked around the outer wall of the city. Finally, they saw a big sewage outfall which they could just manage to squeeze into.

“It looks dirty and disgusting!” complaint Stasha, holding her nose.

“We have no choice, Stasha,” replied Floria.

“Yeah, that’s true,” sighed Stasha.

The three got in the sewage outfall and climbed all the way through it until they arrived at the huge labyrinth of sewers.

Obviously, the town had perfect drainage system.

The air in the sewer was awfully stinky, since the whole city’s wastes were discharged into there.

Fortunately, they soon found an exit before dirtying themselves. That exit was a manhole.

Stasha walked up to the manhole in an attempt to open it.

“Wait, Stasha!” called Floria.

“What’s up?” asked Stasha.

“We need to come up with a plan before entering the town,” proposed Floria.

“Why? I really want to leave this smelly place immediately,” pursued Stasha.

“Not so hasty, Stasha. A plan is needed. You know, we’re wanted criminals, and thus although I am sure that no one in this town can possibly overpower us, we shall still make a plan before we act,” explained Floria.

“Yes, that’s true. So what shall we do?” inquired Stasha.

“I think we shall head directly towards the barrack after entering in the city. There must be some maps of the town. We can know the position of the barrack through the map. After entering the barrack, we’ll persuade Bianca’s fiancé to leave the army. Then, we wait there with the soldiers for the invasion of Hoemuo,” detailed Floria.

“I have a question. Won’t those soldiers know that we’re wanted criminals?” questioned Yanni.

“They will have to accept our help, because it will be impossible for them to beat Hoemuo without us,” answered Floria.

“It makes sense, sister,” consented Yanni.

They could feel that success was waiting for them.

Hoemuo was coming to attack city, and when he attacked, the three would fight with him and saved Aisling.

Cuore Celeste had been taken by him. If they could take back that gemstone, they would be able to save Aisling out of it.

Confidently, Stasha opened the manhole.

Fresh air of the outside came into their noses.

That was comfortable and far better than the shitty smell in the sewer.