Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Dramata Kurage! ❯ Chapter 29 ( Chapter 29 )

Disclaimer: Slayers and their characters are not owned by me. They belong to Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi and any other companies which own them. I'm just borrowing them for a little bit and I promise to give them back all in perfect working order.

29.0

It's kind of hard to keep track of time when you're left in a cell with no light. I didn't know if night had come, or if it was still a day. Had a day just gone by, or was it just one hour. I thought about moving from the cold floor, but the beating I received made me feel like it was just too much effort. The only problem was that the floor was cold and damp, and pretty solid too. I was also pretty certain that there were other things in there with me. Rats most likely, probably a few bugs. Probably some slugs too.

Thinking about slugs got me thinking about Lina immediately. At least it was me in here and not her, or I hoped that she wasn't placed in a similar situation in Zephilia. I couldn't see why she would be put in such a situation but I guessed that Lina would have thought the same about me. She didn't know too much about my past and so probably would think my older brother would beat me half to death.

Graudy knew what he was doing. He gave me a pretty good beating but knew it was nothing too serious. A few days recovery and I would be pretty much back to normal. Well maybe not the ribs, but there would be healers to deal with that sort of thing. He was angry about the sword and so he knew what he was doing. Rather than just give me one hell of a beating, he would give me lots of beatings. Forcing the pain to be drawn out, make me recover just enough to be able to deal with the next onslaught but not enough to truly get over the previous one.

The cold was getting too much for me and I knew I had to move off the cold damp floor. There wasn't anywhere else more comfortable but having part of my body against the floor was better than the whole thing. I tried to push myself off the ground, only to wince as my wrist cracked. I forgot it was broken, but the pain quickly reminded me. I used my other hand mainly and growled lowly through gritted teeth to get over the pain from my ribs.

Soon I was in a sitting position and with ever subtle movements, I managed to shuffle my way over to the wall. I then used it to lean against, and keep myself propped up, rather than on the floor. I carefully pulled my knees up towards my chest, since too close and it would have been much too painful, but I needed to keep warm. I managed to pull my arms through the sleeves of the bloodied and damp tunic, and used it as some sort of thin duvet. My hands reached beneath my armpits, and soon my hands began to warm up. It didn't take long then for the tiredness to catch up and I was soon dozing off.

Some time later I woke up to a blindingly bright light and loud banging against the metallic door. I looked up and shielded my eyes once I remembered my arms were tucked into my tunic and then noticed the lack of pain from my body. I was either asleep for a really long time or a healer had come in to patch me up. I went with the last option since if I had really slept for so long, I would have been starving. I was only hungry. Just shows I had a decent enough clock; my own hunger.

Within moments of waking up, I was dragged up by the chest of my tunic to my feet. I hissed slightly, noticing my ribs weren't totally healed. I offered up a bit of a struggle initially, not really sure what I would have done if I broke free of the arms of whoever was holding me. However such thoughts were soon gone as I felt a blow to the back of my head, and the world turned as black as the cell.

Once I woke up again, I had been returned to the room I was in earlier where Graudy dished out his `payback'. I looked up after finding out the limits of my movement, and noticed that general alongside Graudy. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“Let's just get to the point Graudy. Tell me what you want me to do so I can refuse which means you can beat the hell out of me again. Although even if I did what you wanted, I'm pretty sure you would put in a bit of punishment for the hell of it. And just so we get it straight, I don't have the sword. It's gone.” I stated with a glare completely focussed on Graudy.

“Admit that you were wrong for stealing the sword.” Graudy returned the look.

I laughed as much as my ribs would let me which didn't seem to amuse Graudy as much.

“You've got to be pulling my leg! How was I the one in the wrong? You KILLED our father.”
“We're not here about that bitter old man. This is about you admitting you were wrong for stealing something that was rightfully not yours.”
“So killing dad, meant it was rightfully yours? Yes Graudy I stole it! But it was for the good of our family. He wouldn't have been the only one to die. There would have been more!” I yelled in anger.

Graudy stepped forward and delivered a punch to the right side of my chin. My head jerked backwards and to the left and sent the room into a spin. My head returned back and slumped downwards.

“That still doesn't make what you did right. I should have taken the sword!”
“I think there was a reason you weren't given the sword yet. You weren't ready for such responsibility.”

That remark earned another punch to the other side of my chin, which produced the same reactions but with the addition of a little blood which trickled from my lips.

“So what made you think you were!?” He spat out in anger.
“Nothing did. I was a kid, Graudy. I was confused with the situation. I didn't want to see anymore of my family die, and so the only thing I could think of to make it stop was to steal the sword. I admit I stole it. However I refuse to say that I was wrong for doing it. I believe I did the right thing, even if no one else in our family believed the same. I don't care.”

Graudy took a hold of my hair and yanked my head backwards painfully. He spat into my face which would have been filled with venom if he was capable.

“You were just a greedy little bastard! I saw you, trying to train when father was teaching me. The whole time you wanted to do what I did and in the end you wanted to take what I was going to eventually take. You wanted it all for yourself Gourry and no one else.”

I was tired of talking. I knew that there was nothing else I could say which would change his mind. He made his mind up a long time ago, and he was never going to change it no matter how hard I tried. So I stopped caring. If he could get over the past by beating me up, then he could do it. Who was I to stop him? I did steal it after all. But I still truly believed I was right. I too wasn't going to change my mind. That's why I stopped talking.

“You're despicable, Gourry.”

Letting go of my hair, he began throwing punches into my chest like I was a punching bag. He knew my ribs were in bad condition and so he closed in on them to try and cause me as much pain as possible. I gritted my teeth and did my best to take it all, but soon I couldn't help but let out a howl of pain as the punches became too much. At that point he raised his foot towards me, and thrust it hard into my chest. This forced the chair to slide back a couple of feet before tilting and sending me crashing to the ground.

I coughed out harshly and could taste blood in my mouth. I waited for the attacks to continue but they never came. Instead a couple of soldiers came in and pushed the chair back upright and realised that Graudy had left, leaving just the general after the soldiers quickly left.

“So…do you want me in the army? Or am I just some punching bag for my brother when he wants to let off a little steam.” I asked, coughing once more to clear up the blocked feeling in my throat. I realised soon after it was blood.
“Of course we do! We could really use someone like you in the war against the Zephilian scum. However there are some certain conditions.”
“And they are?”
“Well under Elmekian law, you are a criminal. You have been charged with stealing valuable property, and treason. That means you still fight in the army, but you will be sentenced accordingly after your services.”
“Treason?”
“Yes, willingly working with someone who conspires against our great nation.”
“And who the hell would that be!?”
“Lina Inverse of course.”

I laughed at the insanity of such a comment.

“Lina doesn't care about Elmekia! She doesn't even want to be involved in the war!”
“Well we have information that she has already been recruited by the Zephilian army. It looks like she wants in on a piece of the action.”
“You're lying.”
“Our spies are the best in the land, Gourry. You should know that.”

I looked down at the ground and knew something wasn't right. Lina wouldn't willingly join the army. That just didn't seem like her at all. There was more to it than that. I was sure of it.

“Let me guess. The only reason I've not be hung already is because you need me to deal with Lina.”
“You guess well.”
“Well you better hang me right now then, because I won't be helping you to fight Lina. I don't care what you say or try.”
“Well whether you like it or not, you WILL be placed on that battlefield and when Lina does show up, you will fight her and help the Elmekian army defeat her.”
“What stops me from joining up with her?”
“Several of our best sniping archers with their sights set for your head.”
“We'll see then…”

The general grinned before leaving the room where the two soldiers returned to take me back to the cell. They knocked me out first of course because I would surely have fought back like before. When I came around once again, I was back in the darkness of the cell. I propped myself back up against the wall and was just thankful that I wasn't as bad as last time. My ribs weren't broken this time, but they were just as badly bruised. It was difficult to get into a comfortable position.

My mind was just racing through the thoughts of facing up to Lina on the battlefield. Could I seriously fight her? If I didn't then I would have been turned into a human pincushion. But then surely if they could do that to me, they could do the same to Lina. I guess they thought Lina would be able to protect herself with magic, where as I would only have a sword. Maybe I could fend them off, but was that a risk I was willing to take. Maybe it would have to be because I certainly wasn't going to take on Lina.

It felt like there was too much to think about. Even after it ended, what would happen to me? Treason meant the death penalty so why bother in the first place? That was a silly question, the reason to bother was because I wanted to get this all over with and get back with Lina. That meant I had to do whatever it took, and if that meant putting my life at risk, well then how was that any different to the way things were before.

Kurage

29.1

I decided to hang around the house while Luna was at work. I didn't feel like thinking, and I figured it would be nice to read some of the old sorcery books and see how far I progressed. In doing so, I actually discovered a couple of methods that I hadn't used in a few years but that I was sure would come in handy. Being idle sure is useful sometimes.

However, sometimes, in the middle of a sentence or when I went pottering around for food (my mother always kept a healthy stock of leftovers about), my thoughts would drift to Gourry. I wondered if he was alright. I wondered if he had handled his brother. I wondered if he was even alive.

However, I didn't have to ponder for long. Soon, the first interruption came along. When the knocking came at the door, I knew who it was and what they wanted. Calmly, I reached over the table, grabbed the crumpled up summons, and walked over to the door.

When I opened it, sure enough, two men and one woman, dressed in army uniforms, stood there looking very official and very dorky.

One of the men, the one in the centre, opened his mouth to speak, but I brought my hand forward and shoved the crumpled-up summons into his mouth.

“Tell Sobold to take his summons and shove it. I'm not joining him in his pissing contest,” I snapped. All three looked scandalized, but I ignored them and slammed the door on their faces without another thought.

Well, that made me feel much better than before.

I wanted to possibly go out and get some of Melvin's sausages, but I knew that if I set foot outside of my door, I was going to be hounded by annoying morons from the recruiting front. So there was a definite minus side to the whole chaos theory of getting the army off my back.

When Luna came home briefly to let me know that she was jumping shifts from the restaurant to the store, she seemed somewhat relieved to see me at home. Or maybe it was hopeful thinking projected what I wanted to see? Either way, it was sort of nice.

Soon, after she left, and I was lounging upside-down on one of the nearby couches, playing with a Lighting spell to kill the boredom, there was knocking on the door again. When I listened to it, it sounded much more insistent. I slid off the couch and got to my feet, then answered the door casually, hand on my hip.

This time, there were FIVE soldiers standing there.

“Hi,” I said calmly, grinning from ear to ear. “How are you?”

The front soldier glared at me. “Lina Inverse, you were ordered to report to the Elite Training Camp. Because of your failure to appear, you will be escorted there by force.”

“Oh, that was today?” I said, putting a hand to my cheek. “Gee, I must have forgotten.”

“Your previous actions have proven otherwise.”

I dropped my hand and grinned at him again, my mind already forming the words I needed for what I was about to do. “Ah, that's true. Silly me.”

The soldier, who looked more confused than pissed off now, shifted from foot to foot and said slowly, “Well, now you must come along, and--”

The sudden eruption of a Fireball from my hands caused him and his cronies to be silent. And away from my doorstep. Quite a distance away, actually.

(Luna told me much later that she, when she heard the blast and looked out the window from the store, saw two soldiers fly by smoking and screaming.)

I slammed the door again, rubbing my hands together and smiling. “That takes care of that.”

And when I looked up again, you can imagine how startled/pissed/annoyed I was to find Xellos standing there.

“You're next,” I said automatically, holding my hands to my side and summoning up much more than a Fireball. I was not in the mood for Xellos, or anyone like him, especially after the last time I had seen him.

Xellos did something completed unexpected, something that I would have never in a million years would have foreseen. He held up his staff, pointed the orbed tip at me, and muttered a few words under his breath.

I felt the stiffening pain course through me, and the spell faded from my hands. I gritted my teeth, unable to move. The damn bastard had put a paralyzing spell on me!

He lowered his staff and smiled. Now THAT was something I had expected. “It seems that nowadays we cannot have a civil conversation without resorting to brute force.”

I glared at him, squeaking furiously, the squeaks the only way I could convey my rage.

He walked over to an armchair and sat down lazily in it, draping his legs over one side. “But since I have things to say and I would like to say them without interruption, a little manipulation is needed.”

Damn it, I thought, there has to be some sort of counter spell for this stupid thing. Wasn't there? I frantically searched the hidden lore in my brain and found nothing that could match this spell. This wasn't an average spell. Clearly, Xellos was using his advanced level against me.

Bastard.

“Ah, sometimes a person doesn't realize how nice it is to talk freely until one actually gets the chance,” Xellos trilled.

I managed a drawn-out, throaty growl, as loud as I could.

“Ah, you want me to get to the point,” Xellos translated, putting his hand under his chin. His eyes opened halfly and gazed at me, with an expression on his face that I couldn't read. “Well, here it is: Things aren't looking up for you, Lina-san. Inn fact, it seems that things are becoming rather dreary for you.”

I narrowed my eyes, feeling the slight prickling through my muscles as the feeling slowly went out. Hurry UP, I thought furiously, before I pass out.

“I overheard you earlier state that you wished things could go back to normal, back to the way they were before this mess.”

Eavesdropping. Glamour.

“If you agree to my terms, Lina-san, they can be.”

The rage was too much for me, now. I could actually feel my body tremble with the unspent rage.

A split second before the door opened, Xellos shot to his feet and opened his eyes all the way, no longer looking so calm and breezy.

A blur darted past me and rushed right at Xellos. Quicker than I could follow, Xellos held his staff up between both hands and parried the blow that came from said blur. It was then that I noticed that the blur was my sister, and her butcher knife was glowing a blinding bright blue.

“Leave. Now.” She said this through gritted teeth, her voice low and dripping with unspoken threat.

Xellos narrowed his eyes, and again, I saw that scary notion of fear in his eyes when he looked at Luna. Without another word, he pulled his staff away and phased out.

The spell released its hold and I collapsed in a nice oblivious heap, my mind going blank for a moment.

When I came to, I felt like I had been danced on by every single participant of the wine festival. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, sitting up. When I looked around, Luna was kneeling next to me, but not touching me. Her bangs were brushed back, and her eyes were large and intense.

“Safe now?”

I nodded, both grateful and resentful that she had somehow sensed that Xellos was pestering me. “Thank you,” I mumbled, rubbing my head now.

“What did the priest want?” Luna said bluntly.

I didn't hesitate. “To turn me into one of them,” I answered, looking down at my hands. “Again,” I whispered the last part.

Luna jerked back, but then caught herself and calmed down. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Power, I guess.”

Luna frowned. “Seems like a huge effort just to get more power, when they could manipulate hundreds of people to join them for the equivalent.”

I smiled. “You flatter me.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “No, I speak the truth. I think there's more to it than that, but I have no clue the whole story and I don't have time right now to hear it. Tell me later, will you?”

“Yeah,” I said, not really meaning it. I got up slowly to my feet, flexing out my arms and legs and getting the blood flowing again. “Is that why you came home before and checked in on me?”

She stood up beside me and nodded. “I had sensed something was off. I just wasn't sure what. The priest has good shields.”

“No kidding,” I muttered.

She ruffled my hair. “Try to stay out of trouble for the rest of the day, please,” was all she said, before she turned and headed back out the door.

No sooner had I stuffed my face with some of the rolls from the previous night that a knocking sounded at my door.

I sighed, dropped the rolls, cracked my neck, and answered the door.

Dramata

29.2

I could talk about what happened the next day, and then I could talk about what happened the day after that. The thing, is what happened for roughly about a week was exactly the same every single. I'd wake up, get dragged out of my cell after being knocked out. Graudy would then beat me up for a good hour and then the general would speak to me about Lina. I knew what the general was doing. He was taking advantage of the situation Graudy was leaving for him. He thought that if I was beaten enough, then I would start talking.

As for Graudy, well I wasn't so sure about him. He just seemed to have a lot of pent up anger inside of him that must have built up the entire time I was away. Now he was taking the chance to let go of all of it. I kept silent through most of it or at least to the best of my ability. There were times I couldn't help but let out a groan of pain here or there. I didn't really want to write about what happened, and in all honesty I don't think I could remember every single detail. It was best for me to just think of something else, and that something else was obviously Lina.

However, once Graudy was done with his beating session, the general would come in and then the last thing on my mind was Lina. I didn't want to spend a single moment thinking about her in his presence in fear of letting out a vital piece of information. Things like her weaknesses, how she attacked. I picked up on them a lot, mostly her skill with a sword. She wasn't all that great and she could get pretty predictable in her movements, but Lina didn't need to rely on that. When Lina used magic she was pretty much unbeatable, I knew I would have little chance against her. If she was using her sword only, then I could beat her with one hand tied behind my back. She definitely put up a battle against others; people much like those recruited into the army.

Anyway, I made sure to keep quiet and instead of Lina, my thoughts drifted to my family. Graudy was just so angry and it was all directed towards me. It made me wonder if everyone else felt the same way. Did they all really care about the sword so much that I was hated for taking it away. I wanted to know but yet I didn't want to. I wanted to find out, but I didn't want to go and see them hate me. At least if I stayed away, then there would always be the possibility that they still cared and wondered about me.

Well once the beating and the interrogation was over, I was taken back to my cell in the darkness. I was given what I guess was called a meal, but it seemed more like an afternoon snack and then I would drift off to sleep. This repeated the next day, only I found that when I had woken up, most of my body was healed. Not all of it but most of it. It was just enough to remind me of what was going on.

As I said earlier, this continued for a week, or at least what I thought was a week and then it stopped. Instead I was lead away from my cell, and I wasn't knocked out either. I was lead to a pretty large room which was filled with what looked like new recruits. Up on the stage was the general and he was stood behind a podium. I was kept at the rear of the room with a few guards keeping watch on me. I guess they didn't want me running away.

“Soldiers! You are to be congratulated for doing the most honourable thing and man can do!” The general began what I figured was going to be one of those stupid motivational speeches. “Your bravery is to be commended and the citizens of the great empire of Elmekia will be proud as you go into battle with the scum in Zephilia.”

“We'll tear `em apart!!!” A random soldier yelled out, obviously way too excited on adrenaline.

“That's the spirit!” The general smirked before continuing. “The Zephilians wish to condemn our way of life! They want to put an end to our ways and so they plan on invading and taking control. Well we won't let them! We'll attack before they even have the chance! They will be so unaware that they'll run screaming for help! That's because they are weak, and you are strong! You are Elmekian, and the blood of a warrior runs through each and everyone of you.

So go into battle against our sworn enemies, and show no mercy. Let's give these scum an example of what true superiority is. We will not be pushed around, and we will not be stopped for living the life we should be aloud to have! We shall be victorious!!!”

The general raised a fist in the air and the whole room erupted into endless cheering and roars of aggression. I just shook my head at the rubbish that was being spoken and looking into the eyes of the soldiers who were guarding me told me that deep inside, they felt the same way I did.

“Why was I brought here to listen to this rubbish? Why not just leave me in my cell?” I asked amongst the din of the dying cheers and excited rambling of the soldiers.
“You will be assigned to your troop and will immediately engage in the invasion of Zephilia.”
“What makes you think I'll be so willing to fight for this `great' country?”

The soldiers ignored me and watched on as the crowd of soldiers started to split off into smaller groups. I figured they must have been divided into their assigned company. I think the soldiers realised that at this point I was going to pretty much go along with what I was told to do. It was pretty well known that any deserters were quickly tracked down and killed. The Elmekian army was admired for their skilled bowmen who were excellent snipers. The second a man started sprinting for safety away from the battlefield, they had an arrow in the back of that mans head before continuing with the battle. I was a good swordsman but I wasn't sure even my ability could hold up to the numerous archers.

“Gourry Gabriev! Assigned with company 415!” A gravelled voice was heard over the din. The voice reeked of experience.

I glanced to the guards before moving towards the voice. I soon came across a pretty short but strongly built man. He wasn't much taller than Lina to be honest, but his biceps were larger than Lina's chest.

“Here.” I stated.
“Excuse me?” He replied, looking up to me.
“Here…sir.”
“That's better. Now, how much experience do you have?”
“Sword fighting pretty much my whole life.”
“You any good?”
“Decent enough.”
“Captain you are then.”

I blinked in confusion, wondering if I heard the man right.

“Excuse me sir?” I asked just to make sure.
“You've be assigned as captain. You will be the leader of this troop when we head into battle. They will report to you and you will report to me. Got it?”
“Umm…I guess.”
“Good. Now let's move out! No time to lose! We got some Zephilians to exterminate!!!”

We all pretty much headed off towards the Zephilian border, being one of the first groups to do so. I guess we were the ones to cause as much damage as possible while the ones behind did the clean up job. Of course, that meant we were the ones at most risk. I wasn't surprised to realise that I was part of the group.

Camp was set up just as night fell and the mood was pretty good amongst the troops. They all seemed to be excited, most had never been in battle before but obviously couldn't wait to have their first try. I knew most of them would probably never return home.

I headed for the colonels quarters and once inside, I decided I needed to speak pretty openly with him.

“I'm not comfortable with being assigned captain, sir.”
“I know Gourry. I know why you're here and I know about your past.”
“Then why make me captain.”
“Because I can't afford not to do so. You're a good swordsman, your ability is way beyond anybody here, myself included.”

He stood up from his chair and strolled around the table before stopping in front of it and leaning against it.

“I won't claim to know everything about you, but I know that you've travelled with Lina Inverse long enough to become good friends. I know very well that a war ain't gonna break that friendship up. I'll keep this a secret for just us. I'm not any happier than you are to be involved in this war. I served my time and paid my dues. I didn't expect to be called into this, but I didn't have much choice. It was this or jail, possibly death.

But we're here now, and on the battlefield its kill or be killed. They won't give a damn who you are and they will be out to kill you. You just have to ask yourself if you're willing to be killed, or are you going to try and fight. You look like the type who will fight till the end. I don't know what will happen if you meet up with this Inverse girl, but up until that point, you are serving under me, and you will do as I say, got it?”

I was pretty surprised by the honesty of this guy and I genuinely thought he didn't want to be there. He almost seemed sympathetic towards me, but what he said was true. I was in the situation now and there wasn't much else I could do to change that. I just had to get on with it, and when Lina turned up, well then I would just have to cross that bridge when I got there.

Kurage

29.3

Ah. It was the man of the hour, good ol' Sobold himself. Still scrawny and awkward looking, although his hair was much shorter and he DID have SOME muscle definition. However, his eyes, a muddy and dull brown, were still too close together, and his blond hair was still clumpy and gross-looking.

“Um, can you come back later?” I said sweetly. “I recently had an altercation with a Mazoku and need time to recover.”

Apparently it was easy to confuse him still, for he looked puzzled. “Mazoku?” he said, his voice a little nasally.

“Mm hmm,” I agreed, nodding slowly.

He shook his head, as if shaking himself out of a reverie. He seemed to actually remember why he was there. “Lina Inverse…” he began.

“Yes, yes,” I nodded, holding one hand out at my side. “I know. I'm being horribly awful, ignoring your summons. But I simply do not give a rat's ass about fighting Elmekia. So you can STILL shove it up your ass, Sobold.”

As the spell began to spark to life over my hand, Sobold began to look nervous, but, to his credit, firm. “As the summons stated, you have no say in the matter. The situation has become bad enough that we need to start drafting people into the battles.”

“Go pick on someone else, Sobold,” I snapped, bringing my hand up, the spell finished.

Sobold stepped forward, drew his sword, and held the tip up to the hollow of my throat. And all of this before I could even release the spell.

Huh. Imagine that.

“Luckily, this time, we came prepared with magic-users,” he said meanly, “so if you try and pull any of that explosive garbage you pulled last time, you can imagine the consequences.”

I examined his comrades closely, checking to see if what he said was actually true. Sure enough, a couple of them did give off the faint aura of magical power. I didn't doubt that these consequences he spoke of would be painful and not very nice, but I would be damned if I went down without a fight.

I held up both hands this time, muttering quickly under my breath. I wasn't in the mood for playing anymore. I didn't want to be used as some sort of pawn in some sort of war that I didn't even understand.

The moment the spell sparked to life, Sobold pushed forward on the sword, and I felt a sharp stab of pain followed by a hot trickle of wetness at the hollow of my throat. I glared at him, but he didn't withdraw.

“Cease the spell or face the consequences,” he warned.

I sensed the flare-ups of power before I saw them, and when I flicked my eyes over, the two soldiers who were also sorcerers were already powering up their own spells.

“What difference would it make,” I asked carefully, “if I joined you or not? Why is it such a fixation to get me in fatigues and get me to wave the Zephilia flag? What does it matter if I'm there or not?”

Sobold grinned nastily. “You'll find out in the camp.”

I narrowed my eyes. “The hell I will,” I snapped. I brought my hands up and opened my mouth to speak the final incantation of the spell, but before I could do so, all I could see was black.

To this day I don't even know what had happened to me, whether it had been Sobold who had knocked me out, or whether it had been the sorcerers, but all I know is, because of that, I lost a huge chunk of time.

When I woke up, my throat hurt and I felt tired and stupid, like I had drunk too much wine. I opened my eyes and found dim light. When I sat up and rubbed my eyes, something poked me roughly on my side. I jerked and turned to look, and saw that Sobold was sitting a few feet away in a chair, jabbing me with the hilt of his sword.

As it turns out, I was situated in a crappy cot in a crappy tent in the middle of the crappy camp I had been trying to avoid. And all I had on me was the clothes on my back. I didn't even have my short sword.

Sobold looked bored. “Awake now?”

I glared at him, getting to my feet. “I'm going to blow this damned place apart!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I held my hands out in front of me, aiming right at Sobold, but he merely looked like he was about to fall asleep.

That was like fuel to the fire. I started rapid-fire chanting, probably as fast as I ever had until that moment, and when I clenched my hands together, ready to receive the full brunt of the spell...

...nothing happened.

Not even a spark, not even a puff of smoke. Nothing. Nada. A whole lot of silence.

Um, quite literally.

I gaped at my hands, speechless.

Sobold looked a little less bore now. “You understand now?”

I lunged at him, grabbing the hilt of the sword he had been jabbing me with. In one moment, I pulled it from its sheath, swung the sword forward, and aimed the sharp end right in the middle of his forehead.

“Take the silence spell of me NOW!” I screamed, feeling myself shaking with rage.

Sobold raised an eyebrow. “Why? So that you can blow me apart?”

“YES!” I shouted.

“Lina, you haven't changed at all,” he said calmly. “Don't you realize that you pretty much confirmed my reasoning as to why I wanted you in the army in the first place?”

“Just shut up and unsilence me or I'll slice and dice you!” I snapped, pushing the sword closer, almost touching his forehead with the tip.

“You just ambushed me when I had my reflexes on hairtrigger,” he went on.

“They're not reflexes if you can prepare them!” I answered, unable to resist correcting his stupidity.

“Okay, my prep skills, then,” he corrected, and that made me feel less homicidal, because any other time I'm sure he would have argued with me. “My point is that you just ambushed me and pulled my own sword on me. If you can do that sort of thing on the battlefield, Elmekia is toast.”

“I don't give a rat's ass about Elmekia or the battle field!” I shouted, tossing the sword away furiously. I knew he wasn't going to do a damned thing for me, and besides, the sword felt wrong in my hands after what he said, anyways.

“How can you be so unpatriotic?” Sobold demanded, looking scandalized.

“Oh, go jump off a cliff, Sobold,” I shot back. “Just because I don't feel like killing soldiers for some backwards definition of patriotism doesn't mean I'm not true to Zephilia. If you had asked me years ago I would have said no, and if you ask me years in the future, I will STILL say no.”

Sobold picked up his sword and sheathed it, getting to his feet. “The beauty of conscription is that you have no choice,” he replied. “Your magic will be returned once Elmekia is Zephilia territory.”

I clenched my fists, glaring at him, shaking with my unspent rage.

“You'll be up at dawn,” he said as he headed out of the tent. “Be ready to train. You'll be given an appropriate sword when you sign in. Also,” he lingered in the doorway, “if you try to escape in the middle of the night, we'll know, and you'll be dragged back.”

On that cheerful note, he vanished out of the tent. I heard him ordering two soldiers to stand watch at the tent's entrance.

Bastard.

I was pretty much trapped now. I had done all I could, and had tried with all of my might, and ended up burying myself deeper when I had tried to get out of it. Who knew that threatening a commanding officer would prove your worth to his army?

I slumped back down on the crappy cot, feeling the anger bubble up and spill over. Before I knew it, I was tearing all over the tent, tossing and stomping on anything I could get my hands on, including the lamp (the flames went out before it could spread. Lucky me), the pillow (it looked like it was snowing in my tent), and even the mattress (I flipped it over and tossed it against one of the walls, almost tipping over the whole damned tent).

When my anger was spent, I sat down in the middle of the mess, feathers raining down on my head. I panted, my eyes glazed over, wishing I could blow SOMETHING up.

Instead, I fell over on my side, curled up in a ball, and shut my eyes, my thoughts fastening on Gourry, my family, and how many ways I could destroy Sobold with his own sword.

Eventually, I managed to fall asleep.

Dramata

29.4

“Hold back! HOLD BACK! Stop trying to be heroes, because you'll only get killed!” I yelled in anger.

 

We were engaged in the first battle and the first thing the majority of our troops did was to run forward with swords flailing in the air. This meant that a good number of them were struck down pretty quickly without even putting in a decent attack.

 

I turned to the colonel with a look of frustration in my eyes.

 

“Did you train these guys at all?”

“Of course not. You should know by now. We just get numbers in when the time is needed. No training. Just a sword and some armour and you're ready to fight for the country.”

“That's the perfect way to get a lot of innocent kids dead!” I growled before charging forward.

 

Only once I got close I started to realise what I was going to get myself into. I didn't want to be at battle anymore than the Zephilians we were fighting, so why should I be going round trying to kill them. My change of heart meant that instead of delivering final blows, I was knocking them out instead with anything at hand. I used anything from my body, the handle of the sword and the flat of the blade.

 

I darted in close to a couple who decided to try and attack at the same time. Their swing was obvious and so I was able to evade it easily. I then swung my leg out sharply and caught the back of the knee of one of the men. He fell to his knees and the swing forced me to turn around. I used the momentum to carry on and bury the handle of the sword into the back of his neck and knock him out. The guy left then desperately trying to swing his sword back towards me. I just brought up my own blade and easily blocked the attack and followed through with a strong elbow.

 

Thinking I was ready to move onto the next area, I almost forgot about the growing bloodlust I felt behind me. I dove to the side as quickly as possibly and heard the whoosh of the wind as the blade swung past me just barely. I hit the ground but twisted my body so I went into a roll, then quickly pushed my legs out to stop the roll continue. I got back up to my feet quickly and used it to change direction quickly back towards the surprise attacker. I drove the blade towards him swiftly but he was ready and parried the attack easily. However that was only the setup and the parry set me into my next movement. I was already close to his hands and I quickly drove my fist into them. He let go of the sword with a yelp of pain and I took him out in his moment of surprise with a roundhouse kick.

 

Suddenly an arm grabbed hold of me and nearly yanked me off balance.

 

“What the HELL do you think you're doing, Gourry?!” The colonel yelled with fury that I thought it was going to rival Lina's.

“I'm not killing these kids. They're kids after all!”

“Well those kids are killing our own kids here! You just knock them out; they'll get up again and kill more of us! Remember, its kill or be killed! This isn't some game of tag and you're out! This is WAR!”

“I never agreed to kill anyone. I'll help out, but I refuse to kill them!”

 

With that I started to walk away, furious with the situation. This was stupid. I never wanted to be here, and I thought I made things pretty clear I didn't really want to help out but they threw me into that situation anyway. I would have continued walking on if it wasn't for the whistling sounds of arrows. I turned sharply to the blur or arrows and with my sword I started to cut them down as quickly as they came. Only there were too many at once and at least three out of seven missed my sword. Luckily the arrows missed me, but as I looked up to the archers who sent those arrows, I realised that I wasn't so lucky after all.

 

“The next ones hit the target…” The leader of the group spoke coldly.

 

I glared back at them but I realised deep inside that I wasn't going to simply walk out on this. My eyes turned back to the battlefield and I realised that the colonel was right. I was being self conscious, but in the mean time, those kids I didn't want to kill were mercilessly killing the Elmekian soldiers. I glanced back to the archers once more before returning to the side of the colonel.

 

“War isn't pretty. If I heard right you should already know about it.”

“I promised myself I wouldn't go through this again. All of this needless killing doesn't make sense.”

“Well then make a reason for it. It doesn't matter what it is, but give yourself a reason to do it. Concentrate on it and forget about what it is you're really doing.”

 

I didn't want to admit it, but the old guy was right in some weird sense. I had experienced a war before and it was something I didn't want to go through again. I can fight against bandits pretty easily without much feeling of remorse, but it's different in war. A lot of the people don't want to be there in the first place, especially myself at that point. What right did that give me to go killing them when they didn't want to be there?

 

I guess my first mistake was trying to come up with some sort of reason for war. The reality was that there is no reason for war. The whole thing is stupid and it makes no sense, so to try to come up with a good reason is just useless. Lots of innocent people get killed. In the end you have to be selfish and realise you don't want to be the one who is killed.

 

I glanced to the colonel and nodded slowly before looking ahead to the mayhem that lay before me. I had found my reason to go through such insanity. It wasn't really all that hard to come up with it. I needed to get back to Lina. How I was going to do it given the situation was something I couldn't think about. I just knew that I wanted to get back to Lina, and in my way was the Zephilian army.

 

So I clenched my sword tightly in my hands and with a deep breath and a small prayer to L-sama who had given Lina back to me once more, and I headed into the bloodshed and took the first of many lives in the war against Zephilia.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------

 

It took several hours to get through but eventually the first battle went our way. We didn't have many skilled but when you have overwhelming numbers like we had, well then there wasn't much that could be done. We had lost many and so did the Zephilians. Those that were alive were either injured or surrendering. They were taken away for questioning and I guessed would be later used for bargaining. Meanwhile our injured were being treated by healers or patched up and made ready for our move into Zephilia.

 

The colonel motioned for me to go closer to him and so I did so.

 

“Glad you found your reason.”

“It was pretty easy to come up with. Didn't require much thought.”

 

He smiled and nodded and I think he knew what the reasoning was. His face then turned more serious.

 

“We've been given orders to take over the nearest town to the border. We're to kill anyone we come across and leave the fleers to spread fear amongst the country.”

“Strike fear into them and make them surrender as quick as possible. Elmekia want to get it finished with quickly. Surely they realise Zephilia won't be such a push over. Their borders are not gonna be as well patrolled as the capital will. They're fools to think it will be so easy. Typical of us to think we can take over everything with brute force.”

“Well they're our orders and we're to move out as quickly as possible. You should take a group on up now and we won't be far behind for support. I think they've learnt from their mistakes now.”

“Very well then.”

 

I turned away and round up the group of soldiers who were fit and ready and those recently patched up who were ready to continue on. We then quickly started heading into Zephilia and towards the town we were to invade.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------

 

Whoever supplied the information to head for the town must have done a really good job, because the townspeople were unsuspecting. I made sure to attack all of the soldiers first which gave time for the townspeople to flee. Just because I had managed to come up with a way to be able to take on the soldiers still didn't mean I was going to slaughter innocent townspeople.

 

Once the soldiers were dealt with, I looked around to find the town deserted. Well that was a good start at least. I realised though that we would have to do a sweep of the area to make sure which included housing. I spread the troops out and ordered them through to check each house thoroughly before moving onto the next one. It did seem like a pointless exercise as each house was found to be empty, but it was something that had to be done, no risks could be taken.

 

“Clear!” I yelled after exiting a house and looking up to the next one as distant cries of `clear' echoed through the deserted city. I moved on and quickly entered, moving the solider behind me on to check the next house. I looked around the ground floor carefully, checking all cupboards. This had to be done to stop any soldiers who decided to hide to sneak an attack on the unsuspecting troops.

 

Once I finished, I headed upstairs and quickly checked all the rooms and came up with nothing. I finally checked what I guessed was a linen closest and widened my eyes in surprise. A mother was holding onto her two small children for dear life. She must have hidden in the closest when news of the attack came and in fear of what may happen, decided to hide away. The children were crying but doing their best to keep quiet and I could see the pleading in the mother's eyes.

 

I simply nodded and brought a finger to my lips, suggesting that they keep completely quiet. The mother replied by mouthing `thank you' in return. I closed the linen closet door and quickly headed out of the house.

 

“Clear!” I yelled just as I had the countless times from before.

“Good job, Gourry.” The colonel stated. I was surprised to say the least. “I expected you to leave some for us by the time we got here but you look like you had all the fun for yourself. Anyway, you must be tired, allow us to take over.”

“We're fine here colonel, we're nearly done now.”

“No no, I insist. Solider, check this house.”

“I just said it's clear.”

“Well then you won't mind this soldier checking.”

“I do mind sir. We're wasting valuable time.”

“Well he needs the experience. Go on soldier. Remember, kill Zephilians you come across.”

 

The soldier nodded and headed inside and my immediate reaction was to charge forward.

 

“NO! Dammit!!” I yelled in frustration.

“What's the problem!?” The colonel turned to me with a glare.

“N...nothing.” I stammered a reply.

“Oh really?”

“Yes…” I replied in defeat.

 

I just hoped that the soldier being inexperienced might make mistakes and miss out on the linen closest, but all hopes were gone when I heard those horrific screams.

 

Instinct immediately took hold and I started to charge forward, only to find two arrows find my arm and my leg. I groaned in pain and collapsed to the knee of my undamaged leg. The moment I went to my knees was when another soldier drove their knee right into my face. My head snapped back into a painful angle and before I knew it, the world around be disappeared into darkness. At least the pain of the arrows was gone, but the bloodcurdling screams of the mother and her children remained even when I was knocked out.

29.5

When I woke up, it was still dark. I wondered what had gotten me up in the first place, until I heard the sound of a shrill, louder-than-hell trumpet blaring, cutting through the quiet morning.

Cursing, I rolled over on my other side determined to ignore it and pretend I was at home. Deep down, I was disappointed that I had forgotten, in my rage, to try and sneak out in the middle of the night. Also, deep down, I was relieved. I hadn't had that dream again.

For some reason, it occurred to me then that I had neglected to ask Sobold about why it was prudent to get me in the army. I figured that I had all day to ask him about that, so why fret about it?

Soon, the sound of a wake-up call replaced the trumpet. I groaned and buried myself deeper under the mess of feathers and blankets.

Eventually, inevitably, the flap to my tent was brushed open, and the words, “GET UP NOW YOU LAZY WENCH!” were shouted into my deaf ears. When I sat up and started to scream back, the source of the voice was already gone.

My fingers itched to use magic and blow the tent to kingdom come, but even when I tried, nothing would come of it. I guess they were serious when they said they were going to use me for my sword skills rather than my magic. It was sort of flattering. I mean, I admit that my swordswoman skills are above average, but I doubted they were army caliber.

In any case, I decided to bury myself under the nest I had made last night. I would be damned if I wasn't going to make it hard for them.

It would have been a perfect plan, if it hadn't been for one glaring issue…

I...

Was...

STARVING.

I also had the feeling that the camp chefs were not inclined to fulfilling breakfast-in-bed requests.

So I got up, and, as is, in full disheveled appearance, stumbled out of my tent and followed the other would-be soldiers who were doing the same. Some sent me scathing looks, as if my appearance would leak from me onto them and make them look bad, but I just glared at them, and they seemed to get the idea that I wasn't in the mood.

As it turns out, the food wasn't even worth getting up for.

“I can't eat this!” I shouted, bashing the table with my spoon. I glowered at the bowl in front of me. Not only was the portion way too small, but I didn't think the colour, a sort of grey-green colour, was normal or naturally found in nature. Plus the fact that the stuff was similar to that of glue.

“You'll eat it and be grateful,” the soldier-wannabe said, sitting beside me, already shoevlling down his food. “Otherwise you won't be able to train properly later.”

I turned on him, happy to have a target. “Who says I'll be training at all?” I hissed.

He looked bored. “You got up, didn't you?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are your parents siblings?”

It was then that I fell face-forward into the table, amidst raucous laughter from my would-be peers. I darted back up, rubbing the back of my head, teeth bared, when suddenly a quite hideous face got right into my space bubble and yelled at me.

“NO FIGHTING IN THE MESS HALL. SHUT UP AND EAT.”

I bared my teeth and shouted back. “No one with any taste buds can it this sort of crap!”

My shout was met with sudden silence. I froze, looked around, and realized that all eyes were on me. When I looked back at the hideous face, I noticed that he looked angrily appalled.

What, did I miss something?

“Do you have any idea who you're talking back to?” the fun hunk of a man demanded of me.

I sighed. “No, but you're ruining what could barely pass as a meal.”

I felt a large, sweaty hand clamp on the front of my shirt and yank me forward. “I, little girl, am the head trainer of this dismal little camp. I am Rumar Oldgan!”

Ah. Well, that explains it.

Rumar Oldgan was one of Zephilia's most reputed tough guy trainers of the generation. He not only put every person he trained through several types of exercises similar to those in hell, but he got great pleasure out of doing it. He was employed by the army for that specific reason, because the soldiers he churned out, when he didn't make them drop out or run away, were the best the country had ever seen.

Oh, well. No point in admitting such a mistake. I mean, the whole thing was going to be miserable anyways. Might as well get it over with from the start.

“Good, maybe you can help me,” I said, turning on the charm and flashing a huge smile. “You see, I'm not really supposed to be here. I'm a sorceress, but they sealed my magic, and they seem to think that I can handle a sword really well...” Insert cheek scratching here. “...but maybe you can clear things up with them?”

Rumar let go of my shirt, but only so that he could guffaw, the loudest and clearest definition of the word guffaw. And right in my face, I might add.

“We know you, Lina Inverse,” he declared, leaning back and putting his hands on his hips, standing at his full (and intimidating) height. “And you're a fool to think that you can con us, let alone ME, into thinking you have no skill and that you're just a softie sorcerer. Give us SOME credit.”

I opened my mouth to reply, to say something scathing about his `credit', then the doors of the mess hall suddenly opened by force, and three disheveled soldiers came running in. Their faces, beneath their helmets, were chalk white.

The leader of the three came right up to Rumar and leaned in close. He whispered, but I could hear what he said, and what I heard wiped away any sense of joviality left in me.

“Elmekia has taken Elgard,” he said, his voice shaking. “Not only did they wipe out of most of the defense there, but they also murdered several families, including children, without mercy.”

I froze, my ears feeling like they were stopped up. The guy beside me, the smartass, leaned close to me and whispered, “What, you can hear that? Tell me what they said!”

I ignored him, swallowing hard. Elgard. Elgard wasn't that far from us. And murdering families? Children?

I felt anger course through my veins, like a slow spread of fire. And this is the side you chose, Gourry? I thought angrily, my teeth gritted. Did you have anything to do with this? What else is there I don't know about you?

My dark thoughts were interrupted when Rumar shooed the soldiers away and suddenly clapped his hands twice. “Future soldiers!” he shouted. Everyone instantly had their attention on him. “It has come to my attention that we need to speed up the process of our training. We need faster results in a shorter time period. Elmekia is showing that perhaps they have balls, after all, and that they are close to the capital, where most of you come from. So I need you step up, be lively, and be ready in two days!”

A few groans were drawn out from a couple of the people around me, but I ignored everyone. My mind was focused on Elgard, and the images I saw were not of the people I knew there, but of my own family.

That's what could happen if you keep acting like a moron, I thought. You're here now, so do your part.

“Finish your meals and meet me on the grounds!” Rumar concluded. He turned and left the mess hall, his massive frame barely making it through the door.

Without thinking, I jumped to my feet and stalked out of the hall as well. I followed Rumar just a bit away, and when we reached the training ground, I stopped right behind him.

He stood there, surveying the grounds.

I poked the small of his back.

It was quite satisfying, watching him jump like that. He turned around, unsheathed his sword, and had it pointed to my neck in a flash.

“Hi,” I said calmly, knowing that he wouldn't kill me. His skill was too good. “Where can I get one of those?” I pointed to his sword.

He pulled his blade away and sheathed it at his side once more. “You sure can be quiet when you want to be,” he said, and from his tone I could tell he approved. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“Elgard,” I said quietly.

Rumar looked at me closely. “Ah, you heard that, did you?”

I nodded. “And the last thing I want in the world is to see the whole of the country like that.”

I said that and I meant it. I actually meant it. It wasn't so that I could suck up to get a sword. Inside, I felt shaky, rubbed the wrong way, and completely off-balance. Learning of the obliteration of Elgard really messed me up inside, and it was pretty much the only thing keeping me in the training camp.

Rumar nodded. “Fair enough. Wait here, and I'll get you a sword.”

I did as he said, my hands at my sides. All I could think about were those words, that damned question, that my sister had asked me.

When you meet him across the battlefield, what will you do, Lina-chan?

Dramata

29.6

Red was never my colour. It definitely suited Lina, but red was never right for me. It always has to be blue. I just feel right in blue. So that explains why I've not mentioned this little fact until now. The soldier's uniform was blood red. Somehow it was supposed to represent the blood red sun as it set over the glorious country of Elmekia. It was also supposed to represent all the blood it would shed. I don't know much about those things, but I knew it was good at hiding blood stains, that was for sure. However I really disliked wearing red, it didn't suit me and it was because of those reasons I hated wearing it.

The mini Lina Inverses had returned and seemed more determined than ever to cause me as much pain as possible. At least this time I was able to bring a hand to my head and nurse the painful throbbing. I could still hear those horrific screams and wondered if there was anything else I could have done to stop it from happening. I couldn't really lead them away since the town was filled with soldiers. Maybe I should have done more to stop the soldier from going in and finding them.

“Hmm, finally woken up, Gabriev?”
“No longer on first name terms then?” I grimaced, sitting up from the makeshift bed.
“Our orders were specific. Kill anyone we come across.”
“I didn't see them.”
“You're an excellent swordsman, but a terrible liar. If you hadn't come across them, then why did you react like that? It was pretty obvious you were trying to protect them.”
“It was a mother and her two children. I've come to terms with killing other soldiers but I absolutely refuse to kill a mother and her children.”

I stood up as the throbbing headache subsided and felt the dried blood that had dripped from my mouth and into my hair as I fell to my side when I was knocked out. I carefully made my way to a bucket filled with cold water and did my best to wash it away.

“I thought this was war, colonel. Not extermination. There are unwritten rules and I thought you should know them by now.”
“I know them perfectly well, but our orders were clear.”
“Bullcrap!” I yelled. “That rubbish about letting fleers spread the fear was lies! Killing the innocent people is what really will spread the fear. What were you worried about? That maybe those kids were gonna come back and kill you in 15 years? That was just mindless murder and you know it!”
“That's enough!” He spat back with anger. “Don't go spouting off things I already know about. I feel bad enough about what happened there, but that is what we have to do. You know how this country works, you don't follow orders and people you care about suffer. If I have to choose between my own family and someone else's family, the decision is easy!”

Looking down, I realised what the colonel was talking about. The Elmekian army was ruthlessly efficient, it got what it wanted done and by any means necessary. However if it came down to it, I would still refuse to do that and I still stand by it now.

“You have a couple of hours before we move out. People will be keeping a closer eye on you. Most of the men who know about you are sure you'll turn against them once the time comes.”
“Let them think that way. I'm just doing what I have to do until I don't have to anymore and then I can carry on with my life.”
“If Elmekia let you go…”

The colonel walked out and I was left to think about that. I wasn't really sure if they would just let me off the hook. Even after serving in the army, they probably wouldn't consider it enough to make up for what they believed was treason. The thing was that I couldn't do much about it right now. There was no point worrying about it because of that. I just had to worry about getting through this war and then when it was over, well then I would worry about those problems then.

Once I was ready, I stepped outside of the makeshift tent and looked around at the other soldiers who seemed to be enjoying the free time before moving on into the next battle. People were sat around small fires, drinking there small rations so they didn't get drunk and enjoying their rations of food. I then noticed one person who was on his own. He seemed to be a kid who barely looked fifteen. I walked over to him and sat down a few feet from him, and took out the ration I was given when I must have been knocked out.

“You look pretty young to be in the army, I know they'll recruit anyone but even they have their limits.”
“I'm s…sixteen, sir.” He replied with a stutter.
“I think you're lying. Oh, and you can call me Gourry, sir just sounds weird!”
“Well I am sixteen and they accepted me.”
“They really must have been desperate. I think you're fifteen and what I'm struggling to work out is why some fifteen year old kid is so willing to get himself killed.”

He looked down for the moment and I realised I had touched upon a sensitive subject for him, so I thought I should change the topic.

“What's your name?”
“Huh?”

I grinned a little. I guess he was caught up in whatever he was thinking about that he hadn't heard my question.

“Well I gave you my name, so it's only fair that you tell me yours.”
“Bale.”
“Hmm, like the hay?”
“Huh?”
“Bail of hay.”

He laughed a little and shook his head.

“It sounds like it, but it's not the same thing. It's spelt a little differently.”
“Oh good. I thought it would be a little strange to be named after a bail of hay.”

Bale continued laughing a little before gaining his composure.

“So how come you're here?”
“I was forced. It seems they didn't like me travelling around with someone from Zephilia.”
“Wait a second. You said your name was Gourry? Gourry Gabriev?”

I nodded slowly and blinked a little, wondering why that mattered so much.

“You travelled with Lina Inverse. The Dramata. The enemy of all who live.”
“She wouldn't like you saying that about her.”
“I thought those names were really cool.”
“Really? Hmm, I guess she never really thought about it that way.”
“You must be a really good swordsman then.”
“I'm ok, what makes you say that?”
“Well if someone like Lina Inverse let you travel around with her considering how powerful she is, then you must be pretty decent.”
“I just do the best I can to protect her. I think she wanted to get rid of me at first but I just stuck around and she gave up trying.”

I looked around when I noticed the rowdiness of the relaxed atmosphere change into a more muffled one and I realised it was time to move on.

“It looks like we're getting ready to go on to the next town. You should get your things together.”
“Ok then.”
“Stick by me, ok?”
“Alright.”

I guess I felt protective of Bale. He shouldn't have really been there but I guess the army were really desperate to get as many people in and so they didn't care if they weren't old enough, if they turned up to join then they just accepted them. It still wasn't right in my eyes though.

We joined the ranks of troops and it didn't take long for us to get moving. I quickly realised we were heading straight towards the capital city of Elmekia and I could tell from some of the messengers moving between the different troops that there were many more doing the same, taking out each town, village or city at a time before moving closer to the capital, Zephiel City. There was one more town before the capital though and I guess that was where we would be heading next.

“Gabriev!” The colonel shouted and waved me over.

I looked to Bale and gestured to him to keep close to which he replied with a nod. I broke the ranks and moved next to the colonel and Bale returned to the ranks but within a pretty close distance.

“What is it, sir?” I asked, staring straight ahead.
“We have intel of Zephilian troops rushing training in time to stop us moving in on the capital. What are your thoughts?”
“Depends how quickly they get training completed. If they can, they'll cut us off before we reach the capital. There's a bit of ground between Zephiel City and Daegon.”
“I thought the same.”
“I also think they'll be more ready for us in Daegon compared to Elgard. Elgard was a pushover and you know it. Those they have in Daegon will be pretty well prepared and it's going to be very tough.”
“That's why we have people like you.”

I felt a burning inside with the colonel. Here he was trying to tell me how much I'm needed, yet was happy enough to murder innocent people. I don't care what he said about his family, it wasn't enough to kill defenceless women and children.

“I'm not forgiving you…” I stated coldly.
“I don't expect you to. What was done had to be done.”
“You're wrong…”

Without the order to be dismissed, I moved away from him and returned to Bale. I could see the slight anger from the colonel for doing something without his order, but he kept quiet.

“What's going on?” Bale asked me.
“Nothing to worry about.” I smiled.
“Ok then. Are we going to the capital now?”
“No. There is one more town before then. Daegon.”

Kurage

29.7

The sword that I was given was the best that they could find on such short (conscripted) notice. But it was a good sword and I really didn't have any problems with it.

Surprisingly enough, I found myself enjoying the exercise. As the day wore on into night and I trudged back to my tent tired, sweaty, and hungry, I felt good about it. It felt good to depend on my body instead of my magic (although sometimes I did get moments of panic at the thought of not being able to use magic for the most simple tasks).

When the two days were up, Rumar deemed us suitable for the battlefield. He didn't seem to think we were perfect, but he admitted that we had shaped up decently in the short time he gave us, and he was surprised by the results.

I think we were supposed to be insulted by this, but I was too damned tired to care.

I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to get my butt back home and not give a care about this anymore. And I knew that the only way I could do that would be to even the scales in favor for Zephilia.

On the morning of the third day, after we had eaten, we were woken up early and given some mediocre armour, our swords, and the orders to go back to our tents and suit up. I wanted to complain about the lack of decent armour, but I was beyond caring, so I put it on without complaint. I tied my hair back, buckled on my sword, and met the day.

It never occurred to me that I possibly may find my death on these fields. It didn't even cross my mind that perhaps I would slip up and get a sword in my gut or something equally as fatal. All that was going through my head was that somehow the slaughter would end and I could go on with my life.

When I got out of my tent and looked around, I saw that the sun hadn't even come up yet. No wonder I felt so tired already.

As my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of pre-dawn, I saw that Sobold was standing there waiting for me, right outside my tent. I stopped, frowning at him. “What do you want?” I asked.

Sobold looked at me, smiling. “Completely blunt, as usual.”

I sighed and crossed my arms. “What now? Coming to tell me that I have to do my best or else?”

Sobold was quiet. He seemed to be looking me over. I felt my face burning, in anger rather than embarrassment. “I'm not a piece of meat for you to stare at,” I snapped.

He shook his head slowly. “Not everything is about how you look, you know,” he said calmly. “You thought that when you were small, too. Always screaming about how you would never give up your innocence, no matter how hard someone tried, even when they didn't try!”

I rolled my eyes, but secretly was proud of myself. “Is there a point to this?”

Sobold nodded. “You finally understood why I wanted you here, didn't you?”

“No,” I shook my head. “But when I heard about Elgard, all I could see was my home in ruins.”

“Isn't that the same thing?”

“No!” I snapped, my fingers itching to cast a Fireball. “It's not the same thing! I still don't believe in this cause. I still don't see how fighting against Elmekia makes any difference at all, especially when nobody knows why the fight started to begin with!”

He gestured to the way I was dressed. “Then why even get dressed?”

I tugged at my bangs. It was too early to be dealing with such stupidity. “Because I love my family and will do anything to protect them! Don't you get it? I don't want them to end up like the families in Elgard!”

Sobold blinked at me. I couldn't read his expression, but I found I didn't care. I glared at him, clenched my fists, and walked past him, going towards the training grounds, where we would all meet.

Honestly, how stupid can a person be? How can anyone not get that it has nothing to do with being patriotic or thinking that Elmekia was wrong? It was because of people I loved!

Although... I found myself thinking, my stomach clenching. One of the people that I love is on that other side, the side I have to cut through in order to save the others that I love.

I trudged through the trampled ground and the tents and followed the path towards the sound of murmurs. Judging from the volume alone, it seemed that everyone was upset about something. For a sickening moment, I worried that it was already way too late, and that the country was doomed.

However, when I got closer and managed to slow down my heart to normal, I realized that the cries weren't angry or panicky. They were cries of anticipation.

I hurried up to the crowd just as Rumar walked to the front and put his hands on his hips. Everyone fell to silence at this simple gesture, and I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from saying anything. Sometimes, even in times of true seriousness, it's hard not to be a smartass.

“I think you all know why you're here,” he said briskly. He looked us over for a moment, crossed his arms over his chest, and nodded slowly. Then, without saying another word, he turned on his heel and walked away.

Everyone, including me, stayed silent. I'm sure we all shared the same thoughts: Are we dismissed? Is that it? Where do we start?

And, the most glaring: What the hell?

After a while, we got the message that nothing else was to be said, and a few people started to disperse and get into our battle groups. We had already had our briefing the previous day as to what and where we would be covering. It was now, finally, that we would be putting it into action.

I followed the rest of the group, my heart thumping quickly the whole time.

Dramata

29.8

We walked, or should I say we marched, towards Daegon and the journey was pretty uneventful. I had thought that maybe as we got closer to the capital, their army would maybe try and ambush us, or at least slow us down. Instead we had a clear path towards Daegon. I figured then that the attack by Elmekia really was a surprise for them, so they would instead concentrate all their forces around the capital.

I glanced to Bale at my side who seemed to pretty nervous. I tried my best to ease his nerves.

“Come on now. You've done this once before in the last city, right?”
“Well, I only joined in after the last raid. We were replacements for all the people who were killed.”

I shook my head a little and felt disgusted by the treatment of the soldiers. Just throw as many numbers at the enemy as possible. That was the mighty plan of the Elmekian army.

“So you've never fought before?”
“I practiced with a sword a little, but never actually battled against anyone.”
“Well just stay by me and keep your blade up ready to block anyone. Listen to what I tell you and you'll be fine…oh…and no women or children.”
“I would never think of it.”
“Good. If you get into trouble for it, blame me.”
“But…”
“Just do it, ok? No questions.”

He nodded a little and seemed to have eased a little with his nerves. I was glad for that as we continued walking on. I realised how he must have felt and I knew anyway to stop those feelings would be really helpful. I also knew that in the heat of battle, those feelings of fear could end up being the death of you. I didn't want him freezing up so I did my best to keep him calm.

We continued to walk and it wasn't long until the town of Daegon came into view. Around the border there were a few Zephilian soldiers. I looked down for a moment and sighed. They must have been there knowing full well they wouldn't be able to stop us. They were there just to give the others enough time to prepare for the main battle. I realised that they would have been just as rushed as we were and so they must have scrambled to get enough soldiers together. I was just glad to know that Lina wouldn't be in one of those units. If they were to take her, it would be to protect some of the important people with her magic. Right?

We closed in and as we got close, I nodded to Bale and we begun the charge into battle. The first few men in front of us clashed with the Zephilians, a few getting run through by spears. Unfortunately that was their job as now the Zephilians had their hands full leaving them open for the back up. I charged through the gap in the defence and quickly took two men out with a sharp side strike all in one motion. Bale had followed me close behind and was ready to block off the first attack his way. He deflected the blow and run the man through with his sword.

“You practiced a little?” I yelled during the cries of battle, swiftly dodging one sword attack and responding with a powerful strike.
“Yeah a little.” He replied, concentrating much more on the oncoming enemies.

I smiled a little inwardly. He had natural raw talent somewhere in there. I knew then he would be able to make it through. I then turned back to the Zephilian attack and put my full effort into getting through as many. I treated it as though all of the Zephilian army were in my way of Lina. Each strike would get me closer and closer and so I went into a blind battle. I wasn't concentrating fully on who my enemies were, they were just enemies and I had to move them out of my way.

My sword swung violently, smashing through armour, skin and bone. I swiftly avoiding the incoming attacks and used my sword to deflect the better aimed strikes. I stormed through the streets in the lead of the group, almost pulling ahead of the others.

Sharply turning round the corner, my instincts took hold through my body and I immediately swung. Then I realised the target of the strike was a young boy who was hiding in fear. I used every single muscle in my body to move the sword away from its unintended target. The sword just barely avoided the boy and struck the wall, shattering the blade into several pieces. I let go of the hilt and fell to my knees glancing to the boy.

“Run…”

The little boy was shaking but managed to nod before running. I was thankful that he turned the corner before the rest of the group caught up. I then noticed that one of the fragments had lodged itself into my leg. I fell to the ground just as the group rounded the corner and noticed my state immediately.

“He went that way…” I pointed in the opposite direction to the way the boy went and a group immediately headed off leaving Bale alone with me.
“Are you ok?” He asked looking a little concerned.

I smiled and nodded, then grimaced momentarily as I pulled the shard from my leg and dropped it to the ground, ripping a part of my uniform and tying it round my leg. I suppose that was one good reason for the uniform being red.

“I'm fine. Just nearly took out some kid. That was pretty stupid of me not to pay attention like that.”
“You sent those men after him?”
“Of course not…I sent them the wrong way. I smashed my sword into the wall as I tried to stop hitting the kid.”
“Lucky boy.”
“I don't know about that, but at least he has a chance…now if only I had a sword.”
“No need, the town is pretty much empty now. Everyone has been dealt with. There actually weren't too many citizens, I guess they caught wind of what had happened and got out of here as soon as possible. That kid you saved must have been homeless. Maybe he was trying to find something to steal whilst the place was pretty much deserted. The other soldiers wouldn't have been paying attention.”
“That makes sense. I'm just glad that there wasn't any more senseless murder.”
“So what now?”

I sighed and thought about it, knowing the answer but not ready to give it. I was thinking about Lina and wondered if she was still angry with me for what I did. I just hope she realised I did what I had to do. To me this was the only thing that could be done. It wasn't what I wanted to do but sometimes it's like that. I then glanced up to Bale.

“The capital…”

Kurage

29.9

Sobold had briefed us before we headed out for the main event.

Apparently, the main group of (real) soldiers, the ones who had been surrounding the perimeters of the capitol, were able to pass along through a couple of messengers that Elmekia soldiers had been spotted close by.

We got the message. When we got there, we got another message.

We were WAY too late. The surrounding soldiers had either been cut down, taken as prisoners, or run away. What was left of the garrison was pure mess and carnage. Even Sobold looked sick.

If you know anything about me, you know that I'm not adverse to taking a life if it's justified. I know you're probably laughing right now at the thought of this, thinking about all of the bandits I've sent to fiery hell. Well, did you ever stop to think about what bandits actually do?

They team up together, these ragtag poor excuses for men. They find people exactly like themselves to hang out with and they egg each other on, seeing if they can outdo their own heinous crimes. And when it's all over, they pat each other on the back and start all over again.

When I was thirteen, I had certainly heard about the share of bandits in the area around where I grew up. No city is exempt from their share of bad eggs. And, although my wanderlust certainly fueled most of my eagerness for travel, I admit that some of it also had to do with the need to give punishment to those who deserve it.

I had heard what happens to women who wander out alone without realizing that they're stumbling into bandit camps. I had heard what they do to women and little boys and girls, and sometimes even crippled men. I also had seen it as I grew older, seen it firsthand.

Even if you're not dating Justice like Amelia, you still want to correct things. You still want to wipe people like that off the face of the planet.

So no, I didn't have problems killing people if it were justified.

However, what I saw on that day reminded me of what I had seen in bandit camps, BEFORE I stepped in.

I heard a couple of people retching around me, and I was close to losing my lunch myself, but I held it in, knowing I would regret the loss of food later. From the look of the aftermath, battle was not too distant on the horizon.

In a way, I looked forward to it. After seeing what kind of people we were dealing with, I didn't feel so bad anymore.

Although, secretly, the cynic in me wondered: If they were doing this to us, what were we doing to them? Something like this doesn't just emerge from thin air. You don't get this angry over nothing.

I'm not saying that what they did was justified. But I'm also not saying that what our side was doing was justified either.

In any case, I turned around on my heel to face away from the mess, my hands going right to my hair. One hand went to adjust my ponytail, and the other went to my bangs. I was trying very hard not to show how much this bothered me, but not in the way it was bothering everyone else.

I was wondering: Did Gourry do any of this?

When I thought of it, I felt ashamed of myself instantly. Why would I think that he would do such a thing, such a cruel thing like this? Didn't I know Gourry at all?

Sure, but there was a lot of stuff I DIDN'T know about him, too.

As soon as I heard footsteps beside me I dropped my hands to my sides. I turned and nodded to Sobold as he walked to my side.

“I'm telling everyone,” he said tersely, his eyes dark. “Get ready to move out and meet up with the Elmekia forces.”

I turned to him completely. “What do you mean? Aren't they long gone after...this?” I gestured to the mess around our feet.

“No,” he said, blanching. “They're waiting for us to meet them.”

I titled my head. That sounded wrong. “What kind of crap move is that?” I demanded. “They have us by the ass. One more push and they're in. Why would they stop here?”

Sobold held up his hands and shook his head. “I'm not here to argue with you, Lina,” he snapped. “I'm here to pass the message. Take it like a soldier and deal with it.” He turned and started the other way.

“I'm not even a soldier, you asshole!” I snapped, baring my teeth at him. My shout fell onto deaf ears, but I was expecting that.

I turned and sighed, tugging at my bangs, before walking past a few people doubled over and climbing up the nearest up-slope. It sounds like I just partook a major journey, but I assure you, when it comes to the outskirts of the border, it's pretty hilly land.

I had an inkling as to where the party would begin, and sure enough, there they were. I could see them from my small vantage point; the Elmekian army camped out some long ways away. I frowned, squinting. There was something amiss, there. I looked harder, and saw what was wrong.

From the looks of it, it seemed that there were actually two camps, quite a far distance away from each other. From the colour parties, however, they were both from Elmekia.

“Uuuuhhh...Sobold?” I called, turning around and pointing. He came over to my side, as did several others. “Did you even look closely?”

Sobold squinted, as I did, then cursed. “They must have split up to keep reinforcements.”

“And that means...?” someone snapped.

“It means that even if we don't go out to meet them, they'll meet us, and they'll outnumber us,” Sobold snarled back.

As refreshing as it was to see Sobold lose his cool, it was also a little disconcerting. I'm not an idiot. I know what `screwed over' means in any jargon. We were surrounded and we knew it, but something deep inside me, deep down in my belly, fluttered with some hope.

Two parties. One that did the brutality, and one that was kept in reserve. Obviously they had to keep their second string at complete health, and obviously they had come later, but maybe that meant that not everyone had been involved in what had gone on here along the border.

I was grasping at straws, but it made me feel better, to think that if Gourry were here at the front, that he had, perhaps, been on the more honourable side.

Something nagged me, though. Something I really wished I had had the time to bring up. However, Sobold was already snapping around orders, rounding up everyone and getting them into formations to meet the army out in the field. I swallowed hard, put a hand to my hip, right on the hilt of my sword, and followed, trying not to think about that one thing that bugged me. But it wouldn't quit.

Why hadn't the Elmekia army just gone ahead into the capitol once they had destroyed the defenses? Why had they been stopped? And, if they were having that much fun slaughtering people, HOW had they been stopped?

Dramata