After hours of vitriol, Quint, the battalion leader finally put a stop to his abuse, but that too came with a visceral reluctance from his inherent nature. Stepping off as the coachman, Haruki glanced around to find no visible reason for them to make a stop at an open bank of a river.
"Why did you make me stop here?" He asked, only to be met with raging glares from the rest.
"Shut your mouth, you idiot," saying that Quint walked further away from the carriage before stopping at the open space surrounded by foliage. "We're camping here, I don't care what the hire-ups say, we're not going to intercept that village right after we came back from another mission."
'What village? And intercepting, why?' Knowing he'd be reprimanded for asking those questions, he kept them all confined to himself.
"Thank god, I needed a rest anyway," stretching his arms, Grimm walked forward as well.
"Yeah, those villagers can wait," chuckling to herself, Mariya followed suit. "Get the tents out of the carriage commoner."
'Damn it, seems like they all already know where we're going and what the plan is.' Wondering if they purposefully made him direct the carriage so he wouldn't know what was happening, Haruki stepped into the carriage to take out all the setup for the camp. 'They must know about the complaints I've filed against them to the hire ups. That just makes things worse for me now.'
Cursing his luck, he began taking out all the camp setup before assembling it into two separate tents. Coincidentally, it seemed whoever loaded the tents purposefully only put two tents inside instead of one for each of them.
"Can I at least know what kind of mission we're on? Is it bandit control or rescue?" Being done with all the physical labor, Haruki turned to Quint for some answers.
Making himself comfortable inside the bedded tent, Quint glanced Haruki up and down before grunting in annoyance.
"You're such an uptight moron, why not just rest when you have the chance?" Ignoring his insults, Haruki stood tall before him, waiting for an answer. "Fucking fine, I'll tell you."
Finally being offered an explanation, Haruki found out that some village nearby was apparently housing bandits, and their party was dispatched to interrogate and apprehend anyone complicit in housing those criminals.
'I guess if they're housing them, either most other civilians don't know or they're in on it as well. Whatever the case may be, things should be fine even if we're a bit later in getting there.' Being kicked out of Quint's tents, Haruki's mind was filled with all kinds of possible outcomes that they may have to face upon reaching the village Quint had told him about. 'If only he would just tell me which village it is exactly, I might be able to incorporate help from my hometown nearby.'
Even though he had a well-thought-out plan, he didn't want to risk irking the winging royals he had for companions. Given their status being under the inheritor of the family, they were all forced into military service to boost up their family names, and thus the temperament of such individuals was often whipped out onto the commoners and guards in the army.
Stepping into the carriage, Haruki dimmed out the lanterns inside. Upon settling into the comfy seats, his eyes peered out to the couple's tent with the shadows of their bodies, painting a lascivious picture. Bouncing over Grimm's stomach, the shadow of Mariya's breasts jumped up and down with every motion.
"Is that all they think about all the time?" At the beginning of their companionship, Haruki was often left blushing and embarrassed when he caught them having sex, however, at this point, he'd begun to despise them along with the act of sex itself.
Right as he was about to shut the windows, he noticed Quint walking out of his tent and heading toward the couple.
'Again?' He thought watching Quint getting inside their tent. 'I know they're just using each other, but…'
Shutting off the windows, he tried to get the incident off his mind, and yet the silhouette of their leader raping multiple demi-humans on numerous missions kept plaguing his mind like cancer. He tried to close his eyes and calm down, but when it didn't work, he decided to take a walk away from the camp instead.
Walking through the forest, he could hear the sounds of the night beasts and feel the gazes of the same. However, his hand clutched onto the hilt of his sword was enough of a warning for them to keep their distance.
'It's darker than I thought it'd be.' As though rebelling against his thoughts itself, a beacon of strong flames burst up into the distance. It burned so bright he could clearly see it despite being miles away from the place. 'A forest fire? No, it spread too quickly.'
Rushing in the direction of the flames, he heard loud rustling coming from the bushes. Unlike the creatures of darkness, the sounds weren't trying to hide, instead, they seemed indifferent to his existence. Turning to the side his eyes were instantly locked with a pair of human eyes looking right back at him.
"Who are you?" He asked, but the eyes closed shut and disappeared into the night again. "What the fuck?"
Presented with a dilemma to either head back and warn his party or try to figure out what was happening himself, Haruki couldn't make a sound decision. Standing frozen in place, he felt like the rustling sound of the foliage was surrounding him from all directions.
'No I shouldn't wait, I need to warn them and head towards that flame.' Glancing up high at the inferno burning like a bright torch, he realized something that had completely slipped his mind. 'My village, it's in that very direction…'
Watching in horror with the flames reflected in his eyes, he was trying to escape reality but it didn't work one bit.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m