Deep inside him, he wanted to cry, out of laughing at these guards. They were old, and yet they got outplayed well with a kid who was close to half of their age.
"This…" and like what William expected, all of the guards, alongside anyone else listening to his words, all had a sudden change in their faces.
"They got killed by the dark spirit masters. And so, I came here to avenge them!"
"Kid… This is truly admirable… Tell me, what's your name again?" the first guard who spoke with William asked, while his face showed no sign of ridicule, only respect.
"I'm William."
"Listen up William, I'm Jack, and I'm much older than you, right?"
"Yes sir."
"Then tell me, is it better to go out there, play the role of hero and make yourself get killed? Tell me, is that how you want to avenge your parents?"
"But sir…"
"Just listen to my words, look into my eyes, and tell me, do you think I'm fooling or tricking you?"
"No sir!"
"Then please don't do what you want, go back, train, grow a little older, become much stronger, and then come back here again and get all the revenge you want."
William started all this as a play to know the calibre of these people around him, to waste his time and enjoy this walk to the fort. But to his surprise, he didn't imagine his act would yield such a strong response in everyone.
It wasn't just Jack, but everyone around, be it guards or merchants, all nodded in acknowledgment, and even tried to persuade him to return back and drop such desire of revenge.
"Thanks everyone, I'm going to think about what you said and consider returning home," as William saw things grew out of control, he used the chance of arriving at a huge gate at the end of this path and said his farewell piece.
And as he took his leave in haste, he didn't notice the weird gazes of Jack and other guards in his team towards William's growing distance back.
William wanted to befriend them and get directions towards his target, but he ended up causing such a mess back there.
So, he ran fast, walked through the huge gate and into the big main road that appeared next.
The place inside wasn't anything like what this fort looked from outside. From outside, William imagined this place to be like a true war fort, filled with barracks, training grounds, academies, war supplies shops, and things like this.
But the moment he got inside, he found a normal looking town. Lots of buildings rose up for tens of metres, with wide streets separating in between, and many caravans were passing through.
Many people were walking down on the streets, chatting and laughing, in a mood that made him feel a bit weird.
"This place… It seems it grew ill as they used to be safe… They lowered their guard to such an extent… What a regret… What a shame…"
He shook his head as he kept walking in the main street. He knew such a big road would lead to the centre of this fort, or lead towards the big and important places in here.
He spotted many hotels, where he could stay per the words of the team he met outside the fort before. But he wasn't in any hurry to do so. His top priority now was to find out the main place of the Lockheart impact.
He thought he had to ask around to find that impact's main base. However, just by walking in the street for a few minutes, he realised he didn't need to.
The entire street was filled with heated discussions between the passing groups of people, all speaking about how crazy that impact was.
"I can't believe the same sh*t is happening now! Come on! What makes any spirit master go through such tough and brutal tests on these days?"
"Even the impact had a base here for centuries, and they never saw the fort get attacked! Not even once! What makes them crazy about training and putting their people in such deadly situations?"
"I heard that out of the teams taking part in the test, more than thirty percent will die, and another thirty will fail the test, losing their membership in this crazy impact."
"If I'm one of the leaders here, I'd go back down this street, fire those crazy folks out of here! I can't stand such brutality! We are living in a decent place and a civilised time!"
William couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard more of such weird discussions. Not all those passing by had the same weird viewpoint, but many had.
And those who spoke about these didn't wear gears, but weird uniforms made out of fancy looking fabrics. The ladies held fans in their hands, and the men all wore different coloured scarfs around their necks.
In William's eyes, they looked like clowns and dancers, not spirit masters!
"Damn! It's much worse than I thought!" He could tell lots of things without the need to ask anything about who these people were and what made them have such twisted views about the world.
He could tell why this fort fell in his past life. Damn! He was quite sure if any rebellion or chaos ran out inside right now, this fort would be done for!
This world was safe and peaceful? They were living in a civilised age and era? William had to struggle hard, exert one hundred percent control over himself, so he wouldn't go to each one of those crazy folks and show them how truly civilised this world was.
He heard that the life inside the fort was peculiar and weird, filled with fights and kills. But right now, he felt like he entered into a fantasy parallel world, a world where the monsters got crushed and vanquished a long time ago, and there was no threat of dark spirit masters at all.
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