74 - Free Corpses

Everyone started to panic as they noticed the charge of men with weapons in their hands. Some of the peasants who wanted to start their new life in the town wanted to run but had nowhere to go. The bandits attacked from all sides in hopes of killing everyone.

On the other hand, two guards of Illyan’s group unsheathed their swords as they prepared to fight. However, their faces showed signs of nervousness when they saw at least 30 men. One of the men who ran at the front shouted out with craze in his eyes.

“Haha, give us all food you t-hargh?!”

Suddenly, a bolt appeared and pierced his neck which instantly put him to death. Not only him, but several others in his vicinity were hit.

“Be careful! They have crossbows!”

Illyan, who watched all of this with a calm expression, looked at the second group and saw that several over 10 guards had in their hands something called a ‘crossbow’. He had never seen it, but he could easily deduce its purpose.

‘It can hold the arrow - no, a bolt for long periods, but it seems that loading will take a long time. It is good only for weak people or on some occasions like an ambush.’

And he was right. Right after they shot their first volley, they put their crossbows away, unsheathed their two-handed swords, and charged at the ‘bandits’.

The bandits started to fall like ripe plums under the sharp swords of trained guards, and only a few managed to fend off their opponents.

“Fuck. T-they… They were prepared! Why are there so many guards for one wagon?!”

“Retreat!”

Seeing them panic like that, Illyan felt the entire event extremely underwhelming but at the same time was relieved he didn’t need to show his prowess. He wanted to pass as a physician, not a warrior.

However, while Illyan was relaxed, the same couldn’t be said about others. One of the younger men was hit in the chest and passed away, while the other got hit in the leg. Fortunately, no artery was pierced, so there was a chance of survival. But this alone made others extremely fearful.

“What in the world… Why did the bandits show up here?” Harn, who was still covering with the second guard and other passengers of Illyan’s group, muttered. He really didn’t want to risk his life if possible, even if it was an amateur bandit group like this. He valued his life a lot.

“There shouldn’t be anything of value for them since this path is used mainly for wagons returning from the northernmost parts of the kingdom and are usually empty. Damn bandits.”

Bor, hiding between everyone, said this as he spat in disgust while talking about them, but still, he didn’t plan to come out from the ‘circle of people’ in fear of being hit by some stray arrow or crazy bandit.

Illyan just shrugged his shoulders, not caring about this. When he saw that the fight finally started to end, he went to the boy who got an arrow in the leg. He already passed out since the pain was too much for him.

Illyan snorted in his heart at this. ‘It’s just an arrow.’

While treating the boy, his thoughts wandered back to the bandits.

‘They look similar…’ However, Illyan, who looked at the corpses of the bandits, knew the reason immediately. Their faces were bony and pale, showing the malnourishment they went through. The clothes they wore were torn and worn out. Most of them were young men, maybe as old as the passengers of the wagon. But their expressions were different. While the passengers of his group had faces full of hopes for a better life, these bandits were filled with crazed and hysterical emotions. As if they were despairing for a long time until they chose to do this drastic solution. To ransack other people.

He saw this many times during his time in the Frozen Valas Tundra where food was scarce.

He had many questions but he didn’t plan to ask anyone. Illyan wanted to be low-key in this new environment and this could very well lead to something far from being low-key.

‘This place, while still barren, is far from being as bad as Frozen Valas Tundra. Why are they so malnourished? Also, if there is such a big problem, then how come this is the first time, and everyone is so surprised? No, wait… Not everyone.’

Illyan’s eyes turned back to Ujir’s group where the merchant talked with the robed guy with a smile on his face. As if everything was under their control.

The guards also seemed to be relaxed as some of them started to check the bodies for any valuables, and if they didn’t, they just kicked the body in frustration.

Only the passengers who were just using the wagon for the ride seemed to be disturbed. Especially since the volley of arrows was clustered on their group. Over half of them died.

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On the other hand, only three guards died. Two of them died because of the arrows hitting them in bare places where the armor didn’t reach. They had some kind of low-quality leather armor, but it was enough for the rest of them to withstand the even lower-quality arrows created by some hungry peasants.

Once Illyan was done with the boy's leg, he stopped caring as he stood up.

“Sir Kaoran, you are really skillful! Such a horrible wound yet you treated it so quickly!” Terren, who looked with rapt attention on the entire fight, seemed to be unwell but at the same time excited. But after the guards finished fighting, his attention came to Illyan, who started the treatment.

“It is just the basics.” Illyan said curtly and left.

“Oh…” Terren nodded to himself and then sat next to the young man who was wounded.

“Terren, don’t wake him up. Since sir's physician didn’t do so, let him wake by himself.” One of the girls came to him as she saw him.

“Don’t worry, Cara. I am not so stupid, haha!”

“Well, I don’t know about that…”

“...”

While they started to bicker, Bor who finally sighed in relief decided to ask Ujir for an explanation.

“Ujir! What the fuck is going on?! You knew this was gonna happen, right?”

He yelled out at Ujir, who was comfortably sitting next to the robed man. As guards were surrounding them the entire time, no harm came to them as they watched the guards slaughtering the bandits.

“Oh, of course I didn’t know about it. Who knows what is going on through the heads of those barbaric thieves and murderers?” Ujir said mysteriously before he completely ignored Bor just as Bor did before.

This made Bor furious, and he wanted to continue interrogating him, but Harn, who worked with Bor for years, stopped him.

“Sir, I think we shouldn’t meddle in this. They have many guards and that man next to Ujir is also weird. I think he belongs to the group that visits the town from time to time and makes business with the mayor.”

His eyes showed worry when he looked at Ujir’s group. They had seven skilled

guards. Not deserters like him who can be used only for deterrence for bums.

“And what do you think we should do then? They almost got us killed because of this?!” Bor, who was in a bad mood, turned to Harn with a stern expression. But seeing that he stopped looking at Ujir made Harn relieved.

“We should ignore it for now and later file a complaint to the mayor. Fortunately, nothing happened to us-”

“What do you mean nothing happened? Per died and Erte got an arrow in the leg! Shouldn’t we…” Terren, who overheard the conversation, meddled in as he got angry at their indifference to his acquaintance.

“Kid, this is not our problem. Life is harsh. If you want a peaceful life, you should just stay in your shitty village. Risks were always there. You just choose to not heed them.” The second guard named Val turned to Terren and said sternly.

‘Living a peaceful life in your shitty village, huh. How laughable.’ Illyan, who was just standing aside, listened to everything with an expressionless face.

From the appearance of bandits, he could already guess that there wouldn’t be any so-called ‘peace’ in most villages but famine. Terren’s village was lucky enough to be close to the main Northern road which made it easily accessible to merchants.

But for villages that were too far or were badly accessible…

If Illyan remembered correctly, his village got to see a merchant once or twice a year, and the amount of things they could buy was humble. The villagers always thought that was normal, but now when he saw several merchants passing over him with full wagons, he realized that his village was always one of the last stops for the merchants where they sold off their leftovers for higher prices…

‘No wonder people starve if there are similar villages. And it would make sense that this guy would have his fingers in it since he is a merchant…’

Looking at Ujir, who was talking with the robed man, he frowned.

He saw them getting close to the corpses and commanding their guards. He thought they would burn them on a pyre or something, but they started to roll them into some fabric and loaded them on their wagon.

‘What are they doing?’

The rest of the peasants from Ujir’s group were also disturbed by it as they sat closely and didn’t dare to talk anymore. After the volley of arrows, four of them died while another two were injured. Only one escaped unscathed.

But now they looked at their fellow neighbors being rolled up as some kind of material which made them angry but terrified at the same time. One of them wanted to object to it and wanted to make a pyre for them as per traditions but was stopped by another one who just shook his head.

No matter how good relations you may have with your neighbor, it wasn’t worth your life. Those peasants wanted to look for a better life in town. They didn’t expect that this would happen on the way but it already happened. As long as they could get to Winterfrost town everything would be fine.

After they took every body, be it a bandit or peasant on their wagon, one of their guards started coming Bor’s group’s way. That made everyone on this side except Illyan tense.

But once the guard got close, he only asked indifferently.

“Can we ‘take care’ of this man’s body?” And showed towards Per’s lifeless body.

“Of course n-” Terren who had bottled up his emotions wanted to speak again but Nord, his friend, put a hand on his mouth as he made him shut up.

Bor, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes as his trembling hand was wiping the cold sweat from his face.

“Why? Accidents happen, and I am used to burning bodies of passed ones who died on the way.”

“Sir Ujir is even willing to pay up.”

Bor started licking his sticky lips as he heard about potential profit. But before nodding he…

“I can’t really do that. I would like to build his pyre in his home village where his family-”

“Yes or no. Answer me.” But the guard didn’t put up with his bullshit as he called out sternly while slightly touching the handle of his sword.

This made Bor terrified as he immediately nodded before even knowing the price.

“Here.” Guard snorted as he threw mere two bronze coins on the ground while taking the body away.

Bor’s expression was ugly but he still crouched down to take the coins.

Then he immediately entered his wagon and didn’t go out anymore.

Ujir who saw this from the corner of his eyes laughed in his heart.

‘Oh, Bor, Bor. Before you were a pain in the ass and always made my life harder. But now, you are nothing. Every merchant in this region is nothing. And once I make a proper contract with sir, I will be living as king!’ He laughed in his heart as he still had an amiable conversation with the man in front of him. At the same time, a hint of fear and worship showed up in his eyes when he looked at the man in front of him who was hiding behind his robe…