Chapter 14: (Not) just another ordinary day.
The sun is slowly rising up from the horizon from the Far East, signaling a new day has arrived, but no one really care. Of course, who would care about the rising sun? The sun rises every day, it's a fact. If anyone has the time to care about the rising sun, they'd probably use that time to get some more sleep before confronting a whole day of hard work waiting for them.
But, while most definitely will want to stay in bed and roll around doing nothing, not everyone have the luxury to do that. People have to make a living, right? The early bird catches the worm, right? Whether they like it or not, common people have to get out of their beds and start preparing themselves as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon.
This, is a beginning of a usual day of a little farm boy named Donnel.
As soon as he heard the crows of his roosters telling him that a new day is finally here, Donnel gets up and gets out of his bed. He washes his face, changes into a new pair of clothes, puts on his head his trusty pot-helmet, and he's ready to tackles on any kinds of trouble a new day can give him.
"Awrighty!" He smiles at his reflection in the mirror. "Let's give it our bestest terday, too!" He takes his hoe and walks out of the house, full of confidence.
"Oh, g'day, Donnel!" Donnel's neighbor, Lux, saw Donnel and waves at him.
"G'day to ya too, Lux!" Donnel pleasantly waves back at Lux.
The village Donnel lives in is a very small one, with only 10 households here, so every villager knows each other very well and treats others like one big family.
Lux, is one of the village's newer members, only settled down in the village around 6 years ago, the newest member of the village just joined a few days ago by the way. He is a man in his late 30s, with brown curly hair, has a small yet carefully cared goatee and a rather impressive build. He may looks like a dissipated man at first glance, but Lux is actually a cool and laid-back man, other villagers are very fond of him. Oh, and apparently, he's a very capable archer, as he doesn't work on the farm like most other villagers, and instead he goes into the forest and hunts many wild animals for meat and skin and gives them to the villagers.
"Hm…" Lux strokes his goatee and looks up in the sky. "Nice day we're having, eh?" He asks Donnel.
"Yes, nice day indeed." Donnel also looks up in the sky and enjoys the view.
"So…" Lux takes out a small coin from his pocket. "Wanna go hunting with me today?" He tosses the coin into the air and catches it. "Heads or tails?" he asks.
"Tails." Donnel chooses. Lux opens his palm to shows the coin, it is indeed tails.
"Aww…" Lux looks disappointed. He sighs and slips the coin back into his pocket. "You sure you don't wanna go with me?"
"Thanks for the offer, sir Lux." Donnel laughs. "But I hafta' go an' help my Pa with the farm work terday. Perhaps next time, eh?"
"Just go with him, Donny." Donnel's father, who just woke up moments ago, calls out. He yawns and walks over to his son. "Go an' have some fun fer terday. Just leave the field plowin' to yer Pa here!" He pats his chest.
"If ya said so." Donnel gives to hoe to his father. "Awrighty! Let's go do some huntin', sir Lux! I'll teach ya how ter lay some beast traps terday!"
…
Donnel's village is located in a small mountain near the border between Ylisse and Plegia, and is surrounded by forest on all sides, filled with a variety of wild animals. Some even says that there are rare kinds of animal that can only be found in this forest, but that may just be a groundless rumor…
Lux and Donnel go into the forest near the village. Like usual, Lux is equipped with an iron bow and arrows for his hunting. Donnel insisted that he'd only hunt by luring animals into his traps, but Lux told him to take a bronze spear (hand maded by Lux himself) with him just in case.
They go and find themselves a clear spot, suitable to make a trap. Donnel then proceed to teach Lux his secret way of making a 100% effective beast trap: First, he spread out a number of obvious traps as a decoy to force the wild beasts into a false sense of security. When the beasts notice the decoy traps, it will obviously avoid them, but by doing so, the beasts will play into Donnel's hand and fall into the real trap waiting for the beasts.
It was a very effective way of trapping a beast, but due to its complexity and the requirement of multiple traps being laid out in multiple spots, not many hunters resort to using this way of trapping, and out of all the villagers, only Donnel could do it.
Lux knows about the impractical of Donnel's way of trapping, but seeing Donnel having fun with it, Lux doesn't object and just go with the flow and have fun with the boy, and on the plus side, he also gets to experience another amusing moment, laying out all the traps with Donnel.
After finishing with laying out the traps, all that's left is to wait for a wild beast to fall for the trap. Lux suggests that they go do some physical hunting while they wait. This time, Lux will show Donnel how to hunt with a bow, he says.
…
Later, in the afternoon.
"Awright! That's 2 wild boars and a deer already!" Lux gleefully announces.
"That last shot was amazin', sir Lux!" Donnel applauds. "That deer was runnin' so fast and yet ya still able ter shot it right in the head!"
"That was nothing, Donny." Lux picks up the boars on the ground and walks over to the deer.
"Oh, let me do that for ya!" Donnel runs over to the deer and picks it up from the ground for Lux.
"Thanks ya, Donny!" Lux says, he then looks up into the sky. The sun's is directly shining down upon the two of them, meaning that's it's exactly the middle of noon. "Hm… We've been hunting for a while already. Let's go back to see if the traps got its result yet, then we'll return to the village."
"Sounds good ter me!"
With their spoils, the two of them returns to where Donnel laid out the traps.
"Hm?" Donnel notices that some of the traps are off, but there are no wild animals nearby. "That's weird?" He mutters to himself and runs over to the traps to take a look at them.
"What's wrong?" Lux also runs over.
"Here, sir Lux." Donnel points to the traps. "The traps here got set off, and yet there is no animal 'round!" Donnel then notices that there's blood on the trap, evident that something did got tricked into the trap.
"Did the animal free itself somehow?" Lux asks.
"Is there such an animal smart 'nough ter free itself from 'ese traps?"
"Technically, human can also be classified as animal, you know?" A dull voice suddenly speaks up from somewhere.
Lux and Donnel look over to the direction of the voice, and they see a man cloaked in a black robe with red patterns on it, sitting under a tree nearby. That man was Scrooge, who you should be familiar with by now. Scrooge points at his right ankle, wrapped in bandages soaked with his blood. Realized what happened, Lux and Donnel immediately run over to Scrooge.
"Gosh, I-I'm sorry, I am so sorry!" Donnel apologizes profusely. "Never in my life had I dreamed of snaring me a person like 'is!"
"Here, I have some vulneraries with me here! Let me treat the wound for you." Lux takes out a vulnerary and looks at Scrooge's wound.
"Thanks, but I already treated the wound." Scrooge stops Lux. "I just need a little rest, and it'd heal in no time."
"Oh…" Lux puts away the vulnerary. "Never seen your face around here. You travel alone or something?" He asks.
"Actually, I have another companion with me, but she went off to find some water for me…" Scrooge answers. Then, the three of them hear the noises from a horse coming closer. "Speaks of the devil…" Scrooge mutters to himself.
"Scrooge, I saw a village down…" While riding on top of her Pegasus, Cordelia calls out to Scrooge. "… the stream?" She got surprised when she sees two strangers together with Scrooge.
"A Pegasus!" Donnel screams. "Whoa, a real Pegasus in flesh!" Donnel jumps at the Pegasus and starts 'inspecting' it.
"Um, Scrooge…?" Worried about Donnel's odd fanboyish behavior, Cordelia sheepishly calls out to Scrooge.
"You two, this is my companion, Cordelia, and her beloved little Pegasus." Scrooge starts introducing, accompanied by his bored monotone voice. "Cordelia, these are the masterminds behind the assassination of my poor leg."
"That's… a very harsh introduction, don't you think?" Lux smiles wryly and pulls Donnel away from Cordelia and her Pegasus.
"…Okay?" Cordelia isn't quite sure on what to respond in this situation, so she just quietly gets off her Pegasus, sits down next to Scrooge and hands over to him a bottle of water.
"Thanks…" Scrooge takes the bottle and has a drink, then he asks Lux. "So, you guys live in the village down there?"
"Ah, yes, my name is Lux." Lux introduces himself.
"Donny. Er, I mean, Donnel. My name, that is…" Donnel introduces himself.
"And my name is Cordelia." Cordelia introduces herself. "I'm a Pegasus Knight."
"Oh, so that's why ya had a real Pegasus with ya!" Donnel says. "But why is a Pegasus Knight doin' way outa here, wrapped up in all these bandages…? And is yer lil' Pegasus injured or somethin'? I can see its wings actin' funny…"
"That's…"
"Shh…" Scrooge quickly interrupts. "She's on a secret mission, Donny. You aren't supposed to ask knights about their secret missions."
"Oh, is that so?" Donnel looks surprised. "I did not know about that. Guess that's a knight's duty for ya!"
"What about you, Scrooge?" Lux asks. "Don't tell me you're a Pegasus Knight, too? Ahahaha!" He says jokingly.
"Huh?" Scrooge tilts his head in wonder.
"Scrooge, that's your name, right?" Lux asks. "I heard the girl called you by that name, no?"
"Um… Yes, you can call me Scrooge." Scrooge says. "…I was just a little bit surprised that you knew." He scratches his head. "Er, you see, I was heading west, and I met Cordelia on the way, and we just… kinda stick together as companions. Not much to say aside from that." He shrugs.
"Heading west?" Lux looks over to Cordelia. "I can see the gal getting back to her squad at the border, but you, Scrooge, you have business at the border, too?"
"…Something like that." Scrooge shrugs.
"Plegia?" Lux continues asking. Scrooge nods. "Then you better be careful." Lux says. "Recently, I've heard that Plegian bandits been crossing the border and looting travelers…"
"…" Cordelia bites her lower lip when she hears Lux mentioning the bandits.
"I-I already know about that!" Scrooge quickly stops Lux from saying anything more. "Thanks for the warning, sir. It's precisely because of so that I need to cross the border soon. I really hate getting into needless trouble." He then looks down to his right ankle. "Can't do jack squat with this messed up ankle though."
"Urgh…" Donnel groans. "I, am, really, sorry! Please don't be mad at me!" He begs Scrooge for forgiveness.
"Stop that. You already apologized twice." Scrooge says, slightly annoyed.
"Speaking of your ankle." Cordelia says. "Has it got any better?"
"Yeah, I can walk just fine, but climbing up and down the mountain probably will be a pain." He sighs.
"Why not ride on the Pegasus?" Donnel asks. "That way, you ain't hafta walk."
"I couldn't." Scrooge shakes his head in annoyance. "As soon as I get near it, it kicks me right in the guts. Damn thing must have a grudge with me in previous life or something…"
"Don't call my Pegasus a thing." Cordelia hits Scrooge on the shoulder. "You should ask yourself what you did in the past to make she hates you so much. She only acts that way toward you!"
"…" Scrooge glares over to the Pegasus, he definitely isn't amused with the discrimination.
"Then I'll carry you." Lux says. "I'm very well-trained. I can carry you on my back until we reach my village."
"That's alright. You don't have to…" Scrooge declines the offer.
"Don't you worry!" But Lux insists on doing it anyway. "I'm as strong as an ox!" He takes a boar and carries it on his shoulders. "See? I doubt you are heavier than this boar I'm carrying here."
"Er…" Scrooge frowns. "I don't wanna nitpicking, but if you're carrying me, then who will carry the boars for you?"
Lux just realized this, but Scrooge was right. Donnel can carries the deer by himself, the Pegasus can also carries a boar, and Cordelia probably can too, but it would be rather rude to ask her to do so… Not that Lux and Scrooge are being a sexist or anything, but Cordelia really doesn't look like she's in any shape to carry anything.
"Well, that's easy!" Lux throws the boar down to the ground. "We'll have this boar as lunch!"
"What…!?" Scrooge absentmindedly blurts out.
Lux takes out a coin in his pocket, tosses in the air and catches it and then puts the coin back into his pocket. Scrooge questions the meaning behind the action, but doesn't say anything.
"Donny, let's go." Lux calls out Donnel. "We're gathering firewood to set this lil' guy on fire."
"Yes, sir Lux." Donnel gets up and follows Lux.
"Wait, you two." Cordelia also quickly follows them. "Let me go with you, too."
"Sure, why not." Lux says. "The more the merrier."
"Er, wait, you guys…"Scrooge tries to call out to them, but they are already gone, leaving Scrooge behind alone with the Pegasus. He glares over to his 'companion' and mutters. "…Seriously, did I order you to be cannon fodder before or something…?!" The Pegasus delivers a powerful kick into the tree, just inches away from Scrooge's face, like it's telling him to "Shut the hell up!" Scrooge takes the sign, and slowly moves away from the Pegasus.
…
After gathering enough firewood, Donnel and Lux take care of the cooking, which basically is just setting up a fire and grilling the boar. Scrooge, Cordelia, Lux and Donnel then eat the boar meat together and chat about various topics to pass the time.
"By the way…" Scrooge speaks up. "The layout of those traps over there is really amazing. Did you make them, sir Lux?" he asks.
"Nah, it wasn't me." Lux pats Donnel on the back. "It was the creation this little genius here!"
"Aw, sir Lux, don't say it like that. I ain't no genius…" Donnel scratches his cheek.
"No, saying you're a genius is not an overstatement, if I do say so myself." Scrooge says. "You knew that by laying out traps in obvious location so the animals can see, and by avoiding those obvious traps, it unknowingly follow your scheme and fall to the actual trap. Not many can think up such hunting method."
"Indeed."Cordelia nods. "You have to be familiar with location of setting traps, and well-versed in studying the habits, instincts and reflexes of the animals around here. Otherwise, the animals would see through the hidden traps immediately."
"E hee hee, stop that, will ya? Ya makin' me blush here!" Donnel laughs it off. "I can't do archery like sir Lux, so all I can do ter help with the huntin' is laying out traps. And it's not that 'ard studying the animals around 'ere, I was born and raised here after all. I had 15 years of studyin', so it ain't a big deal at at."
"You know, there's a quote for that in the Art of War…" Scrooge says.
"Art of War?" Cordelia looks over to Scrooge, confused.
"You don't know?" Scrooge looks surprised. "That's a pretty famous military treatise about strategies and tactics." Scrooge turns to Lux and Donnel.
"Er, 'fraid not…" Donnel scratches his head.
"We're just commoners living in the middle of nowhere, Scrooge. We aren't that well-read, a fact that we're not very proud of…" Lux sighs.
"Oh, okay then… I forgot…" Scrooge looks around awkwardly. "Well, I don't remember the exact wording, but it goes like this: "Know thy enemy and know thy self, find victory in a hundred battles. Know thy self, but know not thy enemy, find victory and defeat in equal measure. Know not either thy self nor thy, find defeat in every battle." He then explains. "By growing up around here and studying everything he need about the animals, Donnel has known his enemy. By admitting that he can't be as good an archer as sir Lux, and devoted himself in the art of setting traps, Donnel has known his limit of what he can and can't, thus known his self. Combining these two facts, he was able to "find victory in a hundred battles"!"
He claps his hands once and continues. "And that's not all, the author also have this quote in the treatise: All warfare is based on deception. When able to attack, we must act like we're unable to. When want to attack, we must act like we don't want to. When approaching near the enemy, we must make them think we're still far away… The way Donnel set up the traps is exactly like that!"
"That was amazin'!" Donnel claps his hands, praising Scrooge. "Ya sounds like ya're very well-versed in this Art o' war. Are ya a seasoned tactician or somethin'?"
"Yeah, something like that." Scrooge smiles. "My mother was very interested in all kind of books, even military and strategy books, the Art of War happened to be her favorite, so she read it to me many times when I was small…" The smile on his face slowly fades away, he looks kind of down. "…and I did have some opportunities to carry out what I learnt from it recently…" he mutters.
"Come on…" Cordelia hits Scrooge on the shoulder. "If you're still feeling guilty about the time you hit me, I already forgive you for that so don't worry."
"…" Scrooge stays silent for a few seconds, then he gives himself a painful slap to his right cheek, much to the surprise of the others. He looks over to Cordelia and seems like he want to say something…
"SIR LUX! DONNEL!" Someone's scream stops him from doing so.
Everyone turn to the direction of the voice. They see a green-haired boy with a frightened look on his face, running straight at them. "Sir Lux! Donnel!" The boy screams.
"Dai?!"Donnel gets up and runs toward the green-haired boy, Lux also quickly follows. "W-whassa matter?!" Donnel asks. "Did somethin' happen?!"
"Donnel… sir Lux…" The boy, Dai, is in tears. He sniffs and tries to speak up, but struggles to let the word out of his throat with all the tears on his face. Seeing that something is definitely wrong here, Scrooge and Cordelia also get up and walk over to him to hear what was wrong.
"Peace, Dai." Lux tries to calm Dai down. "Take a breath in… Take a breath out… Now, slowly tell me what happened…"
"*sniff*…The village… The village got attacked by bandits!" Dai says.
"What?!"
Lux and Donnel instantly run in the direction of their village as fast as they can. Cordelia also hurriedly runs after them, with her Pegasus by her side. Dai wipes off all the tears on his face and runs after the three, too.
"W-wait for me, guys!" Scrooge uses his hoe as a cane to supports himself and runs after everyone with difficulties.
…
The group arrived at the village, but it was already too late. The village was already looted with half of the village burnt down, and the bandits have already made their escapes.
Although mad at the bandit's evil deed, there's nothing Donnel or anyone else could do now. Swallowing their frustration, the group helps the villagers to the village's infirmary and treats their wounds. Thankfully, most of the wounds aren't life-threatening, and should be healed after a few days of rest. But…
"Wait… Where are Ma and Ba?!" Donnel notices that his parents are missing from the villagers. "'ey! Does anyone see my Ma and Ba?!" He starts to panic and runs around the village to search for his parents, Lux and Dai also help him, but Donnel's parents are nowhere to be seen.
"D-did they get kidnapped by the bandits?" Dai nervously asks.
"What for?!" Donnel yells. "They already looted the 'hole village! What could 'ey get from kidnapping my Ma and Ba?!"
"Wait… I just realized this, but it wasn't just your parents, Donny…" Lux sweats and looks around. "…Wait, where's Scrooge and Cordelia?"
…
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Cordelia asks Scrooge.
While Lux, Donnel and Dai were helping the villagers tending the wounds, Scrooge told Cordelia to go with him to find the bandit's hideout. Cordelia agreed to Scrooge's suggestion since she didn't want to involve the villagers in something involving the bandits again. But, they've been walking around in the forest for quite a while now, Cordelia is starting to question if Scrooge knows what he's doing.
"Yes, I'm sure…" Scrooge says. "Since the bandits made their escape into the forest, we just have to track down the road where the grasses look stepped on." He explains. "And the broken tree branches just confirmed more that they just passed by here."
"Then why do I keep having a feeling that we're walking around in circle?"
"Dunno." Scrooge shrugs. "They probably walk around in circle in case someone goes after them, like us… Or they were trying to shake off pursuit from someone…"
"…You really think so?"
"Dunno, but it's a possibility."
The two then continue following the track in silent. Then, Cordelia notices that Scrooge is walking normally despite his right ankle shouldn't have healed yet.
"H-hey, is your ankle alright? You shouldn't push yourself if you're still hurt." Cordelia asks, worryingly.
"Rest assured that I most definitely am not alright. My ankle is bleeding so bad that I should be curling up in a bed right now, instead of walking out here in the middle of a forest like some kind of picnic."
"I don't find your sarcasm funny…"
"What makes you think I was being sarcastic?"
"Sure, sure, you wasn't…" Cordelia sighs. "Let's continue with the… Hm?" Cordelia sees an old worn down wooden house in the distance. She turns to Scrooge and points at the house. Scrooge nods.
Scrooge, Cordelia and her Pegasus quietly approach a bush and observe the house from afar.
The house isn't very big, probably enough to fit 15 to 20 people in it. There's only one entrance to the house and 2 windows on the sides, but the windows are rather small, a grown adult definitely won't fit through.
"…" Scrooge strokes his chin and thinks for a moment. The number of bandits is unknown, but there probably are 10 of them at least, and 15 of them at most. Whatever their number may be, confronting them head on would be stupid.
Scrooge looks around the place for a bit more.
The house is surrounded by trees on all sides, and it's going to get dark in another hour or two. Maybe it's best to wait for nightfall and think up some ways to lure them out of the house and capture them one by one. The question is how?
"…" He thinks for little more, then he turns to Cordelia.
"Did you come up with a plan?" Cordelia asks.
"Yeah, kind of." Scrooge answers. "We'll wait until night fall…" Scrooge then tells Cordelia about the plan he just thought up seconds ago. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it sounds good enough and Cordelia thinks that it should work.
"For now, just go back to the village and tell sir Lux to come here and help, we'll need at least another adult to deal with the bandits." Scrooge tells Cordelia. "I'll think about where to set up traps to capture the bandits when they try to escape in the meantime. Oh, and tell him to bring some ropes too."
"Got it!" Cordelia turns and was about to leave, but then she turns back to look at Scrooge. "Don't do anything rash while I'm not around, okay?" She says.
"I'm a schemer, not a fighter, Cordelia." Scrooge sighs. "I'm not so stupid to go challenging a group of bandit by myself..." He reassures Cordelia.
Cordelia nods and quickly leaves the place with her Pegasus.
Scrooge watches Cordelia off and goes back to thinking. "Hm… If I were to do that… then the bandits would react like this, and then they would… but then… Urgh, that was stupid! Should have told Cordelia to call Donny, too…"
!
Suddenly, from inside the house, something flies out of the house, smashing a big hole on the wall of the house.
Scrooge startled. He tries to see what happened, but there's too much dust so he can't see it clearly. The only thing he could see is a silhouette of a person amidst the dust… "Wait, that's…?"
The dust clears up as the person gets up from the ground with difficulties, giving Scrooge the clear image of that person: A girl with long red hair tied into twin tails.
"Severa!"
Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing chapter 14. The beginning of the chapter started with Donnel, making it feels like he's going to be the main focus of this chapter, and yet mid way of the chapter, the focus shifted back to Scrooge... Please, don't be angry with me, before I realized it, it already turned out like that... Aside from that, all I can say is that with the sudden appearance of Severa at the end of this chapter, things are going to be a bit messy from here on out, I suppose, hopefully it doesn't turn out to be a big mess lol. So, please look forward to the next chapter, everyone. Thank you very much!