The Path of the Doomed

Chapter 5: The Siblings

"Well, what do we have here?" One of the soldiers said, digging his heel into their victim's stomach.

"Are you lost, pretty girl?

"Why don't you come with us? We'll show you the way."

They started walking towards me. I'm only armed with the daggers I slipped on my boots but I'll make do without touching them. I can't kill them and make a scene.

I looked at the poor soldier on the ground. He's trying to get up. Whether to somehow help me or to flee, I'm not so sure but I hope it's the latter.

When they were close enough, I immediately swung both my fists into the throats of the first two soldiers and while they were grasping their necks gasping for air, the last one was about to charge but my foot was faster. It landed on his groin making him squeal.

I turned back to the other two who are now on the ground and made sure to knock them out. This one soldier is enough. Before he could recover from my kick, I choked him with the belt of one of his comrades. He tried to speak but I tightened it so much his main concern was no longer to speak but to breathe.

I heard the Albione soldier behind me and when I looked back, he was finally on his feet, with his right hand on the wall to support him. He looked astounded.

"Will you tie them?" I asked. He's clearly in pain but he still nodded. He retrieved some kind of rope from his small bag and knelt down to where the passed out soldiers were. With trembling hands, he started tying them and as he did, he shot glances towards me and the soldier I'm choking.

"T-thank you. Also, you might accidentally kill him. So..." He said.

"He'd be long dead if I wanted him to. What did they want?"

"Plans. They wanted to get information about Albione's strategic plans about the battle happening in the Kasta Plains. I couldn't tell them anything even if I wanted to because I didn't know anything. I-I'm new."

So the Queen was right. Ghandor is really up to something. I loosened the belt enough for him to speak.

"What do you want with the plans?"

Even as he struggled to breathe, the scum still managed to let out a laugh.

"Why don't you find out for yourself, pretty miss? I can assure you, it's so much more interesting and fun than a mere war." It seemed he had used all of his air and passed out after finishing what he had to say. I heard the fledgling soldier gasp.

"Calm down. He just passed out. What is your name?"

"F-Fin.'

"All right, Fin. We're gonna have to find a way to hide them for now before someone sees them passed out." I said as I tied the last soldier with the belt I used to torture him.

"W-we can just report them and our soldiers will take care of them." He said, and it's obviously the right thing to do in this situation, except I know this will certainly cause issues about the upcoming gathering and will clearly upset the Queen if it's made public.

"No. We can't disrupt the gathering." I said more to myself but he heard it and he seemed to consider it for a while before speaking again.

"Right, the gathering. But I just think it's important to report them. I mean, they wanted information about our kingdom's strategic plans. They must - ."

"Fin. No." I said. He looked scared for a moment and just nodded after recovering.

"Hestia!" I heard Argon called out from behind.

"What the hell happened here? I told you to lay low. What have you done?" He asked as soon as he got to us and my brows furrowed at his last question. I turned to face him and was about to argue when Fin interrupted.