Chapter 270: 036 – Ghost Town 1
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A squad of fifty walked along the road, most of them wore pieces of light armour or chainmail and a light set of blue robes were draped across their gear, it was the colours of the house they served.
On their shoulders an emblem of a circular shield was stitched onto their clothes, they bore the coat of arms of House Kurt.
Every person held a weapon in hand as they marched in a neat formation with a large cart at the centre of the formation.
The cart was pulled by four enormous horse's each one was almost twice the size of a cow, and on the cart the horse's pulled, a thick steel cage sat.
"We've been searching for a week now, and there isn't a single trace of one bloody orc hair, let alone some silver haired noble orc," Corten complained, he was the lieutenant sitting in the rear of the formation, and just a little behind him was the captain of the squad.
The captain was dressed a little differently from the rest, whereas they had bulky pieces of armour she wore a simple blue robe and sat on her horse, not minding the conversations of her squad, her focus was set on the road as if searching through the dirt for clues.
"We have found the remains of a few burnt up caravans and their people," one of the soldiers offered, he knew what the lieutenant could be like when he got cranky, so he tried to alleviate his crankiness with the progress of the mission so far.
"Hump," Corten snorted coldly, "The only thing we learned from all those sites, is that who ever is responsible for this stole all the coin and torched everything else,"
"Tell me what kind of orc noble would feel the need to rob some merchants of the little coin they carry on them?!" Colten yelled at the soldier, like he was a complete fool.
"This entire mission is just one colossal waste of time," Colten huffed loudly as he pulled up a dagger and started to shave his nails.
"Captain how about we rest at the next village and turn back, even if there are any orcs and I doubt that are, there is absolutely no trail to follow, aside from the few burnt caravans we have found nothing else," Colten said with a slightly more respectful tone then when he berated the soldier.
"You make a good point," the captain said with a slight scowl on her face, she knew that her lieutenant was highly valued by lord Kurt but he had an attitude problem he was always acting like he was the superior and he was lazy to boot.
"Everyone you heard your lieutenant we don't have any trail or leads to follow, I agree that if we keep moving around without any aim we won't be effective" she said to the group.
Colten beamed happily, he was getting sick and tired of traveling on the road, he just wanted to get back to the Kurt estate and find a good brothel in the red-light district to blow of some steam.
At that moment the captain added, "We'll station ourselves outside the nearest village, and we'll be camping there until we find a lead,"
A series of grunts echoed, clearly most of the squad, didn't like their captains decision, but no one dared to speak against it, they wouldn't dare to argue with an adapt.
Well all with the exception of the lieutenant who was angered by the idea, "Captain, this is just a waste of time, the delusions of some survivors, they were probably so traumatised that they couldn't even remember what happened clearly," he argued.
"Are you questioning my orders?" the captain asked with a cold smile on her face, she was hoping for an opportunity to give her lieutenant a beating.
A scowl quickly formed on Colten's face but he didn't dare to do anything else, while there was hope for him to become an adapt one day it wasn't going to be anytime soon.
"No I'm not," he said reluctantly.
"Good, I didn't think you had to balls to do so anyway," the captain said coldly, which earned a round of chuckles from the entire squad, it wasn't every day that they got to see one of the lords golden boys put in their place.
"We have a mission to fulfil, if I hear another word about leaving before our task is completed, I'll personally escort each of you to the guillotine when we return to the estate," she said and returned her focus to the road.
They were assigned a task by their liege to investigate the rumours about an orc noble that was attacking the caravans, as the one's in control over this part of the road, it was House Kurt's duty to launch an investigation and try to get rid of the menace, before Proge got involved.
There was no doubt that the nobles of Proge would be more than happy to rub it in Lord Kurt's face, if they had to take care of a problem that was occurring in his territory.
The members of the squad all glanced at Colten with heated gazes it was all his fault that the captain was now in a foul mood, and now they were going to spend who knew how long, stationed outside a village.
Sleeping on the hard ground, and even if they went to the village inns it wasn't like the beds in some village could compare to the beds they had back home.
Silence took over the squad as they continued with their march, they were already getting close to a village, if they sped up a little it was possible that they would be able go in and enjoy a couple of drinks before they went to sleep.
It was then that one of the scouts came back, everyone gave him room as he walked to the back and spoke to the captain.
"There's something you should see," he told the captain, it wasn't exactly urgent, but it was certainly unexpected, something may or may not be related to the currents trouble.
The captain quickly gave an order for the squad to take a quick break as she followed the scout of the road, and after a short climb through the wilderness, the captain saw what the scout had mentioned.
There was an entire area that was charred completely black, like a land of death suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest.
"I went in and examined the outskirts," the scout explained, "From the looks of it there was a very intense fire that broke out, from what I can tell the fire went out over a week ago," the scout gave all his finding so far.
The captain knitted her eyebrows, "We'll have to have that entire area investigated to find the cause, I doubt that this is a coincidence, it's unlikely that this was natural," the captain said with concern.
It was harvest season, it was far too early for farmers to lite the fields and also no accidental fire would have been able to cause so much destruction.
"The village of Willcolly is pretty close," the captain said, "We'll camp there for the night, find out what the villagers know, then we'll go in to investigate the area."
A short while later the captain gave the squad a rundown of what was found, which came as a relief to the group, they no longer had to fear being stuck in some village for an extended period of time.
The sun was rapidly creeping down the horizon and when they finally made it to the village the sun had all but vanished from their sight, but they were certain that that they were close, however when the first person realised that they reached the village a frown formed on his face, the sight was not at all what they expected to see.
The village that should have had a few lamps lit here and there was completely dark, no sound could be heard coming from the inns where most people would gather in the night, and not the slightest trace of movement could be detected.
It was like they were looking at a ghost town that had been completely abandoned, and without the light they couldn't even see the real appearance of the wrecked village.
One of the soldiers walked up to the bridge, but after taking a single step the floor of the bridge started to crack and break.
"The bridge is a complete wreck," he shouted to the group as he ran back, the cracking sounds from the bridge continued to sound and before long the bridge came crashing down, and the smell of charred wood wafted into all of their noses.
"Ready your weapons," the captain whispered to the group, she was getting a bad feeling as she approached the moat and lifted her hand, soon she unleashed a little spell that fill the moat with sand to act as a crossing.
Then a ball of flame appeared in her hand as she led the way with her squad following carefully behind.
Soon the flame in her hand illuminated the gates to the village, they were wide open and as the group wondered inside they found that that the village was a complete wreck.
Buildings had crumbled to the ground and from the look of things, it seemed like people had fled through the village in a mad rush.
Barrels were strewn about on the roads, and farming tools were scattered all over the ground, the entire thing sent chills down their spines.
Even for them, the trained warriors of House Kurt this was a first.
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A squad of fifty walked along the road, most of them wore pieces of light armour or chainmail and a light set of blue robes were draped across their gear, it was the colours of the house they served.
On their shoulders an emblem of a circular shield was stitched onto their clothes, they bore the coat of arms of House Kurt.
Every person held a weapon in hand as they marched in a neat formation with a large cart at the centre of the formation.
The cart was pulled by four enormous horse's each one was almost twice the size of a cow, and on the cart the horse's pulled, a thick steel cage sat.
"We've been searching for a week now, and there isn't a single trace of one bloody orc hair, let alone some silver haired noble orc," Corten complained, he was the lieutenant sitting in the rear of the formation, and just a little behind him was the captain of the squad.
The captain was dressed a little differently from the rest, whereas they had bulky pieces of armour she wore a simple blue robe and sat on her horse, not minding the conversations of her squad, her focus was set on the road as if searching through the dirt for clues.
"We have found the remains of a few burnt up caravans and their people," one of the soldiers offered, he knew what the lieutenant could be like when he got cranky, so he tried to alleviate his crankiness with the progress of the mission so far.
"Hump," Corten snorted coldly, "The only thing we learned from all those sites, is that who ever is responsible for this stole all the coin and torched everything else,"
"Tell me what kind of orc noble would feel the need to rob some merchants of the little coin they carry on them?!" Colten yelled at the soldier, like he was a complete fool.
"This entire mission is just one colossal waste of time," Colten huffed loudly as he pulled up a dagger and started to shave his nails.
"Captain how about we rest at the next village and turn back, even if there are any orcs and I doubt that are, there is absolutely no trail to follow, aside from the few burnt caravans we have found nothing else," Colten said with a slightly more respectful tone then when he berated the soldier.
"You make a good point," the captain said with a slight scowl on her face, she knew that her lieutenant was highly valued by lord Kurt but he had an attitude problem he was always acting like he was the superior and he was lazy to boot.
"Everyone you heard your lieutenant we don't have any trail or leads to follow, I agree that if we keep moving around without any aim we won't be effective" she said to the group.
Colten beamed happily, he was getting sick and tired of traveling on the road, he just wanted to get back to the Kurt estate and find a good brothel in the red-light district to blow of some steam.
At that moment the captain added, "We'll station ourselves outside the nearest village, and we'll be camping there until we find a lead,"
A series of grunts echoed, clearly most of the squad, didn't like their captains decision, but no one dared to speak against it, they wouldn't dare to argue with an adapt.
Well all with the exception of the lieutenant who was angered by the idea, "Captain, this is just a waste of time, the delusions of some survivors, they were probably so traumatised that they couldn't even remember what happened clearly," he argued.
"Are you questioning my orders?" the captain asked with a cold smile on her face, she was hoping for an opportunity to give her lieutenant a beating.
A scowl quickly formed on Colten's face but he didn't dare to do anything else, while there was hope for him to become an adapt one day it wasn't going to be anytime soon.
"No I'm not," he said reluctantly.
"Good, I didn't think you had to balls to do so anyway," the captain said coldly, which earned a round of chuckles from the entire squad, it wasn't every day that they got to see one of the lords golden boys put in their place.
"We have a mission to fulfil, if I hear another word about leaving before our task is completed, I'll personally escort each of you to the guillotine when we return to the estate," she said and returned her focus to the road.
They were assigned a task by their liege to investigate the rumours about an orc noble that was attacking the caravans, as the one's in control over this part of the road, it was House Kurt's duty to launch an investigation and try to get rid of the menace, before Proge got involved.
There was no doubt that the nobles of Proge would be more than happy to rub it in Lord Kurt's face, if they had to take care of a problem that was occurring in his territory.
The members of the squad all glanced at Colten with heated gazes it was all his fault that the captain was now in a foul mood, and now they were going to spend who knew how long, stationed outside a village.
Sleeping on the hard ground, and even if they went to the village inns it wasn't like the beds in some village could compare to the beds they had back home.
Silence took over the squad as they continued with their march, they were already getting close to a village, if they sped up a little it was possible that they would be able go in and enjoy a couple of drinks before they went to sleep.
It was then that one of the scouts came back, everyone gave him room as he walked to the back and spoke to the captain.
"There's something you should see," he told the captain, it wasn't exactly urgent, but it was certainly unexpected, something may or may not be related to the currents trouble.
The captain quickly gave an order for the squad to take a quick break as she followed the scout of the road, and after a short climb through the wilderness, the captain saw what the scout had mentioned.
There was an entire area that was charred completely black, like a land of death suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest.
"I went in and examined the outskirts," the scout explained, "From the looks of it there was a very intense fire that broke out, from what I can tell the fire went out over a week ago," the scout gave all his finding so far.
The captain knitted her eyebrows, "We'll have to have that entire area investigated to find the cause, I doubt that this is a coincidence, it's unlikely that this was natural," the captain said with concern.
It was harvest season, it was far too early for farmers to lite the fields and also no accidental fire would have been able to cause so much destruction.
"The village of Willcolly is pretty close," the captain said, "We'll camp there for the night, find out what the villagers know, then we'll go in to investigate the area."
A short while later the captain gave the squad a rundown of what was found, which came as a relief to the group, they no longer had to fear being stuck in some village for an extended period of time.
The sun was rapidly creeping down the horizon and when they finally made it to the village the sun had all but vanished from their sight, but they were certain that that they were close, however when the first person realised that they reached the village a frown formed on his face, the sight was not at all what they expected to see.
The village that should have had a few lamps lit here and there was completely dark, no sound could be heard coming from the inns where most people would gather in the night, and not the slightest trace of movement could be detected.
It was like they were looking at a ghost town that had been completely abandoned, and without the light they couldn't even see the real appearance of the wrecked village.
One of the soldiers walked up to the bridge, but after taking a single step the floor of the bridge started to crack and break.
"The bridge is a complete wreck," he shouted to the group as he ran back, the cracking sounds from the bridge continued to sound and before long the bridge came crashing down, and the smell of charred wood wafted into all of their noses.
"Ready your weapons," the captain whispered to the group, she was getting a bad feeling as she approached the moat and lifted her hand, soon she unleashed a little spell that fill the moat with sand to act as a crossing.
Then a ball of flame appeared in her hand as she led the way with her squad following carefully behind.
Soon the flame in her hand illuminated the gates to the village, they were wide open and as the group wondered inside they found that that the village was a complete wreck.
Buildings had crumbled to the ground and from the look of things, it seemed like people had fled through the village in a mad rush.
Barrels were strewn about on the roads, and farming tools were scattered all over the ground, the entire thing sent chills down their spines.
Even for them, the trained warriors of House Kurt this was a first.
A squad of fifty walked along the road, most of them wore pieces of light armour or chainmail and a light set of blue robes were draped across their gear, it was the colours of the house they served.On their shoulders an emblem of a circular shield was stitched onto their clothes, they bore the coat of arms of House Kurt.Every person held a weapon in hand as they marched in a neat formation with a large cart at the centre of the formation.The cart was pulled by four enormous horse's each one was almost twice the size of a cow, and on the cart the horse's pulled, a thick steel cage sat."We've been searching for a week now, and there isn't a single trace of one bloody orc hair, let alone some silver haired noble orc," Corten complained, he was the lieutenant sitting in the rear of the formation, and just a little behind him was the captain of the squad.The captain was dressed a little differently from the rest, whereas they had bulky pieces of armour she wore a simple blue robe and sat on her horse, not minding the conversations of her squad, her focus was set on the road as if searching through the dirt for clues."We have found the remains of a few burnt up caravans and their people," one of the soldiers offered, he knew what the lieutenant could be like when he got cranky, so he tried to alleviate his crankiness with the progress of the mission so far."Hump," Corten snorted coldly, "The only thing we learned from all those sites, is that who ever is responsible for this stole all the coin and torched everything else,""Tell me what kind of orc noble would feel the need to rob some merchants of the little coin they carry on them?!" Colten yelled at the soldier, like he was a complete fool."This entire mission is just one colossal waste of time," Colten huffed loudly as he pulled up a dagger and started to shave his nails."Captain how about we rest at the next village and turn back, even if there are any orcs and I doubt that are, there is absolutely no trail to follow, aside from the few burnt caravans we have found nothing else," Colten said with a slightly more respectful tone then when he berated the soldier."You make a good point," the captain said with a slight scowl on her face, she knew that her lieutenant was highly valued by lord Kurt but he had an attitude problem he was always acting like he was the superior and he was lazy to boot."Everyone you heard your lieutenant we don't have any trail or leads to follow, I agree that if we keep moving around without any aim we won't be effective" she said to the group.Colten beamed happily, he was getting sick and tired of traveling on the road, he just wanted to get back to the Kurt estate and find a good brothel in the red-light district to blow of some steam.At that moment the captain added, "We'll station ourselves outside the nearest village, and we'll be camping there until we find a lead,"A series of grunts echoed, clearly most of the squad, didn't like their captains decision, but no one dared to speak against it, they wouldn't dare to argue with an adapt.Well all with the exception of the lieutenant who was angered by the idea, "Captain, this is just a waste of time, the delusions of some survivors, they were probably so traumatised that they couldn't even remember what happened clearly," he argued."Are you questioning my orders?" the captain asked with a cold smile on her face, she was hoping for an opportunity to give her lieutenant a beating.A scowl quickly formed on Colten's face but he didn't dare to do anything else, while there was hope for him to become an adapt one day it wasn't going to be anytime soon."No I'm not," he said reluctantly."Good, I didn't think you had to balls to do so anyway," the captain said coldly, which earned a round of chuckles from the entire squad, it wasn't every day that they got to see one of the lords golden boys put in their place."We have a mission to fulfil, if I hear another word about leaving before our task is completed, I'll personally escort each of you to the guillotine when we return to the estate," she said and returned her focus to the road.They were assigned a task by their liege to investigate the rumours about an orc noble that was attacking the caravans, as the one's in control over this part of the road, it was House Kurt's duty to launch an investigation and try to get rid of the menace, before Proge got involved.There was no doubt that the nobles of Proge would be more than happy to rub it in Lord Kurt's face, if they had to take care of a problem that was occurring in his territory.The members of the squad all glanced at Colten with heated gazes it was all his fault that the captain was now in a foul mood, and now they were going to spend who knew how long, stationed outside a village.Sleeping on the hard ground, and even if they went to the village inns it wasn't like the beds in some village could compare to the beds they had back home.Silence took over the squad as they continued with their march, they were already getting close to a village, if they sped up a little it was possible that they would be able go in and enjoy a couple of drinks before they went to sleep.It was then that one of the scouts came back, everyone gave him room as he walked to the back and spoke to the captain."There's something you should see," he told the captain, it wasn't exactly urgent, but it was certainly unexpected, something may or may not be related to the currents trouble.The captain quickly gave an order for the squad to take a quick break as she followed the scout of the road, and after a short climb through the wilderness, the captain saw what the scout had mentioned.There was an entire area that was charred completely black, like a land of death suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest."I went in and examined the outskirts," the scout explained, "From the looks of it there was a very intense fire that broke out, from what I can tell the fire went out over a week ago," the scout gave all his finding so far.The captain knitted her eyebrows, "We'll have to have that entire area investigated to find the cause, I doubt that this is a coincidence, it's unlikely that this was natural," the captain said with concern.It was harvest season, it was far too early for farmers to lite the fields and also no accidental fire would have been able to cause so much destruction."The village of Willcolly is pretty close," the captain said, "We'll camp there for the night, find out what the villagers know, then we'll go in to investigate the area."A short while later the captain gave the squad a rundown of what was found, which came as a relief to the group, they no longer had to fear being stuck in some village for an extended period of time.The sun was rapidly creeping down the horizon and when they finally made it to the village the sun had all but vanished from their sight, but they were certain that that they were close, however when the first person realised that they reached the village a frown formed on his face, the sight was not at all what they expected to see.The village that should have had a few lamps lit here and there was completely dark, no sound could be heard coming from the inns where most people would gather in the night, and not the slightest trace of movement could be detected.It was like they were looking at a ghost town that had been completely abandoned, and without the light they couldn't even see the real appearance of the wrecked village.One of the soldiers walked up to the bridge, but after taking a single step the floor of the bridge started to crack and break."The bridge is a complete wreck," he shouted to the group as he ran back, the cracking sounds from the bridge continued to sound and before long the bridge came crashing down, and the smell of charred wood wafted into all of their noses."Ready your weapons," the captain whispered to the group, she was getting a bad feeling as she approached the moat and lifted her hand, soon she unleashed a little spell that fill the moat with sand to act as a crossing.Then a ball of flame appeared in her hand as she led the way with her squad following carefully behind.Soon the flame in her hand illuminated the gates to the village, they were wide open and as the group wondered inside they found that that the village was a complete wreck.Buildings had crumbled to the ground and from the look of things, it seemed like people had fled through the village in a mad rush.Barrels were strewn about on the roads, and farming tools were scattered all over the ground, the entire thing sent chills down their spines.Even for them, the trained warriors of House Kurt this was a first.
