Chapter 28

“Attention! I have an announcement!” I shouted, drawing the attention of my students.

The throng of children immediately stopped their sparring matches and turned to me. Some were curious, others hesitant, as if they expected me to say something unpleasant.

“Well, I suppose the Newcomers expect something like that out of me.” I thought, stewing over how our numbers had grown over the last year.

Our little family had grown from a little over a dozen people to well over 50 of them. At first growth had been slow, with us only picking up new runaways once or twice a month. But over the last half year the number of runaways to this area had increased explosively.

When asked about this the newcomers told me of a rumor they had heard, of how a Hero was secretly hiding in the area- breaking slaves free of imprisonment and protecting them in the Great Forest. Some of them even believed that Saint Helena herself had returned from the Popedom to free them from their chains.

“Imagine if they knew what was really behind all of this.” I mused.

It made sense that such a rumor would start to spread after the not-so-subtle rescues we had made in Elmbrook. It likely also didn’t help that I had a habit of punishing the jailers with the same brutality they inflicted on the slaves. The consequences of our actions were starting to build up.

On the one hand, rumors about what we were doing here were good. Thanks to that, we have been able to shore up our numbers into the small army I had in front of me now, and we will likely see even more growth in the future. The rumors also stirred fear up among the public, making them wary of the forest and subsequently making us less likely to be found out.

But there was a downside. At some point soldiers would definitely be sent out here to investigate the rumors. Most of them would likely be no threat to me- in fact there were a good number of students here that could without a doubt trounce an average knight. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was that the moment we were found out our time to prepare would be up.

If a contingent of soldiers discovered us and we killed them all, all that would do is confirm the rumors and as a result another, stronger force would be sent. And if we let such a force go the same thing would happen only faster. Because of this we were left with very few options on how to proceed in the event of our discovery.

Of course, this was all hypothetical at first. It didn’t seem likely to me that the king of a nation like Langrace, someone who cared so little about the lives of his citizens that he would allow a system like slavery to exist, would send soldiers to investigate a rumor as far out in the boonies as Elmbrook- at least, not this early in the game. Surely a man as callous as all that would think little of our small town on the outskirts of the kingdom-if he even thought about it at all, and yet…

“Are you sure about this?” I had asked Lyca, two days before making my announcement.

“Yes Master. Thirty soldiers bearing the King's insignia have just entered Elmbrook. I can’t say for certain, but we should prepare in case they have come for us.” she said, stoic as ever.

Lyca had been like that ever since her first mission. Before she was energetic, hard headed, even a little bratty and, while I liked her new attitude, it made me feel guilty. Because of me she was forced to grow up faster than normal. I had robbed her of her childhood.

“Do we have any proof that they are coming here?”

“It’s not concrete, but…” she hesitated “Why else would so many soldiers come to Elmwood? There shouldn’t be any festivals happening at the moment.”

I could think of no argument against her words, so I said “Very well, I will consider our options. Return to your post and report to me if you or your scouts see anything suspicious.”

“Yes Master.” she said, disappearing into the trees above us.

Lyca had become someone invaluable to me. At first it was as my spy, but over this past year she had become something more to me. She was more than a student, or a warrior, or even a leader. It felt like I could entrust her with anything, and she would see her mission through with ruthless accuracy.

The girl could never be my lieutenant. Although the rest of my students no longer actively shunned her, they would not follow her the way they had come to follow Balor, or Star, or Eri. Fortunately, I had already prepared a different position for her. A darker one, but just as prestigious and maybe even more essential than that of lieutenant.

“But that will keep until they have all finished their training.” I thought, returning to the problem at hand.

There was a high likelihood that the soldiers were here for us, and that being the case I needed to quickly enact a plan. The problem was that there was very little we could do. Killing was out of the question, casting an illusion wouldn’t work if the soldiers wore enchanted equipment, misdirecting the men to another part of the forest had a high chance of backfiring and leading them right to us and…

“Wait…another part of the forest…hmm” I thought, an idea suddenly springing into my head.

I spent the next day solidifying that idea into an actual plan, which turned out to be a good thing when Lyca came to give me the day's report.

“The soldiers spent yesterday getting settled into Elmbrook. It seems that they plan on staying there for a while and…” she paused.

“And?” I prompted

“And…this morning a small group of scouts were sent to the edge of the forest. We think they were looking for traces of runaways.” she said solemnly.

I nodded “Thank you for your report, Lyca. You and your scouts have done an excellent job.”

“It is my duty, Master” she said, and though she sounded emotionless I could see a blush building up on her face.

“Ah, I’m glad she’s still childish enough to be flattered by praise.” I thought

Lyca made to leave for the trees again, but before she could I stopped her “Ah, by the way Lyca I plan on making an announcement during morning training tomorrow. See to it that you, and as many of your scouts as you can spare are there.”

“Of course Master, but what are you going to announce?” she asked curiously.

But I just smiled and said “You’ll see.” before winking at her and walking off.

And now here we were. Around me were the Newcomers, the Workhorse group and Lyca with her Scouts. I was positively elated to see all of my precious family in the same place for once, as the Scouts rarely interacted with the Workhorse and Newcomer groups.

“As some of you may know, the king's soldiers have come to Elmwood. I wish I could say that they were only there on routine work, but a report I received yesterday from the Scouts has convinced me otherwise. It would seem that those men have come here…for us.” I paused, allowing my words to sink in to the crowd.

For a moment there was silence, and then-

“Master! If soldiers have finally come to fight then please, let me lead the charge against them!” Balor shouted, holding his sword aloft among his peers. There was a great cheer as many of my students roared their approval for him.

“He certainly knows how to rile up his comrades.” I thought sardonically. In truth, Balor really had grown into an excellent young man. He was my only student to learn every weapon art and he had successfully mastered body strengthening magic. He had also learned how to imbue his weapons with various types of elemental magics, managing to even keep me on my toes when he was serious. That, coupled with his handsome features and muscular physique, made him a prime candidate to be my lieutenant. However…

“Nay, it is I who shall lead us to victory!” Shouted Eri, whose declaration was also greeted with thunderous applause. Like Balor, she had blossomed into an astounding young woman. She was my only student to successfully devise her own magic spells-graduating her from her basic magic lessons. Of course, there was still much for her to learn as Merry had decided that Eri was worthy of learning the secrets of how to see and dismantle the spells of others. In all Eri was probably a better spellcaster than I was- and her dagger skills were nothing to scoff at either. On top of that, even I could tell that she was beautiful for a human girl. She was a grand candidate for my Lieutenant, but…

“There will be no battle.” I said, crushing their hopes to finally use their powers for their intended purpose.

“But Master, we can beat them!” the two of them said in unison, causing me to groan at their ignorance.

“I am aware that you can beat them, that isn’t the issue here. If we kill those soldiers they will just send more.” I said, trying not to get too annoyed at my students.

“But can’t we just beat them too?” Scratch said innocently.

“And if we beat all of their soldiers, who will they send next?” I asked

“…The Heroes.” Eri and Balor said, deflating. Their battle lust gone, all of my cheering students now looked forlorn.

“I dunno, if all of us attacked them at once maybe we could…” a hopeful Scratch began.

“If all of you attacked me at once, do you think you would stand a chance of winning?” I asked, allowing both my bloodlust to leak out. The weaker students paled and stepped away from me but the stronger ones, Scratch included, were able to take the full brunt of it without flinching.

“I think we’d stand a chance…” he said, allowing himself a hesitant smile.

“Ah, they’re getting arrogant.” I thought, both irritated and begrudgingly proud of my students.

“And I wonder where they got that from?” came Merry’s smug voice.

“Do you now?” I said, adding my magical aura, as well as the power of and to my bloodlust. Those strong students, who previously were just fine against the strength of my raw killing intent, had become paralyzed both from the power of my Gorgon's eye and the intimidation effect of my Blood of the Direwolf.

Scratch, whom just a moment ago had been smiling, was now pale as a sheet. All of them were.

I sighed, releasing all of them from my skills, and said “Your training is only half complete. I am aware that you all know how to fight, but you still need to learn a fundamental lesson about defeating foes who are stronger than you are. You are not yet ready to face the Heroes.”

My students all bowed their heads, accepting my judgment.

Then Sylvia spoke up, saying “But Master, if we are not going to fight then what are we going to do about the soldiers?”

I smiled, and said “About that…to be honest, there is nothing we really can do in regards to them. Making our existence known would mean that the game is over for us. So, rather than bother ourselves with them I came up with a different idea. One which will also assist in the next stage of your training, heh heh heh.”

They all looked at me, expectation heavy on their faces. What was this magical idea that would both save them from the soldiers and help them level up to the next stage of training?

“My children…” I said “ It is time for us to move deep into the forest, where monsters roam the land in earnest and where no sane human would ever dare wander!”

I looked at them, expecting them to be excited at the prospect of moving. Their faces had all changed from anticipation to completely deadpan expressions. And finally, after a solid minute, someone said-

“Ah- yeah. He’s totally trying to kill us.”