A little under half a day after what everyone in the camp was referring to as ‘The Incident’, Nora and the rest of the Red Mountain forces were on their way to Paradiso City. Thankfully, all but one of the armies were but a day’s march from the city, less than that if they didn’t stop for breaks. As much as her commanders argued that the troops could withstand a long march with no breaks, but Nora knew better than to risk it.

If the forces gathered were too tired to do anything upon arrival, that could end in a whole day utterly wasted with no real progress made towards a siege. Nora had heard stories from her parents, grandparents and Seivalt himself about how entire armies were wiped in a single battle due to having endured a long march. She knew that said stories had very specific conditions involved in them, but she would rather her troops arrive at the end of the day and set up camp outside the walls of Paradiso City than to have her troops arrive during the midday sun and be too tired to even make cursory defenses.

Such a hasty march would leave Red Mountain’s military forces open to an attack, which while Paradiso City did not have the numbers needed to deal a decisive blow under normal conditions, tired troops made for poor combatants while rested ones fighting on their home soil made for excellent ones. All in all, there were far too many risks and far too few rewards for such a move, and Nora wisely decided to reject any and all pleas to the contrary.

…

The march was uneventful, aside from Nora repeatedly having to force her generals to stop speeding up the troops. She got it, though. She understood their reasoning, after all. It was pride and glory seeking, and a hint of one-upmanship. Whoever got to the city first would have bragging rights and all that, but Nora did not want to risk the whole operation because of pride and a shortsighted lust for glory.

“If ANYONE speeds up or doesn’t stop for breaks at the appointed times, they are getting demoted on the spot!”

After yelling this through the enchanted earrings on everyone’s heads, all involved in the advance got the message. It was hard to claim the glory of being the one to arrive first when you were not leading the troops anymore, after all.

As soon as the Red Mountain Bandits reached a point where they could see the thriving metropolis, however, their mood soured. The city was in a bad way, and there was evidence of a massive conflict having broken out. Signs seen from afar showed that the walls had been busted down from the inside and the gates that were visible had either been knocked down from within or without or were lying several meters away from where they were supposed to be.

A Werean scout who happened to be more avian in appearance managed to get a bird’s eye view and saw the city was shattered and broken. Something very, very powerful had rampaged through the buildings and plazas alike with equal levels of destructive wrath. The one thing that unsettled everyone who received the report was that whatever massive monster that did this seemed to be nowhere within the city.

Nora cursed under her breath as she wondered where Vaile had gotten to. She had tried to message him several times, but never managed to get a reply. Sure, Vaile wasn’t wearing the earrings that everyone else was, but she had managed to give him an amulet that did the same thing and he had it on when he left earlier.

Nora steeled herself and at the first light of dawn she marched into the broken city alone. If there was some kind of powerful creature in there, then as a servant of Vaile and descendant of Seivalt she had a much better chance than anyone else of reasoning wit… whatever had caused this mess.

…

The streets were littered with rubble and obvious signs that the denizens of this place put up a struggle, but to no avail. The scent of death filled this place and seemed to seep from under every shattered building and every pile of rubble. Nora saw a glimpse of movement from within a store that had its top half blown off and she drew her twin handaxes and cautiously advanced.

A small breath, that of a child, was barely audible to anyone else, but to her it was crystal clear. She pulled off a door that had fallen into a corner and revealed two children. One of them was around 4 while the elder of them was around 10. They seemed to be related, but Nora couldn’t be sure until they confirmed it.

The elder of the two, who was a boy, brandished a small knife at Nora in both hands. He was very obviously unfamiliar with using a weapon, and so Nora didn’t treat him as a threat.

“S-s-stay a-away! You won’t h-hurt my sister!”

Obviously terrified of the tall woman in armor and a cloak in front of him, the boy swung the small knife around for a bit before Nora grabbed his hands and took the knife from him. She tossed the knife far away without breaking eye contact.

“Two things. One; people shouldn’t wield knives like that when trying to defend those they care for. Two; what the he- I mean, what has happened here to turn this city upside down?”

Deciding that she was too intimidating, Nora sat down and took a favorite childhood toy, a stuffed dragon, from her storage, handing it to the boy who looked at it cautiously before handing it to his younger sister. Nora then held up her hands after placing her handaxes on the ground.

“See? I’m not going to hurt you. So, can you tell me what happened?”

The boy looked her over and seemingly just realized who she was.

“AH! You’re that evil Bandit Lady everyone is so scared of! I won’t let you-!”

The boy tried to grab Nora’s handaxes, but Nora just smiled as the boy nearly threw his back out trying in vain to even lift them a millimeter off the floor. The boy struggled for a while before Nora picked up both handaxes and twirled them effortlessly.

“Soulbound Items. No one can lift them aside from their owner. Useful as a paperweight and a doorstopper, among other things.” She said with a smile.

The boy was not amused but his sister was. Nora once again set her handaxes down on the ground and placed her hands on her lap.

“Yes, I am the Tyrant of Red Mountain, but I am not evil. I am also not very scary unless I need to be or unless you are a wicked and evil person. I am a bandit for justice, after all. Are you a wicked and evil person?” Nora asked knowing full well the hypocrisy of running a massive continent-spanning criminal syndicate that dealt in more vices than could be counted on one’s fingers and toes and yet saying her organization was full of ‘bandits for justice’.

“No.” The boy said softly.

“Is your sister an evil person?”

His sister shook her head as she played with the worn dragon plushie.

“Then I am not going to hurt you. Now, please tell me what monster destroyed everything so I can bring them to justice. What happened here? Why is everything destroyed?”

The boy sat down as Nora took a tray of cookies from her storage, still warm from the oven as well as three cups and a jug of cold milk. Pouring milk into the cups, drinking some of it and eating a cookie to show they weren’t poisoned, the two kids ate as the boy recounted the events that transpired not too long ago.

As his story went on, Nora got the sinking feeling that the ‘monster’ was someone she knew all too well. She listened to his story and, after it was done, she tossed him a bag of coins and walked towards the ruins of the castle.