Volume 2 begins - The Capital

The next morning before the first daylight broke through the sky, the carriages were set in motion. The remaining horses were tied to some carriages in order not to prevent them from getting loose and bandits getting to them. Although some have been destroyed by the dog beasts, some did remain, if counted they almost amounted to ten those dragging the carriages included.

With a bit of rest, Lucas was back on his feet albeit with some pains but more hands were needed in driving the horses, thus he was made to handle one. Andrew was back in his position inside the carriage lying down. Although his injuries have been treated and his breathing is almost stable, he was still unconscious. Andrew was after all a young boy of fourteen years and his being able to scale through all that had happened and still stayed alive was something worth praising him for.

Grown-up men would have long given up from such pains already, but he was still holding on to this unfair thing called life and doesn’t seem to want to give it up anytime soon.

The ride this time around was smooth and without much scruple, everyone was busy riding the horses without break such that none had time to even check the well-being of Andrew in the carriage. Since the horses in this world were able to last longer without rest, they ran through the route until when it was dark at which the outline of the capital was now in sight. Just from afar, the glory of the capital could be seen as just its gates alone seems intimidating to anybody who was seeing it for the first time. Even from afar, the ends of the walls couldn’t be seen and this got Marian very surprised and in awe.

It was only her who was this way though as Eve just acted normally while pride could be seen in the eyes of Olivia and the remaining surviving soldiers. This was the capital which they all had great pride in, where most of the big shots in the kingdom stays at and where talents are being groomed.

“Should we stay behind and rest this night then continue tomorrow?”, asks Lucas. Olivia seems to be pondering something after hearing the question being meted out to her but it doesn’t take long for her replies to come forth, “No waiting, forward on to the capital”.

“Ma’am the gates have been closed already. Shouldn’t we just wait till the next mor....”, says the other surviving soldier, but he was not able to complete his statement as he was rudely cut short by Olivia, “Are you questioning the orders from your superior?”, she says while glaring at the man as if ready to pounce on him if he dares slight her orders any more than he has already done.

Noticing the aura emanating from Olivia, the man keeps shut not daring to say any other word. Marian on the other hand says in a soft voice that she didn’t expect Olivia to hear, “Thank you”.

She understood the reason that Olivia was running down towards the capital even at this time was due to Andrew who needs urgent treatment now. Delaying his treatment any further would put him in a more precarious situation.

“Am not doing it just for you alone. He also did me good by ensuring that not all of my troops were wiped out. If he didn’t handle two of the beasts, then perhaps I won’t have any troops to speak of right now”, replies Olivia admitting that Andrew was the reason for their quick march.

On hearing such words, Marian was warm at heart, she felt like Andrew’s hard work wasn’t to waste at this moment and it was all worth it.

They soon resumed their march towards the capital gates and in some minutes, the gate was before them.

It was way huge than how Marian had hoped it to have been. It seems terrifying to say the least, it seems durable and was a strong defence, obviously made from the best metals available to the kingdom. Even the walls were tall and Marian couldn’t estimate the height of it at all just by standing there, even a tiny ant(according to earth’s standard) was far huger than her when compared to how she felt being in front of the walls. It was then that a shout came forth accompanied by lighting which cascades in their faces making them all visible, “Who goes there? Who is so dumb to have forgotten the time the gate usually closes?”, the arrogance in the voice was fully visible. It seems like the speaker disdained the idea of even speaking to them but just had to speak to them. Only if he had taken a look at the faces of the newcomers before shouting that way but unfortunately he didn’t and words spoken out can’t just be taken back as they were heard quite loudly.

“The dumb one is general Olivia of the fifth corps who has performed various meritorious deeds for the kingdom and have been personally acknowledged by the king himself. Exalted sir, could you open the gates for this dumb one”, Olivia’s voice sounds out at this moment in reply to the scorn-filled man, even Lucas’ face was ugly from the words which the man has spouted off.

It was also at this moment that the man who has previously barked out finally saw the appearance of Olivia and Lucas, even if he wasn’t familiar with anyone, he was familiar with these two as they represented great honour to every military personnel and they were respected greatly by all in the kingdom, both in and out of the capital. His face becomes ugly as each word were spilt by Olivia, the words which he has been wanting to spout out in reply suddenly seem to have gotten hooked in his mouth, unable to release even a tiny bit of it all.

After Olivia finishes her sentence, what went through his head was that, ‘I am dead this time. Why did I just have to go spouting rubbish?’. This wasn’t the first time he was doing something like this but this was his unlucky day, he and other of the guards standing on duty usually said words like this to some people who didn’t know what was good for them and wanted to get into the capital when the gate has been locked. If the time was measured by earth’s time, it would be around 1am and the gates were usually shut close by 11pm to be opened again as early as 4am. So they usually found fun with saying such words towards new entries who came at that time, so it wasn’t surprising, but for him to say such words towards a general, seems to show that he was courting death.

He was currently fidgeting while another one noticed the commotion being caused before the gate, on seeing the general standing there waiting with a grim face, without any further questions, he orders for the gate to be opened.

Slowly the gate was being drawn open it seems like a huge beast opening its mouth ready to consume anybody who dares to go into it. This feeling causes chills on the body of Marian who was mounting one carriage. She gulps hard before being able to proceed with her carriage, while the man who had initially spoken rudely to Olivia has already been sweating buckets all through the moment the gate was being raised until they started crossing it, afraid of what kind of punishment would be meted out to him. Olivia glares at him immediately as she saw him, “Put him in solitary confinement for a week without food or water”, she orders without any remorse. But that order makes the man relieved as he knew that she could have killed him for insulting a general of the kingdom and no questions would be asked at all. That was the capital punishment for that, seeing Olivia giving him such a punishment made him relieved and he vowed to never run his mouth off anymore, be it in this life or the next to come.

The troop pass through hurriedly without the usual check-ups after which the gates were immediately shut close, and no attention was being paid to them any longer. They rode their horses without stopping towards the middle of the capital which seemed like another long journey of an hour or thereabout. Although the gates were closed, that didn’t mean that people weren’t going through some businesses of some sort inside the capital, everywhere was bright and shiny with well-built buildings, although there seem to be some shady places, it was nonetheless a solid structure which was well organized and well kept.

There were a lot of things which should have attracted their attention of Marian but since she was focused on getting Andrew treated, none of this stuff took her attention away. Since the capital was way more secure than the village, there was nothing like a curfew being imposed on its citizens and it was still bustling even at this time albeit on a minimal level.

On almost reaching the middle of the capital, Olivia barks out orders, “Lucas take the men to report what has happened at the headquarters while I would take him to the hospital for treatment”.

Lucas with the surviving men acknowledges her order and without delay, takes a different direction while they kept on heading down. It didn’t take long though for them to be in front of a huge structure. A beautiful three-story building structure which was painted in turquoise blue and white and had the name “Medics” at its head. It seems well-lit even at this time of the day and it was very bustling. Giving Marian no time to even admire the building, Olivia steps down from her horse while directing someone to keep it at bay while Andrew was being carried out of the carriage.

Their goods were well secure and anything like theft could never be found in this particular part of the capital since security was more strict. Andrew was brought into the building and a wide space could be seen where people could be seen documenting some stuff or even dozing off at some point. But the ones documenting something on seeing the general, immediately left what they were doing and starts attending to her. She wasn’t new to this hospital as she has been here at some point and also come here to visit some friends of hers. It was the best hospital in the kingdom and expensive also, and this was where the nobles, aristocrats, ministers and very rich merchants usually visited.

The fact that they were expensive didn’t deprive them of giving the best care and treatment. Andrew was being put on a stretcher and carried to one of the best rooms, Olivia asks at this moment, “Is she around?”.

One of the female attendants aware of whom she was asking of says, “She is currently in ma’am”. Breathing in relief she says, “Get her here now”. The female attendant having no other choice in this matter, excuses herself after which she runs towards another direction. It didn’t take long for her to come back to the room which Andrew has been admitted into but a woman was beside her who seems like she had a bad day as her hair was all scattered about, her white coat was dropping off to one side with her eyeglass which seems to be double lensed. Her frontal assets were just moderate, and due to her coat, her rear assets couldn’t be seen.

Although she seems this way, she seems to look like a fairly pretty woman if dressed properly that men would turn behind just to have a second look. On entering, what first escaped her mouth was, “Why did you call me big sis”, on seeing Andrew, she continues without any change in her tone, “Is this your son that you have been hiding all these while? Seems handsome though. Perhaps this is the reason you didn’t want to get married then”. The way she spoke about it all casually seems off the roof, but even though she had called Olivia her sister, there wasn’t a bit of resemblance between the both of them.