Chapter 4: 004 – Sole Soul

Chapter 004: Sole Soul

That evening I went to the archery club as always, sharpening my accuracy.

The goal being to consistently hit an eye at the greatest distance possible, I now had high hopes to be capable of doing so with my enhanced body that upgraded my senses, reflexes and precision.

No longer did I shake a little while holding the bow, it was just a matter of aim.

Not only that, I used the bow in its most powerful configuration, 60 pounds of force.

Being now quite strong, I thought I could exchange the bow for a stronger one, since I bought it in store. I’d just pay the difference.

Cassandra saw my progress and wasn’t convinced.

As I shot bullseye after bullseye at the 15 meter range, she comes up to me.

“Edward, how come you shoot like that all of a sudden? It’s like you were pretending to be a beginner last week? But I know you weren’t. Are you some sort of bow genius?”

“I practiced so much… Right now I’m feeling really good too. Must be because of my diet.”

“Hum? What do you eat?”

“Raw meat.”

“What? That’s disgusting.”

“No it’s not. You should try it, if you haven’t already.” I reply, thinking of carpaccio and crustaceans.

“Are you…” Cassandra’s eyes look at me suspiciously. “Humpf!”

“What?…”

She leaves to do her own thing.

As I shoot, I replay the conversation in my head, and the innuendos suddenly come to light.

I guess Cassandra is misunderstanding me. Oops.

…

…

Wednesday, the black gay guy accosted me and sat beside me even when I told him to go away.

This was the decisive moment I understood I needed mysterious magical powers to deal with this. This Sunday, or rather, Monday early morning, would be the moment this gets taken care of.

Brainwashing, invisible attack, mental attack, telekinesis… Many ideas came to me.

This black guy, who keeps introducing himself as ‘Hope’, tries hard to get a reaction out of me.

“So, how many children do you want? What are you doing next year, are you staying in this university?”

As I ignore him and sit a few seats away, he moves along and then places his hand on my thigh.

A blood vessel probably tightened on my forehead, because Hope immediately removed his hand and took a step back.

“Hahaha… Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to… You know what? Let’s talk later.” Hope gets up with his bag.

“Let’s not.”

“Talk to you tomorrow, stress out!”

“You know what? Talk to you next Monday.”

“… Really! Great!”

Hope happily walks back to other people he hangs out with, but unlike me, he doesn’t constantly annoy them.

The class goes on. Because of this guy, Elisa ended up not sitting with me, which is quite annoying.

All of this will be solved by next week, that thought gave ‘hope’ to me.

…

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday came through. I studied well, better than ever.

The police didn’t come, which was a good sign. If the Mexicans didn’t report me then, then the evidence will run dry as time goes on.

I tried a few times to communicate to Ellabizina, my goddess, through prayers, but at the very least I didn’t get called back.

Sunday night, I dressed up and prepared myself for the next apostle trial, falling asleep with my bags on my shoulders.

I open my eyes. White walls.

I let out a sigh of relief. I had food for two weeks if I restrained myself, so I could be at ease.

“Search, communication or communion.”

I wanted to see if there were means to communicate with Ellabizina Pa Lepma.

There it was. God-Mortal Divine Communion spell, for a whopping thousand points.

They weren’t making things easy.

On the other hand, I think I needed this translation amulet for this mission.

These bandits will probably not speak English. Perhaps the victim will?

I could afford the basic language proficiency for two languages of my choosing.

I click the ‘Select Language Proficiency 1’ option, it lets me choose among many, many languages with a scroll bar and two tabs.

On the first tab, I see all of Earth’s languages, including Latin, Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Mandarin.

The second tab lets me choose among weird-sounding names. There are only exactly 23 languages.

I glance through them.

‘Common Language’ and ‘Palepman Language’ are the ones that stand out.

One seems to be the uniting thread among the list, while the other was obviously named after my Goddess, Ellabizina Pa Lepma.

Looking back at the other languages, they also seem to be named after gods. ‘Kunlian’, ‘Gurian’, ‘Nejen’, ‘Bilipiatilikan’, ‘Water God’, ‘Fire God’…

It seems a few of the other gods are closely related to elements, unlike mine.

I take both Common and Palepman languages proficiency 1, putting me back at 0 points.

I can expect at least 40 points from this mission, so I’ll be able to take up some magic skills.

I have some bandages, needle and thread and disinfectant with me that I’ll use to treat the kidnapped woman if there is the need.

A healing spell would have worked better, but I sadly didn’t have the opportunity to let my points accumulate last time.

Hell, this time I need a spell to take care of Hope.

I grab my hammer and leave the apostle slate here.

Although I had a week, the more I waited, the worse would the woman’s condition be. I had to hurry once I went through the black door.

I squeeze the red door knob and head through the black door.

…

I found myself behind a few bushes where I could see a house sitting on top of a hill surrounded by short grass, half a kilometer away. Behind me was just some forest.

Was this where the bandits were hanging out?

As I wonder about this, I see a three men go out the house, go in a chicken coop and come back with two birds.

“With a sniper rifle, this would be too easy.”

This time, the terrain seemed open and I had many options to choose from, quite like the survival challenge.

The farm house was clearly designed with a small family in mind, but seeing these grown men walking around like they owned the place, I knew they were the bandits.

I stayed to observe from the bushes. Other men went out to relax and check the surroundings from time to time.

Looking at the clothes and hair colors, there were at least 9 bandits crammed in there.

The numbers were clearly on their side. They definitely had some weapons too.

This time, my enhanced body and martial arts would help, but I had to do a night raid to have a better chance.

I’d stab them in their sleep. If they woke up, I’d run out and shoot arrows.

I couldn’t burn the place down due to the hostage situation.

I had to act tonight at most. Or rather, in the morning. I think these guys won’t sleep until much later.

“…”

This might be the first day the bandits invaded this home. If I waited until morning to act, it would greatly diminish the woman’s health and thus the bonus points.

I look at my compass.

The house’s door faces East and the chicken coop faces South.

I’m currently facing the chicken coop, so if I circle around to the West, I can then approach undetected.

I drop my bags, eat some beef jerky and take out my weapons.

I take my bow and arrows, my knife and hammer.

Then I make sure my armor and gloves are alright.

“This is nerve-raking.”

I walk West.

…

Facing the East, I could see tiny windows on the West side of the house.

Although I call them windows, they are holes in the stone wall with wooden shutters opened up.

The chicken coop was put where there were no windows, but I was afraid the men would come out as I made my way there.

The windows are small, so I decide to compromise and walk to the house North-East, at an angle.

I make my way up the grassy hill.

I walk at a good pace, but I don’t want to exhaust myself, if it comes down to combat, I want to be at my optimal strength.

After a few minutes, I remain undetected, and I get near the chicken.

They start clucking louder.

(Fuck.)

I hear a voice from inside the house.

“Hey… Aren’t the chicken getting ****?”

He’s talking in common. I make out most of the meaning, but the 1 point cost language skill is quite basic.

“**** up, must be the wind.”

It seems they don’t care.

I walk gently toward a window.

I can’t stand in front of it or I’ll be noticed immediately with the strong shadow I’ll cast in the house.

I can’t even peek inside. If I had a mirror though…

I check out my pant’s pocket.

I have my smartphone inside. It’s already in silenced mode, it won’t make a sound or vibrate.

I turn on the camera mode and inch the camera through the window, letting it adjust the luminosity automatically.

I take a picture and retrieve my phone.

Examining the shot, I count eight men, but that’s only for a part of the house, the other window should show more people. The bandits seem to be gambling.

I also can’t see the woman in this picture.

The wind turns directions.

Slapping sounds reach my ears, they come from the second window.

I hear grunts and small cries.

They’re raping her, but I couldn’t have come sooner. It’s only a matter of how much I can reduce her abuse…

‘How frustrating…’

I take my bow in hand and nock an arrow. I keep 5 arrows in my pulling hand, and three in my other hand.

That’s a total of 9 arrows I can access instantly.

It was time to fight. I could only shoot them through the window.

If I shot the people going for the door, they should be trapped inside.

I take a side step towards the window while pulling the arrow all the way.

I see the eight men.

One looks over as soon as my shadow hits his face, he looks surprised.

Fwoosh

As my hands tremble, I let my arrow fly towards his head.

It hits him right through the eye and he collapses, as I have already readied the following arrow.

The bandits start moving and panicking.

“JAY! No! We’re ***** attack! ARROW!”

I shoot another arrow, hitting a man’s chest, as the groans and cries from the other room stop.

The bandits push over the table on its side and grab hammers, knives and other weapons. One bandit goes for the door, I shoot him in the head, as I was ready for that move.

“I can’t see him well with the ********! There’s one guy behind the window!”

The windows were too small to pass through, putting them at a major disadvantage.

“Rock! With me!”

I see hands go out on the sides of the table that’s protecting these bandits. They start pulling the table towards the door.

I see faces peek out through the window and the door leading to the bedroom.

They don’t give me the time to shoot them.

“Guys, there’s **** one out there! Let’s kill him!”

I hear the muffled voice of another man.

I shoot at the others that are left in the open.

I hit three, one dies, the others are injured and run into the other room.

I shoot at a hand pulling the rather small table.

“AAH! Fuck! My hand!”

The arrow crucified a finger of the bandit.

They’re about to get out. I only hit five of them well, killing two and heavily injuring the others.

I run to the other window, taking a distance from it.

“Guys! He’s going towards your side!”

Arriving at the window, I find it already blocked with furniture.

(Damn.)

I run onto the other side of the house, where the door is.

There’s another small window leading to the bedroom that’s blocked, and there’s the door, opened towards the outside.

The bandits haven’t gotten out yet.

“Hey! You! Why are you doing this! What have we done to you!?”

A voice calls out to me, probably to negotiate.

I wait as I think of something to say.

“… You have good bounty on many heads.”

As I speak in common, I understand I’m expressing myself quite badly, with a strong accent.

“Fuck, since when did we have a bounty!?”

“This fucking stranger wants us dead!”

“As if it’ll be that easy! You’re alone!”

“Let’s charge him! I’ve got my knives!”

“Guys… I can’t breathe…”

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“Fuck, John’s going to die!”

As I listen to the pandemonium going inside, I think of something to provoke them.

“John, you ugly!” I shout out.

The men start sending back insults of all types.

“Shut the fuck up outsider! You did this!”

“You’re the dumb ugly fuck! Shut up! John is a good man!”

I reply. “Come out, coward boy!”

“Fuck! I can’t stand this!”

“Me neither!”

“The outsider has a short bow! Let’s get in the woods!”

“Let’s do this… On three! One… Two!”

The bandits start running out the door towards the woods, getting around the house to hide from my view. They’re actually a bit short.

I still manage to shoot one guy’s torso as they all run out the door.

I then detour around the house, keeping distance in order to not get ambushed in a corner.

It seems the bandits weren’t that brave, as the five bandits just sprinted down the hill, albeit the one I had just shot was running slower.

They were too far for my reach.

I return to the house’s front door.

I peek around with my knife at the ready. I see the three corpses.

There were three live bandits left in the house, the ones heavily injured. One seemed to be unconscious, he had an arrow protruding from his chest.

The other two had arrows either in the neck or in the stomach.

The one with the hurt stomach was holding a short sword. He’s over a head shorter than me.

“You… Monster! What is that ******… Never seen it. Some *****? It’ll be mine, motherfucker.”

The other guy was bleeding out on the ground looking over but not saying anything.

“Your friends left you. You sad? You mad?” I tell him.

“If I don’t kill you, they will. Learn to speak common, retard.”

“I started learning today, retard.”

With those words, he lunges towards me with great speed, despite his injury.

His short sword slashes towards my shoulder, he seemed wary of my motorcycle helmet.

I dash back to dodge.

I’m quite fast.

Faster than this guy.

He lunges again, this time I dash forward and kick him in the stomach.

He gets thrown to the ground without being able to slash me. He loses his short sword as he holds his stomach.

“AAHHHH…! Damn it… Sorry, Georgey, he’s too fast…”

The other man bleeding out on the ground nods and closes his eyes.

“It’s alright, Vane.”

I take out my bow to play it safe, and shoot Vane in the head, he dies.

I nock another arrow.

A shadow appears through the door to the bedroom, I jerk in surprise.

It’s the woman.

She doesn’t look good at all. She’s barefoot, wearing a simple dress. She has bruises all over. Her blonde hair is messy, her light green menthol-colored eyes are reddened, there’s blood crust on her lip. She’s about two heads shorter than me.

She looks at me, then at the last survivor, who frowns as he turns his head.

The woman walks to the short sword, grabs it, walks to the man, and stabs him.

Then again.

She falls on her knees, crying. She thanks me as she sobs.

“Booo… Thank you, stranger… These men… They’re ******… They killed my husband…”

“… I will help you.”

“… Thank you… But…”

She takes the sword back.

“No! STOP!”

My voice snaps her back, as she looks at me.

“I have nothing left.”

“You… Your family?”

“…”

I had to be careful here. If she killed herself, I’d definitely get no bonus points. Not only that, I wasn’t sure I’d succeed the mission.

“You must live, I lied, there is no bounty. You must repay me.”

While struggling with the language, I try make excuses to at least make her stay alive for a while.

“… Alright.”

“I will dead the others. Then I will come back.”

“…” She nods. “There were ten. I hope you bring justice to them all.” She returns to the bedroom, leaving the short sword.

I peek out the window, I can’t see anyone.

If she counted correctly, there were a total of ten bandits.

I go towards the last remaining bandit alive, who’s unconscious. I take my knife and stab his heart with a strong blow.

His legs start shaking after a while, as a few spurts of blood shoot through his clothing.

He’s dead.

That’s six down.

As the intense smell of blood enters my nostrils, I feel sick to the core.

Killing ten zombies would have been better. I decide to take a break as I take off my helmet, wet with perspiration.

I go grab the short sword, holding it in my hand.

It seems alright. Better than a knife. I place a chair back up on its legs and sit down, regulating my breathing, washing away the tiredness.

The bandits might not come back, but I believed they would, otherwise the white door would have appeared.

In other words, the woman isn’t saved yet.

I don’t hear anything from the bedroom.

‘She’s not going to try that again, right…?’

Worried, I walk to the door.

The woman was sitting on the bed, staring into emptiness, then towards me.

“… Lady, what is your name? I’m Edward Skies.”

“… I’m Suzabeth.”

“Let’s clean up house.”

“… Yes.”

I drag the corpses outside, while Suzabeth does her own thing, cleaning the bed and setting back up the furniture.

After that’s done, we swipe out most of the blood, and the houses smells better.

Suzabeth had trouble moving, seemingly hurt all the time.

“Rest now. Go to bed.”

“Alright, Edward.”

She goes in her room to rest, exhausted.

I follow her in.

She looks at me, frightened.

“Don’t worry, sit now.”

She sits on the bed.

I kneel and place my hand on her wounds, where the skin was torn.

“Purify.”

Light shines from my hand.

Suzabeth stares with wide eyes.

The first step to increase bonus points is to remedy any future infection or disease.

Luckily, I could achieve this very well. Over the next week, I’ll stay here and make sure she recovers as much as she can.

“I will stay at most seven day. To help you.”

“…” Suzabeth cries again and thanks me.

I purify her stomach, womb and privates. Thankfully this works over the clothing.

“This cleans you, helps with illness.”

“You were a priest? ** ****** you’ve come to help me… I’m ******.”

“…”

“Which divinity do you follow?”

At this question, only one name comes to mind.

“I follow Ellabizina Pa Lepma.”

“… Goddess Lepma…” Suzabeth puts her palms over her heart. “Thank you for your blessing. I will… Live through this!”

Suzabeth sheds more tears.

I move the shelf away from the window and close the shutters, then place the shelf back.

“Alright, don’t touch that, by the window.” I say pointing the shelf.

I close the shutters of the other window and move a dresser to block it.

Suzabeth gets into bed and I return to the living-room-kitchen, closing the door behind me.

I look through the last open window, seeing no one.

I close the shutters as well.

I look around the room, finding two chicken roasting in the chimney and feed for the chicken among other things.

I take some feed, go outside and give it to the chicken.

They cluck around and push to eat the seeds.

It seems the bandits didn’t care much for them.

I close the door and insert a wooden stick to block it.

I watch over the fire and the two roasting chicken.

Time passes.

I thought about my bags I had left hidden in a bush. I could only hope they wouldn’t be found, but I couldn’t leave this place for now.

When the chicken seem ready the sun had started to set and the door to the bedroom opens.

Suzabeth comes over, dressed more warmly, with a corset and a cowl on her head.

She looks at the two roasting chicken.

“… Poppy… Jimmie…”

(Oh, damn, she can recognize them like this?)

My heart clenched as tears came to Suzabeth’s eyes.

I didn’t know what to do or say.

Suzabeth looks at me and says “I took care of them since they were chicks. I shared their eggs with my husband for so long…”

Suzabeth takes a seat besides me.

“…”

“When they first came here, they killed Woolfy, my husband’s dog. Then they ate him.”

The story of the bandits’ violence was not to my taste.

I place my hand on hers, because I couldn’t bring myself to tell her to stop.

“I’m sorry… Talking about this… I’m ******** on, am I? Yesterday was the worst day of my life. I’m not sure what to do now…”

“…”

I think about how to save her. One option would be to kill all the remaining bandits, which might be very tricky now. The other would be to bring her away from here, in a village, safe from the bandits.

Alone, here, seems quite detrimental.

“I can bring you away.”

“Do you live around here?”

“No, I… Travel?”

“I see… I’m not sure. I suppose I could try to go back to my parent’s ****. I don’t know if they will let me live there, after what I’ve done.”

“What happened?”

I indulge the Suzabeth in conversation.

“I actually come from a *****’s ******. I was promised to a *******, but I ran away with my husband instead.”

I get the whole picture now. It seems her fiancé, or even her own family, sent bandits after her in revenge for his honor or something. Unless Suzabeth is that unlucky. In which case, sending her there might kill her.

It seemed like there was no easy and clear cut solution.

“Then… I’ll take you to a village. Six days away. Go far from your family.”

“…” Suzabeth’s light green eyes widen in realization. “No… You think…? They wouldn’t… But maybe that pig would…” She looks down into the fire. “I’m quite stupid, aren’t I?”

“A little… Hum…” I wanted to say naïve, but couldn’t find the word in Common.

Suzabeth laughs deprecatingly.

The chicken seem ready, so I take them out the chimney. I set one aside on a stone, and start cutting the other, placing pieces out on a plate.

I share with Suzabeth the chicken.

It’s quite a sad meal, when I know the meal’s name and the person who raised it is crying softly.

…

After dining, nothing big happens, still.

There are furs here and there to sleep on, but as I rest on one…

“Come sleep with me… I’m scared…”

Suzabeth beckons me over.

We sleep side by side on the bed.

…

…

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