"What did I do, I am loyal to the empire," another soldier said, seeing his fellow soldiers killed.
"Haha, one of you is not trustworthy. I can't let you live if I don't know who betrayed us, and it's your fault that someone disrupted our plan and you don't even know who did it." With that, another head rolled on the floor.
The other two soldiers, seeing no way out, stood up.
"We demand duel."
"Oh really? Come on, you two attack at once," Commander laughed at their antics.
Grabbing their swords, both the soldiers attacked the commander while the commander stood there with no retaliation. The swords scraped through his skin, leaving white marks on it.
Then his hands fell on one of the soldiers, breaking his neck, while he kicked the other, splitting his torso apart.
During this time no one stood up, remaining still on their knees in respect.
Seeing the commander's reaction, Ash felt nothing special; he would have done similar if he were in the commander's position. Just his ways would have been different.
He would have tortured every soldier for information and once found out, he would have killed them.
That aside, Ash was also worried since it wasn't these guys who did anything wrong but Ash himself had broken that gadget with his bullet.
He decided one thing — not to work for this man under any condition. He was too rash, and Ash was too weak to defend himself.
"From next time you better tell me if you are gonna kill someone, I wasted my time healing them," Wilbert scoffed as Commander was leaving the room.
"Well... well... I don't like killing injured who can't defend themselves," Commander laughed as he left the room.
The tension still hung in the room, the metallic smell of blood nauseating everyone.
The guard was distracted, no longer minding trivial matters like Ash. He ran forth to help clean the room.
While Ash got the opportunity to leave. As he was about to leave, the old man Wilbert grabbed him by his shoulder.
Ash froze by the sudden interception.
"Lad, you don't belong here. Tomorrow a merchant group will head to the city. Go along with them or you will rot here.
And next time don't try to play smart. Even if you have to, at least cut deeper — let the injury look real," Wilbert patted him.
Ash felt his stomach twisting in discomfort; he really didn't plan well. His plan was to enter as a foreigner but who knew one of the guards knew him, or his past self.
And a talented healer would inspect him.
With heavy steps Ash walked out, his old cunningness was not enough to fool this world. He had to up the game.
But he was also thankful for the old man's suggestion.
He had already decided to leave this place but before that he had something to do.
Who he really was — he got to know that the name of the previous owner of this body was the same, 'Ash'.
But besides that he didn't know anything, yet that guard clearly seemed to know him.
He walked back towards the main gate but was stopped by other soldiers.
"Kid, who are you?" Two soldiers intercepted him with questions.
He saw the guard who had called his name.
"Hello! Hello!" Ash waved his hand in the air to get his attention.
The guard was already walking towards him; hearing Ash's shout he came faster.
"Oh! Ash, are you okay?" He put his hands on Ash's shoulders as if they were friends.
"I was just scratched, nothing serious," said Ash, surprised by his move.
"Great, where's the guard I sent you with?" the man asked.
His personality looked quite easygoing.
"Ahh... he said he had some work to do," replied Ash.
"Work my foot... another excuse to slack off," he looked visibly annoyed.
"Leave him aside, but do mind explaining why you emerged from the forest and what happened to the merchants." Ash was faced with questions.
Now it was time to show his acting skills.
Ash lowered his gaze, his face grim.
"Sir, to be honest I don't know what happened. I can't even remember what my name is. When I woke up, I saw a group of bandits killing people and looting people.
I was behind a tree and not knowing anything I ran inside the jungle to save my life and continued running for days, finding myself here."
The man looked at Ash skeptically. He couldn't believe a kid could travel through the jungle.
He knew they were here for some reason, and it was to expand the territory, yet despite all the backing of a kingdom they couldn't break through.
The position of the jungle was quite unique.
Between the main city and this place there were mountains where powerful beasts resided, and this shortest path could only be taken in presence of a strong deity like their commander.
There was another safe way which was through the jungle, on the other side of the settlement.
There was a small chunk of the infinitely large jungle. Though there lay more powerful beasts than those of the mountains, for some reason there was a predefined path where no beast ever attacked. Not even a single casualty from beasts.
And it became their route to circle around the mountains, avoiding beasts.
Currently that small chunk of jungle — which was not even a hundredth the size of the other side — had beasts of limited strength.
Their motive was to capture this small chunk of forest. And not even the whole kingdom had ever dared to think of entering the main part of the jungle.
Yet he was surprised that a kid had survived so long. Though he was on the safer side of the jungle, for a kid with no powers it was as horrifying as the other.
"Do you not remember who you are?" the man asked to confirm.
"No," Ash replied, seeing the man considering.
"Well, doesn't matter. Not like anything changed. You were nothing before and nothing now," the man said in an encouraging tone.
But Ash frowned — if he hadn't been looking at the man's face all the time, he would have thought it was a taunt.
Realising his mistake, the man gave an apologetic look and hesitated to explain further.
"You were a slave. You are quite cute, so the merchant's took a pity to you, but still you were treated as a slave."