YM778.TV Chapter 41: A Shameful Return To Argom
"Have they already faced demons?"
"What about the heroes, aren\'t they supposed to be our saviours?"
The questions slowly grew into a respective protest, even in warring times the queen still demanded tax from her Argomites to fund the demon subjugation army, but was this what the advance amounted to?
Defeat after a single day?
"Why are you coming back already!?" One young man shouted, picking up a rock and flinging it at Idria, but the elf easily caught the projectile with her bare hand and stopped her horse at his feet to stare at him while the remaining army continued on.
"Are you not Argom\'s strongest, General, captains, and even their lieutenants, and yet... You didn\'t even last a day?" The man screamed, picking up another rock, but this time it was Garam, Eris\'s aide who stepped in and tanked the blow with his forehead, causing blood to gush before he healed his wound and stared at the man.
"Y-you!" The man picked up another rock, but Garam slapped it from his hand without saying a word. "Am I the one you have strength for?" He threw his fist and shrieked when he broke Garams nose, only to witness it passively heal. "Bastard, say something!"
"Captain, please, move along." Garam turned to Idria and smiled at her, and the elf bit her lips and held her gaze forward again, urging her steed along.
"Sir-" Garam turned to the man again, staggering with a grunt when he was bashed in his face with another rock,"
"Hey that\'s enough!" Another bystander grabbed the young man and held him in place, but he too held visible distrust against Garam and the other soldiers. "What happened out there, are the demons finally at our doorsteps?" He asked concerned, but Garam shook his head and lowered it as a sign of respect.
"Between midnight and sunrise, our army was attacked by shadow forces, it was an ambush that claimed over half of our numbers within just two hours, had it not been for the heroes and our leaders there would be nobody returning, I understand your frustration at being kept in this slowly shrinking city, but please understand, we will set out as soon as possible, this is not the end." Garam explained the shortened version which Idria had explained to him, leaving out the part about a faction of artificial demigod humans that slaughtered his comrades and traumatized the rest.
"Am I supposed to believe that bullshit!?" The young man elbowed the older man in his ribcage and broke free of his grapple.
"When I\'m paying twice the mandatory tax that I used to and not seeing any results, what am I supposed to do when I have a kid that I can\'t even feed right now because of you failures?" He grabbed Garam\'s chesplate and attempted to headbutt him, but Eris intervened and dragged him away, raising him off the ground with one hand and holding Garam at bay with the other.
"Even if he has failed your expectations, what gives you the right to take your frustration out on him?" Eris asked the man, releasing him to his feet again. "Don\'t you think he\'s more frustrated than you are?" She asked.
"His friends were killed right before his eyes, over a hundred were murdered before they even knew what was happening, he spent the entire night breaking his back to carry his dead comrades, what gives you the right to decide his worth just because he didn\'t meet your expectations?" She asked, raising her voice before some kind of protest started.
"Look at them!" Eris snapped pointing to the army that kept their gazes straight to hide their disappointment. "People that they have known and fought with and trained alongside for years were killed, they died in their arms, they\'re sacrificing their lives so you don\'t have to, is this any way to show respect for the men and women who are laying their lives down in your stead?"
"But... we\'re paying for their food-"
"And they are dying so you don\'t have to!" Eris looked at the young man on the ground and reached her hand out to him. "If you\'re this unsatisfied, then sign up for the army and come fight with us, see for yourself the horrors of warfare, the blood shed can never be regained, but we have to fight so everyone else can live."
"What...?"
"Why aren\'t you taking my hand, you had the bravery to attack a member of the healing corps who has saved over seventy lives by eating away your taxes right, so come then, fight alongside him and help destroy the hordes faster," Eris shook her hand at him impatiently, but he never budged, instead he folded and pressed his hands to his chest.
"No thanks... I\'m sorry," He mumbled.
"I think Eris was born in the wrong world," Dina had a trickle of sweat running down her cheek as she watched her straighten out an ungrateful onlooker and suppress a riot all by herself.
"Yea," Bruce agreed with a nod. "She is remarkable," He stared at Eris\'s back with a slight blush covering his ears.
"They have always come back with good news, this is the first time the general has failed since gaining his position, I doubt he is taking it with strides," One bystander commented, and the crowd slowly broke into murmurs.
"The walk of shame," General Grim closed his eyes and sighed, but showed no weakness as he kept his proud posture.
"The first time is never easy," Morn who was on his left commented.
"It only gets harder from here." Kris spoke from his right side.
"The peace with which he sleeps, reminds me of a child," Sara sat next to Renia on the opposite side of Ikaris who had Sol\'s head in her lap, staring at him with a soft smile while the carriage they were travelling inside of gently rocked them. "Milady," She called to Ikaris. "He truly loves and adores you,"
"Hm?" Ikaris stared at the maid blankly. "Master?"
"Yes, despite his reputation as a swindler, Sir has never once looked at another woman besides you, he treats your name like the heavens, and treats you like the heavens above heavens, you can do no wrong by him," Sara nodded with a smile.
"Master is one of a kind, he is the first of many things for me, the first to directly address me, the first to converse with me, he is the first to hold me, he is the first who dared to talk down to me, and he is the first to give me the option of choosing for myself, so the first free choice I made was to remain at his side so long as he will have me, he is also the first that ever looked down at me." Ikaris caressed his cheeks as she spoke of him endearingly.
"Looked down?" Renia asked shocked. "He did that?"
"Yes, after changing my fate with his own strength, master regarded me with contempt and wanted nothing to do with me, even as I knelt at his feet he stared at me as just another woman and very nearly left me there, it was though my own efforts that I was able to win him over," Ikaris confessed, and Renia stared at Sol with a new level of respect, but she saw it, the way he spoke to the gods, and the way he even looked at her too, Sol had no regard for anything be it mortal or immortal, mundane or divine in his eyes it was all the same.
"He won my heart without even trying to," Ikaris added placing a kiss on Sol\'s cheek.
"Goodness, I wish someday someone will look at me with the same eyes," Sara blushed at how in love with each other they seemed to be, one who obeyed the words of the other like the breath of life, and the other who would destroy the world to keep the other safe.
"Do you believe he will accept any more challenges after what happened?" Renia asked seriously, and Ikaris looked up at her with a provoking smile.
"Is it that you want him to keep fighting, or is it that you fear his growth will one day surpass you?" She asked back, Sara was not privy to their secrets, and she could make no sense of what they were cryptically speaking of either, so she resorted to closing her eyes and smiling as they continued.
"I do not fear him, in fact I look forward to his challenges, they have kept us humble," Renia admitted and Ikaris chuckled and pointed at her.
"Admit it, master is a threat you cannot ignore, even that other red-head has admitted this fact,"
"Ah true, but in the end, what can we do, we dare not ever attempt anything, not when he has been blessed beyond this world," Renia smiled sheepishly, and Ikaris in return huffed with a cocky grin.
"Truly, you have come to see the might master wields, ha ha ha!"
"Ugh," Sol reached up and cupped Ikaris\'s mouth. "Keep it down, you damn gods," Sol peeked just an eye open to look at Ikaris, and she piped down immediately and smiled as he drifted back into slumber.
"Gods?"