Not only for military purposes, but the smart prince had always been interested in travel and exploration. If he weren't the Crown Prince of Abetha and bogged down by responsibilities, he would have surely traveled to all the known kingdoms within the continent. In fact, before he joined the military, he enjoyed traveling to other kingdoms together with the envoys for diplomatic purposes. He even had made his own maps for some of those interesting places, which were mostly coded, and only he could understand them.
Their group continued to march ahead after crossing the majority of Hatha's territory. When the sun shone in the sky, they made a short stay arrangement where Cian took them to one small cave to avoid being discovered by their enemies.
Slayer was still unconscious, and the physician was trying his best with what he could do. After traveling the entire night, their group was both tired and hungry. Cian and Arlan divided their men to patrol the area while the others hunted and gathered food. Soon, their group fed on the rabbit and deer meat as well as some wild fruits they collected along the way, like berries and plums.
"What's the status?" Drayce asked the physician who just came out of the cave after attending to Slayer.
"His body needs to rest. Continuous traveling on such a difficult path will keep affecting his wounds. It would be better to rest here until his body stabilizes enough to travel again," the physician replied.
"Still unconscious?" Drayce asked shortly.
"Being unconscious is nothing when It's a miracle that he is still alive," the physician replied.
Drayce had seen Slayer's condition and agreed with what the physician said. He talked to Cian, and they thought to rest there for some time more. From the last intel they received regarding the war, Thevailes and Hatha were on the short end of the stick. Against the combined might of Abetha, Griven, and Megaris, the enemies would not have enough workforce to deal with their small group.
Also, as they were near the frontier of Abetha, it would be all right to slow down their pace. With Cian guiding them for the rest of the journey, they would make small stops in between, and they would only move during the cover of the night.
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On the other side, the vice-commander of the royal knights of Megaris had finished dealing with the Thevailes general and his soldiers.
Azer and his men continued to march towards Megaris. Although they rested and ate along the way, they paid no attention to the old man tied to a horse, except for ensuring the prisoner remained alive.
Just as the sun was about to set, they stopped in what appeared to be an abandoned village turned into a temporary military camp of Thevailes. It was a deserted place filled with skeletons, looking more like a graveyard than a village. The unpleasant and sad air would make no sane person want to stay there. Looking at those skeletons, one could only imagine the painful deaths those people got before being left out here.
With a cold face, Azer looked at the old man who had fallen asleep on the horse. He pulled out the wooden water carrier hung to his waist and splashed the water on the old man's face.
Marquis Percy shivered and groaned in pain. He opened his heavy eyes and found himself at a familiar place. If his tongue weren't cut, he would have cursed out loud at sight.
"You are home, Marquis Percy," Azer informed.
The marquis looked at Azer when he called it his home, but he didn't wish to know what they would do with him. He pretended not to hear the knight.
"Do you remember, Marquis? This place where you killed those innocent kids and women. Your army attacked our ordinary villages, killed the able-bodied men and took the rest as slaves, and brought them across the mountains to this place. But instead of selling them, you also killed these innocent people and threw them here to rot. I can hear their souls screaming for vengeance, wanting to tear you apart."
After saying those words, Azer signaled his men.
Two soldiers dragged the marquis down from the horse and threw him in between the skeletal remains. The marquis tried to move, but the soldiers pushed him down. The soldiers arranged dried logs of wood to which they tied the old man so he wouldn't be able to move even a bit. He could only lay on the ground while facing the sky, his broken mouth with dried blood around it unable to make a coherent sound.
"Your death is in front of you." Azer pointed towards the sky, where the huge flock of scavenger birds roamed in the sky searching for food.
Marquis Percy shook his head as if asking Azer to kill him with a sword instead of doing this, but Azer ignored him and pulled out a tiny metal whistle from his pocket.
The two soldiers got on their horses, leaving the marquis on his own. Azer blew into that whistle which made no sound. But soon, the birds roaming in the sky took a turn and dove towards where they could smell blood and flesh. Azer and his men rode away while the flock of scavenger birds covered the entire body of the old man to give him his share of painful death.
The place where the Marquis enjoyed killing the innocent people mercilessly and dumping them without care had finally turned into his own graveyard, where his body remains would end up rotting till they turn into the dust sooner or later. No funeral would be held for him as no one would know if he was dead or alive, and if dead, then where his body was.
Once, the renowned Marquis, Godfrey Percy, finally had the end to his life, exactly what he did with the others. Justice was served, and he got his share of painful death.