Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, there are some TV programs about survival deep in the forest, or the desert--but if I was asked to participate, I would disagree wholeheartedly. I would probably fail to find food or potable water and die in a few days--”

“Master, there’s someone ahead.” Pochi, who’s sitting on my lap finds traces of someone ahead, “There.”

I’ve already seen them on the map, but I haven’t seen them with my eyes yet.

“Ah, it went inside the forest.” Pochi tilts her head, looking a little disappointed for some reason.

It seems the scout had gone to call its friends.

They’re thieves, but this time, it’s a bit different--these ones--I can’t kill--I never kill children under eighteen. Though I would incapacitate them if they tried to hurt the girls.

That’s right, this group of ‘thieves’ is made up from children ranging in age from 9 - 14 years old. There are three boys and six girls--their Reward & Punishments are only ‘Contract Breach’; their titles are ‘Runaway Slave’, they seem to be children who have run away from villages.

All of them have their Stamina at less than half.

 

“What’s in there?”

 

“A gang of child thieves--no, not thieves of children, but children who are playing thief.”

“Ahh, I see.” Arisa nods wisely, but she seems to be imagining something, her eyes moving around--what’s going on in that head of hers?

I quickly check with Liza and Arisa about what they think should be done.

“Runaway slaves is it? Then, our Reward & Punishment won’t change if we kill them--” Liza answers, but there is a strange look in her eyes.

Maybe I have been killing too many people in front of her.

Arisa looks over, to see how I will react to this--she seems to know that I won’t kill the children.

“Liza, I know I kill thieves--but I won’t kill children--especially since they haven’t done anything bad, or tried to hurt people I care about. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea.”

Liza looks at me, “Master has no need to apologize--I jumped to conclusions.”

She may have been speaking calmly, but I saw relief in her eyes; and her tail, which I didn’t notice was tense, relaxed.

“How about ignoring them, and just continuing along? Or do you want to get more girls?” Arisa asks with a smile, Tama and Pochi are now looking up at me as well.

This is enough for now, I’ll pass on getting more.

“We will see what happens.” I look at the girls, one-by-one; Mia and Lulu had also poked their heads out, listening to my words.

***

Three girls are laying across the road, blocking it.

We aren’t going to just run them over.

The wagon barely stopped in time, just before hitting them, but the girls didn’t move--not even a flinch, well, since they’re not tied--their body might have frozen in fear.

They’re too reckless--even if they want to stop the wagon no matter what--nobles, or most merchants. Would probably have just run them over.

“Don’t move! We have ten archers aiming at you from the forest.” A voice, with a deliberately raised pitch, threatened us.

Since it’s troublesome to play along with the bluff, I’ll move the girls aside and continue on.

I leave the wagon’s back entrance to Pochi and Tama to guard, and the driver’s seat to Liza, who was sitting beside me.

“If you value your life, leave your food here.” He’s putting effort into making his demands, but the backing chorus isn’t helping.

 

“I’d like some potatoes.”

“Stupid, we have to demand dried meat here! Right?”

“I want to eat bread.”

“Anything’s good as long as it’s not weeds.”

“Stupid, you guys keep silent.”

“You’re stupid, calling someone else stupid, you know?”

“Just shut your mouth.”

 

The demands became the chattering of children, ruining all the effort they put in to looking like accomplished thieves.

I seize one of the small girls who are blocking the road, and gently toss her to the children in the forest, she’s abnormally light--the children she’s thrown to are panicking to catch her.

 

“Wuh, what are you doing!”

“We’d shoot you with an arrow.”

 

No one is coming out of the forest.

Do they not have weapons, or they afraid of Liza?

 

“Do you want to walk to the forest yourself, or get thrown there?”

 

“J-Just run me over. If we don’t get food--we’ll die from starvation anyway.” She insists, her voice trembling, I don’t know if she’s bluffing or if she’s serious.

She’s the same age as Lulu, but looks a little younger--she has semi-long red hair, and green eyes; the arm which I grabbed to make her stand, is thin, like a dead branch.

“L-Let go of Totona!” The boy who was ‘negotiating’ with us since now, comes out of the forest after seeing me grabbing the girl’s arm--the red-haired boy looks similar to the girl, and is holding a club in one hand.

I pull the girl to her feet and push her toward the boy--she stumbles, but is caught by the boy.

“Liza, go.” I jump back onto the driver’s seat.

Liza nods and gets the horses to start moving again.

“Okay, here.” Arisa holds out a big bag, then throws it into the forest--the contents of the bag are vegetables and food that Tama has gathered on from some of the crates--since it wasn’t prepared in advance, she probably did it when she heard the boys’ conversation.

***

“Is it still bothering you?” Arisa asks me, placing her hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, a little, but it’s not only that.”

While I did get bothered by the situation these kids were in, I am also curious about what’s happening in front of us--there’s a narrow river ahead, and there are five old people there; they aren’t runaway slaves, nor do they have any Rewards & Punishments.

“Well, don’t think about unnecessary things when you’re hungry! Let’s eat a lot of delicious steaks, and cheer up!” Arisa spoke enthusiastically.

 

“Cheer?”

“Eat until full.”

 

I’m thankful for your worry--but you girls are absolutely thinking more about the steak aren’t you? Tama and Pochi are drooling and chanting, “Steak”, “Steak”.

Well, eating doesn’t cheer me up, but that’s not important--their antics did help me to stop being so tense.

After a short while, we arrived at the creek.

The elderly people are just sitting on the bank and staring into the river. I was thinking of camping near the river, but what should I do about this?

 

“Good afternoon, the weather is nice today, huh?”

 

“Oh, are you a merchant? Do you have business with this old man?”

 

“I’m sorry for disturbing you. When I was stopping by the river to get some water, I saw all of you, so I thought of greeting everyone here,”

 

“That is, quite polite of you. Think of me as a pebble on the roadside.”

“That’s right, we don’t have anything to do beside staring at the river in sorry, until we’re called by the god.”

“It’s preferable to be called by the god here, rather than have our grandchildren sold.”

“We’re not welcomed in the village, even if we go back.”

“If you want to give us food, I’ll accept it anytime, you know?”

“Hey, if you eat now, you’ll get called by the god late.”

“That’s right, huh.”

 

It seems that they’re abandoned here on this river.

You should treasure the elders.

 

“Don’t make such an expression, it’s fine.”

“That’s right, for the sake of decreasing the number of mouths to feed, we left the village by our own volition.”

“That’s right, if the number of useless old people decreased--the number of girls who sell themselves will hopefully decrease too.”

“Merchants nowadays weren’t buying slaves, and the village chief was grumbling.”

Since there’s no one who would buy their daughters, they sacrificed the elderly now, huh.

***

Since the old people seem to be harmless, I decide to camp a small distance away from them.

We’re located downwind from them.

Usually, Tama and Pochi hunt and gather food, Arisa and Mia collect firewood, Lulu and Liza cook, and Nana goes between watching them with a look of frustration and sitting near me--but since the old people would likely die faster if we took plants and animals from here, I decided to refrain.

“We’re not going to look for firewood or prey today. Liza, I’m sorry, but since I want to treat the old people to some food--please cook some more than usual today, I’ll leave the choice of what to cook, up to you.”

“I understand. Since heavy food isn’t good for people who are starving, let’s make gruel and meat.” Liza looks slightly disappointed as she speaks.

“Need help?” Mia asks.

“Well, we have enough hands, but let’s take this opportunity to teach you! Not only Mia, Arisa, you too.” Lulu happily accepts Mia’s offer, and grabbed Arisa’s hand ‘leading’ her to where the cookware is.

Arisa is resisting, saying that, “Cooking is my bane.”, but for some reason--Lulu is forceful today.

Pochi and Tama are looking around restlessly, so I say, “You girls can go ahead and play”--but somehow, it became combat training.

When I double-checked with Arisa, while slaves can’t try to harm their Master--apparently sparring is allowed, some people buying combat trained slaves purely for training themselves or their children; though if the Master doesn’t recognize it as training and thinks of it as true combat, the restriction kicks in.

 

Moreover, it’s me versus Pochi and Tama.

 

After the signal, Pochi rushes straight towards me, thrusting for my chest--which I dodge smoothly with a single half-step to the side and twisting my chest slightly. Using that chance, Tama sweeps quickly at my feet, which I avoid by jumping.

 

I then lightly kick Tama’s wooden sword.

Tama, who loses her wooden sword, jumps at me while making a small growl.

I change her trajectory by scooping her stomach with my palm, and gently throw her away--while eluding two more of Pochi’s attacks, I make sure that Tama landed properly; she had spun in the air and landed incredibly lightly--maybe it’s true that cats always land on their feet.

 

“Can’t hit?”

“Strong.”

 

The training continues like this; and when I purposely get myself caught in the end, somehow, it looks like we’re flirting.

“I caught you, hamumunyan.” Pochi ends her sentence with a strange chewing noise as she play bites my neck.

“Nihehe, caught?” Tama licks my cheek.

Then, Arisa jumps at us saying, “I’ll join in too.”

 

But--

 

“Arisa joining.”

“The next prey is Arisa!”

 

--Pochi and Tama brilliantly intercept her.