Chapter 9: Help
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Commentary on Chapter 8: The Help.
Enjoy your reading!
As soon as Eros' breathing stopped, Juro lost all interest in him.
- 'Take the dagger, and let's go,' he said with the same indifference, turning and walking off in the opposite direction of the corpse.
- Yes, now," the green-haired man ran up to the boy's body, searching him, he easily found the dagger, "I found it, all that's left is to find the rest of the children and it's done," he laughed out loud and ran up to him, and a bloodthirsty grin appeared on his face, "Fool, you gave me a weapon against myself and as soon as you're dead I'll be the new guild master!"- a metre away from Juro, the swordsman drew his blade - "Now help your grandfather and DIE!"- swinging, he was about to cut him in two, but abruptly froze, "WHAT?! I can't move, what the fuck?!"- The green-haired man stared in horror at the slowly turning mage.
- Have you decided to betray me, Locus? - his indifferent gaze, made the swordsman feel animal terror, -You know what I do to traitors and you did it anyway.
- It was a joke! A JOKE! You know me, I would never do such a thing! - Shivering all over, he tried to justify himself.
- It was a bad joke," Juro sighed with relief and even smiled slightly.
- Yeah, yeah, sorry," Locus replied with a nervous smile, "Lucky he fell for it!"- the swordsman thought with relief, but the next moment, he was pierced by five wooden spears, "What...?
- And before you die, I'll tell you one thing," he looked into the eyes of the still alive Lukos, "I could have used my power from the beginning, but I wanted to test the loyalty of my men and the first one who failed was Shika (Darky's nickname), who deceived me, and the second one was you, who tried to kill me. You were useful to me, that's why I didn't want to kill you and arranged the test, but you didn't pass it, alas, - but the swordsman couldn't hear the last words.
- Eros..." came Rick's shocked voice.
Juro turned around and saw a boy with red hair staring at the corpse in disbelief.
- You're just in time," he said with a slight sneer in his voice, "Tell me where the other children are and then they'll survive and return to the guild, but I'm sorry, you're going to die regardless of your answer.
- You killed him.
- Well, so what? I killed an enemy, that's normal in the adult world, and if your enemy is so talented, there are only two ways to go about it, that's to poach him or cut him out," Juro said as a matter of course, "And as you can see, he made his choice and I respect it completely, that's why he's lying dead.
- A choice, huh?
- Yes, that's right... - at that moment, Juro stopped abruptly, because the voice that said the last words was not a child's voice. It was the voice of an elderly man.
He turned to the voice and saw a short old man with grey hair growing only from the outer edges of his head and a large moustache. Dressed in orange trousers and a jumper, and on his head he wore a blue and orange striped cap. He stood in front of the boy's body and looked at the mage with rage.
- Is that why you killed that child? - There was so much pressure on Juro's shoulders that he didn't last a second on his feet. He was pressed into the ground and sinking harder and harder with each passing second, -Who are you to force a choice? Do you have the power to do that?! A position?! Wealth?! You're nothing but a lowlife from a second-rate dark guild!
- Я...
- SILENCE! - I didn't give you the right to speak," Juro felt fear for the first time in his life, the man in front of him was a monster in human skin, "I've already learnt everything about your guild from one man, and if I knew of its existence, I would personally come to destroy you myself. Such heartless monsters should not exist.
- Eros... - Rick knelt before the body of the titan, crying, - I haven't repaid for our salvation yet! Get up, come on... Eros! Get up!
- Shut up..." came a weak voice from outside, "I'm sick of you, I'm going to dress you up in Lily's dress after all.
- EROS!
- I... I... stop yelling already! - The titan hissed, looking at the stake in his chest, -It sucks, it's the first time in my life I feel so dead... and I'm sleepy... -he closed his eyes again, and his breathing became weak, -Rick, if I don't survive, protect everyone, a good choice would be to join the Fairy Tail, Roni told me a lot about this guild and I like their ideology, you'll be safe there.
- EROS! Don't be daft! We'll all survive! Don't sleep! - The boy exclaimed in horror, starting to shake Eros, at that moment an old man came up to him and grabbed him by the arms, quickly began to examine the titan, checking his heartbeat and breathing.
- How is it possible...? - he whispered in disbelief, - The boy is still alive, but very weak, he must be taken to the healer as soon as possible! - frowning, he quickly said, lifting the boy's body.
- And the stake?
- Don't touch it," he said in a serious voice, "It's better to keep it still in him to stop the bleeding.
- Don't worry, members of my guild are on their way here, stay here, you'll explain everything to them and show them where the other children are.
- Yes, please save him!
- I'll take him to the greatest of healers, she'll definitely get him back on his feet," Makarov said in a serious tone and disappeared from sight after a second.
- Who is that old man? - quietly whispered the boy, not knowing why, he decided to trust him....
Already a couple of minutes later, Makarov stood in front of a large tree. In the centre of the tree stood a huge ornate door, and on the sides were small windows. And in front of the tree were several steps leading up to the door.
- Makarov?! - The first thing the old man heard was the angry voice of an old woman, "How many times have I told you not to bother me!
Polushka was a tall elderly woman with pink hair tied up in a bundle and pinned up with two large crescent-shaped pins at the edges. She had red eyes and a mole just above her chin. She wore a dark green blouse and a long red skirt, as well as a red cloak covering the blouse.
- Polushka, please help this boy," Eros was still bleeding from his wounds, and because of the speed at which Makarov was travelling, most of the flowing blood got on him, covering his moustache and clothes.
- What happened!!! - she quickly approached him and immediately began to examine Eros, - How could this happen, - the old woman said in shock, - How can he still be alive?
- Paulyushka...
- I know without you," the old woman snapped, "Bring him to my house and put him on the table! FAST!
Poliushka's house was decorated rather sparsely, with no unnecessary furniture, just a bed, a table, a few stumps replacing chairs and a lot of drawers. As well as a large collection of books, placed on shelves set into the trunk of a tree.
- Clutter and PROVAL!
- YES! - Makarov exclaimed and disappeared from the house.
When he left, Polyushka went up to the boy and began to examine his body.
- Who could have done such a thing? - quietly whispered the old woman, looking at him with pity, - Hm... he must have been patched up before... - she said thoughtfully, having examined the wounds, - But the magician was weak and could not help much....
Makarov could not calm down and walked back and forth, constantly looking back at the door. For him, this boy was nobody, but because of his good-natured character, he could not see how children suffer. Makarov's very personality did not allow him to pass by a person in need of help.
- Master! - Two men came running out of the forest, the first was of medium height with short, protruding dark blue hair, straight dark eyebrows and eyes. He was wearing light coloured trousers and a blue blouse. The second was of the same height. He had brown hair with a pompadour style hairstyle and dark glasses. He was wearing a red T-shirt and black trousers. He had a cigarette in his teeth.
- Macau, Wakaba, what about the children? - The old man asked anxiously.
- 'Everything is fine master,' Makao said with a smile, 'We were helped to find them by that boy, Rick.
- We brought the children out of the forest where they were met by other members of our guild and now they are halfway to the guild," Wakaba added as he took a puff and let the smoke out.
- Good," Makarov said with relief, and for the first time all day, a smile appeared on his lips.- About the dark guild... - the old man's smile faded, deep wrinkles appeared on his forehead, and a steely glint appeared in his eyes, which made the two mages shudder.
- What's wrong with them?
- We found all six of them, but...
- But?
- Two are dead, one in the cave of the Forest Volcano, but we were a bit late, - remembering the scene we saw in the cave and the woman's moans, both of them shuddered, - Two were in the forest, one was badly burned, but not fatally, and the other claims that he is no longer a dark mage and you can vouch for him.
- Yes, there was one," Makarov nodded thoughtfully.
- The last one, the leader of this group...
- What about him?
- He tried to escape three times and once he almost succeeded, so, - Wakaba, embarrassed, started rubbing his neck, - We knocked him out every time he came to his senses.
- Good," the guild master sighed with relief, "And the base?
- All three of them refused to say where it was, but that boy said he knew where it was and was willing to lead us there, so we wanted to know what to do next.
- I thought that as soon as you knew where she was, you'd be on your way to her....
They both had embarrassed smiles on their faces.
- What are you master, how can we..." Wakaba said with a nervous gulp.
- What's wrong? - Sensing something wrong, the old man asked.
- Well... - Wakaba looked at Makoa, but he pretended to be a jackass, whistling as he looked at the beautiful tree trunk. Realising that his friend had betrayed him, and cursing him twenty times in his mind, he turned his gaze to Makarov's worried face, - Well... on the way we met Gildarts, he was just returning from a mission....
- and? - sweat began to roll off the old man in hailstones.
- We told him everything and saying that he would sort it out himself and we had nothing to worry about, Gildarts left....
- Where to...? - Makarov asked dryly, falling on his knees and trembling all over his body.
Seeing the condition of the master and realising that the next words could cause a heart attack in the poor old man, Makarov and Wakaba looked at each other and made the most correct decision possible... To escape! Which they tried to do, but were caught by the scruff of their necks.
- Where did he go?
- To... the direction where the dark guild is... - at that moment, the hands that were holding them, as if lost all their strength and sank to the ground, - We even argued with the guys, how much global destruction will be and whether the Dark Forest will exist in the future... - looking at the master, who looked whiter than any dead man, Macao realised that he had said too much.
The old man knelt down, and a strange white substance that resembled the transparent figure of Makarov himself flew out of his body.
- MASTER!!!