The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                                                    Zaos would rather be naïve than do things that won't let him sleep at night. He didn't become a soldier to do atrocities, and while he wasn't that idealistic, he knew that his job was to protect the weak, not attack them. He had attacked people many times, but in all those times, his goal was to protect someone...

"… Attacking kids with crossbows might be dangerous. The chances of them dying will be higher, so we will avoid them for the time being," Vitalar said. "However, don't think that we will be able to act like this forever."

                                                    They will act like that as long as Zaos is there, or they will have to find a better bodyguard. Zaos didn't have to say that right now, so he kept quiet about it. Regardless, when the group found the best targets, they immediately attacked and hit a group of men carrying a snow bear. Those six men were quickly knocked down, but then some screams began to spread around the village, and several people left their huts and looked in the direction Zaos was. They didn't look much like mages experienced in combat, but they still fired Fire Arrows toward the group..

                                                    The number of projectiles was pretty high, so Zaos was forced to reinforce his arms with wind magic. Thanks to that, Zaos blocked dozens of projectiles, and the people around him barely saw his sword moves. His speed was inhuman…

                                                    While the village people were evacuating, some followers of the demon god kept attacking. In contrast, others tried to rescue the six men that had been hit previously. Still, then Vitalar's men attacked again and then wounded four other men. Without any other choice, the villagers decided to escape.

"They sure are quick to run away," Vitalar said.

"Perhaps you didn't notice, but these people aren't the ones who usually cross the border and attack our villages," Zaos said. "They even can't cast more than one spell at the same time, so it is obvious that they didn't receive combat training."

"Oh, well… it doesn't matter," Vitalar said. "Put those guys in the carts. You three will carry them back to the camp. We will investigate this village before chasing those who escaped."

"Just what the hell I am doing here…" Zaos muttered under his breath.

                                                    Zaos wondered how come he killed hundreds of soldiers, but he didn't feel much guilt, and now that annoying feeling was bothering him. Was it because he was always working with the idea that he was doing the right thing because he was protecting the kingdom? Or was it because of some other reason?

                                                    Regardless, Zaos began to search in the huts for anything that would let them learn more about the followers of the demon god. Still, they didn't find anything aside from some stock of food and some tools for hunting and clothes to protect the people from the cold. More and more, Zaos believed that the hate the followers of the demon god suffered was exaggerated. Most of them were just normal people. The only difference is that they followed a being that almost destroyed the world a long time ago. To this day, they were paying for their ancestors' crimes, and since some of them believed that was unfair, they tried to fight back.

"No luck, they only have crap here," Vitalar said after two hours of search and without finding anything," It is getting dark… we will spend the night here, it is better than sleeping outside in some tents."

"Are you sure it is a good idea?" Zaos asked. "They might return and attack us from all sides once they discover that they aren't being pursued."

"You can feel their presences from pretty far away, so I will trust you to prevent that," Vitalar said.

                                                    Zaos almost let out a sigh, but he stopped since it was his job to protect them, after all. Zaos stayed on guard duty that night, so he didn't sleep much. Still, he had a lot of time to think about the recent events.

"I always imagined that, but I never had the chance to confirm, but now I know it… the royal family and some great noble houses are keeping many secrets from the population," Zaos thought. "Not only that, the people of the kingdom were unusually more hostile toward the followers of the demon god than any other people in the world. I am sure, but I think this sudden change is connected to their power-up. So, considering all that, the strength that they obtained wasn't something natural that happened, probably wasn't something planned either…"

                                                    Zaos couldn't understand how those two things were connected. There wasn't a single logical thing that could explain both. Only something supernatural could explain that, but aside from magic, Zaos didn't hear of anything supernatural in that world. The only thing that probably had connections with the supernatural was…

"The demon god… return," Zaos muttered under his breath.

                                                    Was it because of that that the king and the great noble houses were keeping so many secrets? Even if that were the case, it couldn't explain why they had to capture the followers of the demon god and take them to somewhere else that is hidden base or something similar. Not to mention, if the magic of the people of that region had advanced that much, why they were still having so much trouble? If someone found a method to revive him, why not use that knowledge to unify the whole population under one banner?

"The more I think about it, the more confuse I get," Zaos and then sighed.

                                                    Zaos had to capture one of the followers of the demon god by himself and question them. However, it was evident that not even torture would grant him the answers… It seemed that Zaos will have to stick around with Vitalar for a while and then find the answers by combining the small pieces of that massive puzzle… it would be a big pain in the ass, but it couldn't be helped.