A man of multiple talents
Jay had of course picked up the kids and brought them over to their father, directly before he joined the others in the meeting on the yard.
Farmer Alexton had been overjoyed to have his children by his side, even though his wife was still missing. As he was taking care of the children at that time, he couldn't take part at the meeting, though he had been invited as well.
The workers that had been kept locked with farmer Alexston got taken care of by some soldiers and as a good number of them was originally from other farms, they would travel back to Sentinel with the supply group and join their farms again.
Those that had been employed from Alexston or that came from farms that ceased to exist had apparently decided to stay there for work.
With the most pressing matters settled they decided to join the few remaining soldiers that kept on checking the fallen bandits and comrades surrounding the farm. Those inside had already got taken care of and the yard looked okay again, aside from the two big craters there and two buildings missing some walls.
Jay teamed up with Petters and went to the north while Fiona teamed up with the other two soldiers and checked the east.
As the first raid attacked from there, Jay hadn't wanted Petters to find some friends with the dead what might happen.
With that many fallen from the first batch, he was bound to have lost some people he at least knew.
Not in his wildest dreams had Jay expected to be the one to find a face he knew. But after shoving together the corpses of five bandits, he spotted a young man with messy brown hair under another bandit.
Looking at the face again, Jay finally remembered and tried to use analyze but to no avail. As he had pulled the man out, he had gotten sure.
It had been Kolja, the young brawler who had been in a party with Sybill when they met.
Looking around fearing to see yet another face he knew, Jay was glad the big guy seemed to have survived, or at least not died here.
A small shudder went down his spine as he thought bout finding the small Archer who had been with them dead on the field. He sure hoped to meet her again.
After they had horded together the bandits, Jay unceremoniously incinerated them before they took the cart where the fallen comrades and victims had been loaded on and went back to the farm.
Back on the yard, Fiona had already begun counting numbers. Leaving her to her work, Jay and Petters went to the west to fetch another wagon and could only sigh at the view they got behind the broken barn.
The view onto the fields of fruit trees and the cliff to the coast behind looked great, but the more than thirty graves that had gotten digged out destroyed any beauty the view could harbor.
Back with another wagon, though with only one soldier as most of the deceased had been bandits, Jay heard a provisionally count and report of losses from the beautiful Lieutenant.
Aside from the first raid that has had heavy losses, not to say it got wiped out, their attack had brought less casualties than she ever expected. Even the number of those who got wounded was only ten men, what was totally out of her expectations.
Though the fact there still had been any losses annoyed and saddened Jay, it had only been three out of over forty men.
Fiona noticed his expression and tried to comfort him, stating the attack force on the front was bound to have losses and the men had known that as well. It had only been thanks to Jay's attack they could pull of something like that, even more so in mere hours.
Her next question surprised Jay a bit.
She asked if he would like to take part in the questioning of the captured bandits. Even if she said questioning, Jay knew it wouldn't be anything else than torturing until any of them spilled the beans.
But she was even more cruel to her opponents than Jay had thought of Fiona.
Her orders that followed were audible over the whole farm.
"Bring the captured Bandits and line them up on the yard!" F.
After a "Yes Ma'am!" from multiple soldiers, it took no five minutes to have all the 18 bandits lined up and kneeling in the mud. As she walked up to them, Fiona sat her hands on her hips and walked up and down in front of them.
It looked a bit like a drill sergeant disciplining his cadets, but her next words made that thought disappear.
"Whoever of you bandits refuses to answer our questions dies instantly! You there, who is the highest ranked of you?" F.
"Ranked? I don't…<
With a metallic slicing noise, the bandits head got separated from his body. The beheading came without further warning like Fiona had promised.
All bandits looked at the soldier who had swung the sword and afterwards stepped behind the next bandit.
"Again, who is.." F.
"Bardon, it's Bardon… the fourth… now third in line here!" Bandit 2
"My, thank you. I guess you don't know where your orders came from?" F.
"I'm sorry, I truly don't know. But I can tell you...<
Directly walking up to the man called Bardon, Fiona had the man she jumped pull away. His wet trousers told all that were watching he would have died for naught.
Questioning him somewhere else might bring out more information.
"So Bardon is it? Where did your orders came from?" F.
"The Leader, Malcom, gave my orders directly." B.
"Those were?" F.
"No further attacking of farms until he got notice from a messenger. Until then we had to keep up the defense" B.
"Messenger you say, From where did he expect messages?" F.
"I...I only know he waited for reply from a farm in the north…" B.
"...and?" Fiona
"Then and there a messenger came from the south, but I really know no more… Huh?" B.
Bardon surely did expect to loose his head as well, but all he got was a bag over his head as he got brought back into the barn.
The slicing sounds that followed came from his left. Three more bandits got killed in quick succession as none of them could positively answer Fiona's question if they knew anything more.
It was then, when Jay walked up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. She turned around fiercely with an angry look until she saw it was Jay that had been so brazen to touch her.
"You know, I guess I have found someone who might answer our questions. Would you come with me for a moment?" J.
"And who might be that person?" F.
"The bandits leader. I found him hidden in the basement of the main building…" J.
"Couldn't you have said that earlier? Hey, SILENCE!" F.
She didn't look bothered at all until the bandits still kneeling on the ground murmured about their leader getting caught being impossible and so on.
Fiona got them to keep their mouths and the two went inside the main building together.
Down in the basement she got slightly surprised as the number of opponents that had held hostages required even more skill to overcome than she previously thought Jay had.
On the wall in the back hung the bandits leader, roped up and gagged until someone would question him.
What Jay witnessed in the following twenty minutes was nothing but a brutal torture. But with this they learned that the true base of the defiers was in Millshire.
It had been no real surprise to Jay as he already had found some hints for it and even Kearnen suspected the base being there.
Unfortunately Malcom died before he could finish his last sentence and they had not heard where it was exactly.
For the man himself death was surely welcome as life wouldn't have held anything for him, with both his legs crushed and no finger left.
Even the hint with the messenger led nowhere as the timing was irregular, so they had to start searching from Millshire.
With nothing more to find down in the basement, Fiona and Jay went up again and were greeted by the smell of something burning.
The giant pile of bandits outside the farm had been set aflame.
Fiona explained that it had to be done as to not attract wild beasts or have the corpses get soaked with free mana. Jay hadn't asked for the explanation but got interested by the free mana part.
Apparently the theory and belief of undead and living corpses resulting on dead bodies lying in the open had spread. Though it sounded like a wild guess, the principles of mana were something Jay had no real idea of, the same as Fiona.
But as most of the soldiers believed in that theory, they had insisted on burning the corpses. There was nothing to loose anyways, except the sense of smell…
To all their fortune, they and the soldier all gathered on the other side of the farm where the graves had been placed. They held a mass funeral where Fiona spoke the last words for the fallen men and the soldiers said their farewell to friends and companions.
The sun was already setting when they came back to the yard.
While the fire was still burning outside behind the stables, the stinking smoke was mostly gone.
A big tent was getting set up on one side while on the other, two soldiers wearing different armors tended to the more seriously wounded men.
Jay walked over to there and offered his help in healing the wounded. They were all no longer in really critical conditions, but two of them had serious wounds. Kneeling besides the first one, Jay cast a great heal while trying to not show off.
The light engulfing the wound made it impossible to hide though. Behind him he suddenly heard a deep inhaling and then Fiona sighed.
"At first I was astonished of your quick reaction and quite good ability with the bow. With you sneaking towards the surviving raid members, I was pretty sure you are a scout type with good combat capabilities. And then came your so called signal…" F.
"So?" J.
"So I learned you are a mage. And not a low level one considering the spell you used. Really, eradicating most of them alone… And just now you used healing magic, right?" F.
"No use hiding it, huh?" J.
With the first patient done and healthy again, though still asleep from the painful experience, Jay turned to the second.
Fiona kept standing next to him and watching with a pondering expression. It took her a little while to finally sort out her thoughts.
"May I ask which Job you have at this moment? I of course promise not to tell anybody." F.
"No problem to me. I just switched from Sorcerer to Scout and seem to have quite the affinity to that one…" J.
"How is it possible? I just don't get it. Considering your age it's impossible you've had that many jobs, at least some not to that tier…" F.
"What? Why would that be?" J.
"Considering you normally get your first Job at the age of about 14, and most Adventurers get their first tier maxed out after about a year with even the fastest taking months, it simply doesn't sum up..." F.
She got a little stupefied when Jay told her about changing from Sorcerer to Scout but simply shook her head to his question about the most obvious thing.
"...Even if we assume you started early and are one of the fastest, having finished at least two second tier Jobs is still impossible as the necessary time-span doubles!" F.
"Wait, who said something about two second tier Jobs?" J.
"A heal? That's something only possible for Priests or Clerics. And judging by your combat proficiency, I highly doubt you've only leveled Scout. So? Any explanation?" F.
"I guess I just look way younger than I really am…" J.
"That's… okay I'll leave it at that. Thank you in the name of those two. I'll tell them you helped when they wake up." F.
"Thanks, but no need to. I guess I'll set up my tent as well and get some rest." J.
"You can use one of the already set up ones if you want to…" F.
"No need, a familiar space is something I welcome now." J.
After saying good bye Jay left the Lieutenant and the sickbay to find a place where he could take out his tent without getting seen.
He found just the right place behind the destroyed carriage and the still standing part of the stables. With some tents between him and the middle of the yard where most of the men gathered, Jay used a moment when nobody was looking his way and took out the magic tent.
With the sound like shaking out a blanket, the tent appeared out of nowhere.
Two soldiers passed him some seconds later and noted he really was fast as a few minutes earlier this place had been empty. Jay just played he checked the ropes and stated he just set it up.
Back at the center of the yard, Jay saw a few of the soldiers setting up a fireplace. Some minutes later they brought a big pot while some others were pulling the leftovers of the two oxes towards the provisionally cooking station.
As Jay kept watching the skilled soldier who was dismantling the dead cattle with practiced hands, he saw three other soldiers hanging the pot over the fire and about to fill it with water.
No longer able to watch their dilettantish attempt to cook he stepped forward shouting to halt.
Two minutes later, Jay was standing at the pot, greasing it with some of the oxes fat while ordering the soldiers to cut vegetables of different kinds. With the meat finally prepared, he threw it in the hot pot so it would get roasted and unfold its typical flavor.
His cooking only took half an hour even though it was a humongous amount.
With the smell wafting over the whole camp, there was not one man not salivating in anticipation. And their expectation got even topped when the first men and women got served a portion.
The same was true for Fiona who had sat down next to Jay.
She only pressed out a "You really have a lot of talents…" with stuffed cheeks what looked surprisingly cute on the cool and stoic women.
Taking a spoon himself, Jay really could be proud on his
It really tasted so good, the whole pot got emptied over the next hour.
As it had long since gotten dark and the day had been strenuous, Jay took his leave after some more conversations with Fiona, Petters, some soldiers and even the farmer Alexton. Latter thanked him again for everything he did and promised for him and his family to remember Jay for the rest of their days.
The mead the soldiers had brought had not been the tastiest, but it did it's job and even Jay had gotten a bit tipsy.
Finally back in his tent, he lay down on his cozy and warm bed.