We are not in the empire yet

The image of the kid was distorted, distant, and unrecognizable. His face had no features and his voice couldn't be heard. He was wearing black clothing from head to toe and was swinging his sword up and down. His movements were not flawless but full of mistakes, they weren't swift nor experienced, however, he was still being applauded by someone who was watching him from not too far away.

The images of the little kid in black were getting overlapped with the black swordsman in my vision, making it hard to understand which one was real and which wasn't.

For a moment, I had difficulty remembering the place I was at and the current timeline. The faces of the fallen bandits... They felt kinda familiar now... Weren't they... my comrades? The people I fought alongside against those bastards... Blood. Everywhere is filled with their blood. The black swordsman is killing my comrades. He is killing my friends-

"Ian! Ian look at me!"

My head got forcefully turned to the left and the image of an old man with dark-blue eyes and snow-white hair entered my face. He was slapping my face and calling out my name while droplets of tears flowed out of his eyes and wet his wrinkled face.

'Huh? What is Ranger doing on the battlefield... He shouldn't even be in the empire now...'

My gaze wandered on its own and fell on the face of a kid. What was Ralph doing here? Wasn't he working at the county?

"I'm sorry. I-I'm sorry. I really am sorry. I'm sorry."

Someone on my right side was repeatedly apologizing with a shaky voice. Turning my head, I saw my master sitting there, trembling like a rat and continuously apologizing to someone under his lips.

'....The fuck?... Alaric's also... in the... empire... Look at... his face... He looks so silly... hehe!'

I couldn't understand what was going on. Everything was so hazy and unrecognizable. My thoughts were mixed and slower than usual. My heart was beating strangely and my left side was burning. It was hard to breathe and hard to keep my drooping eyelids open.

"Move aside! Move away from him!"

At that moment, a new voice entered my ears. The voice belonged to a woman who was running towards us from the space between the two carriages. She had long light-brown hair that was shining gold under the light of the flames. Her face was not considered beautiful or stunning, but she looked mysteriously innocent and pure. It was someone I knew... Someone I had seen not too long ago.

The woman reached where we were hiding and crouched down beside me, pushing Alaric aside in the process. She put down the bag she was holding in her hands and reached his hand towards my neck, placing it on my vein to count the heartbeat rate. She then opened the bag and pulled some stuff out of it, which I couldn't clearly distinguish in my hazy sight.

"W-what are you doing?"

The woman didn't even look up at Ranger as she forcefully separated his hands from the cloth around my wound.

"First aid. I'm a doctor, move aside!"

I could see Ranger move a little bit back and how Ralph whipped his tears, I could also see the woman unwrap the cloth and remove it from my body.

"It might hurt a little bit."

Before I could see what she was doing, a sharp and burning pain engulfed my body as I felt something cold being sprayed on my stomach. It was like countless cold needles were sewing my wound while extending inside bit by bit as if to come out from the other side of the body.

"Mmm..."

I could only moan in pain and press my lips on each other to suppress a scream from escaping my mouth. My whole body was trembling and it was soaked in a cold sweat. My eyes were dry and sore and I was barely keeping them open.

"It'll be fine soon." The woman raised her, looked at my face, and gave me a reassuring smile. "Just don't close your eyes. Endure it a little bit more, okay? Can you hear my voice? Nod your head if you can."

I moved my head up and down, and the smile on the woman's face brightened as I did.

I wanted to know what she had done and where she came from, but I couldn't collect my thoughts at all. I couldn't concentrate and couldn't think of anything properly at the moment. There were countless images that didn't belong to this time and this place and various faces that were overlapping with the corpses here. One moment, I knew where I was and what was going on, and on the other, I was lost in between distant memories.

I did my best to keep my eyes open as I was told and look at the battlefield to stop myself from losing consciousness. Once I looked to my side, I could see that most of the bandits were already defeated. A few of them were running away and some were captured. There was no one seriously injured, the fire on the carriage was being put out, and the corpses were being gathered in one place.

"Lay him down slowly."

At the woman's words, my body was forced to lay down by I don't know whom. The pain in my side was still there, but the cold needle-like sensation was disappearing little by little. The woman took some other stuff out of her bag and proceeded to examine the wound.

I couldn't stop but stare at the faces of the dead men. They were my comrades... No... They were just bandits... I've never seen them in any of my lives... Not any corpse belongs to my friends... This isn't a battlefield... We are not in the empire yet.

We are not in the empire yet.