The Mercenary Veteran II

My heart pounded with excitement.

After eight years of being confined to the small, repetitive existence of Havenwood, this - this - was my first real chance to learn about the world beyond the trees.

I wanted to remain composed, but my body betrayed me. My fingers twitched restlessly, my legs shifting where I stood, back and forth, back and forth. I forced myself to exhale slowly, then looked up at the warrior in front of me, masking my eagerness.

"I guess I don't know much," I admitted, feigning casual disinterest. "Why do you want to know?"

He watched me, and for a moment, there was something unreadable in his gaze. A deep, distant weight, as if he was calculating something I couldn't see.

Then, he smiled, small, tired, but genuine.

"I had a feeling," he murmured. He leaned forward, rubbing his hands together before letting out a hollow chuckle. "Your village is... truly one of a kind. A place untouched by the rest of the world. A rarity."

His tone was nostalgic, almost wistful, as though recalling something lost.

Leaning back, bracing himself against the rough wooden chair, he continued.

"My name is Kael. I've been a lot of things in my life - a mercenary, a soldier, a wanderer. I've traveled the world, fought in wars, seen kingdoms rise and fall. And yet," his voice grew quiet, "I have never seen a village like this. A place so... detached from the chaos."

He chuckled, but it lacked warmth. "You don't know how lucky you are."

I frowned, processing his words.

Kael sighed, running a weary hand through his disheveled hair. "I ask because you saved my life. And in my line of work, a debt is a debt. I have no gold, no possessions to offer you. But..." His sharp eyes locked onto mine. "I can offer you my stories."

The way he said it: it wasn't just an offer. It was atonement.

.....

"Our world is called Wardenas," Kael began, his voice steadier now. "It's vast. Unforgiving. A land of kings, adventurers, monsters… and war."

I listened, hanging onto every word as he painted a picture of the world beyond Havenwood.

"To the north is Frostholm, a land of endless snow, ruled by a warrior-king. It's a kingdom of mercenaries and warriors, where the strong devour the weak."

"To the east lies Sylvanwood, home of the elves and beastmen. It is a place where magic is said to weave through the very air. A truly beautiful place."

"The west holds Sunhaven, the beating heart of this continent, where coin dictates law. A land of wealth."

"And to the south… Stonehelm." His expression darkened slightly. "The strongest of the four. An empire that grows hungrier with each passing year."

I blinked. "That's where we are, right?"

Kael nodded. "On its outskirts. Far enough to be forgotten. Safe, for now."

His stories wove an image so different from Havenwood. Markets alive with color and sound, towering citadels, adventurers battling beasts larger than houses.

And then…

"Dawnhaven," Kael said.

My breath caught.

"A city not far from here," he continued, watching my reaction. "A city of knights and scholars, of love and rife. Kids your age, wielding steel and learning the art of battle."

I could see it.

Bustling streets, filled with merchants shouting out their wares. Warriors, brushing past one another, swords clashing in the training grounds. The towering castle walls, protecting those inside, knights gazing outward toward the unknown.

I wanted to be there.

I wanted to stand on those walls, looking back at the village, looking at the world beyond. I had been reborn to live, not just play games and fight wolves in this village.

Kael must have seen my expression because his lips curled into a knowing smirk. "Wha-"

Before he could finish-

A weight slammed into my back.

I choked as I was yanked backward, nearly toppling over.

"Alex!"

Lily....

Oh no.

Lily grinned up at Kael, resting her chin on my shoulder as I struggled under her weight. "Heya there! You're the guy Alex dragged back from the woods, right?"

Kael blinked, startled by her energy. Then, he chuckled, shaking his head. "That would be me."

Lily beamed. "Nice to meetcha! I'm Lily, and trust me, I'm way more interesting than Alex."

I shoved her off me with a grunt. "Lily, shut up."

She ignored me, plopping down beside Kael. "So what's the world like? Anything exciting? I bet Alex has been asking the most boring questions."

Kael laughed - a real, genuine laugh.

It was the first time I had heard it.

I glanced at him, surprised to see… something lighter in his face. Something younger.

"Well," he said, "your friend's been asking about cities, knights, and wars."

Lily's eyes sparkled. "Ooooh. Wars?"

Kael gave me a side glance. "She's more dangerous than you are."

I rolled my eyes. "You have no idea."

Kael let out a breath, and for the first time since I had met him… he looked alive.

But only for a moment.

Then, something shifted in his expression, the light flickering away like a candle struggling against the wind.

He leaned back slightly, gaze turning inward. His body was here, but his mind? It had wandered far back into some distant past.

Lily, oblivious, kept chattering away beside him, still intrigued by the mention of war.

"So?" she pressed. "What's the biggest fight you've been in?"

Kael's jaw tightened. His fingers twitched where they rested on his knee.

"The biggest fight?" His voice was quiet. "You don't want to know."

Lily frowned. "What do you mean? You were a soldier, right? Soldiers fight. What's the biggest battle you..."

"Lily," I interrupted, sharper than I intended.

Something was wrong.

Kael's entire posture had changed. His shoulders tense, his breathing slower, measured, as if bracing for a blow that wasn't coming. His eyes weren't here anymore.

They were seeing something else.

Fire. Bodies. Screaming.

Kael exhaled slowly, rubbing his face before forcing a small, almost practiced smile.

"War," he said finally, his voice heavy, "isn't a story to be told over a warm meal."

His fingers unconsciously traced his forearm, a motion so natural, so deeply ingrained, that I wondered if he even realized he was doing it.

"It's not like the stories you hear," he continued. "There's no honor in it. No glory. No winners." His voice grew quieter. "Only survivors."

I felt Lily shift beside me. Even she had caught on now.

The playfulness in her eyes faded, replaced by something else. Something quieter. It was the first time I had seen that look in her eyes.

Kael chuckled, but it was hollow.

"Mercenaries, soldiers… we don't fight for justice. We fight because someone pays us to. Because we have nowhere else to go. Because…" He trailed off, looking past us, past the village, past the trees, past everything. Looking into a place we couldn't see.

I knew that look.

It was the same empty, hollow stare I had seen on broken men, on soldiers in documentaries back on Earth. 

The gaze of someone who had seen too much and lived through more than he wanted to.

Silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating.

Kael swallowed, his fingers twitching slightly, like they were reaching for a weapon that wasn't there.

"When you fight for long enough, you stop asking why," he murmured. "You stop thinking about who's right and who's wrong. You stop seeing people as people. They become silhouettes. Targets. Something in the way."

His hand clenched into a fist, nails digging into his palm.

"You think you'll remember every face. The first man you kill, the second, maybe even the third." He let out a hollow chuckle, shaking his head. "But then… they blur together. The screams sound the same. The blood smells the same. And one day, you wake up and realize… you stopped counting. You don't care. You laugh as they die. You laugh as your friends die. You laugh as you die. Laugh.... laugh... laugh." 

He chuckled morosely. 

I felt a chill crawl down my spine.

Lily had gone quiet beside me.

Kael exhaled sharply, running a hand down his face. His fingers trembled.

"I used to tell myself it was for something," he continued. "That every fight, every battle, every order I followed... it was leading somewhere. That one day, I'd be free of it. That I'd earn enough coin, buy some land, find peace."

His voice dropped, quieter than before.

"But it never stops."

The words hung in the air, thick with something bitter and raw.

"You leave one battlefield, and another one is waiting for you. And if there isn't one? Someone will make one. There's always a king with a war to start, always a merchant who profits from blood. And if you don't fight, someone else will. Someone younger, someone hungrier, someone who doesn't know yet that it'll eat them alive."

Kael's gaze flickered down to his hands, as if surprised to see them empty.

"...And that's the part no one tells you," he whispered. "That one day, the war ends. And you're still alive. And you don't know how to be anything else."

His fingers twitched again.

"You come home," he continued, voice raw, "but it doesn't feel like home anymore. The streets you remember are too quiet. The people look at you differently. Like you're something... wrong. Like the war is still on your skin, in your shadow."

I felt something heavy settle in my chest.

Kael's voice hardened, his expression twisting into something unreadable.

"And then you start realizing… you don't belong there." His gaze lifted, locking onto mine. "Because home isn't home anymore. It's the battlefield. It's the next job. The next fight. And you keep telling yourself you'll leave it. That you'll walk away. That you're still a person. That you're not..."

His voice broke.

He stopped.

For a long time, there was only silence.

Lily was the first to break it.

"...That sounds awful," she muttered, voice unusually small.

Kael huffed a quiet laugh. "You get used to it."

He didn't say it with pride.

He said it like someone who wished he hadn't.