Chapter 32: "Sorry I'm late."

 The leading soldier paused for a moment after seeing the Mamluk Giant Axe in Ram Tuo's hand, and after taking two steps out, he turned around again and asked suspiciously, "Why do you have a Mamluk Giant Axe, isn't this something only the Mamluk Palace Guards beside Master Emir have?"

 Ramtuo was about to speak, but was quickly stopped by Vahan, who quickly smiled and said, "This was bought from a caravan, at that time it cost several gold coins, it really hurt me to death. This is the most costly sale for our mercenary group."

 The lead soldier froze and stopped asking, turning around with a few soldiers to leave.

 "Disperse, everyone, disperse now, no more recruiting," Vahan shouted.

 Looking at the Aselei soldiers who walked out a dozen meters away, he whispered to Zayin, "They can't go back alive, move a little less."

 Zayin looked at a few people who suddenly came to a realization. Zayin and the squad of five hurriedly dropped their loot and walked down the street.

 Then, Vahan shouted to the mercenaries, "Everyone grab their things and leave this place immediately."

 All the mercenaries quickly returned to the city walls, packed up their equipment, and drew closer to the city gates.

 "Woo," Radha blew the horn, and in the split second that the horn made a sound, it immediately stopped again.

 "Woo," after a pause, Radha blew the horn again, and in the blink of an eye, it stopped again immediately.

 "After a moment's pause, Lada once again blew his horn, and in the blink of an eye, it stopped immediately.

 The mercenaries scattered in the city quickly ran towards the direction from which the sound of the horn came after hearing this short but dense sound of the horn. This was the horn sound that Radha had agreed upon for all the mercenaries, both to distinguish it from the regular troops' horn sound and to let the mercenaries know what was happening. The Asylei soldiers in the city, listening to the ringing, heard it as a bugle call, but did not think it was being blown by the city's buglers; the city's Asylei soldiers had never heard a bugle call with such an undertone before, and instead felt a bit ridiculous.

 After all had gathered, Vahan had Borg lead a group to meet Zayin, and had Radha and Zana lead a large force to wait outside the city first, while Vahan and Ramtuo, with two squads, guarded the city gates.

 After a quarter of an hour, after seeing Zayin, Borg, and the two small squads of mercenaries running in, the group then grabbed and ran out of the city.

 The guards at the entrance of Askell City, looking at the panicked mercenaries, didn't know what to make of it, and stood at the entrance of the city flirting with the group of bouncing groundhogs.

 The mercenaries of the Antara Legendary Mercenaries ran to the Nari North Bridge in one breath, and the group hurriedly slid the river bank, hid under the bridge and breathed heavily, and returned to this dry Nari River.

 Vahan, Radha, Zayin, Zana, Borg, and Ramto, were unusually silent at the sight of this bridge, which they knew all too well. He had missed the opportunity to return to his village to save the villagers because he had seen a group of people killed here; they had become the ones to take up the butcher's knife because their loved ones had been killed here.

 "Who is this young man?" Vahan suddenly broke the silence.

 "Dog, didn't I tell you to eat your fill and get out of here, why are you still following," Borg questioned loudly.

 The skinny teenager didn't say anything and gradually broke down and cried under the stern gaze of dozens of people.

 "Stop talking about him. His family is gone and he'll starve to death if he goes back," Marena wiped the teen's tears with her hand.

 "All right, let him follow for now," said Vahan, turning to the crowd again, "All of you head north along the riverbed."

 As they passed between the villages of Mabwaz and Beit Khatif, Vahan told everyone to stop and rest.

 "Haven't you wanted to go back and visit for a long time? Now that you're at home, why aren't you in a hurry to go back?" Vahan asked.

 They were all more than familiar with this place, Borg's village was on the west bank of the river, and Vahan's few people's village was on the east bank of the river, and they used to yell at each other and beat each other up, only later on they became each other's most trusted people again.

 After a moment of silence, Borg finally spoke, "You go back and take a look for me, see if there are still people in the village, and give these dinars to those who are still there to share," Borg said as he pulled out all the dinars from his arms and placed them on Vahan.

 "All right. I can go, but later you'll surely regret not going back for a visit today. Think again."

 Vahan stood up and said to Ramtuo and the others, "You guys can go to our village to take a look as well, I won't go back. Remember not to say anything about us to the people in the village, and definitely not to bring the calamity back to the village."

 With that said, Vahan asked Radha for some more dinars.

 Taking his weapon, he prepared to climb up the west coast, "Have you thought about it, sure you don't want to go back?" Borg remained silent.

 Vahan sighed before climbing up the west bank and heading towards the village of Mabwaz.

 "We'd better stay together," Borg said from behind.

The two walked towards the village of Mabwazi.

 One night, months ago, in the same direction, accompanied by the same man, only then, Bogie's face was full of tears and every step was so difficult. Today, Bogie's face was heavy and his pace was still slow.

 Finally, we reached the village of Mabwazi.

 The village was quiet, and the remains of the walls burned by the fire were still shocking to the eye.

 The burned wheat fields were covered with dust and sand.

 Borg looked grave and tried to stop the tears from flowing by blinking repeatedly, but still couldn't do it.

 Finally, a familiar figure was seen within one of the compounds.

 A young girl from the same village, wide awake, was slowly placing hay toward the manger.

 Borg could no longer hold back the tears as he approached the adobe wall and saw the shackles on the girl's feet.

 Bogie approached the girl in tears, looked at the shackles on the ground and asked loudly, "What's going on? Speak up, where are the rest of the village."

 "You're alive," the girl froze on the spot.

 As she spoke, a burly man came out of the room and loudly chided, "Who are you?!"

 Borg instantly understood everything the moment he saw that person, drew out the longsword on his waist and quickly rushed towards that person, not waiting for that pugilist to turn around and go back to the house, he was stabbed in the back by Borg with his longsword. The longsword was drawn and then quickly wiped across the big man's neck, letting the blood flow.

 After Vahan saw one of the men rushing out of the side room with a sword, he immediately fought the man, and didn't last a moment before the man was cut down by Vahan.

 Vahan found the key from inside the house and unlocked the shackles.

 "Who are they?" Vahan asked. Borg sat on the grinder with a heavy face.

 "Not sure, I think they were stragglers from out of town. It wasn't more than a month after the village was burned that they came and captured the remaining dozen or so people in the village and were used as slaves." The young girl sobbed, as if frightened by the scene she had just witnessed.

 "Where are the others," Vahan asked.

 "In the fields to the west, where they are planting date palms."

 Without waiting for the girl to finish, Bogie ran quickly toward the west side of the village with his sword.

 "You find a place to hide first," Vahan said as he rushed after Borg.

 Turning suddenly again, he said, "No, you go east, towards the village of Beit Hatif, meet a group of people they will protect you, don't go where the view is open."

 Wakhan ran quickly to the date palm grove on the west side of the village and saw Borg sitting on a stump crying and shouting loudly, a dozen corpses lying around in the date palm grove, and a dozen villagers from the village of Mabwaz walking towards Borg from all directions with shackles.

 These villagers were no more than teenagers, young girls and children.

 Vahan said loudly, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it's all right, it's all right," and opened the shackles of each in turn.

 "How many of them are there?" Vahan looked to the familiar skinny teenager.

 "There are twenty-six!" Hassan, the skinny teenager, said.

 "Where are the rest of them," Borg asked.

 "Should be in the house sleeping. They go out at night and sleep during the day,"

 Borg swung his sword and headed back toward the manor.

 "In the houses that haven't been burned," Hassan, the scrawny teenager, shouted at Borg's back.

 "All follow me," said Vahan to the teenage girls.

 Everyone ran after the two men in front of them. Hassan, the skinny teenager, picked up his short sword from the ground.

 The group ran to the village and kept hearing the sounds of fighting, praying, and screaming. After the sound disappeared in two or three houses, Borg rushed out from the house, then ran to the other houses that had not been burned, kicking in the door from house to house, and the house that had people in it fell silent again after the screams came out.

 It wasn't until after confirming that all the outsiders had been killed that Borg stopped.

 "What happened to those others in the village who were alive after that fire?" Borg asked.

 "There were those who moved away after the fire and those who were killed by the gang. Now it's just the rest of us."

 Borg couldn't hold it together any longer when he saw that there was a pregnant teenage girl in the crowd.

 "I'm ~sorry~ I'm ~late~," said Borg as he pounded his head and wept in agony.