Chapter 11: Hell

With Tapani leading the way, Kaoru and the others headed to a small house on the outskirts of the village they’d left earlier. A small building had been constructed around the hidden well, so it didn’t look like anything more than a storage shed from the outside.

“It’s that cabin over there,” Tapani said, pointing.

As Kaoru and the others stepped down from the wagon to get closer, a group of twenty soldiers on horseback headed toward them from the center of the village.

“Damn it, they sent troops ahead!” Roland cursed under his breath, drawing his sword. Francette and the five royal guards followed suit.

Though they were outnumbered three-to-one, they had Roland, a man famed for his bravery, and a group of elite knights with them. That Francette only looked like a knight-in-training would cause most people to underestimate her true abilities, which were vastly superior compared to what they were before she drank the potion Kaoru had given her (she had still been incredibly talented before drinking it, though).

On the other hand, the Aligot troops were dehydrated, underfed, and exhausted. Even the horses they were riding on looked exhausted. Thinking they should be able to handle anything that came their way, Kaoru headed toward the shed. Tapani and the other eight children followed after her.

Four of the children stood in front of the shed to guard the entrance. They appeared to be empty-handed, but each one of them carried a knife hidden in one of their pockets. It was a strategy that would turn them being children kids into an asset; hopefully they could catch the soldiers off guard and start slashing if the situation called for it.

Kaoru took a single bottle from her Item Box and gripped it tightly in her left hand. It was a pain in the butt to decide what the potion would do every time she made them, so she had decided to make them and stuff them into her Item Box in advance.

When she opened the door and walked inside the dim shed with the other kids...they were met face-to-face with three Aligot soldiers. It seemed like the soldiers hadn’t just arrived after all.

“Who are you supposed to be?” one of the soldiers said after scooping up some water to drink.

The five of them froze up on the spot. There was no way they could tell them the truth. Suddenly, one of the soldiers noticed the bottle Kaoru was holding in her hand.

“Hey! What’s that?! Answer me!”

By the time Kaoru realized her mistake, it was already too late.

“Wait a second... Were you the ones poisoning the wells?”

The soldiers set down their wooden cups and stood up.

Kaoru hesitated, unsure of what to do next. An explosion would attract attention from the soldiers outside. No matter how strong Roland and the others were, they were still outnumbered, and it could end up being a real struggle for them to fend off any more reinforcements that came to the shed.

But how could she incapacitate them? Hydrochloric acid? Maybe sulfuric acid? If they started screaming, reinforcements would still come running. It wasn’t that hard to take down soldiers if she really put her mind to it, and it wasn’t like they would cut down a bunch of kids out of nowhere, either.

Kaoru had taken advantage of the lull to wrack her brain for a plan. The kids took that as a sign that she was out of options and didn’t know what to do.

“...Huh?”

The youngest child of the group, the eight-year-old Belle, had snatched the bottle from Kaoru’s hand and began trotting over to the soldiers. Kaoru reached out to try and stop her, but Emile held her back.

“It’s alright. Belle will take care of it.”

Kaoru didn’t know what Emile was trying to say.

The soldiers grinned as they watched Belle toddle toward them, bottle pressed against her chest. It was going to be a piece of cake to catch a little girl like her—or, to be more accurate, child’s play. She was heading straight toward them, and she would have to move her arms if she was going to get ready to pop off the lid to the bottle or throw it into the well. Either way, they’d stop her or make her slow down before that happened.

She was still walking straight ahead. If she tried throwing it now, the three would just smack it away. The soldiers stood in front of the well, blocking her.

Suddenly, Belle stepped hard off her left foot and dodged to the right, breaking into a full-on sprint, and dodged between them. They each only had one arm available to try and stop her now, as soldier thought that the one next to him would do so. With their guards completely down, she aimed for the easiest spot to run between them.

It was a technique she’d perfected during her time as a street urchin, and was necessary to survive when trying to escape while surrounded by adults. She folded her arms and ducked down low, not losing any of her speed even as she minimized her chance of being captured and opened the lid of the bottle. The slow, tottering jog from earlier had been a feint, since she was actually the fastest sprinter of all the children. After she managed to slip through the soldiers, she dove headfirst...right into the well.

“What...?” Kaoru was shocked speechless.

“I told you, didn’t I? Belle took care of it,” Emile responded.

Kaoru couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. His face was completely expressionless.

“But why?! Why would she do something as stupid as that?!” Kaoru shouted furiously.

“If you hadn’t given her that medicine, Belle would already be dead,” Emile answered calmly. “The happy days she got to live because of that were more than worth paying for with her life. And... And Belle was one of the Eyes of the Goddess.”

“Don’t gimme that crap!”

Kaoru was inches away from socking Emile off his feet...but when she caught a look at his face, she could see the tears running down his cheeks. Kaoru slowly lowered her arm.

“You idiot...”

It was then the dazed soldiers finally came back to their senses...

“Y-You damn brats... What have you done?!”

“That was the only safe well we had... It was our only hope...”

The soldiers drew their swords, seething with anger over losing any hope they had for the future because they underestimated a child. Kaoru could see it in their eyes: they were going to kill the children.

But it wasn’t just the soldiers who were blind with rage.

“...Die.”

At Kaoru’s words, the soldiers began writhing in agony. One lost the ability to breathe, drowning on dry land as his lungs suddenly filled with water. Another clutched at his midsection, his insides slowly melting away from having his stomach acid suddenly released throughout his body. The last one was robbed of his ability to move because of the poison spreading throughout his body, his breathing slowly becoming more shallow as his heartbeat became weaker.

The soldiers finally succumbed.

“This is only the beginning,” Kaoru muttered.

There was no way for the kids to know the meaning behind those ominous words.

Before Kaoru knew it, Emile had sprinted to the well and was just about to throw himself down.

“What are you doing?”

“Belle might still be alive. I have to save her!”

“No need,” Kaoru responded.

“What are you saying...” Emile asked back, dumbstruck.

Kaoru stuck out her left hand, and in the next instant, a little girl stood where she was pointing.

“H-Huh? But I was...”

“Belle!!!”

Back when Kaoru was negotiating with Celes for her Item Box, the goddess was kind enough not to place any restrictions on how she could use it. Not only was time frozen inside it, but since it was connected to a different dimension, there were no problems storing living things inside. And since it existed inside that different dimension, there was no need to physically touch what she wanted to put inside, either.

Kaoru had stored Belle in her Item Box as soon as she dove into the well. She’d gone in headfirst, after all, so there was a chance she could have ended up hurt, or worse—dead.

It was a mystery why no one had thought it strange that there was no splash after she jumped.

“Emile, I want you to give everyone a message from me: If you’ve all offered your lives to me, then you don’t get to die without my permission. Got it?”

Emile nodded over and over again, tears streaming down his face as he held Belle close. Tapani could only watch on, his mouth agape, after bearing witness to a bona fide miracle.

Kaoru had stored the bottle of poison inside her Item Box along with Belle, so they still had to toss that into the well. By the time they’d all left the shack, the battle outside was just wrapping up.

The remaining enemy soldiers were busy fleeing for dear life. Since there wasn’t anything they needed to hide anymore, there was no reason to finish them all off. In fact, having the escaping soldiers tell their comrades that there weren’t any more safe wells could completely crush their already low morale.

Kaoru’s group had taken some casualties, as well. One of the royal guards had a shallow cut on their arm, while two others bore deep gashes. Luckily for them, none of the enemy knights on horseback were able to land any killing blows after being knocked off their mounts. This meant that Roland and the others could focus on other targets once they were incapacitated.

Kaoru made sure all of them had made a complete recovery after creating a few more potions. The other royal guards were shocked after seeing their first miracle with their own eyes. While they may have seen what the potions on the market were able to do, the potions Kaoru had just used were on a completely different level.

Some of the Aligot troops had met their end in the fight earlier, but there were still plenty of survivors. Roland was going back and forth on whether to finish them off, since he didn’t want any extra baggage to carry, but eventually decided on tying them up and healing them just enough so that they weren’t on the brink of death. They’d made some space in their wagon after using up some of their supplies, so now they had enough room for the ten prisoners of war they found themselves with.

After taking a quick look around the village, they happened upon three corpses. According to Tapani, those were the same villagers who had been trying to sell out to the empire. There was no reason for the Aligot troops to pay them a single coin once they knew where the well was, and they were an invading army, after all, so it was a fitting end for a trio that had been so shallow-minded. It looked like they’d met their maker before stealing any of the villagers’ possessions, too, so everything worked out in the end.

All of the Aligot advance party had ridden in on horseback, so Kaoru’s group went ahead and took possession of the horses they used. None of the horses had been killed in the battle, luckily enough, so Kaoru was able to patch all of them up with potions.

The horses had all but recognized Kaoru as their new owner. Horses fetched a high price at market, and that went doubly so for war-trained horses. To Kaoru, these horses were so, so much more valuable than the prisoners they’d captured.

Horses and prisoners in tow, Kaoru and the others went on their way back to the fifth village. Along the way, they met up with the other two royal guards they’d left behind to finish poisoning the wells. They’d finished what needed to be done, and had been on their way to regroup with everyone.

After double-checking to make sure everything had been properly sabotaged, the group made their way back to the royal capital.

It had been six days since the Aligot forces to the north had suffered heavy losses to their supplies. All six of the villages they’d passed along the way had been contaminated by poison, and there wasn’t even a crumb of food to be found anywhere. They were overjoyed to hear that the scouting party they’d sent ahead to the fourth village had located an untainted well, but those hopes were quickly dashed when they clashed with Balmore’s forces and were almost completely wiped out. The soldiers hoped that the group didn’t have anything to do with whoever was poisoning the water supplies, or that they didn’t know about the well since it was hidden... But by the time they reached the village, the well was already contaminated.

Judging by the corpses around the well, it looked like this group had known about the well from the beginning. They must have realized they’d missed a well and had come back to take care of it. Normally, it would be a complete disgrace that twenty of the mighty Aligot Empire’s soldiers had been defeated by a mere seven soldiers, but one of the people who survived the encounter said he heard one of the group from Balmore use the name “Roland.”

If that was true, then they could take that to mean “Fearsome Fran” was with him as well, a mysterious and frighteningly powerful girl who’d been assigned as Roland’s personal guard. If that were the case, it was easy to see how the battle turned out the way it did. That said, it was also easy to tell what fate awaited those who ran away once they returned to Aligot, if they managed to make it back home at all.

At the very least, they’d keep putting their soldiers to work as they continued their invasion. There was no need to hinder their troops’ fighting potential any more than they already had. They’d already run out of food, and their water supplies would run dry today, as well. They’d dismounted from their horses to try and reduce the amount of stress put on them, but the horses were still collapsing all the same.

Tears in their eyes, the riders cut the horses’ arteries and offered the blood and meat to the famished and dehydrated soldiers. For them, it was the same thing as cutting up and eating their human comrades. The only thing they could do was fight back the urge to cry, because every tear they shed meant wasting the precious fluids they’d worked so hard to drink.

Just eating meat took fluids as well, which only made their thirst that much worse. The saliva that came from it was nothing more than temporary relief, since they barely had enough water in their bodies for that in the first place.

They left those who’d drunk the tainted water on the side of the road. They’d tried bringing them along at first, but the afflicted soldiers needed substantial amounts of water to survive after expelling so much liquid. There wasn’t much they could do for those who drank the water at the first village without knowing it was tainted, but the guilt they felt over leaving the ones they had tried the water elsewhere was tearing them apart.

There were many soldiers who snuck off to drink the water from the wells, unable to bear it any longer. Their thirst was slaked in a moment of pure bliss...until about thirty minutes later, which was when the symptoms kicked in.

Finally, the ones who hadn’t drunk the water began collapsing from dehydration and heatstroke. They’d have been fine if they had rested in a cool spot and were given some salt and water to drink—but that was the problem. They didn’t have the supplies to recover, they didn’t have any place to rest, and they didn’t have any wagons to be put on, either. They could only lay by the side of the road, the wails of dying men surrounding them from all sides as the soldiers marched on.

Take me with you...

Don’t leave me here...

I don’t want to die here...

I want to go home alive...

My newborn daughter is waiting for me...

The soldiers kept their eyes pointing strictly ahead, grimacing as they did everything they could to avoid meeting the gazes of those around them. They couldn’t look at them; they couldn’t listen to them; most of all, they couldn’t cry for them. The lives of their comrades’ horses would all be for naught.

It was a living hell. They could have at least died with honor if they’d fallen in battle. But instead, here they were, dying on the side of the road in another country while covered in their own waste.

It was too horrible to bear. Would they have to trek back through here, as well? Would they have to listen to the same pitiful cries, then, too? Would they even survive until then?

The clergymen from Rueda didn’t look any better. Would they be able to preach the mercy of the Goddess to those laid out on either side of the road? Right now, it seemed like it’d be easier for them to explain if it had been the work of the devil.

The person who brought them here was none other than the devil—and this was hell.

Only one day left. They’d arrive in town by tomorrow.

They could fill up on all the food and water they could ever want, and the soldiers would finally have a chance to rest. They’d no longer be a group of shambling soldiers with broken spirits, and the mighty army of the Aligot Empire would come back to life once more. All they had to do was march on the defenseless town and make it their own.

The next day...

The Aligot forces had finally arrived at the outskirts of Nicosia, a town that was only a day away from the capital of Balmore.

After rounding the last hill, the soldiers leading the troops should have been able to see the town, but for some reason, they suddenly came to a halt. The formation of the troops behind them began falling apart since they were now blocking the way forward.

The officers were furious over the vanguard’s apparent ineptitude in keeping them from the one place that was giving their troops hope, and sent out a horse to the front of the army. They’d given it plenty of water, so they could use it for sending messages.

When the commanding officer finally made it to the front troops, he froze just like everyone else.

Standing between them and Nicosia were 12,000 Balmore troops. Besides the 3,000 they’d left to guard the castle, it was the full brunt of the forces assigned to protect the capital.

“No... It can’t be...” the commander lamented, crumpling down on the spot.

“They weren’t all stationed inside the capital?” The same expression of despair clouded the general’s face when he reached the front lines.

“Even with more than half our army with us, our troops had to walk all the way here, while Balmore’s soldiers are in peak condition. They’ve even set up simple encampments outside the town. This won’t even be a fight...”

In war, it wasn’t as if every single soldier on each side fought all at once. If that was how it worked, 10,000 soldiers on each side would all be going up against each other at once. Even with how weak they were, the Aligot troops would still have had a chance at winning the battle.

In reality, it was only the vanguard of each side’s armies fighting, while the soldiers behind them replaced the fallen as the battle raged on. The number of soldiers actually fighting on each side would always stay roughly the same. That way, the weaker side would just keep on losing as the fighting continued.

There was no hope of victory for them now. Even if they wanted to retreat, their soldiers didn’t have the strength to keep marching. All that awaited them on the way back were wells full of contaminated water, and at the rate they’d be staggering along, the enemy could catch up to them in no time and launch an assault from behind.

The only thing that would happen from recklessly charging into a fight was 20,000 of the Aligot Empire’s precious soldiers dying in vain. If that were the case, knowing when to give up and choose the option that might let them go home after the war finished was the obvious choice here. It wasn’t like the empire’s defeat was certain, either.

The general would take all the responsibility that came with surrendering. It was a small price to pay in exchange for 20,000 of their soldiers’ lives.

There was little chance that Balmore was just going to execute every last one of them, and it’d definitely be a burden to try and feed 20,000 prisoners of war. No matter which side was victorious, it wouldn’t be long until the soldiers could see their homes once more.

“We’re surrendering. Prepare to send out a messenger immediately!”

The regret was obvious in the faces of the troops, but no one tried opposing him.

“Get on it, now! We may still be able to save the people we left behind, so we don’t have time to waste!”

Finally realizing the implications behind his command, the officers all scrambled to get it done.

“Is it over?”

“Looks like it...” came Roland’s response, standing together with Kaoru, both of them a fair distance behind the troops that had been deployed to Nicosia.

It looked like the villagers would be able to get back home sooner than they first thought. The poison in the wells would lose their effectiveness after ten days had passed, since Kaoru didn’t want to make the wells completely unusable in the event that something happened to her.

Even if they didn’t wait out the ten days, they could purify the wells right away if they threw in one of the potions Kaoru had given them. She’d still have to make sure to continue reminding them not to eat or drink any of the other food and water in their homes until after the ten days had passed or they had used one of the antidotes. But even then, they’d be fine as long as they got plenty of water—though they’d still have to put up with suffering with severe diarrhea for a few days.

“This was all so underhanded...”

“Would you rather we confronted them head-on in a fair fight, and had thousands die because of it?”

“N-No, I didn’t mean it like that...”

Having put so much effort into becoming the ideal knight, Francette was having trouble accepting the methods they’d used. But she could never say she wanted other soldiers to die just so she could be satisfied.

“I want you all to go back to the capital,” Kaoru said as she turned to the eight children, Tapani included. He’d made himself right at home with the other orphans, but why he hadn’t gone back to his parents yet was a mystery to her.

“Are you saying you’re not coming with us?” Emile fired back.

“That’s right. I can’t have you coming with me this time.”

“But why?! We can still be a shield for you!”

“That’s exactly why I’m telling you no! Someone could have their head sliced off next time, or get stabbed through the heart. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if that happened. If I’m on my own, though, I should be able to handle anything that comes my way.”

That was all a big fat lie, though. Even Kaoru wouldn’t be able to do anything with potions if she was decapitated or stabbed through the heart. Regardless, she had no intention of getting herself in a situation like that in the first place.

“So, does that mean you think we’d just get in your way?”

Kaoru hesitated a moment before giving it to them straight. “...You are. You’re all still too weak.”

Emile fell silent as he hung his head.

“But don’t get the wrong idea. You’re only weak for the time being. You’re still kids, so there’s no helping that. And I’m not saying you have to get as strong as Francette, either.”

Francette was taken by surprise over suddenly being used as an example like that.

“I’m also not saying that you’re completely useless. While I’m out there doing what I’m best at, I want you to help me out by doing the sort of work you’re all best at.”

The seven members of the Eyes of the Goddess (plus one) reluctantly gave in to her reasoning.

...I guess I can just say there’s eight of them now. He pretty much fits right in.

With that, the children all clambered onto a wagon and headed back to the royal capital. They’d go and keep an eye on the other nobles and people in power to see what they were saying, taking the opportunity to scour out those with connections to other countries who seemed most likely to be plotting something.

It’d be great if they did dig up any conspiracies or the like, but actually catching wind of any of those would be pretty hard. If it was enough to get the kids on their way back to the capital, though, then that was more than good enough for her.

“...So, what are you planning on doing this time?” Roland asked Kaoru after the wagon carrying the kids had departed.

“Me? I think I’ll head over to the battlefield in the west.”

“There’s no way I’d let you do that!” Roland roared.

But Kaoru wasn’t having it.

“I don’t need your permission, Sir Roland. I’m just a girl from another country who wandered into the capital. Now, I’ll be wandering over to the west, is all.”

“Wh—What are you...” Roland’s face had turned an entirely different shade of white by this point.

Suddenly, he regained his composure, and a grin stretched across his face.

“So, how exactly are you planning on heading west? There aren’t any merchants traveling in that direction right now, nor are there any wagons you can charter. The only way to get there would be for you to walk on your own two feet. How many days do you think that will take? I’m not letting you borrow any carriages or riders from the royal palace, of course.”

Roland wore a triumphant look on his face, confident that it was enough to reach a stalemate, since Kaoru shouldn’t know how to ride a horse.

“Oh? Then I guess I’ll go see if I can’t pull some strings.”

“Huh?”

Roland stared back at Kaoru blankly as she casually strolled toward the horses they’d “acquired” from the Aligot forces back from the skirmish in the village.

“Hey there, would anyone mind letting me ride them on a little journey to the west together?”

The eighteen horses were all taken aback.

“A-Are you some sort of new horse, missy?” a chestnut-colored horse asked back in shock.

“Nope, I’m just a human who happens to know the goddess of this world, that’s all.”

“Like hell that makes you a normal human!!!”

Who would’ve thought I’d get backtalk from horses?

“Anyway, putting that aside for now... I’ll completely heal any wounds or diseases for whoever comes with me on the trip, and I’ll get you tons of delicious food as well. When the journey’s all said and done, I’ll buy whatever mare you had your eye on and leave her with you.”

“Are you foaling us?!”

“Me! Me!” “No, take me!” “Can it, whippersnapper! Respect your elders and let me do it, dammit!”

All hell had broken loose among the horses...

“U-Um, Kaoru? They’re all whinnying something fierce... What’s going on?”

“Oh, that? They’re fighting over who gets to let me ride on them.”

“Are you kidding me?!”