novelraw Chapter 4: Captured
Chapter 4: Captured
Henwil was actually terrified too, but his experience from two lifetimes gave him more composure than his sheltered mother and young siblings.
For their survival, Henwil had to summon the courage to undertake these dangerous tasks.
His feelings toward his parents were complex - he couldn't forget his parents from his previous life, yet he couldn't ignore the love from his current parents either.
Humans are emotional creatures, incapable of complete cold-blooded detachment.
Both his upbringing in this life and his worldview from the previous one prevented Henwil from watching his family fall into danger while he cowered in fear.
Perhaps if he did nothing, he could survive by keeping his head down, but his conscience would torment him every single day thereafter.
It was precisely because of this that Henwil had risked staying behind.
Consider it repayment for their care and upbringing!
Henwil comforted himself with this thought.
The firelight from the town was growing brighter now, and Henwil knew he had to work faster.Before long, enemy infantry troops would be stationed here, and the thorough looting would begin.
Don't overestimate the discipline of farmer-turned-soldiers, nor place too much hope in the restraint of professional troops.
Just as Henwil was carefully erasing traces on the ground, he suddenly heard a strange sound.
Henwil's body reacted faster than his mind - even before he realized it was the whistle of an arrow, his body had already rolled away.
"Huh?!"
An astonished sound emerged, seemingly perplexed that Henwil had managed to dodge the arrow.
Compared to the attacker's surprise, Henwil felt pure terror - he hadn't detected anyone approaching his vicinity.
After landing, Henwil flipped over and grabbed the bow from his back, attempting to locate the enemy's position.
"Heh! Just a little brat! Surprisingly alert, quite remarkable indeed! Want to know where I am?"
As the words faded, Henwil felt excruciating pain in the back of his neck, and everything went black.
Before losing consciousness, Henwil vaguely saw a black-clothed archer standing behind his original position, looking down at him with curious interest.
"Dammit! This time I better get reincarnated into a good life..."
Contrary to Henwil's expectations, he wasn't killed.
When Henwil awoke, he felt extraordinary pain in the back of his neck.
Supporting his neck, he surveyed his surroundings - a dark, cold dungeon, clearly not the afterlife.
The dungeon held many prisoners, most of whom Henwil recognized as residents of Split Flow Bay town.
Among the captured townspeople, some wept quietly, others stared vacantly, while most kept their eyes closed as if sleeping.
But from their reactions, it was clear they were only pretending to sleep.
Or rather, trying desperately to fall asleep, hoping this was just a nightmare and they'd wake to find their peaceful town unchanged.
Thus, no one paid any attention to the newly awakened Henwil.
After all, fear of their unknown fate had overwhelmed all curiosity.
Henwil remained in that dungeon for three full days.
From initial terror to subsequent nausea and discomfort, he eventually grew numb.
With no water or food delivered for three days, some had already died, their bodies left to rot in the cells.
Some had called out to the soldiers outside, asking them to remove the corpses.
The soldiers' response was direct - they came down outside the cells, drew their longswords, and through the bars, simply stabbed the person making the request to death.
Amid blood spray and piercing screams, the soldiers killed two more civilians who screamed particularly loudly from terror.
From that moment, no one dared make any further requests.
Henwil understood then that even if everyone here died, the enemy soldiers outside wouldn't care.
Henwil became more cautious, starting to catch rats in the cell and hide them in corners.
He didn't know how long this situation would last - he had to do everything possible to survive.
Over the next two days, everyone grew dizzy with hunger facing the bloody corpses, but no one resorted to cannibalism.
It wasn't that the townspeople had high moral standards; rather, the concept of eating human flesh to survive simply didn't exist in their consciousness.
Henwil certainly wouldn't remind them - who knew how long they'd be imprisoned?
What if these three corpses weren't enough to eat?
As a child, he'd be in great danger - dead people couldn't compare to fresh living ones as food!
Over the following two days, people continued to die periodically.
When Henwil ate rat for the first time, though he tried desperately to endure it, imagining the rodent in his hand was as delicious as the gourmet food from his previous life...
After two bites, he still vomited.
Then came dry heaves - with no food in his stomach, he could only bring up acid.
But Henwil raised his arm and bit down hard, using pain to fight his nausea.
He had to conserve every drop of moisture in his body - he didn't want to die, especially not from starvation.
Finally, at noon on the fourth day, the enemy troops remembered them.
Several soldiers, covering their noses and mouths with looks of disgust, came down.
"Everyone out!"
After this single command, the soldiers fled as if escaping the dungeon that had become so foul it might generate methane.
Though extremely weak, Henwil still forced himself to stand and staggered toward the door.
Along the way, he tried to kick those too starved to move.
But few responded to Henwil's efforts. At the doorway, Henwil couldn't bear to look back, his voice hoarse as he said: "Get up quickly! We're leaving this place!"
Seeing that ultimately no one followed, Henwil could only turn and walk toward the light coming through the doorway, leaving the dungeon.
Those who emerged were herded by soldiers into a line.
Two more soldiers went down into the dungeon, emerging moments later to nod at those outside.
Then, a pile of firewood soaked in tung oil was thrown into the dungeon. The soldiers tossed in torches and, before the flames could surge up, chain-locked the door.
Henwil had known this would be the outcome - the enemy wouldn't keep useless people.
The army here was fighting a life-or-death battle against the Ika Kingdom; they hadn't come to save the local people.
Thus they wouldn't take along burdens who couldn't walk, nor would they leave population and land for the enemy.
This was war between nations, unrelated to good or evil - simply about the enemy dying so they could live.
Or perhaps, war itself was an indescribable evil, never truly righteous from the start.
Justice and wickedness were always relative concepts.
Henwil tried hard not to look at the horrific scenes around him - bodies impaled on stakes, women raped to death with clothing torn away, children casually dashed to death on the ground.
These people, just days ago, had been living human beings Henwil knew - enthusiastic neighbors, kind-hearted locals, innocent playmates.
But now, they had all become cold, broken corpses.
Despite his stern self-admonitions, Henwil still felt an inexplicable rage rising within him.