Stephanus' POV

I'm standing right now near my horse. Cladius and I decided to rest first.

We are close to the second village we will go through and by night we are there.

"Stephanus are you okay?"

I turned to Cladius when he suddenly asked me a question.

"Of course why did you ask?"

Earlier or because I noticed that you seem to be thinking deeply.

"Do not worry about me." my response to his question.

"Are you okay? Are you ready to leave?" I asked him again.

"I'm always ready you just command what I need to hear."

I frowned at what I heard.

What does he mean by that?

Yes, he is my personal assistant but I do not really consider him as one.

Even though we are not blood relatives, even though we are not real brothers, I still consider him a real brother.

So I hope he treats me the same way. I took a deep breath and spoke again.

"Cladius?"

"Yes? Do you need something?"

"I just wanted to ask something."

"Go ahead."

"I hope you do not take my decisions seriously and I hope you will put yourself first and not me."

"If that is your decision."

I sighed deeply again as he did it again what I was saying.

He doesn't seem to understand what I'm saying. But never mind.

"We're leaving!" I said.

He smiled in response and left and returned to his carriage.

I was looking around us as the sun was about to set so we had to reach the next village.

I walked and rode my horse. We continued our journey towards the next village.

Before nightfall we finally reached the next village.

At the entrance of the village you will notice the strange aura of this village.

The difficulty of breathing and acting as if something was holding me back.

There seems to be something strange in this village.

Cladius came to my side.

"What do you need?"

"Do you feel the same?" he asked me while also looking at the entrance of the village like me.

I wondered when he asked 'also' what was he referring to?

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"I mean do you feel the same way I feel?" he replied.

"Just straighten out what you have to say!"

"I'm sorry! I do't mean to be rude." he apologize.

Sometimes I really don't understand this one.

"Don't even think about it. What are you going to say?"

"I know you also feel the strange aura from the entrance of this village." I nodded in response.

"Yes you are right there since we reached this village as if the aura from breathing and the breeze around it had suddenly changed."

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"We will continue the plan to enter this village. And we will also look at what is happening here."

And as we talked, we decided to stay even though we had a strange feeling in this village.

As soon as we entered, we felt even worse.

"Stephanus be careful!" Cladius' sudden warning to me.

"I know! Also be careful don't mind me."

The surrounding area gradually becomes blurred as the fog thickens here.

Cladius and I leaned against the thicket that now surrounded us.

"Who are you?! And what do you need in our village?!"

Suddenly someone shouted to my surprise.

Gradually the fog disappeared and a group of men with guns appeared.

"You answer!" the shout of a man at me once pointed at me with the gun he was holding.

I just raised my two hands and so did Cladius.

"We are not enemies we just went to this village to rest because we are going to the kingdom of Anazariya." I explained.

"How can we be sure?" said the man with a gun.

I slowly lowered my hand.

And I would have taken my sword when it shouted again.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted at me again.

I took another deep breath.

"You want proof so you can be sure right?" I asked.

They nodded in response.

So I quickly grabbed my sword.

When I got it, they immediately backed away.

"Don't you dare! let go of that !"

But I ignored them and slowly removed the wrapper of my sword and showed it to them.

I even saw them sweating profusely when they saw my sword.

"That's the symbol of the Stervallera kingdom isn't it ?!" the shout of a man now pointing at my sword.

"But only a prince has such a sword with the symbol of their kingdom?" a man shouted again.

Suddenly they looked at me as if they could not believe what they were thinking.

I was surprised when they all suddenly knelt down.

"Please forgive us, we are only protecting ourselves!" they shouted.

And there I frowned even more at what they said.

"What do you all mean?"

One by one they stood up and their faces became serious.

"Follow us!"

And just as they said we followed.

We reached a simple and ordinary house.

And as soon as I entered I did not expect to see anything.

"What a miserable situation they are experiencing."

I was surprised again when Cladius appeared next to me and spoke.

This house is full of wounded people, frightened children, mothers who do not know what to do and above all men who plan to attack.

Suddenly a man approached me who we had encountered earlier.

"It has been 3 months since strangers invaded our village and since they occupied our village even they have taken control of us. It was hard for us. And when we could not stand it we decided to form a group, a group that would fight them. but we lost we didn't even have a chance to win them. They were too strong for us to do anything. They became even more violent, they also took women and exploited them and when they got tired they would be killed. There are even cases where in front of the children they kill the child's mother so some of the children are traumatized. But even so we could do nothing because at first we had nothing against them." said the man in a sad face.

I did not immediately respond to his words. Why are there such people still alive?

I will postpone going to Anazariya first but wait for me Amastasia when I finish this problem I will go to you immediately.