From the encampment, a black-robed figure was waving its right hand towards Allen.

...

"That took long enough.", Allen approached the figure, which was none other than Edwin.

"I tied up everybody here. It was a breeze, they were drunk so it was an easy job.", Edwin replied with fervor as he guided Allen through the encampment.

After walking for some time, the both of them reached the center of the camp where the already extinguished bonfire was. Beside it was numerous people tied up by ropes, either by groups, pairs, or alone.

There weren't just men, there were also women who were wrapped around by blankets, and even minors too.

When Allen saw the women who looked like burritos, he turned his head to Edwin.

As if knowing what kind of look Allen was giving even with a blank face, he looked away and said, "I swear... I didn't do anything."

After a pause, Edwin coughed to ease the awkwardness and asked, "What are we going to do to these pirates?"

"Leave it to me.", Allen said as he went closer to a man. He removed the cloth covering his mouth; after which, the man made heavy breaths as he said, "I-It's you two!"

"How are the horses? Are they still being fed nicely? Or were you the one who fed on them?", Allen pulled up the man's hair, forcing him to look straightly towards him.

The man was the driver of the coach that Allen and Edwin rode on.

"What do you want?", the man asked with fear and an eastern accent.

"Who is the one here that committed the most grievious crimes?", Allen untied the man and made him stand up.

The man nervously scanned around the area until he pointed at the leader of the settlement, "He's the leader here, and also committed a lot of crimes like..."

Allen interjected mid-way and said, "No need to state them."

He loosened his gripped on the coach's hair, "Edwin, guard this fellow. I'm going to have a little talk with this man." Allen carried up the tied man and dragged him towards his house.

There was a bit of fear on the man's face; however, he mostly felt anger right now as he kept resisting Allen's pull.

Before Allen went inside the house, he said to Edwin with his back facing him, "And whatever you hear, don't get bothered by it."

Not even a minute had pa.s.sed, the most painful cries could be heard, but immediately stopped; however, it started again and this time, the yells were even louder.

A commotion started within the camp, as the time pa.s.sed and the shouts of pain became even louder, more than half of the people outside started to cry, most of which were women and most of them comprised of kids.

The kids started to heavily tear up, the cloth wrapped on the mouth of a particular kid loosened and he cried out to Edwin, "Please, don't do that to me, I beg you! I promise that I will never do anything bad again mister!"

More kids started to weep as they said the same words under the cloths.

The door of the house opened again, and Allen walked out of it. He stared at the kids who suddenly started to beg for mercy.

"Why is everyone crying?", Allen asked.

"I think that man's shouts scared them.", Edwin replied.

"Oh, I only cut a single finger of his and he already started to cry loudly as if I'm going to pluck out his eyeb.a.l.l.s.", Allen said.

Everybody in the area heard it and slightly calmed down. However, some of them were still nervous or became even more so.

"Why are you even afraid? I'm not going to harm all of you.", Allen said.

He approached the already trembling carriage driver and said to him, "So you should only tell me the ones who did brutal acts. If I found out that you're lying, I'm going to do all the things I did to the ones whom you pointed at, understand?"

"Y-Yes!", the driver nodded. The guy in front of him didn't show any flicker from his eyes nor from his face, making him scared even more.

...

The sun was already up on the sky when Allen walked out of the house again. Almost everybody in the area looked at him with fear on their eyes.

There were some people missing in the location, of which all of them were dragged inside the house.

"What are we going to do to the rest?", Edwin asked.

Allen looked over to the crowd to ponder for some time and replied, "They will be returned to the town."

A majority of the pirates either inwardly or outwardly rejoiced due to Allen's decision; however, some of them became even more depressed.

"Escort them back to West Rising, if I found out you did something else to them, you know what will come for you.", Allen eyed the coach driver.

"I-I will.", the driver replied.

"Come on, let's leave.", Allen said to Edwin.

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"But what about the...", Edwin didn't finish his sentence and only pointed towards the house.

In response, Allen searched for something inside his satchel, and took out a burning torch, which was none other than the Magical Burning Torch.

He ignited the building from where he walked out on fire and didn't leave the camp until it was fully bruned to the ground.

It was after this encounter that a short-lived story of two men spread throughout the surrounding areas, one swiftly capturing everybody like an eagle catching its sleeping meal in the dark; and another one who showed no emotions at all, yet under that face was a tiger that pieced apart its meals.

The both of them swiftly climbed down the small mountain. Edwin already returned the black robe that Allen gave to him before they exited the camp.

"Did you really kill those people?" Edwin looked back at the camp.

"No." Allen answered. In his mind, killing them won't change anything. Instead, after he made sure that the pirates were disabled, he hid them in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the building. He gave them enough food and water to be rationed amongst them until they could find the way out from that dark cellar.

Of course, the resources he gave them was limited and would only last for a few days even if it was split up as few as possible. But he knew with the characters of the pirates, the chance for that to happen was the same as the possibility for pears to grow from apple trees.

Burning the house was only just for show so the other surviving pirates would think twice if they would want to come back into their usual businesses.

"Allen, are you sure that man will really return those people back to West Rising?", Edwin asked.

"No, I'm sure that some of them will try to make that driver submit.", Allen said.

"Then why did you let him lead?", Edwin asked.

"Even though they might go back to being pirates, I'm sure that they won't dare do it again in this location, specially after what I did to the ones who have commited the worst crimes.", Allen replied.

"But they'll become a problem for others in the future.", Edwin said.

"Only for others. Don't concern yourself to other people's problem if it won't be fruitful..", Allen said.

'Your so selfish.' Edwin always disliked these types of people, in fact, he wanted to help the remaining pirates to return to the town, but Allen's presence prevented him from doing it.

Edwin didn't answer back to Allen's statement and tried to change the topic to what place they were heading to next.

Allen stopped walking and pointed to the ends of the mountain range, "To one of the best places for alchemists in the kingdom."

***

A few days of travelling pa.s.sed; from afar, Allen and Edwin spotted a wall so tall that the latter was amazed by it.

"The wall of East Gate City is so tall!", Edwin marveled at the sight of the magnificent walls of steel.

Its height was extremely tall, as if it was a mountain made of iron. It reflected the sun's rays, and because of that, the land around the structure was charred as black as charcoal.

With its enormous size, the walls could seemingly block giants without effort.

"That's not the walls of the East Gate City, we still have a long way to go there. This is just a stop.", Allen replied.

After a pause, he added, "That wall is called Monarch Walls, it surrounds two towns, one city, and the Aeoshun Observatory."

Allen's sentence made Edwin felt even more amazed, but also confused at the same time. He asked Allen what's the reason to why the wall was built.

Allen: "I don't know, based on some books that I have read; the wall has been existing before a community nor the observatory was established within it. Actually, it was written that it was possibly even older than the Trigurniburg Kingdom itself."

For one, hearing the Monarch Walls' ancient background would think it's not being used anymore, but on its top were soldiers; not just ordinary guards, but were full-fledged soldiers of the kingdom stationed on it. Even with its age, the said structure was still usable; actually, it was still very tough even if its lower part was starting to rust due to the pa.s.sage of time.

A guard isn't at the same level as a soldier. The former could mostly be found in normal communities or unimportant locations, but the latter could only be seen in core locations such as regional capitals and some other significant places.

In addition, unlike normal guards the soldiers were as strong as mages, and the elites were as powerful as adepts.

Even by a normal observing person, one could realize the importance that the government placed onto the said architecture.