Chapter 184 Regularly Scheduled Massacre

The soldiers searched and searched all around the campsite that we had been staying in just moments earlier, their eyes scanning everywhere that they could think to look before marking off a place in their map.

I just smirked as I watched them search around like headless chickens that were trying to find anything. Of course they would not find anything, we had made sure of it. In the little time that we had before they had come knocking we had dismantled everything that could have led them to discover that we were even remotely near here.

The fire and traces of it, the tents, the smell of cooked food, even our footsteps. Everything was erased so that they would not find out about anything.

"Not here." One of the soldiers grumbled, his gruff voice filled with tiredness as he ordered the other soldiers to follow him further into the cavern. Behind him were three others, each with a standard outfit and a sword at their side. It seemed that they were low ranking not just by the outfit but by the power compared to their captain.

Soon though I was broken out of my thoughts of comparison of them as one of the lower ranked soldiers addressed their superior.

"Captain, the report said that they were here. Was the scan wrong?" One of the soldiers asked their captain while they stood at attention.

'A scan, was that how they found us?' It made sense, we weren't being particularly stealthy but still we should have been able to spoof it at least. Unless Delta just didn't want to.

I turned my head from where I was gazing upon the soldiers to Delta, my look questioning her.

Delta just ignored my gaze though, her own focus on the soldiers. A blazing green eye looked down upon them with intensity. As if she was searching for something.

'Hah' I sighed within my mind, it sort of made sense now. Why they were able to track us, why Aoif and I weren't able to sense that we were being scanned. It was Delta, she had spoofed our senses but for what reason was the question now.

"Stay here" Delta ordered and I was inclined to disobey her and demand answers but for now I was content to just watch and figure out why Delta had let us be discovered.

I watched as Delta fell from the perch in the cavern that we had clawed out and into the middle of the soldiers. A small capsule of what looked like metal was thrown at them and aether of some kind rushed out and attached to their faces.

I squinted my eyes and enhanced them further to see what was happening. Beside me Aoif did the same, her own eyes glowing purple as she tried to see what was happening.

Though now that I had my eyes enhanced I could clearly see what Delta had done. The capsule that she had thrown had some kind of rune on it, even though I didn't know that the rune meant I could still infer by the effect that it had on the soldier she had thrown it at.

The way that he seemed to be scratching his eyes out, blood and skin falling from his face as he scratched as hard as he could.

It was honestly a bit grotesque to watch but it was interesting, the things that Delta could do with those books that she had just got last night.

Another capsule was thrown and this one healed them but their eyes went blank as they seemed to crawl to a stop like zombies.

Delta jumped from where she was to right next to Aoif and I, her hand reached out to grab me by the collar of my shirt. I couldn't do anything as Delta took me in her embrace and jumped toward the path deeper into the cave system. Though even if I could resist I wouldn't, it was nice being carried. It meant that I wouldn't have to walk as much as I would have had to.

Though it didn't mean I was lazy, I just didn't want to walk so far when Delta was fine with carrying me.

Soon enough Delta had a good enough grip on me to place me onto her back where she gave me a piggyback ride. It was a little embarrassing but I still wouldn't give it up.

Aoif on the other hand was pouting that she couldn't be carried throughout the journey though she followed either way.

…

I was roughly placed on the ground, hours had passed since Delta had experimented on the soldiers and taken me in her arms. In that time we had made good progress into the territory of the next kingdom.

Though as we passed by village and village, I couldn't help but notice how tense the situation in them was. The guards that were stationed at the walls were panicked, their eyes glancing everywhere as if some sort of invisible enemy was going to gobble them up if they let their guard down.

It was only when we reached our current place that I found out why they were so tense. The kingdom had issued a draft and according to the statistics that Delta had stolen from one of the royal messengers. The death rates were off the charts with one in every three soldiers dying at the border. That wasn't even counting the ones that were sent out as cannon fodder, from the data it suggested that it was more like a ninety percent chance that you would die unless you were given an officer position. But that wasn't likely because most of them didn't have the necessary skills to be given that position nor the time to learn.

I couldn't help but feel guilty for this, the war was partially my fault. For letting Delta cause dissent in the kingdom, which led to the others finding out about it and taking advantage of that moment of weakness.