Overwhelming Firepower

The group of agents were starting to realize what they had done. A few of them started puking on the floor. It was at that moment that a question started to arise in their hearts.

The stench of vomit mingled with cold stone, acrid and heavy. Their chains rattled in uneven rhythms, echoing like faint alarms.

A draft swept through the cell, biting at exposed skin, making their shivers visible. Every gasp, every groan, every quiet whimper built the oppressive atmosphere, heightening the weight of guilt pressing down on them.

’Why did we do all that without question?’

They understood that they were loyal, but even loyalty had its limits; it felt like they were blinded by the ideal of doing what was best for Norvaegard, without questioning the person giving them the orders.

As they tried to think harder about what they had done and what they had forgotten, their heads started pounding like a warhammer was being smashed down on it.

Every time they tried to do something out of line before, as long as they were near the Marquis, those thoughts would disappear like a dream.

Now that they think about it, this was the longest time they had been away from Marquis Valeire’s side. Their thoughts seem to be becoming much clearer, but at the same time, it was making them feel intense pain.

Lucen, who was sitting outside the steel bars, did not say a single word and simply watched the agents.

The retching grew harsher. One of the agents collapsed to his knees, chains clanging loudly as bile splattered across the stone floor. Another pressed his forehead against the wall, teeth clenched so hard that blood seeped from his gums.

Memories surfaced in fragments. Memories that seemed so important but had now become foggy spectres of the past.

A voice crying for help. Soldiers surrounding him. Traps hidden in the forest, him bleeding out.

No matter what kind of foggy memory they had, it all ended in the same way. Marquis Valeire appeared in the end, saving them from their predicament. With a bright smile on his face, he emphasized the words I have come to save you.

Each one of them might have remembered different things about how they met the Marquis in their moment of peril, but no matter who among them thought about it, they all shared two similarities.

The first one was that they were suddenly in a life-or-death situation, and the moment they were about to die, the Marquis came to save them.

Marquis Valeire, standing amidst blood and ruin. Marquis Valeire, offering a hand. Marquis Valeire, smiling warmly as he spoke words they had heard countless times.

”I have come to save you.”

”... Do all of you remember? I don’t know why, but I think we all share a similar experience.” One of the agents muttered hoarsely, ”How he always arrived at the perfect moment?”

No one questioned it before, but now that they were thinking a little bit more clearly, it was very suspicious.

”I think I was a mercenary before this... One day, I was cornered by bandits,” another said slowly, eyes unfocused. ”They knew exactly where I would be.”

”... I’m not sure yet, but I think I was a hunter. I was in the forest when suddenly I fell into an unknown trap. I was stuck and unable to move. I thought that that was it for me when he came to save me.”

As they shared their stories of what they could remember, they realized that those incidents might not have been an accident or a joke of fate, but something inevitable.

They were now realizing that everything that had happened to them might have been a sham from the start.

”He told me I was chosen,” the agent continued. ”That Norvaegard needed people willing to do what others couldn’t. I didn’t question him; his tone, the way he acted, made me believe him, no, it made me want to believe him.”

The eldest agent closed his eyes. ”... We all did.”

The guilt weighed down on them so much that they felt their hearts and souls sinking. As they were wallowing in their own despair, Lucen finally spoke again.

”So is everyone caught up? Did you understand that you have been scammed?” Lucen said the words everyone was trying hard to avoid with such a straight face.

One of the agents let out a hoarse laugh, low and broken. He was one of the youngest in the group.

”... If everything was false... Then...” The young man started to hyperventilate. ”Those villagers... Those people... Did any of what we did mean anything?”

As those words left the mouth of the young agent, a few of them could no longer hold it in and screamed in pain from the depths of their souls.

The screams echoed through the stone chamber, raw and animal, scraping against the prison walls until even the guards outside fell silent.

One agent slammed his shackled fists against the floor again and again, skin splitting, blood mixing with bile. Another curled into himself, shoulders shaking as broken sobs tore free.

Lucen did not move. He watched them the same way one would watch a fire burn through dry wood, calmly, attentively, without flinching.

”You may cry and wail, but that doesn’t change what any of you did.” Lucen’s words silenced most of the agents.

”The blood on your hands doesn’t vanish just because you now understand why you spilled it.” Several of them flinched from those words.

”I’m not here to absolve you,” Lucen continued. ”Nor am I here to force you into serving me. If I did that, I’d just be like Marquis Valeire.”

The eldest agent slowly opened his eyes and met Lucen’s gaze. ”Then why are you here?”

Lucen leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees. ”I wanted to give you guys a chance.”

”A chance?” The eldest agent repeated, and this word also caught the attention of the other agents.

”Yes, a chance. I’m giving you a chance to lighten your sins a little bit.”

Lucen’s words lingered in the air, a chance. For a long moment, no one responded. His words hung in the air, tangible and heavy.

The agents froze, some glancing at the floor, some blinking rapidly to hold back tears. Shoulders slumped as if a thousand stones pressed them down.

The eldest agent opened his mouth as if to speak, then froze. His throat worked, but no sound came out. When he finally lowered his head, his shoulders began to tremble.

”... Lighten our sins?” He whispered. ”Is that even possible?”

”Your sins will never be erased. Can you return life to what you have killed? You cannot, but... You can do your best to make up for them. Unlike Marquis Valeire, I promise that I won’t make you do anything that you don’t want to. I am a Thornehart. We exist to stand in front of others when danger comes. I wish you too can stand by that belief, nothing more, nothing less.”

The words were simple. There was no grandeur to them, no righteous fire, no demand hidden beneath.

And that was what unsettled them the most. Silence filled the cell once more. Not the tense silence from before, not the kind born from pain or confusion, but something heavier, something that pressed down on the agents’ chests and made breathing feel difficult.

Lucen then stood up, and for some reason, his demeanor had changed. Despite looking like the same guy, to the agents the Lucen Thornehart standing in front of them felt different.

Even though he didn’t speak much, they felt that Lucen had some charisma, but now, for some reason, they could feel like he was radiating charisma, from the subtle movements he made and the confident smile on his face.

”Come join me, and I’ll make sure that you will at least be able to hold your heads up high.”

No one answered him, well, not immediately. The agents stared at Lucen in silence, as if trying to reconcile the boy before them with the weight of the words he had just spoken.

There was no order in his voice; there was no forced compulsion. No invisible hand tightening around their thoughts, it was just an offer.

The way he spoke made their hearts beat a little faster. The hope he was offering was completely different from Marquis Valeire’s hope.

The eldest agent swallowed. ”... You really think, we...” He said slowly as he looked at Lucen. ”That we can be redeemed? That we can be trusted?”

Lucen smiled as brightly as possible. To the eyes of the agents, it felt like Lucen’s back was shining.

”I cannot give you an answer to that. Those questions can only be answered by yourselves. Can you be redeemed? That is something only you would know. Can you be trusted? I don’t know about others, but I trust you. I understand that you truly believed in doing what was good for Norvaegard. Unfortunately, the person you followed was not of the same mind.”

Lucen extended his hand forward and spoke with a more confident tone.

”I might not be the same as you guys, nor can I fully understand how you feel... Still, allow me to walk this path with you guys. This time, not for Norvaegard but for the people instead. So will you join me?”

The group of agents looked at one another, the despair and shame they felt were still there, but now there was hope in there as well.

”If you are willing to walk with sinners like us, then who are we to deny that helping hand?” The eldest of the group was the one who spoke up, voicing the thoughts of the other agents as well.