Chapter 137: Die Smiling or Die Trying [7]
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***
The scene changed once more.
Amon found himself standing in front of the usual forest.
Daily, the man used to cut wood here before taking it home.
They used to sell it to pay their taxes and also purchase their needs.
That was the only thing they could do after all.
The family was too poor to do anything else.
As usual, the man cut the wood with an expressionless face while his two children yed around.
In the past few days of observing the man, Amon noticed that he never showed an expression.
His face was just...
Indifferent. It never changed no matter what you did.
But he also understood that he had problems showing emotions or showing his feelings in the form of expressions to his family.
He was too shy.
His name was Derek.
His wife''s name was ra while his two children were named Tyler and Emily respectively.
As he cut another tree, Derek wiped off the sweat from his forehead.
He was finally done.
Last month, Derek and his family were unable to pay the taxes because of the sudden increase in them.
Everyone knew how corrupt the Vige Chief was.
Because of that, the taxes of Derek''s family have been overdue for a long now.
To pay it off all today, he had worked overtime to cut more trees.
It was close to sunset now.
Amon watched his childrene running to him, handing him another 2 pieces of wood.
They did that every day.
"Papa! Look! I got a good one!" Emily eximed in joy.
"Mine is better!" Tyler refuted and also extended his piece of wood.
Derek took the pieces of wood from them expressionlessly like always.
He stared at the small unrefined pieces.
Amon also observed them.
Though they were kids and it was expected for their wood pieces to be useless and without any pattern, he was surprised to see their shape and skill improve every day.
They were truly talented in this field.
But like always, Derek would throw them-
Amon''s eyes widened in surprise.
Derek raised his arm, stopping multiple times in hesitation and averting his gaze.
But eventually, after many seconds, he put both his hands on his children''s heads.
"G-good work." He averted his gaze.
Just like Amon, even the children were momentarily baffled.
''T-this man is actually improving...'' Amon muttered in disbelief.
Even though he still had no idea where he was or what was happening, he had gotten used to the family around him.
And he had never seen any change happen in this scene.
He saw Emily and Tyler''s faces brighten up with joy as they happily danced in the clearing.
They were dying with happiness when Derek actually stored them inside his pocket in front of them.
This was the first time he had done that.
Standing up, Derek picked up the logs and started to travel back to his home, with his dancing children in tow.
***
Amon walked beside the trio, keeping an eye on them as they walked through the vige.
He still had not a single idea of where he was and what was happening.
All he remembered was grabbing the head of the old man and after that his memory was hazy.
But...
After spending a few days here, Amon had noticed something.
For one, either this whole kingdom or world right now was very old from his current world.
Or just this single vige was very outdated.
This was because even after spending so many days here, Amon had yet to see any modern technology.
The whole vige carried an air of medievalness to it with the mud houses and professions of
everyone.
It wasn''t a big vige though. And neither was it too small.
But the biggest thing that he noticed in this vige was that...
There was no mana user. No clovist or armenist.
They were all unawakened.
Suddenly, Amon was snapped back from his thoughts as he heard crackles of fire ahead.
The same happened with Derek as a sense of urgency appeared in his body.
Dropping the logs in his hand on the ground, he ran at full speed ahead.
Tyler and Emily who were left behind also soon gave chase to Derek along with Amon.
One thing he noticed was that the people in the vige tended to sleep early, right after
sunset.
It was some sort of routine or ritual for them.
Because of that, there was no one except the trio and some people who had gathered in a circle
ahead.
Reaching the location, Amon''s eyes widened with shock.
Derek''s house...
It was on fire.
Crackles of the fire could be heard in the air as smoke rose in the air.
The mud walls of the house had beenpletely broken down into pieces and the hay that
covered the ceiling along with bamboo was burnt.
Burnt and broken remains of the furniture were scattered around outside of the house.
Burnt pieces of drawings drawn by the kids...
Torn and scorched clothes...
And...
The ashes of the children''s wood pieces that were given to Derek.
All burnt to the ground.
But that wasn''t the main focus.
It was the two spears that were nted outside the house, in a cross position.
But what held those two spears together wasn''t rope...
It was his wife''s body.
As one of the spears passed through her head from underneath, holding her in the air, the
other passed through her arms that were stretched out.
Derek''s eyes trembled for the first time in his life as he saw the scene.
All his memories and times with his family...
Burnt to ashes.
He fell on his knees, unable to control his bloodshot eyes and pounding heart as he watched
the scorched body of his wife.
Amon watched the scene with disbelieving eyes, not knowing what happened.
All of it...
Just gone like that.
As the children of Derek finally reached the scene, one of the viges quickly covered their
eyes and started to take them away.
Amon looked at the horrified and scared expressions on their faces.
What were they scare-
The body of the viger that was taking the kids away shot past Amon''s eyes, a fire arrow
embedded in his brain.
Amon''s gaze trembled as it moved to the side, finding the viger crashed on the ground,
lifeless.
His head turned sharply to the trajectory of the arrow and there, he saw a group of 5 people.
There were two men and two women and...
A little girl?
Except for the girl, everyone had their faces uncovered.
As soon as they showed up, the vigers instantly retreated several steps back.
A burly man with a scarred face came forward, smiling wide.
He grabbed the two kids that were on the ground, trembling now as they finally saw the scene.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Raising them in the air from their heads, he turned to the little girl in the hood, ignoring the
cries of the two children.
"May I have some fun?" He asked, bowing.
The little girl looked at the man, not revealing her face.
And then...
She slowly nodded.
Immediately, the man pinned the two kids to the ground in joy.
And in the next moment, sounds of bones breaking and flesh twisting were heard.
Even Amon had to avert his gaze from this amount of brutality.
All of a sudden, a cry of pain was heard from the side as Amon turned, finding Derek charging
at the group with bare hands.
He had dropped his axe behind, so he had nothing to fight right now.
A woman came in front of the hooded girl, grabbing Derek by his arm.
And then she twisted it, making sounds of bones breaking be heard in the air.
Taking out several daggers, she immediately started thrusting them into Derek''s body,
pinning him to the ground.
The viges averted their gazes, acting as if they had watched nothing while Amon watched it
all in pain.
What...
What the fuck kind of torture was this.
He heard the children''s screams and pleads as their ears were cut and the man touched their
arms, burning them.
Amon realized.
All of them...
They were clovists.
Shocks of electricity were sent through Derek''s body, as each of his bones was broken down
slowly and efficiently.
One of the men sneered.
"This is what happens when you don''t pay your tax on time fucker." He kicked Derek in the
face.
Blood formed in arge pool on the ground, from all of their bodies.
Amon''s blood boiled.
Unfortunately, he could do nothing.
The burly man started to y their skin with a knife and the woman started to twist her
daggers inside Derek''s body.
All that could be heard in the air right now were the screams of the family and the crackles of
the fire.
The vigers had long since returned to their homes.
But...
Amon finally understood now.
Why there were no clovists in the vige?
Clovists and Armenists in this era were a taboo.
They couldn''t be allowed to live and the humans despised them for how minor they were in
poption.
They called them witches and goblins.
But, rather than letting the poption kill them, the vige chief exploited this by providing
shelter to these always-migrating mages.
He used their powers to his own advantage by making them owe him.
This was how he held his reign in the vige.
And though the group of clovists could easily ovee another group, their ranks were still
too low to take on a whole vige.
Even Amon could take on this whole group.
Except...
The girl.
She gave him some different vibes.
For a moment, her hood fluttered in the air, revealing her features.
Short ck hair and pearly obsidian ck eyes...
And a look of indifference.
Suddenly, the dying screams of the two children were heard as they finally turned lifeless.
The man licked his lips in ecstasy as he stood up.
As Derek''s pleading gaze matched his children''s lifeless grey, he erupted in a pained scream.
"NOOO-"
His head was grabbed and mmed into the ground, blood erupting from his face.
Tears spilled from his eyes as he looked at the lifeless bodies of his wife and his children...
All of a sudden, something popped out of his pocket.
It was...
The rough wooden piece that he stored.
The final one.
As he barely reached his hand to grab it, the man beside him grabbed it first.
He scrutinized it for some seconds, before finding a text written on it that made Amon''s
expression morph into horror.
"One day..." The man read.
"I''ll definitely smile for you....guys."
Silence remained in the air for a few seconds before the whole group broke into loudughter
except the girl.
"Smile...Smile for you guys..." The burly man smiled.
"That said, we have never seen this guy smile have we?" The woman said yfully and the
other guy nodded. "Yeah. You know what, we will let you smile at your children''s death buddy."
Grabbing his face, the burly man instantly ignited Derek''s lips while the woman started
making cuts in his face.
And as they turned back, Amon''s gaze trembled.
Derek''s face.
His lips werepletely burnt ck, even igniting the blood that poured out of them.
And the cuts on his cheeks and facepletely messed up his mouth. Derek tried to cry but the tears had already dried up, unable toe out.
His hand pulled on the dirt as he tried to scream but no scream came out.
He looked at the dead bodies of his children and all that came to his mind at that moment was
the note on the back of that piece.
Smile.
Smile for his family.
He tried to smile.
Tried to fulfill hisst wish to his family.
But...
No smile came out from his messed-up face.
No matter how hard he tried.
He was...
Never able to smile.
And then, Derek''s ck eyes turned into lifeless gray as well, marking the ending of his life.