>>5363530Your eyes fall on the corpse of “Echeverria”. There doesn’t seem to be any danger of the man jumping to his feet and springing back to life. Going by the missing limbs and growing pool of blood underneath his form, he’s as dead as dead can be. In theory, this means that even should there be humans inside those wagons, you should be safe from whatever magic was summoning those Demonic Beasts. Still, better to take no chances. After healing everyone’s wounds, you approach the first locked wagon in front of you, Blessed Lance equipped in your hands. The door to the wagon is locked shut, and it takes banging on it with your weapon for it to pry loose.
As the wagon opens, you instinctively take a step back defensively, expecting a potential fight. Instead, you find half a dozen people, huddled together in squalid and filthy condition. They avert their eyes as the light shines inside. Some of them scream for mercy, thinking you’re there to kill them. Others simply scream incoherently. Judging by their raggedy appearance and stench, you’d wager they’d been stuck in these wagons for weeks.
“W-what the hell is this?” Corrine asks besides you, a hand to her face.
>“Get the rest of those wagons open! Immediately!”Your men scramble to follow your command, prying open the remaining four wagons. While two of the wagons seems to contain the supplies that this group had been travelling with, the other two hold the same grim surprise. Packs of men, women, and children, crammed together in inhuman conditions.
>“This is horrid…what was this bastard trying to accomplish?” You watch your men tend to the freed prisoners. A sinking pit in your stomach opens when you think about how close you came to potentially burning some of these wagons as a part of your strategy. You were never the most religious person, but you thank the Goddess that the wagons containing people managed to avoid being destroyed during the battle.“Would that we could ask him…” Corrine says, a hint of an edge in her voice. You know the girl had wanted to bring Echeverria in alive but leaving the Shapeshifter to work his dark magics was something you saw as too great a risk.
“Commander, one of the prisoners wishes to speak with you.” Sebastian says. Behind his huge form is a trembling girl. Her clothes are dirty and in tatters, and what skin you can see on her is covered in bruises. She has a hard time looking you in the face and uses the hulking knight as a sort of cover when speaking.
“T-thank you, my lady. Y-you saved our lives.”
>“Please, think nothing of it.” You try to approach the girl, who shrinks back startled. “We mean you no harm. Our enemy were those who had captured you and the others. Tell me, what is your name?”“…Sara.”
>“Sara. You’re safe now. Tell me, how did you come to fall in as their prisoner?” 