Sinful Pride - Volume 1 Chapter 16 The Aerch Militia

Two days have passed. Keita didn’t rest as much as he wanted to. He woke up screaming and crying after just a few hours of sleep. He distracted himself by using all his magic power to recover with Tranquility and when he drained all his mana he slept again. Koba paid him a visit to see how he was doing and leave him some new bandages and medicine. They talked for a bit but he didn’t mention anything about the going to the Orc’s leader’s base. It was as if Reika didn’t tell him anything about it.

On the morning of his second day of resting, Keita finally left the house. The city was lively. People in the street, carriages, horses and kids playing. The exact opposite from when he arrived for the first time. While he was resting, the people put out the fire and begun rebuilding. It was a human trait, unfamiliar to Keita; he felt as if the people around him forgot the attack ever happened.

He asked a random citizen for directions to the Aerch Militia headquarters. After walking for a while he arrived outside the building.

The building had many floors but only the first one was open to Militia soldiers. The rest were for alchemists, mages and other Aerch personal as well as the master’s office.

Keita could hear people making a racket inside. As he pushed the doors and entered, the noise disappeared and was replaced with whispers.

It was a spacious room split in two. On one side there were wooden tables and chairs and waiters running around with drinks. It felt like a tavern or an inn. On the other side, there were three counters and women in uniform smiling. They wore a blue and white outfit with many silver patterns. In the middle of the room there was a board with pieces of paper nailed on it. There were a few soldiers gathered around it but the their heads have turned in Keita’s direction.

He looked around and saw that the soldiers that were merrily drinking and shouting before he entered were now looking at him.

‘Is it because I brought the axe with me?’ Keita thought as he looked back at them, scratching his cheek. He couldn’t hear what they were whispering and he didn’t know why they were staring at him but it made him feel uncomfortable. Soon they realized they were staring and started talking among themselves again.

Keita felt relieved and started walking towards the counters. A young browned haired woman with glasses greeted him as he approached.

“Welcome to the Aerch Militia, what can we do for you today?” she asked with a smile. It was a genuine one, as if the receptionist was happy to see Keita.

“I am here to enlist.” he responded.

“We will be happy to have you!” she said with enthusiasm. She pulled out a piece of paper and a quill. “I will need your name, age and class please!”

“Keita Raigon, I am seventeen, class swordsman.”

“Raigon…?” the receptionist repeated. She looked confused.

“Yes, is there something wrong?” Keita asked.

The receptionist looked at Keita from top to bottom. She was looking at his burned and teared clothes.

“No, no problem.” she anxiously said. “I guess it’s a common name. Please wait for a minute.” after writing down Keita’s information the girl entered a door that led to a back room.

‘Common name?’ Keita thought while waiting.

His father didn’t talk much of his family but he knew they were merchants. They were rich. He never mentioned much else about them or if the name Raigon really is common.

The girl returned shortly afterwards with a card and a needle in hand.

“We need a drop of your blood to make the card.” she gestured for Keita to give her his hand from behind the counter. “This will sting a bit.” she said with a smile as always.

The receptionist pierced Keita’s finger with the needle and a drop of his blood landed on the card. The ink on the card shined red and the blood stain disappeared.

“Your enlistment has been completed. There are a few things you need to know before you are ready to leave.” the receptionist said and handed him the card.

Keita nodded and accepted his Militia card.

“First of all, you are forbidden from accepting quests and payment from any other place than a Aerch Militia station or the headquarters. Right now you are bronze ranked soldier. As your rank goes up you will be able to accept quests that match your skills. The ranks from lowest to highest are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Titanium and Mithril.” she started explaining.

‘As expected from humanity’s shield, they are named after metals’ Keita thought mockingly.

“If you encounter any unexpected enemies in your quests, you are expected to deal with them accordingly. Your compensation will be calculated by bringing proof of slain enemies, rare weapons as well as the quest completion reward. You can accept quests at the quest board over there. You are also free to bring back enemy parts such as ears or fangs of defeated enemies. Alchemists and mages will go to the area you encountered them and deal with the bodies as well as collect ingredients so don’t get greedy and try to cheat.” she continued.

Keita’s blood froze. He heard before that humans use their enemies corpses to make things but he thought it was just a rumor.

Blood from goblins was an ingredient to make a strong poison. Ogre blood to make a stamina regeneration potion. Orc bones could be used in magic items and…

‘A Demon’s heart can make an elixir that strengthens magic power…’ he recalled.

He felt nauseous at the thought. He had no problem killing Demons or Orcs but desecrating the bodies like this was something he saw as appalling.

“You will need to report any battles so we can burn the bodies. I don’t have to tell you what happens if we don’t right? If you break any of the rules, the punishment is from being kicked off the Militia to even the death sentence, according to how serious the crime is.” the receptionist told him with a serious tone and Keita nodded. “Other than that, you are free to roam between countries and battle invaders at your leisure.” she changed her tone and smiled once again. “That is all. You are now a defender of justice and enemy of evil! One of the shields of humanity.”

‘Defender of justice? Fight evil? Is that how these people see themselves?’ Keita was dumbstruck. He never thought of war as anything that noble. War was war. There was no justice or evil. Keita never thought he was fighting for justice. He fought because he liked the battle. Then and now. He fought because he was good at it. Even after he became a human, he couldn’t stay away from the battlefield. He went out of his way to seek the battle.

“Thanks.” he gave a dry reply. His opinion of the whole militia went down from the words of that girl.

“I got a weapon from the last battle. Do I turn it over here?” Keita asked as he put the axe on the counter.

“Certainly, please wait a minute.” the receptionist said with her ever changing smile. She took the axe and entered the back room again.

Keita felt uncomfortable looking at her smile now. He felt like something was off.

‘Is it the whole fighting for justice thing or the corpse desecrating that gives me this feeling?’ he thought. These were two sides of the Aerch Militia that he never knew as a Demon. The portray he had for Militia was destroyed just like that. While he was thinking, the receptionist came back with the axe.

“Our mages appraised your axe. It is a high quality magic weapon. I am not sure if you know this but the axe can produce fire in a big area, as well as envelope the blade with flames to attack the enemy even when he is defending.” she started explaining.

“I know…” Keita pulled his burned shirt to show the marks. The receptionist put the two and two together.

“I am very sorry. Of course! You must be the young man who defeated the enemy leader then. You will be happy to know that there was a bounty on his head. Gorgash, the head of the wolf clan. We confirmed he was killed while cleaning up the town. With the axe and the bounty, your reward is 230 gold.” the receptionist told Keita with a smile and after counting, put three pouches full of coin on the counter.

‘230? Isn’t that too low?’ Keita didn’t have too much experience with money. Actually, he never had to buy anything back at the village. The only thing he owned was the sword that was a gift from the village blacksmith. The villagers didn’t use money and shared everything between themselves. Someone was selected to take a carriage to Atestari city to sell anything they had too much of and buy something the village needed. It was a common practice in small human villages to share everything as one family.

“I thought this weapon would earn me more than this…” Keita fought his embarrassment and told the receptionist. He couldn’t wright off the possibility that he was being taken advantage of.

The receptionist smiled at him and replied.

“These kind of magic weapons are more common than you might think. If it was fifty years ago, you could buy a whole castle with this axe but now, even some gold ranked soldiers carry the same quality weapons. ”

“Fifty years? What do you mean?” Keita asked. His head was spinning. A legendary quality weapon at the hands of some lowly Orc and now even human soldiers.

“Fifty years ago, some dwarves rediscovered the technology to make legendary rank magic weapons – as they called them at the time. The God-King used these weapons and his army made quick work of the North human kingdom and he was crowned the first human emperor. Unfortunately he passed away soon afterwards. His weapons were used by his officers, nobles and royal family members to make their own claim of land so the technology quickly got out to the rest of the races. That resulted in our current situation.” the receptionist explained in a somewhat solemn voice.

‘So that’s why…’ Keita thought, drenched in cold sweat. He thought the Orc chieftain was an exception but the truth terrified him. He originally thought he could win against most opponents and if he couldn’t he could always run. With these kinds of weapons he couldn’t be careless even for a second.

“Thank you for the information.” Keita said. “And for everything else.” he took the pouches of gold and prepared to leave.

“Thank you for coming and welcome to the Aerch Militia!” the receptionist gave him a small bow as Keita left. He nodded his head and exited the Militia headquarters.

‘What a day…” he thought. He felt tired but it was still only morning.

‘Still two things I have to do before I can go back and rest.’