Chapter Eighteen

He approached me with a smile, “Don't worry you should be fine, just don't hesitate, or you'll be at the losing end.” He said, and gave me a warm smile, that was the first time I felt reassured by a guy, one thing bothered me though, “excuse me.” I said, “What is it?” He replied, facing me back, “What exactly are we going to do? And why did you ask me not to hesitate? “ I asked.

And his face changed a little bit, not to that of anger but of a bit of sadness, “don't worry you'll get to know once we're in the hunting fields, but for now, it's best you don't know anything and that's what the rule says, he who tells dies and that's it works here.” He said, I could tell just by his choice of words and the way he talked that he had been through a lot and had a lot also go through him, they were all hiding something and were scared of something, or someone in particular.

“But.” I wanted to talk when he replied “ There are no buts here, you just follow rules, did you notice the rules here are different from the rules outside the fence?” He said, with a deviant grin on his face, “The rules here are tricky and wicked but we all have to play along with the rules cause that's what the world of the bandits does to humans who come in here without knowing fully well what this place is all about. I bet you didn't notice we live in a world of fear and instructions, you fail you die.

That's why I told you not to hesitate.” He said and turned to walk in the opposite direction from where I was standing. Everything felt strange, his manner of speaking and everything he said rang a bell deep in my brain.

Finally, we were all ready to leave, the captain came and we got on horses, he led us out of the gates and I thought I was back into the misery of this outer world, but everything, all came back to Brielle, I hadn't seen her in two days, I wonder how she's faring, I thought to myself as we rode past the forest as fast as we could and In the end, the horses slowed down and they all got off and I did same, “listen to me carefully.” The captain said as he ordered us what to do exactly, listening to those words alone brought fear to my feet.

I crumbled and shivered a lot, but I asked why. But none had the answers to what I asked except Iguro, he instigated everything and this is exactly what we hunt for.

After a period of two hours, the hunting period was over and it was time for us to go back to the bandit's world, as he had called it the first time we met. I kept on having tears running down my cheeks as we approached the huge gate, I was always this way but this one had me all riled up, why we did everything we did was still a mystery no one could solve.

Who exactly is IGURO? I tried getting answers on my own but I couldn't. This was going to be a long ride and I prayed to get out of this mess.

After getting there, I asked the captain in the audience, “Excuse me, can I see you?” I said, and he smiled, but I knew it was fake, “I didn't come here alone but for the past two days, I hadn't seen her at all, I just want to know if she's safe.” I asked, and he looked at me, and said, “I'll try to find out if she's still alive. You should rest a bit while I report everything to Iguro. I'll come to see you immediately. I'm done.” He said he seemed more like a nice guy, and I'm sure he was stuck here just like I was and decided to dedicate his time to everything to rise above the ranks and become what he ought to become. That was the utmost deal with everyone here I thought, after he said that he left, and moved away from the spot.

I went back to the chamber but I couldn't eat or have anything going for me. I was irritated and had a lot of flashbacks going through my mind. I had a lot going through my dumb mind and that's why I was stuck in a loop.

I needed to calm down, it was the same as taking over territories I thought, but it was brutal, what we did couldn't be spoken of, and it made me puke. I waited for so long for the captain and after a long while, he came to see me and asked me to follow him, I did and he took me to a faraway place from the quarters, “I know you have a lot of questions to ask me, I know you have a ton of words to say to me too. And here I am ready to listen and answer all your questions.” he said, and I sat down, “yes I do, I have millions of questions on my mind, Who is IGURO? What is this place? Is this how we'll continue to live? The rules of the outside world were territorial wars being Alpha and leading with susceptible changes, not wiping out a whole clan just for the fun of it, a clan that barely had enough food to sustain themselves, what we took from them wasn't even close to what is used to sustain this whole place so why? Why is all this happening?” I lamented, “calm down, and I'll give you detailed answers to everything you seek. Just as you know we live in a different world, and the rule here is Iguro.”