Chapter 51 First Adventure

The experienced soldiers and higher-ranked officers were divided in squads. Each squad had a leader; which needed to be at least a three-star ranked person. The leader gave orders to four commanders which needed to be at least a sergeant, and each commander was in charge of up to a crew of fifteen.
Squads were in charge of missions to protect and aid the kingdom. Things that couldn’t be done by a crew of recruits. The missions often required dealing with criminals, creatures, or any other thing which required experience in combat.
Josiah had spent almost the entire year in the reserve, helping with the affairs, instructing newer teams, improving his sword skills, and getting better on the art of controlling the blood flow.
Then, one day on the eleventh month, Josiah’s squad was called into the city of Bhule, one of the cities of the kingdom which were located most farther from the capital.
The trip took a long day, even if the squad went by carriage instead of marching. After all, they were not recruits anymore to do that kind of hard work just for the sake of training.
A year ago, when Josiah’s squad was decided, he was matched on a group with tow people he knew: soldier Lenny; and Sergeant Reeve.
Unlike what he though, sergeant Reeve wasn’t in direct charge of his crew of twelve. Instead, he responded to other of the four commanders; captain Othlo. Other than Othlo and Reeve, the group’s other two commanders were sergeant Lavera and lieutenant Flinn, but Josiah didn’t talk much to them, as he was in Othlo’s crew.
All the four commanders responded to the squad leader; Major Clockburn. He was the supreme official whom everyone in the group resorted to in case something happened.
Soldier Lenny was also under Othlo’s direct command. Luckily the two of them managed to get matched together.
The trip was almost ending when Othlo took the word, inside Josiah’s group’s carriage.
“Listen. We are dealing with some mystery here. The premise is that people have been missing from the village without reason. The plan is to divide the squad and investigate so that we can learn more about it, but I smell some danger… If I am to bet, I believe this kind of thing is deeds of a witch.”
“Witch!?” Josiah asked. He had never heard about them before.
Not in that world, at least.
The image Josiah had of ‘a witch’ was a woman wearing a black robe and a pointy hat mixing some potions on a cauldron while laughing sterically riding a broom. But he doubted that was the case there.
“Some people with atypical beliefs.” One of the men on the crew named Janus answered. “They believe they need to eat human flesh in order to maintain themselves rejuvenated.”
“That’s exactly that,” Othlo confirmed. “Long ago witchery was only seen as another belief, but ever since it has been associated with the forbidden practice of cannibalism, it has been forbidden by Eneris. Nowadays witches hide their identity.”
“And you believe this is a witch’s doing? Can they just make people disappear like that?”
“It’s not a matter of being a witch. A witch is anyone who commits this kind of atrocity for their beliefs. I just think it’s one because why else would someone kidnap random people like that? Traffic? Slavery? The word would have spread already. I think if we ever are going to find these people who vanished we are going to find them dead.”
“…”
“Those beliefs are often passed through generations and whole families hide their practices and rituals somewhere inside their houses, so keep an eye out for people who seem to be hiding something,” Othlo said. “Look! We are already arriving.”
The twelve-member (thirteen, counting with Othlo) crew exited the carriage. The other three carriages also stopped on the main street and the other three teams all left the cars to meet on the road.
The town was located on a huge plain field, far from any water source or mountain. The wind almost didn’t reach the place. It was calm and quiet to the extreme. The first impression Josiah had of the town was that it looked very much like Couche. Except that without the smell of the sea.
The four squad leaders met with Major Clockburn and discussed how they’d approach the investigation. In the end, each squad would be in charge of speaking with people of a certain area. The squad, thus, was free to act as they felt better.
Othlo was a practical man. He wasn’t the type of delegating particular responsibilities. Instead, he just ordered everybody on his team to go ahead and investigate. Talk to people; see if they find something. They were instructed to divide in pairs. One to ask questions and another one to swoop around and notice details while the first one was entertaining the people.
Josiah and Lenny were very close, but of course, they couldn’t form a duo with two young children. People wouldn’t take them seriously.
Therefore, Josiah was paired with soldier Janus for the time being.
“Ok, corporal. Since your appearance is too young, I am going to do the talking.” Janus said to his superior while they were headed to the street they ended up with.
“Yes. Do it. I’m going to look out for any signs of lies and hidden things inside the houses. We are going to knock, then enter and ask the questions.”
“Understood.”
It took a while until they reach the house of the first family who knew someone that vanished.
“It was the son of the baker. He was a young kid. He helped his dad’s business in the day and in the evening would go out to play in the fields. One day he was all happy, playing like he always did, and then on the other day… he was just missing. His father even said he did come back at night to sleep. He vanished in the middle of the night.”
It was what the mistress who answered the door said after being asked.
“When did that happen?” Janus asked.
“Not too long ago. Three? Four days?”
“Do you think we could get an interview at the bakery?”
“The bakery is closed. His family is a mess. Poor guys.”
“Hmm… And ma’am, haven’t you heard any rumors about all this? It seems those disappearances are happening quite often…”
“Oh, people are saying all sorts of things. Kidnapping… Witchery… the empir.. Er, forget it. Anyway, nobody has come to an understanding yet. That’s why we in town are calling the experts.”
Janus would nod and nod exaggeratedly at every sentence the mistress said. Josiah was just standing still, looking around while they both spoke.
It was a surprisingly contentless interview that amounted to nothing. The most they got from that was the identity of the person who vanished.
“So? Noticed anything strange?”
Josiah shook his head negatively, then said:
“We should try and talk to more people, maybe we can find something else…”
Just like Josiah and Janus were knocking on door and door, trying to get something from the involved, the other duos spent the rest of the afternoon doing the same. In the evening, it was agreed that they’d meet near the carriages, to share whether they found anything worthy.
“Find anything?”
“Nope. Nobody seems to know or want to share anything.”
“What should we do? Perhaps investigate the local where the disappearing people were last standing.”
The commentaries of the returning soldiers who returned shared that kind of content. Major Clockburn was listening to all of that while he waited for all the teams to get back. Josiah and Janus were also there, witnessing the lack of substantial information as he was one of the first ones to get back.
Then, one of the soldiers arrived running, gasping, and with a worried face. It was the first trace of an unusual event on that day.
“Major Clockburn! Major Clockburn!” he shouted all the way along.
“Heavens, what is it?” The Major asked as he got close.
“My partner… Soldier Ray! He’s missing! It’s like… He vanished all of a sudden!”