There was still a lot of food on the table. Otis asked, “Could I take some food to Onil?”
With a smile, Abril said to him, “Of course, you can take him as much as you want.”
Alessandro asked for a basket of food to be prepared for Otis’s friend. Then he called his guards to accompany them to the village. Otis thought it could be dangerous, so he asked Joe to stay. He was hesitant to leave his brother, but Abril convinced him to stay.
Cassian couldn’t go with them as he wanted to return to the information guild. He said goodbye to them.
Before Alessandro left with Otis and the guards to the village, Abril gave Alessandro a kiss and said to him, “Be safe.”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry, I’ll see you later.”
When they got to the village, Otis led Alessandro and the guards to where Onil was hiding; he was tucked away in a cave near the village. When Onil spotted the guards, he tried to make a run for it, but Alessandro stopped him.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Let me go.”
The little boy struggled, trying to break free from his captor. Otis stepped out from behind the guards and told Alessandro.
“Let him go.”
“Otis! Did you betray me?”
“It’s not like that; they just want to help us.”
Otis lifted the basket he was holding and said,
“We brought you a gift.”
Onil stopped struggling and said to Alessandro, who was holding him by the shirt.
“Let me go.”
“You won’t try to escape?”
“No.”
Alessandro let him go, Onil approached Otis and glanced at the basket, and when he saw it was packed with food, his mouth watered. He took the basket and whispered to Otis.
“What are you doing with these men? They’re nobles, you know what they do to us.”
“They’re different; they want to help us. I’ve already told you, they want to take down the bad nobles.”
“And you trust them?”
“Yes, they’re good people.”
‘They haven’t bought you over with food, have they?”
Otis scratched his head and said.
“They gave me delicious food, but that’s not why I say they’re good. I don’t know how to explain it, but I assure you they won’t harm us.”
Onil took an apple from the basket, took a bite, and said.
“I hope you don’t regret trusting them.”
“I doubt it.”
After satisfying his hunger, Onil asked,
“Why are you here?”
Alessandro spoke.
“We need you to tell us about the noble who abducted you.”
“I don’t like talking about that.”
Onil replied with a certain fear in his voice.
“I need to know where they take those children and what they do with them; otherwise, I won’t be able to help you.”
“Are you really going to save them?”
“I’ll put an end to whoever’s behind all this and make sure they never hurt anyone again.”
Onil hesitated for a moment, then began to speak.
“Baron Terren’s guards take all the children they find to his mansion’s dungeons.”
“And what did they do with them?”
“They experimented on them; I don’t know exactly what they did, but I heard the children’s screams every day. They screamed in pain. It was horrible.”
“And how did you escape?”
“When they were taking me to the room where they did the experiments, I kicked the guard in the groin and ran desperately until I found a crack big enough to squeeze through.”
“Could you take me to that place?”
“I don’t want to go back there, it’s terrifying. If they catch me again…”
“I will go with you. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Onil looked at Otis, and he encouraged him by saying,
“I’m sure everything will be fine.”
Onil sighed heavily and said,
“Alright, I’ll take you to that place.”
Alessandro sent Otis back to the temple, and they headed to Baron Terren’s mansion. Onil led them through a small grove behind the mansion and to the doors leading to the basement, with the little boy guiding them. In the basement, there was a passageway behind some wine barrels.
“It’s this way, this passage leads to the dungeons. The passage is wide, but the exit is not; it’s narrow, and I doubt you can get through.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of that.”
Upon entering the passageway, everything became completely dark, and they could only hear the boy’s voice saying,
“Walk straight, the exit is at the end of this passageway.”
At the end of the passageway, they saw a light coming from a small crack. Onil told them in a low voice,
“It’s here. If you go out, you’ll be in the dungeons.”
“Thank you, little one,” Alessandro said as he patted him on the head. Onil looked at the crack and said,
“You won’t be able to get through there.”
“Don’t worry about that, little one. I’ll make the door bigger. Just step back a bit.”
Onil stepped back a little from the wall. Alessandro used his wind magic to knock down the wall with a loud crash. The guards rushed to see what was happening, and upon seeing the destroyed wall and several men who had infiltrated the dungeons, they drew their swords. But Alessandro used his magic to take their breath away, defeating them with ease.
The guards emerged from the passageway and dragged them into one of the empty cells, locking them up. When Alessandro saw there was no danger, he asked Onil to come out and said to him,
“Show me where the experiments are conducted.”
Onil was scared; being back in that place terrified him. However, he wanted it all to end so that no other child would be taken there. He gathered his courage and led Alessandro to the room where the children were taken and from which they never returned.
Upon reaching the door of that room, they heard a child’s screams of pain. Onil froze in terror. Alessandro told him to step back, and he knocked down the door.
Inside stood Baron Tarren, in a strange form, half-human and half-monster. He was in the act of devouring a child. Alessandro had seen many horrors during the war, but this one churned his stomach.
Baron Tarren finished devouring the child, wiped the blood from his mouth, and said,
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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