GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

But Legion knew that the worst part of the mutant attacks had ended. They also knew that what was yet to happen would be worse than the mutant attacks.

The lamp bearers had only lost 6 lamp bearers in the first two days of fighting. It was until today, when Legion joined them, that they suddenly lost 16 of them.

This wasn’t the original plan of the Ivory family. According to their original plan, they would grind Sheckel and the lamp bearers slowly over a week. But the information they gained from Legion made them bring a lot of their plans forward.

They couldn’t cause so many casualties. even if they wanted to right from the start because they needed accurate information about Sheckel and her team.

The time it took them to acquire information and set up the next mutant or beast attack allowed the lamp bearers to rest, which caused their casualties in the first two days to be so low.

Fortunately, the Ivory family has Legion now. Through Legion, they knew the lamp bearers’ exact situation, location, and destination, so they didn’t need much time to set up mutant attacks.

So it can be said that most of the 16 casualties that occurred on the third day of the attacks were mostly thanks to Legion’s contribution. Despite this, they didn’t become cocky. They knew when to throw in the towel and retreat.

So they stood up and said to Captain Sheckel, “Captain, I want to go home and rest.”

They had just destroyed the bodies of three the lamp bearers that just died. They were all sitting around dejected.

Many of them wanted to ask to retreat, but they didn’t have the guts to. Legion had the guts to ask because they knew that if they didn’t leave now, they would be in big trouble.

So they were determined to leave. Even if Captain Sheckel refused to let them leave, they were ready to break their oath and suffer the repercussions as it is better than what was about to happen.

When Captain Sheckel looked at them, she could tell that they were determined from the look in their eyes and rigid lines in their face. She had seen that look several times when Legion was being stubborn so she knew what it was as soon as she saw it.

She didn’t know exactly why they wanted to leave. She could only guess that it was due to their dwindling chance of survival.

Even she couldn’t deny that things were looking very bad for them. Very bad is the only way to describe losing 22 subordinates in three days.

So couldn’t blame Legion for wanting to leave. She could sigh and say, “You may go home to rest.”

Then she turned to the others and said, “Who else wants to leave? Who wants to retreat after so many of our comrades died? Who wants to make their deaths in vain?”

Many people wanted to leave. They would have asked to leave if she didn’t ask them this series of questions. But once she asked them and looked at them with a gaze full of expectations, they cowered in shame.

They felt ashamed that they wanted to retreat. If they retreat now and save their lives, then it would show that the lamp bearers who died earlier didn’t need to die.

It would be shameless of them to let their comrades die in vain. The courageous thing to do is to continue fighting and achieve victory for their comrades who died.

However, shame was not enough to overwhelm the survival instincts of some of them. Two more people stood up to ask to leave.

Plus Legion, this made three people who left. This left nine lamp bearers remaining to continue fighting with Sheckel.

Some of these nine wanted to leave, but they knew that if they left, they would be reducing the chances of victory of the rest and condemning them to death. They couldn’t do that to their living comrades so they didn’t ask for permission to leave.

Legion thought to themselves in disdain, “First it was the dead holding them back. Now it is the living. The living is a better reason, but it is still a shackle binding them. This shackle will be their doom.”

They don’t usually pity people, but they don’t think that there is any worthwhile reason to pity this group of fools. After all, they themselves don’t cherish their lives.

Captain Sheckel nodded to the three that wanted to leave and said, “You should go to the base and guard it. Relieve the others of their duty so that they can come to help us.”

Legion nodded in return and left.

As they left with the other two, they thought to themselves, “Someone who suspects that he is about to die but doesn’t try to save himself is not worthy of being saved or even pitied.”

They left and returned to the town with the other two. But they were attacked on the way back by beasts. Legion was able to escape, but the other two didn’t make it.

Legion ran for their life all the way to the town. They rushed to the base like the loyal soldiers they were and reported for duty.

The Custodian received them and handed control of an entrance of the base to them. The custodian also dismissed all the probationary officers and sent them home.

After doing all of these, the custodian left the base with the last two lamp bearers that were guarding the base, leaving only Legion to protect the base.

As the custodian left, Legion swore solemnly, “I will guard the base with my life.”

The custodian laughed and said, “You should not die. Save yourself when you need to. The church is not the buildings. It is the people.”

Legion felt impressed with the demeanor of the custodian. He looked like someone who could achieve great things if he lived. But they still went ahead to expose his location and destination to the enemy.