Chapter 992 - What Now?
The night sky was cloudy, sad and overly quiet without the sounds of night creatures.
~Drrrrrrrrrr~
The heavy rain poured down hard on the forest, as it made the land muddy, wet and slippery.
The night that was already filled with gloom, suddenly became tense as 3 men currently scrambled through the forests, as if running away from some impending danger.
The men with all their might, while trying their best to conserve their energy as well.
Josh carefully ran, avoiding all the slippery spots on the forest floors deep in thought.
He was presently running through the thick forest regions alongside 2 other soldiers.
And where were they?
In Deiferus, of course.
Things should've gone by smoothly. But there was a sudden glitch that left them in deep sh**.
F***!
.
Josh was out here on a mission, collecting all the thrown and abandoned babies dumped here.
He and his team worked alongside some of Henry's most trusted men to scramble and find all the children they could.
The scene was not pretty.
They found babies already half-eaten, babies whose bodies were badly injured, and even several bones lying about the place.
Some parts of the lakes they saw were all red.
Probably, the babies that got dumped into the water were chewed to death by the creatures in the water.
It was just too cruel.
The forest region around the village was a famous one because it was one of the designated regions where babies were allowed to get dumped.
No matter where one was within Deiferus, they could only throw their babies in only 6 Forest regions spread across the Empire.
And there were specific dates when babies got thrown, which was once at the end of every season.
It was believed that those were the times when the gates of hell would welcome these children back to where they belonged.
After all, disfigured and weak babies were the sign of evil.
There was just a lot of mumbo jumbo involved in these things that made him roll his eyes heavenward in disbelief.
And even though Henry had just taken over, the rules and policy changes hadn't reached all places within Deiferus... Not to talk of the fact that the councils are opposing him for stopping the practice of throwing or killing babies.
That said, a large number of babies are still getting dumped at the middle or end of each season.
During Winter, Babies are dumped on March 1~5th.
During Spring, they're dumped on June 1~5th.
In Summer, it's September 1~5th.
And in Fall, it's December 1~5th.
They usually keep the babies somewhere and feed them well, while transporting them to the designated forest regions that would send them straight back to hell.
Even if the babies didn't die, it's believed that they must still lead a life of suffering to pay for their sins.
That's why many who escape the forest still end up as slaves and so on.
For many, that's what they deserve for being born weak or disfigured.
But now that Henry took over, they had to stop the practice of throwing babies away.
Of course, the news hadn't reached all places within Deiferus yet.
So that's where they stepped in.
Henry, alongside Landon, requested that they collect these Babies.
Henry had already stayed in an orphanage, thanks to the aid of some Baymardians who went to Deiferus as an internship to manage and aid in running the orphanages.
They also proposed that the orphanage should try growing food to cut down costs.
But they shouldn't be cruel or too demanding of others.
They now taught the Deifers how to manage things, care for the children, and so on.
Many in Baymard also donated to this new orphanage as a charity, which greatly pleased Henry.
In fact, Deiferus wasn't the only place that started making orphanages. All other empires did so, taking in abandoned babies and children below a certain age here and there.
.
And so, Josh, his men, and Henry's men worked hard finding these lost babies in the woods.
Today was the 8th of December, and funny enough, the mission was already completed, and the babies were now on their way to the Deiferus' Capital.
And while everyone left, Josh and 4 other soldiers stayed behind.
Why? Because they had another mission to complete here.
As planned, they had to go undercover and closely watch a few council members in the neighbouring city.
And so, they turned in all their Baymardian gadgets and weapons, wore farmer outfits, a good quality see-through raincoat, rubber farmer boots from Baymard and started farming.
They were the items that were already commonly used by many.
Of course, while undercover, they couldn't carry Baymard gadgets.
What if they got caught?
The only time they were allowed to do so, is if they were in a swift mission that involved them killing their targets immediately.
But they were here to go undercover and investigate till January 25th.
So they had to be as bland as possible.
Now, they weren't soldiers... but farmers!
.
Very quickly, they found an improvised Inn that allowed them to stay if they could take care of horses in the stables.
When the inn meant staying, they didn't say that they would allow them to sleep on a bed.
Nope!
The inn owner emptied one of the stable stalls, asked them to sleep there and keep watch at the horses throughout the night.
They were also in charge of removing horse dung, feeding the horses and so on.
At first, Josh wanted to work as a farmer.
But this arrangement was also good.
They also worked alongside a few arrogant stable boys/men.
Another thing to know about their work is that they typically slept after 2 A.M.
Some customers who were drinking late into the night, would then take their horses to ride back home.
Whether they got back safely or not was none of their business.
The inn owner just wanted them awake to hand over the horses.
Anyway, Josh wasn't complaining about this setup.
It worked just well for him.
At night, 3 of them went out to investigate, while 2 stayed behind to keep a lookout at things in the inn.
That's how they had been doing for the last two days.
But today, things seemed to go completely wrong.
Dammit!
What now?