Necessary Villain

8 - Rendezvous

"Task"

<Tasks>

<Slay the Goblin King in the Castle>

(Time remaining: 714:40:30 hours)

I look ahead and see the clearing where we were first summoned coming into view.

We're running a little late because we have a lot of stuff to carry on our way back, but hey, better late than never.

Our group is as cheery as one can be after slaughtering children. Filling any silence with mindless chatter and fake laughs to repress the bad thoughts. However, due to our antics, we've grown even closer during our trek back, enough so for me to declare they're my friends, even Zayn.

We enter the clearing and eyes filled with dread and despair lock onto us pausing the conversation about birds we were having.

Everyone sits in a group together with not a single smile present. Well, Lucas has the semblance of a smile, but I bet he's just putting on a front for everyone else... however, you can never really tell with nutjobs. he may actually be happy in this situation.

When Lucas notices us, his fake(?) smile grows. As he sits atop a tree stump he waves and motions for us to come join them. As we get closer to him, I notice a few cuts that litter his body.

While walking towards him I try to gauge how many have gathered. Out of the thirty-four sent out for scouting, I only count twenty-eight present, including my group. Also, the hunting and gathering group hasn't returned yet. And... where is my savior? I don't see him. Maks is right there, so where is he?

"Where is-" I try to ask but...

"It looks like you didn't listen as well," Lucas stands up from his seated position and the smile vanishes from his face. "It seems like you got lucky, unlike the others though." He rubs his chin for a moment while looking over at our group and everyone else. "It's like my words carried no weight to them even after you all witnessed that brutality. Insane." The look on everyone else's faces is just as confused as mine, it seems he's stayed cheery and lied low until we returned.

"Look at my body!" he screams while showing off his few cuts and bruises. "Yes, I got slightly injured while running away from the goblins, but that's all! I still hold my life! At first, when I lined you all up, I noticed one consistency, none of us are in bad shape at all! No one appeared to be above age thirty, no one seemingly below age sixteen, and none with obvious health conditions. So why are some people dead!? There's no way they couldn't run from the goblins, I mean, have you looked at them?! How much stamina can they have with that small frame? It only took me and my group running away for a minute at a brisk pace before the goblins collapsed from exhaustion! Seriously! Why are seven of us dead!"

Wait... seven of us are dead!?

"Bu-" a girl from the group tries to speak up but is promptly shut down by Lucas.

"What do you want?" Lucas responds somewhat angrily. "Don't try to make excuses. A pity party for one? I'm not one for that. Know that if your group followed my single important order you wouldn't have had to return alone. If someone died today, it was their fault for not listening." That last sentence seemed to sting everyone here as they all grew dejected and quiet.

It was cold and cruel. Normally a person would be ostracized and called out for saying something like that, but... he's not wrong.

Lucas pauses and surveys the dejected faces with an expression that might as well be saying, if you have any choice words, voice them now. But none speak.