'Ekk, what's this!' David almost stepped on something gruesome the moment he entered the caravan.
An old voice sighed melancholically and addressed his thoughts, "Watch out, it's a corpse."
David looked to his right where a man with deep wrinkles in his skin, sat on the wooden planks attached to the wall of the caravan on either side.
"Poor guy died few hours ago, and yet they have been travelling without burying the body." In a soft note, he added. "I wonder if he shall even get his last rites when we reach the capital."
"If you really want to be that sympathetic towards a random dead guy, take him and bury yourself. And for fuck's sake, stop talking. It's already hard to breathe in here and your yappings are only an additional pain to listen to." Someone from the left side expressed his frustration, the gritting of their teeth audible in the small, cramped space.
Not wanting to cause anymore trouble, David overstepped the corpse, that was strangely melting at this point, and went over to sit at the only seat that was left.
But then he stopped. 'Eh...what about her? It shall be rude to make her stand while I sit.'
He looked around him, in the faint light that came through the open door. His eyes flitted around as he searched for any other empty space to sit on.
At that moment, someone behind him gasped as if they had seen something of magnificent horror. A trembling voice rang out, "H-hey, isn't that one of those savage? Brown skin, red hairs!"
David's head snapped behind him as he saw a young man pointing at the nameless girl with fear in his voice.
Still standing in the entrance, her figure was well visible under the light filtering in from behind her. David almost sighed in frustration, knowing what was coming next.
"I didn't notice at all due to his white face but this guy is also a savage isn't he?!" Another inhabitant of the caravan pointed it out as by now, all the people sitting here started whispering and cursing amongst each other as if some pandemic have stepped upon their lands.
"Hey bastards!" A chubby man with a loud voice directed his glare at the two soldiers standing at the doorway.
"Why should we ride with these filths? Do you want us to die from their blasphemous nature?"
One of the soldier looked at this man strangely as he asked rather rudely, "Would it matter at all? At that end, both of you are going to be slaves. Atleast he isn't a criminal like you."
'Wha-' Now it was David's turn to look at the people around him. Neither of them had any sign in their physical structure or their hair colours that indicated to them being from any barbaric clan.
'Of course, why else would they be made into slaves!' David almost facepalmed himself for not having thought of the obvious.
Afterall, why would people of their kingdom be made into slaves if not for their criminal status?
But being a criminal booked under law didn't necessarily mean they have commited some form of violence. It could have been they had been under debts and now had to face the consequences.
But he didn't want to exactly ask who fell under that "non- violence" tag.
An irritated voice came from outside the caravan, no doubt belonging to the man with the whip. At his mumbled voice, all voices ceased inside the caravan.
'I guess he is feared a lot among them.' He moved closer to the nameless girl, carefully dodging the corpse on the floor.
He whispered to her, "Go and sit in that seat. I shall be waiting by here."
The girl looked at him as if wanting to say something in protest but held her tongue as she saw his expression - calm, yes but to her, it was just a veil to hide his own frustration.
Respecting his wishes, she nodded as she jumped over the body and reached the only seat left. The change in the caravan was instant.
The man sitting next to her? He started pushing the person sitting beside him, trying to move as far as possible. It was to the point that the man he was pushing grunted weakly and complained, "What you doing? You are pushing us."
In simple words, the people surrounding her had become wary.
Seeing his act of "kindness", the soldier - the talkative one - raised his eyebrows at David, who shrugged with a non chalant expression.
Soon, the soldiers closed the door after checking the inside of the caravan, one last time.
The caravan lurched forward with a jerk as David leaned against the door, making himself comfortable in the small space and trying his best to ignore the horrible stench coming from the body on the floor.
Now that he finally got some time,he noticed that the people inside the caravan ranged from young people like him to old men like the one sitting next to his position.
"Poor man..." The man muttered in a solemn manner, every few minutes as if reminiscing some memory.
After he had been muttering for what felt like an hour, David couldn't hold in his curiosity as he asked. "Do you happen to know him?"
The old man looked up and gazed at him uncertainly as if not expecting to be talked to. When David nodded that he was talking to him, the man once again cast down his head, a bitter smile playing on his lips.
"Yes...you see, he was my brother."
He said those words but strange enough, there was no anger behind them. Only sadness... and acceptance.
"We used to be Sihapis actually - fought on the battlefield together. Even fought against your kind; the Hermanns - they were really something." His voice crackled with dry laughter.
"I was lucky enough to find a wife for myself and after the compulsory service time of 15 years, I was able to marry her and settle down. My brother, however didn't want to marry. He had this adventurous spirit within him that still hadn't quelled after all these years."
David was getting the story. "And what was his crime?" He asked.
"Ehh...he actually didn't do any crime." His voice suddenly broke as he rasped out the next words - something that must have hurt him.
"...My wife, she died. Ahh, that had been a heartbreak. I had a son as well, so talented that he was recruited by the royal family into the academy for the Legions."
David wondered how exactly this event corelated with his brother's conviction.
But that was answered in his next sentence.
"But...as a result I became too lonely. And got myself involved in gambling. "
'Ohh...the classic, I see.' David felt his lips harden into thin lines as he listened to the old man.
"And you got into debt?" David asked, almost certain of the next series of events.
"Yeah..." The man let out a silly laugh as he added, "I didn't regret gambling, not really. It was fun for me. But I do regret something deeply - when I couldn't pay my debts, my brother was dragged into it, quite illegally. And yep, here we are...the actual miscreant, sitting here, alive and grinning like an old fool, and the falsely accused - Dead."