Second Life as a Soldier

Chapter 154 - Manipulation

Before anyone could say or do anything, I flared my mana. Peter did the same. Seeing us ready, Kael and the rest of my squad followed and let out their mana mixed with a little killing intent.

While others might not know this, Peter and I knew that Halvar was not an ordinary leader of the natives. Bringing him here in such a condition could push someone into attacking the Royal Army.

And I was proven right. Even under the pressure of our mana, I saw a stone fly toward me.

Catching it with one hand, I increased my mana pressure. “NO ONE MOVE!”

“Varric, Garran, take our squad and control the crowd. Punish anyone who shows aggression.”

As I spoke, I used [Battlefield Command (UC)], infusing my voice with mana and anger to put some fear into everyone. Some of the younger members in the crowd dropped to their knees under the pressure, while others who had stones ready in their hands dropped them instinctively. I was not about to punish the person who threw the stone. This was an angry mob, not an organized attack. Hitting back would only make things worse. But I needed to make sure no one else dared to try again.

“EVERYONE CALM DOWN!” Keeping my voice up, I continued addressing the crowd gathered. “We will not punish anyone before conducting a proper investigation.”

“Kael, take the prisoner from the guards.” Then I turned to the village head, who flinched once my mana pressure was focused on him. “Village Head, thank you for bringing the prisoner to us,” I said.

While I was having a hard time believing Halvar would do something like this, alienating the village head right now would not be helpful either.

“Like hell! You better kill us all if you want to take Halvar away. I know what type of investigation you fucking army people do!” shouted one young man who was able to gather his courage. He looked to be in his late teens or early twenties, with a warrior-like build, clearly more trained than the rest of the crowd.

“Yeah, we are not letting you take Halvar without a fight,” said another. Slowly, a group formed, mostly young men, and they started pushing against Rokan and the others.

Looking at all the soldiers tense up, they were mostly waiting for orders to attack, but before doing that, I looked at Halvar.

He himself looked conflicted. “Halvar, I assure you if you are innocent, I will make sure no harm comes to you. Stop them, or things will turn ugly, and honestly, I do not want that,” I said to him in a softer tone. While the village head and Rowan frowned at my words, my current focus was only to control the situation.

Halvar looked at the young men struggling against shields and spears. Then, taking a deep breath, he shouted, “Torven!”, stopping the young man who was leading the group in his tracks. “STOP this right now. What have I always taught you all? What is your primary duty?”

The young man named Torven looked hesitant, then slowly spoke, “To make sure the next generation has a better future than us.”

Halvar nodded. “Then do that. Do not waste your lives for one person,” he said.

From Halvar’s words, it was clear he did not trust me to keep my word, and honestly, I could not blame him. While I promised to investigate, all I could do was talk to people. I did not have an investigation skill or truth skill to know if someone was lying to us, and with how biased the villagers appeared to be, it would be hard to trust someone’s words.

There was a reason I had promised to investigate, and it was not just because I believed Halvar was innocent, but because promising an investigation was the only way to buy us some time and resolve this issue without violence.

Ignoring the false promise I had just made, I started ordering, “Aaron, double the guards on watch. Peter, coordinate with Aaron, and if he requires extra soldiers, assign people from our squad.”

Then I turned to address the crowd. “Everyone, go to your houses. I am declaring this area a military area. From now on, civilians are not allowed to gather in groups of more than four near the houses assigned to the army.”

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Listening to my words, some of the civilians started moving, but the natives still waited.

“Kael, can you take Halvar to our squad’s house and guard him there for a while?” I said to Kael. The only way of moving the natives was by removing Halvar from their sight.

As Kael took Halvar to my squad’s house, the village head left with his usual smiling face. After another thirty minutes of convincing, pushing, and shoving from the soldiers, the area finally cleared up.

As soon as we turned to return to our original meeting location, Rowan and all the other sergeants approached, and I had expected this. I knew he did not agree with my decision.

The only reason he had kept quiet was that the army had drilled one rule into us: act like a unit in front of outsiders.

This was why I was the first one to take charge this time, because if Rowan had made the first move, I would have had to support him even if he had decided to use force to subdue the crowd.

“I didn’t know you had an investigation skill,” Rowan said sarcastically.

Even if he did know about my skills, we all knew the areas we specialized in. If I had an investigation skill, it would have been mentioned in my file.

“I will tell you this. You might feel sympathetic toward those barbarians, but we do not. You are wasting your time with them,” Rowan said while all the sergeants nodded, agreeing with his words.

“What do you want me to do? Execute Halvar? If you had not noticed, people were ready to fight for him. Killing him would only turn the whole group of natives against us and would have led to more unnecessary deaths,” I asked.

“Yes, it would have also established fear of the Royal Army among them and gained extra support from the village head. I would say it was a perfect opportunity."

"Just one small skirmish, and it would turn the whole mission successful. We would settle the tension among the villagers once the violent barbarians were eliminated, removing all the obstacles in the construction effort,” Rowan replied.

Listening to Rowan, I stopped moving and looked at him with a surprised expression.

He was right. Killing Halvar and a few other barbarians who were aggressive toward us could resolve all our problems, but just thinking about it made me nauseous. Killing a few people just to make the job easier did not sit right with me.

Even if Halvar was responsible for starting the fire, a death sentence would be extreme. The house was empty, and the only supplies we lost were excess weapons.

“I propose tomorrow we execute the barbarian the village head provided for the crime of trying to attack Royal Army soldiers. We will be prepared and eliminate anyone who tries to save him or attack us,” Rowan said. Without waiting for my reply, Rowan moved forward. The other sergeants followed, leaving me behind.

I clenched my fist in anger and made my way to my squad's house. The construction briefing was almost over, and talking to Halvar had suddenly become more important.

Entering my house, I found Kael and Halvar locked in a tense silence, neither willing to look away.

“Come here to kill me?” Halvar said without taking his eyes off Kael.

“No.” A little bit of tension left his body. “My fellow sergeants want to make a public event out of it, hoping to get rid of people who would try to save you,” I continued, catching him completely off guard. He looked at me in anger and moved toward me, filled with rage, only to be stopped by Kael.

“Fucking butcher! Come at me like a man. Let’s end this. Call off your dog, and I’ll show you what a real barbarian looks like.” he said, spitting at me.

I just stood there with a deadpan face, staring into his eyes. I knew all the words he said were to provoke me into killing him.

“I am not going to get angry because of your words, and believe me, unlike my fellow sergeants, I do not want to kill innocent civilians. Tell me who burned the house, and I might even be able to save them,” I said in a monotone voice.

This was the reason I provoked him. I wanted him to believe that I would sacrifice him to placate the sergeants, but I might be able to save some of the younger members he cared about.

“I did it! I burned the house!” Halvar said.

“There is no point lying to me. I know you would gain nothing out of it, and while I might not be able to save you, I can find a way to punish the real culprit. Tell me, was it the village head or his men?” I asked.

Halvar looked at me in surprise, not expecting me to doubt the village head, but I never trusted him. He was too polite for someone about to share his authority with the Royal Army. And this morning, he had somehow found the person responsible for the fire within fifteen minutes of it starting.

Most importantly, his statement, 'These barbarians do nothing without his order,' while it might make it feel like Halvar was responsible, also gave him an excuse. If in the future we found out someone else was behind it, he could just say he suspected Halvar.

Halvar sighed, frustration leaking into his tone. “I do not know. I was at my home,” he said in a resigned tone. “I do not know who did what. All I can tell you is the village head would not do it personally or even use someone from his house. He is too clever to get caught like that.”

I was surprised Halvar did not outright blame the village head, but it did make some sense. If Halvar was right about the village head, the village head would have made sure he had some witnesses. Before I could think of how to proceed with the investigation, Peter hurried in with a serious look on his face.

“Sergeant, I have an important message from Silas.”