Lou stared at the shrimpish boy; Lou's eyes darted when the shrimpish boy was about to speak. Ping came from the corner, limping and yelling with a beaming expression.
"Lou, are you alright? I tried to get Sid to come here as fast as possible."
Lou was completely dumbfounded; he didn't expect Ping to know someone like this or that he even had the brains or courage to save him.
He had expected Ping to run and look out for himself; he didn't expect Ping to try to save him at all.
However, Sid such a person was not mentioned once in his memories that he got upon reincarnation.
"Could my memories be somewhat inaccurate?" Adrian pondered till a voice slurred out.
"Umm, can you do your end of the bargain?" Sid had a look of utter boredom written on his face.
"Oh, right." Ping seemed to know what he was talking about. He took out a single copper coin and offered it to Sid. He continued, "Here you go, thanks for helping us out."
Sid's eyes seemed to have gleamed a teeny bit as he reached out for the coin, but a booming voice interrupted him.
"OI WHAT HAPPENED HERE?"
The voice came from an old man who had a pale complexion; he had a nasty expression on his face. He was pointing at the bodies around us. Behind him was the kid who ran away screaming something about revenge.
As Lou was about to open his mouth to say something, the old man kicked him in his already bruised face, sending him crashing into the tavern, knocking him out.
The old man's face dropped a little before he ordered out.
"Stupid brat dares open his mouth? All of you are coming with me; we are going to the village chief to discuss your punishment."
The youths, already startled by what happened to Lou, decided to follow suit.
---
I woke up with the taste of blood on my tongue. I looked around me and saw Ping, who looked like he was gonna cry with a gag on his mouth, and Sid with the same expressionless gaze as usual on my right and on my left, I saw 2 of the 3 ruffians, they both were pretty calm, like they've been here before.
I looked around and noticed from the window that we were about three stories up in a bamboo house kind of place.
Everything inside was bamboo, barely any furniture. In front of me, around 10 feet away. I saw an ancient-looking man. He looked to be 3ft in stature. Standing in front of a bamboo chair that seemed to be the only furniture in this place, along with other chairs placed closer towards us.
In front of those chairs were a bunch of old people, among them was the old man who knocked me out. Wait, why did he even knock me out?
I was gonna wipe the blood from my nose when I realised my hands were tied with rope! I looked at everyone else and realized they were also tied up with rope.
Before I could completely process what was happening, the ancient-looking man started speaking.
"Today we are here for the discussion of the punishment of these 5 boys. For breach of the peace and destroying the tavern." He spoke in the plainest tone possible.
The old man who knocked me out walked to the centre of the room and spoke.
"Thank you, village chief, for your noble words." The village chief didn't look like he cared at all for the man's bootlicking. The old man was taken aback a bit, but continued.
Greetings, everybody. As you know, I was the one who brought these ruffians in for their outlandish behaviour. I must say, for those who don't know me, I am the newly appointed Elder of the youths. Elder Hao."
Another Elder snorted and coldly said
"Get to the point."
It seemed like he wasn't well liked by the others. I wonder why?
Elder Hao pretended he didn't hear him and continued.
"My suggestion of punishment for these ruffians should be amputation of one of their hands so they can no longer cause any harm!" He said that with a smug grin as he continued, "We should also make them do free labour for a year!"
After he finished I felt my eyes nearly pop out and my heart beat faster. I rushed to look at the others to see their reactions.
And saw Zal's mouth wide open, Sid, who was snoring, the leader with veins all over his face, and Ping with tears streaming down his face.
The other Elders seemed to have funny expressions along with the village chief.
At the next moment, the leader shouted out.
"OI, how stupid are you? We were just playing around!"
Elder Hao replied half-heartedly.
"You are called Rui, correct? Well, you offenders destroyed the only tavern we have in this village."
"WHAT? You did it when you kicked kitten Lou in the face, sending him through the tavern!"
I felt my cheeks flush when he called me that in front of all these people.
"What a terrible lie, I might laugh." Elder Hao ridiculed, "I can get multiple villagers to verify what I've told you, and they will all say the same thing that you were fighting Lou and you happened to destroy the tavern."
"It was only with the help of your friend Kael that I got the full story perfectly." His face was inches in front of Rui as if taunting him.
The tensions could be almost seen. Before things could escalate, the village chief announced.
"We will vote." Letting the idea sink in, he then continued, "My Idea of punishment is to be imprisoned outside of the village for a week; afterwards, they'll be free. Then we will discuss in 3 days afterwards for the appropriate punishment. Those who agree with Elder Hao raise your hands, and those who agree with me don't."
Elder Hao looked stupefied, as the elders around him did not budge at all!
As he was about to say something, the village chief, who looked like he knew what was gonna happen, ordered the guards outside to take us away.
We went along with them towards the direction of the west. I saw villagers gawk at us while we walked. I couldn't meet anyone's gaze at all.
The worst bit was a kid who pointed at us and blurted out something about bad men before his mother shushed him.
This scene reminded me of my previous life when I saved that kid.. I really regretted it at least I was known as a hero.
Finally, we reached the western gate, which was just a bamboo wall with some cloth on it.
We walked out, and what met us was countless large bamboo cages.
All 5 of us got placed in a cage together.
The guard looked at us and said
"You boys are really lucky that the village chief is so noble; if he weren't, I don't know what would happen to you boys." He laughed.
All of us remained quiet.
The guard sensing the atmosphere decided to leave.
I decided to break the ice so not to end it on bad blood, so I stated the obvious in the room.
"Man, we sure are lucky the village chief is so nice, huh?"
Rui sneered and mocked
"Are you stupid? He only let us go because of the awakening ceremony."
I was confused by what he said; it must have been obvious. Because Zal spoke up and answered.
"If our arms were broken, we would be at risk of having a lower potential on the awakening ceremony, which would incur the capital's wrath." Almost like he sensed my question, he answered, "I don't know the details on how it works, don't bother."
Throughout the week we stayed together, I stuck with Sid and Ping while Zal and Rui stuck together on the other side of the cage.
Both of our groups barely interacted with the other.
Ping was shivering because of Rui and Zal; he barely let out some murmurs, and it took 3 days till he finally calmed down.
Sid was never much of a talker, which made the atmosphere feel heavier when Rui would stare daggers at Sid, which Sid replied with indifference, which just made it worse.
l spent most of my sentence talking to the brick wall Sid, and the barely stable Ping.
All until a week later, when it was the awakening ceremony.