"Good to meet you kid despite the circumstances." Bergiel said to Rowen with a smile showing that his teeth actually were in great shape despite the rest of his body looking like it had gone through the blender of a harsh life.
Rowen just stared at Bergiel for a moment trying to process his current predicament as well as the events that had just happened at his village.
"It is nice to meet you as well, thank you for your help. Did these knights also come to your town?" Rowen asked, trying his hardest to stay calm despite every fiber of his being asking him to freak out, scream, and to maybe even cry in despair after what had just transpired.
Bergiel stared at him for a moment as Rowen realized some of the other people in the cage took a glance at Bergiel to see his response.
"Not exactly-" Before Bergiel could complete his sentence the cage they were in suddenly came to a stop, causing everyone inside to slightly shift including Rowen, who almost fell.
"Alright you trash everyone line up single file!" Another knight yelled as he came to the end of the cage with a few others preparing to unlock the door. It was at this moment that Rowen finally took a second to look at his surroundings seeing that they were no longer in the small forest or beat up road that was connected to his village.
They were now on a stone pathway that had clearly been carved out and had cost lots of money surely. It was something that Rowen had never seen in his life in the village but he didn't have time to focus on that as the other people in the cage stood up getting in a line near the door to leave the cage.
Bergiel gestured to follow suit, which Rowen complied with not wanting to get hit in the head again like when he first woke up. For now he could not dwell on his emotions of what had happened to his family and village there would be a time for that. He needed to figure out his current situation so he could at the very least make it another day.
The knight that had called everyone to get in line took out a large metal key, unlocking the back gate of their cage slowly bringing each person out one by one chaining a small pair of cuffs to each person that was then connected to the next person in line.
Rowen's initial idea of making a break for it was immediately thrown out of the window with this new development making him decide just to follow along as best he could for now.
As Rowen finally stepped outside of the cage alongside Bergiel who was in front of him one of the knights grabbed his wrists, clasping the new metal shackles onto his wrists. Behind Rowen was another man with a scar on his left eye and seemingly torn clothes.
The tears Rowen couldn't decide if it was done by a sword or if had just fallen apart due to wear and tear. The man seemed to be in his early thirties, but despite the grim situation he held a confident smile on his face clearly enjoying the scene for some strange reason.
"Put that disgusting smile away Roland." The knight handling the cuffs barked at the man as he put them on.
"Why should I do that? It is a fine day to be back at the beautiful Rothersburg castle and to cut everybody down in front of me." The man named Roland said with pure confidence making the knight scoff in annoyance but for some reason not making any move against him.
The other prisoners looked at the man in confusion seemingly not knowing where the confidence he had came from when it came to both speaking to the knight but also cutting down people as well.
One part that suddenly clicked in Rowen's brain was the fact he had said they were at the Rothersburg castle. Turning to his left quickly looking past the carriage and the cage Rowen was shocked to see a marvelous stone wall reaching as high as he could see alongside a gate bustling with people.
'This is insane!' Rowen thought to himself as he saw the sheer size of the place in front of him. While Rowen had been distracted with his predicament, he hadn't even realized the noise surrounding him and the gate nearby, much less the ginormous castle walls that could be seen for miles.
****
Once all of the prisoners were out of the cage Rowen could finally see that there were over 50 people that had been inside of the small carriage made into a cage. Each person seemed to come from a different area or background, as most either looked different or did not interact with one another.
This made Rowen stick even closer to Bergiel as it was some sense of comfort despite not knowing him that well, "Do you know why we are all together like this? Before I woke up these bastards had just come to my home and burned down everything." Rowen whispered to Bergiel in front of him as the knights made sure each prisoner was properly connected.
Bergiel's body stiffened slightly at Rowen's words making him slightly turn his eyes looking at Rowen for a moment before speaking, "You mean to tell me you weren't in a prison somewhere or on the run?" Bergiel whispered in confusion eyeing Rowen very closely as if he was trying his best to see if Rowen was lying or not.
"Why would I be doing anything like that?! I just became old enough to help my parents around town." Rowen whispered back intensely as he started to realize he might be in a much worse situation than he imagined.
If Bergiel was asking if he had been in prison already does that mean that everyone around him had committed some sort of crime to be here? If that is the case that raised even more questions on why they attacked his home and why he was here as well!