“I saw this man before… he works under one of the merchants of the council. If I remember right, he runs a perfume shop.”

Everyone looked around in confusion… that didn’t make any sense. Kaitrine had been the first one to break the silence.

“Are you sure about that? That kind of work doesn’t make a lot of money?”

“Yes, it does… working as a bandit for a side job doesn't make any sense, but… I am certain of it. I know there are two other people like him, and I know them all.”

That made sense… Still, that raised a lot more questions than actually explained them. The first thing that Aleph thought was that someone was hiring bandits to do work during the day and then some shady business at night… that would explain why that group of bandits was never found; they were part of the population and had a good disguise. After thinking for a short while, Aleph decided to dig in on the matter.

“The boss of this guy, what do you think of him, and does he have any reason to see you dead, or Heirina for that matter?”

“More or less… he doesn't like my clan that much, and he would rather pay for more two hundred warriors than to keep up working in our territory. But that actually wouldn't be enough to… ah…”

Edea looked at Heirina after she apparently recalled something… she didn't want to say it, but Heirina wanted to hear it.

“What is it?”

“... You probably didn't hear that since your father kept that as a secret. Two years ago, some merchant wanted to marry me to one of his kids because he wanted our trait on his bloodline. Still, our tradition demands that people that become part of our clan needs to abandon their old possessions and ranks. They insisted on finding a way out, and the leaders of the clan left the matter in my hands, so I decided to refuse the offer… a while later, I heard rumors that another merchant wanted to marry his kid into your family… so, if you didn't hear about it…”

“My father didn't even consider the idea. We are a clan of warriors, and we wouldn't accept outsiders who wanted to obtain influence over the clan by using money or other methods aside from real combat reputation. Still, would that be enough to make them consider killing both of us here?”

“Maybe they didn’t try to kill us… but to capture us… given that they only targeted the horses and Aleph. That way, they would obtain information about the prisoner, and if they were working with the enemies, they would obtain two or almost five pieces that they could use to bargain.”

Aleph could tell that Edea was being considerate… no one would want the trait of a slave or former slave. On the other hand, they could obtain four traits that could become pretty useful… while the traits of the girls would be hard to pass down, Irlan’s would be easy since a man can father countless children. That world was so insane that it wasn’t hard to imagine that they would go that far if they didn’t recover the prisoner that they wanted, and not letting their bloodlines fall into the hands of the enemies would be a good enough reason to convince the big shots of the country.

“The world becomes more and more disturbing as more I heard of it… Anyway, we killed some of the guys working for this merchant. There is a chance that he will turn this on us and demand our punishment to silence us, right?”

Heirina and Kaitrine grunted… they couldn’t deny that. Things became complicated, and there was no easy solution in sight. After thinking for a while, they realized that returning to Edea’s hometown wouldn’t be the best idea since the merchants could already be waiting for them, and the whole mess was ready to unfold against them.

“We will head straight home… my home. After that, we should talk with Dad about what we should do. We need to play our hands right, or else…”

The group stopped to rest for only a couple of hours, and when morning came, they decided to leave the carriage behind and ride the horses instead… While they had six people and four horses, the animals were pretty strong. In any case, their movement speed increased. Aleph didn't know how to ride, so he ended up sharing a horse with Kaitrine. Irlan was carrying the prisoner, who was still unconscious but tied up, and Heirina and Edea were using the remaining horses.

“If you touch any weird places, I will kill you.”

“You can relax easily, knowing that you aren't my type. I prefer mature women with an actual feminine aura.”

Aleph just confirmed that he couldn't be honest with women since Kaitrine only got more pissed. He was also a bit pissed since he was forced to leave all the iron balls behind… and the food as well… they couldn't slow down the horses with all that extra luggage.

If they hurry up, Heirina assumes that they can return home in one day and a half. The route doesn't have any well-known paths, either, so things should be fine if they keep moving. However, the whole group is tense since the flames of another battle are approaching…

In the end, the first day of travel ended with no issues, but they kept going even after sunset. They only stopped after a while because the prisoner didn't show any signs of waking up… It seemed that the Aleph attack caused more than a little bit of damage. Still, when they moved the prisoner out of the horse, they saw his eyes open, but he couldn't do anything else aside from that.

“... It is over. The damage that I caused practically killed him, and nothing aside from his eyes could be controlled by him. Can healers repair that much damage?”

“Not the ones that we have… We will have to dispose of him. I was hoping that I could bring him to Dad, but… it was very unlikely that he would speak anyway.”

In the end, Heirina pierced the heart of the prisoner with her spear even though Aleph had planned to finish what he had started. After that, they hide the body inside some bushes.

“We will rest for two hours and then move on. We will reach home at midafternoon. We could move a bit faster by stopping along the way in some village, but I don't want to risk meeting with spies or anything similar. It is better if no one knows when we return…”

Returning in the middle of the afternoon wasn't the best way to remain hidden, but Heirina should have a plan, so no one asked about it for the time being. After resting for a short bit, the group resumed their journey, and the exhaustion was pretty clear on their faces when morning came. Combining the two previous nights, they didn't sleep for even two hours… even Aleph was suffering thanks to an annoying headache. Fortunately, they reached the town of the Hei clan without finding any issues… still, instead of directly heading to it, they moved a bit south toward a grove hidden behind some hills. It was impossible to see it from the city, and from the perspective of any travelers in the distance, it looked like they were heading toward the river.

In the grove, Heirina led them to a secret underground passage hidden under some bushes… she looked at them without saying anything. Still, it was obvious that it was something few people should know.

The passage was completely dark, but they had to endure that since they couldn’t risk letting any smoke reveal the position of the passage… even the smell was dangerous, after all. 

After walking through the darkness for one hour, they eventually reached an area where the walls were made of brick and eventually found a staircase leading upward. There was a door that led them to a weapons warehouse, and then everyone sighed in relief.

“Wait here, I am going to look for Dad.”

“Ah, finally… we can relax.”

Edea fell on the ground and sighed in relief. That was to be expected, but she still looked a bit too relaxed. From Aleph's perspective, she should be more concerned about not returning home anymore. Then again, she obviously didn't like that life. Would her clan let her escape like that? It was only a matter of time before people connected the dots, and her hometown was only three days away.

“What are we going to do now? I don't think that this whole situation can be solved even with the captain… With the captain Hei’s influence.”

Kaitrine nodded. They had just recovered from the losses of the previous battle, and now they were going to receive some more people. Could they afford to get entangled in such internal problems?

“The best option is to probably wait to see what the others will do, all in order to rule out who might be involved in this incident. If they don't do anything, they might ignore this whole mess… even though that is the same as postponing the problem.”

The author here, everyone. Thanks for reading the book. I hope that you have fun reading the book as much as I have writing it. If you want to join our discord, this is the link: https://discord.gg/AQsYm99A

I also have a Patreon for those who want to read ahead. Don't worry; I will post a new chapter every day here, but I will be posting two on the Patreon. There are currently forty-two chapters ahead there. Thank you for your patience, and have a nice day! 

Thank you for your continuous support, Matthew and Aaron N Ewoldt!