The situation settled quickly. After receiving light treatment for their injuries, Nedvill and Shed were tied down and discarded to a corner of the campsite. Then, someone who appeared to be the captain of this mercenary group hurriedly opened the carriage’s door and went inside.
“Eck!”
“Ughh….”
The captain saw two children hugging each other in fright with teary faces.
“It’s all right now! It’s okay!” The captain comforted them, and the children burst into tears in his embrace. The children wailed hard as if they were pouring out all the fears they had held inside the carriage. Then, the captain carefully inspected the children. Since the ambushers failed to directly attack the carriage, it didn’t seem likely the children would be injured anywhere, but he needed to make sure. Thankfully, there were no visible injuries.
Some time later, the children’s cries gradually diminished and changed into quiet breathing noises. Not only was it time for them to be deep asleep, but relief had come to the children after they were stricken with fear; thus, it was probably hard for them to endure a wave of drowsiness and they fell asleep. After laying the children quietly down onto the blankets, the captain carefully closed the carriage’s door and went outside.
“Are they asleep?”
“Yes.” After the captain answered one of his companions, he approached Zich sitting next to a bonfire.
“Aren’t you a Karuwiman Honorary Holy Knight, Sir Zich?”
“Yes, I am.”
“My name is Dalton. I am in charge of this group here,” Dalton introduced himself and hung his head low at Zich. “But first, I want to thank you from the deepest corner of my heart for helping Walton and Ellie! Thank you very much!”
Since Dalton thanked Zich so formally, which was unexpected of a mercenary, Zich got up and accepted his gratitude.
“Sir Zich, are you the one who stopped those guys from ambushing us?”
Those they had thought of as close allies turned into enemies and attempted to ambush them in the dead of the night. Thus, it was basically a miracle that nobody died or even got injured. But Dalton didn’t hold much faith in the word ‘miracle’ and thought there was a reason behind every unlikely event; naturally, he thought Zich was the reason for their fortunate outcome tonight.
“Yes. I thought of intervening before anything happened, but I thought it would be better for you all to realize the situation first. Thus, I only stopped the first ambush and didn’t intervene afterward. If I had intervened from the beginning, I thought I would be the one accused of betraying you all.”
“I see!” If that was the case, Zich had not only saved the children but everyone in this camp. Dalton hung his head again. “Thank you again, sir!”
“There’s no need for you to be so grateful. What I did was for a purpose anyway.”
“A purpose?” Dalton echoed. Now that the topic arose, Dalton wondered why Zich was in this place outside of Pialu. Zich was a central figure in the defense of the city. Even when a couple of mercenaries from the Wolf’s Canine had been chosen to guard the children in their travels, the city wasn’t pleased that they were losing some of their troops. Considering this, Dalton thought the top administrators of Pialu would’ve tried their best to not let Zich leave.
“I have been tailing you all since I was in the city,” Zich said. Dalton’s face stiffened. Even if Zich saved their lives, it wasn’t pleasant to hear that he had tailed them. Curious, Dalton asked, “For what reason, sir?”
“It’s not like I guessed that an ambush like just now would occur, but I predicted that something would happen to you all.”
“What…!”
“That’s all I can tell you.” Zich firmly drew a line and Dalton couldn’t protrude easily. “Also, I don’t know exactly what is happening and why they tried to ambush you all. We have to find that out now.” Zich stared at Nedvill and Shed.
“What are you planning to do…?”
“We have to extract information. Since the process will be intense, I am going to put some distance between us.”
Dalton immediately knew what Zich meant by an ‘intense process’: it was torture. He stared at the betrayers collapsed on the floor. Just yesterday, they had cried and laughed together like close companions, and he had numerous memories with them that he could recount at this moment. The thought that these two had tried to ambush them filled Dalton head to toe in anger, but if he thought about them receiving horrific torture, a part of him felt pity for them. Yet, Dalton quickly chased these feelings away.
“They are traitors!” Also, they were bastards who had targeted Walter and Ellie.
“Let me join you. I also want to know who ordered them to do such a thing!” If Dalton found out, he wished to leave a slice mark on this bastard. Yet, unexpectedly, Zich disagreed with him.
“No, please protect the children here.” Zich told him to protect the children, but he was simply stating his refusal in another way.
“What do you mean, sir? This issue involves us! We also have to know who—!”
“Didn’t I tell you before? This is all I can tell you.”
Dalton’s mouth closed at Zich’s firm response. It didn’t look like he had fully accepted the situation, but Zich spoke like it couldn’t be helped.
“This incident is related to some scheme that relates to the danger Pialu is currently in. Even if you are involved in this incident, I can’t tell you what it is, and this is really the limit of what I can reveal to you.” Zich then pursed his lips, clearly indicating that he wouldn’t say any more.
If the speaker hadn’t been Zich and if it was a different time, Dalton might have pestered him on, asking what kind of nonsense he was spouting.
“…I understand.” Eventually, Dalton had no choice but to agree.
“Please wait a bit. It will be over soon. You won’t hear screams either since I don’t want the children to wake up.”
Then, Zich picked up the two ambushers on the ground and went inside the forest. That was the last of Nedvill and Shed that Dalton and the other mercenaries saw.
After time passed and Zich returned to the campsite, they didn’t see Nedvill or Shed with him. Zich’s appearance was so clean that it didn’t look like someone who just went out to torture two people. He looked like someone who had gone out for a short walk at night instead. However, Dalton caught the sharp smell of blood wafting around Zich’s body.
* * *
Zich moved with the mercenaries until they reached their destination. Nothing much happened during their travels. Even though the atmosphere wasn’t bad like in Pialu, the new city’s atmosphere didn’t seem good either. There were very few people passing through the city’s walls, and the guards looked tense and nervous. Since a city nearby was continuously getting ambushed by monsters, the neighborhood city’s residents couldn’t help but feel anxious.
However, this city was still faring better than Pialu; since it was outside of the range that monsters attacked, it was considered relatively safe. The mercenaries and Zich stared at the city wall from far away and didn’t move.
Dalton was at the very front of the group. He stared at the city with conflicted eyes and then stared at Zich who was next to him. “Do we really have to go to a different place?”
After torturing Nedvill and Shed, Zich suggested to Dalton that they change their location—no, rather than a suggestion, it was closer to a demand. Zich replied, “If you go past this city, there’s a village nearby. It’s not as big as the city, but it’s also quite large. It’s not a bad place to stay.”
However, no matter how big a village was, it couldn’t be as advanced as a city. Most of all, Dalton was concerned about the children’s safety. After discovering traitors in their group, he had become even more vigilant about the children’s safety.
When Dalton continued to hesitate, Zich continued, “I’m going to go back to Pialu and I’ll maneuver the situation so the enemy will think that the children were successfully kidnapped. However, if all of you stay in the city, this plan won’t work.”
“Uh…” Dalton let out a groan—he couldn’t help but accept Zich’s demand in the end at Zich’s next words.
“If the enemy discovers that all of you are in that city, they might try to attack you and the children again.”
“I understand. Let’s head to the village.”
“It’s really not a bad place. It’s also safe so you should get a lot of rest—just think that you’re getting a long-due vacation.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dalton nodded.
“Ah, and as I told you, you must never contact the other mercenaries.” Zich firmly reminded Dalton again. If he was trying to make it so that the children were kidnapped, everything would go to waste if Dalton contacted the rest of the Wolf’s Canine.
Dalton nodded. “I will remember.” Like this, Dalton and his companions passed the city and headed towards the village as Zich told them to.
* * *
When Zich returned back to Pialu, the city was still swept by fear and anxiety. However, nothing much had changed since Zich left and came back. As Zich expected, there must have been no monster ambushes while he was away. Zich reported his return to the guards first. As he thought a few days ago, Zich didn’t think the city would easily let go of a strong fighter like him.
Zich went out of the city with the excuse of patrolling the entrance of the Denest Mountain Range to look for any signs of monsters. If monsters had ambushed them while Zich was away, they would have caught his lie, but there had been no monster ambushes. As a result, Zich returned to the city without any problems. When he returned to the lodging, he saw Lyla drinking tea in the garden; it seemed as if this had become a new habit of hers.
“Zich!” Lyla saw Zich and welcomed him with a bright expression. Zich naturally sat in front of her.
“Nothing much happened, right?”
“Yep. As you expected, there were no monster attacks.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“So people are starting to say that the monster attacks might have ended.”
“Well, people want to be hopeful.” However, reality was normally cruel. “What about Glen Zenard?”
“There’s no news about him. He probably didn’t return to the city.”
“I guess so.” If kidnapping Walter and Ellie was part of his plan, Zich predicted that Glen would start moving again after finding out that their kidnapping was successful.
Lyla had worked hard to answer Zich’s question, so she asked, “Did your plan go successfully?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I hear what happened?”
“Two mercenaries picked out to guard Walter and Ellie betrayed the group and tried to kidnap them.”
Lyla frowned; since she had gotten quite close to those two children, her mood plummeted from this news. “Weren’t they supposed to be trustworthy guys? I thought they were mercenaries who were with the Wolf’s Canine from the very beginning.”
“Trust built over a long period of time is definitely valuable, but it’s not absolute.”
“Why did they betray the group?” Lyla wondered if they had some kind of unfortunate circumstances.
“Money.”
“…Just because of money?”
“It’s not just. There are so many incidents and problems that arise from money.”
“But is that money worth kidnapping children you watched over for years?”
“The amount of money they were promised was extremely high. They also received a lot of money in advance. Most of all, it’s up to people themselves to decide what’s worth it or not. Not other people.”
Lyla pouted, but she did not deny his statement.
