‘What a monster!’ Caelan’s eyes gleamed with malice when he looked at Vaan.
The person had stripped him of all paths to life and condemned him to die by revealing everything.
Death was almost inevitable, but Caelan was unwilling to resign to his fate. He didn’t betray everyone only to die a dog’s death anyway.
At the very least, he had to drag someone to hell with him.
“Arghhh, I’ll kill you!” Caelan roared at Vaan. All of his despair was quickly transformed into anger and hatred, clouding his judgment.
Caelan immediately drew his sword and lunged at Vaan. But before he could even get close, he was pinned down by Captain Rhys and had his sword disarmed.
Ka-cha!
The sound of bone being broken was heard as Captain Rhys disabled Caelan’s arms behind his back and pressed his head into the ground.
In that instance, Caelan also felt the cold chill of death from Captain Rhys’s killing intent.
“Don’t’ kill him yet, Captain Rhys. There’s no need for you to dirty your hands. He is bound to die even if we don’t do anything to him,” Vaan stated.
“What do you mean, Brother Vaan?” Captain Rhys paused as he looked up and waited for Vaan to elaborate.
However, at that moment, the other young warriors finished finding Caelan’s bag and locating the fat bag of coins hidden inside it.
“We found it, Captain! Caelan’s bag contained another bag with coins inside it. The amount isn’t small as well!” one of the young warriors informed.
As the bronze, silver, and gold coins spilled out of the bag, Captain Rhys glanced at it with his dark and gloomy eyes.
All of the evidence had coincided with Vaan’s statement. There was no further room to doubt that Caelan had betrayed them.
“The assassins must have gained this wealth from selling the stolen beast carcasses,” Captain Rhys determined before muttering, “And Caelan planned to keep all of this and the Stalactite Milk to himself? How greedy.”
“Death would be too easy for you, Caelan! How dare you do this to us! You’re a fucking animal! To think we treated someone like you as one of our brothers!” the young warriors curse.
“Hahahaha! So what! You would have all done the same if you had been in the same boat as me! What right do you have to criticize me?! None of you are better than me! Cursing me is the same as cursing yourself, hahaha!”
“This fucker… He must have lost his mind! How dare you put us in the same boat as you! We are nothing like you, you heartless bastard! Go die!”
The young warriors wanted to silence Caelan before he could speak any more nonsense. They all felt ashamed in their hearts because there was truth in Caelan’s words.
“Back off! Death is too easy for this bastard!”
Captain Rhys barked at the young warriors, forcing them all to retreat before they could take Caelan’s life without his permission.
Shortly after Captain Rhys suppressed the young warriors with his authority, he turned to Vaan and continued from earlier.
“What did you mean by what you said before, Brother Vaan?” Captain Rhys asked.
“Well, you see… even if we leave Caelan alone, the assassins are still going kill him. If they had succeeded in their plan, they would have killed him and taken their money back anyway,” Vaan stated.
“But they failed.”
“Yes, so the assassins must be fuming right now, thinking Caelan tricked them. They will definitely kill him once they find him,” Vaan stated.
When Caelan heard that, he felt so aggrieved that his eyes started bleeding from glaring too hard.
Why was his fate so ridiculous? No matter what he did, he would still die in the end? How can he accept that? Life was so unfair.
“How do you want to deal with this person, Lady Linette?” Captain Rhys asked.
“We don’t have time to waste on this person. Just give him a quick death and be on our way,” Linetta said after some thought before adding, “We shouldn’t be wasting time and giving the assassins a chance to catch up.”
“Understood, my Lady,” Captain Rhys nodded.
Ka-cha!
Captain Rhys broke Caelan’s neck, immediately snuffing out Caelan’s life. He left his body to rot on the road without a proper burial and prepared to leave with the group.
“Put away the coins. Since it originally belonged to us, we will split the share later,” Captain Rhys stated.
They loaded the coin bag onto the wagon and prepared for their departure. But before the group left the area, the young warriors all kicked Caelan’s corpse and vented their anger.
…
Nevertheless, the atmosphere was strange within the escort group during the remainder of their travel to Redpine City.
Although Vaan allowed the group to avoid an ambush from the assassins where their strength remained unknown and even pointed out Caelan’s betrayal without much effort, none of the young warriors felt grateful to him.
They felt like Vaan exploited them.
“What’s with that look? Why are you looking at our benefactor like that?” Captain Rhys glared at one of the young warriors after noticing his unfriendly gaze toward Vaan.
“I don’t feel safe traveling with someone who cannot be trusted, Captain. If we encounter a life-or-death crisis, this person might backstab us,” the young warrior voiced his honest thoughts.
Captain Rhys immediately fell silent for a moment before Linetta snickered with disdain at the young warrior’s narrow-mindedness.
The Steelguard Escort Group’s new recruits had been nothing but trouble.
“Sometimes, you have to fool your allies in order to fool your enemies. Vaan’s method might have been unconventional, but you cannot deny its effectiveness,” Linetta stated coldly.
“Haiz,” Captain Rhys softly sighed before agreeing, “Lady Linette is right. If it wasn’t for Brother Vaan’s plan, who knows how many of you would have died fighting the assassins? You all need to learn how to be grateful.”
“Che, we wouldn’t have this problem if it wasn’t for Lady Linette and Lady Lillias in the first place,” a young warrior quietly spat his complaint.
But no matter how quiet he was, multiple faces immediately darkened upon hearing it.
