Thom retired the blade from the mercenary's chest, and swung his sword to clean it on the stone. At the same time, Suu had lowered the burly man's corpse, and let him to rest on the cold hard ground.

They looked at each other with satisfied looks and then threw the corpses down the river. They floated away like logs in the water, as the two of them observed with curious smiles the way in which their bodies floated.

"Lexicon has a word for that." Suu said. "Their bodies are pretty buoyant, aight?"

"Well, all human bodies float. But well, that aside." Thom sheathed the black blade of Yorthand into his white scabbard, and looked in the direction of the carriage. Having used his skill, [Search Aura III], his eyes turned sharp and his aura extended all the way across the bridge.

"There are thirty people in total, ten in each carriage. I feel 21 weak presences and 9 decent-ish auras. The nineteen must be the drivers and the slaves, and the other nine must be the mercenaries. They're probably around [Swordsman Apprentice III] or similar." Thom said, shaking away the use of his skill.

"Hmm. If it's just that, we should be able to take care of the mercenaries without any victims." Suu nodded.

For any other normal soldier, their words would have lacked sense or logic. However, for both Suu and Thom, whose minds were corrupted by the measuring system of [Bookread's Guide], it was easier to speak in those terms.

In the last twenty days they had spent traveling from Goldblack to one of the southernmost regions of Kulkus— the fief of baron Argrand— Thom and Suu had not obtained any new skills from Skill Master. Although this usually seemed like an easy task, being stuck in a carriage for so long with not many alternate diversions made the process of skill learning extremely hard. At most, they had spent the past month honing their pre-existing abilities.

Coming by cities large as Pontya did not happen once in their trip, but the appearance of villages and small burgs spread across the kingdom gave them a slight respite every now and then. To beat out the boring part of traveling, they had taken quests at bars, helped villagers with their daily needs, and other mundane chores. Although it wasn't raiding a fort, it was better than sitting and eating all day.

In the process, Thom's [Swordsman III] had jumped up to [Swordsman Adept], offering an upgrade of 100% more effectiveness in swordsmanship skills, and overall control and strength. In a similar fashion, Suu's [Swordsman] had jumped up to [Swordsman III]. Although it didn't offer the same benefits as Thom's skill level, she had sought to compensate with something much more useful.

[Mage II] was the current level of her magic skill. Ever since she had unlocked magic use, her skill repertoire had been flooded with all kinds of spells, and she even learned how to detect and measure her own magic level.

Since she hadn't originally cared for what Skill Master had said the day she obtained it, she hadn't checked the state of her magic skill, and they couldn't go back and ask a proper mage why Suu, who was from the same plane as Thom, did possess a magic organ even when he himself didn't.

And so, Suu had obtained yet another job-class skill when both her mage level and swordsman level reached the same spot.

"Well, we better do this quick." Thom tapped the girl's shoulder, and started to walk forward with not much care.

"Right. As soon as we're back in Goldblack I'm taking a heated shower! I'm tired of having to shower in waterfalls!" Suu skipped towards Thom's position, and they strolled together towards the carriages.

As soon as their arms ripped away the mist and appeared in front of the driver's eyes, the man started to panic. He jumped down the carriage without saying a word and ran straight for the other three carriages.

"Do we need to kill the drivers too, lieutenant?" Suu questioned as she scratched her arms.

"I wonder. Surely they're not good people, but maybe they were extorted or coerced into helping. We gotta think first of their circumstances! We'll take our boredom out with the mercenaries."

"Ohoho!" Suu grabbed her claymore once more. "As expected of the lieutenant! You're as wise as always!"

"Oh, shut up." Thom grinned and pulled his longsword from his waist.

The sound of metal boots tapping against stone sounded from the back of the carriages. The nine auras from before started to spread around Thom and Suu, brandishing their weapons with clear superiority in their eyes. They were probably confident in their numbers, something Suu and Thom could only laugh about.

"You think this is a fucking joke?! Who are you?! Don't move or I'll slice her fucking neck!"

One of the mercenaries had grabbed a young woman by the arms and was pressing his sword against her neck. The woman's cheeks were wet with tears, her body trembling from her toes to her hair.

"Hey, hey. Are you all really mercenaries?" Thom frowned. "If you're gonna do something like that, then you're no better than a glorified bandit."

"What a noisy bitch, and I'm not talking about this one." The mercenary pulled the woman's arms as she desperately wailed. "What did you do with the boss and Ghir? Did those two fucking gone kiss the gods?"

"Quiet and hand her over." Thom took one step forward. The man immediately pressed the sword tighter against the woman's neck, and a stream of blood started to course down her shirt.

"Hey, hey. You guys are way too repetitive. We've done this twelve times in one month, and six out of twelve times someone has tried to pull the hostage shit on us." Suu sighed tiredly as if she was extremely dissatisfied with the mercenary's reaction. "What's up with chivalrous thieves and white knights? Did they go out of style and I didn't find out?"

The mercenaries started to look at each other's faces. They had never let down their guards at any moment, but the feeling of strangeness coming from the pair of black-haired warriors was putting them off immensely. Could these two really have killed someone like the boss?

"Where are the rest of your men?" One of them asked first.

"Will you let go of that woman if I told you?" Suu formed a perverse grin on her face as she looked at the victim on the other party's hands.

"..." The mercenaries didn't answer, but they nodded at each other. They had apparently rehearsed this or been in a similar situation before. They needed to find out if they were in the numerical disadvantage.

The man let go of the hostage and pushed her to the ground without remorse. The woman started crying as Suu ran to her side to aid her, but before she could ungagher she was quickly pointed from three different sides with steel swords and iron daggers.

"So? Speak, or you'll be her replacement." One of them said.

"Fine. There are nine people on the other side." She sighed.

"Suu!" Thom stepped forward with an irritated frown, as if he did not want her to tell them. The mercenaries grinned as they feasted on Thom's frustration, and saw him standing afar like a man scared that they would hurt somoeone important to him.

"What are their equipments?"

"There's six archers and three swordsmen. The archers are waiting at the towers to snipe you from fifty meters away from the entrance. They have extreme precision, they won't fail. And the swordsmen, well, they're there to take care of the remnants." Her voice was stern and her face serious like a convinced preacher. The mercenaries swallowed dry as soon as they heard her words.

"Shit... We were told this was a safe path!" One of them growled.

"There's never such a thing as a safe path. Specially in such a bridge!"

"Are you all retarded? Why are we doubting? We kill these two and then take this carriage elsewhere! The boss and Ghir have bit the ground so we gotta scram, I'm not staying here to discuss this shit with y'all."

"Fine. Then, we're taking a deviation. It will cost us a couple of days, but we'll get there."

The mercenaries seemed to be pretty impatient to go away. They were apparently talking of going back to Argrand's fief and find another bridge so they could get to the border quicker. They started to discuss things between each other in front of Thom and Suu, without any care for what their attentive ears could listen to.

The location of the fief, the quickest path to the city, the way they would speak to the guards, the way they'd disguise the wagons to look like normal merch, all of the information they had been lacking for a long time started to seep into their ears like a sweet song. They both knew this was because the mercenaries were planning on killing them and getting rid of their bodies later, but they couldn't care much for such a thing.

Thom nodded repeatedly with his hand on his chin, and Suu went "Oho. I see. I understand." As they peeked in the mercenaries' indiscreet conversation.

"Tch. Whatever. Right now we have to take care of the problem at hand." One of the mercenaries raised his sword high, and another two did the same while looking with vicious eyes at Suu. "About the baron, we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"Ha!" Suu clapped. "I got that joke!" She pointed her finger at the mercenary.

"Hyagh!"

The three of them cleaved down with their swords, reflecting the light of the moon in their blades. However, before they could strike at Suu's face, a black blade swept the air in front of them and the horrid sound of metal scrapping echoed, before the mercenaries saw their blades roll on the ground.

"Eh?"

Suu bolted from behind Thom's back, and jumped towards the three men, swinging her claymore without any regret, cutting the three men's throats.

The mercenaries took a step back with hands clenched at their throats that would not stop bleeding. The other group of six men retreated in fear as their comrades asked for help, tainting the bridge in the color of crimson. However, they knew it was too late. At the same time that Suu cleaned her blade, the three men fell flat on the ground with dead eyes.

"M-monsters! They are monsters disguised as human beings!" One of the men said, pointing his fingers at Thom and Suu.

"Hm. How curious. Seventh time I hear that in the month."

Thom raised his eyebrow, and activated [Dash III] to bolt forward. His shape distorted as it flashed past the mercenaries', and spun in place after arriving in front of them. He followed with merciless stockades, moving from man to man with the swiftness of an experienced assassin.

Four of the six men fell to the ground with their chests pierced, and the other two had started to retreat. Poor them, their speed wasn't comparable. Thom dashed through the gap between them, and moved the end of his sword nonchalantly. He felt like cutting through soft butter, the blood splurted out like a fountain from their neck, and they fell to the ground dead.

He waved his sword in the air, creating a half-moon of blood in the sky. He looked at Suu, and nodded.

They ran for the back of the carriages and saw the drivers with pale faces, holding daggers as if they had any chance to protect themselves.

"Sadly, no witnesses." Thom smiled, nearing the image of the trembling carriage men.

They quickly captured the four drivers and tied them up with the same reigns they used to move the horses. Thom gagged them with the leather used for the slaves, and Suu threw them over the trees and tied them up to branches. This way, even if the drivers survived, they would still have time to arrive at the fief and assassinate the baron without interventions. Or, at least, that's what Miel thought.

"Very well."

Thom cut open the other three remaining carriages, and was met by the panicked expression of the slaves. Suu was cutting the ties on the first carriage's people at the same time.

"Don't worry, we're here to get you out." Thom said, cutting the ropes from the slaves' hands.

"My boy, where's my boy?!"

The woman who had been brought to the front before sprinted towards the carriage in the front and pulled from inside a teenager with blond hair. She started crying desperately as they hugged each other, the kid simply holding onto her robes with blank and traumatized eyes.

As the slaves started to reunite, Thom and Suu observed them with content eyes.

"I'm sorry... I did not ask for your name."

An old man neared them with his hands behind his back, his face bloodied and bruised. He didn't seem to care, however, as he simply stood in front of them with a smile.

"Yes." Thom nodded. "You can address me as Lord Thom, if that is okay with you. I am a traveling prince of a doomed kingdom and I'm looking to regain my status soon. When I took notice of such a malevolent trade going on, I couldn't stand still and wait. This here is my sister, princess Suu."

"It is my pleasure to meet you, sir." Suu gave a slight bow with a smile.

"I see... So that's the case. Truly, valiant heroes. If we had more lords like you, the kingdom wouldn't be in its current position." The old man sighed and let his shoulders droop down.

"Now, we're planning to meet up with the baron of this land to put in a formal complaint about this situation." Thom said with a stern expression. "We can not permit nefarious business like this. The weak are to be served, not obliged to serve. That is the philosophy of our kingdom."

"Hehe..." The old man shrugged. "If it was truly such a kind ruling, perhaps that kindness was the reason for your doom. Well, that is all unimportant at the moment. My name is Lourgh. An old adventurer."

He stretched his hand and shook it with Thom, and then bowed slightly towards Suu.

"You wouldn't get anything out of negotiating with Argrand. A tree that grows crooked will not rectify its trunk. It's the same story with that baron, he won't change no matter what. Look at me. An old friend of his, and this is where I've ended."

"You were friends with the baron?" Suu's eyes opened wide.

"A confidant of sorts." He said. "I helped a lot with the containment of monsters back when I was a strapping young lad. If you wish to go to the baron's mansion to negotiate, I could at least tell you how to get there."

"That would be very nice, indeed." Thom smiled in relieve.

"And you said you wanted to rebuild your kingdom, son?" He tapped Thom's shoulder as he spoke. "I can't guarantee a thing, but if you've got the money, you could hire adventurers for any job you need. I can put in a good word for ya in there, at least until I'm killed by the baron's soldiers, or get sold off again, keke."

He seems to be very calm about this whole kidnapping and slavery situation... I guess an old man has seen many things in his life, huh?

"Well, for now, we need to get to the city if you wanna have a chatter with old Argrand. I'll lead the way... Are you coming?"

Thom smiled, and Suu did the same. They nodded in a regal and courteous manner, and helped everyone get into the carriages again. When all the five carriages were aligned and the former slaves-in-line took the reigns of the horses, they parted towards the center city of Saltbide.