The ambusher smiles.

“Convenient? Wait…”

My brain panics, as I think quickly.

What does she mean convenient?

Didn’t she plan everything?

Wait…

Her artifact, it’s just a magic artifact that could deal magic damage. Nothing surprising.

Why would she be able to deal a chest strike of such power to the servant?

She didn’t explain anything regarding that before as well.

Even though she explained the use of her artifact, she never explained why we suspected Ruk...

Beads of sweat form on my forehead.

She could have just missed it out, but that’s unlikely.

Wait, in the first place, if she didn’t cause the strike, after I told her of the plan, she would have been informed of another person being involved… she wouldn’t do this so plainly then… does she have a partner? No, if she had one, they would have helped her by now.

With the artifact and someone helping her, she could have simply eliminated the rest of us from the get-go as well.

WAIT…

I didn’t tell her.

“Sylvia did.”, I mumble to myself.

I think back to the scene of Sylvia assuring me that she told wind.

Why would she oppose the detour then?

Wait, did she even object to the detour?

She simply let it slide. Why?

Her Dwarvenkind has many factions dwelling in forests. She could have very easily said something like Wind.

Wind? Did she know of her goals from the start?

Is that why? She knew that she’ll support the detour to make her heist easier?

Ruk took over the lookout after we decided to make the detour… who was the lookout before that?

It was Sylvia. Those scattered corpses… Sylvia was gathering the corpses of the Wolves earlier…

What if, those other corpses were simply normal magical beasts? Simply disfigured normal beast corpses, just to create the illusion of a destroyed horde.

She wanted us to enter deep within the forest?

Why didn’t she just steal the goods before Wind did then?

Instead she came to my tent.

<”Since you chose to bet on the innocence of the Ogre man, I would have thought that you were thinking I was the suspect.”>

She showed support for my actions, she even wanted to help me against Wind, with little hesitation.

<”Don’t worry about it, I’ll protect you if anything happens!”>

Why would she do this? She could have just pushed all the blame on Wind.

I planned to get Ruk away from camp, to lure out the true perpetrator, to subdue the person.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

It’s all coming to me now.

<”If he wanted to steal the potions, or simply kill us all, it would be easier to do so in the deeper recesses of the forest rather than the main road.”>

She… never had any plans of letting anyone out of the forest alive.

I was weakening the other mercenaries for her, one by one.

Did she plan this from the beginning?

I raise my head to look at her.

So… is she just going to destroy the rest of the part with brute force?

She’ll run out of stamina soon enough though.

STAMINA? SHE RAN OUT OF STAMINA?

Berserkers are known for their outstanding stamina… even if she’s weaker in that aspect, she shouldn’t be tired out if Ruk and Zhe Yun are fine.

Berserker… the only Berserker skill she used before was, ‘Battlefield Arrival’.

She never actually used any other Berserker exclusive skills.

Dual classes are extraordinarily rare, due the the high difficulty in training 2 classes at once.

However, it’s not hard to just learn 1 skill of another class.

But if she’s not of the Berserker class… what’s her real class, and where would she hide her real class weapon?

A class without the weapon suited for them would only perform at 60% output afterall.

Hidden weapon… High strength… She…

She’s an Assassin?

Certainly… with her size…

Ah… so she wanted to kill all of us from the beginning, huh…

I still can’t come to terms with it, but… at this point…

Ruk’s head fell on the ground helplessly.

Like a casual pebble thrown from above.

And from behind his large body, emerges the small figure of Sylvia, grinning.

“Heh, you never expected th-”, she starts to gloat.

However, at this point where she was relishing in her victory…

*Fsssh*

A beam of light heads straight for her.

*Sssss*

It pierces her abdomen, carving a small hole on the ground behind her before dissipating.

“Wha-”, she cries out in astonishment.

I look at her calmly, having unleashed the the I had prepared for Wind originally.

I needed to charge it up for fire without her realising… so I shot it from behind me.

I hid the charging beam, behind me, with the beam piercing the side of my abdomen before landing on her.

She looks at the gaping hole in her stomach, frowning.

She looks anguished, but as she turns to look up… she grins like usual.

“When did you realise?”

“Just.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”, she laughs into the sky.

I simply keep silent.

“I lost by seconds, huh… after all that planning.”, she sighs to herself, still smiling.

“Tell me. What’s the organisation behind you?”, I ask as if it was a natural question.

We were talking about how Wind had her village behind her to utilise the potions… then how about Sylvia?

“I’m dying. Show some compassion.”, she retorts, as if joking with me as usual.

Seeing I had no reaction, she then says softly but just loud enough for us to hear, “The Assassin’s Guild.”

Hearing this, the previously silent Guan Tong spoke up, “What?! How could it be… even the underground forces know of this caravan…”

It seems he understood his situation.

If both Wind’s Elven village and the Assassin’s Guild got wind of this information, it’s safe to say both the underground forces and the other Kingdoms are aware. This means that either his employer is compromised with a spy… or his employer betrayed him.

I simply glance over, looking at the despairing man with cold eyes.

I turn back to Sylvia, smiling.

Zhe Yun wants to finish Sylvia off, but I stop him, “It’s fine, she’s already dying.”, I say firmly.

He then acknowledges me, to take a step back.

“How nice of you, friend?”, she says with a cute face.

“Tell me, did you actually see me as a friend?”, I say with an awkward expression.

“Heh.”, she chuckles.

“Sentimental, aren’t you? I wanted to kill you, you know?”. She replies evilly.

“Well, that’s all I wanted to know.”, I say, as if having come to terms with myself.

I walk away from the Caravan, towards Sylvia.

As I walk nearer and nearer, “You were a friend to me, you know?”, I say casually.

I walk pass Ruk’s corpse, and Wind’s.

I close the wide open eyes of Ruk’s head.

She then makes a grin like she’s never done before, “You were a useful pawn, you would have been much greater if you didn’t ruin my plans at the end though. Tsk.”, she says crudely.

She then holds a knife up, almost trembling slightly due to the loss of blood.

“I’ll end my life by my own hands.”, she says determinedly.

My eyes blink twice on hearing this.

I almost show shock, but I suppress it, saying, “Wait, I have something to tell you.”

She pauses, asking, “What is-”

Before she finishes her sentence, I turn around quickly, firing an ‘Ice Lance’ quickly at the heavily fatigued Zhe Yun. i

Caught off guard, and weak from the loss of blood, the lance strikes through Zhe Yun in the mididle of his forehead.

He still has a look of shock upon his death.

Well, everyone around me is shocked.

Even Sylvia has a look of disbelief.

She quickly turns into a frown.

“Haha. It should be easy for you to understand, no?”, I chuckle provokingly at Sylvia.

Before giving her time to think, however, I explain, “It’s simple? I would be provoking 2 groups if he were to escape safely with the groups.”, I look at the merchant.

“His backer might protect him… but me? Of course not, your Assassin’s Guild and Wind’s village would most certainly be after my life. In that case, I might as well just follow your plan.”, I smile at Sylvia.

“I could just silence everyone here, and escape with the potions, since I’m to be hunted, another group doesn’t make much of a difference.”, I shrug my shoulders.