Chapter 26: Betrayal?

Raindrops dripped down from Kalon's coat as the sounds of hooves squelching against loose soil sounded out through the forest as Roland ran towards the mountain pass. It was a day's ride to the mountain pass for a regular horse, but it would only take an hour at most for a centaur.

The speed of a centaur was much faster than Kalon ever imagined, but the issue of riding at such speeds became apparent to him as he felt the raindrops smack against his cheeks. It was almost as though he was being hit with hundreds of small rocks thrown towards him at high speeds. His cheeks began to turn red as pain rushed through his entire face and neck until he finally had to hold his head down against Rolands back to keep his face from stinging with pain.

'What is this smell?' Kalon thought as he held his head against Roland's fur. It was unlike anything that he had ever smelled before in his life, and he began to feel tired even though they were in the freezing cold with rain pouring down upon them while running down a long winding road. As he tried to cover his face from the rain, even more, he felt his eyelids slowly flicker as they began to close.

There was nothing he could do to resist the scent; it seemed as though it was calling for him to sleep, and he obliged. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep while riding on Roland's back.

"Your Highness," Roland called out as he came to a stop, but there was no reply to his calls.

"Your highness?" Roland asked once again before getting fed up with waiting.

"Wake up, you stupid brat!" He called out before kicking his front legs up into the air, causing Kalon to fall from his back and land in a large pool of mud on the floor. Kalon opened his eyes immediately as the cold water seeped into his clothes and drenched him from head to toe in dirt.

Kalon gasped as he came to his senses and felt the coldness against his skin before looking up at Roland with questioning eyes.

"What happened? Where are we?" Kalon asked with distrust as he saw the look on Roland's face. He then went silent as he had an intimidating aura around him while looking down upon Kalon.

Roland's eyes began to glow a slightly yellow colour, and he slowly began to unsheathe his sword from his hip.

"What's going on? Roland? I thought that you were supposed to take me to the mountain pass!? Don't you care about the consequences from the emperor?" Kalon asked in a panicked voice as he looked up at the centaur holding a sword above him.

There was no reply from Roland, and that all but confirmed his intentions to Kalon. There was nothing he had to say for himself because he had already made his mind up.

Kalon squeezed his eyes closed, knowing that he couldn't do anything to fight back against him and hoped that his death would be painless.

"Why does this always happen!? The people I think I can trust constantly betray me! What is wrong with being a human? It's not like I can change it, so why do they hate it so much?" Kalon asked himself many questions as he thought his life was coming to an end before suddenly a loud bang rang out through the sky, which was soon followed by the sounds of Roland sighing and then putting his sword back in its scabbard.

"That was troublesome," Roland said with a giggle before looking down at Kalon lying on the ground within a pool of muddy water.

"You still haven't gotten up yet?" Roland asked bluntly before once again apologising for being rude.

"I'm sorry, your highness. What I meant to ask was, would you like a hand up" Roland said before offering his hand to Kalon, who was still holding his eyes tightly closed, not daring to open them due to fear of his words just being to make him let his defence down.

'He's stronger than me. Why would he need to deceive me?' One of Ranwald's teachings suddenly came to mind before figuring out that it was probably safe to look up at Roland without him deciding to kill him.

Kalon then opened his eyes to see Roland with his hand out towards him, and the sword was tucked away back by his side.

"Thank god," Kalon whispered to himself as he saw that he was not in danger, but as Kalon reached out to grab Roland's hand, he noticed a foul smell that seemed to be coming from behind him. But before holding Roland's hand, he turned his head back to see where the smell was coming from to see a sight that he never thought he would see in his life.

Laying on the ground behind him were the bodies of two young orcs. It wasn't unusual to see an orc, especially in an empire inhabited by monsters, but it was another thing to see the dead body of not one but two of them.

As one of the most robust races in the empire, they were especially nasty to deal with and made good infantry soldiers because they had tough skin that was hard to cut through with swords, and they were strong enough to tear down entire buildings by themselves.

The reputation they had gained made them seem like an undefeatable foe for most of the races within the empire, but to Kalon, they were even more dangerous because they enjoyed eating humans.

They didn't need to eat humans to survive like some of the other races, but they enjoyed eating them and could smell them from miles away, so Kalon had to be especially careful when traversing the forests alone. He was lucky that Roland was with him and felt relieved knowing that he wasn't eaten alive by two orcs that had probably smelled his scent and ran towards it, thinking that he would be an easy meal.

They definitely didn't expect Kalon to be with a centaur who was bearing a sword.

"Thank you," Kalon said and bowed his head down to Roland to show that he was grateful for his help. But Roland quickly followed suit and bowed his head too.

"Your highness. It would be best if you didn't honour me with a bow; I am a subject of the empire. If the emperor demands your safety, then I will protect you with my life. Please don't bow to me." Roland requested, sounding desperate for Kalon to stand for a reason unknown to him.

But he had already said thank you, so he thought that it would be better to stand again and let Roland keep his honour intact.

As he stood up, he noticed that the rain had died down, and the sky was now glowing orange, almost as if there was a raging inferno above the clouds. He then took a moment to look around before seeing the rocky terrain followed by two mountains that were around a kilometre from where they were standing.

Kalon took a deep breath in as he was in awe of what he was looking at. He had never seen a mountain in his whole life and couldn't stop himself from looking up towards the peak and wondering about the reflective white blanket that lay upon the rocks.