After having spent the night in the inn , Raven woke up pretty early , the birds were chirping happily, but their happiness unfortunately didn’t reach this part of the city.

As Raven was taking a walk early in the morning, the part of the city where he was at , was looking even more depressing, it looked completely like a ghost town, no one left their houses afraid of being robbed or punished by the guardsmen.

Raven was alone and decided to train as there was nothing better to do, he then went to the place they had lunch yesterday.

the Big tree , with its surroundings covered by its dried autumn leaves, Raven stood underneath it and started doing some stretches, then proceed to do some light exercises then moved on to much more harder and exhausting exercises.

Having finished his exercises, Raven sat down under the big tree’s cool shade, and to his surprise he saw Maya was quietly walking towards him.

She came over and not saying anything quickly sat down next to Raven.

Raven thought this was a huge chance to make a witty comment and he wouldn’t let it just slip.

“What were you lonely without me?”

Raven said as he smiled wrily.

Maya didn't answer and just looked away , a slight tone of pink could just about be seen in her small pretty face.

I was right?!

Raven felt very happy, maybe Maya was little by little finally overcoming, her dark days as a slave.

Raven’s thoughts were somehow right on mark, Maya had stayed with Raven for about two months and had grown to trust him completely.

She had swore to herself not to trust anyone ever since her parents were slaughtered right in front of her.

But ever since she had been saved by Raven she started to slowly trust him, he had saved her, she was frightened at the beginning, thinking about why would he have saved her. But he never had any ulterior motives, which she found out as she travelled with him for the past two months.

....

A few days later , Raven felt himself being restricted to staying inside the inn , there were many guards around even in the outskirts of the city , Raven was currently sitting down on his bed trying to think of a way to escape the city, he had already given up on staying in the city and wait out the storm.

Could they possibly be looking for me

How will I escape now? If I leave Maya here i can easily make my escape, but leaving her here alone would make me into scum.

Raven then quickly got up and out of the bed , and went down to eat some breakfast that the young woman from before had prepared for them, Maya was already happily eating , Raven then sat next to Maya and ate the vegetable soup that was prepared for them.

“Is the amount of guards loitering around here normal when it’s this close to the festival?”

Raven asked to conclude his suspicions.

“It’s pretty strange, there are more guards than there would normally be”

The young woman nervously answered. Raven had come to know the young woman , she was extremely shy and worked with her father handling the Inn, but most of the time relied on her father to handle clients, instead she worked at the back cooking and cleaning rooms.

After they had eaten their breakfast , Raven wanted to talk the young woman in private.

“May i have a word with you”

Raven asked the young woman

Y---Yes

The young woman stuttered

And they left and went to the kitchen while Maya was still eating. She was worried but then Raven with a rather serious look said.

”I have a favour to ask of you”

“These guards are probably on the lookout for me, so if you could lead Maya out of the city, I will distract them”

“Why are they chasing you”

The young woman anxiously said

“You don’t worry about that”

Raven felt that it would be a pain to explain it so he decided to not to.

“That is all I ask of you, please , I will definitely repay you someday”

“Okay , but do you want me do it now”

The young woman asked.

Raven said

“I will leave first and take on the guards, you guys quickly leave after that”

The young woman said in a determined tone

“Okay, I understand”

“Thinking about it , I haven’t asked your name”

Raven noticed it and felt a bit awkward

“My name is Luana”

Raven then deeply bowed and said

“Thank you Luana”

Luana blushed slightly, she wasn’t used to having men being so close to her.

“Also could i ask you for one more thing?”

.....

fifteen guardsmen were frantically chasing a masked man, the mask the man was wearing completely red and, it had black horns coming out of the forehead, it’s mouth wide open showed a terrifying grin, it looked just like a oni.

The masked man held a katana that was red from the blood of the guardsmen he had killed.

After the guardsmen apparently had driven the masked man into a dead end, the masked man turned around, all the guardsmen without wasting a second charged towards him, but he dodged their reckless attacks and with complete ease slashed their necks.

All fifteen guardsmen died in an instant , then the masked man without looking back scurried away.

They just keep on coming

I wonder if they got away safely

I think I should start thinking about escaping.

The masked man was obviously Raven.

Raven was currently carrying out his part of the plan, but due the sheer number of guardsmen that honestly shocked Raven he didnt expect such a large number of guardsmen.

More guards appeared in Raven’s way, this time there were more than thirty guardsmen blocking Raven passage.

Ten more guardsmen finally had caught up to Raven and ended his possibilities of turning back.

Raven then abruptly stopped and looked around he was surrounded in a narrow street that was swarming with guardsmen.

Looks like I will have to fight.

another short chapter

but it's all setting up for a long one.

Any mistakes don't hesitate to inform me