The wounded knight finished recounting the past as his eyes grew dim.

Seeing this, Leon took out a blue potion from his belt. However, the knight stopped Leon with his trembling hand.

He weakly pointed towards a direction. Next to the dirt road was a forest saturated with trees. Towards where the revolutionaries took the ambassador and her apprentice.

“My body…. it’s so… cold,” the knight’s final words as he breathed his last.

Royland moved towards the knight – lifeless with eyes still open. He used his hand to close his eyelids.

“Rest well now, you’ve done your duty as a knight,” Royland quietly said, commending the fallen knight for his final act.

Leon watched and then closed his eyes, thinking of what to do next. His mind was going through scenarios of what the best next plan of action would be.

“Damn. What now?” Royland asked.

“We move to chase them,” replied Leon.

“What of the captain’s orders? Should not one of us stay here while the other calls for aid?”

“And let those revolutionaries flee? Our time could be put to better use if we give chase to them now.”

Royland thought for a moment and found Leon’s words to be true.

“Hah, Leon! Just what I’d expect from my friend,” he said, trying to lighten the mood, “You speak the truth, we may be able to catch those scum ourselves.”

Before the two decided to chase the mercenaries, they hastily gathered the knights’ bodies and covered them with a large cloth they found in the carriage.

After they were done, they tied their horses to a nearby tree since they would only hinder their mobility with what little space there was between the trees. The pair made their way into the nearby forest, the direction that the wounded knight pointed to before passing away.

---

Inside the forest, dense in greenery with the sun’s rays peeking through the leaves.

A young man was on his knees. He had short light brown hair, cleanly styled to the side. His face was average, abundant with freckles. He wore light trousers and a blue tunic with his thin and gangly physique.

He had an expression of anger on his face but couldn’t muster enough strength to stand up against the men surrounding him, all wearing a red cloth around their necks.

“A cheeky young lad, this one,” said one of the men in front of him, “what should we do with him?”

“Hmph. The bastard’s a rowdy one, kept shouting ‘round causin’ us to fall behind the others,” replied another man.

“Hah, rather than ransom, I’d rather his mouth shut.”

“Right then,” one of the men drew his sword and faced the kneeling young man, “if your lucky in your next life, you won’t stand against the Revolutionary Faction again.”

The young man looked up to the revolutionary and spat blood on his face. The revolutionary smiled, wiping the blood from his face.

“Suit yourself.”

He lifted the sword high and began to swing down on the young man’s neck.

Stab!

However, just as his blade was inching closer, a black dagger flew from the surrounding trees and pierced one of the revolutionary’s hand, causing his sword to stray off course and land beside the young man.

“Argh! Who the—,” yelled the revolutionary with a dagger stabbing his hand.

He was irritated that someone interrupted him executing the young man. He tried to lift his sword again but found his body to be paralyzed. He began to worry, sweat beginning to drip from his forehead.

The other revolutionaries were dumbfounded and began looking for the person who threw the dagger.

From a distance, a young raven-haired figure revealed his presence.

---

Leon and Royland were rushing in the forest, looking for any trail left behind by the revolutionaries.

“We must hurry, they can’t have gotten too far from here,” said Royland.

Leon agreed and the two increased their speed.

They ran as fast as they could, flying by the trees and bushes.

Faster, we must be faster. A myriad of thoughts passing through their minds.

What if we can’t find them?

What if they kill the ambassador?

What if we do encounter them but die in the end?

Will we be rewarded for saving him, or punished for disregarding orders?

They pushed such thoughts to the back of their mind and continued to try to find a trail.

“Over here!” shouted Royland.

He noticed multiple footprints nearby and looked where they were heading.

“They must be this way, we may yet to catch up to them!”

Leon nodded his head, he and Royland followed the trail of footprints.

They continued to track the footprints for half an hour until they heard a voice up ahead.

“…What should we do with him?” the voice asked.

Immediately, Leon and Royland hid behind a tree thick enough to hide the both and peeked out from the side.

They saw a young man on his knees, hair pushed to the side, light brown. He looked wounded with desperation and anger written across his face. Leon concluded that this young man must be an apprentice to the ambassador. He looked around to see if anyone else was also there but that thought left his mind from what he heard next.

“The bastard’s a rowdy one, kept shouting ‘round causin’ us to fall behind the others,” another voice replied to the first.

‘Fallen behind? There must be another group ahead that still hold the ambassador captive!’ Leon concluded.

The pair looked around the kneeling apprentice and noticed he was surrounded by five men with red cloths tied around their necks.

“Revolutionaries…” Royland muttered beneath his breath.

“So, Leon, what do we do?”

“Hm…” Leon took what little time they had to form a plan.

“Royland, hide near that bush there. When they start moving towards me, rush over to the apprentice and protect him from the others. We’ll have to fight our way out after that,” explained Leon.

Royland nodded his head and quietly got in position by a nearby bush.

Meanwhile, one of the revolutionaries drew his sword and looked towards the kneeling apprentice.

“…if you’re lucky in your next life, you won’t stand against the Revolutionaries Faction again.”

At the same time, Leon took his black dagger from behind his back with one hand. The other hand dug into his pouch and took out a vial with purple liquid in it.

“His body should be dull with this.”

He popped the cap off the vial with his mouth and dripped the contents of the vial over his dagger.

“Suit yourself,” the revolutionary took his sword and began to swing down on the apprentice’s neck.

Leon pinched the blade of his dagger and drew his arm back, preparing to throw the dagger. The next moment, Leon threw the dagger toward the revolutionary.

The dagger spun through the air, unbeknownst to any of the surrounding people, looking for its target.

Stab!

Before the revolutionary’s sword was completely swung, the black dagger appeared and pierced the man’s hand.

“Hoh, your skills have sharpened, my friend.” Royland quietly complimented.

Leon let out a look of pride and smiled.

‘Perfect, he should be paralyzed for a short while,’ he thought.

The surrounding revolutionaries were wary and looked for the source of the black dagger.

“Stick to the plan, Royland,” Leon stated.

Royland nodded his head and stayed crouched by the bushes. He slowly inched around the perimeter to get a better position to rush towards the almost-beheaded apprentice.

Leon decided to take this moment to expose himself to the revolutionaries. He stepped out and revealed himself from the trees, disclosing his location.