"What a convenient place to be in."

Uttered by White as he looks at the scenery around him.

They are still crossing the mountains where they have met and fought Ogres. But, unlike before when most of what they can see are rocks. Now, it is trees that are blocking almost everything they could see.

The rocks have now become trees that filled every single direction they look at. Even the sky has been almost eaten by the trees themselves.

The only reason they can still see without having to use their lamps is through the scenic ray of lights passing through the gaps made of the leaves and some of the spaces between the trees, illuminating their passage.

So even though they are in a closed space. Most of the people in the caravan could still see everything.

For most of them, it was such a beautiful sight.

'It's almost like an art.'

Isa thought as she continues to admire her surroundings.

They were almost at the end of their journey passing through the mountain so the path that they are going through now is going to be mostly downwards.

And because of that, most of the people in the caravan are outside their wagons, trying to lessen the weight of their wagons while also trying to guide their horses themselves. As they were going downwards, the wagon that has wheels on it will most likely move on its own if not for the horse and the help of the owners themselves. And by its weight increased. If the people stayed inside their wagons, the horse that should have been pulling it might be pushed instead which might cause chaos which the people on the caravan are trying to prevent.

"We're all outside and we can't go back."

Continued by White while holding onto the rein of his horse.

"Are we going to be attacked, Mr. White?"

Asked Isa. Looking at her surroundings. Looking for something suspicious.

"Still too early."

Black on the other hand is taking it easy, with no amount of wariness can be seen on his face.

"Even if they're good, they should only be able to start moving after we get to a flatter area."

He continued.

"You look calm Mr. Black."

Said Isa. Looking at the calm face of Black.

"Of course he is. He is inside the wagon!"

As White pointed it out, Black just ignored him and even lay down on the wagon seemingly to mock White.

"This shitty old man."

Said White not even hiding the anger on his face.

'If my thoughts are correct, we shouldn't face an enemy more than our number. Since we chose this path over what Isa said to be the safer way, I assume that even if this Caravan's enemy made sure to not leave this path unguarded, it shouldn't be that many that we wouldn't be able to handle.'

White is thinking that if Drey is trying to move covertly by going through the mountain, it is possible that Drey was expecting that their enemy is waiting for them in the supposed safer way.

Based on that, they shouldn't be able to position many soldiers in this path as the enemy should only be able to use a limited amount of soldiers as the enemy too might be read by other territories doing some suspicious movements in the middle of a war.

'In any case, ambushing a caravan normally doesn't even require that much soldier. Even if we go to the other path, their numbers shouldn't be that many either way.'

A caravan is normally made up of people who don't train to fight. Although Bandits will require big numbers to fully subdue a caravan, raiding and robbing them is a different story.

And if you apply that logic to soldiers vs merchants. Numbers less than half of the people in a caravan might actually already be enough.

"Hah..."

White sighed. Clearing his thoughts.

'It would be better if they don't attack at all.'

As White is thinking to himself. Isa is just looking at him with a calm face.

...

In a not so far away from the position of White, a group of people can be seen camping inside a forest.

They were the people who are tasked with ambushing the caravan where White is at and abducting the daughter of the Duke of Orene.

As they aren't actually expecting a noble girl to travel in a harsh and unsafe terrain, the numbers allotted to them aren't that many.

Only amounting to twenty people, five of which aren't even soldiers but just hired peasants lured by a good sum of money.

"Sir, we've spotted a caravan coming from the mountains."

Said a guy wearing a normal set of clothing for peasants.

"Is it the caravan we are aiming for?"

Asked by the leader of the group. Many from their group who heard what he said started closing in, curious if it was really the caravan they were aiming for.

'I don't think it is yet but... I also don't think a normal caravan would go this way.'

The leader thought. On his mind, traveling through this mountain is just being careless. There's just no reason to.

Unlike the normal trade routes. This road wasn't used by merchants and the likes, so travelers won't exactly know what they will encounter.. In short, there was nothing but potential danger.

'They might even encounter an Ogre or something.'

Which leaves him to think that this caravan might just be their target.

"Sir, I have counted at least twenty-five people in the caravan which although lower than than the report, it's still not normal. Considering they are crossing this mountains. Sir, I think this is it!"

Replied the same guy. Like the leader. He also thought that it's impossible for the caravan to just be any other.

'Looks like it's really them. Hmmm If they spotted twenty-five people outside, then that means, there might be more inside the caravan, possibly hiding.'

The leader tried to process the information given to him. And based on what he has and what has been given. He was left no choice but to accept that the Caravan is indeed what they are waiting for.

"It's not like we have a choice if we will attack or not anyway."

The leader didn't ask any more questions and decided to continue with the plan.

They might have not expected that the caravan will really go in their direction, but the leader still at least made sure to prepare as much as he can.

'Looks like I will be the one to avenge us.'

The leader thought as he and the whole group started to prepare for the ambush.

To inform others about his encounter with their target, the Leader sent a messenger from one of the soldiers he got. Because of that, they were lessened by one soldier. The earlier fifteen soldiers are now reduced to fourteen.

He could have just sent one of his hired peasants to do the job but he chose not to for the reason of trust.

'Well, they're still useful in other ways.'

Thought by the leader. Thinking about the peasants.

Although he doesn't really trust them, why he hired five of them is because of other reasons. One of such is to use them to increase their numbers which will help intimidate the enemy that might even surrender seeing just how many they are.

They might not be able to fight, but the enemy wouldn't exactly know that until they actually chose to fight.

But for now, their use is by assisting us.

...

"Sir, we are already done with the trap."

Said a man that looks like a soldier. He and the others made a trap to block the road by cutting a tree near the road.

In the mind of the leader. He might be able to lure out the people, most preferably, the soldiers in the open so that when they try to work on the log, they would be able to reduce their number more easily by ambushing them.

Most people in the group can be seen wearing the standard armor used by the common soldier of the Kingdom.

Although, they have planned earlier to wear bandit clothing to hide their identity. The leader chose to abandon the idea when he got the information of how many the guards are in the caravan.

Although, they still have more professional fighters. He feared the number of people in the caravan as a threat.

There's also the factor of the guards wearing full gear which can easily up their advantage if they on the other hand would only wear some padding for protection.

'Merchants should be more cooperative with this set up also. There's no way that all of them are fake merchants, right?'

"Very well. How far is the caravan still?"

Asked the leader. Looking at the direction where the caravan will come through.

"Sir, they should be here in ten minutes."

"Okay, all of you. You all know what the plan is, right?"

...

As this is all happening. White on the other hand is sitting inside their wagon as it continues going towards their destination unaware of the enemy that is going to attack.

"The audacity of this old man to sit here while I'm the leader. I'm also sitting!"

White angrily said.

White then hopped onto the wagon and sit on the other side of Black.

At the sight of this, Isa wasn't able to do anything but just sigh at the action of the two.

'Aren't we supposed to lessen the burden of the horse?'

Isa thought. Unlike her two companions, she was walking outside wearing all her gears for combat.

In a sense, the two just looks like they are slacking while Isa at least tries to reduce the burden they are causing.

White just ignored it though and continued.

Like Isa, both Black and White are wearing armors given to them as extra by the Captain of the City of Orene.

"Isa, just make sure that you're wearing your helmet okay?"

White said. Completely ironic to the two of them who aren't wearing theirs.

Responding to White. Isa holds her helmet in place signaling that he heard the advice of White.

As the caravan continued to move. They noticed that their path is now flat.