As the door of the carriage closed with a thud, James's heart started beating like crazy. With each passing second, something new was happening. Now the soldiers who were standing outside had their weapons in hand & were scanning the surrounding for something or someone.

He tried to poke his head out of the window, but a soldier rushed to his side & forced him to stay inside. But during the brief moment his eyes were outside, he saw something of a very peculiar scene.

The soldiers whom Lucas introduced as his soldiers were now obstructing their way. They had nothing on their dress to identify, even as soldiers & were carrying weapons with a wide grin plastered on their faces.

And now everything made sense. It was not some special theory of relativity which would require hours of thinking & truck sized brain but was just a simple fact. From the very beginning of this return trip, everyone excluding him, were acting weird.

Hansh & all the soldiers had tense expression and as for Lucas he was acting like some crackpot. He was biting his nails, shaking his legs, looking outside again & again for some unknown reasons. First, he thought nothing of it but when the captain left with a terrifying expression & all the soldiers outside started unsheathing their weapons; he knew something was wrong.

And after getting this brief view of the outside, he was now sure that this was an assassination plot for either him or Lucas. Leonhart was a duke's son or, in other words, he was the future duke & by eliminating him, anyone could create a chaotic environment in this realm to force this duchy to its imminent doom which was not so far as the civil war was approaching rapidly and this was a perfect time for something like this to happen.

James was sure that this guy really had a long list of people who hated him & would definitely try to clean the slate of but he did not know who these people were. Their motivation was clear, but their faces were unknown.

There was no point in thinking all this, as he now had to escape this assassination plot. But how could he do that? There was no way out of here & his best bets were these soldiers who would lie down their lives for him.

So he sat down, controlling his panicking heart & looked towards Lucas to ask something as he was acting like someone who knew what was going on. But what he saw just surprised him.

Lucas looked like someone who had seen a ghost. His face was pale, forehead, palms all were sweaty, his breathing was erratic & was now visibly shaking in fear.

Just what happened to him?

James tried to talk to him or calm him down, but he was in no way able to listen or talk. He really was shocked from all this, but his reaction was a bit odd. He had to act surprised, just like him, but he was acting like his death was standing before him, waiting to collect his soul.

"Lucas.... Lucas, what happened to you?" once gain James tried to talk to him by grabbing & shaking him but no words escaped his mouth. He just looked at him with eyes full of terror.

Lucas knew what had just happened & what could happen now? But the biggest question that haunted him was what if this plan failed or what if Leon died? Who would take the blame?

Hansh was already acting like he knew something & if he knew what he thought he knew, then this plan had already failed. Leon's death was somewhat certain, but that captain was one of the best swordsman in the entire empire & killing him was not something anyone can do.

If Hansh survived & Loen died, then it won't take long for the entire empire to know who the culprit was. Heinrich would march down with his entire army, killing anyone & everyone, including him & his family, until he got his revenge.

Just why did he agree to this? Was Lina worth more than his & his families's life? No, she wasn't. In the heat of the moment, he had done something which he shouldn't have done, even in his dreams.

But what now? Would Leon forgive him if he told the truth? No, he won't. No one would forgive someone who had tried to kill them. It was just impossible & he knew it. Still, he had to do something.

Hansh would not die & his demise was sure if he won't do something soon enough. So what's the best choice...

The best & only option was to tell Leon everything & wait for his judgement, as his death was sure either way.

"I... I am... Sorry. I did all..." Lucas tried his best to tell him, but no words came out as if his throat was getting more & more dry with each passing moment.

"What are you talking about?" asked James in a confused tone. He was trying to understand what Lucas was trying to say, but his words were incomplete & was shuddering a lot.

"Listen, just..." Leon tried to tell him to say properly but soon his attention shifted towards the window where footsteps & rustling sounds were heard. And to his horror, now they were all surrounded by many people carrying weapons.

His hopes of getting out of here alive faded within a moment, as these new guys vastly outnumbered the soldiers who were now facing the enemy.

The enemies were all mercenaries who were not properly trained or disciplined, but their number was more than enough to finish everyone here. As they say, quantity could beat quality if used properly and the one who planned all this took that line to his heart.

James' face also became paler, just like Lucas, as it felt he was directly staring into the eyes of his death, helplessly. He couldn't do anything to fix this or get out of here.

Would this be how he died once gain accomplishing nothing? What even this cruel fate even wanted from him?

And soon to his surprise someone shouted signal in a loud tone & following it an ear piercing noise and the warcries of both sides were heard indicating the beginning of this fateful encounter.

Was this the end of him yet again? There were thousands of questions going inside James' brain, but suddenly he felt like his body fell backwords into the seat as the whole carriage sped up like a car. Lucas also fell down onto the floor because of the sudden inertia, but was unable to get up as the carriage kept moving on the bumpy road without slowing down.

James tried to get up, but because of the entire structure of the carriage shaking violently, he couldn't. Still, he was positioned at a place where he could see what was going on the outside.

As he struggled to move his head to the left, looking through the window, a tall man with a long beard came into view riding a horse with the same speed as they were, who looked at him with a ferocious expression for a moment but averted his gaze within a second & moved ahead. It seemed he was entirely focused on something else.

James was shocked to see him, but soon Hansh came into view as he was also riding his horse following that bearded guy. He didn't have that luxury to look here & there as he was too fixated on getting that assailant out of the way from this carriage.

Hansh had many ideas on how to stop this dude, but no plan was usable on a moving target like this. He couldn't throw his sword nor shot an arrow, which he didn't have. Still, there had to be something he could do & soon a sudden light emerged from the darkness as he once again whipped his horse to move even faster. There was a plan & he had to execute it right now.

The tall man who was irritated over not getting a simple hit on the driver was now riding far too close to the carriage & could also hit the horse if wanted. It was a golden opportunity for him to jump on this moving carriage & finish his target but it proved too risky. If his jump didn't connect, then his death was set in stone.

Still, he had to do something before they reach the nearest checkpoint or the oncoming soldiers could intercept him. And the idea he came up with was to get too close to the carriage & then attempt to jump by holding onto the side or try to open door to where he could directly jump inside.

It was risky, but he didn't have a choice anymore. This total fiasco had to end right now. So he followed his plan & got closer, but once again underestimated the captain, who also had a similar plan like his, but seeing him trying to grab the handle, Hansh improvised his approach a bit.