“Do you have any idea of whom was responsible for his death? And where are all his loots? Did the person responsible clear it out also?”, the man finally speaks after a long time of silence. Thinking about who was responsible wouldn’t make him identify who was responsible, as a spy sent as a follower was before him whom he could question for the identity of the killer. And he still hasn’t forgotten the main reason for his coming, it was for the treasures which were looted by his brother from him before running away.

Although they were family members, they had seen and understood this world from when they were young and they had fought life and death battles against soldiers and between themselves more than once and he didn’t care too much about this elder brother of his whom has caused him a great headache. He has almost been arrested due to trying to save Oscar, and Oscar didn’t even feel gratitude and instead tried fighting with him.

Hence from that day, he stopped caring about him. If the person responsible for Oscar’s death was someone he could handle, he didn’t mind killing the person just to make the soul of his brother rest properly but if the person would lead to a headache, he won’t bother trying to fight him at all. The spy was quiet, not answering the questions being laid out to him and this got the man annoyed as the smile which has usually remained plastered on his face turns into a slight frown and although he still looked handsome with quite some noble’s bearing, he was frightening scary to those who knew him.

“Are you mute? Didn’t you hear what I just asked?”, he says once again but this time an aura filled with pure savagery bursts out of his body, even Lucia who was usually beside him, steps back as just a second being enveloped in that aura almost made her fall unconscious. The spy to which it was directed was already unconscious with froth coming off his mouth, the leader just frowns, then tells one of his underlings to wake him up. The spy was splashed with water which made him shiver before waking up immediately and since it was late and the night was cool to boot, the chilliness was increased by a lot.

The spy woke up while looking around, he finds the leader still there and shivered hardly as a tremor ran through his body with his hairs standing at the end. He had thought that what happened before was a hallucination and on waking up, maybe he would find himself in a different place but seems like it all did happen. “Am not going to ask you again”, the leader spoke with a calm tone. This time around the spy didn’t wait long before speaking.

According to what he said though, seems like he had gone out on a separate mission when the raid was being carried out in the village and when Andrew came to their base to loot them of all their treasures. But he did say the men who escaped after Oscar was killed and no matter what he asked though, none of them replied to him as if they were trying their best to quickly run away like there was a grim reaper out there who were after their life. But he happens to know the location of one of the men.

Although not much attention was placed on the underlings, they still built up some amount of infamy and hence had to avoid going into active places like the capital or else they would be arrested and maybe executed, hence the underlying stays at a place not far from where the cave was located with some few other men.

“Let’s go then. You would be taking us there”, the leader says and without further ado, leapt onto his horse. The spy was carried on Lucia’s horse and was at the forefront while he led them through the night to the location in which the escapees made their new hideout. Riding the horse with great speed, the force from the wind became greater and more chilly. One hour later into the nightly drive, they came upon a hilly area, behind one of the hills though, there was a tunnel although well hidden was found by the spy. It was one of the hideouts that Oscar has excavated just in the very likely scenario where he had to switch locations and lay low for a certain amount of time.

They came upon the hideout and at the very moment the spy was about to open it, a devilish smile crept upon the face of the leader. The strongest out of his commanders was about to make a move but he raises his hands to stop her while signalling for the crew to fall back a bit. Understanding what he wanted, she backed down without saying anything. Out of the three commanders, she was the only one who hasn’t performed any action until now, the spy doesn’t notice what was happening and even if he noticed, there was little he could do cause he had no idea how to overpower those monsters behind him and escape. The spy rolls off the stone blocking the entrance, since it wasn’t heavy, could be handled by just one person. And with a creaking sound, the stone was moved, the man stood at the entrance trying to call Lucy and the gang who has now distanced themselves from the entrance of the cave which posed a puzzling question to him but at the next moment, he got to know the reason for their distance as swooshing sounds were heard and piercing sounds rang out as arrows pierce through the body of the spy.

In no time, the spy was sprayed with countless arrows, some piercing his head, back, hand and legs. Seems like they were afraid of leaving any part of the body untouched as a second volley of arrows followed immediately and the already dead and fully pierced body was now the focus of another round of shooting.

The spy’s body truly fits the definition of a human porcupine. Some of the arrows had pierced through the body and one, in particular, gorged his right eye out while sticking to the sharp end of the arrow.

After the second round of arrows, no more arrows were being fired, and now the body of the spy as if finally resting from what it has gone through, finally fell with a thud and squishing sound. The leader isn’t bothered even a single bit by what has happened just now and just signals his most powerful commander while saying, “Don’t kill any of them. Just make them incapable of fighting. I want to get over this as soon as possible and get the location of my treasures”.

On understanding what he wants, she unmount her horse and strode toward the cave as if she didn’t know what has just happened. In no time another volley of arrows was fired at the entrance, seems like they did know what was happening on the outside. But she made dodging the arrow look easy as if she could predict every location of the arrows and move at lightning speed in another direction. Although the path down the underground cave was narrow, she was able to dodge every single arrow without being hurt in the least and before they could fire another volley of arrows, she got deeply inside and soon sounds of painful shrieking could be heard. Not from the woman though, but from the people who were formerly inside the cave and the leader watches every proceeding with his smile on his face. Not so long later, all sounds cease to be heard from the cave.

At the next moment, people were being thrown out of the cave one by one with various degrees of injuries. Some with broken bones, some with parts cut off, and some with just a bruise. They all lay on the floor while a pained expression exists on their face.

They didn’t expect to be unlucky twice in just two months to be attacked by people this powerful. But on getting out, they were all nervous as torches were already lit and the bandits were able to see the faces of those who has ambushed them. On seeing the face of the leader, all colours drain from their faces as they became pale like the dead. They were gripped with so much fear that some forgot to breathe.

Since they were bandits, of course, some has heard about this man in front of them and some were formerly in his organization. He was a great terror to both citizens of the kingdom and fellow bandits. The leader just looks toward the new entries and scans each of them carefully before saying, “Whom amongst you knows who killed my brother?”. His scan was just like the gaze of the grim reaper looking through people that are to be killed and this fear made them sweat bitterly without being able to utter a single sound. “I don’t like repeating my questions”, he smiles before continuing, “And anyone with a vague answer gets killed”, he was puzzled at why those who saw and recognized him would act as if they had seen the angel of death and always be mute in their speaking. He felt bad inwardly, he didn’t want this at all and didn’t expect such a reaction from people, what he had expected was for there to be a free conversation between him and other people. That was why he had trained in noble etiquette after all and always kept that friendly smile on his face.

It didn’t take long for the people to raise their hands about knowing what happened to Oscar and who was responsible for his death. Although they all did not follow Oscar towards the village, when they found out he was dead, they somehow had an inkling of what happened. But out of the people who knew what happened, only two of them were actually at the scene. When the leader heard what had happened and how the killer had come from a village, he felt relieved.

He after all thought it was some strong adversary that killed his brother and collected all his loots but seems he was wrong and was worried for no reason. Smiling broadly at this moment, the leader says, “Well then, since I have gotten what I wanted. The rest of you can finally rest now”. They felt relieved at what he said, thinking that he wasn’t as bad as the rumours has portrayed him to be and is so better in person, but those who had worked under him understood what would be happening next and tries running away.

While trying to run away, those unaware of the actions of the man before them questioned inwardly if those running have gone crazy. But they were bound to not have any other thoughts again in their lives as in the next moment, they were all killed except the two who were eyewitnesses. The remaining two were shaking hard in terror, thinking about what fate laid in store for them. They were both sure that it wouldn’t be good at all and they both thought of ending their lives at this moment. “Rest easy. I never kill anyone who has helped me”, the leader says while getting down from his horse. But those words didn’t do them any good as they were just scared more. But the man ignores them while saying to his crew, “It’s late already. Let’s rest over here. Tomorrow we would be going hunting”. He was the first to enter the cave, he intends to rest, he had been journeying for a long while now.