"Begin? Begin what?" Sophie asked. Just as she did, she noticed that they had all been surrounded by many men.
Ning noticed that as well and slowly reached for his sword on his waist.
"What is this?" one of the men asked. Everyone else prepared for a fight as well.
"Please stay your hand," Erman said. "Our intention here is not to hurt you."
"Then what is it?" Frank asked while holding onto an air sword of his own.
"Our intentions will make sense to you all once we reach our destination. Please come with us," the man said.
He started walking in the opposite direction of the fortress behind him.
Ning couldn't help but look toward Sophie for some sort of answer. She was the one that had been helping him with understanding stuff for a while now, so he couldn't help but rely on her.
"Are we being attacked?" he asked.
"I don't think so," she said. "As far as I know, that Erman guy is a high-ranking member of the gang that is said to have regular connection with the boss himself. I doubt he is doing anything that goes against the gang. Still, be ready to save us."
Ning nodded and looked around. 'So she really didn't come after all,' he thought.
The 8 of them were led by nearly 20 different people toward an open space in the mountain. The trees there were cleared out, and Ning could see tents being prepared.
"Are we staying here?" someone asked.
"I'm afraid that is the only choice you have," Erman said. "Or rather, that is the only choice we have. After all, as it has turned out, one or more of you have betrayed the gang."
"What?"
"Nonsense!"
The men and women in the group started shouting at Erman who simply stood there and listened to it all. Even Sophie started shouting at Erman.
Ning on the other hand looked at everything with a silent voice.
"Why aren't you speaking?" Sophie shouted at Ning. "He is accusing us of having betrayed the gang. They are looking to kill you."
"I mean, he's not wrong," Ning said as he shrugged.
The others in the group stopped and looked at him. "What?" they asked.
"It was obvious we were betrayed," Ning said and turned towards Erman. "Only, can you tell us why you assume one of us is the betrayer? And not someone else?"
Erman nodded. "The reason is simple," he said. "That is because only you 8 are supposed to have the information that the boss was coming to Grandfort city."
"Only he didn't come, did he?" Ning asked. "So sending us here, was… he trying to figure out who the traitor amongst us is? I'm curious why us 8 were being chosen."
"You weren't," Erman said. "Everyone in Grayfire city was told that the boss would be moving with them. If their group was attacked, there are others that are holding them captive too."
"Ah! that's smart," Ning said. "So the question is, how do you intend to figure out who the traitors are amongst us?"
"Please let us figure that out on our own," Erman said. "For now, hand over your weapons."
Two people walked by with a stretcher behind them. Ning wondered why they were using a stretcher and only then realized that if these people didn't touch the weapon directly, they wouldn't be harmed at all.
'Damn, have to be careful about that one,' Ning thought. Everyone reluctantly started handing over their weapons, so Ning handed them over too. He didn't want to fight with someone that was on the same team as him after all.
"We will have tents prepared for you in a bit. You can rest after that," Erman said and walked away.
Ning slumped down on the grass and sat freely.
"What is wrong with you?" Sophie asked. "You don't seem worried at all."
"Why would I be worried?" Ning asked. "I did nothing wrong."
"Even so, you're being treated as a prisoner. What if what they said was false and they are trying to kill us to hide evidence," Sophie asked.
"That is possible," Ning said. "But look at the number of people here. Do you really think that there are 20 people out there that have betrayed the gang? If that was the case, the gang wouldn't even exist anymore."
Sophie looked around and nodded. "You're right. I need to stop being so pessimistic," she said.
"No, you should be pessimistic," Ning said. "You are unfortunately in a line of work where being too trusting can get you killed. I can afford to be optimistic because I can afford to be killed."
Sophie looked at him weirdly. "Are you… suicidal by any chance?" she asked.
Ning really chuckled out loud. "No," he said and looked around. He saw the rest of them, and amongst them, he saw Frank.
'It's him, isn't it?' he thought. He remembered all the fidgeting the man had done right before the bandits had shown up. It was him and the other 2.
'They are most definitely the traitors,' Ning thought to himself. However, he didn't find any reason to tell the others the truth.
On one hand, he had no evidence other than his word, which could never be trusted at all. On the other hand, he wanted to see exactly how it was that they were planning on finding the traitors.
Since torture wasn't an option, did they have stuff like truth serum? It would be fun to see.
"Agh, I'm tired," he said and laid on his back as he waited for the tents to be prepared.
The others were confused and even reviled his actions under their breath. However, in the end, they couldn't do anything other than that.
The tents were prepared not long after and were stationed far away from each other that the people in them couldn't communicate at all.
Erman came back and issued a tent for each of them by himself. After learning where he was supposed to go, Ning walked into the tent and disappeared.
