"Dear customer! We arrived at our destination, would here be a good place to stop?" The man in the front seat of the carriage yelled.
"It´s alright here, you can stop the carriage." A cold voice came from inside the carriage.
With the horses no longer pulling, the carriage stopped.
Jumping out of the carriage, appeared a dark armored figure with two swords to his side.
"Hmm, the sun still has to set..."
"Dear customer, is it alright for me to leave? Although you told me that bringing you here is just enough, after all, what you gave me I wouldn´t mind waiting for your business to be done..." The man said while scratching the back of his neck.
´In no way in hell am I going to sit in that slow think, running would have been hundreds of times faster...´
"No, you have done your job well, you can leave at any time..." Danzel replied in a lazy tone.
"Hehe, If that´s what you wish dear customer then I shall apply to your wishes."
Although the man tried to suppress it, Danzel had long noticed the small grin that was showing on his face.
Scanning his surroundings, Danzel noticed quite a lot of people wearing the same uniform with saws and axes in their hands.
"Hey, before you go back, can you tell me what those guys are doing here?"
Hearing that, for a split second the man frowned in annoyance before turning back into a radiant smile.
"Oh, those guys are..."
According to what the coachman said, those guys were the lumberjacks that came up back to continue their work. Since the recent dangers that were terrorizing this part of the forest, that the anomaly earth lizard was, their work has been for safety reasons been stopped.
But since Danzel and his party had removed the threat that was the earth lizard, they had finally been able to go back to their job.
"There is even a rumor that the earth lizard that you guys had killed also exterminated the nearby hostile beast, making the lumberjacks able to go for much better quality trees that are deeper inside the forest. If you guys haven´t left in such haste I say that those guys would even throw you banquets for the gratitude they have on you guys."
"..."
Motioning the coachman that he can leave, Danzel was standing and cursing from the inside.
Without him even realizing he did those guys quite the big favor.
Although they were essentially hired to kill that earth lizard, in the end, they, or rather he, for the most part, not only killed a much stronger version of that earth lizard but also exterminated those beasts that came to have a snack of the fat lizard.
If he knew that killing those XP bags back then would give them an extra reward then he would have reported it back then.
Of course, the reward that he would have gotten would be seen as insignificant compared to his current wealth.
Originally what he had thought was to wait for he pursues to come and have a go in this place, but now with so many people around him, he had to change his plans.
"I guess I would need to go deeper to the forest..."
Staring at the few carriages that were coming and going in the distance, he switches his gaze towards a tree to his side.
"I guess I have to leave a hint behind."
Clenching his hand into a fist, he turned to the side and punched the tree.
*Breaagh!
Hearing the loud sound of wood breaking, everyone got startled and looked at the dark armored knight who left a fist imprint into the wood itself.
"What was that noise?"
"A beast?"
"Did that guy just punch the tree?"
"Uwah...look at the tree."
Ignoring their pointing fingers, Danzel walked much deeper in the forest with heavy steps.
`Let´s hope they aren´t completely fools...´
***
In a short while later among the many carriages, a group of five people stepped out.
"Let´s hope we didn´t miss him..." Serras said as he looked at his surroundings.
"Don´t worry. We already checked the carriage and the coachman that brought him here. So him being here is not the problem. The problem is..." Having her hand on her chin as Sumire was in deep thoughts, she was shortly cut off by Jack who was beside her.
"That he might actually plan to run away. If that were the chase then he recognized Serras in Nercana."
"Huh, Doesn´t that sound extremely bad?" Naomi said, with a worried expression.
"Don´t worry just yet, according to the coachman, that guy must have arrived where we are." Jack said as he walked towards one of the people working nearby.
"Hey, Jack. Where are you going? We got find him before-
Shrugging his shoulders at Serras, he tapped the shoulder of one of the lumbers Jacks.
After saying some words he shortly came back.
"Since that guy was here, those people working here must have seen him. The one I asked told me that he went towards that direction." Jack said as he pointed at a damaged tree.
"Hmm, if that´s the case what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Nodding to each other they made their way towards the given direction.
Jack, who specialize in sneaks attack and has good experience in trailing others imminently notice the footprints in the ground.
Although the others felt delighted to find those trails, Jack thought the exact opposite.
'Something feels off about all this. It's way too easy for a guy who evaded Berne's military and even made it this far in another kingdom...'
That wasn't the only reason why he felt so. When he asked the lumberjack before, his answer puzzles him.
'Hmm? Ah, you mean the dark armored guy of before? Yeah, he was here. You see that tree over there? The guy that you talking about did that with a single hit of his fist! A single hit I am telling you!'
Ever since then, the question of why the guy they were chasing hit the tree remained in his mind.
But no matter what came into his mind made no sense to him.
"Why would he do that... The tree, the footprints..." Jack mumbled to himself.
A short moment later, the familiar feeling of being gazed upon came back at him.
Stating at the directions where he felt the gaze, Jack froze.
"Guys look! He is over there!" Serras said while drawing his sword out and pointing at the dark armored figure.
"Prepare for combat everyone! Don't forget, we need him aliv-"
"Hehehe"
A deep and yet cold laugh echoed around the area.
"To think that you would truly follow me" the figure said as they throw one of his swords that he had to the side to the ground.
The dark armored figure pulled out his remains long sword with runes in it, with ominous mana surrounding the blade.
"How didn't I realize it sooner..." Jack draw out of his many knives a par on each of his hands while clicking his lips in frustration.
"Oh, mana! Bless they my allies for me and bestow the gift of the matchless body with strength!" Casting from the side, Sumire who had her stuff raised pointed at the ground towards the other four of her party members
With five of the same circle appearing on everyone's foot, a yellow light surrounded their bounty before it got absorbed in their body.
Naomi who saw that raised her staff too and started casting.
"It seems I was right...let's do that just in case." Whispering something to himself, dead mana started and surrounded Danzel's body.
With the armor that Danzel wore, a small part of the dead mana was seeping out of his armor similar to trapped smoke.
"Alright, guys! We do it just like we always-" with life force enchanting his legs, Serras dashed forward with a big grin on his smile.
-Do!"
Seeing that, Jack imminently panicked!
"Wait, Serras! This guy wasn't running! He was-" before Jack could finish what he could say, a dark green mist shot out Danzel's palm and engulfed Serra's body with extreme speed before the most entered Serras body.
"That magic!?" Sumire who looked by their side had her eyes open wide.
"Tch, Bernard! Let's go and support Serras!" Dashing forward, sweat formed in Jacks's forehead.
He felt regret as soon as he felt the aura that this guy was generating in front of him.
It was as if a long forgotten fear of his has reawakened.
'This guy wasn't running away from us! He planned to hunt us from the very start!'
The fear that as a hunter to suddenly become the hunted instead.
***
At the same time in Honors store.
An old man wearing robes while holding a staff in his hand stepped inside the store...
Behind him are several ice sculptures of people.
Unmoving without a hint of life to be seen on them.
