“Those bastards!”

“Idiot. It’s your fault for picking a fight without even knowing that he was a real knight.”

“What did you say, you little bastard?”

The atmosphere was quite tense between the earlier escapees and the new arrivals. They ran their horses until the creatures literally collapsed. They had only worked together for about half a year at the longest, and all three of their leaders, the Bernard brothers, were dead.

“Everyone, be quiet! We need to remain calm at times like these.” Gabe, the strongest of the remaining ten or so men, shouted. All the others promptly shut up. It was an unspoken fact among criminals that the word of the strongest was the law.

“Gabe, let’s hide here for a few days and go back to Paranan.”

“Are you insane? What are you going to do if that black-armored knight is still there?”

“No. I heard it when I was captured. Their group is heading to the ruin in the Beogalan Barony.”

“That’s right. Those knights are not from around here anyway. I heard they are from Maren. Fuck, we’re so unlucky.”

Two of the men explained. Although it was for a short period of time, Eugene had captured them as slaves. Gabe stroked his pointy goatee before speaking. “Come to think of it, I heard rumors that they failed to subdue the Philia...