Chapter 183
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
During the day, he disguised himself as a merchant, relentlessly moving forward, and at night, he spent several days sleeping on the streets. After following Rubens, Cain entered the southern region, and a month later, he deduced that their destination was Pahel.
From the capital to Arta, from Arta to the south, soon after, he took a detour and began his journey back to Pahel. This was no easy feat, even for trained knights.
With no comfortable place to sleep, even those in good health easily fell ill. But there was no time to rest.
If they missed Rubens’ carriage, it would all be over. Cain pushed himself and his knights to their absolute limits.
Finally, they arrived at the outskirts of Pahel. An old wooden sign stood at the fork in the road, welcoming them.
[Pahel]. The red letters were the same ones he had seen when he visited Pahel before.
It felt like the long journey was finally nearing its end. Cain exhaled a deep sigh of frustration.
“We’ve arrived in Pahel, Commander.”
Lehman reported, checking out the window.
“But haven’t we already been here before? We searched the entire village last time and couldn’t find anyone who knew about Duchy Kristin or the Borgia family…”
This referred to the previous wasted trip when they had hoped to find answers about the Borgia family in Pahel but returned to the capital empty-handed.
“It seems we didn’t investigate thoroughly last time.”
“That’s impossible. Didn’t we search every alley and look for the Borgia estate and their people?”
The knights of Vernat were thorough when it came to finding people, and they couldn’t have missed anything. Lehman shook his head in confusion
Just then, the carriage ahead of them stopped, and Cain and his knights immediately quieted their movements.
The people disembarked from the carriage and started transferring to another one parked nearby. Cain silently observed their actions.
The last person to get off the carriage was wearing a mask, but Cain immediately recognized him. It was Rubens. With a build that large, it was impossible to hide it.
The new carriage, now fully loaded with Rubens and others, departed down a different road, one opposite of what they had anticipated. Cain, not wanting to be spotted following them, halted and began counting in his head.
After counting to fifty, he would move down that road. He motioned with his lips, and Lehman nodded.
Would he finally meet her at the end of this road? After many setbacks, hope slowly began to stir again.
Hope, despite being crushed several times, always managed to revive itself with just a single drop of expectation.
But this time, it wasn’t an unfounded or vague hope. Cain began to feel a real certainty, a belief that he would truly be able to see Agatha.
Agatha. Would he really be able to see you tonight? Cain bit his lips.
The carriage, which had turned in a completely different direction from what he had expected, stopped after a short distance.
A smell of water wafted to his nose. The carriage had stopped at a port where several boats were docked.
“Looks like they’re planning to take a boat.”
“Should we let them go? If they leave by boat, it’ll be hard to follow, Commander.”
“Shh.”
Cain quickly gestured for the driver to stop as his eyes caught a strange figure in the dim, humid surroundings.
Suddenly, some unfamiliar men appeared and blocked the way of the approaching carriage. They began shouting something loudly.
Though they were still a distance away, Cain’s knights followed his lead, silencing themselves. They had purposely avoided lighting any lamps to stay out of sight. In the silence, Cain focused on understanding the situation.
“Are they part of the same group?”
“No. Their insignia is different. That’s not Kristin’s group.”
“Then…?”
“Mercenaries, most likely.”
In an instant, the men surrounding the carriage were clad in armor that didn’t resemble that of knights. Cain immediately recognized that they were not knights, and seeing their rough armor, he guessed they were mercenaries hired by someone else.
“….Who owns Pahel again?”
Mercenary bands are typically hired by the local landowners. However, Cain recalled that Pahel didn’t belong to anyone at the moment. A long time ago, the Borgia family owned about half of Pahel, but now their family was nearly extinct.
“They’re tying people up. Should we intervene?”
The mercenaries were pulling people out of the carriage and starting to bind their arms, preventing them from moving. The atmosphere was growing more serious than expected, and Lehman looked to Cain for instructions.
Should they reveal their identities and step in to save the people from the Duke’s household, or should they quietly follow behind them? Either choice would come with significant risks.
If they chose the former, they might have to face off against the mercenary band’s unknown employer. But if they chose the latter…
“Commander.”
Lehman’s voice pushed Cain to make up his mind. After considering for a moment, Cain made his decision.
“Intervene. Everyone, prepare for combat.”
“Yes, understood.”
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