Before Edson came before them, Andrew took the risk of throwing the bags of coins towards the thick vegetation. It was a gamble to him, if it was found, then so be it. But if it isn’t, it would be his win. And at the end, seems like it was due to him being able to hide his aura or due to some other factors but the coins weren’t found out.
The gamble ended in his win, although he was in such a dangerous situation, he was still thinking about his wealth. And he ends up still being wealthy albeit no one knew if he would survive or not to enjoy the wealth.
The two girls were busy treating Andrew and hence missed the smile which formed on his face. But they hear another sound of horse hoofs stumping the ground and on raising their head, dust could be seen kicking from afar and their hearts almost leapt towards their mouth.
They thought it was Edson who has come back but on thinking that he moved the other way, they knew it was unlikely to be him. Then maybe it was another bandit group, how could they be lucky twice in a day? All they ever wanted was to get to the capital and never imagined that it would be this dangerous.
Eve hasn’t faced such dangers since she began taking this route to and fro the capital. She and Marian understood perfectly well that they were weak and there was nothing they could do to protect themselves if this new group had bad intentions towards them also. Eve thought of running away and leaving both Marian and Andrew behind but she came to her senses as being alone and lost in this place was just as dangerous or even more dangerous than being captured by bandits. She bit her lips and gripped her clothes tightly while wishing deeply that they won’t be seen and that the horses would pass through another route. But her wish was dashed as the group of horses seem to be heading directly in their direction without bending or taking a different route. Her heart was beating so fast that it could be heard without being too close.
While Marian was just beside Andrew sobbing hard, if she had known that the journey was this deadly she would have followed the advice of Andrew and remained in the village. But shortly after, she shook her head as she renewed her resolve. She would rather die beside Andrew than live peacefully in the village without knowing what is happening to this family of hers.
She took the cutlass which has been thrown to the side and thought of ending her life if this new group of people was just as dangerous as the former. After a short while, the group of soldiers came before them and Olivia frowns as she sees the state of Andrew who was young and injured severely, obviously in a critical state. She also notices the two young girls beside him and her frown deepens. On Eve seeing the uniform worn by the people behind the lady, her heart was finally able to calm down. These were the uniform worn by soldiers and on seeing the face of the woman before her, she screams out as if seeing her saviour, “Aunty Livia”.
Olivia was shocked that one of the young girls knew her name and on looking at her closely couldn’t help but say in a surprised voice, “Eve???”. They were acquainted from the capital, not due to her father’s connections though but when she had been in the capital studying, she happened to meet this woman. Olivia grew fond of her quickly though and although they haven’t met much, Olivia always took care of her and gave her some bits of advice. Eve has always loved this woman who took care of her, she acted like a mother and a big sister to her. And she grew fond of having that feeling, that was the way she was able to get over the depression she felt from being picked on by those high-ranking nobles.
But during a party where she was being picked on by a duke’s daughter, Olivia stuck out for her and hence in the process offended the duke. She was the reason for the punishment meted out to Olivia, although not directly but it was due to the fact that she was being defended. She knew that the fact that Olivia stuck up for her would put her in a difficult situation, hence she took the chance to travel down to the village to meet her father. She now understood that perhaps her punishment has been given and it has something to do with outside the capital, hence she was present here.
She felt guilty over what has happened but knew there was nothing that she could do to help her out since she didn’t have any connection that could rival that of a duke in the kingdom.
A loving expression now forms on Olivia's face when knowing that it was Eve and called her closer to her. Eve didn’t hold back on everything that happened between them and the group of bandits. She explained it all to the smallest details, and although she wasn’t able to watch the fight due to the fast-paced movements involved, she was still able to explain it to the best of her abilities. Olivia, Lucas, as well as the other soldiers, were shocked by the power possessed by this seeming frail-looking boy. Especially when they heard about the ruthless warlord, it was unusual of him to leave behind anyone alive and Olivia almost started doubting if Andrew was really as he seems and if he wasn’t a spy from their bandit group due to the medicines which Edson left behind to treat him with as they were all visibly expensive medicines and from Olivia, the girls were able to be ensured that the drugs were fine and it hasn’t been tampered with, so it’s meant to perform its full effect if nothing out of the ordinary comes up. Although he could acquire such wealth easily from robbing others, it was still quite a feat for Edson to do such a thing.
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But the injury which was inflicted on Andrew changes her mind, as nobody would risk the life of someone with this great a potential, it seems like he even had more potential than that of the child festered by the royal family. Why would anybody even if not in the right frame of mind risk the life of such a boy with this sort of shocking potential? It doesn’t seem possible no matter which angle she reasons the matter from and on Eve explaining the background of Andrew and how he had killed Oscar, she was shocked by the level of brutality of this young boy and all that he must have gone through to be able to be this decisive in all his dealings. She was even shocked by how he was able to persevere with such injuries on him, if she was in his position, she would have possibly been dead. If she knew the number of times, Andrew has been put in such a situation, she would perhaps think it normal for Andrew to persevere through it all and think it was abnormal for him to even die at this moment due to this injury. She also sympathized with the loss of Ceros, although she didn’t speak much with this guard of Eve, she knew how close they have always seemed together, hence she felt sympathy when hearing of how he had been killed.
She gleaned more about the identity of Andrew from Marian who has already laid the cutlass by the side since she knew the people who have come this time around haven’t come to harm them. Olivia now kind of had an idea about the life of this child and from everything Marian said, she was able to figure out some hidden clues which Andrew has hidden from Marian and couldn’t help from smiling in admiration of Andrew. If she wasn’t able to fix some missing puzzles, she wouldn’t have been deserving of her title as a general. After all, none of the generals present came to their position without even developing their wits from the wars which were constantly being waged between kingdoms as they had to think quickly and efficiently about the best way for things to be done.
After the little talks, she understood that the group of Edson would have gone far ahead and even if they haven’t, she didn’t want to risk the lives of many of her troops in the situation where traps has been placed, lying in wait for them, thus she arranged for Andrew to be put into one of the carts for safe movements in order not to worsen his injuries same with the girls but before being led into the cart, Marian suggested they should wait as she beckons on Eve to follow her as they approached the place where Andrew had thrown the coins towards. Even Eve hasn’t known that Andrew had thrown the coins out of the cart. Olivia frowns not understanding the reason behind Marian's behaviour but on seeing what she was dragging from the forest and the sounds she made, she was shocked about the sheer amount of the coins which Andrew has tried hiding. There were at least five big bags of coins which were in the bush. On seeing how difficult for the girls to even handle one, she ordered her men to join them in their carrying.
It didn’t take long for the men to put the coins in the carriages together with the girls and they were almost greedy to take some wealth for themselves but due to the presence of Olivia and the eyes which seems to be telling them that one wrong move from them would incur her wrath, they had to forcefully suppress their greed. Olivia was surprised by what Andrew has done and even his quick thinking to have hidden the coins.
Although it was a gamble, it still ended up in his favour and thus was the right thing to do.
The day has the sun cascading on them seeming on the verge of setting as they set off in the direction towards the capital but this time, the girls were more relaxed knowing that they were in safe hands and couldn’t help falling asleep. As the dark got darker though, they had to find somewhere to set up camp to rest with guards standing watch. No sooner than later, they found an open ground which was a bit far from a stream to set up their camp. Setting it up in any forest area could prove dangerous.
Although the path towards the capital was relatively safe, any camping ground wasn’t safe a bit. There were still beasts who were native to this world and could cause great danger to these soldiers, hence an open ground where dangers can be easily found and effectively dealt with was the best place to set their camp. It wasn’t until they were almost through setting their camp did the girls finally wake up in quick succession as if having planned it in their dreams.
They both woke up with renewed vigour after having slept for most of the journey. Their meals were stale bread and dried meat which they shared with the girls. Although it had a bland taste it could at least calm their hunger. After being through with their meal, Marian went forth to check on Andrew and a scream sounds out from the cart in which Andrew was being laid out. Eve stood up and started running towards the cart as if her life depended on it, currently her heart was gripped with fear feeling that something bad must have happened to Andrew since Marian was now wailing while screaming Andrew’s name. On getting there, Olivia was already there staring at Andrew who was currently convulsing as beads of sweat rolled down his body. He was even bleeding from his previously suppressed injuries, his face seemed pale but he was still unconscious. Olivia frowns due to the fact that there wasn’t a doctor who was in her team to check what was currently going on with Andrew.