Chapter 13

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"They are awfully persistent," I complained to Lily. This was the second day, but those knights still tailed us like a stalker. When I fired at them, they immediately raised their shield and fled.

"Jack, maybe they want you?" Mattheus said

"Well, sure, maybe, but I can't leave you guys alone… and I have done wrong to you… and.. about the stolen goods…" it appeared this Jack was somewhat a pushover and meek despite being the son of a noble.

"Will you talk to them?" Matheus sighed

"O-okay. Give me a moment." He then ran towards the knight. An hour later, he came back. We were just about to leave him behind.

"So, what did they say?" Mattheus asked.

"They said that they would report to their lord about the goods, and they also asked me to come back, but I refused. They agreed and left me here."

"I see. The persuasion was easier than I thought. Aren't you the first son of the lord?" Mattheus pondered.

"Well, it appeared they are going to pin all of the blame on me. It is the only way for my family to escape the accusation. I have a little brother. He can take care of my family for me. I proposed this to them since the evidence was strong, and it was the only way to save our family. Some of the knights also belong to the merchant guild, and since we killed their knights, our bandit group is now on a wanted list, dead or alive." Jack shrugged his shoulder.

Even though we are now on the wanted list, he seemed more confident than before. Did he hate the noble life? Despite being a noble, I reckoned he didn't put a single complaint about our lifestyle in the wilderness.

"I see. How much are we worth?" Nora asked.

"About 12.000 gold…."

"What? That's 10 times more than Nora!" Matheus screamed.

"Urgh…" Nora groaned. Is it a few? Is it a lot? I don't know.

"Yeah. We killed 12 of their knights. So 12.000 gold…" Jack replied.

"Hahahaha!!" Mattheus laughed, "Guys! We are famous!! We groveled with tears and sweat for 12 gold a day, and the price of our head is now 12.000!!"

With that, everyone cheered. The fear and despair just now were gone and replaced with some sense of pride. I can't exactly be proud since we are legitimately wanted bandits now. But I smiled as if I had achieved something significant. Maybe this is what is called herd mentality. Their joy was passed on to me.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Okay! Forward! To the land of the elves!" Mattheus shouted. Jack and Patrick followed suit.

"Watch out! A troll is coming!" Patrick shouted. We went on, and before sunset, a troll found us during its walk. However, with a fire javelin, I one-shotted its head, and it lay dead before even doing anything. Whoa, magic is incredible! But that one cost 40% of mana. I would need to rest for 3 hours to get back to full mana. This is bad. If there are more than 2 trolls, we will be in trouble.

"Amazing!! You kill it in one hit!" Nora praised Lily. She bashfully smiled.

We continued for another hour before calling it a day. We ate our smoked meat. Mattheus said this may be the last time we light a fire. After this point, monsters will be more brutal, and we want to avoid attracting their attention at night. Lily only nodded and slept beside Nora.

Morning came, and we marched again. The seven of us finally arrived in a dense jungle.

"So, this is the border between elves and humans. You really can see the difference!" Nora said as the tree suddenly grew humongous, with ivies entangling them. The trees were so dense that there was barely any space left for walking.

"Most elves can use nature magic. With it, they can control trees and animals. The forest is the place where elves are unbeatable." Matheus grimly said, "I witnessed legions of humans die with diseases in a human expedition thirty years ago."

"So, are we going in or not?" Jack asked

"Of course we are going in! Why are we even here for?" Nora blurted out in annoyance.

"No. We will rest here for today. We will depart in the morning. We will never get out of this forest at night. Let's leave for a bit." Mattheus made his judgment.

"But, what if those knights chase us?" Patrick screamed. "We are worth 12.000 gold, you know!"

"We have Lily. They would need around 100 soldiers to successfully capture us. Just patch up scouts to make sure there are no ambushes." Mattheus shrugged off his comment.

So, Lily. Want to spar?" Mattheus asked. The whole camp was suddenly put to attention. "No magic, of course. It won't be funny to have injuries here."

Mattheus prepared his sword while Lily prepared hers. Lily used a completely different stance just now as she exuded an aura of experience swordswomen. The two soon clashed. Mattheus was both fast and powerful, but Lily managed to dodge or redirect his sword with precision and dodge his. I didn't participate in anything and just watched the fight unfolds. Our sword mastery has reached level 9. I am sure we are several leagues above Mattheus in terms of skill. We had a difference of over 20 levels in stats, but Lily matched him in practical combat.

The match settled as Lily stabbed her sheathed sword into Mattheus's chest. He sighed satisfactorily but grumbled a bit while asking for a rematch tomorrow. He actually had that childish side to him. I am surprised. I thought he was the calm and composed mercenary type.

"Okay. Lily is now number one." Mattheus declared. "I see that blessing actually didn't just grant you magic but swordplay as well. Please do a mock training for everyone once in a while. We may raise our skills by doing that. Your power and speed are lacking compared to mine, but your technique is far beyond mine. We can learn a lot by practicing with you."

"Do you know about sword mastery?" Lily parrotted my question

"Of course. It is a skill all swordsmen have. You won't raise it by just swinging swords, but you must study it wholeheartedly. Since you get your skill through blessing, I wonder how it felt?"

"It just felt as if my body was moving by itself. It's like an instinct that I should move this way…." Lily replied.

"I see. Good for you. But bad for us since you can't teach us this way." Mattheus commented," Okay, good night, everyone!"

"Hmm… I wonder about the fate of those that we left in the forest. They didn't have any incriminating jobs, but they were so poor that they were likely to get taken advantage of. Well, it's no problem of mine. Let's just sleep."

With that, we sleep on the border between elven and human territory. I hope we will meet with friendly elves tomorrow.