“Kyaaaaah!”

The group just passed over the hills after leaving the gates of the capital when one of them suddenly burst into pieces and only one eyeball that filled with shock and fear remained.

It rolled over near the once gorgeously dressed girl who is currently feeling the same emotions as that eye.

The partition in the front of the wagon flapped open as a man with a grey beard took a peek inside, when he saw the splashed blood in the girl's dress he asked.

“What happened?”

“H-his body s-suddenly exploded.” the girl pointed towards where the man was sitting previously.

The bearded man looked at the other person inside, she was dressed in all black robe with hood that covers most of her face, she had her right hand raised and when she lowered it the blood that was floating mid air fell in the wooden board of the wagon, feeling his gaze she nodded at him supporting the girl's statement.

“Old Man what's that shout?” The man who always had a smile stopped his horse next to the wagon and asked.

“The alchemist died.” Old Man replied briefly.

“Really!? How did he die? Did someone kill him?”

Before the Old Man could answer the child like man waved his hands towards the front.

“Captain! Nois died!”

After a while Lance let his horse turned back towards the wagon.

“This young miss said that he suddenly burst to pieces.”

“Hmm, most of our supplies were inside let's stop by the stream first.”

The group went off-track following Lance lead, the red haired boorish man speed up his horse until it was traveling at the same speed with Lance's.

“Didn't you swear in front of the emperor? Why are you wasting your resources? You are snuffing your chance.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Lance took a glance at him before replying coldly, “Nois Ibram, a genius alchemist, he was loved by ladies especially noble ones after he created those trinkets that could make them more prettier, he was arrested after the officials found evidences of addictive agents mixed in those trinkets but when the knights searched his house they found in his basement were dozens of women most of them were noble ladies, the corpse in his basement look like they were just asleep, if they are not hanged in the ceiling of the basement and dressed the officials would think they were still alive.

“His statement after he was questioned is he used the trick of secretly inviting those ladies to try his newly made concoction which was mixed with his special poison and after his victim dies he would used the trinkets he made beautifying them like they were alive, then he would either used it for his experiment or for pleasuring his own.”

Lance told the story many would find creepy and scary without much emotion, he then took another glance at Damian.

“I am not wasting resources Damian, I am cleaning the trash.”

“Trash? We only have ten people—now its nine, the more people they are the higher chances we have on killing the dragon and you just 'cleaned' one of those chances.”

Lance look ahead and only answered after a while.

“We have three woman with us, I don't know about the elf and the witch but that young lady will surely be targeted by him, we are already all bunched up together if something like that happened the lower our chances would be.

“Also after I saw the battle royale that happened I already have plan in mind.

“Assassin—Ezekiel, would do the scouting and luring, Tron the Impregnable would take the front being the shield, you, I, and the elf—Irushka would do the damage in close range, while Old Man and the Witch deals damage with their magic from a far, and the Heretic would guard them while providing healing when necessary, and with the young lady added to the group, we could create many different formation in any situations.

“Meanwhile that Alchemist has skill set that overlaps with others, he was skilled with alchemy specializing in poison but the Witch's curse was more effective than it, he can create potions but it's not effective as the Heretic and the young lady's heal, so he is indeed trash.”

Whistle~

Damian whistled, “Are we looking at the same scenery? A lot of things change with you however your optimism still remains.”

“I did not changed, I learned.”

“Then while being one of them you sure learned a lot, like they're names.” He pointed at the group that was following them.

Lance glanced at him, “After the ceremony someone gave me information about them, they have a lot written there especially about those recent ones.”

“Hahaha, did they wrote how amazing I am?” Damian laughed embarrassedly.

Lance looked forward and made his horse sped up a little, just as Damian thought that it was the end of their conversation he heard Lance's whisper.

“Thank you.”

Damian smiled sincerely and said towards the distant yet close back, “You’re welcome.”

With only death and freedom as there bond the group of damned started their saga, one that will grease the rusting gears of fate.