"March foooooooorr--ward!"

Detailed, sharp armour was shining under the sunlight of the morning sun. Horsemen were riding in a line as they started leaving the main gate of the city, which was surrounded by extremely tall walls. The city seems like an impenetrable fortress from a distance. Citizens were watching the scene; some had smiles on their faces, and some had worried face impressions as their loved ones were among them.

The royal knights of the Duchia of Yawl, who had sworn their oath to the Duchess Orlanda, were marching outside of the wall in an unknown direction. Some of the knights had serious face impressions; some of them were still sleepy and yawning; and some of them were neutral as they got used to being assigned to the tasks at hand.

While the knight group was leaving, city guards were securing the gate and holding the other traffic, where horse carts and people were in line. In one of them, there was an old granny holding the leash of her cow, which was pulling a cart filled with straw.

"Are we there, Granny Yela?" says a soft and weak voice from the cart. But the granny was too old to hear such a weak voice, as she kept waiting in line while watching the knights march towards the forest they came from.

"That is an unusual morning, I suppose," thought the granny

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The City of Handerwall was filled with business; there were people everywhere shouting out to pull attention to their products. carpets, clothes, vegetables, fish, etc.Even artists were calling out, asking people if they wanted their postures drawn on expensive cotton paper.

"Yummy.. Hey, wake up!" the weak voice in the back of the cart says softly, shaking up someone there.

"What? Oh god, something smells really good," another weak voice replied back.

"That's it; I must eat something or I will die!" the first voice declared, and then shouted out loud:

"Granny Yelaaaa! I am so hungry!" The old lady stops pulling her chubby cow and looks behind her.

"Oh, there, yes. Yes.. I can't believe I forgot you were there. Soon I could feed you," the old lady replied, while smiling at the girl that was standing behind the cart on top of the straw loaded in the cart. She was no one other than Alicia.

"Hmph!" Alicia looks around her as her mouth gets watered by the smell of roasted pig in one of the shops. That was the first time Alicia had seen so many people in one place.

"That's. Oh, we are back." Another voice replied, as now he too was poking his head up to look around. Robin, whose chest was wrapped around with bandages, doesn't seem to be so excited about this city.

"You are so lucky to live here! Look at all these Robins! I feel like these streets will go forever. I bet you can find anything here." Alicia says as she smirks down at Robin childishly, "Hihiiih!".

Robin's health seems to be stable, though he was weak, and his silent character continues to be the deciding factor in his behavior. He closes his eyes and tries to remember the events that took place back there.

"It was a nightmare. I can't believe I am alive," he mumbles. He looks down on the ground without any emotion on his face, as if he wouldn't mind if he were dead back there.

"That's thanks to Chloe." Alicia kneels down next to him too, and she too looks around. "She was the one who treated your wound." Alicia stops.

"And she was the one dealing with all those thugs." Robin continues. Alicia's face soured to think about the bloody scene that happened in front of her, but it was not Chloe who killed those thugs. It was themselves who stabbed themselves to death. Why? They had the utmost advantage, with two supposed members dead and one member fleeing, with one member remaining from the caravan—a young girl. Why would they kill themselves in such a situation? Or, why would they care if what she says was right or not, and even if they think they are baddies, why would that cause them to commit a group suicide in such a painful way without thinking?

Alicia closes her eyes and shakes a little, as she was trying to make some sense of all this. She didn't tell what happened there, and Robin assumed that it was Chloe's doing. So Alicia went with that for now. Alicia then looks towards the granny, who was pulling her chubby cow forward. Alicia smiles. If it weren't for that granny, they would be frozen to death there in the open. Alicia pulled Robin for a while in the direction of the city, but she didn't get the strength nor the energy, and two of them collapsed in the ground back there. Robin was mostly unconscious and couldn't walk. A granny with poor eye sight and poor ears was about to move her cart above them, which Alicia noticed at the last moment. Apparently, Granny couldn't see anything back there either; she wasn't aware of any corpses on the road or the blood pools. Her cart's wheels were covered in blood back there, but the dust and dirt shadowed the blood stain as they moved towards the city.

Alicia didn't tell anything about the thugs to the granny either. Granny thinks that he wounded himself while hunting, and she let them get in the straw during the night. After some more, Granny stopped her cart.

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"I... Yes, yes. Now, we need to. Wait, yes.. Boys will come and... and they will unload the straw.. yes." Granny mumbled as she slowly turned around. Alicia helped Robin get out of the cart, and she was holding Robin's arm to help him slowly walk.

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City bells were chanting loudly around the city, and some elders were gathering in the main square, in front of the mayor's house. A knight was holding a parchment, and he was waiting for more people to gather.

"Citizens!" Knight yells, but that caused more murmuring to go around the people.

"Citizens! We want information! If anyone knows anything about the massacre on the western forest road.." Knight continues as he waits for people's murmurs to slow down. He raises his hand to gesture for people to go silent.

"If anyone knows anything, go and visit the guards' helm and inform them who did it. We will award the one who tells us the murderer 10 gold coins."

The knight finishes his announcement as the corpses are about to be brought to the cementery at the side of the city walls. There were posters on the walls next to the guards' helm, where the wanted people's amateur drawings were shown. Some drawings had an "X" cross on them, indicating they were dead. Those drawings with such crossings belong to the Yellowboys thugs, which were no more...

The knight took his helmet from his friend, and then they stepped down to return their post. Streets were relatively wet from the rain two days ago. A few cats were racing to catch their prey first in the corner of the street, while people began to disperse and chatter about the recent event on the western forest road.

"Have you heard that incident? They say they all died."

"They also found one headless lady. It must have been horrific."

"But, who did that? Did the one who killed thugs also kill the girl?"

"I heard that a hero appeared, but he was late to save the lady in distress."

"A hero? That's absurd, where was that hero when they stole my donkey!"

People murmur to each other until the night settles in and the main square becomes all silent. There were a few guards walking in the main square. Dark clouds in a pitch-black night were moving like mountains in the sky between shiny stars. Some houses had smoke drizzling out of their chimneys. Also, some dark figures were moving between the roofs, perhaps cats, sometimes not.

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Robin was jumping between the roofs; it had been nearly a week, and he felt better. But he didn't like his condition, so he decided to put his body to the test, as before. He always liked parkouring the city by jumping between the roofs of the buildings. That was something he had been doing since he was little, yet this time he also had a purpose.

"There.." Robin mumbles to himself, and then he jumps down next to the cemetery. He slowly walks between graves, checking them one by one. Alicia told him that she could bury Chloe's head, but there was no way she could dig in such a big hole in the forest with her small and soft hands to bury Chloe's body. So, Robin decided to pay his visit and offer his respect to Chloe, the lady that he didn't know previously until they were hired for Mr. Gobell's caravan mission, and he also wants to tell Alicia where Chloe is so she can feel better.

"Well, well, well. If it's not our Robin, then I don't know who he is," a voice mumbled behind him. Robin was calm but annoyed as he kept walking between graves to find the right one. Then he stops. Chloe's grave was in front of him.

"Silent we are? Oh, was that person your friend? Let me pay my respects to them too. Oh." A guard stops next to Robin, and he was staring down at Chloe's grave as well.

"Isn't she the headless woman found in the forest? Do you know her?" The guard continues to talk.

"I.. I am just walking around. I heard the news; it seems like a sad thing." Robin replies. Robin thinks that it was all Chloe doing the fight, but how did she die? She was decapitated. Did she stab the last person, and that person cut her neck off with his last strength? That would be such a pity. But Alicia. No, there would be no way she was involved in the fight. And now guards think there might be another lawless group roaming around, clashing with other lawless groups for authority. Robin doesn't want him or Alicia to be put under any kind of question, so he decided to do what he can do best: keep it silent.

"Dont.... Play with me, Boi. Also, you haven't even paid your previous debt yet; you must be so brave to walk around like this freely out of concern." The guard replies. Robin looked at him with disgust. He was considering running away, and he could outpace him easily if he was fully healed. But right now? Could he ditch him? He was considering his options as he stared at the guard.

"... Captain Tirall. Give me a day, and I will pay the leftover."The captain guard, Tirall, steps forward towards him, trying to hold Robin by his collar.

"Cut this bullshit off, boy! I heard the same excuse, like forever; it's always another day, and it will be done. Perhaps I should go and talk to the--" While Tirall is speaking, Robin slides to the side and pushes himself away from Tirall.

"You cannot do that; we have an agreement." Robin's words were cut off.

"Agreement, you say? An agreement that you haven't honoured once has no worth on the face of earth, boy! Come here!" Captain yells as he jumps forward to get a hold of Robin.

"Oh shit.." Robin mumbles as he starts to run away and tries to climb on the closest building, which he has been used to for years. All he had to do was jump just right, so he could step his left foot on the bottom part of the window, use it as the next jumping platform, hold the roof, and use the other foot to put it up so he could pull himself up. He did it so, but his chest hurts from the quick action.

"Aren't you too old to play roofs? You are not a kid anymore, Robin," says the captain as he jumps onto the roof as well. Robin was running and jumping between the roofs as fast as he could as he was trying to ditch Tirall. Tirall, on the other hand, was smirking, and he was calmly following him.

"I saw so many people on the streets in battle. They all had their traits." Tirall was slowly approaching Robin. Robin's energy has run out; he was trying to catch his breath. He slowly turns back to face Tirall. He was still holding his chest with his hand.

"... and I know when my prey is wounded when I see it. My dear Robin, do you have anything you would like to tell me? We are old friends, after all." Tirall says with a confident smirk, opening his arms to the side softly, as if he were inviting Robin.

"Tchh!.." Robin was pissed off; he stared sideways at Tirall with anger and disgust while gritting his teeth. He was sad to disappoint himself as well, as Tirall would usually be an easy ditch for him. Tiral continues:

"Come to me boy, let's do the talk like two old friends, and let us spill out some words."

........