It was around the same time Talia assaulted one of the two knights that had ended up lagging behind the rest. She ambushed the guard shouting and alerting the others about Ritzy’s movements. But there were two knights who were distracted by their dissatisfaction and noticed what was going on.

One of them, the one who took their position more seriously, decided to tell his coworkers. But the other one decided to take the situation into his own hands and snuck around the stage to climb up the back out of sight from the others.

The thought that Michmond would blame him if something went wrong passed through his head, but there was no way something could go wrong when he was up against two orphans. The only one that looked threatening was the tall, dark-haired kid that had struggled enough to make the other knight question whether he was really a malnourished kid or not. But that one was tied up.

Although the other kid was doing his best to free him, there was enough rope to supply a store wrapped around the tall guy. So, the only thing that could stop the knight was the twig-like, white-haired boy.

The white-haired kid had managed to fool everyone with the skull and provided an opportunity for himself and his female friend to free the thief. But as long as he didn’t buy the kid’s lies, the knight didn’t have anything to worry about.

And so, while Ritzy was busy trying to cut all the ropes tying down Gerhart, the knight climbed onto the stage and tried to sneak over to the heavy, black, single-edged executioner’s axe. Since he had been the knight given the order to execute Gerhart, he was already familiar with the axe. And the knight thought it would be easier to just cut down the two troublemakers where they stood and lay instead of subduing them with his gauntleted fists.

However, Ritzy noticed the knight before he could grab the axe. So, Ritzy and the knight ended up in a stare-off. Ritzy had the dagger in his hand, but the knight had a full suit of armor and wasn’t very far from the axe. It was obvious who had the advantage.

“Hey, hurry and cut me loose!”

Gerhart could glimpse the knight out of the corner of his eye and figured out why Ritzy stopped moving. But Ritzy wouldn’t be able to do anything against the knight, so Gerhart urged him to continue cutting the ropes.

Ritzy glanced at the ropes around Gerhart’s arms so fast that the knight barely noticed it. And then, while keeping his gaze locked on the knight, he began cutting the ropes again.

“Knight, I warn you. Take my axe, and you’ll lose that hand.”

Ritzy spoke with an ice-cold voice as he glared at the knight.

Despite having resolved not to listen to RItzy, the knight couldn’t help but react to the deathly serious tone. He gulped before opening his mouth.

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“And how are you going to do that? Are you going to cut through my armor with that kitchen knife of yours?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is a tried and tested, battle-hardened hunting dagger that has seen more blood than a veteran soldier. Your armor wouldn’t stand a chance against it. But I never said I was going to cut that hand. He is.”

Ritzy let go of the knife with one of his hands and pointed behind the knight, toward the direction of the crowd, and almost toward where the other knights were sieging Talia.

Ritzy spoke with such conviction that the knight couldn’t afford not to look, and he twisted his head to see if there was anyone behind him. Since his helmet blocked most of his vision, he had to turn quite a bit to look and confirm there wasn’t anyone there. That gave Ritzy the few extra seconds he needed to free Gerhart’s arms.

As soon as his arms were free, Gerhart freed his head and grabbed the knife from Ritzy since he was stronger and quicker.

“Hey! That’s my knife!”

“I’ll give it back.”

“Gerry. You know what happens if you don’t, right?”

“What’re you gonna do, curse me?”

The knight realized he had been tricked, for like the fourth time, and turned around with a glare. His resolve to ignore the white-haired kid’s words had been useless. But after getting burned three or four times by the same fire, the knight had finally learned his lesson, and he picked up the unnecessarily heavy axe.

But the knight was sued to walking around with his heavy plate-mail armor, so the axe, while heavy, only limited his movement a little. There shouldn’t be any issues in reaching the two vandals before the thief was free.

However, the thief was stronger and better at using the knife than expected, so the knight hurried forward. He didn’t hesitate as he raised the glossy black axe over his head to slam it down on the dark-haired young man before he could free his ankles.

But the knight was too slow and obvious in his movements, and before even completely freeing himself, Gerhart rolled to the side and avoided the strike that was powerful enough to shatter the wooden boards of the stage.

The axe was lodged in the planks, which gave Gerhart enough time to free himself from all the ropes.

“Oh, nice going, Gerry! Now, give me the knife.”

“In a minute.”

“Gerry, what are you going to do against that guy with a knife? He has armor covering his entire body. Blockhead. Idiot. Numbnut.”

“Fine, here you go, just stop it with the fucking nicknames.”

“What do you mean? I was cursing you to lose your intelligence? Oh no, maybe it worked too well! Quick, Gerry! How many fingers am I holding up?”

Gerhart slapped Ritzy’s hand away and kept his gaze locked on the knight that had succeeded in getting up the axe again.

“So, do we run now?”

Ritzy looked at Gerry and asked.”

“What about Talia?”

“Oh, right, she still has my bone! But maybe we can come back for it later?”

“I don’t know what bone you’re talking about, but won’t it be easier getting it back from Talia than Michmond and his guards?”

“Dunno about that one. Talia’s tricky.”

“Maybe she’ll feel grateful if we save her life, though?”

“Oh, good point! Let’s do that!”

Before Ritzy and Gerhart could discuss their plans further, the axe-bearing knight came charging at them.