Laker continued to go west. He was nearly there, with only a single town separating him and the village that the two bandits had gone missing in. If he kept this pace up, he would make it there before the sunset later today.

A few hours later, he reached the second to last village. Instead of going through the crowded main road, Laker used the roads of the village that were near the outskirts. This way, he could move through faster and fewer people would see him directly. The word of horsemen would eventually reach the ears of everyone in the village, but Laker couldn't change that.

Laker was restricted to the roads when he was on a horse because it was much harder to control the horse when it was surrounded by trees. He had a bit of experience with riding, so he was much better than most other people when it came to controlling a horse, but he was nowhere near the skill level of some of the guards in the city.

The guard that was following him was one of these people. He was able to keep up with Laker when Laker was going on the path and he was mostly going off the path.

He quickly made it to the other side of the village. On the final stretch of the first part of the journey, Laker started to consider what he should find out from villagers and what would happen when he gave up that information.

From what he could figure, this was a mission meant to make sure that there wasn't anything that pointed to the noble. It could be anything from bandits, something they said, or something that they had. He didn't care that much about what would happen after he passed this information on.

Laker believed that people should have a strong desire. A desire for power and wealth. A desire to get higher up in the world. He felt disdain and looked down on people that didn't. This was the main reason that he left his family. Eventually, he heard of the noble and his actions to try to bring down the current Lord of Carthage. Laker instantly knew who he should work under and support.

In Laker's point of view, these people in these villages had no hope, no desire. They worked their farms for all of their lives, never wanting to get higher. They were born as peasants, and they would eventually die as peasants. What difference would it make if their meaningless lives came a little bit earlier?

Laker reached the village and slowed down his pace. Having his horse walk, he made it go down the main road until he reached near the center. There he stopped and waited.

A crowd had started to gather and it only grew larger as time went on. More and more people left their houses and went towards the center of the village and people from the fields came over as well. In just a few minutes, the entire village gathered near the center of the village. Murmurs in the crowd had started to make it louder.

Seeing that no more people were coming, Laker started to speak. "There is news that there were bandits from the Black Nation in this area. The Lord of Carthage, Lord Drogo had been extremely generous, and he sent me to find out if this is true or not. He had even given this horse so that I could get there quickly. Now, if anyone holds back any information regarding the bandits, it will be considered as an insult to the generosity of the Lord and treason. The punishments will be a public execution all the way in Carthage." In order to ensure that everyone could hear him, Laker was practically shouting. He paused for a few seconds to let it sink in. "Now I will ask this once, and only once and I heavily recommend that I get an answer. Did anyone see any bandits for the last few days?"

Laker looked around the crowd from up his horse. The murmurs, that had gone quiet while he was talking, had started again.

"Is he talking about those two?" asked a man towards a friend near him.

"No, no. I think he's talking about the two that Laina ran away with," replied his friend back to him.

"You're right, those two did look strange, not even considering that one of them was holding a white Carbo. How often do you see those anyway,"

Suddenly, the crowd parted to let an old man get near the front. As people saw him, they began to stop talking and tried to listen to him.

The old man tilted his head down as a sign of respect, then he said, "I am the village head of this village, sir, and so let me answer all of your questions. Roughly four days ago, we had two outsiders come to our village. They stayed here for a day then they left going east. We had a different group that tried to burn our crops and steal from our houses while we tried to put the fire out. A group of six from our village and the two forgeries fought them and killed him in the battle."

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Laker nodded his head as he listened. "What about their belongings, who has them?" he asked.

"The two men were killed by the six village men and the two foreigners separately. One of ours still has the horse, and the other five have a few things that the man they killed was carrying. The other man's belongings were taken by the two outsiders."

Laker understood what happened that night. It seemed like the two bandits had gotten caught and killed, and whatever they had was split. "Was there a note, or any kind of writing of any kind on the bandits?" This information wasn't really important since Laker knew that most likely that the note didn't have anything that related to the noble on it, but he asked anyway since wanted to do a good job.

The village head looked towards each of the six men one at a time. Laker made sure to catch and remember each of the six men. All of them shook their heads. "It seems like none of them saw a thing like that on the body, but I don't know about two outsiders," said the village head.

Laker took a few seconds to figure out what he was going to do from here. If he followed what the noble had said, his job would end here and he would return back. But, Laker had a slightly different idea.

"In order to do further questioning, I am going to have to ask for the six people to kill the bandits to come with me. And also bring along the horse, it was stolen from the Lord and it does not belong to any of you," said Laker. The noise around him louder as people started to get angry, especially the six people that he called out.

"We did nothing wrong, why do we have to follow you?" Shouted one man.

"We got the horse from those bandits, so it belongs to us. If it weren't for us, those bandits will still be alive and the horses will still be stolen," once tried to justify himself.

"We understand that you are trying to help us, but can please reconsider? They have families and there is a lot of work to do in the fields after they got burnt," said the village head.

"I am not changing my mind. I will remind you again that I am under the orders of Lord Drogo. If you do not do as I say, it will be considered treason against the Lord and the Red Nation. I will give you until sunrise tomorrow to get ready and after that, I will come back to take you," said Laker. He made sure that everyone heard him and he turned his horse around. As his horse moved forward, people moved away to create a path.

He rode his horse until he was several minutes away and then he stopped. Sure enough, after a few minutes of waiting, he heard the sound of hove beats approaching him. As it got close, Laker was able to identify that it was the same person that saved him before.

"What did you find out?" The man asked as he stopped near Laker.

"A few things. It seems like the two bandits were mistaken as thieves and killed as soon as they were caught. Of the eight people that caught them, six of them are still in the village. I asked them to get ready to leave for Carthage in the morning, along with the horse they have. The other two people of the group seem to be outsiders. They left soon. They took the horse with them, so it shouldn't be too hard finding them." Said Laker.

There were two main issues that the noble, Giles, was worried about: one was that the bandits had run away with the horses and the money and the second was that they got captured and spilled the whole thing to the villagers. In the first cause, they would have to track them down and finish them off. In the second case, it was a bit harder to deal with. The noble sent along with the captain of the guards along with four other guards. They would have had to attack and wipe out everyone in the village.

This was a huge risk because it was hard to make sure that no one escaped. But, even if some did escape, no one here other than his guards, knew his name, not even Laker. It would be difficult for Drogo to accuse him. Using this same method, Giles was able to escape from several previous incidences just like this one in the past. The reason that he was able to get away using this method had to do with how the court operated.

The guard nodded his head. "Good job. Keep going with your plan and bring out those six people. It will be much easier to take them out if they are separated from everyone else. The captain and the rest should be here by tomorrow."

"The rest?" asked Laker. He thought that he was being followed by only one person. He couldn't figure what the other people were coming here for.

"In the worst-case scenario, we had to be prepared," said the man. He stopped here and didn't give any more detail.

Understanding that he wouldn't get any more details, Laker remained silent.

Soon after, the sunset completely and the night took over the sky. The moon in the sky was halfway through its cycle. Other than a small crescent of the visible moon, the rest had disappeared. It moved across the sky along with the rest of the stars.

There was a myth that the stars were the protectors of the sky while the moon was a destroyer. It was said that there was a great battle before anything was born between the protectors and the destroyer and that same battle continues on till today. In an endless cycle, the protectors weaken the destroyer, then the destroyer slowly regains its power and weakens the protectors. There was another myth that one day either the destroyer would shatter or all the stars in the sky would darken. That would be the final end and the last night.

In the morning, Laker went back to the village and brought out the six men and the horse behind him. After they were a certain distance from the village, the guard joined Laker and followed behind eye one. He was making sure that no one ran away and that they followed Laker without trying anything.

He chose to not kill them and waited for his captain to arrive. This way, none of the six villagers couldn't leave and he was ordered to keep Laker here and nothing more. Killing someone without the orders from the captain or the noble would make him seem like he was going against orders.

And so, with Laker in front and the guard in the behind, the group slowly walked east.