Chapter 112

The man searched for his breath, but it did not help. He ran underneath the tree shade to cool himself down, but he was still too hot. His body was drenched in sweat.

‘What happened? How did this happen?’

He could not believe what just happened. There was a total of 372 men. These thieves had 162 men on horses and 210 men on foot. But all those men fell to just one person.

‘The knight!’

The man thought about the knight riding on a giant, dark blue-colored Galim with a full suit of armor. Everything that stood in front of him crumbled down like trash. Knights from the marquis’ own army fell to his charge and all the horsemen followed the same fate. Even all the thieves were no match for the knight.

The man found himself running for his life when he came to his senses. At the moment, a sound of horse neighing made him cower. It was the men from the merchant group chasing the runaways.

“I got you!”

“N-NO! UGH!”

The man, Horte, sighed in relief as he watched another thief right next to him get caught.

“How dare you run?”

The man who followed swung his blunt stick at the thief which made him fall to the ground in pain.

‘I-I’m not a thief! I’m a soldier from the marquis’ army! I have a family to return to- I can’t-‘

“HERE YOU ARE! COME OUT!”

“Y-YIELD! I YIELD!”

The man on the horse spotted Horte amongst the bushes and attacked him.

“You will not YIELD! How dare you try to kill us?”

The man on the horse began pounding Horte with his blunt stick. Horte could feel the man’s excitement and fear. They won, but they still had the fear of being attacked, so that made them more vicious toward the thieves.

“N-NO! PLEASE! I’ll tell you where our stolen goods are!”

The man stopped. Aaron, from the Henderson Mercenary Group, glanced around quickly.

“What did you just say?”

“I-I know where we stored the stolen goods.”

Aaron let out a deep sigh.

“It better be the truth or else you will die.”

Aaron tied Horte with a rope, connected the rope to his horse’s reins, and began moving back toward his group. Henderson, who received the report from Aaron, moved out to search for Joonbum.

After a while, Henderson returned to the battlefield with Horte’s guidance. The field was littered with bodies that made all kinds of animals and monsters gather for food. The stench and flies around the area made the field even more gruesome.

There were workers on the side of the field skinning dead horses and butchering the meat for jerky.

“Quickly! This weather will make it rot quick! We have to move fast!”

“Bring the pot!”

“Add some salt and begin smoking it! We need to do it quickly!”

Tens of workers moved frantically. They were full of sweat and some ran back to the river to cool themselves.

“Hah.”

Joonbum took off his armor to cool himself, but it was much cooler with the armor on.

‘To imagine if I didn’t have these…’

Joonbum grinned at the sight of the ice pack inside the armor. It provided him with such coolness even with the full suit on in this heat.

“Sir.”

Joonbum turned his head and saw Henderson approaching.

‘It looks like he respects me now.’

Henderson always showed respect towards Joonbum, but it was because of status. However, he acted much differently now. In fact, everyone who just witnessed the battle interacted with Joonbum in the same way.

“What is it?”

“We have captured a thief claiming to have some interesting information.”

“Interesting?”

Henderson, who glanced at Daryl and Louise for a moment, answered, “Yes, sir. He claims to know where those thieves stored their stolen goods.”

“Is he outside?”

“Yes, sir.”

Joonbum turned to Daryl.

“Bring him in.”

Daryl nodded and brought the thief in. He was dirtied with dirt and sweat, which made Joonbum frown.

“Take him to the river and clean him. Get him some water too.”

Daryl moved out with the man. Joonbum turned to Henderson.

“So, what happened?”

“One of my men, named Aaron, captured him. He brought him straight back after hearing the news.”

“There must be plenty of stolen goods. Bring Ress here, we’ll all share it equally.”

“Yes?”

“You have a problem?”

“No, sir! Absolutely not, sir!”

Henderson put down his head quickly.

“I know the goods rightfully belong to me, but I do not want to take the stolen goods all for myself. It’s probably more than what I can manage to take anyway. I will need a merchant’s help to get rid of it also.”

“Yes, sir.”

Henderson nodded. Soon enough, Ress came back to discuss with Joonbum. Ress then ran out to discuss the news with the other merchants and Henderson went back to capture the remaining thieves.

Horte, who had been cleaned, was brought back to Joonbum.

“Name.”

“H-Horte, sir.”

“You aren’t some lowly thief. You’re from the marquis’ territory, I presume?”

“How did you…?”

Horte was baffled. There were bruises all over his body and he was also fear-stricken. He was not in a state to hide any important information.

“It’s obvious. Where are the stolen goods?”

He began stuttering. “P-please! Spare my life! I will tell you anything, sir!”

“I will spare you, but you will be my slave.”

“S-slave? B-but, but…!”

Joonbum watched Horte shiver upon his impending doom and continued speaking, “You should’ve known this when you started working as a thief. I bet you killed or accompanied your friends killing others. You think you will live if I let you free? There will be others who will come after you. I am being honest to you. So be honest to me and it will do you good.”

“G-good?”

Horte was confused. He could not believe what Joonbum was saying.

“You think slavery is the worst thing that can happen to you? It’s not.”

“What do you mean, sir?”

A slave had the lowest status in society, but Horte could not think of anything worse. Joonbum continued talking.

“I heard from the merchants that all the captured thieves will be sold as slaves to the families of the merchants killed by your group. What do you think that will lead to?”

Horte shivered. That was absolute, the worst-case scenario. It was obvious that the slaves sold to such place would end up dead after a long, torturous revenge.

“P-please!”

“You know what I mean then. I will have you sold off as a regular slave. I am being extremely generous. If you don’t start speaking, I will hand you over to the merchants. I will give you time to think about my offer. You must decide by the time I count to ten. One… Two…”

“I will tell you everything!”

Joonbum nodded. Horte, who was shivering, began speaking.

“T-there is a small cave that is four days away from here. We stored all stolen goods there.”

“Four days? How many men?”

“There’s about thirty men.”

Joonbum grinned at the thought.

‘Those must be the marquis’ soldiers.’

“How many knights are there?”

Horte’s eyes shook in surprise. Joonbum glared at him.

“I will take back all the generosity if you lie. Tell a lie if you want to suffer and die in pain,” Joonbum threatened in a low, calm voice. Horte realized that this man would do it with his slight hesitation and gave up any resistance he had in his mind.

“Th-there is no knight. But there are about six men in knighthood training who are about to become knights after this mission. The others are skilled soldiers.”

“Any other men?”

“No, sir. The area was in total control of Sir Gilent…”

Joonbum nodded.

“Good. Daryl, Louise, take this man and let him find the men that came with him from the bodies. From the prisoners also.”

“Yes, sir!”

They left.

‘Marquis Beneth.’

He was a man with tremendous power in Toria. He was so powerful that even though he hired thieves to attack the merchants, he would be safe from any accusations. Nobody would dare to oppose him in this country.