Chapter 3

Before the thugs could react to Eugene's threat, they heard a distant sound of hooves. They got excited watching a small band of men galloping their way into their territory.

Another young master! It looked like they had exhausted their luck of a lifetime in a single day. If they succeeded in extorting both of them, they would never have to work again.

The bandits hid themselves behind the bushes to attack the troop closing in while one of them stuffed Eugene's mouth with a dirty cloth to prevent him from selling them out. They were waiting for a perfect moment to attack.

When the horses of knight were at a distance close enough, they shot a few arrows. It was dark and their skills were not perfect but as they were close, they took down two of them.

The knights were startled from the sudden attack. They pulled the reigns, trying to prevent crushing their comrades who fell down the horses and got injured. The bandits took this chance to initiate their sword attack.

"Just kill them!" an irritated voice which came from inside of the carriage, gave the knights the permission they had been waiting for. The carriage was red, decorated with a large, golden snake coiled around a spear. It was an insignia not of some common Lativian nobility but of the count Bentinck of Estonia.

The knights, though outnumbered by the bandits, had the skills Bentinck household boasted about. Their long spears could take on at least five of them, piercing their heart at the smallest opening shown.

The young master inside the carriage was none other than the eldest son of the count, William Bentinck.

Upon seeing a tattered young man with familiar frame restrained by chains and hidden behind trees, he got down, curious to see who it was.

The bandits were almost taken care of in the blink of an eye. It was no surprise because how can a few roadside fighters compete with the carefully trained knights of nobility. All the stronger ones had been eliminated and the weaker ones ran away for their lives.

When Eugene saw a pair of shoes that did not belong to the bandits in front of his eyes, he lifted his head up with the little energy he had left in him.