Philip (1)

The three walked toward them after all the bandits fled.

“You’re looking at Count Philip, son of Marquis Syrias, of the Rudin Empire!” One of the knights yelled while walking. The young man behind was busy fixing his own clothes, seemingly too concerned about his appearance.

“Count Philip, I’m Baron Rio from the south. You grace us with your presence.” The baron stepped forward and bowed to Philip. Angele smiled and followed suit. The rest of the guards in the baron’s caravan became restless after hearing that the young man was a count. They, too, also bowed after seeing the baron and Angele. Some lowered their heads, some knelt, and some just drew their swords to show respect. The baron and Angele became speechless after seeing their guards’ behaviors.

“Karl Rio, I thank you for saving me from danger. I shall repay you back sometime in the future.” The young man in luxurious clothes seemed not concerned with the guards’ actions, only stepping forward and speaking loudly. His voice was loud but clear, sounding like those singers on Earth.

“Count Philip, if you don’t mind me asking, I wonder where you’re heading to?” Baron Karl straightened his posture and asked.

Count Philip looked at the two knights for a second, unsure of whether he should answer or not.

“We are heading to Marua Harbor wherein my father’s best friend is the governor there. The situation is bad right now, so we’re planning on joining him there,” Philip smilingly said. He maintained a bit of a distance from the baron because he knew his status was higher and thought the baron was seeking something from him.

“Oh, Count Philip, we’re also traveling to Marua Harbor. If you don’t mind, you can join my caravan. After all, more men will make the trip much safer.” The baron was happy, but he didn’t let it show on his face. Philip felt elated. He was actually thinking of the same thing after he saw the baron’s strength.

“Fine, I was about to return to my father’s convoy. But since you asked, I’ll accompany you for now,” he said while nodding after a young knight whispered something to his ear.

‘Dumb*ss! If you could return to your father’s convoy, why would you join a random, low-class noble’s caravan? You need better excuses. Obviously, you lost contact with your father. Those mounted bandits brought you enough trouble I suppose,’ Angele thought. He looked at the two knights for a while. Their equipment was good-looking, but he doubted the effectiveness of those.

‘Two male peacocks…’ Angele concluded.

The baron went back to their caravan alongside the three. People got off the carriages to greet them. However, Philip didn’t talk much, only nodding several times in response to their greetings. Angele scrunched his eyebrows as he watched the baron conversing with them about recent events and whatnot in Rudin Empire. Somehow, they found themselves sharing experiences, which further increased the familiarity with each other. It was also because they had friends that were similarly friends with both of them. And so, Philip’s carriage joined the caravan.

Angele stood by Captain Mark on the sidelines. With his status, he couldn’t join the conversation, so he just stood there and listened.

“Mr. Karl, I’m a bit sleepy so I’m going to take some rest now,” Philip yawned after talking for a while.

“Sure, we’ll make sure no one disturbs your dream,” the baron said while smiling. Philip nodded in response and followed one of the knights back to his carriage. The other knight told the baron something.

“I know, please wait a second,” the baron nodded while the knight went back to the carriage with a satisfied expression. Angele clearly heard the knight’s words, checking whether the caravan had enough food and water.

“Father, although we just got enough water for the next month, we still need to cut everyone’s daily ration. Also, we’re short on food…” Angele said after the three left.

“We saved Count Philip, so we’ll get something in return when we get to Marua Harbor. We’ll live a much better life later if we can save some food and water for them now,” the baron said after stopping Angele from talking.

“We don’t even know if they’re actually high-class nobles…” Angele said and scrunched his eyebrows.

“I’ve heard of his name. He’s one of the most beloved sons of Marquis Syrias. He has two knights guarding him, so I was certain he’s someone important at least,” the baron explained.

“Those two… They didn’t look like they were at knight level,” Angele was still wondering.

“They’re wielding the royal sword skills, which are mostly for show. These skills are used for performing in front of high-class nobles, but the skills aren’t effective in actual combat. They probably had some rare resources to help them reach knight level. They could’ve even had decent backgrounds as well,” the baron laughed as he said.

“Really?” Angele said. It looked like he realized something.

“Well, let’s just try to treat them well. Thanks to the mounted bandits, we got enough horses for the rotation on the way. We can travel much faster now, though it will take us about two months to reach the border of Andes. It’s only two months, then we’ll be fine after,” the baron said after tapping on Angele’s shoulder lightly.

Angele nodded and he stopped talking.

Two guards brought food and water to the count. Meanwhile, others collected the horses from the dead bandits to use those horses as spares. Angele walked toward the bandits he had killed using arrows and checked the wooden arrows. Most of them were broken into pieces and couldn’t be reused. The bandits didn’t carry arrows with them, so Angele was a bit disappointed. He grabbed a cracked dark brown wooden arrow, and it snapped after Angele lightly applied force on it.

“Damn. I need more wooden arrows now,” Angele looked a bit nervous.

*********************

Three days later, somewhere in the Anser Plain.

The sky was bleak as it rained. A caravan was moving forward slowly along the endless plains. Of all the carriages of that caravan, the second carriage had better decorations compared to the other three. Meanwhile, a brown-haired teenager who was in the leading carriage was chewing on something. Purple wildberries were in his hand. The teenager wasn’t handsome, but his countenance showed a calm and reliable personality. He was Angele, who was wearing a black hunting suit, and he had been trying his utmost to recover completely.

He grabbed a berry and threw it into his mouth. It had a very sour taste but was still manageable by Angele. There was a black water canteen on the table beside him and around it lied a bunch of berries. Angele kept eating the berries while looking outside the window. In about ten minutes, he finished eating all the berries and drank water right after.

The door was opened by someone outside. With scrunched eyebrows, there came in a bearded middle-aged man with long blonde hair wearing a black-red noble suit. The man was Baron Karl.

“Angele, we’re in trouble. Our food and water supply are nearly in the gutters. This will last us only for about half a month,” the baron said.

“Well, three people joined our caravan not too long ago. Father, what’s your plan?” Angele said with a serious expression.

“We can kill some horses if we have to. We got four horses from the bandits anyway,” the baron said.

“That’s the last thing we want to do. Horse meat tastes sour and it smells bad. People won’t even bother with it unless they’re completely starving,” Angele said in a light voice. The baron stopped talking and began thinking of plausible alternatives.

“Yesterday, I saw the count pouring off a whole bucket of water from his carriage. I think he used it to shower. Also, they never finished the white bread and meat soup we gave them. They just threw out whatever they didn’t want. If we let them waste our supplies like that, we won’t last for long,” Angele said.

“If we don’t fulfill their requirements, they’ll most likely become dissatisfied. They’re used to the extravagant lifestyle they had in the city. They just asked me for oil and to do the maintenance for their equipment. We don’t even have enough oil for cooking, and yet, they want to use it for their equipment!” The baron wryly laughed, disappointment apparent in his expression.

“Well, I’ll try to bear with them. However, it’d be nice if you could try talking to them about the situation, Father. Otherwise, with the amount of food that we have, it won’t even last us for five days,” Angele said.

“Okay, I’ll talk to them about it,” the baron nodded and left the carriage.

Angele sighed. After grabbing his water canteen that was half-full, he jumped off the carriage. He walked toward the back and got on the last carriage. Captain Mark, who was the coachman for the last carriage, was in low spirits. He forced a smile on his face when he saw Angele coming.