Sid

Sid was just an ordinary person who was able to rise in the ranks to become a personal guard of one of the heirs of a noble family.

Those around him were those that had rose up along with him or had been in the same position as him even before his time there.

Sid was someone that was loyal to his master and had performed his duties well but everyone that has some kind of weakness would open themselves up for potential plots against them.

Sid came from humble origins and his family were what he treasured so he would send some of his earnings back to them.

Since he was away from them and they did not follow him to where he was working, they were not within his range of protection so he could not do anything if anything happened to them.

It was usually when someone found such a weakness and started using it to get what they wanted was when people like Sid were caught up in a situation where option one and option two available to him would result in his own loss.

Without enough power and capability to handle situations beyond his range of control, he fell into such a position where he had to make such a choice between losing and losing.

His family had been taken hostage and he was told a little later to follow along with the instructions that would be given.

If he refused to go along with what had been instructed or had made any moves to ask for help and to look for his family then their lives would be lost.

There were no traces of who had sent him the instructions and the threat while he was given a short deadline to carry out the task.

He was given instructions to look for an opportunity to kill the young master that he was guarding.

The young master or Ben Gregory was fourteen years old and was at the age where he was able to leave his families home to visit others with the accompaniment of escorts that were there to advise and protect him.

It was not strange for some young masters to have to keep up relations with others from families that their family had ties to while they did have some closer friendships that had been formed at an earlier age.

His family may not have had a title but they were rich merchants that had many connections so he was friends with the son of a Baron who was an important connection for their businesses.

Ben would occasionally visit the Baron family to keep up those relations with the young heir of the family.

The amount of escorts assigned to him were low due to the shorter distance that was travelled and due to it being better to attract less attention each time he went out.

Even the carriage that he had rode was of a lesser quality so that it would lower the risk of others thinking that it was worthwhile to take from those inside of it.

Such a scenario allowed for Sid to have an opportunity to strike and since things had been arranged with such a short time frame, it was obvious that the person behind the threats had known that too.

If Sid refused to go ahead with the task that was given or tried to take other actions then it was guaranteed that his family would be killed.

If he went ahead with it then it was very likely that his life would be very difficult from then on.

Depending on how the personality of the person ordering him was, different scenarios could have played out but he did not have time to worry about those things.

The most obvious scenario that came to his mind was that his family being released and his own life would be over once he did what was instructed.

Either he would return in disgrace back to the Gregory family or he would have to go into hiding.

If he went back to the family then he would be punished and may even have to forfeit his life for his failure while he would have to accept the suspicions of those around him.

There were still those that would still know what he had done so that could be used to make him do more at later dates.

If he realised that then the only option was to not return but he still needed to make sure that his family were safe.

If the person behind the scenes was a person of their word then they may have released the family and may have left him alone but any smart and ruthless person who had planned such a thing would not leave things to chance.

Even if a promise had been made to release the family then the family would be killed to avoid further complications and someone would be sent to kill Sid after he no longer had a use to them.

Once the pawn had been used up and could potentially become something that could cause them problems, they would arranged for that pawn to be disposed of.

Sid did not know for sure if doing what he had been told would allow his family to be safe but he did not have enough time to think of a valid third option that could solve his problems.

From what had been spoken by him that had been overheard by Beatrix, she was able to get a basic understanding of what was happening. 'So it is a hostage scenario huh? Oh look at that… his own life is very short too.'

Everyone in her view was destined for death but it was just that everyone but Sid were destined to die on that road where they had stopped.

With her own power, Beatrix did not feel the urge to suddenly become a hero and to step up to save anyone.

If she had gotten involved then her current abilities would only put her at risk of dying too so she had watched from further away.

The door of the carriage was eventually broken apart by the sword of Sid then he had entered the carriage.

"No.."

"Why.."

"Ugh."

"Sorry young master Ben."

There was a short sigh that was followed up by the sheathing of the sword that was picked up by the hearing capabilities of Beatrix.

Sid had stepped out of the carriage and had spent some time calming down the restless horses before detaching the harnesses around one of them.

He got up onto the back of the horse and rode away but his life would soon be cut short as it had been predetermined.

Once a little time had passed, a strange creature had stepped out of the forest area near the road and walked towards the carriage before crunching noises followed.

Beatrix continued to watch from her place of hiding with wide eyes. 'What is that? Is that a goblin?'

More green, small and ugly looking creatures with long pointed ears had stepped towards the carriage and to other places where there had been other dead bodies laying around.

They had started eating the flesh from the bones of the dead and a short fight had broken out among them over who would be able to take something for themselves if they did not wish to share with others.

One goblin had beat another goblin down which had left it bloodied and injured then it went back to the corpse.

More time had passed until they had lost interest or had eaten enough so they had started to take what they could carry with them before disappearing back into the forest.

Once Beatrix had felt that the danger was no longer present for herself, she had climbed out back onto the road and stepped towards the carriage. 'I cannot waste anything that is just there for the taking.'