Race Against Time

Mathew sped through the forest like a gust of wind, the capital city of this province was pretty far away, and he had no time to waste. It generally took a person one day and a half to reach the capital city with a fast horse, but, Mathew's was slightly faster, but, he wasn't sure if had sufficient energy to run there without any pauses.

While Mathew was running to the capital city, Ruffus and his guards had just finished putting out the last fire in the village.

-" That fucker still escaped!" Ruffus's face was red from rage, his whole body was dirty from the fight and he was even injured. " Tsk! Just wait until I put your face on the banditry list."

-" Sir! Something happened in your villa!' One of the guards who were pursuing the fleeing people came rushing to Ruffus.

-" My Villa?" Ruffus' eyes widened in worry as all the money Nicolaus had given him was there.

He didn't even ask the guard what had happened and instantly rushed there, and frowned as he saw Clifton passed out at the entrance. " This pig! I told him to take care of the situation here, and look what happened." Ruffus sent Clifton flying away with a kick. " Wake Up! What happened here? Where is your wife?"

Clifton smashed on the Villa's walls and jolted awake from the pain. " Ouch! What happened? Who hit me?" He looked around and all he could was Ruffus's infuriated gaze.

-" You don't even know this?" Ruffus felt like his head was about to explode from worry, and gave up on trying to get an answer from the fat noble, as he was too worried about the money he had left on the villa.

He was nervous as he saw the chests had been opened, but, he let out a sigh of relief as he realized that the money was still there. -" Sigh... Thank god they didn't take the money." It was only after calming down that Ruffus noticed the missing scrolls.

He froze in fright, if the scrolls were taken to the governor or anyone close to him, Ruffus and everyone involved would surely lose their heads. -" Who took them? It was Clifton's wife? Or one of the people who escaped the prison?" Ruffus knew that what he needed now was to analyze his situation.

-" Sir! The guard who remained here is awake!" One of the guards came rushing to Ruffus. " He said that the man who took the scroll was the official that we took to prison not long ago."

-" That man again?" Ruffus couldn't believe what was happening. "Take the chests and bring them to my hideout! I can't let him meet the governor!" Ruffus didn't waste any more time and dashed out of the villa in the direction of the capital city.

Ruffus didn't give up, it didn't seem that much time had passed since the man had left, and all he needed to do was to stop him from meeting the governor.

Simon was observing the city from the forest, and he quickly noticed Ruffus moving away, and his guards moving the chests out of the villa.

-" Oh? It looks like he is going out to deal with that young man." Simon grinned, the governor envoy was stronger than he expected, and he was even injured by the man, but, he still could handle a few guards alone.

Simon waited for a bit more, just to make that this wasn't a trap, and when he was sure that the envoy was far away he jumped out of the forest and blocked the carriage that the guards were using to move the chest.

-" Tsk! To think that the first thing he thought was to get his money out of here." Simon prepared his stance and threw a punch to the ground, causing the horses guiding the carriage to rear in fright.

-" Fuck! This man again," The guard steering the horse jumped from the carriage and faced the man. " Everyone! Let's face him together." The guard knew that fighting the man was no easy task, but, he was now wounded and they had the numbers advantage.

-" Come! No one of you will leave this village!" Simon wanted everyone involved in Nicolaus' scheme to face the consequences, including the governor envoy and his group.

The guards were all tense, but, the group was well-trained and they quickly encircled Simon. " Don't attack harshly! Wait for him to make a move and counter it!" The leader of the guards tried his best to control the fight.

However, the group's formation mattered little to Simon, who rushed to the closest enemy and sent him flying with a tackle and easily broke their encirclement.

Simon didn't stop his offensive after breaking their formation, and he dashed toward the leader of the guard.

The Leader of the guards quickly reacted and swept his spear toward Simon's legs, who quickly stomped the spear's shaft, and threw a punch toward the man.

The leader of the guards dropped his spear, and tried to unsheath the dagger in his belt, but, his movement was too slow, and Simon's punch connected directly to his chest.

The guard leader was flying like a kite, he felt as if a metal hammer had smashed into his chest. All the guards cowered in fear as they saw the strongest of them being taken out so easily.

Simon grinned as he saw the faces of the guards, and continued to attack, easily dispatching the group now that they had lost all the will to fight. -" It's all on you now young man." Simon took a deep breath as he began to drag the guards back to the envoy's villa.

Simon quickly dragged all the unconscious guards to a room and blocked the door before proceeding to search the villa for Clifton and Nicolaus, who were hiding away in fear.

-" Simon! What do you think are you doing?" Clifton trembled as he saw the old man, he had heard the fight outside so he knew that no one would come to save him, and he could only count on his noble title. " Do you dare to touch a noble?"

-" Ha! A Noble? Just wait until the governor hears about all of this!" Simon sneered at the fat man, he couldn't believe that even now the man thought that he would escape punishment. " The time for you to be judged finally arrived, it took a long time, but, justice never fails." Simon dragged Nicolaus and Clifton to the same place he had taken the guards and locked them all together.

Simon sat down and took a deep breath, if everything went according to the plan, his village would soon be freed from the evil claws of Nicolaus and his companions. -" I just hope that the young man doesn't get caught again.