Chapter 16

The two people riding the horse were traveling through a small road, just wide enough for three people to walk side by side with each other, it was an old trade road, which merchants would use. But since the monsters came, the maintenance of the road was neglected and thus the road which was harden first started to wash away from the rain and was covered with vegetation.

Behind them the large group of cavalry stopped, not daring to enter the forest, for three Minotaurs lived within. To enter it was to ask for death for these people who were barely comparable to the beginning adventurers of Orario.

"What do we do?" Someone asked. This cause more people to also ask the same thing.

"They entered the forest. But the lord said we need to get their corpse, so we will enter, stay on guard and if a monster appears, gang up on it." The leading knight ordered the cavalry got into groups and started to follow the noble and the surrounding roads.

The noble was ride with her guard. They soon heard a loud roar. It was so loud it resounded through the forest. The seer fear that the roar placed into the people caused them to stiffen. They couldn't even move, the horses which were well trained followed their instincts and started to run away as fast a possible. This was no different fr the horse the noble girl rode. It ran as fast a possible.

But it was not enough, the trees were slammed off, and from behind the two could see a Minotaur chasing them. Its speed was too fast for them to escape.

The horse felt adrenaline rush through the veins and it sped up a bit, but it was not enough. The monster chased them down, the guard withdrew her bow and took aim. She then released the arrow which flew right into the monster's head, but the arrow barely pierced the hide and only caused it to be more pissed.

The guard drew another arrow and shot the leg of the monster, and it worked slightly better, without the hard skull, it managed to pierce the leg but not even half of the arrow head made it into the leg. She planned on shooting until the monster was dead or gave up.

She shot more arrows, but they barely did anything to the monster. But then one of her arrows hit the hoove of the monster, causing it to trip as it also ran onto uneven terrain.

"I see a clearing, and a village I think, maybe we can get help." The noble said, she rode the horse, as then made it to a clearing. She was immediately met with soldiers who had their spears up and ready.

"Please stop, we are of the Rose family, please help us." The noble declared, going so far as to get off the horse and bow with her head almost touching the ground. This confused the soldiers who were there, not sure what they should do. That was until they heard a voice.

"Let them in." Nick said as he went over to the soldiers right in front of them.

"It is the lord's order." He said, this immediately caused the soldiers to comply. There did not question the lord who ruled this village. But soon they heard the roar of the Minotaur. It charged forward. It was on all fours and was ready to impale someone with its horns.

"We need to run." The noble tried to order the soldiers. But they did not budge. The noble first believed it was because they were scared with fear, but she soon noticed that their face was not of fear, but hate, hate that someone dared to invade their territory.

She saw the most hatred in the face of Nick, who drew his sword. 'A pallum, he will die!' She thought, but by then the Minotaur was arlready near and ready to kill Nick.

But the next moment Nick disappeared and the next thing they knew, he was behind the monster. Who's body fell to the ground, it's head had fallen to the ground. Blood then started to flow from the stump that once held the head to the body.

"The lord would like to see you. Please follow me." Nick said calmly, now less scary now that the monster was dead. The guard and noble could only comply, they knew that if they refused, they would be killed, after all, even if ten of her guard fought the Minotaur it was not guaranteed that they would win, yet the knight before them killed the Minotaur with no trouble.

The soldiers started to retrieve the magic stone. They also brought it to the village.

The three people walked across the village. They passed the training ground which had many soldiers, squires and conscripts training, fighting with each other, and the speed at which they moved scared the guard who saw that the slowest of them were still faster than her.

"We need to be careful, they are strong, if they attacked, I can not guarantee to even be a match for a single one of them." The guard warned the noble.

"I know, I just hope that the lord is very reasonable." The noble replied. Nick then brought them to a meeting room before he knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice said from within. Nick opened the door and walked in, bowing as he entered the room. The noble and knight did the same as they walked in. They then saw a small child, one who had probably not even started puberty yet. To his side was a women, she wore no armor nor did she had a weapon, her clothing released her face, stomach, arms, and her calves. She wore banages over her hands and wrists. The number of scars on them scared the two who entered. It was Olivia.

"Lord I have brought them as you requested." Nick said, bowing into one of his knees. One of his hands went over his chest and he lowed his head even more.

"My name is Rosa Rose." The nobles said bowing.

"My name is Jessica." The guard said also bowing.

"Why have you come to this very dangerous place I wonder." Author said, not even looking at them instead looking at a glass wine cup which had deep red wine.

"We were running from a group of people that wish to kill us, I implore you to please protect us." The noble pleaded to Author.

"Why should I, I don't exactly see the benefits." He replied, crushing the hope of the two.

"My family is rich, we can easily bring you wealth, my family has status, we can protect you from other threats, my family has connections to people from around the continent." She tried to tempt Author, and the last part worked, connections, mostly because he wished to spread his work. Although the caravan buys his stuff, the thing is that they just never bring much money with them. Even if they know he would like to sell a lot of items, which were expensive they never brought much money. So sometimes he would have a lot of extra stuff he couldn't sell. So there was a hard limit to the amount of money he could make, so he often used the extra products to trade with the caravan for things of equal value. But now he had a surplus of food, tools and more things. With the food he had, he could feed his village for six months even if they ate excessively. So the prospect of trading or the like for money of this world wasn't too bad for him. But he wouldn't let his interest show.

"I have wealth, even if not as much as your family, I have strength as you saw, and connections, what connections could you have that were helpful to me?" He asked, he was probing and Rosa knew it. She would need to list a number of highly valuable connections her family had if she wanted to live.

She started to list a number of connections, noble families and the like, none of which interested Author, and he made sure she knew he didn't have any interest in them.

That was until he heard that they also had connections to a large merchant family who trade and travel a lot. His brows slightly raised a bit.

"A large merchant family you say, this is interesting. Very well, let's settle the contract later. It would seem a group of uninvited guests are starting to poke their nose where they don't belong." He said, Rosa and Jessica both knew it was the group of people that followed them.

"Nick, prepare the troops, Olivia, get my weapon. Let's have a bit of fun." He said, an evil smile adorned his face.