Another day had passed after their talks with Aldren. Yesterday night, a guard came and told them about how they will be exiled to Carcer today. According to the guard, the trip would take quite a while and a carriage with a group of soldiers had been assigned to them.

“What about our wands?” Connor asked.

Guard wore an amused expression. After taking their weapons, a few mages from Special Division had come and attempted to check their wands, wanting to know how it was made, including which materials used. As they were checking their rifles, they found how to take apart some parts by using their magic to manipulate the materials on the wand while thinking about why would someone would make their wand from pure metal, the item disappeared out of nowhere! Thinking about they made a mistake and activated some sort of magic to prevent inspection, the mage who attempted to take the wand apart cast a spell which would neutralize any spells cast in a small radius other than the caster itself before trying their luck again with the other wand. But the same thing had happened again. The wand disappeared while they were taking it apart. Guards who had witnessed this scene were told to tell the prisoners their equipment has been confiscated.

“As you have used your wands to injure a soldier they are now confiscated by the kingdom and will not be returned. You should be happy that you get to keep your life.” the guard said.

‘So they actually want to keep the rifles for themselves.’ Connor was slightly annoyed before remembering something. ‘Hold on a minute, if we consider the technology from what I have seen so far… they don’t have to technology to manufacture ammunition.’ he grinned. ‘It’s okay, they should not have much ammo.’

As they did not have a way to constantly produce new bullets, they would eventually run out of ammo before they could even realize how to use it, at least. This was what Connor thought. There was no way he could know that the rifles had already disappeared… somehow.

After the guard reported what their fate would be to the duo, the day ended. As the morning sun started to shine again through the window, another guard came in.

“Time to move, get up.” he spoke with a high voice. It was not shouting but it was definitely loud.

Connor and Miles had been laying on their bed early in the morning. Hearing the guard, Connor got up while grumbling. He turned to look at Miles who was lying on the bed above, Miles was also looking at him at the same time, he had a huge smile on his face. He knew what Connor planned. They were going to have lots of ‘fun’ on their ‘trip’ to Carcer.

Subsequently, they got up and washed their faces thanks to the small bucket of water. The guards brought them a clean set of clothes, not that they would need it anyway… Connor planned to use equipment store as soon as there was no one around to gear himself and Miles up immediately.

The duo, with several guards, left the garrison. There was a rundown carriage that looked like it was two separate carriages waiting for them. The convoy had four other soldiers on their horses. It was a standard prisoner escort. Two guards boarded the carriage before Connor and Miles, then a third one followed them behind to ensure they boarded too. After getting in the carriage, Connor noticed that it was similar to police cars back in Earth, in the middle of the carriage there were metal railings, similar to the ones in the cell. The guards were sitting on the other side of the railing. The convoy started to move after a short wait.

Several minutes after the carriage had left, a small figure could be seen following them in the shadows.

….

It has been about ten hours since the convoy left Westland, heading to Carcer. It may probably take another day until they arrived. The warm spring air outside was affecting the guards and the horses pulling the carriage. Naturally, Connor was also affected.

“Oi, Jack. Tell them to stop somewhere and rest a bit, I want to get the fuck out of this carriage for a bit.” one of the guards said to the coachman through the open window.

The convoy came to a halt and all the guards quickly got out of the carriage, it was late afternoon, it was the time when it would be really hot.

“Hey guys, can we also get out? I may turn into a barbecue before we arrive at our destination and that is not something I would like.” Connor said to the guards from the carriage as he looked at outside through the door. The guards looked at each other before one of them nodded, he unlocked the ‘prisoner’ side of the carriage and took out Connor and Miles. In the distance, other guards who were riding horses near the carriage had already sat down, forming a circle, talking to each other and drinking from their waterskins.

The group rested for about an hour and continued on their way, the journey would end tomorrow morning but that required them to take some rest at night. After travelling for a few more hours, the convoy halted once again and guards started to set up camps near the carriage. Connor and Miles were assigned to a tent, a guard was to stand in front of their tent throughout the night. After eating most of the dried meat and some other foodstuffs guards were given for the trip, almost all of them went to sleep almost immediately, besides the unlucky guard who had gotten the short end of the stick. As soon as they were in the tent, Connor could understand most of the guards had already fallen asleep thanks to the loud snores echoing in the camp. After ensuring that no one was watching them, Connor quickly opened the equipment store and started browsing through it.

‘Can’t take clothes. Too much attention, rifles are out too… Best thing I can carry on me is probably a pistol and a knife.’ Connor thought, after getting a few stealth holsters mostly equipped under the clothes, he settled on a Jagdkommando Tri-Blade and BU9 Nano. Jagdkommando Tri-Blade was enough for self defence easily, the knife was so powerful that one stab was probably enough to kill someone, this knife was basically designed to rupture every single blood vessel as soon as it was inside the body. Connor had also decided on BU9 Nano for medium range encounters, although it wasn’t as strong as other choices, it was the one that could be concealed the best. He took out two of both items and handed the other set to Miles. Connor was slightly taken aback because of Miles’ reaction. Well, in this case. His reaction was absolutely nothing, he took the items and put them in their holsters not minding how Connor literally took an item out of thin air. This somewhat surprised Connor.

After ensuring their gears were ready for any action and was concealed, the duo laid on the ground ‘beds’. Connor slowly closed his eyes to drift off to sleep. They were only a few hours away from Carcer, they would arrive pretty soon tomorrow. He wanted to regain some energy for his ‘reputation points farming’.

Suddenly.

THUD

A noise was heard from outside just before a loud cry. It was definitely a man screaming.

Connor and Miles quickly got up and took out their weapons, knives on their left hands, handguns on their right. Shortly after, loud cries of men were heard however this time it sounded something like a battle cry.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

One of the guards who was sleeping in the tent that was next to Connor’s suddenly yelled.

“Raiders! Get up! We are under attack!”

Although he yelled at the top of his lungs, most of the men were half-asleep, barely being able to get up. There was no time for them to get their weapons and equip their armour. Connor and Miles were still in their tent, they were able to hear noises of swords clashing and people yelling outside. A mere minute later the sound of cries turned into laughter. It was clear, one side had won the battle. Connor slightly moved the tent’s flaps and was met with a bloody scene, most of the guards he had seen just this morning were lying on the ground, either already dead or was in the middle of drowning in their own pool of blood. Several brawny men that looked like fantasy barbarians were going from one tent to other, stripping the guards of their half-equipped armour, taking their swords and spears as their prizes for their performance in the battle.

Connor turned towards Miles. Miles had an indifferent face, just like a soldier who would have a considerable amount of battle experience, he wasn’t afraid of what was going on outside. Seeing his commander facing him, he turned towards him only to see Connor smiling innocently but the real expression behind that smile was nothing less than a devil. Miles shuddered. From what he had learned by being with him for some time now that if he was smiling like that… something was bound to happen… real soon.

....

As the guards and raiders clashed, one figure was hiding in the shadows, far from the illumination of the moon.

“This will be a great opportunity to see it.” the figure said.