Chapter 216: The Devil’s Invoice

Corpses, corpses, corpses. The stench of death permeated the surroundings.

An overturned carriage, a horse pierced by an arrow, three bodies resembling adventurers, the corpses of a middle-aged couple, and a ten-year-old boy.

Josel instinctively covered his mouth at the overwhelming nausea. Seeing something like this, especially children around his son’s age, was truly distressing.

However, he couldn’t stay depressed forever. Josel, a high-ranking knight, had the responsibility to punish those who caused this tragedy and bring justice to the victims.

“Sorry,” he murmured, then began examining the area.

There were no belongings in the carriage; it seemed all the cargo had been taken. Did this imply there were enough people to carry away everything?

The bodies resembling adventurers were likely hired as guards. Josel flipped one of the fallen bodies onto its back with his toe. The adventurer’s face still held an expression of regret and pain as he stared at the sky.

The fatal blow seemed to be a slash to the chest. No other apparent injuries were visible. It appeared he was killed in a single strike. There must be a skilled person among the thieves.

As Josel carefully surveyed the surroundings, he noticed a small bag resembling a wallet lying at his feet. Several copper coins spilled out from the bag’s opening.

Should he deliver it to the old man? As he was about to bend down to pick up the wallet, he suddenly remembered the appearance of the thieves from earlier.

With overgrown hair and beard, and tattered clothes and leather armor, they didn’t seem like they had much money. Would such individuals overlook a wallet, even if it only contained copper coins?

A moment of insight, a question that surged, separated life from death.

Swish! The sharp sound of cutting wind reached Josel’s ears, and he instinctively leaned back. An arrow passed in front of him, deeply embedding itself into a tree trunk.

“Who goes there!?”

Josel readied his Nightkiller and turned towards the direction the arrow came from. A human shadow disappeared into the dense forest. Josel considered chasing, but quickly restrained himself.

…Could this be a trap?

There were many enemies, and some were skilled. If they could take down Josel with the first arrow, great. If not, they could lure him into the depths of the forest and ambush him. That might be their strategy.

In any case, Josel wasn’t so confident that he could single-handedly wipe out the thieves. What he needed to do now was return to the castle immediately and consult with the Count and Gerhardt.

“Sorry, I will definitely avenge you.”

Apologizing once again to the surrounding corpses, Josel mounted his horse and galloped back the way he came.

—

The old man introduced himself as Nabal. Extracting this much information from him had been quite a struggle.

After picking up Nabal on the way, they returned to the nearest town, took lodging, and decided to inquire about the situation there. However, he seemed to be staring into the distance without any anger or sadness.

It wasn’t that he was looking at something specific. He simply faced forward because his eyes were in the front of his face.

“I know it’s hard for you to talk just after losing your family, but…”

Josel tried to extract information from Nabal about the number of enemies, their weapons, and so on, but Nabal replied with vague phrases like, “Yes, I see,” or “No, not really.”

Why hadn’t information about a group of bandits of this scale settled into the town? Either the knight order, unwilling to go on an extermination mission, had hushed it up, or the locals had given up reporting to the knight order from the beginning.

In the end, the negligence of the knight order had cost Nabal’s family their lives.

“Nabal, is there anything you want me to do? I’m Josel, a high-ranking knight. I’ll do my best to help.”

Josel tried to encourage him. In response, Nabal slowly turned his skeletal face towards Josel and answered in a voice devoid of emotion.

“There’s nothing.”

After a long, suffocating silence, Josel stood up. He could now use the shared carriage to return to the city. Saying this, he handed some money to Nabal and left the inn.

“Nothing, huh. Don’t mess around!”

Josel yelled, slamming the inn wall with his fist.

It was impossible not to harbor hatred after losing one’s family so brutally. He was angry, undoubtedly. Still, the despair that no matter what he said to the officials, it would be in vain had led Nabal to expect nothing.

He had given up on the bandits, the officials, the useless knight order, the count, Gerhardt, or even himself.

Returning to the fortress city, Josel immediately went to Gerhardt’s workshop and reported what he saw on the road.

Gerhardt had ordered a brief trip for Josel to take a breather, but when he returned, his expression was much grimmer than before.

Worry and hatred furrowed his brow. Despite their long acquaintance, Gerhardt had never seen Josel wear such a severe expression.

After listening to Josel’s report, Gerhardt uttered with a growl.

“It seems we’re reaching our limit.”

“The limit? It’s long since come. We just didn’t notice because the brunt of it was directed towards the townsfolk.”

“Pathetic,” Josel muttered, clenching his fist tightly on his knee.

The knight order was of no help. While the count provided adventurers promptly whenever monsters appeared, that was about it. Instead of relying on someone every time an incident occurred to maintain the security of the vast count’s territory, a fundamental reform within the family was essential.

“I’ll talk to the count and ask him to expedite the establishment of the Second Knight Order. However, understand that these matters can’t be rushed.”

“Yes…”

Josel nodded, hanging his head. He wasn’t exactly in agreement. Frustration swirled in his chest, thinking it was far too leisurely to be talking about such reforms when victims continued to pile up. However, there was nothing he could achieve by shouting here, and it might backfire by souring the count’s mood.

He had to endure, had to accept. The path of a knight was not supposed to be glorious.

“Now, Josel, do you intend to go after the bandits?”

“Yes.”

This time, Josel answered with a clear determination.

All he could do for that old man was to seek revenge. The old man claimed not to expect anything, so Josel would take care of it on his own terms.

“Very well, then I’ll go with you.”

“Are you sure?”

“My disciple looks like he’s about to die at any moment. I can’t just leave him alone.”

Saying so, Gerhardt showed a bright smile.

His master’s words were so heartwarming that Josel felt like crying. It wasn’t just about increasing their strength; it felt like he was being told, “You’re not fighting alone,” and that was more comforting than anything else.

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