"I said—"
"You don't have to repeat the question, I heard you the first time!" yelled the young man, Kurian, or so he had called himself.
"Then answer the question and stop trying to act all mysterious!"
"Who's acting mysterious?"
While they were starting to quarrel like an old married couple, the person who had led the bandits in robbing Reeve and company, came to the cages. Beside him, there was also an old man who was wearing a very funny looking hat. The old man's face was wrinkled with tattoos below each of his eyes. The tattoos were black lines extending from his eyes to his cheeks.
"Master Soren Skycrawler, I apologize if our accommodation is not first class. As you can see, we're trying to run an honest banditry business here", said the old man with a smile.
The young man frowned before asking, "Who are you? And how did you know about me?"
Reeve smiled when he saw the kid responding. It seemed like he was about to find out more information about the young man.
The old man with the funny hat and eye tattoos smiled before answering, "I don't believe we have met, master Skycrawler. You can call me Avarice, as for how I knew about you, well, that's a trade secret."
Soren's face showed a visible trace of panic, as his eyes widened. While flustered, he asked, "Avarice? Avarice of the Cardinal Sins? That's impossible!"
"Oh, so you've heard of me? I guess a candle set on a hill cannot be hidden", replied the old man with a smile of satisfaction.
"You're lying! You can't be …"
"Don't worry master Skycrawler, once your family pays the ransom, we'll definitely let you go."
"No ways! You're going to kill me … Aren't you? Avarice never lets anyone go! Wait a minute … Are you really him?" Soren was now panicking visibly. He knew a little about the Seven Cardinal Sins. And that little was not good at all!
"Goodbye master Skycrawler, I'm sure we'll meet again very soon. Oh, who's that?" asked Avarice, pointing at Reeve, who was now wearing the hoodie of the robe he had put on.
The burly bandit leader frowned, before replying, "Oh, him? We had gotten information that a rich merchant would be travelling at this time along the road. When we travelled to rob that merchant, we found him and two girls instead."
"Where are the two girls?"
"They're in the other prison", replied the bandit leader.
"So, did you manage to verify if he's the merchant?"
"No. Seems the person who sent us the information vanished into thin air afterwards. We couldn't verify anything."
"And what did he have on his person?"
"Oh, he had four hundred gold coins."
"Hmm? Interesting! Rich merchants don't travel with that much amount of money! Hey, what's your name?" asked Avarice, talking to Reeve.
Reeve remained quiet. He was trying to find a way to obtain more information from this Avarice. It seemed as if he was talkative, and talkative people were the easiest to get information from. Or so he thought.
"My name is Reeve. Nice to meet you, eh, Sir Avarice", replied Reeve, with a smile.
"Reeve? A very weird name. Where do you come from, Reeve?"
"Oh, me? A very small place that's not important at all. I'm pretty sure you've never heard of it…"
"Is that so? Try me."
"Ever heard of Manhattan?"
Avarice frowned, as he wracked his brains trying to find out where he had heard of that name. Unfortunately, he'd never heard of such a place anywhere.
"Let me guess", continued Reeve, "you've never heard of it?"
"Well, you're right. It's been quite interesting talking to you", replied Avarice with a smile. When he was away from Reeve, he said to the bandit leader, "Kill him!"
"Now?" asked the bandit leader, with surprise.
"It doesn't matter when! I'm taking the two girls with me. I'm sure they'll sell for quite a large amount in the capital!" said Avarice.
"If you say so. Just be sure to put in a good word for me, when you meet Pride", said the bandit leader.
"I will."
When they left, Reeve realized something was wrong. That Avarice guy had frowned shortly after saying it's been interesting talking to him. Wasn't he lying? If that was so, he'd probably tell the bandit leader to get rid of him!
'Uh-oh! I'm pretty much screwed at this point', he thought. And yes, he had forgotten he was undead!
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, well, for Reeve and Soren at least. After Avarice left, they never spoke to each other again. Reeve was trying to figure out how to escape from the cage. Soren … well … no one could figure out what he was thinking about. However, the panic from earlier was gone. It seemed like it was all acting. Reeve had to give it to him, he deserved an Oscar. That was if they gave those around here.
During the night, there was a muffled groan, followed by keys clanging. Reeve woke up, and saw a hooded figure unlocking the door and beckoning him. Without wasting time, he stood up and ran towards the hooded figure, who motioned him to be silent.
"What about him?" asked Reeve, in a hushed whisper, pointing at Soren.
"Who's he?"
"I don't know!" replied Reeve.
"Then let's leave him behind!" replied the figure, which took off it's hood, to reveal Rizaneth.
"Where's Esk?"
"Umm … about that … Can we talk about it when we leave successfully?"
Reeve stopped moving. He realized something was wrong. "Where's she?"
"She's probably on her way to the capital! If you want to catch up, then we need to get going now!" she declared, and they started moving again. What they didn't know was that there was someone else following them as they ran.
Meanwhile, back in the bandit village, when the bandits were about to change the guard, they saw the cage empty. In a matter of minutes, a bell started tolling, and a commotion kicked up.