Some minutes after the carriage had left, the bandits arrived at the road. However, the place where they arrived was quite far from where the carriage had departed from.
"This road leads to Sky City! Boss, do you think they have managed to find transportation?" asked one of the bandits, while looking at the burly man with the fierce scar.
The bandit leader grumbled in dissatisfaction, before replying, "If that is the case, then Pride is going to have our heads! We need to run away as far as we can."
"B-but boss, where would we run to?" asked another bandit, seemingly flustered.
"I have an idea. There's a new city that is still being built in the southern area. Was it Something-niece?" said the bandit leader with a pondering expression.
"Bernice?"
"Yes, that one. We'll go and hide there as 'honest' citizens. Let's get back to pack our belongings. Pride should not be able to find us there."
"Yes boss!" responded the other bandits.
However, before they could move an inch, a dagger whistled past the bandit leader's ears, before embedding itself deep in the forehead of the bandit behind him! The person fell over, completely dead!
"Who?" as the bandit leader asked, a figure revealed itself. This figure was wearing a black suit, a black hat and its face was hidden behind a mask. It was hard to tell what kind of expression was hidden behind the mask. As the figure appeared, the bandit leader swallowed hard.
"Preparing to escape, are we?" asked the figure, as it made a grasping motion, and the dagger embedded in the bandit flew over into his hand.
"Who are you? And what do you want from us?" This time, the bandit leader was thoroughly frightened. Yes, he had killed people before. And yes, he had fought many battles. However, none of that had prepared him for this moment!
"Pride is really disappointed in you! All you had to do was keep a child hostage until ransom was paid, then kill him! However, not only did you let him escape, you were planning to run away as well! Judgement has been passed; you deserve death!" said the mysterious man, as he brandished his dagger. He started moving swiftly, and in one fell swoop, he killed another bandit. Without stopping, he threw the dagger towards another, who was running away. In a matter of minutes, all ten bandits were dead. That was discounting the leader, whose forehead was covered in sweat.
"W-we can t-talk a-about this…"
A dagger sliced his throat, and blood gushed out. His eyes were full of unwillingness as his body fell and then shook, before dying. The words he wanted to say trailed off. The mysterious figure wiped the blood from the dagger, before stretching his hand. A flame of fire appeared, and then he threw it on the corpses, burning them.
"Sky City, eh? It's been a long time. I wonder how Red Crow is doing …" after saying that the figure took off its mask.
As the carriage arrived at the magnificent gates that were the entry into Sky City, Reeve could not help but pay close attention. The gates were made of wood, and they were guarded by soldiers wearing armour. On chest of the armour, there was a symbol for an eagle.
Inside the city, the buildings were very magnificent. Forget the huts found in the Southern Earth tribe, or Bernice. This place was the real deal … well … to Reeve it looked very magnificent. The buildings were made from stone, and most of them had more than one floor. There were various people selling merchandise outside on an open area. Reeve had never seen such a magnificent city like this before. Well, he had seen better cities in his previous life, but none of them were this grand.
The atmosphere in the carriage lightened up quite a bit. Well, the smell was still there, but everyone had gotten used to it. Cindi and Soren kept on talking, while Reeve leaned on the glass on the doors in order to see more of the city. After a few minutes, the carriage stopped. Soren remembered that he had the flowers of the Valerian plants in his pocket. He literally emptied his pockets, handing over the remaining flowers to Reeve, who had forgotten all about them. The flowers were now wet since they were inside a wet pocket.
"Come on, we need to get going", said Rizaneth, as she looked at Reeve who was looking at the flowers in his hands.
"Where are we going?"
"Just follow me!" she said, as the carriage door opened.
"It's been nice knowing you. I'm sure we'll meet again someday. Travel safely", said Reeve, as he got out of the carriage.
"Farewell", Soren and Cindi bid their farewells, as they remained in the carriage.
After Reeve and Riza disembarked, the carriage started moving again. Reeve sniffed the air. It was very clean as there was no smog from cars, industries and so on. They had been left on an open area. As far as the eye could see, there were people everywhere. These people would pause in their tracks when they noticed Reeve, as he was … a bit different so to speak.
"I have a lot of unanswered questions. First thing is, what happened to Eskaria?"
Before Rizaneth answered, she began walking. Reeve had to follow her because she had claimed that she grew up here. Therefore, she probably knew how to get to the capital.
"Right now, our clothes are wet and I'm hungry! We need to find a place where we can properly talk", was the reply he got.
"Aren't we wasting time? You said she was well on her way to the capital! Don't we need to catch up?"
"Do you have any money remaining?"
Reeve stopped in his tracks. Back then, he only had four hundred gold coins, and up to now, he didn't know the value of that money. Now, however, thanks to some people running an honest banditry business, his net worth had dropped back to zero. How was he going to get to the capital without money? Also, how would he enrol at Artemine, if he was this broke?