In the forest, a man with a shabby shirt and a goatee looked towards the camp with its four tents. He looked towards another man who had a bandanna on towards his left in a tree.
"Are you sure this is doable?"
The man with the bandanna had a spyglass that looked like it would fall apart from a single gust of wind and even the glass on the end of it had a crack.
"While they have the number advantage, they are all pretty much regular villagers, though one of them seems like he served in the military before so we might have to take care of him first. Plus they should all be sleeping right now, which means we have the element of surprise, boss."
Despite the man's word, the boss still wasn't convinced.
"Still this is a lot of risk we are taking on here... what's the payout?"
Hearing the question, the man with the bandanna hesitated as he had to recount everything.
"Hmm… I do recall seeing one of them carrying around a decent chunk of coins, although I couldn't tell if it was bronzes or silvers. Plus I saw one of them carrying a pretty expensive-looking sword and there was a little lass as well."
While stroking his goatee, he stared up at the sky trying to think about what to do until he turned to his right.
"What do you think boys?"
The large bush next to the man with the goatee rustled and three more men that had shabby clothes and scars on their faces showed up. None of them talked, but a loathsome grin appeared on their faces. Having his answer, the man with the goatee also smiled.
"Well, y'all know what to do. Same plan."
With that, the three scarred men went left towards the tents, while the other two men went around to the right.
Leon had already dozed off in the tree, ever since he had dreamed of that giant battle. His nights of sleep had been dreamless, but suddenly he felt something like a string that tugged on his mind. The voice was muffled until Leon focused on it.
「Boy! Boy!」
Even though he had only been sleeping for about fifteen minutes, Leon still felt groggy and yawned even though he was in a dream.
'...Ensis? Why are you talkin-'
Suddenly he realized the significance of Ensis taking the initiative to talk to him, the only other time Ensis had done this had been back in Orisini right before the Medici estate was attacked.
'Is it an-'
「Yes. Some unwelcomed folks have arrived.」
After a few months, Leon knew that Ensis didn't joke around and only talked when he needed to, so he instantly became vigilant. But before he could start doing anything, Leon realized that he was still in a dream.
'Um, how do I lea-'
Before he could finish, he felt Ensis tug on his mind and his eyes fluttered open. The moment he gained consciousness a faint smell of rust assaulted his nostrils.
'What is this…'
Suddenly his eyes opened and a droplet of sweat ran down the side of his head.
'Blood!'
Although he had no idea where the blood came from, he had an inkling that it wasn't the attackers. Darkness surrounded Leon and his pupils hadn't fully dilated to adjust to the lack of sunlight, this forced Leon to feel around him and he instantly found Ensis next to him.
Clutching Ensis and his leather sheath with his left hand, Leon looked into the endless darkness and blinked his eyes until he could barely see the shadows that the minute light the moon brought on the pitch black of night.
Now that he could relatively make out what was near him, Leon looked down towards the ground to double-check nothing was blocking his way before he jumped down from the tree. Even though he was as silent as a mouse, thoughts were flying by in his mind at Mach speed.
'Do I let everyone know that people are attacking? Or will that ruin the advantage of knowing what is going on? Do I try to quietly let everyone know? Should I go find the person on watch? Do I go over to where the smell of blood is coming from?'
All these questions entered Leon's mind at the speed of light, as he tried to figure out the best course of action as fast as possible. Before he could choose one, he heard a loud scream that woke up all the men in the tents. Although the men didn't know what was going on, the scream was intimidating enough that they all ran out of their tents with their weapons ready.
This made all the ideas that Leon had completely mundane, so he had to think fast and since everyone was awake now he shouted toward the tents.
"Everyone follow me while protecting the chief and his granddaughter, but first get the same safely out of the tent! I'm going to go ahead to check up on the scream."
The moment he finished the last word, Leon broke out in an all-out sprint with his leg muscles going into overdrive. Although Leon didn't know the exact position the scream came from, he just ran in the general direction.
After half a minute of running at full speed, Leon heard the sound of heavy breathing and clanging past a set of bushes. Leon knew it was smarter to check out what was happening, but with the desire to keep everyone alive and the river of blood pumping from his heart. So he impulsively charged past the bushes with his hand on the hilt of Ensis, ready to be drawn.
"AHHH!"
The small twigs of the bushes left small scratches on Leon's leg, but he didn't care and easily broke past the bushes. About twenty feet in front of him was the ex-soldier, who was on the lookout, with one hand on his battered spear, however, in front of the man was the man with the goatee swinging down a sword onto the lookout.
Still carrying all his momentum, Leon unsheathed Ensis and swung out in front of him. Barely in time, Ensis intercepted the assailant's sword and a loud clang reverberated through the air, but Leon's momentum didn't stop and he rolled forward on the ground before launching off the ground and landing on his feet
The man with the goatee who had swung the sword shook his hand which was holding the sword.
"Ahahaha, not bad!"