Ki checked their bodies for anything useful and found a container full of a type of powder.
After inspecting a couple of the containers she came to a conclusion. 'On the off chance that they lost some men they were prepared to get rid of the bodies right away with the corpse dissolving powder. In order for the murder of her to not be traced back to them they would have to quickly get rid of their own allies bodies right away but in fact this is beneficial to me.'
Although they did not have any identification on the, showing who they were or who they were working for Ki was able to identify who could be behind this plot to murder her and those with her thanks to the corpse dissolving powder.
The most important task right now was to collect the valuables or weapons that they had carried and place them in a pile while retrieving her own arrows and throwing knives and wiping off the blood that was on her sword but she also had to remove a layer of clothing since they were stained with some of the blood from the battle.
Usually she could avoid being in contact with blood and keep her clothes clean while in battle but today she was put in a closed off space and in a more desperate situation so she did not care about small things like not ruining her clothes.
Pushing several bodies into a pile that were close to each other after checking their clothes for anything useful she had made several small piles of bodies.
Not far away there were some of the groups valuables, weapons and other things to help them survive in the cold environment and mountains along with the containers.
Ki finished grouping several items together and picked up the containers one by one and began to empty the contents of the containers onto the bodies one by one.
The dead bodies began to break down and slowly become an ash like substance before blowing away with the wind.
It's not that she did not have any corpse dissolving powder of her own but it was a little difficult to bring some along with her.
Mainly secret forces that handle special missions or assassinations for noble families or organisations would carry corpse dissolving powder and it is an illegal substance so she did not wish to be caught carrying or transporting it during her journey as she would be identified as a troublesome person and be watched more closely.
Also in order to make the corpse dissolving powder it requires a couple of expensive materials so she could not use it rashly.
Even this group had been rewarded several small containers from their boss just to make sure that their mission does not have any failures but in the end she had used most of it just to remove the mess created within the ravine but also to cover up the carnage she had created with her poison arts.
She hid all of the remaining items away in a safe location and quickly checked everywhere that someone could be hiding out within the icy ravine before leaving knowing that it was now safe to pass through.
On her journey back she pondered many things and felt that she was quite contradictory….
She was building a large force in order to defend herself and her family but often times she acted in a way that made herself step out to handle certain things alone.
Although the excuse could be that she was seeking more pressure to enhance her martial arts or she simply wished to not get her allies caught up in the chaos of the fight that she was capable of creating she found that rather than making use of her larger forces she preferred to act alone which could be a bad habit she had developed in her time of isolation in her previous life.
Trusting her back to others wasn't something she could do yet and she had yet to fully master fine enough control of her poison martial arts and blood mystical arts so that she would be able to control the battlefield as she pleased while not harming her own allies.
She knew that had there been an overwhelming amount of enemies that could be considered to be an army she could not act alone and would have to trust in her own people at that time to carry out their task.
However for now it was fine as they were still growing in strength and numbers and she was still finding that she did still have some bad habits that could be worked on.
As she arrived at the meeting location after a long walk she found that the place that they were camping out at had some signs of a struggle so she increased her pace towards them.
Some of the mercenary members of the group had some small injuries while a couple of boxes had been partly damaged but Lumi and Rayleigh seemed to be in a good condition.
Ki arrived in front of Alf who looked a little tired and who was busy dealing with the aftermath of what happened and asked. "What happened here?"
Alf turned around and saw her so he sighed with relief. "We were attacked by one of the tribes but your people helped us to fend them off before we suffered any big losses. These parts are becoming even more dangerous with every passing day and I don't think it will improve anytime soon."
Although Ki had pointed out a place that may be safe to camp out at it did not mean that it was completely safe and it also did not mean that they would not go unnoticed if anyone was passing through.
Alf began to explain how they were simply unlucky and a tribe had been passing through as they were setting up camp.
Although the tribe did not seem hostile at first and were somewhat friendly while making conversation they then noticed that the merchant and mercenary group was carrying several goods in the boxes so became greedy.
Some tried to take the boxes from their sleighs or damage them to get to what is inside while others began to attack the merchant group.
The moment that they had begun to retaliate against the tribe members Lumi and Rayleigh had already stepped up and begun to slay some of them.
After witnessing some of their allies quick deaths some of the more cowardly tribe members began to flee while the others were either subdued or killed.
Ki looked at the tied up tribesmen that had a look of hostility in their eyes and asked. "What do you want to do with them?"
She knew that they did not regret their actions of attacking and stealing even if it was under the orders of their tribe chief who had fled when things turned bad for them so the merchant group had every right to do as they please within this lawless land.
They could make things easier for themselves and just kill them so that they do not have to transport them somewhere and provide them food just to put them in a prison or to put them on trial in some city.
Alf thought for a while and then spoke decisively. "It would be best to kill them or leave them here for their tribe to pick them up. If we leave them they have a small chance of survival but if we bring them with us we may end up going through our supplies faster and our load would increase so if we have no use for them or they are not repentant it would be best not to waist our time and supplies on them"
After all even though they had been abandoned by their tribe chief they were still criminals so their fate would only be to be put into some form of prison or have a limb removed as punishment for their crimes.
Ki nodded and then understood that Alf did not wish to waste his supplies on someone who had just tried to rob them but also it was a waste to give food and transport them if they were just going into a prison cell or would have a limb removed.
It was no way beneficial for the merchant group to take up the task of transporting a criminal and put themselves in further danger just so justice could be upheld.