While waiting for the other knights to come, Eduard ask Dencio on their own encounters in the forest. A certain report on Dencio caught his attention.
"What? Human path ways" Eduard frown from Dencio report.
It was common to see human trails in the forest, since hunters do often hunt here. But sightings of human path ways on the forest was different, this matter signifies that someone was regularly coming in and out from that location.
"Dencio, are you certain that the trails can be traced to humans? Not on the beast man?" He asked again.
Dencio patiently explained again his sightings, "Yes lord, I am 80% sure, that humans regularly pass to that location. Just by observing the shoe mark on the ground, the sizes can be compared to regular adult man. Beside, most of the Beast man did not usually prefer to wear something on their foot".
Eduard nodded to Dencio. This was really the truth about beast man to easily distinguish their traces from humans.
Eduard feels uncomfortable hearing this news. As a Lord, cases like this can alarm him. Specially if the human activity over that location affect his territory.
At the same time, the knights that venture to take the other beast corpse that Eduard hunted came back.
He was pulling a medium size gray wolf, trails of blood can be seen on the path that the knight taken, showing that the wolf has been killed no too long ago.
Eduard was now thinking of what he needed to do. At the end, he gave his arrangement to his knights.
"Our hunt for today will end here, The two of you will deliver the corpses to the knight barracks to take the useful materials from it. Dencio, you will follow me to investigate the trails" Eduard commanded.
Nobody retort to his order since his ruler command was passively activated.
The two knights started to arrange the corpses on their carriage, Eduard gestured to Dencio to start navigating the location.
On the way, Eduard noticed that the location was deserted, there are no beast trails around. Even the grasses and bushes has no trails of being stomped and cut.
"Dencio, is this the location where your team hunted your preys?" Eduard asked while carefully observing the surrounding.
"No, we venture near the forest entrance to hunt down beast. We choose that location to minimize the number of beast that coming out from the forest, as well as to avoid encountering stronger beast".
Dencio was embarrassed to tell their movement, it sounded like they were avoiding to facing strong beast.
Eduard did not mind their actions, that was better than being injured fighting the stronger beast. Beside, it will really minimize the appearance of Beast outside the forest, that would be convenient in ensuring the safety of the ordinary people nearby his territory.
After navigating for almost two kilometers, traces of humans path can be seen in front of them. The trails were fresh, signifying that someone passed through here just by this morning.
He was looking to the location where the path way headed. A sudden sound of people movements suddenly heard by them.
He did not need to tell it to Dencio, as he was also attracted to the source of sound. Eduard gestured to find a hiding location, this was to observe the group that will pass to them.
The group come closer to their location, he noticed that it was group contain of 5 men. They were all middle aged men with a rough looking face. They were also armed with blades on their hips. Base from their attire, they are more or less a robbers.
The 5 were moving to the forest entrance in the Cape Town direction, Eduard and Dencio on the side continue to observe them.
"Haha, we have a great haul on our last operation, the merchant that we have ambushed are quite wealthy" the man who was leading the group boasted.
They were laughing loudly while continuing their chatting.
"You are really witty boss, that operation will not be successful without you. The Naga City guards should be frustrated of not being able to follow us." One of the men said while boot licking on the acting leader if the group.
The acting leader also did not deny the compliments of his boot licking follower.
"That's right, as long as you have me,we will always be successful. We just need to cool down for a some time, the knights of City Lord should be alerted by now.
There are also those informants of the Cape Town, so we need to keep a low profile until we performed our next operation".
Eduard who is hiding behind the cover of a large tree heard their conversation.
'Operation, Merchant, Naga City? Hunted by City guard?... This is act of bandits' Eduard thought. He felt a sense of danger from this people.
Bandits are common to this world, as many people do not have good treatment from the current society. A lot of them joined to be a bandit, their aim was to rob resources from the people. Some are also abducting women and children to be sold as slave or held as hostages.
Mostly, they targeted those small merchants group without the capability to hire mercenaries for protection.
They treated them as a fat lamb to be ambushed when they are far enough to the town or city guards watch.
When the group was far enough, Eduard came out from his hiding spot.
"Dencio, lets go." He called out to his knight.
Dencio also came out from his location, the bitterness on his expression can not be hidden. "Lord, I think we have to brought out Knight Captain Martin to investigate this group".
Eduard pondered for a while and decided, "No need, base on their conversation, that guy that leads the group was their leader. I am 90 percent sure of that, this is a good opportunity to investigate while the leaders was gone from their base. No need to look for Martin, we will just estimate their count and strength ".
He started to move to the direction where the bandits came. While walking, Eduard suddenly blocked Dencio, gesturing to halt hos movement.
He noticed a white string on the way, this string was not really visible to the naked eye. Coincidentally, the sun was on high noon, so the sun light created a light reflection on the string.
Dencio sighed on relief, he knows that this string should be the bandit alarm. This strings could make sounds to alert the bandit or even held traps.
Eduard followed the end of the string, it was trailing to the bandit location.
"Dencio be careful with your step. We are possibly near our target. Be mindful with your step, traps might be set up in any location of the surrounding"
Dencio nodded and his expression turned serious.
After walking for more than 500 meters they spotted a human presence.
Looking around, there are two men on top of tree, both are sleeping lightly. Noticing that the two didn't sense them, Eduard whispered to Dencio.
"Observe the two, I will look for the base location. They should not be too far. If they notice my presence, you should not follow me. I will lead them to the opposite direction far from my territory. Immediately inform Knight Captain Martin, to increase the security of the territory. I will try to return by the next day."
Dencio nodded and only reminded his Lord to be careful.
He was not satisfied with Eduard arrangements and wanted to exchange position with him. It's just that, he can not make a complaints to Eduard's Ruler Command skill and can only give his regards.
Eduard silently parted. He carefully circled around the location of scouts and carefully minding his step while observing the presence of scouts on the ground and at the tree top.
For him, this group was careful. If they were rash in their movements, he and his knight was already spotted.
At the end, he saw a large cave that cover with bushes. The cave entrance is not noticeable, half of the entrance was covered by bush. The edge of the wall was also filled with green moss, making it hard to get attention.
The only mark that made it noticeable, was the irregular cut of grasses around the entrance. There are also marks of burning on the ground, indicating that someone was cooking on this spot.
Unknown to him, a scout that hiding on the bushes from behind notice Eduard.
Eduard who is trying to catch a glimpse on the cave entrance suddenly felt a sense of danger from behind.
"Shit" Eduard cursed.
He step on the side to avoid the danger that he feel. A flying dagger was thrown to his direction. The dagger was able to create a small cut on his arms when it passed him. It was stuck on the tree on the side.
The scout was coming to his position holding a dagger on his right hand. His movements were agile.
Eduard had no time to pull the sword on his waist. He tries to catch the hand of the scout that holding the dagger.
Luckily, the hand with adagger was easily caught by him. He twisted the man wrist.
"Aaacccckkk" the man shouted in pain.
The scout from the trees noticed the commotion and immediately move to the direction of sound.
Eduard on the other hand give the man a Karate Chop on his neck making the man fallen unconscious.