Inside Eduard's mansion.
Eduard finished his dinner together with her sister and the maids. He was now sitting comfortably on the sofa while waiting for Captain Martin to come.
Suddenly, a knock on the door can be heard from the inside.
Roxy on the side opened the door to look for the incoming guest. Captain Martin appeared standing at the front door.
"Good evening Captain. Please come in, the Lord has been waiting for you." Roxy greeted to Martin.
Martincame tonight according to Eduard's order.
"Thank you miss Roxy, please pardon me for being late" Martin gestured then he walk inside the house.
He easily saw Eduard who is currently waiting to him on the sofa.
"Good evening Lord. please pardon me for being late" he greeted again while giving a bow to Eduard.
Eduard on the other side nodded and wave his hand.
"Take a sit" he said while pointing at the sofa on the opposite side.
Martin immediately moved toward the other sofa and take a seat.
" Roxy, please tell Linda to prepare two cups of coffee." Eduard ordered to Roxy.
Roxy immediately followed his order and moved to the kitchen.
"Now Captain, Is there any changes on the guard post" Eduard asked.
Captain Martin Calmly reported," there are no changes in the guard post. Everything is clear and seem normal before we left. The men are already outside your residence Lord and waiting for your order." He added.
Eduard was quite happy with Martin attentiveness, it is a relief that he didn't need to give every little detail of his command for these knights to move.
"That's good Captain. Okay I will start to talk about my arrangement and plans" Eduard take out a piece of paper and put it on the table.
Martin was curious and look at the content of the paper. He was intrigued of what was written inside. There are lines and dots with different colors and containing arrows direction toward different directions.
"I will explain what I draw in this paper after I share my analysation of the bandits situation on the East forest." Eduard seriously said.
Martin on the other hand, turn serious and keep his attention to the words of Eduard.
"From what I noticed, it was only a small group of bandits, the members possibly around 40 below in their counts." he started
"It is base on the level of their scout, they are only averaging at 5th Tier Iron Level. The leader that we saw before on the road, was probably at Bronze Level " He said while emphasizing the strength of the Bandits Leader.
Martin eyes twitched hearing the Cultivation of the bandits' Leader.
He thought that the bandit leader Cultivation won't exceed the 8th Tier of Iron Level, base from the average cultivation level of the members.
Still, Martin kept his silence. He knows that Eduard wanted to continue in his explanation.
"The other thing is that, it is possible that there are other Bronze Level enemies inside their lair. But the chances of it could be low or else they won't leave their lair in a small group, specially if they want to enjoy their loot outside." Eduard finished telling the information that he gathered and waited for Captain Martin ideas.
Roxy also came from the kitchen, holding two cups of coffee. She put down the coffee on the table and immediately moved out from the lobby.
Captain Martin sip first on his coffee and started to share his ideas.
" Lord, your analysation of the bandits' was possibly correct. I think we should increase the post defense for a while to be prepared if they decided to target our territory. We can attack them later once the other knights level up to Bronze Level ".
Eduard nodded and agree to Captain Martin idea..
He have already three Knights who are in the 9th Tier Iron Level, it won't take a couple of months before they upgraded their Cultivation in Bronze Level.
"Captain Martin, your idea is great but it is not the best move we can make." He said.
Martin was shocked to the disagreement of Eduard to his idea.
"I gather you all here to proceed to my plan, here is the map of the bandits lair from the entrance of East Forest" Eduard said while pointing on the drawing inside the paper.
"My plan is for us to ambush the bandits." Captain Martin's frowned.
He thinks that this idea Eduard is too rash.
"Lord, I think you have to..." Martin was not able to finish his sentence.
Eduard stop him, saying that he know what he is going to tell.
"The bandits were quite vigilant right now because of what I have done on their lair. So our first target were those who are coming back from the Cape Town. They will relocate their base later, they possibly thought that Naga City traced their location" Eduard explained.
"Your task is to hold the leader, while the others will take down the other members including myself" he pointed to himself.
"You don't have to worry about your safety, I will ask my sister to assist you using her magic." Eduard assured to Martin.
Martin was stunned after hearing the ideas of Eduard. It was quite brilliant move for them, rather than staying passive and waiting for the other Knights to get stronger before they attack.
Moreover, if they do that, the chances of bandits living their lair was high.
But the next sentence of Eduard make him realize his true objective.
"Also, the resources that they rob on the merchant can be used by us to expand my territory and for building defense. So we need to eradicate them as early as possible." this idea of Eduard was like hitting two birds with one stone.
They continued to discuss the plan after.
....
bbbb Around the Cape Town
A certain building was still active in the middle of the night. People shouts can be heard from the outside.
It is the beer house. There are singing and different noises coming from the inside created by the drunk people.
Dan who is the Leader of the bandits was laughing loudly inside. He was drinking while his arm was wrap around the shoulder of a woman.
"Go on boys, you can drink until you can't drink anymore and take the girls that you like as many as you wanted. The tab is on me, so you don't have to worry." he boasted around the group.
This circle of men was his subordinates that came with him to enjoy.
All of a sudden, a man who is panting heavily came in front of them.
"Boss Dan, someone came to our lair this afternoon and attack our scouts. All of our scouts got killed and the man escape. The man was possibly a scouts from Naga City trying to look for our nest" the man told to Dan without waiting for him to asked for the reason of his coming.
Dan suddenly lost from his drunk state and slam his hand on the table, " Useless, why did you let that person to get away."
This situation was quite messy. He turned his attention to his subordinates that drinking around him.
"Men, immediately move out, we will go back to the lair. We need to relocate as soon as possible" he commanded.
His subordinates also nodded and stop flirting with their woman.
Dan was really furious, he was in the middle of his good time when this bad news came.
It is not safe for his group to stay on that location if the people discover them. Specially that the killer was able to scape. It was probably a men from the City Lord of Naga City.
He was the only one who is in the Bronze Level within their group, so their group safety was based on his ability.
It was already midnight, Dan have no choice but to travel even the road was dark.
It is dangerous to move out at night, because some beast are more active during the night.
Luckily, the moon was bright so they don't need to bring fire to lighten their way.
"Hyaah, immediately move out. We need to reach our lair before dawn" Dan instructed to his men.
Their horses run to the direction of their base.
....
In the entrance of the East forest.
Eduard brought out eight of his knights, they are waiting for the bandits' leader to come. Base in his estimation, they will pass here from this time or until afternoon.
"Sis, just be prepared with your strongest spell, just target the leader. I will be the one in charge of your safety, so you can relax while you are casting" Eduard assured to his sister.
Estrella was quite in the bad mood, she was sleeping soundly in her room before, when Eduard suddenly woke her up.
She has no idea of their plan, she was already sleeping in her room after their dinner. Leaveling her to missed out the discussion of Eduard and Captain Martin.
"Hmmp, just make sure that I will be safe." She snorted.
She can't do anything with Eduard arrangements, her position on the plan was quite crucial. Without her help, they could possibly fail in their ambush.
All of a sudden, sound of horse footstep can be heard from a far. The road was quite dark, so they can't see the group that was coming.
"Men, immediately spread out the ropes around the road, the enemies are coming." Eduard instructed in his knights.
Everyone started to move out in a second. They minimize the noise of their movement to avoid being noticed.
Their plan was to trip the horse feet of the enemies using the ropes that was knot on the trees.
It didn't take long before the group came to their position.
Six horses came and one by one, their horses crashed on the ground when they passed the ropes.
The people that riding the horses were tossed out of the horse back.
"Everyone move, attack the enemies," Eduard shouted.
The knights immediately proceeded with their attacks, pointing their swords to the men in the road.
Knight Captain Martin dashed to the man leading the group. He was sure that this guy was the leader, even though he didn't see his face.
Dan immediately stood up on the ground, he was shocked of the sudden turn of events.
They were ambushed.
He prepare himself to the incoming attack of Captain Martin after he stands up.
"Shit" he had no time to pull out his sword. His only choice was to dodge this attack, he swiftly moved his body to the side.
Sadly, Captain Martin slash him with his sword. The sword tip still reached his left shoulder, scrapping a large wound on it.
"Who are you, why did you ambush our group?" Dan asked.
He had no idea on how he offended this group and who are his enemies. their actions are like of the bandit.
He can only hear the voices of pains on the other side. The voices were quite familiar to him. This voices came from his subordinates.