"Are you sure we are not lost?" asked Iustus in a flat tone as he looked at the similar trees all around him, everywhere in this mana infused forest looked the same.
"Of course I am certain, do you so little faith in my sense of direction? Forests are basically my turf by now" responded Gregory, his eyes looking everywhere for suspicious movement.
He was still worried about those sheep and skeleton guys to show up again, they hadn't looked like the type to be fast at all but you couldn't be too cautious with sins, appearances had already proven to be capable of deceit for Gregory.
Also, he couldn't help but feels anxious ever since then, he had thought it was just the shock of suddenly running into them but something was definitely off, it was like someone else was there, looking and listening to everything they said.
But no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible to find something, Iustus couldn't even sense anything off at all, most likely because he couldn't use his powers at all.
"I was wondering, from what you said, it seems like you don't know the people we are trying to join with, how did you hear about them?" asked the young hero.
"Well, of course, It was them that told me-" it happened again, he was certain that someone had told him something but impossible to recall even a sliver of who that person might have been.
"I just... I just heard of them in some tavern" he instead switched to something that was definitely a lie but that wouldn't cause a headache.
"Oh, looks like we're going to encounter a road, we should be here so-" he interrupted himself as he raised his hand, making Iustis froze in his step.
"Shh, get down" he ordered as they both laid low to the ground, hiding behind some tall grass.
"What's happening Gregory?" asked the hero in a whisper.
"Black knights, they are busy slaughtering some bandits it seems, we'll wait until they go away" responded Gregory with a murmur.
The black knights, while mostly overshadowed by the bigger dogs that are the sins, they have been quite present for a long while now, mostly appearing in Laparadis but also pretty much anywhere else on the continent.
They all looked and acted pretty much the same, save for a few ones, they all carried a sword that they held in their right hands and a round shield in their left, all of them wore the same set of plate armor.
To add to the similarities, they were all the same height and had the same proportions.
Each of them was above your average knight in skill and they always fought in formation, making them dangerous foes for most.
Fighting enemies that actually wear decent armor and worked together wasn't something Gregory wanted to try right now, especially when escorting someone whose ability to protect himself was dubious.
Watching the knight's operate was quite something, they didn't speak to each other at all but seemed to be able to communicate still as they worked in perfect unison, dragging and throwing the corpses of the unlucky bandits into some sort of portal that really just looked like a dark puddle of water.
The puddle even seeped the blood on the ground by itself before seemingly consuming itself and disappearing, the black knights were done with everything now, they should have been going but instead, they stood still like a bunch of statues.
Gregory felt like that if he looked away, they would all start moving toward him.
Thinking about it, what he just witnessed wasn't a very common thing at all, it was incredibly strange and quite horrifying when thinking about why they would do all that but somehow, not a word of their methods had ever reached his ears, such a spectacle would have normally fueled the rumors and stories had it ever been told about.
The fact that it hadn't at all could only mean one thing.
One of the knights, the only one with a distinctive feature, being the fact that his visor had some sort of slightly wavy design, slightly turned his head toward their hiding spots and without a word, they all grouped up together into a dense formation.
Shields placed protectively and swords pointed at the two of them, the one that seemed to be the leader stayed a bit on the side and spoke up, speaking in a slightly abormal voice, as if he was trying to sound as neutral as possible.
"Show yourself" he said simply, nor sounding commanding or speaking loudly.
Since he had clearly seen them, Gregory stood up from his hiding spot quickly followed by Iustus who looked like a nervous wreck.
"Listen, we are ju-" Gregory was just about to try and bullshit his way out of this but the black knight seemed to only need a single look at them to make his decision.
"You are free to go" he simply said as the knights broke the combat formation and simply started marching away as the leader followed suit.
'They are nicer than I thought...' Gregory didn't expect them to not try and gut them immediately, perhaps they were just some sort of vigilantes.
"Are we not going to do anything?" asked Iustus looking a bit disturbed.
"Heh? What do you mean?"
"I mean, they might have been bandits but is it really right to let the people who murdered them go like that?"
'Good lord, he is having a main character moment...' thought Gregory with a slight mental scowl.
"Listen here, Iustus, you can think and do whatever you want, if you think it's the right thing to do, but not at the expense of your own life, if we try to fight them, we will most likely get massacred" explained Gregory as he watched the black knights disappear into the distance.
"Learn how to use your powers before trying anything, alright?" he added afterward with some luck, a bit of motivation would make him useful faster.