"Ahhh, Where the hell am I?, am I dead." Karn murmured to himself, with a blurred vision as his entire body still ached in pain.
"Look at this idiot spouting nonsense."
Karn immediately heard a familiar voice, as he turned his head around with all the strength he could possibly muster, and saw a familiar black cat sitting right beside him.
"Ian!, so that Knight killed you too, I..I..I am so sorry for being such an useless imbecile." Karn cried out with tears whelling up in his eyes.
"Well atleast you are right about one thing." Ian said while giving him a scornful gaze, although inwardly he was delighted to see Karn being unscatted after the whole fiasco that they went through.
It took couple more minutes for Karn to come to his senses, before he witnessed familiar surroundings.
"Huh, isn't this our training ground , just how the hell did I get here.."
There current location seemed to be the backyard of the abandoned hut in their village, where Karn used to train with Ian for the past two years.
'Just how exactly did I got here, did Ian drag me back here on his own' Karn thought inwardly, as he glanced at Ian's body, who was of a size of a small rabbit.
"Don't think so much it's not exactly your strong suit, that girl helped me bring you back here." Ian said whe glancing towards the girl who has been standing quietly on the corner.
Karn turned around and saw a very familiar face.
It was the girl both Ian and him set out to rescue, and he though they succeeded, before the arrival of that Knight.
"Naikda" the girl greeted karn with nod, before telling him her name.
"Karn, nice to meet you miss Naikda" as he slightly nodded his head to return the gesture. before turning his gaze back to Ian.
Karn had lot of questions in his mind, what exactly happened after he lost his consciousness ?, where did that Knight go ? , and how in the hell did this frail girl managed to drag his body all the way up here ?.
Ian immediately understood the implications of that look before replying.
"You don't have to worry about that Knight anymore, we already came up with an agreement.
Ian gave a brief pause, as even he thought how to explain to him how exactly he was brought back here.
Ian immediately gave another glance towards the girl he brought back ad thought inwardly.
'This girl has monstrous physical strength, She carried that entire large body of Karn with those frail body of hers, without even breaking a sweat.'
'Is this, those extremely gifted physic that's required for Martial Arts.' Ian thought inwardly.
Unfortunately, there's not much about Martial arts that Ian knew of, but there's someone he knows who does. And this gives Ian one more reason, to bring him to his side.
"Ahem, any way what did you learn from the incident that happened earlier." Ian coughed while glancing towards Karn.
Karn started shaking furiously, as those scenes of being completely outwitted, outclassed and getting played around by Stanley Barnes, played through his mind.
He wasn't angry at Stanley Barnes for playing Circles around him, while not even taking him seriously cause given his ability, and a huge difference between both of them in terms of both strength as well experience, his opponent had every right to do so.
What angered karn was his inability to even put a decent fight, it was his first duel with a trained individual and he ended up showing such a pathetic state of himself to his opponent.
"This might have been your first loss, but it most definitely won't be your last."
Karn glanced at Ian, as he thought his cat might just have had a slip of tongue.
"I think you meant to say this would be my last."
"No I meant exactly what I said, you might lose again, No you will most definitely lose again, It might be against someone on the same level as you, or he might be someone weaker than you."
Karn made a frowned expression on his face, as he still didn't seem to understand what Ian's saying to him.
"I'm telling you to learn from your defeats, at the end of the day results don't really matter as long as your alive and well."
Ian meant ever word he just said to Karn, although Ian's goal is to destroy three of most dangerous threats in the entire continent, but he doesn't plan on achieving that by turning Karn into a war machine.
Karn slightly nodded his head, as he seemed to understand what Ian meant, thanks to his fight against Stanley Barnes he managed to push himself to the limits, promoting his rank to a 'Two Star' Swordsman.
"Always be humble in your victory, and gracious in your defeat, this advice is for both of you guys."
As those word's left from Ian's mouth, both Karn and Naikda nodded their head while engraving those quote deep in their mind.
"We'll be leaving this place in three days, you can say your final goodbyes to anyone you want to before we take our leave." Ian said.
Karn has already made up his mind to run away from his life has a Serf, and Naikda is nothing but a fugitive, there was nothing that's keeping them in this place, which is just filled with bad memories for almost everyone present in here.
"Wait!, What about my parents ?" Karn asked hurriedly.
'Ah right, I haven't thought about, how to convince Keisha and Garud.' Ian thought.
After what happened with Naikda's mother, there's no way Karn would let his parents continue to stay in here.
But No matter how much Ian racked his brain, he can't seem to find any way to convince, Keisha and Garud from quiting to be a serf.
Even if Ian went there and spoke to them himself, he doesn't see it working either, he would be lucky if he wasn't burned alive, after being mistaken as some devil's spawn who is brainwashing their son.
"Since there's no way to convince them, the only other option left is to use brute force."
"Huh! are you telling me to threaten or to use violence own against my own parents" Karn said with quite a visible irritated expression.
"No, just a mere harmless abduction and I am not telling you to do it with your own hand's."
"Then who else's, Wait don't tell me you're planning on using that little girl over there."
"My name is Naikda, stop calling me little girl." Naikda who has been silent for a while errupted, seemingly quite upset.
"Ah! sorry my bad Naikda." Karn said with an apologetic tone.
"No !, I don't plan on using Naikda for something like that" Ian gave a pause before giving a meaningful look "Don't you think it's about time we start recruiting soldiers for our army.
"How exactly are you going to do that ?, By distributing postures about recruitment of rebellion army."
The moment the news of something remotely close to rebellion reaches the ears of capital , the Royal Family might send their elite Imperial Knight's and Magicians to eradicate the very source of such rumors.
"No need, Cause I know just the right people, who would be willing, to even sell their soul to a Demon, if it means to bring this Empire down to ruin."
"Whom exactly are you talking about ?"
"You'll find out soon enough, you should rest for today, you see we need to rescue someone again."
"Rescue?, About who are you exactly talking about" Karn asked as he though deeply but nothing seemed to come through his mind.
"You'll find out soon enough,but let me warn you beforehand, it won't be just one person this time."
Karn gulped as he felt a odd omnious feeling about it before he asked.
"How many exactly?"
"A Few Hundreds, a thousand at top." Ian spoke honestly.
Ian has been planning for this for quite a while, and it seem's there's no better opportunity than this.
After Viscount Silva got beaten up to pulp by karn, he might not be able to get out of his bed for years, as such he would have no time to look after the affairs that take place inside his very own estate.
Ian planned on taking this factor into consideration, and use it to further elevate his plan.
He was planning on raiding the mines, while rescuing those slave labourers that were wrongfully detained by Viscount Silva.
This would be the very first step towards raising an army against the Empire.