Just 10 minutes later, Kai and his clone arrived at the backdoor of the castle, both dressed in almost the same clothes, except for the clone wearing the completely white mask without any markings.
As it turned out, as soon as the clone put on the mask, it bonded with the clone's face, merging as one. This meant that the mask would not be removed by simple force, and if that was done, the clone's face would be ripped off with the mask.
However, this also came with benefits like being able to see through the mask and breath through the mask. Unfortunately, that was all, and the mask had no other utilitarian use other than hiding his face completely. And considering that there were streaks of black along his white hair, it would be considerably difficult to easily relate Kai and the clone if they were wearing different clothes.
For this instance, however, both of them were wearing the same hooded fur coat, pants, and shoes and the two would escape in different directions to throw off any enemies nearby. As long as one of them survived, Kai would not die.
Kai had equipped a short dagger and his Five Elephant Palm, while the clone had a bow and arrow on his back, a short dagger and a rather small shield. This shield was only large enough to cover his hand up to his elbow, being more useful in close combat than protecting him from enemy arrows.
Based on what Kai could remember, once he left the castle, there would only be a forest, with two paths leading to two villages nearby, as well as a third less trodden path leading to the Tulia Barony. In such conditions, it was unlikely that arrows would be able to hit him, based on the few movies Earth Kai had seen, and the discussions Pops had with the deputy of the heavy armoured cavalry; Jason.
Jason was Baron Dread's right-hand man and the person who generally handled the heavy-armoured cavalry when the Baron was not around. He was also the second strongest person within the Dread castle, in terms of battle prowess. That was considering all those people who had been taught External Arts, not that there were too many of such people within the dread castle to begin with.
What was more surprising was that Jason had yet to learn a single External Art, and was still capable of being able to handle anyone other than the Baron, which was an extraordinary accomplishment in itself.
Kai's clone who had yet to be given a name headed towards the village where Bob and his father lives, while Kai decided to head to the other village. Therefore, as soon as the two of them sneaked out of the castle from the back gate where just like the rest of the castle, no one was present, they split paths.
Based on what the lady in blue had said, Kai and his clone should be able to share thoughts no matter how far they were, and based on how things were going currently, it seemed to hold true.
Kai was experiencing what his body was going through, while also experiencing what the clone was going through, which for the moment both consisted of only running.
However, at this moment, Kai noticed a soldier bathed in blood on the ground, his back against a nearby tree. Noticing that it was one of the heavy armoured cavalry, Kai decided to go and investigate, only to notice that the person was actually alive, just barely, but alive.
"Hey! Are you awake? Don't go to sleep yet. Don't worry, I'll get you help. Just wait right here" Kai said as he stood up from his kneeling position beside the nearly dead soldier when the eyes of the soldier opened under his helmet and he let out a weak voice.
"Y- Young Lord?"
"Yes. It is I. Do not worry. I will bring help as soon as possible."
"N- No! Young Lord! Y- You must escape! The Lord is currently encircled by enemies! The- They outnumber us, and we don't even know who they are! Please escape back to the castle and hide there. Someone will definitely come to rescue you unless all of us are dead… In that case, nowhere would be safe… Please… escape…"
The soldier huffed out the last few words as his head fell limp onto his shoulders.
Kai was stunned, as he stood there, rooted to his position of half-kneeling next to the now-dead body.
'What… Hey… Wake up… Hey… you… wake up… did you not… promise to serve… my father? Why are you sleeping here?'
Kai wanted to say a lot of things; however, his mouth did not move. His eyes remained unfocused in the direction of the dead soldier.
After about two minutes of not moving, Kai subconsciously asked the system.
'Scan him'
[Establishing task]
[Time until completion: 10s]
[9]
[9]
…
[1]
[0]
[Task complete]
[This is a human who has died due to excessive bleeding and internal haemorrhaging from stab wounds along his stomach and back. The metal plates covering his body have also received an extensive array of damaging slashes, but were all successfully blocked by the metal. There are wounds along his back which seem to have bled the most and were likely the first wounds the human received]
'Dead…'