Another night passed, and the fire at night had brought Yu and Bob's core temperatures back up to a satisfactory level. And using the sled as a seat to prevent further contact with the snow, and the tree above as protection from snowfall, Yu went to sleep.
However, not long after, he found himself moving around, and something hitting him from the side.
Opening his eyes, he found himself within a cloth bag of some sort of rough black material. Unfortunately for him, it was too dark to see anything, but after feeling around for a bit, Yu realised that he was in a bag together with Bob. Neither of them was now as cold as they were before, and their limbs had already returned to their original states.
Yu reached for the dagger around his waist to try and cut through the course fabric, only to realise that it was missing, along with his small shield, bow and arrows, as well as the small dagger in his boots!
What was worse was that both his and Bob's feet were tied together, and the restraints were then connected, meaning he could not even try and run as that would be utterly useless. Especially considering the fact that Yu did not know what exactly was going on outside.
Based on his connection with Kai, it had just been a few hours since he lost consciousness, but he had been kidnapped already. Was the Hepis Dynasty truly such an unsafe kingdom?
"Hmm? It seems like one of the runts is awake? Handle them" A gruff and rather unpleasant voice could be heard from outside, before an opening was introduced on the top of the bag, allowing the warm sunlight to enter.
'Warm? Warm sunlight? It is meant to be the harsh winter in Hepis right now… just how far was I taken in just one day?' Yu thought to himself. Unfortunately for him, he did not get much time to think about anything as a hand grabbed a hold of his neck, and pulled out his head without giving Yu the time to react.
Only after being pulled out did Yu react and tried to struggle free from the hand, only to realise that the hand felt like an iron rod, with an unquestionably firm grip on his neck, yet it was not squeezing his neck, just using it as a grip that was impossible to break.
"Oh, a feisty one? And this mask of his seems to have fused with his body. He'll fetch a good sum at-"
However, before Yu could hear the rest of the conversation, a blunt blow to the back of his head cause him to lose consciousness.
…
Meanwhile, Kai and his group were faced with something rather odd.
To prevent others from easily recognising them, the baron had had all 20 soldiers remove their coat of arms from their chest. The Dread coat of arms was actually just a simple one with two swords in a cross and a palm with undistinguishable scribblings on it that resembled Kai's Five Elephant Palm.
Yet, this had caused them to be seen by the bandits as roaming mercenaries and easy pickings. Mercenaries did not have any affiliations generally and went around in search of jobs for money. As such, compared to a noble, a mercenary group was easier to attack, and compared to commoners, a mercenary group had a lot more money.
Therefore, a bunch of scantily armoured bandits had silently surrounded the group of 20 soldiers and 10 extra horses, everyone standing at a face-off in the knee-deep snow.
"Kill them all," Morgan said as he unsheathed his sword and pointed it forward while spurring his horse to move in the same direction. The horses and soldiers behind him followed suit in a triangle formation as they charged towards the bandits, who upon realising that the enemies were a lot stronger than they had anticipated, frantically ran away in all directions.
However, over 10 bandits were killed and trampled over by the horses as the group continued its journey through the snow.
Only after a minute of silent riding in the snow and ensuring no enemies were around to sneak attack them, did the baron turn to look at Kai with a worried expression. He had expected Kai; especially after having had to murder a path for himself to reach survival, to have traumatic emotions towards the bloodshed; an emotion more strongly reflected after the mind has had time to calm down and reflect before experiencing it again.
However, he only saw Kai, staring at evening the sky. Looking closely, Morgan noticed that Kai's eyes were dilated, and there was a slight smirk on his face. Clearly, he was not taking the bloodshed in the way Morgan had expected, but such a reaction made the baron feel even worse than before.
Unfortunately, there was no time for something like that right now. If his bloodthirst was enough to prevent him from breaking down into tears or being frightened by a charging enemy, then he would have to let it foster within Kai to ensure his survival. At least for the moment.