It had been a few hours since Aldrich and Remi had left the mansion and were heading towards Count Ash's territory in the carriage.
"It will be better to discard the carriage some distance away from the territory, else it might raise suspicion", Remi suggested.
Aldrich nodded, looking outside the carriage.
"It's getting late; we should set up a camp for the night", he said as the carriage master stopped the carriage. "I will find a good place for the two of you", the man said.
Remi looked at Aldrich with a smirk, "The likes of you would have never camped outside. Let me aid you in finding a good spot to camp".
"There's no need" Aldrich jumped out of the carriage and climbed a nearby tree, scanning the nearby area.
"Found it" Aldrich jumped from tree to tree before finding a small lake.
"w-wow, how did you find it" Even Remi couldn't sense the lake from a distance.
"Just some camping experience when I was a kid", Aldrich lied. Truth be told, he had a lifetime experience of camping. The Dragons had destroyed most of the structures that could be habitable by the humans, and Aldrich had to spend most of his days camping outside, on guard against any of the Dragon attacks.
"Let's camp here", he said.
The two took different duties, as Remi set up a camp while Aldrich searched for food for the night.
Aldrich returned to see two well-set camps near the lake, with a bonfire in between.
"You did well", Aldrich said as the two rested.
Remi could sense that there was still a bit of ice between them, as neither tried to initiate a conversation the entire time. She bit her lips as she spoke up,
"Why do you want to get strong",
Aldrich looked at her before gazing at the sky, "So that I don't lose the ones I cherish, and I can take revenge against the ones that try to harm me."
"What about you? Have you decided what you will do after you achieve your revenge?" the Remi he had known was killed after she was manipulated into committing assassinations for high-profile warriors.
"Me?" Remi was taken aback by Aldrich's question. "Truth is, I have never thought about it. I don't have a family to return to or friends to spend time with. It has always been a lone battle".
"Don't worry, you can always be my maid", Aldrich said with a smile.
"Let's sleep now."
"Yes"
The two took turns to guard their camps and woke up in the morning to cover the remaining stretch of their journey.
Remi said we should drop the carriage soon, to which Aldrich nodded.
Suddenly, the two of them sensed that something was off. They jumped out of the carriage to notice that a barrage of arrows was coming their way. The guy controlling the carriage left the controls, running into the forest. The horses disappeared into the forest with no one to control them.
"Bastards, they were so expensive. I will kill you" Aldrich rushed towards the direction of arrows, swiftly cutting through the barrage of projectiles coming his way. Remi also rushed to support Aldrich, but she was distracted by a spear coming her way at an astonishing speed. She dodged the spear before throwing daggers in that direction.
"Come out", she said as she took out a short sword.
A woman emerged from the bushes, looking at Remi like her new toy. She licked her lips before saying, "These guys must have powerful artefacts on them. Tell the leader I will handle this one."
Meanwhile, Aldrich reached the source of arrows to find a single archer standing next to a warrior holding a greatsword.
"You shot all those arrows? Impressive", Aldrich licked his lips as he stood in his stance, ready to fight the two bandits. He imbued mana throughout his body and swords as he leapt towards the archer.
He appeared behind the archer, slashing his sword, but his attack was obstructed by the warrior using the Greatsword.
Aldrich stepped back, but the archer immediately shot an arrow his way. Aldrich shifted to the side, dodging the arrow, only to be charged with the Greatsword coming his way from the top.
"Kughh", Aldrich held his swords in X shape, taking the full force of the attack.
Aldrich circulated Dark mana through Noct's sword as he blasted the great sword with a mana slash, pushing him back.
"It's not gonna be easy" Aldrich stepped back, ready to face the two warriors again.
Meanwhile, inside the forest, Remi went head-on against the female warrior.
The woman lunged forward, her spear a blur of swift strikes. Remi stepped backwards, narrowly avoiding the deadly tip of the spear. "Poison" Remi realized that even the slightest graze from the spear might be dangerous to her.
Remi dashed forward, avoiding the strikes from the spear, and landed a barrage of strikes on the female warrior. Remi found an opening and lunged forward, aiming to disarm her opponent. The woman parried the sword, delivering a swift attack, causing Remi to step back again.
Remi noticed that Aldrich was fighting some distance away from them and realized they might be able to work together more efficiently. She darted towards Aldrich, using the forest to her advantage, darting in and out of bushes to confuse the female warrior.
Aldrich sensed Remi rushing towards him as an idea started to form in his mind.
"Take care of the archer", he signalled to Remi as he leapt towards the female warrior trailing Remi, stopping her spear with his sword.
"Let me entertain you now", he said blocking the incoming greatsword attack with his other sword.
Meanwhile, Remi stood opposite the archer, knowing she had to finish it fast and help Aldrich.
A few warriors could be seen spectating the battle from a nearby cliff.
"The kids are good; we should intervene", one of them said, looking at the man standing in the front.
"No, let us observe", said the man with a scarred face and the leader of the group of bandits.