The cub was… dead?
Silver's mind could not comprehend what just happened. One moment he was thinking of how to escape from the crimson lion cub because of the immense danger that came with it.
But now?
The crimson lion cub was dead. Its corpse had an arrow in its dead, and Silver stood rooted on the spot.
"What the hell just happened?"
Just as Silver spoke with a shaky and confused tone, he heard a familiar sound- The rustling of bushes.
"Fucking hell Hans. We've finally killed that damn beast."
"I know right Joe. It took us so long to lure the beast here."
As Silver heard these two strange voices, his gaze shifted towards the source.
The first person that caught Silver's attention was a man who effortlessly jumped off a tree with a bow and arrow in his hands. The arrow looked exactly like the arrow that was in the corpse of the Crimson Lion cub.
The second person had a greatsword behind his back, and he was almost as big as Aeson Meltas, the family head of the Meltas family, and also one of the biggest Spartans.
The dressing of the two strangers could also not be ignored. They were not dressed shabbily at all, and in fact, they were dressed in decent armor and Silver knew that their weapons were also decent.
And for Silver to say that a weapon was decent, that meant the weapon was above average in quality.
He was royalty, and the quality and quantity of weapons he had seen were not small at all.
As Silver observed the duo in stunned silence, his mind which had initially been frozen, started running with intense ferocity.
The scent of incoming death had never been so close to him.
He could feel it.
He could smell it.
He could hear it... The ticking time bomb of death that was approaching him.
He had so much he wanted he wanted to say, so much anger and frustration he wanted to vent out. But he knew that there was no time.
No time at all.
What he wanted, was to escape. But, there was a very big obstacle in front of him.
Two very big obstacles.
The two men before him were obviously much stronger than him. For the archer who had a smaller physique than the man with the greatsword to have killed the crimson lion cub with a single arrow told Silver that he had absolutely no chance of defeating either one of them.
He had no way of knowing the cultivation stage of the two men, and he was a little bit worried because of this.
'For them to kill a crimson lion cub without fear either means that they are powerful enough to not be bothered by the parents of the cub or… they are just completely ignorant and decided to kill the cub as part of their hunt.'
'I just hope it's not the first.'
Silver wanted to ask the duo some questions and if possible, curse at the two of them for killing the cub especially when the distance between him and the cub was not far at all.
Some of its blood had splattered over its body.
"Hey Hans, why's a kid here?" The large and muscular man raised his brows as he gazed at Silver with curiosity.
"You fool, that's a Spartan." The archer scoffed, and Joe's eyes widened.
"A Spartan? Why is a Spartan kid here? Our employer told us that the forest would only have beasts in it."
Hans the archer slapped his forehead with an exasperated sigh the moment he heard Joe's words.
"You fool. Didn't you do any sort of investigation to know why the forest would be empty?"
Joe the large and muscular man did not reply but kept on looking at Hans with an expression that said- "Go on. Don't stop."
Hans released a tired sigh.
"Today is a Spartan's rite of passage, and because of that, Sparta makes sure that nobody is present in the forest."
Joe's eyes brightened in understanding.
"So that means this kid is undergoing his rite of passage." He pointed at Silver, and Hans nodded.
"Yes. And if my source is correct, he is a Morningstar. A member of the royal family." Hans' eyes flashed with greed and desire as he spoke with an unfocused gaze.
Joe's eyes also flashed with the same greed and desire.
"Can we capture him and sell his body parts? I hear that a Spartan's heart can be sold for a high price. Surely the heart of a royal Spartan can be sold for a way higher price."
Joe glanced at Silver with a vicious glint, but Silver remained calm. Due to his greed and nonchalance, he failed to notice that the distance between Silver and the corpse of the crimson lion cub had reduced considerably.
"If it was on a normal day we wouldn't be able to nor would we dare to. But right now…" Hans grinned maliciously, "... We can kill him and sell him since nobody would know if we did it. They'll just report him dead after his rite of passage is over."
Silver's heart rate increased slightly when he heard those words. As much as he hated to admit it, the words spoken by Hans were right. If they killed or captured him, nobody would know and nobody would come and save him.
This was what Silver believed, however, he was completely wrong.
How could he, the last born of the crown prince, and also his mother's only child not have ways and methods to figure out how he died or what happened to him in case he failed his rite of passage?
Although he had average talents, that did not mean his parents did not care about him.
Although Silver did not know this, he did not really care. What was on his mind was completely different.
He was thinking of a way to escape. However, he did not want to only escape, he wanted to escape with the corpse of the crimson lion cub.
It was a very crazy idea that was based on greed and unwillingness.
Silver knew that the corpse of a crimson lion cub was extremely precious, however, he didn't know how precious it was. He just knew that the corpse could benefit him in some way.
As for why he was unwilling, he did not want to leave the corpse of the savage wolf he had killed no matter what. And since the corpse of the crimson lion cub was very close to the corpse of the savage wolf, why not take the two corpses?
As for future consequences?
He would deal with it as it came. Right now, he needed to escape as fast as possible since his instincts were beginning to ring alarm bells in his mind.
He didn't have enough time before the parents of the Crimson Lion cub noticed its death.
After coming to a decision, Silver placed his right hand behind his back and grabbed two pouches.
"By the way Hans, our employer is really something else. Not only do we get a portion of this expensive looking beast, we even get to keep this Spartan kid for ourselves. Today might just be our lucky day."
Hans smiled when he heard Joe's words. Today might actually be their lucky day. He could feel it.
"Enough talking and let's get the corpse. Don't forget to knock out the kid."
Joe smiled, and then his gaze shifted towards Silver. But when he did, he raised his brows when he saw two pouches coming at him.
He nonchalantly slapped the pouches away, however, what he didn't expect was for the pouch to suddenly burst open, releasing a dense cloud of white powder in the surroundings.
"What the fuck is this?"
Joe cursed while waving his hand in irritation. Hans was no different.
"What the fuck did you do?" Hans cursed.
"I-"
Just as Joe was about to give his reply, the ground trembled, the trees shook, and the air stilled.
The next moment,
A primal roar shook every single thing.
ROOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!!