Arat's eyes widened as he saw the cheese and dried meat. He swallowed his saliva, watching quietly as Fernand ate a piece of cheese. He discreetly tossed a piece of the dried meat to Arat, making sure no one else saw it. Being far from the others and with Fernand blocking their view, no one noticed. The two guards weren't paying much attention either, as their shifts were nearly over and they were waiting for the next guards to replace them.
Fernand then concealed the food in his clothes again and began tying the rope loosely around his wrists, earlier, when he climbed the fence, he had casually put it around his wrists while everyone was distracted by Arat and Conrad, thanks to that no one had noticed his brief absence. Once he finished tying a few strands of the rope to prevent it from falling off, he hid the damaged part of the rope under his hands.
By doing so, he ensured that all traces of him getting outside were erased, later he had to tell any other person he freed to do the same so that the guards wouldn't notice until the time they were ready.
Once he was done Fernand closed his eyes and went to sleep. Staying awake for the past two nights had drained him, and if it weren't for the little food the bandits gave them, he could have shaken off the exhaustion more easily. Seeing this Arat, followed him and fell to sleep as well, compared to Fernand, he hadn't eaten and slept properly for quite a few days, and on top of that he survived two life threatening wounds.
His wound hadn't reopened, and the pain had faded somewhat. He could feel his leg beginning to heal thanks to his demonic powers. However, when he attacked Conrad earlier to create a distraction, he had clearly sensed the urge to just take off his mask and sank his teeth into Conrad's flesh.
I don't know how much longer I can last without those sedatives Grandpa used to give me. The more this damn hunger continuous the harder it's becoming to keep it under control.
Just ten meters away, a group of men whispered among themselves, deciding what to do after witnessing what had just happened.
"I told you he is dangerous, we should ask them to put it else were."
"They should have caged it to begin with simply binding his hands with ropes won't do."
"I say we kill it."
A bald man with thick black mustache who had a chubby face raised hie eyebrows and spoke after he heard this.
"Now you are talking. I say we do it right here, right now. We don't know if he will stay still like this the whole night."
He scanned the look on the other men's faces to see how many of them agreed with him. Their eyes were filled with worry, their expressions a mix of fear and uncertainty. He pointed at Arat with his head.
"If you call yourselves men, have guts and do it!"
Some of the men's eyes hardened with determination, provoked by the bald man's words. They slowly crouched and began creeping toward Arat. As they neared Fernand, the man leading them suddenly felt something cold against his throat.
He glanced at his right and saw, a calm-faced man with blond hair, a stylish Mustache and beard looking at him with his piercing gray green eyes, Fernand held a knife at his throat as he remained laying on the ground.
The group halted immediately, seeing how Fernand had stopped them from killing the demon child, the bald man came close to Fernand.
"Have you gone insane? You are protecting that devil? And where did you get that knife?"
"Cool down fatty. That child helped me get my hands on this shiny thing, if you don't want to end up a slave the next week, I suggest you and the rest of this lot back off."
The bald man chuckled
"Or we can just take it from you, kill that devil and escape ourselves."
One of the men backed him up.
"You saw what he did earlier. If we leave him alive, he's bound to kill someone sooner or later."
Fernand quickly sat up, still holding his knife to the man's throat.
"That was just an act I told him to put on, and if you think you can take the knife away from me, I'll just call the guards over and let them deal with you holding a stolen knife. You can imagine what they'll do to you after that.
I'll just call the guards over and let them deal with you. You can imagine what they'll do to you after that.
"Don't fall for his slick tongue. No way in hell is he going to call the guards over and let them take away his knife."
Fernand lips curled up to a smirk.
"You ain't as dumb as I thought."
Right after saying this, he flipped the knife in his hand, offering its handle towards the bald man. The bald man's eyes lit up in joy as his meaty cheeks moved. He eagerly reached out to take the knife. But before he could react, Fernand flipped the knife back in his grip and slashed his hand.
The bald man yanked his hand back, clutching it with his other hand as scarlet blood streamed out of his wound. The man whom Fernand had held a knife at his throat moments ago, tried to grab Fernand's hand. But before he could act, the cold blade was already back against his neck. Fernand had moved so swiftly, the man didn't even have time to react.
"That child is our key out of this prison. And these bandits want him alive. The church has put a reward on his head, if you kill him now these guys will stop giving us food and f*ck us all up for it, is that what you're after?"
Fernand's voice carried over the group, and after a moment of consideration, the more cowardly men slinked back to their spots. The bald man whose face was now flushed completely red from anger, kept pressing his hand on his wound. He shot a death stare at Fernand's calm face and retreated along the other men in silence.
"I see you quite over worked your self."
Conrad said, he had woken up at sometime and watched the entire exchange without anyone noticing. Fernand cleaned his knife by stabbing it into the ground and wiping it by his cloth, before tucking it back into his boot.
"Those guys are a bunch of cowards."
Fernand muttered
"The kid put on a good act. You can't blame them too much,"
Conrad commented and continued.
"Have you fought about what we should to him after we escape?"
"Go back to sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow."
Fernand said, dodging the question. He was not yet sure what he had to do himself.
He lied that a reward was put on his head so the bandits wouldn't kill him, what he carried is worth 10 Birn, but that might be lie he told me so that I wouldn't give him straight to who that wants him dead. For now getting out of here is more important than what he is worth.
Fernand glanced at Arat, who was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of the assassination attempt just now and how his life had just been saved.
In the morning, once Arat woke up, he didn't know why but the bald chubby man was staring at him and Fernand with a vicious look, full of malice. Knowing that it was almost time for eating, Arat ignored him and waited for Mackenzie and the middle aged man to show up.
Just like before, the two guards opened the gates, the party of four entered, and Mackenzie went ahead to disturb the pieces of bread, this time he gave Arat a piece of without even looking him in the eye like the previous times. The corners of lips were dropped, following this Arat was rejuvenated after drinking a cup of water.
Just as Mackenzie and the other three men left, he saw the chubby bald man who had a thick mustached stand up with six other man coming near him, the other salves made way and followed them since they were tied to the rope, they stood before Arat.
"Hand it over."
The chubby man said, he was tall and his muscles obvious beneath the fat that covered his body. The other six men came closer to show that all seven of them were together. Seeing this Arat who was holding the piece of bread near his mouth with his mask moved up, revealed two rows of needle like teeth and swallowed the entire piece of bread in one move, and put his mask back on.
The chubby man and the other six man beside him froze in place after that, faint smirks appeared on Fernand and Conrad's faces who were sitting at the side along with the other slaves as they saw this.