"Thank you, Mr. Helag!" Josh exclaimed with joy.
"Don't get me wrong. I never said I'd ensure your safe return. You can follow me, but I don't guarantee your safety," Helag waved his hand dismissively.
He had no intention of truly protecting the two; if things went south, he would run.
After eating and drinking his fill, Helag retreated to his tent to sleep.
Kieran made a bowl out of leaves for Josh and served him some soup from the pot. This was Helag's condition for leaving the soup behind—Kieran had to clean the pot since Helag didn't want to bother.
Josh didn't mind drinking the leftover soup. After taking a sip, he offered the leaf bowl to Kieran. "Uncle Kieran, you drink too."
He then broke the biscuit in half, sharing it with Kieran.
Kieran hesitated but didn't refuse. He hadn't eaten in two days and was very hungry. Considering the battles ahead, he decided to eat.
Helag lay in his tent, observing the scene outside clearly.
He didn't sleep but meditated instead. Without the aid of Meteor Grass, he needed to work harder on his meditation practice.
The next morning, the rain had stopped, but the fog was even thicker.
Kieran rested against a tree with his eyes closed, while Josh slept leaning on him, covered with Kieran's cloak.
Helag didn't hide the noise of getting up, and Kieran slowly opened his eyes, first checking Josh's condition. Once he confirmed there were no issues, he relaxed.
With a wave of his hand, Helag stored the tent, rainproof cloth, and other items in his space ring.
He turned to the pair under the tree. "I'm ready to leave."
"Alright!" Kieran and Josh stood up obediently and followed Helag.
Helag checked the map for directions and started walking.
"Tell me about your situation," Helag said casually as he walked ahead. He needed to understand what trouble these two were in and what to expect.
"I'm the second son of Count Remy from the Tasone Territory. A few days ago, Uncle Kieran and I went to the countryside to check on the crops. Everything was going smoothly until we were ambushed on our way back. The attackers were prepared, even had crossbows! Uncle Kieran protected me and fought our way out, but all the other guards were killed," Josh said, his tone filled with sadness and anger over the loss of the guards.
"Do you know who did it?" Helag asked casually.
Josh took a deep breath. "Who else could it be? It must be Luchi, my older brother. He's afraid I'll compete for his inheritance. We've had conflicts for years. Now that Father's health is declining, he's getting more desperate."
"Oh," Helag responded indifferently. Another clichéd power struggle under the sun.
"Are there still pursuers? We're not at the forest's edge yet," Helag continued.
They still had at least a day's walk to leave the forest.
Kieran replied, "There are people from the Thieves' Guild, a great knight-level assassin. I can't guarantee Josh's safety against him, so we had to flee."
"Got it. I can see him. He's watching us," Helag said, glancing southeast.
"What?" Kieran tensed up immediately.
A great knight-level assassin's attack was something even he couldn't fully defend against, let alone Josh, who wasn't even at knight-level strength.
"Relax. Let's keep moving," Helag said nonchalantly, seeing the two standing nervously and looking around.
"Oh, okay." Kieran realized they had a powerful wizard with them and didn't need to worry too much.
From the moment he saw Helag, Kieran sensed a familiar yet mysterious aura.
Great knights didn't have magic but could sense it to some extent. Helag's aura was familiar, like the powerful wizards Kieran had encountered before.
In the distant forest, a bald man shivered under Helag's gaze.
"How did he spot me?" Robert, a great knight-level assassin and top fighter of the Thieves' Guild, was baffled.
He was confident in his stealth skills, which even other great knights found hard to detect.
But now, from over 200 meters away, the young man had pinpointed his location.
"Impossible!" Robert felt like he'd seen a ghost.
Most importantly, he didn't dare make a move.
From Helag's casual glance, Robert felt a deep-seated fear.
Years of walking the edge of life and death told him that approaching that young man would mean certain death.
As an outstanding thief, Robert trusted his instincts.
"This job is a no-go. Too bad about the gold," Robert sighed, feeling pained.
The thought of losing so much gold hurt, but Robert decided to abandon the mission, at least until the young man and Josh were separated.
He had survived this long by being cautious and trusting his sharp instincts about danger.
"Did he give up?" Helag saw through Deep Blue's detection that the man seemed to have left, no longer tracking them.
Robert's fear grew stronger the longer he followed Helag, so he decisively left, abandoning even the idea of continuing to observe.
"Saves me some trouble," Helag thought, continuing forward.
With his current physical strength comparable to a great knight and various spells for support, ordinary knights and great knights posed little threat to him.
Helag didn't mention the assassin's departure, so Kieran remained highly alert, constantly watching their surroundings.
Helag didn't bother to inform him, appreciating the extra vigilance.
They walked until dusk, finally seeing the plains at the foot of the mountain in the distance.
"Mr. Helag, let's rest in the forest tonight. The plains are too open," Kieran suggested.
Helag nodded in agreement. Kieran's point was clear: if ambushed, they'd be sitting ducks with no cover.
The forest's complex terrain provided better chances to maneuver, even if there were enemies.
A great knight-level warrior could easily handle dozens of people in a nighttime forest battle, especially with Helag around.