Kion was a little bothered.
Even when he had just broken through to the Common-grade, he felt underequipped for the battle that had been presented before him.
Soon after the ambush, the foot soldiers and knights had moved just as quickly as the mysterious attackers, brandishing their weapons and forming a defensive wall around both carriages.
The soldiers and knights combined did outnumber the assailants, but Kion didn't like their chances against these new foes.
This was because the ambushers, from their stances and weaponry alone, looked like they could fight off an entire army. The aura that radiated from them was staggeringly strong, pressing down on the air like a suffocating fog.
Meanwhile, Penelope was shaking in a corner, her hands gripping the edge of her seat, terrified of what her fate might be.
For a moment, there was only silence—the kind of silence that claws at your nerves—broken only by the rustling of distant leaves.
Then, a mercenary member stepped forward.
Although their faces were all hidden beneath heavy hoods, Kion could tell this one was a girl, simply from her gait and posture.
The mercenary girl took one long look at the soldiers before her, then raised her glaive and pointed it squarely at Kion's carriage.
With a sharp nod, the message was clear to everyone. Whatever the mercenaries wanted, it was in there: the very carriage where Kion and Penelope sat.
Kai's personal knight stepped forward.
As the highest-ranking soldier present, it was his duty to take charge in moments like this.
"My name is Sir Gaius," he declared. His voice carried authority, though a faint tremor betrayed his unease. "As much as I would love to entertain your antics, I'll have you know that by doing this, you are impeding a royal mission—and threatening the future of our kingdom."
The leading hooded figure remained motionless, silent as stone.
"I demand you step out of the way," Gaius continued, his hand tightening on the hilt of his blade. "Perhaps then I'll consider sparing you from trial. You do not want to face the might of the Imperial Army."
Still, the mercenary leader said nothing. Cold silence.
The air was thick with unease as Sir Gaius' fingers twitched around his sword. The other soldiers followed his lead, unsheathing their blades with the scrape of steel.
Just when the tension seemed ready to snap, the mercenary leader finally spoke.
"Our kingdom?" the voice asked. It was a woman's voice. Gaius frowned.
"What—"
"You said 'our kingdom,'" she cut him off. "It's not *our* kingdom when you wear the colours and I don't."
Sir Gaius unsheathed his sword fully and leveled the tip at her throat. The squadron around him raised their weapons in unison, the clash of steel filling the street.
"Keep talking," he warned, "and treason won't be the only felony you'll be charged with."
The woman only laughed. The sound was sharp, mocking, and carried something familiar to Kion's ears.
There was something about her voice. He couldn't place it, but it reminded him of someone from his past life. The thought gnawed at him, but his memories of that former existence had been growing faint since he'd come here.
It was why he had remembered Styria as a backwater town, instead of the shining capital it had become. His old memories were slipping away, blurring into fragments that felt more like fever dreams than reality.
Back then, he hadn't been sure of anything. And now, as he listened to this mercenary leader, he still wasn't sure what her voice meant to him.
"You talk too much for a knight," she mocked. "Oh, and since you were kind enough to introduce yourself earlier, it's only fair I do the same. We don't use actual names over here, but you can call me Mouse."
Her words dripped with sarcasm. With her hands still raised, she snapped her fingers—just as Kai began to step out of his chariot.
"Hey, what's the—"
A bag was suddenly smothered over his head.
Kion couldn't believe how fast it happened. One moment, all ten mercenaries were in sight, standing boldly in the street. The next, someone had slipped behind Kai and incapacitated him in an instant.
It had to be some sort of invisibility technique.
A knot formed in Kion's throat as he realized five of the mercenaries were no longer where they had been standing. He turned, too late, and found one of them grabbing his neck, pressing a cloth soaked with some intoxicant against his face.
The same thing happened to Penelope. She screamed and squirmed, her cries muffled as she was dragged into submission like a helpless rabbit.
"Attack!" Sir Gaius' voice thundered, and his men surged forward.
But it didn't matter.
The mercenaries were too fast. Using strange techniques and talents Kion had never seen before, they moved like shadows, cutting through the twenty-man squadron with surgical precision. Knights fell like flies, paralyzed or unconscious before they even had the chance to strike.
Soon, the battlefield was reduced to a silent street littered with fallen soldiers.
Kion struggled against his captor, but the cloth pressed against his face made his muscles weaken, his strength leaking away. His limbs went slack, and before long, he found himself sprawled helplessly across the seat of his carriage.
Mouse, who had been calmly watching the chaos unfold, finally walked toward his carriage.
Kion's breath caught when she stopped outside the door, mere inches away. He longed for his longsword, but his arms refused to obey. With no means of defense, this was the most vulnerable he had ever felt.
Mouse noticed his tension.
"Don't worry. We won't kill you, if that's what you're afraid of," she said lightly. "If we wanted to, we'd have done so already. I believe you've seen proof of that. No… you just happen to have something we need."
She gave a signal, and two mercenaries dragged Kion out of the carriage. They patted him down with rough hands, stripping away his belongings.
They took his talent scrolls, all his coin, and finally, from his back pocket, the storm-pills.
"Jackpot," Mouse exclaimed, holding the capsules up to the light. As she inspected them, Kion caught a glimpse of her deep green eyes beneath the hood.
"They don't make these outside that stupid castle," she muttered, passing the pills to her comrades.
"These are high priority. How did a prince like you come to possess them?"
Kion remained silent, his jaw tight.
"Oh right," she chuckled. "Forgot about your paralysis situation. Don't worry, it'll wear off in a couple of hours. Don't panic, little one."
She patted his bright red hair like he was a child. He glared back at her with all the venom he could muster.
"These would fetch a fortune on the black market. And to think—you were about to waste them all on yourself, when they could've been put to far better use out there."
"Don't mind these royals. They're spoiled brats," one of the mercenaries grumbled, his deep baritone echoing under the hood.
"Have you searched the other carriage?" Mouse asked. "My source said the real value was in this one, but I'm not about to leave anything unchecked."
"We've searched it already. Just some coin and a slimy prince," another mercenary replied. The group laughed.
Meanwhile, Kai screamed threats from where he was bound, his head still trapped inside the sack.
"Don't you think this one would be a lot feistier if we shoved aether gas down his throat?" one female mercenary asked, gesturing at Kion.
Mouse turned her gaze back to Kion. Despite his paralysis, he remained calm. His amber eyes glared with an intensity that unsettled her.
There was something unnerving about those eyes—so emotionless, so steady, as though he could see right through her.
"I somehow doubt that," she muttered after a moment. Then she raised her voice. "Alright people, pack it up before the royal cavalry arrives. We scored a huge one today."
Noise filled the air as the mercenaries cheered.
They began hauling everything they could find into sacks, moving just as quickly as they had arrived.
Mouse was about to leave when something flashed in the corner of her eye.
It was a signet ring on Kion's finger.
"Well, what do we have here?" she murmured, reaching for it.
The moment her fingers brushed the metal, Kion's hand shot forward, clamping down on her wrist.
Mouse froze.
She tried to pull away, but his grip only tightened, his second hand latching onto her elbow.
Was this bastard pretending to be incapacitated the whole time?
Panic jolted through her veins as she tried to break free. Unluckily for her, Kion's grip was like iron.
Her blood ran cold at his next words.
"Give me back my scrolls and pills."
Who the fuck was this guy?
"What's happening back there?" one of the mercenaries shouted, running toward them.
Kion's right hand suddenly burned with heat, scorching through Mouse's wrist.
"Ughhh!" she cried out in pain, twisting and writhing against his hold.
The incoming mercenary closed in fast.
Kion knew he wasn't in any condition to fight fully—his body was still weakened, his strength not yet at one hundred percent.
But he had made his mark. That was enough.
Now, he needed answers.
His left hand yanked back Mouse's hood.
And he saw her face.
She had short pink air, with rose-tinted eyes. For a cutthroat leader, her features were soft in a way that vaguely reminded Kion of someone.
But it wasn't her face that caught his attention.
It was the tattoo inked on her neck.
A mark he could never forget, no matter how much his memories faded.
The insignia of his former gang—Sacrilax.
"What the fuck are you doing?" the approaching mercenary roared, slamming a fist into Kion's skull.
His world went black.