At the same time as when the farmer is procuring the supplies needed for their adventurer, a carriage is traversing through the forest going to his farm.

“Boss, are you sure this is a good idea?” The carriage driver, the muscle-bound thug, asked the person inside.

“What? Are you that scared of him?” The person inside, the tax collector, replied.

“Well, it’s not that… I mean, isn’t he with the emissary of the king?” The muscle-bound thug tried to hide the fact that he was easily beaten.

“Hmp! I’m sure that that witch has already left by now!” The tax collector replied, with an evil smirk in his face.

“By the way, the ride has been smooth for quite some time… Hey! Are you sure we’re going the right way?” He asked.

“Yes boss. This was the same road we took a week ago…” The muscle-bound man thug replied.

“Boss! You may wanna take a look at this!” The slender thug, who was sitting at the top of the carriage, called out.

“What are you spewing on about?” The tax collector opened the window to see what his henchman is talking about.

“What is that?” His eyes widened at the sight of a stronghold in the location they’re heading into.

“Hey! Are you sure that we’re going in the right direction?!” He shouted at the carriage driver.

“What? Of course! This is the same route we took!” The muscle-bound thug replied.

“Tch! Well, we’ll know when we get there…” The tax collector uttered.

It didn’t take very long before the carriage reached the stronghold and the three walked up to the enormous gates made of lumber.

“FARMER! WE KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!” The muscle-bound man shouted in a threatening voice.

From inside, they could hear the sound of heavy boots walking to the gate. Then, the sound of a huge lumber being dislodged from the front gate can be heard, soon the enormous gate created a thunderous sound as a group of orc warriors pushed it to the side, opening a path for the orc chief.

“Who are you people? How dare you raise your voices in our master’s territory?!” The orc chief threatened with a fierce loud voice. The three visitors, including the muscle-bound man staggered back. 

“We have business with the farmer who used to occupy this land…” The tax collector, steeling his nerves, said.

“But it seems that you’ve taken his territory so we’ll be on our way.” He added, quickly cowering in fear.

“I see…” The orc chieftain glared at them, lifting his enormous ax over his shoulder.

The three made their way back to the carriage, walking in backwards, and never breaking eye-contact with the orcs for fear of being attacked, only doing so when they had reached their transport.

“Don’t think that this’ll end with this.” The tax collector uttered to himself as they retreated back to the capital.