“So what’s this secret destination you’re heading to?” Oda asked me after a couple of days spent traveling together.

“None of your business,” I smoothly replied as I ate some cooked rice. I had created a fire during the day to cook the rice in a (stolen) bowl. Due to the fire, I only cook meals during the day. Fires attract too much attention at night.

Somehow, for the past few days, I’ve been able to control my urge to strangle Oda. It’s really trying my patience. Maybe if I see him like an excited puppy, that would help me deal with his personality.

“But like, can I at least know which region we’re heading to? I need to know so I can mentally prepare myself!” Oda kept prying. 

“East”.

Oda took the map and looked at our current route. He mused, “So, I see you’re going northeast. Trying to avoid the capital, huh?”

With a side glance at him, I explained, “Yeah. I don’t want to go anywhere near the headquarters of the holy knights. The last thing I need is the fearsome Paladin trying to kill me”.

Shuddering, Oda agreed, “Yeah. From the legends, they sound terrifying! I mean, the Paladin has killed thousands of demons! We don’t have the power to survive that.”

I quietly finished up my meal and put the cool pot back into my bag.

“Don’t you get tired from carrying that bag around all the time?” Oda asked me curiously.

Shrugging my shoulders I answered, “Not really. I’m really strong and the longer we go, the lighter this bag gets”. I continued to disassemble our resting area by stamping out the fire and kicking the rocks and logs into random directions. 

Oda shoves the rest of the rice into his mouth as he uses his other hand to roll the map back up. Taking the map from him, I gently place it in my bag along with his bowl. 

“So why the eastern region? Any particular reason?” Oda asked.

With a scathing glance, Oda answered his question, “Let me guess, it’s none of my business?”

“Correct”.

After that, we continued to walk in silence. Every now and then I’d check the map to make sure we were going in the right direction based on the landmarks around us. As we traveled, we had to be on guard for any other travelers and wild animals who would like to make us into their next meal. 

Turning around the bend, we were stunned to see an upturned carriage with injured horses whining on the side of the road. I gestured to Oda to stay back and hide while I went and investigated the area. 

Climbing up a tree, I gracefully jumped from branch to branch until I stood above the scene of the crime. 

Gazing intently, I observed that there were some corpses in the carriage. Whoever was guiding the horses was missing. Not sensing anyone nearby, I jumped down and looked through the carriage. Two people were laying against the walls. Their throats were slashed and it seemed that all of their expensive items were already looted. 

The things that were left weren’t worth taking. So I walked over to where Oda was hiding and gave him a rundown of the situation. 

“We should be careful of any highway robbers nearby,” I told him as we continued on our way. 

Oda shuddered and quickly looked around us.

“We should be fine. It’s not like we have any valuables on us for them to steal,” I commented.

“Yeah, but we’re not exactly in a safe position either here,” Oda replied while being paranoid.

I rolled my eyes. If anyone tried to mug us, they’d end up dead.

As we were walking Oda was musing out loud about where the third person went. Some of the ideas he spouted were: maybe they were taken hostage, maybe they were able to run away, maybe they were being tortured at this very minute! 

While he was talking nonsense, I felt something change in the environment around us. I held my hand up to silently tell Oda to stop. He fell silent and started to turn around twitchily and looked around. 

Suddenly, we were surrounded by brigands many of which were wielding some very sharp weapons. A few of them still had blood stains on them. They must have been the ones to kill the two unfortunate people in the carriage. 

One person in the group was dressed differently. Unlike the others who were wearing ragtag non-matching clothing, he was wearing some fancy trench coat with leather pants and boots. 

Guess we found the missing person. 

Without looking at Oda, I said, “I guess we found the missing guy. Seems your various ideas were wrong”.

“Damn, of course, he was with the evil people! An easy way of making sure they know when their targets will arrive,” Oda snaps his fingers.

I tapped his shoulder and ordered, “Get ready. I think they’re after us next”