“You did what now?” I asked incredulously as my eyes widened in shock and my hands tightened on the blankets keeping me warm.

Unfortunately, Aldric refused to speak more about the matter which was absolutely frustrating. Even more conspiracies and thoughts were swirling around in my head which made the notion of getting more rest impossible.

Eventually, the storm calmed down enough for us to be able to continue our travels and Aldric and I woke everyone up. Oda was groggy as usual and it was a fight to get him out of his sleeping bag. On the other hand, Eurielle woke up easily and was ready to head out. We quickly ate some food while packing up our items.

Before exiting the earth dome, Eurielle used her mana sense to make sure that there weren’t any soldiers nearby that would hinder our progress. With reassurance the way was clear, Eurielle dispelled the dome and we could see all the freshly fallen snow laid on the ground. The trees were absolutely covered in snow and the slightest breeze would cause snow to fall from the branches.

Oda looked in awe at the scenery and I couldn’t help but agree. The time after the snowstorm seemed magical and everything was coated in pristine white. Although that view was dampened when you saw the circular area where the dome was. The snow wasn’t piled nearly as high or densely where we sought refuge.

Looking at the direction of the sun, we quickly oriented ourselves to the east and started to trudge our way through the snow. Aldric, being the largest of us, was in front and his job was to make a path in the snow for the rest of us to follow. Eurielle was in the back of the line and every now and then she’d use her magic to hide our footprints.

We traveled in this manner for a few hours before Aldric became tired and we took shelter underneath an alcove of trees. Utilizing this time, we all ate some food and Oda, being his usual self, accidentally bumped a tree trunk which caused a pile of snow to collapse on top of him.

I couldn’t help but laugh as Oda quickly brushed off all the snow that landed on him. It was at that moment a group of holy knights could be seen in the distance.

Quickly scrambling, I ushered everyone to climb the trees to get out of sight. Once in the safety of the branches, we intentionally shook the snow off the branches to cover our tracks near the base of the trees.

Holding our breaths, the holy knights came closer to where we were and we could overhear their conversation.

“Did you hear about the other squadron that’s posted a few towns away?” One guard who wielded a spear asked his party.

A member who held a large shield and sword replied, “No, what happened?”

“I bet it was a demon attack,” a holy knight retorted while kicking up some snow.

The first guy continued, “Something like that. You know that half-demon who the Paladin posted the wanted signs for? Apparently, they found him and are taking him to Zetsubo Prison. I can only imagine how much cash they’ll get for that feat!”

Next to me, I saw Aldric stiffen and saw that he was about to jump down to confront the soldiers. I held him back with a hand on his shoulder and shook my head at him. Aldric looked conflicted but decided to stay up in the trees to continue eavesdropping.

The guard who was kicking snow stopped in surprise and turned to look at the spear guy, “Are you shitting me? Someone actually found that bastard? He’s been evading us for months!”

“I can only imagine what they’ll do to him once he gets to Zetsubo Prison. I hear that General Hokori is one hell of a prison master,” the sword knight mused out loud to his companions. “I guess she’s making up for the fact that her older brother was the previous general and has to prove herself to the others that she’s worthy of the mantle”.

“And I could’ve really used that reward money. My family back home needs it,” the spear guy sighed.

They continued to talk about their mundane life outside of being knights as they slowly passed by us and continued into the woods. Once they were far enough away, we descended down from the trees and Aldric seemed extremely agitated about what we overheard.

Before we could speak about the matter, Aldric stated bluntly, “I know we’re all heading towards the east, but I need to make a detour to Zetsubo Prison”.

I crossed my arms and asked in clarification, “It’s about the half-demon they captured?”

Aldric’s silence was an answer and Oda was immediately onboard about saving the captured half-demon.

“Once we rescue him, we’ll have another member in our party!” Oda said excitedly.

“Sorry to be the realistic one here, but Zetsubo Prison is the headquarters of the Holy Knight General of this region. We barely got away from the General Velox in the west! I highly doubt we could manage to survive infiltrating the headquarters of a general,” I rebuked with a cold voice.

Oda pleaded with me, “But, we should help others of our kind! Wouldn’t you want someone to save you if you were in a situation like that?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten into a mess like that to begin with,” I replied. Looking at Aldric I glared at him, “And besides, we don’t know the full story about the half-demon because someone hasn’t been completely forthcoming about himself”.

Oda looked at Aldric with a surprised look, “What does she mean, Aldric?”

I placed my hands on my hips and asked, “Do you want me to break the news or do you?”

Eurielle chimed in and tried to stop the argument, “I’m sure he’d have told us if it was necessary Nocturne”.

Aldric sighed deeply and his shoulders slumped. “Faust and I used to work underneath the Paladin doing their dirty work.”

Oda’s eyes went wide in shock and Eurielle gasped loudly with a hand next to her mouth.

Oda started to pester Aldric with various questions, “I thought the holy knights hated every demon and their mission was to exterminate all of us. So how come they let you live? What did the Paladin make you do? What is the Paladin like?”

Aldric answered his questions bluntly, “We were only allowed to live if we followed all her orders. If we disobeyed, we would have been killed.”

“Did the entirety of the holy knights know about your involvement?” I asked.

Aldric shook his head, “No. Only the Paladin knew of us. We were tasked with disposing of any person who couldn’t be dealt with by the law. Hence why I knew about the secret passages between the borders.”

“How come you both decided to dissent from them? I imagine it was difficult getting away from their clutches,” Eurielle asked while wringing her hands with worry.

Aldric gave us a wistful smile, “We were both tired of being treated like their pets and we wanted our freedom. I left first and I guess Faust left shortly after I did.”

“And now you’re both wanted by the Paladin. I imagine once she gets her hands on you both again she’d kill you for disobeying her and dissenting,” I mused.

Aldric shrugged his shoulders, “Only if she captures us”.

“She’s already halfway there,” I retorted back. I sighed, seeing how the flow of the conversation was going, basically everyone was on board to rescue Aldric’s old companion. “Fine, I guess we can make the detour. But only if we can come up with a foolproof plan to get the guy out with all of us alive with minimum risk”.

Oda looked excited while Aldric looked content with the agreement. With that, we hunkered down and Aldric spilled everything about his past work with the Paladin and Faust.

“We were both captured by the Paladin when we were young. She gave us an ultimatum: live and serve under her or die by her hand. We both decided to work for her and carry out her dirty work. We would be dispatched to deal with powerful nobles and merchants who skirted the law who couldn’t be touched by normal means. This led to us having to learn the various pathways from one region to another without having to rouse suspicion at the checkpoints. We did this for years and after a while, I got tired of being the Paladin’s lapdog. So I left”.

Oda gasped with excitement, his eyes twinkling, “Oh wow, that’s so cool!”

Aldric glared at Oda’s reaction and Oda tried to hide his excitement to no avail.

I opened up the map and found Zetsubo Prison located near the northernmost point of the region. “It looks like the only way into the prison is through the front since the prison just has to be on top of the bloody mountain range,” I said while pointing to its location on the map. “Unless someone here knows a hidden passageway to get into the prison unnoticed,” I stated with a glance at Aldric.

Aldric sighed and pointed towards an innocuous mountain range to the west of the prison, “There’s an underground passage here that leads to the dungeons of the prison”.

“That sounds perfect!” Oda exclaimed with a little fist pump while his eyes were practically sparkling..

“I can guarantee that the Holy Knight General will probably station a ton of guards throughout the prison. It’s not going to be a walk in the park and she might even guess that Aldric would lead us through the tunnel,” I replied while thinking about the options we had.

Aldric nodded his head in agreement, “That would be correct. General Hokori is quite diligent and all the personnel at the prison were personally trained by her and the previous general. They are experts at fighting”.

“That just means we need to try and stay sneaky to remain undetected,” I said while looking at the map. Then I pointed to Oda, “That means being quiet”.

Oda huffed indignantly, “I know what sneaking around means! I’m just not that great at doing it”.

Eurielle sighed, “I guess we’ll find out when we start the mission”.

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