“And those men?” Henderson asked as soon as he got out from his room.
“They left at dawn.”
“Why so early?”
Henderson frowned. He reached out for the water cup on the table. He drank it down and shook his head.
“It was their departing date. It seemed like they prepared to leave yesterday, sir.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes, sir. There was nothing suspicious. They seemed skilled, but not that much. Waitresses exaggerated their tales a bit too.”
“Hmph, I see.”
Henderson thought about those two men from yesterday. It was weird to meet skilled mercenaries out in the remote village where no merchants visited.
‘If they really were skilled, then they would be busy working.’
Henderson realized Max’s description fit perfectly.
“Yes, sir. I don’t think we have to worry about them.”
“Okay, let’s forget about them then. How are the boys?”
“They’re resting well, sir.”
“Good. We’ll leave in the afternoon.”
“Yes, sir.”
Max nodded and left the room. He then came back to his room where a woman was still sleeping on his bed.
“Oh, too cold..”
A woman opened her eyes as the cold wind blew in, but Max jumped on her.
“Ouch, what’s the hurry?”
“Shut up.”
The people around the inn began waking up due to the noise coming from the room…
“Did you find them?”
“Yes.”
Doral nodded and pointed to a small road that could barely fit a horse.
“So, it was hidden in Tria Province.”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Doral nodded as he coldly eyed the road.
“How is the lord?” Jinpok asked.
Doral shook his head. “Last time I checked, there’s no relation.”
Jinpok scrubbed his beard and nodded.
“Yeah, the Trian lord will not have the balls to do that.”
Joonbum also nodded. Tria’s lord was a man with a good heart. He wasn’t ambitious, nor he was weak.
“But he can be persuaded easily.”
“Yeah, people here are too gullible,” Jinpok spat.
Then Doral asked Joonbum, “And where are they?”
His voice was so cold from anger. Ainos people rarely got angry, but since Henderson and his men poisoned his people and almost killed them, Doral was beyond angry.
‘It was lucky that the Ainos have resistance against poison.’
It was not widely known to most people, but the Ainos had strong resistance against poison. To protect the secrecy, the Ainos were pronounced dead, but they survived.
‘The top grade potion is a miracle.’
The Ainos who were poisoned looked like they were almost dead, as they were cold and unconscious. But they quickly regained health with the help of the potions. Men related to the poisoning were arrested immediately and were dragged to the torture room where they were questioned. These were fanatics who refused to speak easily so they were tortured and healed with potions, just to be tortured again.
‘I will rout out Horun for good this time.’
Nobles objected Joonbum’s policy to kick the Horuns out from the kingdom, but he glared at them.
-God has abandoned us. Look out to the world and you see people starving. People dying. God called upon the disaster to wipe us out. The priests who follow God’s will are corrupted. We are all to blame for the crimes. I will not allow Horun priests to stay within my kingdom and bring calamity to us. If you defend those priests, you are welcome to leave my kingdom.-