Chapter 1086 – The Hunt For Running Prisoners

“You better throw it away,” John advised before warning, “we are just mere ants in front of those royals. We should meddle in our own business here.”

Arthur simply nodded yet he stored the ring inside one of the three he currently had.

And John shook his head in helplessness before the two moved away from the cave and returned to the place they first entered.

“It’s night,” Arthur couldn’t help but mutter the moment he reached the opening of that cave, “and the moon is brightly shining today.”

“It’s the great moon,” John simply said, “it’s always shining bright these days before turning dim. C’mon, we have no time to waste.”

John wasn’t yet fully recovered but he was able to move on his own this time. The two climbed up the groove and stood on the surface while John took a deep and long breath. “How sweet is the taste of freedom… may it last forever.”

“Amen,” Arthur nodded.

“From which direction you spotted that flying guard?” John asked without moving an inch.

“Will he stay up there?” Arthur said in doubt.

“He will scan pieces of land each day,” John said, “so it’s safer to pass through what was initially scanned by him.”

Arthur got the idea before pointing to a certain direction and said, “he came from here and vanished towards there.”

“Hmm… so they are already scanning the big road up ahead,” John muttered, “it’s not too safe then to take it. We will just cross the road to the other side and start taking a detour from there.”

Arthur didn’t have a saying in that. After all John was his guide and he was just a newcomer here. 

“Don’t get lost,” John started to run and Arthur simply shook his head bitterly as he started following him.

The speed of John wasn’t that bad for such a middle aged man without a system. Yet compared to Arthur, he was like a turtle. If it was up to Arthur then he would prefer to create a gap and go up front to scout the lands.

But he feared to get lost here.

Under the bright silver light of the moon shining in this evening, the two found their way easily amidst many trees and rocks. “Is the road nearby?” Arthur couldn’t help but ask after one hour of silent running.

“Just spare your energy pal, we have no time to rest until dawn,” John didn’t speak otherwise and Arthur refrained from asking him again.

Yet after another two hours of continuous running, Arthur started to hear some noise coming from up front.

“It’s the main road,” John simply said before warning, “reaching there we should behave like normal travelers. It’s normal for a few individuals to travel on their own.”

Arthur glanced at him in surprise while keeping himself running, “Will we take that road then?” he asked.

“We need info,” John explained, “we need to know what our enemy is doing.”

Arthur understood his meaning before pointing to the clothes they were wearing, “what about those?”

“What about them?” 

“Two guards walking in the road and befriending the passengers while our enemies are looking for two guards in these areas…” Arthur didn’t need to continue while glancing in a meaningful way to his friend.

And John frowned for a moment while understanding his little grave mistake here. “Then we should break the pattern,” John decided, “I’ll go and meddle with some caravans and you keep yourself on the side.”

Arthur got his idea. “Breaking up the pattern sounds good, but if you can then try to steal some clothes for us.”

“I’ll try my best,” John knew this was the best action to avoid any future troubles, “but I won’t risk alarming anyone to this area.”

“Alright then,” Arthur didn’t argue much with his friend as he knew he was worried about those flying patrols.

In less than ten minutes the sounds coming from the far started to grow louder. “We are near enough,” John said, “I’ll go now and try to act as someone inspecting their caravans. You keep yourself walking to the front and wait for me.”

“Good luck then,” Arthur said before watching John running towards the direction of the road.

“At least you got me this far,” Arthur muttered as he knew John wasn’t going to scout for news and return, but he was planning to ditch him.

Arthur only waited for a few minutes before running in the direction John ran towards.

Arthur wasn’t that shocked about John’s decision. After all, the two weren’t formally acquinticies or something. The distance to the road took roughly ten minutes to cross.

And when he reached there, he found a wide road paved with special ores that made its surface glistering smoothly under the shining light of that big rounded moon.

That one hundred meters wide road was now filled with caravans marching in two opposing directions, one going to the castle direction and the other moving away from it.

And there were many people marching without carriages at all, and even many had horses either walking on their sides or riding them.

“Where have you gone?” Arthur’s eyes were dazzled with all those passengers and he couldn’t help but walk at the same pace as them.

“Hello Mr guard, may I take a minute with you?” Suddenly one of the passengers on the side moved a couple of steps and approached Arthur.

“I’m not that free to hear nonsense,” Arthur tried to mimic the attitude of that harsh guard he first killed.

“Sure, I won’t take much of your time,” the man seemed quite relaxed the moment he heard Arthur’s answer, “it’s just some folks a couple of minutes ago caught one of those runners.”

“Oh,” Arthur’s eyes shone brightly, “where is that damned prisoner?” he said, playing his role the best he could, “humph, thinking he would escape from us… that bastard deserves instant death.”

The man stopped couple of steps away from Arthur before whispering:

“I know it’s none of my business, but what really happened back there?”

“Why are you asking?” Arthur asked, “it’s not that you weren’t there when everything happened.”