“They’re both dead!?”
Larry stared at the clearing in disbelief.
The slightly plump young man looked nothing like the spoiled rich kid Xia Nan had seen back at the tavern.
His luxurious, brightly colored robe, flashy but terrible for movement, was gone.
In its place was an equally colorful fitted outfit that was clearly much more practical.
Unfortunately, Larry seemed to have bought it in too much of a hurry to account for his build.
The clothes clung to him so tightly that he looked faintly ridiculous, almost as if he had squeezed himself into a child’s outfit.
“Buddy.”
Larry stared at Xia Nan, who still stood with one hand around his sword and his entire body on guard.
“You did all this?”
Disbelief remained thick in his voice.
Before Xia Nan could answer, Larry abruptly turned around.
Just like that.
Without a trace of caution.
He exposed his entire back to a stranger who had apparently just killed two armed men in seconds.
“Doris, see?”
Larry pointed excitedly at the corpses.
“I told you those guys were just bandits.”
Then he gestured toward Xia Nan.
“An adventurer is supposed to look like this!”
The blonde girl beside him had gone even paler after seeing the state of the bodies.
Yet to Xia Nan’s surprise, she actually gave a small nod in agreement.
Was she…
Excited?
“Friend, this is a misunderstanding.”
Hai’an had also roughly understood what had happened.
He put away his longbow, then raised both hands in front of himself with his fingers spread to show that he was unarmed.
“We mean you no harm.”
Xia Nan had no intention of trusting a stranger just because he said so.
Especially not while the man with the nearly nonexistent presence, the one Xia Nan suspected of being a class holder, stood beside Hai’an and watched him with obvious hostility.
Xia Nan said nothing.
His grip tightened around the sword.
Then, without ever turning his back, he slowly began retreating toward the edge of the clearing.
Hai’an followed his gaze.
Paused.
Then seemed to realize the problem.
He turned sharply toward the guard beside him.
“Wood, he isn’t our enemy!”
The rebuke carried unusual weight.
The young master normally spoke as softly and gently as the lady of the house.
Hearing him suddenly use such a stern tone was rare enough that even Wood could not ignore it.
No matter how reluctant he felt, he put away the two daggers in his hands.
Though not without muttering, “That remains to be seen.”
By then, Xia Nan had already reached the edge of the clearing and opened a considerable distance between himself and the group.
He raised an eyebrow.
The Misty Forest was complicated enough that even experienced adventurers could become lost if they rushed in without preparation.
These people’s condition looked genuine.
Grass clung to them.
Mud covered their boots.
They had clearly been running hard.
And more importantly, Xia Nan was close enough to the forest that he could retreat into the trees at any moment.
That gave him at least some margin for error.
Maybe he could afford to hear what the half-elf had to say.
Hai’an visibly relaxed when Xia Nan stopped backing away.
Then he raised his voice across the clearing.
“Friend, first of all, I owe you an apology.”
“Yesterday, not long after our party entered the Misty Forest, we were ambushed.”
“Fortunately, our party was strong enough that we didn’t fall into the trap.”
“To find out who sent them, my teammates and I deliberately let two of the attackers escape.”
Hai’an glanced at the two bodies on the ground.
“And then… this happened.”
He paused before adding, “Friend, on behalf of my teammates, I apologize again for accidentally dragging you into this.”
Xia Nan quietly looked them over.
Grass stuck in their hair from running through the forest.
Mud splattered their leather boots.
Blood stained parts of their armor.
Then there was the way the two dead men had behaved earlier.
Desperate.
Almost suicidal.
Put together, Hai’an’s explanation was fairly believable.
Thinking back, Xia Nan realized the two men really had looked like they were making one last desperate charge.
So…
They had mistaken him for one of the half-elf’s companions?
In that case, Xia Nan really had been dragged into the mess for no reason at all.
Still…
That was it?
Hai’an had stopped him with such solemn seriousness just to apologize?
Xia Nan kept his expression neutral.
Internally, he found the whole thing increasingly strange.
After a short pause, he finally spoke for the first time since the group arrived.
“So?”
At the same time, another thought took shape in his mind.
Maybe these people were simply part of the friendlier category of adventurers.
After all, if they really were working with the two dead men and intended to kill him, splitting themselves into two groups made no sense.
All six could simply have attacked together.
In fact…
That nearly invisible guard alone might be enough to deal with him.
There was absolutely no reason to stand here talking.
Which meant…
Were they going to demand the loot he had taken from the corpses?
Or ask him to compensate them for ruining their attempt to trace the mastermind behind the ambush?
Xia Nan quietly waited to see how things would develop.
Then his single word seemed to mute the entire clearing.
“So…”
Hai’an opened his mouth.
Paused.
“So what?”
He suddenly realized he had no answer.
Beside him, Wood’s mouth twitched.
He had long since grown accustomed to the young master’s guileless personality, inherited almost perfectly from the lady of the house.
Sometimes Hai’an was so upright and earnest that he might as well have been a Paladin sworn to the Oath of Devotion.
Even Wood, who was used to it, found this particular situation difficult to watch with a straight face.
Fortunately, the awkward silence did not last long.
Larry’s gaze moved between Xia Nan and the iron-gray two-handed sword in his hands.
Then his eyes lit up.
An idea.
“Hai’an.”
He leaned closer.
“Didn’t the adventurer we just recruited get killed by those bandits?”
“If we go all the way back to Rivervale Town to recruit someone else, we’ll waste an entire day.”
Larry glanced toward Xia Nan.
“So how about…”
“Young Master, please reconsider!”
Before Hai’an could answer, Wood cut in.
His tone was firm.
“We know nothing about this man’s background. Letting him into the party would only add unnecessary risk.”
Wood was already a Rogue with a class level.
He had stepped onto the path of shadows and secrecy.
And observation was one of the things he trusted most.
The black-haired young man before them looked as though he had just walked out of a slaughterhouse.
Blood covered him.
The scene itself was gruesome.
Yet from the way he moved…
Wood doubted the man had even suffered a scratch.
The two corpses were otherwise largely intact.
Only their heads had suffered fatal damage.
The cuts were smooth.
Clean.
Decisive.
Each man had been killed in a single strike.
More importantly, Wood knew how quickly they had arrived after realizing something had gone wrong.
The black-haired young man could not have had more than six or seven seconds.
Yet in that tiny window, he had killed both attackers with brutal efficiency.
The two men themselves were not especially powerful.
At best, they were ordinary adventurers.
Even so…
Someone who could end a two-on-one fight that quickly and walk away untouched was not nearly as simple as his young face suggested.
Then there were the two earlier encounters in Rivervale Town.
Both supposedly coincidences.
Wood’s suspicion only deepened.
And under those circumstances, inviting this unknown black-haired swordsman into their party?
That was not recruiting a teammate.
That was planting a time bomb in their midst.