Boundary

"Those people had been here before."

Standing there, sensing the information transmitted by the chip in his mind, Arthur had this thought.

He subconsciously frowned, instinctively feeling that something was off.

"My lord, what is it?" Several attendants came up behind Arthur, looking puzzled when they saw him standing there with a frown.

"It's nothing." Hearing the call from behind him, Arthur shook his head. "Let's go."

He led the group to where they had tied their horses earlier, mounted first, and left in a certain direction under the guide's lead, preparing to investigate the next location.

Just like that, Arthur carefully investigated this area for several days, but aside from the first place, he found nothing unusual anywhere else.

After some time, perhaps because nothing "abnormal" had been found in this region, Arthur was sent to the border to join the other Knight Apprentices.

Several months passed in the blink of an eye.

In a forest in the wilderness, several people were cautiously making their way through the woods.

They wore different outfits, and the stench of sweat mixed with blood clung to them. Every one of them looked like a desperado, yet their expressions were tense, even fearful.

They moved quickly and carefully through the forest, desperately running forward as if fleeing from something.

Whoosh!

The sound of an arrow cutting through the air made fear rise instinctively in their eyes.

The sharp arrow carried tremendous force, striking one man in the throat with speed and precision and pinning him directly to a large tree behind him. Scarlet blood immediately began to flow.

"Run!" Terrified cries rang out. It was as though they had seen something horrifying; their faces twisted with extreme fear in an instant, and they scattered in all directions, fleeing as fast as they could.

In the next instant, several more arrows flew in from afar, striking several of them squarely in the chest with terrifying accuracy and speed.

Ahead, a young figure appeared beneath a large tree, holding a horn bow nearly two meters long.

He was strikingly handsome, only thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in black leather armor. He walked swiftly forward with the elegance of a refined young nobleman.

Yet when the people around him saw the youth, it was as if they had seen a demon. Despair filled their eyes, and even their bodies began to tremble.

"We can't run! He's alone! Let's take him together!"

Looking at Arthur ahead, a man who seemed to be their leader gritted his teeth and shouted at the others.

The next moment, an arrow shot toward him and pierced straight through his chest, leaving him unable to say another word.

"Damn it!"

Seeing this, some of them gritted their teeth and hid behind nearby trees, preparing to gather together and fight Arthur.

These were true desperadoes, and they naturally knew what had to be done at a time like this. With hot blood surging in their chests, they grabbed their weapons and prepared to charge Arthur.

Of course, some still ignored everything and rushed toward the outside.

But these were also the first to die. To stop them from escaping, Arthur raised his bow and sent sharp arrows flying at them one after another with fierce force, shooting several would-be escapees to the ground.

At this point, the people before him had gathered together. Brandishing weapons, they roared and charged Arthur.

Arthur immediately lowered the bow in his hand, drew the Cross Sword from his waist in an instant with his right hand, and slashed fiercely forward.

A head fell from the air in an instant, leaving behind a headless corpse that toppled to the ground.

The battle ended quickly.

With physical abilities nearly three times greater than an ordinary person's, Arthur's movements were simply too fast for these people to see. He dealt with them easily.

Pulling his sword from a corpse, Arthur's expression did not change in the slightest as he quickly walked forward.

Some of those struck by arrows earlier had not yet completely died and lay on the ground, their bodies twitching instinctively. The worst off was the first man, whom Arthur had nailed directly to a large tree with an arrow.

Arthur stepped forward and ended their lives one sword stroke at a time before looking toward several distant directions.

In the previous chaos, several people had still managed to escape without being stopped by Arthur.

With Arthur's speed, catching up to them would have been effortless.

But in the end, he gave up on the idea and remained quietly where he was, waiting for the people behind him to come deal with the aftermath.

He stood there for a while before the sound of footsteps gradually approached from beside him.

"Lord Arthur!" A call came from behind him. A middle-aged man in leather armor arrived with a group of guards, and his expression changed in shock when he saw the corpses strewn across the ground.

"Clean up the bodies here," Arthur said calmly without saying anything more.

At his command, the guards around them began clearing away the bodies.

Calling it cleanup was not entirely accurate. They were mainly collecting spoils. The clothes and leather armor on the corpses, the weapons they carried, and the money they had looted along the way were all considerable wealth. The guards carefully gathered everything and piled it to one side.

Arthur only glanced at the process and paid it no further attention.

By custom, most of these spoils would belong to Arthur. But he was alone and had no use for bloodstained scraps of leather armor or crude weapons, so he only took the easily carried gold coins and other valuables that could be readily sold. He distributed everything else among the guards.

The guards knew this as well, so they worked especially hard, occasionally stripping leather armor and clothing from the corpses without the slightest disgust at the bloodstains on them.

After the spoils had been collected, only corpses remained.

There was no need to deal with those. After a few days, wild beasts would naturally follow the scent of blood here and dispose of the bodies.

Some time later, Arthur and the others returned to their resting place. Several other Knight Apprentices were sitting there as well, apparently discussing something.

"Arthur, did you catch up to those bandits from earlier?" A familiar voice sounded beside Arthur, causing him to pause.

It was Dier. He was wearing leather armor and carrying a greatsword, looking at Arthur with concern.

Seeing him, Arthur smiled. "Dier, you came too?"

Dier nodded and said helplessly, "No choice. There have been more and more bandits appearing along this border lately, while the fighting at the front has grown increasingly tense. So they had no choice but to send all of us here."

"That makes sense." Remembering the situation around here in recent times, Arthur nodded in agreement before asking with some confusion, "Was it always this chaotic around here?"

"Not really," Dier said casually.

"This is the boundary between our Kingdom of Arius and the Kingdom of Bode. It was already a chaotic place to begin with. Some Savage Tribes lived here, along with large numbers of criminals and bandits who had fled here over the years, making it very difficult to manage. But although it was chaotic in the past, it was still fairly stable. With the noble forces led by Count Polia stationed here, these desperadoes did not dare act recklessly."

"But lately, as you know, the war at the front has fallen into a deadlock, and none of the nobles can spare any manpower. So these people have started getting restless, each one wanting to head south and loot."

Dier sighed and slowly explained the situation to Arthur beside him.

"I understand." Arthur smiled gently, sat down directly beside him, then drew his Cross Sword and wiped the blood from it with a clean cloth.

After a while, a guard suddenly walked up to Arthur and respectfully reported, "Lord Arthur, someone outside wishes to see you."

Arthur turned and looked into the distance before saying, "Let him come over directly."

The guard behind him nodded respectfully and quickly walked away. Before long, a middle-aged hunter came to Arthur's side.

The hunter wore a thick fur robe and carried a large cloth sack in one hand. With a humble smile on his face, he stood quietly before Arthur.

Before Arthur, he opened the large cloth sack in his hand. Inside were several green snakes.

They were Green-eyed Snakes. There appeared to be more than a dozen in the sack. To avoid their venom, the heads of these Green-eyed Snakes had already been cut off and placed separately in another small bag.

Arthur's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly as he looked at the Green-eyed Snakes.

The Green-eyed Snakes had not yet been washed, and a strange foul odor came from them. Moreover, among the dried green snake blood were traces of dried red blood, which Arthur quickly noticed.

That was a serious problem. It meant someone had been bitten while catching these snakes, and their blood had splattered onto the snake bodies. Given the venom of the Green-eyed Snake, a single bite meant death for an ordinary person, with no chance of survival.

And the loss of one laborer was nearly a devastating blow to the family behind them.

Thinking of this, Arthur sighed inwardly.

There was nothing he could do to change this situation, nor did he wish to change it.

Whatever their original reasons, since these people had chosen to take the risk, they should have been mentally prepared for such a possibility. Whatever the final outcome, it was their own choice.

He took a prepared money pouch from the side and tossed it directly to the hunter opposite him. Without saying anything more, he signaled for the man to leave.

The middle-aged hunter still wore that humble expression. Secretly weighing the pouch in his hand, he was immediately delighted and hurriedly departed with respectful thanks.

After he left, some time passed before Arthur stood up, picked up the cloth sack full of Green-eyed Snakes, and walked to one side.

He removed the Snake Stones from the snake meat, then had the meat washed clean and taken aside for processing.