Besides Avril, there was someone else who witnessed Zhao Si kill the bandits.
He was a deserter too.
At that moment, he was hiding behind a large tree, trembling.
His bald head was conspicuous. He looked young, with a somewhat shifty face.
His name was Patches, and he was a conscripted militiaman.
Patches was still a teenager, but he had already lived on his own for a long time.
As an orphan, he had picked up quite a bit of survival experience through a hard life.
That survival experience was just as useful on the battlefield.
For instance, he did not care about military merit.
The first thing he considered when battle began was how to stay alive. Playing dead, begging for mercy, and stabbing people in the back were his most common tricks.
But no one laughed at him. Staying alive was a skill in itself.
Besides, most of those inclined to laugh at him had died before he did.
Patches thought there was no future in soldiering, especially since he was only a militiaman.
No matter how he figured it, this deal was not worth it.
He wanted to run, but did not dare.
Because he knew that if he was caught deserting, he would certainly be beheaded.
Then the Caria Allied Army led by Radahn suffered a crushing defeat, and Patches's chance came!
At the time, many people fled together in groups. With so many others around, Patches felt more confident.
He blended into the crowd and ran with the stampede.
Survival was still a dead end; the defeated army collapsed like a landslide.
Patches took everything he could carry, then followed some random group as they fled.
It did not matter where they were going. He was a wanderer with no home.
Wherever he wandered was