Moon's lie

Escort

Alon pulled the sword out from one of the corpses and pointed it towards the bandit's leader at the very back.

The leader of the pack just smiled nonchalantly to Alon's provocation and commanded, "Bring me his head, Scar."

Hearing their leader's command the rest of the bandits slowly retreated along with their horses, leaving only one man facing Alon.

Scar jumped down his horse and started walking toward Alon.

Neither Alon nor Scar said a single word, other than staring daggers at one another.

Scar wielded two daggers in each of his hands and dashed towards Alon, with speed neither fast nor slow.

Alon wielded the sword with two hands and firmly rooted himself to the ground.

He raised his sword high, now pointing the sword to the sky.

Scar was just about to reach Alon, but he felt suffocated for some reason as he got nearer.

Before he himself realized it, he had completely come to a halt and was now looking at the sword pointing at the sky.

The sword was now falling, like a star abandoning the high heavens.

*Slice*

A clean, red line could be found on Scar's body, reaching from his head to the ground.

Blood spurted out from Scar's body as his body slowly divided in two.

Silence descended and no one dared to move or utter a single sound. 

Scar one of their strongest had died without even being able to put up a fight.

A few breaths passed in silence.

"L…Leader."

One bandit called out in shock.

Alon turned and looked at the bandit who had just spoken. He thought that the bandit must be scared by his display of power, and asking their leader to take action.

But when he looked at where the leader was standing, his eyes widened.

The leader's body was now laying on the ground in two pieces, just like Scar's. The leader's corpse had eyes wide open in death as though he found his end ridiculous.

Alon was shocked as well, now that he was looking at the line on the ground reaching to where the leader's corpse lay.

"Your leader just amounted to this much, huh? Dying even though the attack wasn't directed at him." Alon said in a triumphant tone shamelessly.

"R...Run."

All the bandits ran for their lives ditching their horses and scattered in different directions. So did the horses.

Alon did not give chase but rather filled his lung with air and yelled, "I'll let you all live this time, but if you keep doing such work, we might meet again."

He knew that such declaration was as good as being pointless, but he still believed that at least a few would heed his warning and take this chance to wash their hands off of dirty work.

After all the bandits had escaped, Alon was still looking at Scar's and the leader's corpse, he still found such a coincident ridiculous and somewhat funny.

He recovered his gaze from the two corpses and looked towards the girls in the cage who had their eyes tightly shut.

He smiled gently, feeling a bit relieved that he had decided to save them. But he still did not tell them to open their eyes, the scene was too gruesome.

Alon snapped his finger and a small flame danced on top of his index finger, the flame seemed so weak and frail that it would go out with the next wind, but Alon had a satisfied smile on his face.

He set the corpses on fire after taking their items and storing them in the ring that Moon left when he disappeared.

When the weak flame touched the bodies, the bodies turned into ashes in mere seconds, no, not even the ashes were left behind.

"You can open your eyes," Alon said gently but still did not take off his 'mask'.

The girls slowly opened their eyes. They looked around to evaluate their situation.

When they did not find any bandits around, the girls started to cry.

Alon felt bad but also relieved.

But there was one girl that was not crying; instead, she was looking sharply at him. He felt a bit baffled but walked toward the cage anyway.

"You all are free now." He now changed his tone while addressing them. He turned around to leave but remembered he had come to rescue the boy's sister. Before he could turn back around...

"Wait, you don't really think that saving us from the bandits and then leaving us in the middle of the forest is really 'saving us', right?" The girl with the sharp gaze questioned.

Alon turned around at 'her words'.

"Do you want me to babysit you then perhaps?" Alon said coldly.

The girl flinched by the cold reply, her eyes grew a bit nervous but she still said, "Escort us to Likon town; I'll take care of the other girl's from thereon. I'll pay you handsomely if you agree."

*Neigh*

The two horses that had collapsed on the ground whined weakly and got up trying to run. Unfortunately, they were still roped to the cage.

Alon looked at the horses and asked the girls in the cage, "Does anyone of you know how to ride a horse?"

He regretted it as soon as he said that.

'How could these girls know something like that?' He thought to himself.

But contrary to his thought, five girls raised their hands.

Beneath his mask, his jaw dropped a little. But he soon composed himself.

"O...Okay, I'll escort you till we get there." Alon said as he opened that cage.

The girl with a sharp gaze and one other who raised her hand walked out of the cage.

"You did not raise your hand before." Alon said with his back to the girl with the sharp gaze and asked, "What's your name?"

"Tess." The girl replied while patting the horse.

Alon no longer said anything and walked toward the girl at the back of the cage.

"We have to pick up your brother on the way, Dari. So cheer up a little." Alon said gently and hopped on top of the cage and sat down.