Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

On the night of the seventh-day Tents were erected in the centre with guards patrolling in a perimeter around the campsite.  Inside one of the wagons lined up in a corner, Jeeves sat in one of the seats; in his hands was a small conch inscribed with many complex runes.

"Initiate the attack, we cannot allow them to travel any further," he said looking towards the conch.

"Tch… don't give me command, I know what I have to do. Since you have already prepared an opening amongst the sentries and guards patrolling the area, I won't be able to call myself a Brigand Master if I can't even exploit that" mysteriously a voice travelled through the conch and sounded out inside the wagon.

"Remember there can be no mistake or else…" a weird glow flashed in Jeeves eyes before he cut the call.

A small distance away from the campsite, in the darkness of the night, Simon and Adalinda who were assigned as guards, patrolled the area. From time to time, he would see other guards or adventurers pass over, similarly patrolling the area.

"Why do I feel like something bad is going to happen from that grin of yours?" he suddenly asked noticing the little girl flashing her pearly white teeth.

"Hehe, get ready to see something interesting, the fun is about to begin" Adalinda said not trying to hide anything.

Simon mused, his line of thought was suddenly disturbed when multiple presences showed up in his detection range. Their appearance was abrupt and swift just like a deadly snake that was hiding in its burrow ready to strike.

With his senses, he could easily tell that their numbers were in the hundreds and even more. However, what confounded Simon was how did this many people manage to approach so close to them without getting detected by the sentries.

"The direction where they are coming from… is assigned to that guy's team" Simon had an amused expression when he realised that they had been had. The area from where these multiple presences were oozing out from, was assigned to Bignosio's team to guard.

BOOOM… a loud explosion rocked the area around the campsite waking the sleepy residents of the tents awake. The explosion also attracted the attention of all the guards and adventurers as they swiftly ran back to the campsite.

Simon did not immediately rush back and instead looked at the little girl with glittery eyes. The expression on her face seemed to display that she was having an absolute blast watching a soap opera.

Shaking his head, he audibly sighed and followed behind the others rushing back to the campsite. All of the members of the convoy at this moment had an ugly expression when they realised that they had been ambushed once again, this time by a group… No, it would be right to say by an army of bandits.

Without even counting, it was clear to everyone that, they were absolutely outnumbered this time.

"Why did nobody inform the camp and issued an alert when this big of a group was approaching? Who was assigned to monitor that area?" the guard commander shouted in a bad mood.

<br/>"Hehe, the guard commander does not need to be so much revved up, it was our team that was monitoring that area" Bignosio said slowly walking out amidst the bandits.

"You?!" all of the people of the convoy showed faces of disbelief when they saw one of the veteran adventurers team walking side by side with the bandits.

"How dare you betray us?" Alvara screamed in frustration.

"Hahaha, there is no point in saying any of that right now. Anyways I have already chosen which side I will stand on. I also want to make this clear to everyone that they should think about this carefully as to which side they should choose to side with. You can already see that we already have a great advantage over you all it is meaningless to fight a battle knowing the final outcome".

Bignosio spread his hands and preached grandly. Hearing his words and looking at the numbers of the bandits encircling them, many people over on the side on convoy started having second thoughts.

Can they even win a fight when they already have such a big numerical disadvantage? Wouldn't their outcome be extremely bad if they were to choose the wrong boat; worse their life might even be forfeited?

During emergencies or during bad times, it was in human nature to choose the best for survival.

"You beast…" Alvara couldn't help but curse when she saw many of the members on their side have their minds swayed by those words.

"Kukuku… I must say you are quite the spiteful man. Swaying the minds of your former comrades to join us instead, can't say that I dislike it" a man wearing a heavy and well-crafted armour standing in front of the bandits said.

He had a thick beard and unkempt brown hair, his body brimmed with muscles and he was a head taller than Bignosio who was beside him. The man was the Brigand Master of this group of bandits and also the strongest man amongst them.

Behind him were two men with lanky builds releasing a strong aura that could overpower any veteran adventurers from the convoy.

"Don't forget out deal, I must be the one to deal the death blow to that man" Bignosio said grinding his teeth in hatred.

"Hahaha… that will not be a problem" the Brigand Master laughed before glancing at his two subordinates.

"Where is that other bastard that killed my men?".

The two subordinates behind him squinted their eyes looking for the perpetrator that had killed two of their Brigand leaders and many subordinates.

"According to the message that Whitman sent before his death, the person was a young man wearing black casual clothes" one of the Bandit leader named Osbin said.

"You nincompoop how will be able to find the person with just the description of his clothes" The Brigand Master barked. At this moment, Bignosio also perked his ears to listen.

"Other than that… Yes, Whitman also said that the man had handsome and striking features" The other bandit leader named Grime chipped in.

The Brigand Master had a somewhat peeved face listening to their description.

"I know who the person you are talking about is…" Bignosio said, although he hated to admit, there was only one person that matched the description on this convoy.

"Heh! I didn't think you would be this useful. So who is this man that has the guts to kill all of my men in their base?" the Brigand Master asked, his voice containing a smear of bloodlust.

"He is the same person that I told you about" the adventurer claimed.

"What?!" the two bandit leaders, Osbin and Grime were startled whereas the Brigand Master narrowed his eyes.

"Heh so it's him, no wonder you are so eager to want to remove him from your sight". He then directed his gaze and surreptitiously threw a glance at the butler who was standing on the side of convoy.

His gaze roamed the members and finally stopped on the two beautiful women, especially the purple-robed one whose charms was enough to make men go crazy. A nefarious flame started to rise within his lower abdomen and an impulse to push those women down spawned in his heart.

"Kukuku, obediently surrender while this master is still feeling generous or else the ending of you lot won't be good. Although the answer is already clear, I'm giving you a few minutes of time to decide which side you should join, after this time limit is over, do not blame my men for going overboard" The Brigand Master licked his lips declaring his intention.

"You!! There is no one here who would discard their pride and submit to a bunch of thieves like you. Those who do so should be ashamed of themselves" Alvara declared while unsheathing her long sword.

However, from her tone, one could see that the guard commander was no longer confident. She was aware that other than the silver guards, the adventurers were only here because they were promised a hefty sum of reward in return. They had no loyalty towards the Miss or the Serene Palace Merchant guild whatsoever.

It wouldn't be a surprise if they chose to stand down in a situation where their lives were threatened. Though she felt nervous, she did not reveal it because she knew better than to show weakness at this crucial point in time.

After what the Brigand Master said, it naturally affected the frame of mind of the adventurers and guards alike; however, unlike the adventurers, the guards were duty bound and employed by the Serene Palace merchant guild.

Therefore even if their heart wanted to surrender they couldn't do it from the fear of suffering the repercussion from the merchant guild.

"Kukuku, we will see about that" the Brigand Master scoffed. He then silently emitted pressure on the members of the convoy as he glared at every one of them. Those that couldn't take the pressure, shifted their gaze away.

Time ticked away little by little; finally, an adventurer who was too tense about losing his life in this scuffle, chose to walk towards the side where the bandits were. 

The action of the adventurers was the straw that broke the camel's back, one by one many adventurers started leaving the side of the convoy. The sounds of their steps was like the beat of a heavy drum as they heavily thumped within the hearts of those remaining.

Within a couple of minutes, the convoy that had more than fifty members initially, was reduced to only the staff, silver guards and a handful of adventurers that chose to stay. The scene caused the guard commander to close her eyes and tighten the grip on her sword.