Night finally overtook the road-building expedition. The thick darkness forced the merchant caravan to halt their wagons and set up an emergency camp by the roadside. They would resume their journey at sunrise the next morning.
In the middle of the camp, a bonfire danced, cutting through the chill of the night air.
I sat silently on a weathered log among several merchants and workers who were speaking in low voices. The flames cast a dim, flickering light over the tired faces around me. But my thoughts were nowhere near their conversation.
Behind me, inside the dark canvas enclosure of the wagon, Tywin was already fast asleep. The weight of the day had been too much for his small body.
I made sure not to sit too far from the wagon, keeping the boy within my range of sight.
Slowly, the night grew deeper.
The conversations around the bonfire faded one by one until they disappeared altogether. The merchants extinguished their small torches and shuffled off to sleep beneath the folds of the wagon tarps.
Now, I was the only one still holding out in front of the shrinking flames.
At a somewhat distant corner of the camp, a hired guard appeared to be leaning lazily against a wooden post with his arms crossed, his eyes occasionally drooping with sleep.
The night's silence felt too thick.
Only the chirping of crickets and the rustle of leaves stirred by the cold wind remained.
Then... my battle instincts suddenly froze.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
There was subtle movement beyond the darkness of the forest stretching directly beside our camp. The sounds of nocturnal insects in a certain area abruptly stopped.
Someone was spying on this place.
More precisely, they were spying on me.
Without wasting words or making any startling movement, I reflexively shifted my position.
My fingers moved silently but surely, gripping the hilt of the longsword at my waist. My body settled into a full fighting stance, ready to explode into battle if that shadow leaped out to attack.
Soft footsteps pressed into the dry leaves.
From behind the dense shadows of the trees, a man calmly stepped out. He was tall and lanky, wearing a shabby coat that fluttered gently in the night wind. The man stopped a few steps away, right at the edge of the bonfire's glow.
"Sir Cassian Aethelgard."
His voice was low, yet it cut through the night's silence with startling clarity.
My expression froze like stone.
"You've mistaken me for someone else, sir. I'm only an ordinary traveler."
The tall man offered an inscrutable smile. He slowly shook his head.
"Pretending not to know won't change the facts, Sir," he whispered flatly.
"Besides... your current situation is already a long way from safe."
Ssst...
I shifted my thumb, pushing the sword guard aside until the gleaming steel of my longsword protruded two inches from its scabbard. The cold scrape of metal murmured through the night air. I prepared to draw it fully if the situation suddenly worsened.
"Relax," the tall man said quickly, raising both hands open at chest level.
"If my goal were to arrest you or take your head, I wouldn't have walked openly toward you like this."
I did not lower my guard in the slightest. My eyes stared straight through his.
"I'm on the boy's side," the tall man continued, his tone suddenly serious.
The admission trembled in the air, but I remained silent, listening to every nuance of his voice while calculating the possibilities. Coincidences like this were too poisonous in a world full of betrayal.
My eyes flicked briefly toward the darkness of the forest behind him.
"If you truly mean well... then why are your other companions still hiding in that darkness?"
My trained instincts could not be deceived.
I could feel at least several other pairs of eyes watching from behind the dense trees, holding their breath and gripping their weapons.
The tall man chuckled softly.
He offered no answer or explanation for his companions' presence behind the bushes. He merely crossed both arms beneath his coat and looked at me with enigmatic eyes.
"We'll talk more later."
"I'll meet you again in Harold City."
Harold City—a fortified city located at the very end of this dirt-road route. It was the main stop and destination the merchant caravan would pass through before leaving the Kingdom of Asr.
Without waiting for my answer, the tall man turned away. His light footsteps merged once more with the forest's deep darkness, and he vanished without a trace alongside his hidden companions.
I stood motionless beside the bonfire, my fingers still gripping the sword hilt so tightly that my knuckles had turned white.
The cold night air swept across my face, damp with a cold sweat.
My logic fiercely rejected the stranger's words. In the rotten, bloody world of kingdom politics, trust was deadly. To regard a mysterious figure in the middle of the night as an ally was foolishness that could cost us our lives in an instant.
And yet... if what he had said was true, if there truly were still factions or loyal followers standing on Ashford's side... then that meant there was a faint glimmer of hope for Tywin's safety.
Though for now... that hope felt utterly impossible.