Hero of Harmony (Continued)

Chapter 292: One Chance

Following behind Lazuli, we jogged through the forest, passing the spot where I had initially found the woman before eventually reaching the edge of the forest a few minutes later, where an intense smell of iron filled the air. Exiting the forest with Lazuli, I slightly widened my eyes when I saw what she was referring to.

On the dirt path, there was a broken carriage on fire, yet even so, the carriage was far fancier than one I had ever seen; even the ones owned by nobles couldn't compare to it; however, surrounding the carriage were numerous corpses. Most of the corpses were comprised of guards or soldiers wearing a specific type of armor, probably to display their rank, and there were also a few corpses with different armor.

Yet, alongside the soldiers, there were these people who looked like assassins, wearing dark clothes and a cloak that granted them a decent level of invisibility; upon closer inspection, each assassin had a tattoo engraved on their wrist of a weirdly shaped dagger, with three additional spikes jutting out from the blade.

"What the hell happened here." "I believe it is pretty obvious, Alex." Remarked Alexander and Lazuli, respectively, as the former stood up with a hardened gaze while the latter continued to observe the scene.

"That was a rhetorical question, Lazuli. It seems someone has learned to be a smart ass." Said Alexander blandly as he glanced at Lazuli, who flashed a faint smirk, causing him to shake his head while smiling.

"Have you already checked the carriage?" Asked Alexander as he carefully stepped between the corpses while approaching the carriage.

"No. I had stayed hidden in the forest." Replied Lazuli lightly as she shook her head and approached Alexander, uncaring whether she stepped on a corpse or not.

With my aptitude for fire mana, I commanded the flames in the carriage to converge into a sphere as I floated it into the air before waving my hand, snuffing it out as I shifted my focus to the carriage. While looking inside, all we saw was a burnt interior; nothing was even remotely useful unless you included the broken pieces of wood that could be used as a weapon.

"Tsk, it seems the fire burned everything." Muttered Alexander with a click of his tongue as he brushed aside some of the ash before shaking his head.

"Maybe there is a hidden compartment in the carriage? The bottom of the portion seems unnaturally thick." Said Lazuli lightly as she backed away while staring at the carriage before looking at Alexander who raised an eyebrow before shrugging his shoulders.

While skeptical about a hidden compartment, I did have to agree the bottom portion seemed to be unnecessarily thick, but then again, I've never built a carriage, so what the hell do I know? Using [Heroes Gaze], I looked at the bottom of the carriage, and to my surprise, there was a small hidden compartment right underneath one of the seats.

"Well, would you look at that, Lazuli? Looks like you're a genius." Said Alexader with a faint smirk as he gestured to Lazuli while lifting the seat and lifting the wooden floorboard, revealing the hidden compartment.

Kissing her on the cheek, I had her grab everything before placing everything back to how it was; after my encounter with Scarloc back in the Dryad Kingdom, I've become very subconscious about my actions, especially when it comes to things I shouldn't be doing, like right now.

With Lazuli carrying everything, I did a quick sweep around the area before nodding as I set the carriage back on fire and walked toward her; oh, I did steal one of the cloaks off of the assassins, though it wasn't for me.

"So, how do I look?" Asked Alexander with a smirk as he lifted the cloak, hiding himself behind it while silently following behind Lazuli, the two entering the forest again.