Trap

'If I'm a bad leader then I should give them at least option to leave me now.'

"It's not too late to leave with them. I won't be angry if you either leave now with them or will take the money that belongs to you. I will take care of the bandits."

After hearing what John had to say Thomas started to hesitate and after a while choosed what to do.

"I don't know what to do anymore John. One side of me wants to just turn around and leave but I know how heavy will be your burden if we will leave"

"You don't need to worry about me. I can survive on my own and I have Emma too. I will leave this room now and you can talk about it with Grace and Clara"

After leaving the room Grace was first to tell him what she thinks about it, surprising Thomas.

"I think we should leave. He is really scary. Do you remember the time when you all asked me to go and check how is his plan going when he killed the first bandit? When I looked there I saw him stabbing this bandit time and time again like a maniac! We should take his money, lay low and leave."

"But we were both through tough times! How can I leave him now!"

"Didn't he said that he will be okay? It surely will be like this."

"Then what's your opinion, Clara?"

"I think we should leave him."

"What? Why?"

"Can't you see it? He is forcefully trying to persuade us to leave since the moment Leo left. It seems that he will feel better if we just leave him be."

"Sigh, if it's really like this then we will do it your way. We will get a bit of money from him and leave. He helped us for long enough. I really can't force myself to kill someone again. While I was fighting in my village I didn't felt it but here I know this was wrong no matter how bad our enemies were."

"Don't worry John is a mage, he will be fine"

"Alright, it's decided then."

After walking out of the room Thomas made this short.

"We will leave, how much money do you have?"

"I have 16 bronze coins"

"All right, give us 9 bronze coins and keep 7"

"We will do it this way then."

After handing 9 bronze coins to Thomas both sides bid goodbye and John started silently as they disappeared from his sight. After getting back to his room he punched the wall with his all might.

"Fuck!"

'I can't even keep a bunch of kids safe and lead them out of trouble. Weren't transmigrators always smoothly finding subordinates that will risk their lives for them any time they will want them to?'

"Where are others?"

John suddenly remembered that he wasn't alone in this room.

"They left and won't come back"

"W-Will my sister come back?"

"No, she won't, she told me to take care of you before she gave you to me."

Hearing that she won't be able to see her sister again Emma started crying. John decided to leave her like this and let her cry for a while.

'I shouldn't have taken her in. I don't know how to take care of children but to let her stay inside the forest would be even more unreasonable. As for Thomas, God knows what he planned to do after he left. If I have behaved better at least most of them would have stayed with me! But how can they blame me so much for trying to lead them out of trouble? They are really ungrateful. We will see how you will feel when I will be standing at the top while they will be living their peaceful lives at the bottom. Didn't I sweater that I will use this life? How can I be using my full potential if I won't risk some things? I should just forget about them and just look into the future rather than the past.'

John finally accepted the fact that his friends left him alone and understood that if he wants to become powerful he needs to be ready to endure many hardships.

"Alright Emma, you should stop crying already. Crying won't help you. Now lay down and I will tell you a story from my village to let you easier fall asleep."

John said to Emma in a consoling tone and started telling her as a story about the ants and the grasshopper.

"And that's why planning for the future is important."

Thomas said at the end but Emma was already asleep.

'Come to think of it she sleeps often and for a long time. At least she won't bring me more trouble.'

After confirming that Emma is asleep once again John left their room in the direction of the bakery. While he was just about to knock on the door he suddenly turned around only to see a group of people walking in his direction.

'It's a trap!'

John instantly understood what was going on and saw that all his escape routes were cut off.

"Haha, kid, just surrender! Do you think that no one will see you buying bread here every day? Now that we caught you alone you will kindly show us where the rest of your friends is."

'I need to move fast! If they will all come closer I won't stand a chance but know that they are blocking all paths I have hope. Now I need to think how I can run away from them. Think John, think. I have an idea! If it won't work then I'm dead already but I need to give it a try.'

As the bakery was a popular place there were five ways to get there. Two were behind it and three were in front. Bandits stood in groups of two in each. John showed horrified expression on his face and turned around running behind the house already expecting his way to be blocked but when he saw two bandits he purposely fell to the ground. Seeing this, bandits defending one of the entrances quickly started moving in his direction with smiles on their faces.

'That's it!'

As soon as John saw it he let out a sigh of relief and quickly used the same trick that didn't work against their leader - creating a small obstacle just before their feet. This time his enemies weren't mages and fell for it. Seeing that he was about to succeed John quickly got up and while they were down and he was running beside them he bent down quickly and stabbed the closer one to him with his dagger. He didn't have time to precisely choose where to stab because of the lack of time ao he just jabbed the back of his enemy and started to run.

"You little scum! Come back!" Seeing what happened everyone started chasing John while cursing at him.

'Where can I go now? I need to quickly find a place where I can bet but they don't or else they will catch up to me. If it was before I would've run in the direction of guards but when I saw how easy they are to bribe I won't put my hopes on them. Wait! I have an idea.'

John suddenly turned to his right and then did it again so that bandits couldn't see him, bent down and then created the same trap as before again.

'If it worked once, why shouldn't it work twice?'

John got up and while running further away thought to himself with his lips slightly curved upwards.