Sabotage

At night time, Border Town...

"Greyhound, Brian! You have nowhere to run you dogs! I am still feeling irritated by your betrayal Greyhound...Did you accept my proposal with the plan of betraying me later right from the beginning?" There were several people inside the Border Town castle's granary. All of them were wearing patroling squad' armors.

2 of them were lightly injured but their injuries were in inconvenient places, hindering their combat ability.

"W-What if I did?! You must have gone mad if you are actually trying to sabotage His Highness, Fierce Scar!" A guard named Greyhound said while pressing his palm against his injured shoulder.

'Shit, we are in a disadvantageous position here, we are both injured and there is more of them despite Greyhound killing one of them when they discovered me following them! We really should have informed His Highness instead of trying to solve it on our own but it's not like it is Greyhound's fault...Even His Highness said that we should accept their proposal in case it comes to it just to preserve our lives. I should have gone ask for help but I was too worried about Greyhound and thought that we can take care of them if we use the element of surprise but I guess they always had their guard on against him since he is a local.' The guard named Brian thought while standing next to Greyhound, looking around for any possible solution to their trouble.

"Fierce Scar! Your plan won't succeed because Your Highness already knows about your plans." Brian shouted with a smile on his lips.

"Haha! That mad prince who is planning to mindlessly fight demonic beasts is aware of our plans? Don't make me laugh. If he knows then why can't I see him nor any of his knights here?" One of Fierce Scar's companions started laughing and mocking Roland.

Hearing his words both Brian and Greyhound clenched their teeth while glaring at their enemies because they knew it was their fault for Roland not being aware that it is tonight.

'His Highness predicted everything and even set me up to spy on them yet I fucked it up!'

*Creak*

"Who is there?!" Hearing the sudden sound of large double doors opening behind them, Fierce Scar turned around and shouted while pointing his sword at the only exit from Granary.

*Knock* *Knock* "May we join the fun?" 2 hooded figures appeared in the doorway and one asked while knocking on the opened door while leaning against the door frame. Obviously, the 2 hooded figures were Roland and Nightingale

"Who the hell are you?" One of Fierce Scar's companions asked, feeling that Brian's words might not have been said just to scare them.

"I heard someone calling me so I got up from my bed and quickly ran here." Roland said with crossed arms, still not revealing his face.

Brian wanted to make use of their temporary distraction but Roland's words made him stop and think about them more deeply.

"Don't make fun of us and get the hell out of our escape route!" One of them rushed at Roland.

Roland stopped leaning against the door frame and took a few steps inside the Granary. The man who charged at him slashed his sword vertically, trying to cleave Roland in half. Roland just turned his entire body to the side, making the sword miss him by a few inches before he quickly and precisely slashed the man's neck and putting his leg in front of his legs, knocking him down in the process.

'?! What a skill and speed!' Both Brian and Greyhound thought before they were suddenly knocked out from behind.

Everyone was so surprised by what has happened that they didn't even notice the fact that the second hooded figure already disappeared.

"Even though I know very little about swordplay, I can tell that your form is sloppy...No wonder you decided to plot against me instead of fighting against demonic beasts." Roland said coldly before taking his hood off.

"You are... the fourth prince?!" Fierce Scar said with a dumbfounded expression but he was quickly brought back to reality as he heard his companions falling on the ground with their necks slit.

"W-What is going on?!" Fierce Scar shouted with fear plastered over his face, dropping his own sword on the ground.

Suddenly Nightingale with her hood down appeared out of thin air right next to Roland.

"...You didn't even leave 1 more for me? You are pretty greedy." Roland said in a joking manner.

"W-Witch!" Fierce Scar shouted with a frightened expression while pointing his shaking finger at Nightingale.

*Clap* *clap* "I am surprised by your vast knowledge, Hills Medde. It would never occur to me that a woman who can appear out of nowhere is actually a witch. Thank you for warning me!" Roland said with a smile but Nightingale hit his side with her elbow for fooling too much.

"Y-You are not the fourth prince! He has never learned how to fight and your fighting skills aren't inferior to the knights. That means...witches gained control over the entire town! Once the church gets wind of this, it will be the end for this town!" Fierce Scar tried to put on a brave face.

Upon hearing his words, Nightingale glanced at Roland, thinking that his fighting skills are too refined for a prince of his reputation.

'...His fighting skills are very similar to the assassins, he uses subtle movements to get out of harm's way just to save stamina on attacking. Well, if he truly isn't the original fourth prince, who am I to complain as long as he treats witches nicely. Even Anna said that when His Highness took her in, she was shocked at how different he is from the rumors.' Nightingale thought, trying to gauge what is truly Roland's goal in a long run.

"Yeah? And who am I, a witch? Do you see this God's Stone of Retaliation, I can't be a witch or devil. Anyway, the church won't be coming here because the rumors won't be coming to them, at least certainly not from your mouth." Roland said before throwing the God's Stone of Retaliation to Hills' feet.

"Y-You want to kill me?! I have a noble relative in Longsong Stronghold, they can pay my ransom. Killing me will only draw the wrath of Longsong Stronghold on you!" Hills said without even using Roland's title of the prince.

'Threatening me in such a situation?' Roland narrowed his eyes.

"No, I won't kill you. I will let the people decide what to do with you. I am pretty sure you offended a lot of people in the tavern and perhaps also forced some women to have your way with them, you will see how it feels to have your fate in someone else's hands. Especially those you have offended and suppressed with your social status." Roland said with a sadistic cold smile.

"Y-You can't do this! I am a noble, you can't let commoners decide my fate!!!" Hill's face distorted in both anger and fear.

"And you can't tell me what I can do and not!" Roland sheathed his daggers and dashed at Hills.

Hills glanced down at the sword on the ground before looking in front of him just to see Roland's fist already in front of his face.

*bam* "Agh!!" Hills squealed while holding his bloody nose and rolling on the ground.

Roland quickly knocked him out with the hilt of his dagger.

"Are you sure about this? He will tell everyone that you are hiding a witch in your castle." Nightingale asked.

"He is too important for me to kill him right now. Do you think others will believe his words when I tell them that he tried to set the granary afire. This will cause people to become even angrier and once the months of the demon pass, everyone will follow me to punish nobles of Longsong Stronghold. And it will also be good if it creates some rumors. With the current season, those rumors won't travel far but some witches who have nowhere to hide might come here for my help. The Church is simply too far away, when the rumors reach them, they will first send someone to confirm the rumors, in that time...I will be ready" Roland explained with a faint smile.

"That was quite risky, what would you do if we were too late? It didn't look like those 2 would be capable of defeating them. I guess even if your plans and predictions are perfect, it's useless without skilled people to carry them out." Nightingale said in a teasing tone while inspecting Brian and Greyhound's wounds.

"You think so?" Roland asked in a mysterious tone which prompted Nightingale to raise her eyebrow while looking at him with a questioning gaze.

"Look into those 2 unsealed barrels and then unseal some of them at the back and look into them." Roland said, taking Nightingale's place to look at his men's wounds.

Nightingale was intrigued so she went to look at the close unsealed barrels and saw them being half-filled with grain. She threw a confused look at Roland before moving at the back to unseal some random barrels.

"...Is this- sawdust?" Nightingale muttered after seeing a barrel filled with sawdust and a thin layer of grain at the top.

"I switched everything just in case something like this would have happened...If you wouldn't have been here to warn me, they would have succeeded but not much. People would quickly wake up and extinguish the fire before it would spread out but only a little bit of food would be wasted. Still, I would lose 2 loyal men which would hurt much more than losing some food." Roland said, and even though they failed at their given task, they tried their best to protect the "food" from Hills' plot. Mistakes can be made which is why Roland thought of countermeasures but losing two loyal men right before the months of the demon where he will need every healthy man, would hurt him a bit.

'Even if he is not the original fourth prince...maybe it is for the best. Maybe he really can change this world.' Hearing his words, Nightingale couldn't help but form a warm smile while looking at him.

"Their wounds are not life-threatening but it would be great if you could fetch Nana to treat them as soon as possible." Roland said while taking off their armor.

"Consider it done, Your Highness" Nightingale bowed with her knees bent while keeping her hand to her heart, replying in a teasing tone.

"Stop that, we are past that...You even occasionally sit down on my desk at my office." Roland rolled his eyes and Nightingale giggled before disappearing.

'I should give her some gift for constantly helping me like this. This time she helped me save 2 lives. I wonder what she would like...maybe I could give her a gun but I am not sure if she would appreciate it. Maybe asking Anna might be better, after all, she is a woman just like Nightingale. Then again, I wouldn't want her to misunderstand my intentions...' Roland thought really hard as some steam started escaping from his ears.

'How hard it must be choosing a gift for your girl when I can't even choose an appreciation gift.' Roland felt dizzy just from thinking about gifts