Returning

The dead bodies were stabbed a couple more times in order to make the battle look more desperate than it actually was.

The carnage left behind by Ki, Rayleigh and Lumi was going to be noticed eventually and it was not too good to be connected to it.

It was time for them to step back out of the open and portray themselves as weaker than they actually were.

The people chosen as a final enemy to fight were not too strong so they could have been killed very easily without any use of tricks.

If there was no movement from them at all before their deaths then it would only show that the battle ended in a one sided struggle without any resistance or chance to do so.

The footsteps in the snow showed that two groups approached each other and one side came out of it alive.

Several killing blows and additional injuries caused to the dead were far from the precise swordsmanship any of them had shown so far.

Each wound inflicted showed a lack of skill involved and that there was more than one blow before landing a killing blow.

Several stabs into the body could suggest that the three girls had been fearful of the enemy getting back up or that they were new to killing which resulted in them frantically stabbing the bodies until they snapped out of their state realising they had killed.

Blood was spilled onto their clothing which showed how they landed the killing blows at a close range while the bodies laying not too far away from the place the footsteps had met had shown that the battle itself did not last long.

If the enemy let their guard down when confronted with three females they thought could not put up a fight against them then that was what a lot of the surrounding evidence had shown followed by a quick struggle at a close range.

It was not too long before the three girls were found near the bodies hugging together for warmth and very frightened by the whole ordeal they had underwent.

The story they told was that they had met up together and hid themselves for a lot of the time.

They were able to gain some weapons from the dead bodies they came across.

During their time trying to find a safer location to hold up in, they came across a smaller group of enemies who tried to capture them.

Luckily they had already been on guard with their weapons hidden and were able to seize an advantage that had saved their lives in the process.

It created the narrative of a young lady of a merchant family from a foreign land surviving a dangerous situation whether it was thanks to the help of her loyal subordinates and a little cleverness while adding in some luck within it.

Even if some could suspect Ki and the others of being involved with the many killings that took place, there was no real proof to support such claims.

Even if someone like Darius was able to figure it all out, there was no real benefit in him making such information public knowledge when there would be few that would believe that Ki and the others were capable of such feats at a young age.

Unless the people of the capital wished to offend the Bombyx family right in the middle of an important business deal and tried to force a public duel of some kind to try to expose her to the public eye then everything was best left alone.

The only true way for everyone to believe that Ki and the others were capable of such feats was to show their true power in a public battle.

If a battle happened as they wanted then it may not even work in their favour since Ki could just put up a weak fight before conceding the fight.

Another excuse to evade such a challenge was to use her status as the heir to the Bombyx family to protect her or to rely on her status as a pampered young lady that could not match up to the warriors of the Northern Lands.

Once Darius had found them, he lead them towards finding the dogs that had been let loose and gathered other things on the mountain.

Once Ki had returned back to the city, she bowed towards Darius once again expressing her gratitude. "I thank you for saving us. The Bombyx family will surely repay you for this."

Darius gave her a stern look for a moment watching her leave, his expression did not change much until she was gone.

His expression became complicated once the three young ladies had disappeared from his sight. 'With this the Bombyx family should still hopefully wish to maintain business with the Capital but with this recent event, no more can happen unless we wish to have everything fall apart.'

He may have taken the words of the prince into account about the Bombyx family but he had a feeling that the Bombyx families business in the Northern Lands had a lot to do with Ki.

If Ki had been lost in the mountains then it was unknown if the trading would be able to continue even if there was a new successor appointed following Ki's death.

Ki had played a major role in making a lot of the business in the Northern Lands take shape and it was usually her or others who stepped past the borders in order to handle any important negotiations.

There was rarely any other time when the Bombyx family had ever stepped beyond the borders into the Northern Lands or done business with anyone from beyond the borders.

The Bombyx family did have relationships with Northern Lands merchants and traders that travelled through the borders and had kept some relationships throughout the years enough to have some way for others to learn about their past relationships with the Northern Lands.

Nothing ever went beyond that kind of trade before for the Bombyx family and the Northern Lands until several years earlier.

Ki's coming of age happening in the Capital of the Northern Lands was another reason why Darius was able to make such a conclusion.

Usually heirs could be replaced and it would not affect relationships or deals between families or organisations but that all depended on whether the next heir had the same goals and motivations.

Darius did not have the confidence that any of the other children of the Bombyx family would have an interest towards the Northern Lands since he had never met them.

Ki had already shown interest in their culture during her coming of age so it showed that she was invested in the Northern Lands more than others.

Even her mother and father had rarely shown interest in most things in the Northern Lands while only staying at the place they were living in during the time of their stay.

As he thought more clearly about such things, he had come to realise further that despite having some suspicions about how Ki and the others had survived on the mountain, he could not pry any further.

Having the Bombyx family heir caught up in such an event was already something that could affect the relationship and the business that was being built in the Capital.

That relationship was saved due to Ki living and being known to be saved by Darius and escorted back to safety.

If he did something to try confirm whatever suspicions he had then it would risk breaking whatever relationships and business that had been linked between the Bombyx family and the Northern Lands.

Seeing himself in such a situation, he knew that he had to just accept things for how they were and walked away pushing aside whatever slight suspicious points he had in his mind.