After being discovered, Zhang Cheng took Leti and began a tense and thrilling escape.
He wasn’t that nervous at first. After all, hadn’t he only tricked them out of two meals, captured a criminal he caught himself, accidentally dug a small hole in the lord’s armory, and knocked out an innocent knight?
Besides that, he was a law-abiding good citizen. No one in this world could point out any crime he had committed here. So was all this fuss really necessary?
But the other side had the numbers and overwhelming power. The leader, Delong, looked unusually agitated, his face flushed with anger and his hair standing on end, which startled Zhang Cheng.
Even more surprising was that Delong charged at him without properly dressing.
Such behavior rarely happened among the etiquette-conscious knights unless it was an emergency of the highest order.
This made Zhang Cheng realize just how urgent and serious the situation was.
Then he heard Delong’s death threat.
Though confused, Zhang Cheng had no choice but to flee in order to survive.
“Who turned you into this? Was it me? But I really don’t know what I did wrong!” Zhang Cheng thought helplessly.
His two legs couldn’t keep up with the four legs under Delong. Even though he tried to head for the narrow paths in the forest, he and Leti were soon steadily being caught up.
“What a joke! If only you’d had this kind of vigor when you went after Leti the day before yesterday, yesterday I wouldn’t have been involved at all,” Zhang Cheng muttered bitterly as he watched Delong close in.
Delong led the charge, leaving the other knights far behind.
Seeing Zhang Cheng, he calmed down, disappointment flashing in his eyes as he glanced at him coldly.
“I once thought you were a respectable inheritor of knightly spirit, but your actions have deeply disappointed me. If you hand over the items now, I might still let you go!”
Delong’s tone grew more urgent by the end, but when he saw the two ignoring his words and quietly communicating in Elven, his expression darkened.
Zhang Cheng turned to Leti and asked, “Did you take anything that doesn’t belong to you? What’s making him so anxious?”
“No,” Leti replied, shaking her head in confusion.
Though she couldn’t understand Delong’s words, through Zhang Cheng’s question, she grasped his meaning.
But as a kind-hearted dark elf, she only took her own weapons and items from the armory and hadn’t touched anything else.
Zhang Cheng was about to respond to Delong when he saw Delong giving attack orders to the knights beside him.
Before Zhang Cheng could speak, he was interrupted, feeling thoroughly annoyed. “What nonsense is Delong up to? Is he serious?”
Unbeknownst to Zhang Cheng, Delong was equally frustrated.
If these knights had arrived a bit later, and Zhang Cheng had agreed to hand over the armor, the whole thing could have been just a misunderstanding.
Now, fearing that Zhang Cheng might reveal the existence of the mithril armor, Delong had to stop him by force.
Seeing no spatial storage on Zhang Cheng’s body, Delong suspected the armor might have been discarded elsewhere.
He could only kill Zhang Cheng and search his corpse and path for clues!
The battle began.
Although Delong’s side had many knights, their attacks were less effective in the forest.
This allowed Zhang Cheng and Leti to rely on the terrain to dodge and maneuver.
Despite several close calls, they narrowly escaped danger each time.
“This can’t go on!” Zhang Cheng thought frantically, searching for a way out.
They were too weak to fight and couldn’t outrun their pursuers.
As their strength waned, they were destined to be slaughtered.
Unlike the rigid skill output in games, knights in the Eternal World trained in the Seven Knight Techniques from childhood.
Among these techniques were javelin throwing and archery—ranged attacks.
Zhang Cheng still had the stamina to avoid and block thrown javelins and arrows.
But Delong was still holding a javelin, ready to throw it.
When Zhang Cheng’s endurance faltered, that javelin would likely be his death.
Still, Zhang Cheng had no good escape plan and continued running through the forest with Leti, silently praying for Lu Qiuchen’s swift return.
Perhaps the +2 Luck ring was at work because the situation soon took a turn.
“My lord!” a knight hurried over, shouting from afar to Delong.
“Your friends have arrived at the castle! But they’ve captured Captain Les and say there’s an urgent matter to see you…”
Delong was startled by the news and withdrew from the battlefield, his attention shifting away from the two fleeing figures.
He suddenly remembered his friend who spoke Elven was about to visit the manor.
But after hearing the knight’s words, his brow furrowed again.
“Why did they capture Les?”
The knight approached, eyes wide as he looked at Delong’s hastily donned mismatched armor.
“Captain Les didn’t give you the armor last night? This…”
Delong twitched at the mention of armor, realizing something was wrong.
He immediately ordered the knight to report everything he knew in detail.
“Just now, your invited friends arrived at the manor.
“But they brought Captain Les, who went to deliver equipment to you last night, saying he betrayed you.
“We couldn’t understand the situation or let them enter the castle, so we immediately informed you.”
The knight quickly relayed what he had learned.
Seeing Delong still wearing mismatched armor, he realized Les’s actions were indeed suspicious.
Delong’s frown deepened as he asked hurriedly, “Did they bring back the armor that Les stole?”
When the knight nodded, Delong felt like his heart had dropped from the sky to the ground.
He relaxed slightly, glancing deeply at Zhang Cheng and Leti, realizing he might have wrongly accused them.
But with things still unclear, Delong was eager to return.
He signaled the knights to cease their attack, regroup, and withdraw back to the manor.
Having sensed the killing intent, Zhang Cheng had stopped holding back earlier.
After multiple skirmishes, only a few were injured.
Leti gave up using poisoned crossbow bolts and switched to wide-area magic to restrain the knights, so no knights had died yet.
The knights felt they could capture the two soon.
Not wanting the blood spilled by their injured comrades to be in vain, they were confused by Delong’s order to withdraw.
Some unrest stirred within the ranks, but Delong’s authority quieted them.
They strictly obeyed and pulled back, leaving Zhang Cheng and Leti standing dumbfounded.
Delong had already forgotten about Zhang Cheng and Leti, his heart burning with urgency as he rode back to the manor.
From a distance, he saw several young people gathered around a carriage, with two warhorses in armored barding nearby.
The youths were curiously inspecting his domain.
These five young men were the former members of the Courage and Justice Adventurer Group, who had once fought side by side in the Kingdom of Tara!
After the upheaval in Druid, they fled the kingdom in haste.
After discussing, they decided to split up temporarily to settle their families, planning to reunite in the Knight Kingdom in a month.
Among them, Trist Wesley was particularly downcast.
His family’s main members had died in Druid, and his land had been occupied by Mors Kingdom’s subsequent invasion.
He had fallen from viscount to commoner, his spirit not in good shape.
Fortunately, the other four’s families hadn’t lived in Druid.
Though their lords had changed or surrendered, their lives now were not much different from before.
Besides informing their families of their survival, they stood as protectors at home, ensuring no one dared bully the elders in their absence.
The warhorses panted as they stopped before the group.
Delong dismounted and immediately saw Phyllis sitting inside the carriage.
She greeted him before pulling back the coarse cloth covering the armor.
Delong saw the recovered silver-white armor beneath and couldn’t help but embrace his long-lost friends warmly.
After greetings, the leader York threw the tightly bound Les from the carriage and recounted their journey.
Recently, the Courage and Justice Adventurer Group had been active in the southwest of the Knight Kingdom.
Upon seeing Delong’s recruitment, recalling their old friendship, they took this mission to meet him.
York had sent Delong a letter en route, which pleased him greatly.
Phyllis, being a scholar and Elven language expert, was a godsend.
Delong had guessed they would arrive at the manor today, saving him the trouble of searching for another mage.
They rushed through the night and coincidentally ran into Les riding frantically in the early morning.
Seeing his panicked expression, the group thought danger was ahead and prepared to stop him for questioning.
Les, feeling guilty and exhausted from fleeing half the night, mistook the blockade for exposure of his plan.
He attacked first, but unexpectedly hit a brick wall.
The group dodged his first attack, thinking he was a bandit disguised as a knight.
After subduing him quickly, they found an unexpected clue that helped Delong immensely.
As Delong’s trusted right hand and captain of the knights, Les had certain privileges.
One night, while slacking off on duty, he climbed to the top of the castle and saw Delong diverting patrolling knights and the armory guards to sneak a guest into the armory late at night.
They only left at dawn.
Curious, Les later used his position to investigate the armory.
He discovered a secret door hidden at the bottom corner of a wall but didn’t dare enter for fear of making noise.
Persistence paid off.
A month ago, while Delong was out hunting, Les feigned illness to take leave but secretly entered the armory.
Moving aside the clutter, he entered the secret passage and saw the mithril armor.
Though not strong, Les had an eye for value.
Knowing mithril’s worth, he immediately planned to steal the armor and escape.
But Les wasn’t reckless; he knew sudden disappearance would get him caught quickly.
So he began preparing an escape plan.
Yet plans never keep up with changes.
Yesterday, a perfect opportunity appeared before his eyes.