Chapter 135: Never Thought I’d See You Again.

Chapter 135: Chapter 135: Never Thought I’d See You Again.

Chapter 135: Never Thought I’d See You Again.

The first was a human woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, dressed in ragged clothing that had clearly seen better days, while her tired expression and the dark circles beneath her eyes suggested that she hadn’t been getting much rest.

Her black hair had become messy, and although she was sitting quietly inside the cage, there was a faint trace of fear in her violet eyes as she watched the men moving around the encampment.

Osborne immediately recalled the description provided by Black Ledger, and after comparing the woman’s appearance with the information he had received, he became fairly certain that she was the missing person he had been searching for.

’Black hair and violet eyes, around age twenty.’

He carefully observed her for a little longer, making sure that he hadn’t mistaken her for someone else, before finally reaching a conclusion.

’Looks like I’ve found my target.’

He had spent almost an entire day following the scent left behind by the torn fabric, and although the journey had been more troublesome than he had expected, it seemed that his efforts had finally paid off.

Still, he wasn’t going to celebrate just yet, since finding the woman was only the first part of the problem, and he still needed to figure out how to get her out of the encampment without allowing the bandits to surround them.

However, before he could consider his next move, his attention shifted toward the cage beside the woman’s.

Inside it was a creature he could never forget, no matter how much time passed.

A large shadow leopard with a white coat, blue markings, and golden eyes stared back at him from behind the iron bars, its body resting quietly against the side of the cage as though it had grown tired of struggling.

Osborne didn’t know how to react. To think the beast had sensed his gaze from that far away.

Osborne stared at the beast for several moments, finding it difficult to believe that he had encountered it again under such unexpected circumstances.

’What the hell is that thing doing here?’

He remembered the encounter clearly, since the creature had attacked him while he was gathering Moonlight Grass, using its strange ability to disappear into the shadows and reappear somewhere else to launch sudden attacks.

Although he had managed to avoid being seriously injured, the creature had been fast enough to catch him off guard, and he had been unable to understand why it had suddenly retreated instead of continuing its attack.

At the time, he had assumed that the leopard had simply decided the battle wasn’t worth the risk, but seeing it locked inside a cage now raised a few new questions.

Had the bandits managed to capture it after it left the forest clearing, or had they been the ones responsible for bringing it into the forest in the first place?

More importantly, how had they managed to capture a demonic beast that possessed such a troublesome ability?

Osborne’s expression grew thoughtful as he examined the cage, wondering whether the bandits had some method of suppressing the creature’s abilities or whether they had simply been lucky enough to catch it when it was injured.

Regardless, he now had another reason to be cautious, since the presence of the shadow leopard suggested that the bandits might possess more resources than he had initially expected.

For the moment, however, his main concern remained the missing woman, and he turned his attention back toward her cage while considering the best way to approach the situation.

Osborne rested his chin against his hand, watching the men below as he considered his options, and after a brief moment, he finally settled on a plan.

’First, I need to get her out of that cage without making the entire camp come after us.’

---

"What in heaven’s name?"

One of the men sitting near the campfire suddenly jerked upright when he noticed smoke rising in the distance, his eyes widening slightly as he tried to determine where it was coming from.

At first, he assumed that someone had started another fire near the edge of the encampment, but when he looked more closely, he realised that the smoke was rising from the direction of the wooden wall.

"Hey, what’s that over there?"

His sudden shout caught the attention of the other men sitting around the campfire, and several of them turned to look in the direction he was pointing, only to discover that flames were beginning to spread along a section of the wooden wall.

Before anyone could figure out how the fire had started, the flames grew larger, quickly eating through the dry wood and sending more smoke into the night sky.

"What are you all waiting for?! Someone get some water and put that out now!"

The man who had first noticed the fire scrambled to his feet, shouting at the others as he rushed toward the burning wall, while the remaining men hurriedly got up and began looking for buckets or anything else they could use to carry water.

The sudden commotion spread throughout the encampment, and even those who had been wandering around without anything to do began running about in search of water, while a few others rushed toward the nearest shelter to retrieve tools that might help them control the flames.

"Move your asses, you idiots! If that fire spreads any further, the boss is going to skin us alive!"

"Where the hell are the buckets?!"

"Someone get more water from the stream, and make sure nobody lets the fire reach the shelters!"

The men shouted at one another as they scrambled to put out the flames, their earlier laziness disappearing as they realised how much trouble they would be in if the fire destroyed part of the encampment.

With so many people rushing toward the burning wall, nobody paid much attention to the cages on the opposite side of the camp, and the few men who remained nearby were too busy watching the commotion to notice anything unusual.

Meanwhile, along the wooden wall near the cages, a hot, searing blade silently pierced through the thick planks.