Chapter 175: Search Everywhere

I turned my head to the side, watching the boots moving around me. One pair stopped beside the wheel while another paced toward the horses, then came back again. Every step made the cart creak faintly above me, bits of dried mud occasionally falling onto my shirt.

Keeping as still as I could, I shifted my attention to the underside of the cart. Between the thick wooden beams, something immediately caught my eye. One of the planks looked... wrong. It was cut into a neat square, unlike the rest of the underside. The edges were too clean, almost as if it could be pushed inward to unlock some hidden mechanism.

"Shit... there it is."

I carefully reached toward it and pressed the square with my fingertips. It clicked inward exactly as I’d hoped. Relief barely had time to settle before I grabbed the edge, trying to pull it open.

It didn’t budge.

"There has to be some sort of mechanism... shit." I muttered under my breath.

Also, there wasn’t enough room. My arm barely fit between the ground and the cart, and there was nothing to grip. I dug my fingernails into the tiny gap around the panel and pulled again. Nothing. The compartment refused to open, and the cramped space made it impossible to get any leverage.

"Got any food back there?" Mij asked from somewhere above me.

"Work with the wheel, you idiot," the same irritated woman snapped.

"That old man was desperate to grab his bread," the second woman said. I heard cloth rustling before she gave an exaggerated sniff. "Smell this. It’s stale... and is that mold? Desperate for a stale bread, fuck me."

"Hey, everyone’s hungry in this kingdom," Mij replied. "I’d eat shit if it was free."

The old man hadn’t cared about the bread at all. He’d wanted access to this compartment. The bread was probably just covering the release from above. Unfortunately, realizing that didn’t help me much while I was wedged underneath the damn thing. ℴ

"So we’re just going to ignore that branch moving?" another bandit asked.

"Man, some bird took off."

"How fat was the bird? It nearly snapped the branch."

"Focus," the woman barked. "Fix the wheel already before I knock your teeth out."

I clenched my jaw. I couldn’t crawl out without being seen, and I couldn’t stay here forever either. If they finished repairing the cart before I figured this out, I’d lose my chance.

Just then, faint footsteps echoed through the forest. Every voice above me fell silent. Even the scraping of the wheel stopped.

"I’d scouted ahead. It’s safe," a woman’s voice called as she approached. "Let’s move."

"We can’t," the leader answered. "These idiots still haven’t fixed the wheel."

"What, they’re still doing that?" the newcomer groaned. "I’m gonna gouge my own eyes out. Hurry up."

"It’s... it’s..." With one final shove, the wheel suddenly slid into place. Click. Mij burst into laughter. "It’s in! Finally! Told you we’d get it."

"About damn time," the leader muttered. "Enough wasting time. Get moving."

I stayed perfectly still beneath the cart while boots hurried around me. Two sets climbed onto the wagon, making the wooden frame groan under their weight. The remaining bandits mounted their horses, leather saddles creaking as they pulled themselves up.

The horses snorted, the reins cracked and the cart lurched forward.

I counted to three, waiting until the rear axle rolled safely past me. Then I stretched one arm out, caught the back of the wagon with my fingers, and let it drag me forward for a brief moment before pulling myself onto my feet in one smooth motion.

Keeping low, I followed directly behind the cart, crouched so the wagon itself hid me from the riders ahead. It wasn’t moving very fast yet because of the rough forest path, and the horsemen were focused on the trail in front while the two bandits riding the cart argued over whose fault the broken wheel had been.

For the moment, none of them had any reason to look behind them, and that tiny advantage was the only thing keeping me alive.

"Where is it..."

I carefully climbed onto the back of the cart and crouched low. Grabbing the old towel, I pulled it aside and revealed a pile of stale bread underneath. I glanced toward the driver’s seat, thank fuck the two bandits holding the reins hadn’t noticed me yet. Pushing the bread aside, I finally spotted what I had been looking for. One square section of the wooden floor was slightly lighter than the rest. I pressed my palm against it with all my strength until it clicked inward, dropping just enough to reveal a narrow opening beneath the boards. It looked like I had to get down there to grab whatever was inside.

The hidden compartment had to be unlocked now. All I had to do was get back underneath the cart, reach inside, grab the gold, and disappear before anyone noticed. The problem was that the cart had started picking up speed.

"Pick up the pace," one of the riders called from horseback. "We need to be there before nine."

"Alright," the driver replied as he flicked the reins.

Shit.

There wasn’t enough room to hide in the back anymore. Either I followed them on foot until I found another chance, or I risked grabbing the coins while the cart was moving.

I slipped off the rear of the cart and kept pace beside it for a few seconds before grabbing the back rail. Timing my movement, I pulled myself underneath once again. The wood creaked loudly beneath my weight.

"The fuck was that?" one of the bandits asked.

"Check the back."

The horses slowed to a stop. I crawled farther underneath the wagon and reached toward the compartment. The wooden panel was hanging open exactly as I’d hoped. Sliding my arm inside, my fingers brushed against something solid. I grabbed it immediately without checking what it was and willed it straight into my system inventory.

"Fuck! Someone’s under the cart!" a man shouted.

"Kill him!"

A sword punched through the wooden floor above me, the tip stopping inches from my shoulder. I rolled aside just before another blade came down, this one scraping across my shoulder and tearing through my shirt. Ignoring the sting, I kept rolling until I cleared the wagon, then sprang to my feet.

There they were, waiting. All seven bandits.

"Hey," I said with a grin. "And bye."

"After him!"

I bolted into the forest.

Branches whipped against my face as I sprinted between thick trees, my boots hammering against roots and loose dirt. Behind me came the thunder of boots and horses as all seven bandits gave chase.

"There!" one of them yelled. "Don’t let him get away!"

An arrow hissed past my head and buried itself into a tree trunk ahead of me. I veered right without slowing down, ducked beneath a low branch, then vaulted over a fallen log. The swordsmen crashed through the undergrowth behind me while the horse riders struggled to weave between the trees.

One of them hurled an ice shard at me from behind. It struck the ground just a few feet away and shattered on impact.

Too close. Way too close.

I had to shake them somehow, or sooner or later, one of those attacks was going to hit me. And judging by the way they were chasing me, they didn’t look like the kind of bunch that would give up easily.

"Come here, you bastard!" one of them bellowed.

"Stop him!"

"Fuck him up!"

"STOP!"

I veered left again, grabbed the trunk of a thin tree, and used it to swing myself around the corner before continuing deeper into the forest.

The dense trees were working in my favor. Their horses couldn’t follow me through here, not without slowing to a crawl. If I had stayed out in the open, I’d have been toast by now.

I glanced over my shoulder. Nothing. The shouting had grown distant. I pushed myself harder, weaving between the trees until I could barely hear their footsteps anymore.

"Where did he go?"

"I can’t see him!"

"He went this way!"

"Cut him off!"

Another arrow flew past, close enough for me to hear it whistle beside my ear. I zigzagged between two thick oaks, forcing the riders to split apart as they tried to avoid smashing into the trunks.

"Get off the horses!" the woman barked. "We’ll corner him on foot!"

That bought me exactly the opening I needed.

The shadows beneath a towering oak stretched just far enough. I activated Shadow Leap, and the world blurred for a heartbeat before I reappeared silently on a thick branch high above the forest floor.

The bandits stormed underneath me without even looking up.

"He couldn’t have vanished!"

"Spread out!"

"Search everywhere!"

They rushed deeper into the woods, shouting to one another while trampling through bushes and kicking aside branches. Within seconds, their voices grew fainter as they searched in the wrong direction.

I stayed perfectly still until the last of them disappeared into the forest.

Then I leaned back against the trunk, let out a long breath, and rubbed my aching shoulder.

"Ah, fuck," I muttered. "All this trouble for a handful of gold."

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