--Outskirts of Profus City, Arcadina--
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Marder Shannon and 3 of King Barn's knight Captains, were making their way down to Riverdale with several thousands of men under them.
Right now it was getting dark, and they were close to the City gates of Profus.
"Its getting late... we will stop here to make camp" one of the Captains commanded.
Before Marder could say anything, another Captain issued another command again.
"We'll camp in different areas for tonight.... Marder, you take you men and camp on that area over there.. while we will camp by the other areas.. Your dismissed!!!"
For Marder, Profus was the city were Baron Cain, his father's sworn enemy, resided in.... So he wasn't really happy about making camp close to the city.
If something really happened to his father, then King Barn or Baron Cain would be his first suspects.
Sleeping by the enemy's territory was something that he had never dreamt of doing..... But since he wasn't in charge of the journey, he had no say on the matter.
Profus city was a large and prosperous one.... And although there was a city lord within Profus, he was a weak one who gave Baron Cain all the power within the city.
Baron Cain was a typical tyrant who walked around terrorizing and beating people here and there..... In Marder's opinion, the current city lord who was just 23 years old, was definitely being threatened by Baron Cain.
The young city lord had been appointed after the death of his father... (probably due to Baron Cain), so he didn't have much authority or a voice within the city.
Hence In Profus, Baron Cain was the law.
Marder and his own men began to build their tents, as well as hunt for their dinner as the moon started to set.
"Young Master how can we continue to stay here?" One of his men grumbled while chewing on the roasted leg of a hare in his hand.
"This is that bastard's land!!"... another complained.
"Just who do those Knight Captain's think they are?... They are fully aware of Baron Cain's enmity for your family, young Master"
"__"
Marder gripped his spoon tightly, as the men began to rain a serious of complaints about their situation.
Indeed, he was pissed off by the way that those Captains shoved him up and down... But he knew that he had to be patient.
Once they got to Riverdale, these Captain's would stay with him for another 2 months... and once it was over, they would be on their way back to the Capital.
All he needed to do was keep a calm and docile appearance while they were with him.
But what he hated the most, were lowlifes who thought they were nobility because they had somehow made their way as Knight Captains of King Barn.
And to make matters worse, they had disregarded all his suggestions and opinions on the journey.
They had been constantly rude to him, and treated him like he was trash, just because they had King Barn's support.
From their attitudes, Marder knew that they shared the same enmity as Alec Barn had for his father.
Knights generally reflected and acted out by the way that their ruler or commander behaved.
In Marder's mind, no matter how late his revenge came, he would definitely act it out.
He kept all their actions deep within his heart.
After dinner, some of the men went to their tents, while others guarded the campsite.
The night quickly became dark, cold, and shrouded with mystery and danger.
Some men were fast asleep, while others guarded the cold campsite.
.
"Fhup Fhup!!"
4 assassins made their way to the campsite.. their target, was Marder Shannon.
Within the royal palace, Baron Cain had a total of 10 spies was working there as palace guards.
With a ruler like Alec Barn, people didn't know if they were safe or not, so they had to send their spies there.
At least if their king was planning to do something like beheading them, they could easily make their escape from Arcadina before they got caught.
Hence most nobles had at least 5 or more spies within the palace.
As soon as the spies heard the news of Marder going back to Riverdale, they immediately sent a messenger to quickly deliver the news.
Marder only left a week after the news was released, so the messenger had at least a week long head start ahead of him.
For urgent messages like this one, several towns, merchant trading companies, and cities, had their own messengers under their rule.
Some of these messengers, were even protected by a royal degree..... So no one ever messed with messengers.
The roads were difficult, dangerous, costly and time consuming. Hence important people like rulers and nobles, had little time to travel.
So they came up with the messenger system to get news across faster.
Once Baron Cain's spy sent the urgent message through a dispatched messenger rider, the guy rode to the next town or city and gave it to the next messenger, who in turn did the same until the message had finally arrived Baron Cain's hands.
So unlike Marder and the 3 Captains who rested each night, the messengers only rested if the distance to the next town was fairly long.
And sometimes, a rider would travel for 2 days straight just so that he could dump the message to the next person and be done with it.
Hence Cain's letter came way ahead of time, before Marder's arrival.
Once Cain read the news, he immediately hired 4 assassins around Profus city and gave them a painted portrait and details about Marder Shannon.
These assassins were medium ranked death assassins, who would definitely kill themselves if they were ever caught.
There were several routes to go to Riverdale, but Shannon knew that they would definitely pass through his territory.
The spies within the palace had also said that king Barn might send a letter for him through the 3 Captains, hence he was sure that they would use this route.