While they waited, the burly man casually spoke to Greg, "I think I'll be retiring soon."
This surprised Greg, "Retiring? But you're not that old yet and the payment in the enforcement squad is pretty good. Why?"
The burly man exhaled with sadness, "My father had suddenly got very ill. I'm… not sure he'll go through it. He's already quite old and there's no one left to take care of the small business he's running so I have to. Either that or I'll be forced to sell the shop, but he built and ran that shop almost his entire life so I don't think I'll be able to force myself to sell it."
Greg looked at him in silence, "...My condolences."
The burly man weakly nodded as he looked up at the brief sunlight that managed to reach the drought through tree crowns as his thoughts drifted.
"You know… if not for this matter, I would've most likely left the city already."
Greg was slightly surprised hearing this, "I think I understand you."
The burly man didn't look at him and continued, "The city is utterly rotten to the core. I thought I would be able to handle it, but… I guess I've overestimated myself."
Greg looked at his colleague and then looked down in silence.
The burly man's expression abruptly went to his usual self and he looked in the direction Trevor went with narrowed eyes, "It's already 15 minutes. Where are they?"
"Should I go and check?" Greg asked.
"Nah, look for those two. I'll go," the burly man shook his head.
After a brief hesitation, Greg nodded. A strange feeling started to creep into his heart and reminded the burly man, "If you see that something is not right, call me immediately."
"You worried too much. That moron is probably playing with that girl right now. What a retard. He was getting on my nerves lately too. I wonder what the captain will say to this."
As he said it, he followed the direction the two had left.
"..." Greg silently nodded as he looked at the burly man gradually disappearing behind the hil.
Vanessa and Patricia, who were silent all this time, exchanged glances.
They previously were confused as to where Vincent suddenly disappeared, but now… they think they understood something.
After a brief contemplation, the both of them thought about the same thing as their eyes turned cold as they moved to this enforcer.
…
*Crunch*
The branches cracked as the burly man walked through the forest. It was already several minutes and he still had yet to find them.
"Trevor!" he shouted, but no response followed.
The burly man was quite enraged right now, but also a bit alarmed.
As a precaution measure, he took a short sword from his waist.
'Bastard. I'll definitely beat the shit out of you once this is over.'
A minute later, as he walked deeper, his eyes suddenly spotted something behind a tree not far away.
It was the legs of someone who was sitting behind the thick tree, unmoving.
He got quite alarmed and gripped the handle of the sword before cautiously walking closely.
"Trevor…?" he asked when he was just a few meters from the tree, but there was no response.
The burly man hastily looked around.
"...." There was nothing, only silence in the forest.
Uneasy feelings began to grow in his heart as he stepped forward.
Arriving at the thick tree, he carefully looked behind it and saw Trevor with his back leaning to the tree.
The burly man crouched a bit and checked the puls on Trevor's neck.
'Alive, but unconscious. Did she knock this retard down and run away?' he contemplated, but the uneasy feeling in his heart strangely only grew stronger and he again looked around.
'Nah. Something is wrong here.'
*Crunch*
Suddenly, he heard a branch behind him cracking and his heart jumped in fright as he hastily turned around.
He saw Alisia looking at him calmly from 3 meters away which made him ease up a bit.
But his guts were screaming in alarm when he suddenly spotted that Alisia's gaze briefly shifted to something behind him.
Before he could react, his eyes rolled back as darkness covered everything.
…
Back on the road, Greg looked in the forest with an uneasy feeling as he had the two handcuffed women in front of him just to have them in his sight.
Suddenly, spotted the girl walking towards him from behind the trees.
This made him somewhat relaxed.
"Where are the others?" he asked in a cold tone as his hand was on a sword handle.
Alisia fearfully looked at him and replied, "I'm not sure. The fat one told me to come back while he was bickering with that ugly one."
Greg narrowed his eyes. This definitely could've happened so he believed her.
5 minutes later, they still didn't come back which alarmed him as he started thinking before turning towards the three women.
"Come here!" He ordered Alisia and took out a rope.
Alisia's face paled a bit and complied.
"You two move to the side," he coldly ordered Vanessa and Patricia and they took a few steps back.
"Sit," he told Alisia and she sat on the fallen leaves and he started to tie her legs and arms.
After he finished with her, he ordered the same to Patricia and then to Vanessa.
When the trio were completely restrained and sat near the tree, he finally managed to calm down a bit before walking into the forest and finding out the reason for taking them so long.
When he left the tied trio, Vanessa suddenly asked upon looking at Alisia, "Is he…"
Alisia looked at her future mother-in-law and smiled mysteriously without replying.
After another 10 minutes passed, the three of them suddenly looked in a certain direction and saw a hooded figure emerging from the distance walking towards them.
When it arrived beside them, the person removed the hood and looked calmly at the trio before starting removing the ropes.
Upon seeing this long haired young man, her last worries had finally gone away.
Patricia had a bit of mixed feelings looking at her future son-in-law.
Alisia, meanwhile, stared at him intimately as her resolve to stand beside this man grew only stronger.
After they stood up, they fixed their clothes.
"What happened to them?" Patricia finally asked.
Vincent calmly glanced at her and without replying turned around and went ahead from where he came.
Patricia was already used to his odd demeanor. She didn't display her displeasure and silently followed behind with the other two.
After 10 minutes, they arrived at a certain tree and saw 3 people tightly tied by a rope to a tree.
"They're… dead?" Vanessa asked. She knew that her son was capable of killing them if wanted, yet they didn't look dead.
Vincent's long black hair slightly moved beside his neck from the calm wind as he looked at the trio calmly.
Suddenly, he acted which frightened the women.
*Break*
"Arghh!" Trevor's eyes suddenly shut open and he screamed in horrendous pain as bones in his leg were shuttered from Vincent's casual stomp.
Vincent then bent down and took one of their swords that lay nearby and calmly did something.
"Son of a bitch, you're dead! I swear, once I get out, I'll rip your head off!!" Trevor shouted in hatred with red teary eyes from pain as Vincent did a long cut on his face down from his ear to his chin.
In just a few seconds, half of Trevor's face and neck became stained in blood that slowly flowed without stopping.
Though the women were already somewhat accustomed to Vincent's cruelty, they still felt frightened, not knowing why he did it but they didn't stop him.
Vincent then took several of their stuff, mostly money before calmly leaving in the direction of Freewind town.
"..." The trio of women were confused, but they hastily followed him.
After around 10 minutes, Alisia could no longer suppress her confusion and finally asked Vincent as she held his hand with their fingers interlocked, "You're truly going to leave them like that?"
Vincent calmly replied without looking at her, "On my way here, I've spotted someone within the forest."
Then Patricia asked, "Who?"
But Vincent's calm reply made women's hearts tremble.
"Someone… very hungry."
…
Within the forest, Trevor's complexion already became quite pale from blood loss as he quietly groaned in pain.
The other two also gradually came back to their senses and found themselves tied to the tree, unable to move at all.
"What the fuck!?" The burly man suddenly shouted in alarm upon seeing himself tied.
"Can anyone move?" Greg exclaimed as he tried to free himself, trying to stay calm.
Time went on, though the situation didn't change, they managed to calm down a bit.
Greg and the burly man started contemplating why the one who ambushed them did kill them.
Gradually they come to a decision that he was afraid that the General might come for him if he kills them.
*Crunch*
As they tried to find a solution to their predicament, they suddenly heard a big branch breaking in the distance and immediately looked into that direction.
What they saw made their faces turn deathly pale as their hearts shuddered.
A massive fury beast was casually walking on his fourth legs while his nose sniffed the air from time to time.
'A bear!'
As the bear came closer, the burly man shouted with all his might in an attempt to scare the beast, "SSHOO!! GO AWAY!!"
The bears suddenly stiffed and paused upon this the loud noise as he curiously looked at the trio.
*Snif-snif*
The bear sniffed again and slowly went towards a deathly pale Trevor who was on a brink of losing consciousness from excessive blood loss.
Seeing the bear heading towards him, his eyes widened and terror creeped into his heart.
"DON'T… COME C-CLOSER!!" Trevor shouted as loudly as he could with a trembling voice.
The bear came extremely close. Trevor can feel its breaths on his blood-stained face, horror filled his heart.
The beast sniffed his face several times before opening its mouth and licking the blood with its big tongue.
The bear exhaled powerfully as it became excited and then raised his paw towards Trevor's face as its claws were erected and… casually sliced.
The burly man and Greg's heart dropped into abyss as they saw the bear ripping Trevor's face off.