<h4>Chapter 21: A Weird Caravan</h4>


    The gates of the city were still open, but there were still soldiers posted on them. The soldiers were still the ones that Lyle hade across when he had returned from the forest and he knew that simply walking out of the city would be almost impossible.


    He would simply draw too much attention to himself. One person leaving the cityte at night when the world had gone through a change was not something that was normal, not at all.


    Scaling the wall and going out that way was an option, but it was too risky, Lyle could be seen by someone who would report him to the soldiers.


    He, of course, wasn''t nning on making himself suspicious right now. The first thing he needed to do was find a way to get out without being suspicious.


    The chance came rather quickly, however.


    A small-sized caravan was making its way to the gate. Three carriages, twenty guards, and two merchants were a part of the caravan.


    Lyle''s mind spun. He could get out by using the caravan as a cover. He couldn''t join them, that much was almost impossible at this moment since there was no way that they would allow a suspicious person that suddenly wanted to leave with them in the evening to join.


    Trying to sneak in would also be near-impossible since the soldiers would definitely be checking the carriages before letting them leave. One idea that Lyle had was to go underneath the carriage and try to sneak out that way, but the problem was that if any of the soldiers was to check down, he would be caught right away.


    ''Think Lyle, think, what can I do to sneak together with the caravan?'' Lyle thought as he stared at the caravan that had neared the gate.


    He decided to first wait. He would wait for the soldiers to inspect the caravan and their guards before making his next move.


    To inspect everything should take a couple of minutes, and Lyle could use that time to try and sneak past everybody or get in a carriage.


    As the caravan arrived at the gate, the soldiers of course stopped them before making them get to the side. No sane person would dare deny the request of a royal soldier, and the caravanplied.


    The merchant that was seemingly leading the caravan talked with the soldiers and was giving them what seemed to be some sort of a bribe. Lyle''s mind spun at the realization, the royal soldiers were quite loyal, and bribing them was not an easy task, one would usually need to fork out quite a hefty sum in order for them to look the other way.


    ''What the hell is inside that carriage?'' Lyle thought to himself as he stared at the main carriage that the merchant was pointing at for the soldiers.


    He quickly sprung to action, while the carriages were still moving in order to vacate the road for others who were leaving or entering, there were a couple of blind spots and Lyle was aiming to use them in order to get to the final carriage that would seemingly not be inspected as the 2 soldiers that were doing the search had epted a small pouch from the merchant.


    Lyle knew that his timing had to be spot on, otherwise he might get caught.


    The guards that were guarding the carriages were mostly below the Knight realm, but there were 3 that were in the Knight realm with them.


    Those three were, however, put at the front, right around the main carriage and thus Lyle had a chance to sneak up on the others before moving to the main carriage.


    Lyle quickly took out his daggers and cut his hands before manipting the blood toe out and form two small orbs of blood.


    He sped up and threw the two orbs next to two soldiers who were riding a horse each. One of the orbs fell on the right side, while the other fell on the left side. Upon hearing the sound of something hitting the ground, the soldiers looked to the right and left respectively, which left the center wide open for Lyle to pass through.


    Since both the soldiers had their backs turned to Lyle, they didn''t notice himing. The two looked down, but were unable to find anything on the ground, the orbs of blood that Lyle had thrown were small and the evening made it hard to spot the blood that was soaked into the ground, even during daytime it would be hard to spot it.


    Lyle was able to pass between the two guards when they looked to the side and before they averted their gaze from the ground, he had already slid in below thest carriage.


    That wasn''t the end, as Lyle needed to get to the front before he would be safe. The carriage was about 40cm ( 1.3 feet ) from the ground and Lyle had enough space to crawl through with ease. He quickly moved before stopping right at the end, he needed to pass through the horses before reaching the second carriage, if anyone was to spot him, he would be in a very bad position.


    He quickly observed his surroundings before suddenlying from below the carriage and running past the horses that were surprised and rmed by him.


    Before the two horses could neigh, Lyle had already disappeared below the second carriage. Luckily, he was fast enough to not be spotted or make the horses move around. The horses were well-trained, as they needed to be if anyone was to use them to pass through a dangerous ce, which this caravan was going to do it seemed like.


    Lyle did the same after reaching the end of the second carriage. The problem arose when the horses got rmed by his appearance, and the fact that there was a Knight inspecting the carriage that had his back turned to Lyle.


    Lyle quickly went down and slid between the man''s legs as the Knight turned around to look at the horses. Their neighs had hidden the sound of Lyle sliding, and he was able to get under without being spotted.


    After some 5 minutes passed, the carriage started moving.


    ''Will I need to do this every single night?'' Lyle thought to himself as he was grabbing onto the carriage from underneath.


    ''I have to find a better way to get out, I can''t be risking things every night.''


    The whole situation was very lucky for Lyle. As he was a vampire lord, he was able to hide his presence and mana very well, that, coupled with the fact that he barely had any mana right now, made it very hard for anyone to notice Lyle, even the guards, and soldiers that were all much more powerful than the current him.


    Lyle was, however, very interested in what was inside the carriage. To make the merchant actually take out a bribe, one that was big enough for even the royal soldiers to take, the carriage definitely hid something very valuable inside of it.


    Lyle quickly took out his daggers before aiming at the carriage. Usually, a carriage that would transport valuable goods and have knights as entourage was protected by a formation and was built from high-grade materials. This one, however, had none of that.


    For some reason, the merchant was focused on keeping secrecy and not drawing attention to himself or the goods. Whatever the reason for that might be, Lyle would find out soon enough.


    The daggers that Lyle used were quite powerful. They were crafted by a well-known cksmith in Orsvald after Lyle hadmissioned them. He had paid a hefty sum of 25 000 gold coins for the daggers.


    Even the mission he took this time would only pay him 20 000 gold coins for assassinating the young duke. The daggers were created by using a ck metal that would absorb light so that there would be no shine from them.


    Both of the daggers had a serration, but it was on the back of the daggers while the edge was nice and sharp. The serrations would help when stabbing an enemy as they would tear apart the flesh and insides while pulling the insides out after Lyle pulled them out of the enemy.


    The daggers were new and Lyle had received them onlyst month. He had in total used them twice for a mission before, but other than that, they were brand new.


    Lyle stabbed the daggers inside the carriage and they prated through like it was nothing. There was not even a sound that was created from the daggers cutting inside the wood of the carriage.


    It wouldn''t matter, however, as the sound of the horses galloping would pretty much mask any noise that Lyle would produce. He quickly started cutting away at the carriage before he was finally able to cut off a part that was wide enough for him to crawl in from.


    A problem, however, arose. As Lyle had finished cutting the wood, it suddenly fell down as something from above pushed it down. Lyle quickly acted and managed to grab the nk and the pouch that was above it, but he was now struggling with keeping his bnce as he was only holding on to the carriage with his legs.


    His abdominal muscles were tightened to their fullest as he slowly moved up before managing to put the pouch back inside and grab the underside of the carriage with his now free hand. He put the wooden nk inside as well before pulling himself up and entering the carriage.