Crow looked between the two knights as they complained about word catching up to the local guards about them. He didn’t see what the big deal was. Compared to the knights in Brerra, he had found evading the Younisians to be a simple task on their way to and through the castle. In fact, he would have been surprised if the guards were clever enough to track them down before they reached the border. He glanced at the forest ahead. His fears laid in the unknown threat of whoever was intent enough to stop them that they would hire a mercenary. If it really was the group of nobles from Brerra, they would probably be in greater danger once they got farther from the citadel.

He turned back to Penelope when she suggested stealing some horses to cover ground more quickly. Admittedly, it was a good idea, but it wasn’t one that the thief was particularly fond of. Having grown up in a poor village that didn’t have the capacity to care for many farm animals, he had no experience in dealing with horses. The closest he had gotten to the beasts was when they had been travelling in the wagon that was drawn by them. The thought of climbing on top of one and trying to command it was more than slightly off-putting to him.

“Fine,” William growled after a long pause. “If we must—but only until we reach the border. We may be carrying out an unpleasant assignment, but we’re still knights of Brerra. We cannot disgrace ourselves by returning to our kingdom with stolen property.”

Crow cleared his throat and held up the staff with a smirk.

“…We cannot return with [i]more[/i] stolen property than the king has instructed us to retrieve,” William corrected, flushing slightly as he shot the thief a glare. “Let’s keep moving.”