The weather was cold, but not much as the sun was in the sky. The sky was clear after the rain and a rainbow was visible in the sky. The river was flowing at a good speed with fishes dancing inside it and the rocks bathing by the water hitting the corner of the land of the lake.
Alice's was crystal clear visible by the reflection on the lake.
A lady beetle could be seen passing by the river coming towards Alice.
But Alice didn't look at it as his eyes were stuck on something else.
What was that something?
Interesting, it was none other than the lonely caravan they were searching for which walked to them itself.
But for Alice, a lonely caravan was not what he needed.
There are three types of lonely caravans in this world starting from the inexperienced ones, intermediate ones and then the veteran ones.
The veteran ones are the one Alice required as they had the most knowledge on trading without any permission or anything.
But how does someone recognise a veteran one?
Too simple, majority of the members are old aged.
A lonely caravan is often started by young people and as they grow old, they ear experience but the major problem with a lonely caravan is most of them gets wiped out in just few years or even months of their starting.
That is mainly because of the wrong guidance by the leader, mercenaries and wild animals. There are some other reasons too but they are too rare to even consider.
Alice's eyes moved and looked at every person in the caravan which were outside of their caravan.
When Alice saw the caravan, he was happy because he found one without even much efforts but the main worry was whether if they were veteran or not and it was clear now, they were veteran as most of the members Alice looked on were almost old aged.
Alice was on his knees drinking water.
When he found that the caravan was veteran, he stood up, bowed and greated them.
Persephone and Lilith's eyes too moved on that caravan. Without wasting a second, Lilith stood up and draw her battle axe.
When the caravan's people looked on Lilith's weapon, they got startled and started moving their horses.
Looking at them, Alice moved swiftly and said, "Please don't worry. She is not going to hurt you all or anything, she is just on alert mode. Put your weapon back. ", he said to Lilith while convincing them.
But the caravan didn't believe Alice as mercenaries often used these cheap tricks to draw them to their death.
The caravan did slow down but still prepared to get out of this place.
Lilith realised that her actions might cause loss to the group and so she threw her weapon far away from her, bowed and apologized, "I am really sorry for startling you all. It was never my intentions, I just didn't want any enemy to sneak on us. "
There was an old man with a white horse and his horse didn't carry any caravan. He was the one leading his group. His hairs were short and white. His face full of wrinkles but he looked tough due to a scar on his nose and muscular body. His clothes looked very expensive. A coat of fur of a wild animal.
He was wearing brown leather boots and behind his back was a silver colored sword without any sheeth.
His white horse was very attractive. It was a male and his muscles showed that he was really taken care of. His hairs were neat and clean.
The saddle on the horse was brown colored.
He said to Lilith, "Woman, I understand your concern. But we also love our life. Yes, your actions did startled us and I am grateful to you that you guys didn't have any ill intention towards us but, we should leave now. "
Ashura stood up and said, "We understand your concern, sir. But atlea-"
But before he could finish, that man replied, "Kid, you are too young to understand adults stuff. Stay out of it. "
They turned their horses and the whole caravan in the opposite direction to the group and went away.
Ashura and the other members looked on Alice as if trying to say to stop them. But Alice only looked at them and didn't say a word. He let them go.
When the caravan went far away and only the dust could be seen, he turned towards the river, kneeled and continued drinking water.
Lilith slowly walked towards Alice, her head bowed and she apologized, "Devil, I am really sorry for what I did. "
Alice stopped drinking water, moved his head towards her and said, "Do not worry about such small things. We have a big journey ahead and so we can't worry about such things. Don't worry, we will find them again. "
Asmodeus questioned, "You want to find them again? "
Alice stood up, wiped the water from his mouth and said, "I have taken a liking to that white horse and so I want it. And for that, all of their death is a necessity. "
Persephone spoke, "I don't think so we should kill people like this. "
Alice smiled while looking at her and said, "That is none of your concern, persephone. Killing is a human nature and as a human, I am doing it. And after all, it is the survival of the fittest. If we don't kill, we will not live. It is in our hand to save ourself by sacrificing other or the other by sacrificing ourself. I am not a hero and so my life and goals are more precious to me rather than that of others. "
Persephone remained silent. Her head bowed. At the end, she knew that Alice wasn't wrong. After all, life is all about choices and those choices are often related to you and others.
You can either choose yourself or others, it depends on you. And being selfish or selfless are the two faces of a coin, none of them are bad at the end of the day as you get to live once, you can either live for yourself or for others.
But Alice, he was living for himself, for his dreams and goals.