Synopsis

The chapter opens with the escort team questioning the unusual camaraderie between them and the Green Forest bandits, expecting tension and fighting. It's revealed that such friendly encounters are the norm to maintain trade and passage. However, a newcomer bandit with a dark past is introduced, and a coded warning about an ambush signals potential trouble. The chapter concludes with the bandits offering the escort team a meal, revealing they killed watchdogs left behind by another escort agency, hinting a darker undercurrent to their apparent hospitality.