It was a bit of a pity.

The future bounty indeed had "*ed up on the order", as his good for nothing partner had put it. Not that he minded. This was just how their team worked, if 'teamwork' you could call it at all; and that was why he had chosen not to interfere with the fight in the first place (as opposed to indulging the immortal loudmouth's claims on first dibs on slaughtering those guys). In the end it didn't matter who got to kill the bounty. It was the money that counted... The only hassle was, that now he'd have to chase after it due to his partner's blunder. If only that religious idiot hadn't wasted so much time playing with the bounty and his entourage he could have already chipped in the body and got his reward before being called back to base. What a pity. And when they had been right at the exchange point, too.

Likely, the next time they'd meet the boy wouldn't have had enough time to ac*ulate enough bounty on the sharp minded head of his, yet... so maybe he would let him go again, then; let the money sit and work for him in a long-term investment, a good one. Maybe he really should; he indeed could be very patient if the incentive was high enough...

Probably he wouldn't have the opportunity to do so, though. If he was right in what he observed during the fight, and the future bounty was really worth the potentially neat amount of money, there wouldn't be a repetition of his youthful mistake; he seemed to be a too bright kid not to learn fast from what information he gained on him and his partner during that fight. Thus, he would have no choice but to kill him earlier than he would have liked. Such a pity for the loss of a potentially great bounty; but it couldn't be helped, could it?

He couldn't hope for the kid to "* up on the order" again. For he would certainly know by now in the opening the bishop is more important than the rook.