The monotonous rumble of the four-wheeled carriage's wheels droned on as it struggled along the muddy mountain road.
Reidi, driving the carriage, called out loudly: "My lord, we need to find somewhere to rest. The road is terrible. The men can handle it, but the horses can't, and the carriage needs some work too. I think the left wheel is tilting outward—it's hard to control..."
Seven days. Lorist's party of five had been pushing through day and night for seven straight days. Twelve sturdy Xino horses—bred for long-distance travel with exceptional endurance—and a long-haul four-wheeled carriage acquired from Goldos City. They rested one hour for every forty li traveled, then switched horses and pressed on. After seven days of this, covering roughly three hundred li per day, nearly two thousand li of road had left everyone thoroughly worn out.
With a whoosh, a crudely crafted long arrow scraped past the carriage and struck the ground.
"Damn it..." Lorist cursed, swung out of the saddle, and nimbly climbed onto the carriage. Standing beside the driver's seat, he pulled a javelin from the roof rack and positioned himself to shield Reidi.
How many times had they run into roadside bandits now? Sixteen? Seventeen? Lorist had lost count. They encountered two or three groups of raiders nearly every day. At first, seeing those ragged, gaunt-faced robbers blocking the road, Lorist's party had felt genuine sympathy. Not wanting to take too many lives, they'd only dealt out minor punishment and handed over some food. After that, they'd grown numb. More often than not, they simply charged straight through, leaving those two-legged bandits far behind in the dust.
If there was a difference, it was that the bandits in the Redelis Kingdom were mostly destitute refugees with nothing to eat or wear. Many of those who blocked the road were gray-haired old people and children armed with wooden sticks and farming tools—they wanted food more than money. But once they entered the Andinak Kingdom, while they encountered fewer bandits, those they met were more professional and better armed. They were true mountain outlaws—more vicious and more brutal. When facing such bandits, Lorist's men showed no mercy.
Several screams echoed from up ahead—clearly the handiwork of Josk, who was scouting the path. Sedecamp poked his head out of the carriage cabin: "Young master, what's happened now?"
Lorist barked in a low voice: "Get back inside. We've hit bandits. Load your crossbow and stay on guard."
With a flick of his arm, the javelin flew like lightning into the roadside forest, piercing clean through a bandit who had drawn his bow and was taking aim at the carriage.
Furious shouts erupted from the bushes lining the road as more than thirty bandits wielding swords and sabers charged out...
Javelin after javelin flew through the air. In the blink of an eye, the dozen or so bandits at the front were pinned to the ground, howling in agony...
The remaining twenty-odd bandits, terrified, turned to flee—but Lorist had run out of javelins.
"Cut him down!" a bearded bandit roared, pointing at Lorist. Seeing that Lorist had no more javelins, the bandits rallied their courage and closed in again.
"Damn, two hundred javelins! Used up after just a few days." Lorist drew his sword and leaped down from the carriage. "Make it quick," he told Reidi. "Finish them off fast so we can get moving."
A bandit collapsed face-first at Reidi's feet, a crossbow bolt lodged in his forehead—shot by Sedecamp from inside the carriage.
Reidi shouted at the carriage in displeasure: "Stop stealing my business!"
Lorist's blade flashed, and four bandits spun to the ground, blood spraying from their throats.
Only then did the bandits realize they'd kicked an iron plate. After just two exchanges, only five or six of the twenty-odd bandits remained. These survivors, their wits scattered, turned to flee—but Reidi and Lorist, now fired up for the kill, chased them down and cut every last one of them to pieces.
"Aaagh!" A bandit who had been feigning death and was crawling toward the roadside bushes while Lorist and Reidi weren't looking took an arrow in the back from Sedecamp. He let out a scream, struggled a few moments, and then went still.
The skirmish ended with the total annihilation of the bandits. Sedecamp jumped down from the carriage and began searching the dead for spoils. Reidi went to inspect the carriage wheel, while Lorist examined the recovered javelins to see if any were still usable. Unfortunately, the javelins were single-use items—after being thrown, either the tips were blunted or the shafts were cracked, making them impossible to salvage.
Pat rode back from ahead to report that the bandits had dug a large pit in the road, rendering it impassable for the carriage. Josk had shot four bandits dead, and he'd sent Pat back to fetch a shovel and fill in the pit.
"What's wrong with the wheel?" Lorist asked, walking over to Reidi.
"My lord, look—a linchpin fell out. No wonder the wheel kept tilting outward. It's been hard to control on turns. I'll carve a wooden one to stick in for now. Once we reach town, we can find a smithy to forge a proper metal one and weld it in place." Reidi pointed to a hole in the wheel.
"Fine, that'll do for now." Lorist turned around to see Sedecamp approaching with a broad grin, arms piled high with loot.
"Young master, look—these bandits were loaded! Chainmail and ring mail like this—some lords' garrisons can't even afford to equip their men with such gear. There are three sets here, and I stripped another six off the bodies over there. And these bandits had two or three imperial gold coins on them. Half their weapons are standard military issue. Young master, if we could find their hideout, we'd strike it rich—I'm sure there's plenty more good stuff in there..." Sedecamp said, practically beaming.
What mattered was that during the fight, Lorist had dispatched the bandits with clean throat cuts, so all the armor was perfectly intact.
Seeing Sedecamp about to haul the armor into the carriage, Lorist coughed a few times and said: "Ahem... Sedecamp, we're traveling light here. We need to keep moving. Are you sure you want to lug all this chainmail and ring mail along?"
Sedecamp said, looking rather aggrieved: "My lord, our family's territory is severely short on good iron armor. In the Northland, there's plenty of leather armor but hardly any metal. And it's only a few sets—it won't slow us down."
Fine, carry them if you want. Lorist said nothing more. He felt that Sedecamp, after barely a month of serving alongside
After getting back on the road, the rest of the journey was uneventful. In less than half an hour, the rough stone walls of the small mountain town of Fengyata, as marked on the map, came into view before Lorist and his party.
The garrison soldiers guarding Fengyata's gates eyed Lorist's party with curiosity—five men, twelve horses, and a four-wheeled carriage traveling long distance was a rare sight. But once Lorist presented the
Lorist asked the soldiers where to find the best inn and the most skilled smithy in Fengyata, then generously tipped them with an imperial gold coin. The soldiers were overjoyed and thanked him profusely.
Fengyata was not a large town—only five or six hundred households with a little over two thousand residents. A single street running east to west split the town in half. On one side stood neatly built stone houses with shops on the ground floor; on the other was a residential area of mixed wood and stone construction that looked something like a slum.
Lorist's party stopped at the Red Wine and Weary Bird Inn, where Lorist booked three rooms on the third floor. After a hearty meal, Reidi drove the carriage off to find a smithy, Pat headed to the inn's stable to instruct the servants on how to care for their ten-odd Xino horses, and Sedecamp carried the nine sets of armor up to the room he shared with Pat, then got sand, cloths, and tallow ready to give everything a thorough cleaning and polish. Lorist and Josk returned to their respective rooms, ordered the inn's servants to bring bathing supplies and hot water, took baths, and turned in early.
The next morning, Lorist lay in bed refusing to get up, telling Pat to bring breakfast and set it on the table so he could sleep in a while longer. Then the sound of bells rang out through the town...
"What the hell—are they crazy? It's not a holiday—what's with the bells?" Lorist buried his head under the pillow, trying to drown out the sound.
"My lord, I think those are alarm bells..." Pat said.
Lorist jolted upright, rolled out of bed, and rushed to the window. Outside, pedestrians on the street were in a panic, rushing about with fearful expressions on their faces.
"Huh, they really are alarm bells. I haven't heard of the Andinak Kingdom being at war with anyone. Could we really be that unlucky to walk right into this?" Lorist muttered as he dressed.
He glanced at the map. Fengyata was still over five hundred li from the Madras Duchy. Had the Madras Duchy declared war on the Andinak Kingdom and fought their way all the way here? That seemed unlikely—the Madras Duchy had more than enough to defend itself but lacked the strength to go on the offensive. Though nominally a vassal of the Iblia Kingdom, they'd always pretty much ignored the
Lorist ate his breakfast while studying the map, his mind racing with speculation. A knock came at the door. Lorist glanced at Pat, nodding for him to answer it.
Reidi came in: "My lord, the Garrison Captain of Fengyata wishes to see you."
"Oh." Lorist set down the map and thought for a moment: "Show him in."
It was just as well—Lorist had been wanting to ask about those alarm bells.
Fengyata's Garrison Captain was a man in his forties with a deeply lined, careworn face. He stood across from Lorist, visibly ill at ease, not even knowing where to put his hands. When Lorist invited him to sit, he waved his hands repeatedly, saying it wasn't necessary—he was fine standing.
Suit yourself. Lorist never liked to force anyone. He took a leisurely sip of tea and was about to ask the Garrison Captain what brought him here, when the middle-aged man asked cautiously: "My lord, may I ask—did you come through the mountain road yesterday?"
"We did." Lorist nodded.
"Then... did you encounter bandits, and you killed them all?"
"That's right. Why?" Lorist was a bit puzzled. What was so strange about killing a few bandits? Why all the mystery?
"My lord, disaster has struck. This morning the bandits blockaded the gates. They say if you aren't handed over by noon, they'll storm the town and slaughter everyone..." The middle-aged man's face was twisted with anguish.
"Bandits? So the alarm bells were because the bandits showed up?" Lorist asked.
The Garrison Captain nodded.
"Tell me more. What bandits are this brazen—besieging Fengyata and threatening to massacre the entire town? Does the local lord not do anything about it?" Lorist's interest was piqued.
"...suffered severe injuries, which is why these bandits have grown so brazen. In recent years, with war and unrest, the forests within a hundred li of the mountain road became havens for deserters, refugees, and bandit gangs. About three years ago, a Gold Swordsman calling himself the Mountain Trail Wolf arrived with a band of followers, subdued all the bandit gangs, established a stronghold on Black Stone Mountain near the road, and began robbing travelers and collecting tolls."
"Oh, the bandit leader is a Gold Swordsman? How interesting. This is the first I've heard of a Gold-rank battle-aura expert stooping to become a bandit." Lorist chuckled.
The Garrison Captain grew agitated: "My lord, I'm not lying to you. Our lord launched two campaigns against them and lost three Silver-rank Family Knights. Ask anyone—it's common knowledge. This Mountain Trail Wolf is cruel and lecherous. He's already massacred three villages near the mountain road. That's why our lord sent troops to suppress him, but both campaigns failed."
Lorist looked at the middle-aged man and asked: "If the bandits have already blockaded the gates, then as the Garrison Captain, why aren't you out defending the town? Instead you come here to tell us all this. What are you after—handing us over to the bandits so they won't slaughter the town?"
"No, no, my lord, we have no intention of handing you over..." The middle-aged man said, his face lined with bitterness: "My lord, I came to tell you about the Mountain Trail Wolf so you could prepare yourselves. Our town has only a single garrison squad—fewer than eighty men. I'm the only Silver-rank among them, and that's only because I'm the captain. The bandits number four to five hundred. Besides the Mountain Trail Wolf at Gold-rank, they have seventeen Silver-rank fighters. The gap in strength is too great—we can't hold for long. All I ask is that you act quickly, escape the town as soon as you can, then notify the royal forces to send an army to wipe out these bandits. Then we can die in peace."
"Wait—if your garrison and the bandits are so mismatched in strength, why didn't the bandits attack the town before? Why wait until we killed a few of them to come and blockade the gates?" Lorist's expression turned stern, his voice cold.
"Sigh, my lord, to be honest with you... our lord had an agreement with the Mountain Trail Wolf." The Garrison Captain looked somewhat ashamed: "After both campaigns failed, our lord worried the bandits might attack the town, causing an uproar. Bad news travels fast—it could be used as grounds to strip him of his lordship. So he had a large trading company act as intermediary and signed a deal with the Mountain Trail Wolf: Fengyata would be open to the bandits, who could purchase supplies they needed and also fence their stolen goods by selling them through the trading company. As long as the company's caravans paid tolls for the mountain road, they could pass unmolested. As for other travelers and carriages on the road—if they got robbed, that was their own misfortune, and the local lord would have no part in it. And if the bandits came into town unarmed, they could eat, drink, and amuse themselves. As long as they didn't cause trouble, the garrison was to turn a blind eye..."
"The reason the bandits blockaded the gates this time is that among the ones you killed yesterday was the Mountain Trail Wolf's own younger brother. He's gone mad with rage and is ignoring the agreement—he's come to massacre the town. My lord, once the bandits break through the gates and enter the town, they'll loot everywhere. That's when you should ride hard and fast—you'll definitely be able to break through the encirclement."
"Heh, four or five hundred bandits led by a Gold-rank bandit chief. I really should go take a look and broaden my horizons." Lorist picked up the longsword from the table beside him and said to Pat and Reidi, who were standing at attention: "Let's go pay these bandits a visit. Reidi, have Jodo bring several quivers of arrows. Ideally, we don't let a single bandit escape today."
...