Hey guys, sorry for the late chapter. i had an AP Exam to flunk.

anyway here the chapter. Enjoy.

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The distance between Holt Castle and Blackreach city was about four hundred miles. Wesley knew that it would take him at most four days to reach Blackreach city if he remained on the main road, however, Wesley decided to not take the main road so that he could see more things as went forward rather than just remaining on the safe but boring path, he also knew that the Academy's entrance exam was in a month's time, so there was no need for him to rush.

Walking of the main road, Wesley took a small branch road that was unpaved with far less traffic than the main road and kept walking for a few hours. As he walked forward towards the unknown, Wesley truly felt excited, this was after all his first time going anywhere outside of Holt Castle, and as he was looking around at the trees, birds and rocks with an excited look on his face, Wesley noticed something.

A small wooden building was on the side of the road with a sign that read Restaurant. Such buildings were very common along the main road since many merchants and travels often needed places to eat and rest, but this was not the main road, making one wonder what reason anyone would have to open up a business at such a desolate place.

Overcome by his curiosity, Wesley decided to check out this odd restaurant. After Walking in, Wesley was surprised further by the scene in front of his eyes. This secluded restaurant in the middle of nowhere was packed to the brim with people who shouted and laughed while eating and drinking. It was incomprehensible to Wesley who has yet to encounter a single person to suddenly find so many people in one place.

After Wesley walked in, the bustling hall that was full of laughing and shouting instantly quieted down. It seems the people in the restaurant also were not expecting someone. Wesley noticing their astonishment simply smiled and walked forward to the counter. Although Wesley was five feet tall and was considered rather tall for his age, but compared to the men in this hall, his head didn’t even reach their shoulders.

Wesley simply sat down in an empty spot at the counter, and without concerning himself with all the stares directed at him, he turned to the bartender and spoke:

"The house special please"

Wesley's voice seemed to have pulled the bartender, who was staring at Wesley with a surprised look, to his senses, then with a meek smile he spoke:

"Yes, yes. Coming right up"

Wesley just nodded and then pulled out a book from a small dark satchel that hung from his shoulder. He knew he couldn’t use Dark Dimension in front of people so he carried some books and some gold in the little satchel. This was also the reason why his dark sword hung from his hip. Wesley was indeed shocked by the people in this restaurant, the simple fact that they were in this desolate place was astonishing enough, but couple that with the fact that each of them seemed like a soldier was enough to startle even the normally coolheaded Wesley.

He concluded that these men were either soldiers on patrol from a nearby fort, or they were bandits. Either way, he was very interested in them, but he chose not to approach them since he was still not clear which of the two options they truly were.

The bartender immediately brought a dish in front of Wesley and spoke in a mild voice:

"Here you go, roasted rabbit"

"Thanks."

As rabbit food is considered a commoner's food, Wesley never had a chance to taste it before, so he was really excited to taste it, but as he was about to dig in, a croaky voice sounded behind him:

"Young man, I don’t think you can eat a whole rabbit alone, why not let this old man help you with it"

This elicited a round of laughter from the surrounding men, but Wesley only smiled at the gray bearded man who stood behind him and spoke:

"Haha, old man, where are my manners. I was just excited since I never had rabbit before. Please join me"

Wesley's words instantly caught the attention of the whole room, that part about never having eaten rabbit before told them instantly that Wesley was a noble, and their eyes started shining with an inexplicable light. The gray bearded man looked at Wesley with a sharp gaze but immediately started laughing and sat next to Wesley and spoke:

"That's the spirit young man, you should never eat alone when your elders are standing around"

"Haha, I will keep that in mind, now let's eat"

Wesley and the gray bearded man started devouring the rabbit, and after a few minutes, there was nothing but bones left on the platter. Wesley sighed at the taste of rabbit meat, although it wasn't cooked with extreme skill, its taste could be was still great, he couldn’t understand why nobles would avoid such a delicacy. While Wesley was engrossed in his thoughts, the gray bearded man next to him suddenly spoke:

"Young man, since you fed this old fella, I will give you a friendly tip"

"Yes?" Wesley was rather interested at what this old man would say.

"You see unlike the main road, these back roads do not have as many guards patrolling, so there are a lot of bandits around. In fact I hear there is a band of bloody bandits that hang around this area, so you should be careful when you travel"

Hearing the man's words, all the other men in the hall started laughing. This confirmed Wesley's theory about them being bandits. Suddenly from behind Wesley, another man approached while laughing with a look of arrogance on his face and said:

"Haha, young brat. That is a nice sword you have there, mind if I take a look at it"

Wesley turned around with a smile and said to the man:

"Of course, here you go"

As soon as the words left Wesley's lips, the man's head has been chopped off and fell to the ground with the arrogant look still plastered on his face. This was one of Wesley's Silent Sword techniques, Silent Draw. Wesley than started laughing and said in a clear voice:

"Did I mention that those who see my sword often end up without a head."

The whole room fell into a deathly silence, all anyone really saw was Wesley reach towards his sword with a smile of his face, and then next moment, the man's head flew off and his body fell to the ground. They didn’t know what happened, but as soon as Wesley spoke with mocking sarcasm in his voice, they instantly realized that Wesley was the culprit.

Wesley just turned around, again ignoring the stares, and spoke to the gray bearded man as if nothing happened and said with a ominous smile:

"I will keep that in mind old man. Thanks for the warning"

Seeing Wesley's smile, the gray bearded man felt a terrible shudder, and without even waiting for Wesley to finish his words, he jumped five feat away and pulled out a sword. All the other men also pulled out their swords and spears and stared at Wesley hatefully. However, none of them dared move towards him, after all they did see what happened to the man who approached him before.

Wesley just turned around and looked at the gray bearded man and spoke:

"what's wrong old man. You seem rather pale all of a sudden"

"You....Do you know who we are?" The gary bearded man spoke with a shaky voice

"Nope, just came here to eat"

"You will die for killing our brother"

Before the grey bearded man could even reply, another man spoke, this time with a shout and started running towards Wesley. As soon as the man started running, four more ran behind him. Wesley just shrugged his shoulders and unsheathed his sword. He couldn’t use Silent Draw since the other guys were already on guard against his quick draw. He slowly walked to the group of five or so men rushing towards him, and as soon as he was in range, they started swinging towards him.

Wesley simply walked forward towards the swords that were swinging towards his body, as soon as a swing was about to hit, he would dodge slightly. After Wesley, dodged the five swings, the scene around him shocked everyone that was present. Wesley was standing there unharmed with his dark sword in his hand, while four of the men were on the ground headless, and the fifth had his hand holding the gushing wound on his throat.

This was Wesley's second Silent Sword technique, Silent Counter. It simply took advantage of an enemy's attack momentum to kill them. Seeing the one man who was still alive, Wesley was surprised, he didn’t think that any of these men would be able to survive his Silent Counter, but it seems this one man somehow managed to keep his head from falling. This meant that these men were experienced bandits who went through a lot of battles. And as if agreeing with Wesley analysis, the reaming thirty or so bandits, immediately formed a shield wall with their back to the wall.

A shield wall was a common tactic when fighting against superior numbers in small spaces since it protects the flanks and makes the group like an immovable rock. However it is unfathomable to use a shield wall against a single opponent, but after seeing the results of simply rushing towards him. Wesley was rather impressed by this group of bandits, so he sheathed his sword and spoke to them in a soft voice with a smile:

"My apologies old man, it seemed I have killed some of your friends."

The Bandits were startled, this kid didn’t even seem to think of them as opponents, but what surprised them more, was that this kid, that was clearly not even fifteen, was unfazed after killing half a dozen men, in fact it seemed like he enjoyed it, this caused a cold sweat to run down the backs of the bandits. The gray bearded old man walked out from within the shield wall with his sword drawn, and looked at Wesley with face full of anger and caution as he spoke:

"Brat, we don't care if a few hot blooded idiots died. But who the hell are you?"

"Haha, old man, I am just a simple traveler who came here to eat."

Hearing that he was not here for their heads, the bandits let out a breath. Even the gray bearded man seemed to have felt a little relief, but he didn’t dare let his guard down, he knew Wesley was not a simple traveler, but he was still reluctant to face such an enemy. He sheathed his sword and looked at Wesley with a smiling look on his face and said:

"Am afraid, however, that we can't let you go without paying"

This caused all the bandits in the room to curse the gray bearded man, why the hell would he continue provoking this monster when they would rather just walk away. Wesley however, was glad, he knew his sword techniques were only a cover for his magic, and if he was to continue fighting then these experienced fighters would see through his techniques and he would be forced to use magic, but after hearing the man's words he started laughing heartily and pulled out a small pouch from his satchel then he said:

"Bartender, drinks and food all around" he then tossed the small pouch to the bartender who caught it with a surprised face.

The gray bearded man also started laughing and turned to the men behind him and barked at them to clean up the bodies, he then turned to Wesley and said:

"Haha, Young man, you keep surprising me. Come let's eat."

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Hours later, the small restaurant was once again filled with laughter and merry making as if nothing happened. On the restaurant's counter Wesley and the gray bearded man were talking while eating a roasted rabbit.

"Tell me Wesley, where have you learned how to fight. I have never seen such sword techniques before"

"Haha, Orion, you flatter me too much. These techniques of mine are nothing, I am more impressed by how organized you and your friends are."

Orion noticed that Wesley wasn't comfortable talking about his sword techniques so he simply scratched his gray beard and let it go. And then he spoke again with a laugh:

"Ah, you don't want to talk about it. But tell me, where are you headed, You can't just be going around killing random bandits"

"I am headed to Blackreach City, I have some business there"

"Oh, Blackreach City. I haven't been there since my mercenary days. The ladies there are worth spending all your wealth on." Orion laughed loudly after the thought.

"Old man Orion, you are turning out to be a bad influence on me" Wesley laughed as well.

Wesley really liked this old man Orion. He was straight forward and never hid his thoughts. Wesley enjoyed talking with these common bandits more than he enjoyed chatting with the Kingdom's nobility.

After hours of talking with Orion, Wesley learned that this restaurant was one of many all over the back roads of the kingdom that were specifically made for bandits since they can't go visit normal restaurants. He also learned that Orion was the leader of a troop of about three hundred bandits known as the Crimson Troop and that they were celebrating here today after a raiding a caravan.

Eventually, Wesley decided that it was time to head off. As he was saying his farewells to the men, Orion suddenly called out to him:

"Little Wesley, I have something for you"

Wesley instantly looked back with a look of interest as Orion approached him with a small parchment in his hand.

"This is a detailed map of the back roads. Unlike the main road which runs straight, these back roads can get rather confusing, it also has all bandit friendly restaurants marked on it"

As Wesley looked at the map, he noticed that it was far more detailed than the normal maps he saw at the palace, only the details on this map were specifically designed for bandit use so they showed bandit restaurants, hiding places, army forts and so on.

"Haha, old man Orion, this is a rather handy map. Thank you" Wesley spoke with sincerity.

"Don't mention it. Although we are bandits, we respect strength, and you little Wesley, are indeed strong"

"Thank you old man Orion, I will come visit next time I am in the area"

"Yes, yes. Make sure you do. Then I'll have you treat me to some roasted rabbit"

Having said his goodbyes, Wesley immediately set out. He had a map of the back roads so he wasn’t too cautious about where he went. But as he walked, a multitude of things ran through his head. The biggest thing being his need to improve his Silent Sword techniques since at their current level, if he faced strong opponents he would be forced to use magic, and he would very much rather not do that. Also, the fact that bandits such as Orion's Crimson Troop were so numerous showed that the situation in the Kingdom was not as great as he was led to believe while in the palace, however, this was none of his concern.

He simply continued moving forward, feeling a surge of excitement as what marvels he would find in these back roads.