When Merlin went to speak with the guards, they were wary of him and they all went for their weapons the second Merlin tried to approach him. Merlin was surprised by their reaction, though it was natural for them to be on guard against a stranger, he didn’t expect them to be so wary of the very person who had just saved them. Merlin ignored their reactions, and tried to talk to them.

Merlin: “Hello there! Are you ok?”

Given their state after the fight, being ok was a little of an overstatement. They were tired, and they had lost most of their fellow guards, if they suffered a second attack they would be unable to retaliate, so their wariness of Merlin, who could try to attack them in their weakened state and do whatever he wanted to them, was completely justified.

In addition, they had their young lady to think of. At that moment, they didn’t have the ability to protect her from whatever it was that Merlin wanted to do to her, so they didn’t answer him and just kept their hands on their weapons.

In their agitated states of mind, they didn’t realize that if Merlin held any ill intentions toward them, he could simply have allowed the bandits to continue their attack and eliminate them after they had finished off all the guards. Seeing that they didn’t answer him and their wariness of him had increased, Merlin tried to talk to them again.

Merlin: “Oh, come on, guys! What’s with those faces? I’m not going to attack you, if I wanted to do so, you would already be dead!”

Hearing Merlin’s remark, the surviving guards realized his words held some truth in them, with the fighting ability he had previously shown, if he wanted them dead, they wouldn’t be able to even put up a fight. However, he had done nothing to them, instead, he was trying to talk with them, which made them let their guard down, and finally relax a little.

Guard A: “Who are you, boy? Where do you come from? For what reason did you help us?”

The guard with the most seniority among them couldn’t help but ask those questions. He had travelled around the continent as an adventurer in his younger days, and was familiar with most of the fighting styles on the continent, but he hadn’t recognized the fighting style Merlin had used when he dealt with the bandits.

That made him curious about the boy’s background, he looked to be only 12-13 years old, yet his martial prowess was superior to that of veterans like them. He thought that he boy either belonged to a powerful family from another continent, or he had inherited one of those secret legacies passed down the generations in an ancient family. Those were the only possibilities he could think of.

It didn’t matter though, the most pressing matter at that time was to make sure their young miss safely reached her destination. Their manpower had suffered big losses in their confrontation with the bandits, and who knew if there was someone else preparing an ambush to attack their young miss.

The guard decided that they had to convince Merlin of accompanying them and protect their young miss until they reached their destination. Meanwhile, Merlin had a decision to make. It was painfully obvious to him, that after the attack, their fighting power had greatly diminished, and they would try to rope him in, for the time being, in order to assure the security of whomever it was that was riding inside the carriage, and Merlin had to decide whether he would lend a helping hand or not.

Merlin: “My name is Merlin, Merlin Lefey. I am from a little village thousand of miles away from here, and I am currently doing a learning journey in order to experience the world. My master said that in order to understand the way of the heavens, I have first to experience the vastness of the world.”

*So he really has a master… I wonder who might be,* thought the guard. They really needed Merlin’s help, but he needed to make sure the master of the boy wasn’t at odds with the family of the young miss. *Besides, it’s the first time I have ever heard the surname Lefey. It’s likely that they are not from around here, after all, he said he his village was thousands of miles away.*

Guard A: “Tell me, young man. What is your esteemed master’s name?”

Merlin didn’t know how to answer that question. He couldn’t say his master was an ancient god who was now sealed inside his body, so he went through the names of martial artists in the xianxia novels he had read back on Earth, and chose a name randomly.

Merlin: “My esteemed master’s name is Meng Hao.”

Guard A: “Meng Hao? I’m afraid I have never heard of him before, I apologize for my ignorance!” *I really don’t know that name, which means his master has never crossed paths with any members of the family of the young miss!*

Merlin: “It’s understandable, my master is a very reclusive person. Please, don’t mind it!”

Guard A: “Thank you, young man. May I ask where are you headed?”

Merlin: “From what I’ve been told by some villagers I asked a few days ago, this road should lead to the city of Daferma. I intend to register in the Adventurers Guild there. Is that information wrong?” *Come on! It’s obvious that you are heading there too, and you want to ask me to protect the carriage with you! Ask away!*

Guard A: “What a coincidence! The information is accurate, we are heading there ourselves, could I trouble you with giving us a hand in defending the carriage till we get there? You will be rewarded, of course!” *This is too coincidental! Our destinations are the same, is it fate? Or is he a young assassin sent to kill our young miss?*

As the guard was pondering about the possibility of Merlin being an assassin, Merlin looked straight at him without saying a word.

*Nah, I must be overthinking things,* thought the guard.

He was about to offer him a ride inside the carriage, when Merlin asked him if he could borrow a horse of the dead guards. He was surprised by his suggestion, but he quickly agreed to Merlin’s request.

As they were talking, the guard saw Merlin’s surprised face, as he witnessed the surviving guards capturing the horses of the defeated bandits in a way that could only be described as “cowboy style”, and for just a moment, Merlin felt like he had suddenly transported to the Earth’s Old West.

The guard misunderstood Merlin’s reaction, and kindly explained to him, that they were capturing the horses of the bandits to sell them to a horse dealer as soon as they reached the city. Those horses could easily fetch a total of 50 gold, with a good haggle, and that money would help the families of the deceased guards get by for some time.

After thanking the guard for his explanation, Merlin walked toward the horses of the deceased guards to choose his mount. However, when he approached them, the horses backed away from him, only one remained, and that one horse inclined its head down in submission to Merlin. The next second, he jumped and mounted the horse.

Just as the guard who had talked to him before was about to warn Merlin to get away from that horse, he saw Merlin jump to mount the horse, and succeed. This left the guard and his comrades speechless, that horse was “Tempest”, the mount of their deceased captain, and up to that moment, Merlin was the first person, aside from their captain, to mount Tempest without ending up with a broken back.

Having finished rounding up the horses of the bandits, and burnt their corpses, they finally set out for Daferma. Talking with the guards, Merlin learnt they were at the service of Viscount Monyme, and they were escorting a guest to his house. In spite of their vague words, Merlin could infer there was a lot more to it than just a visiting guest.

There were a lot of inconsistencies in their story, besides, there were several other seemingly unrelated facts that were inconspicuous on their own, but when they were put together, told a very different story. For example, the horses of both the bandits and the guards weren’t normal horses, they were war horses, and unlike what the guard had said, their real price if sold was about 250 gold.

Also, the location of the ambush had been carefully selected, no matter if it was Ragnarök or Daferma, even if they deployed reinforcements for the guards who were protecting the carriage, by the time they arrived to the location of the ambush everything would have already ended.

And then, there was the strongest clue that indicated the bandit attack had been a carefully planned assassination attempt targeting the mysterious person inside the carriage, all the bandits had very good equipment, and their fighting style was that of the imperial guards from the capital of the Dollan Empire.

Lokiseth had drilled into Merlin the characteristics of the different fighting styles existent in Klantea, not to the point of mastering them, but enough for Merlin to recognize them if he sees someone using them.

The fact that a squad of imperial guards from the Dollan Empire had disguised themselves as bandits to target the mysterious person in the carriage, made him feel uneasy, but he didn’t say anything, he just became more vigilant of their surroundings, just in case another ambush had been prepared as a backup plan.

The rest of the journey went on without incidents despite Merlin’s vigilance. It looked that whoever was behind the assassination attempt, either thought that previous ambush was perfect and there was no need for a backup plan, or the backup plan would take place in Daferma.

However, Merlin didn’t dwell much on it, for it was completely unrelated to him, and not his business. He had agreed to help them protect the carriage, and his job would end as soon as they delivered the carriage and the mysterious person to the mansion of Viscount Monyme, then they would part ways and whatever happened to the mysterious person from them on, didn’t have anything to do with him anymore.

As they went through the gates in the city wall, Merlin looked around him in awe. Seeing that, the guards started to say teasing words to him, half-jokingly. The truth was that the city was very different from what he had pictured it from the descriptions his parents had made of it. That was only natural, though, the Daferma they had described to him, was the one 15 years prior, and the city had changed a lot in that span of time.

When he finished “admiring” the city, as the guards said, he accompanied them to the Mansion of Viscount Monyme to receive his reward. Merlin wanted to quickly get over with it and find a room in an inn, before going to the Adventurers Guild.

He was impatient, and he was starting to feel like leaving without receiving his reward, but he finally managed to calm himself down and thought *Well, Merlin, you have already waited 7 years before having a chance to become an adventurer, waiting an additional hour won’t kill you!*.

In the end, Merlin decided to wait for the viscount. Although Merlin’s peerage was a higher rank than the viscount’s, and Daferma was in Merlin’s territory, right at that moment, Merlin was a simple boy making a learning journey, and experimenting the vastness of the world, as per orders of his master. He wasn’t an Earl, so unless he wanted his real identity to be uncovered, he had no choice but to give face to the viscount and wait for him.

________________________________________________________________________________

You can always read a chapter ahead, or support the story, at http://merlinpendragon.blogspot.com/ !