Sepp’s pov:

Big brother always told us how dangerous the sea can be. It almost killed him once and he barely survived with a lot of luck. I was extra careful to be on my set course. With no major problems, I arrived at the human continent after 1 whole day. I was lucky, because the weather was really nice, and the sea was quiet.

The beach I arrived at, was surrounded by a huge forest. The sun was about to set and it would become night soon. I lighted my way through the forest with light magic. I had to keep my mana output to a minimum though, because the ship did already cost me more mana than I wanted it to. It was rarely enough to see where I was going. At least I didn’t bump into trees or stumble over roots.

The only thing I took with me was the map big brother drew for us. We weren’t stupid and made enough copies of it, so it was no problem if I took the original. But even with that map, navigating through that forest at night was quite the challenge. I was already exhausted and used up all of my rations on the ship, but despite that, I didn’t give up and moved forward.

Minute after minute passed and when I finally managed to find a way out, the sun was already up again. I was at my limit. I was tired, hungry, thirsty and a lot of other things. I was happy to get out of that forest, but the next I could remember was that I tripped over a stone and lost consciousness.

Rumble.

“Leave him be, we have to run away!”(?)

I slowly woke up. I had no idea how long I was out for or where I was. I was woken up by screams, followed by sounds of a fight. I sat up and slowly opened my eyes. I was surprised about where I was.

“Mr. Wizard, he woke up!”(?)

“We have other things to worry about leave him be and protect the young miss.”(?)

I was in the middle of a battlefield. I was surrounded by broken carriages, dead people and horses, as well as destruction of the land. Burned marks on the ground and destroyed buildings. It looked like I was picked up by someone and they were attacked. They probably stayed at this village and where attacked.

Whoever the attackers were, they used a lot to try and kill my saviour. I was finally able to calm down and get a clear head. I looked around and analysed the current results of this battle.

Roughly estimated, we had about 20 people, which were decimated to only 5 by the 100 or so enemies. It only took a short glance at the attackers and us to see both their goals. Everyone focused on 1 blonde, rich looking girl. I have no idea what a girl, who looks like she couldn’t even protect herself was doing at a battlefield, but she was probably my saviour, so I had to repay the favour.

“Mr. Wizard us 3 are the only ones left, what should we do? We are surrounded?”(?)

“Whatever happens we have to protect the young miss! Even if we have to give our lives, she has to go back to the capital.”(Mr. Wizard)

The so called young miss, was cowering and hiding behind the old, grey haired Magician. They were several metres away from me and a group of 20 or so enemies was coming at them.

“Fireball!”(Mr. Wizard)

A ball of fire was created in his hand and expanded extremely fast. It looked like such a spell would consume a lot of mana, which it does, but at least his last attempt to protect them, burned all of the 20 attackers down to ash, while scaring all the others away to a safe distance.

“Guh.”(Mr. Wizard)

The mana exhaustion strained his body and he went down on 1 knee. The little girl started to cry and tried to support the old man, meanwhile I slowly stood up and made my way to the others. No one noticed me yet.

“Grandpa Miedes.”(Young Miss)

“I told you to run. And how many times have talked about not saying our names in public?”(Miedes)

“I don’t want you to die. Don’t leave me.”(Young Miss)

“Dug!”(Miedes)

He turned to the only other survivor.

“Take her and run away.”(Miedes)

“I’m not leaving you behind.”(Dug)

“You fool, don’t you know what will happen if they get the young miss?”(Miedes)

They were desperately trying to let their young Miss escape.

“Hahaha. Don’t waste your energy old man, you are already surrounded.”(?)

A really scaring looking, middle aged man, with scars all over his face stepped out of the attacker’s group.

“Now, give me the princess and I’ll think about letting you live.”(?)

“Scar, don’t you know what will happen if you kill her?”(Miedes)

What a fitting name. I alredy regrouped with the old man, Dug and the young Miss. They watched me coming to them and looked at me with sad stares.

“This time there will be a real war, not a puny tournament.”(Scar)

“If you already know, then why would you do this?”(Miedes)

“That’s exactly what I want. There is no way humans can win this war and with only 4 races remaining, there will be constant war and with constant war, there will be more than enough work for mercenaries like us. Then we will receive money, build a villa and…”(Scar)

“Ahm, excuse me?”(Me)

I interrupted him. All the attention was focused on me.

“What?!”(Scar)

“Am I right in saying that this princess is the daughter of the human king?”(Me)

“Yes. Already this whole friction with the beastmen and now this. We are really cursed.”(Miedes)

“Hahah. You old fool. You should tell your retainers that you are escorting a princess.”(Scar)

“Retainer? Me? Haha. I think you misunderstood this a little. I’m no retainer.”(Me)

All of the remaining attackers closed in and made a circle surrounding us.

“Hoho. I don’t care about it. Kill them already.”(Scar)

1 person with a sword was slowly coming at us. Meanwhile Scar turned around and was about to leave.

“Princess, am I right in saying that you picked me up and saved me?”(Me)

The attacker already prepared to swing his sword down at me.

“Um.”(Princess)

She nodded her head and the enemy swung down his sword. The old man and the princess, as well as that Dug closed their eyes, so they didn’t have to see me getting split in 2 halves.

To everyone’s surprise, I caught his hand and broke his wrist.

“Ah!”(Attacker)

He let his sword drop and I picked it up. I looked at the shocked faces of everyone else, who witnessed this.

“Then I have already 2 reasons to protect you.”(Me)

I pierced the one who just dropped his sword in his chest and killed him in 1 go. Now they were even more dumbfounded.

“C-.”(Me)

I started to grade every enemy I killed after the adventurer guild rank system. It was a hobby of mine.

“1st you guys really saved me there and by coincidence we have the same destination.”(Me)

I leaped ahead and sliced the next person. I split his head in 2 halves and he also died instantly.

“D.”(Me)

Even Scar, turned back and couldn’t comprehend what happened.

“Go kill him! If you can’t do it alone do it together!”(Scar)

Even while coming in a group of 5, I swiftly dodged their attacks and killed everyone with 1 swing of my sword.

“C-, D+, C, D.”(Me)

They got scared of seeing their companions die and stopped coming at me. No one dared to move. When I looked around, I noticed that Scar was missing.

“Ah. Princess duck!”(Miedes)

An arrow was shot at the princess, I used light magic and formed a shield that protected her from the arrow.

“Sigh. Barely made it. What should I tell big brother if you kill her and a war would break out?”(Me)

The 1 who fired the arrow was none other than the missing Scar.

“You… You are a magician?”(Scar)

“Seems so.”(Me)

“Who are you?”(Miedes)

“Ahah. I haven’t introduced myself yet? I am Sepp from the Dark Continent. Nice to meet you.”(Me)

I smiled and said.

“The Dark… No more important, please save the princess.”(Miedes)

“Don’t worry, you will all come with me to the capital.”(Me)

I looked back at the remaining 60 or so attackers.

“I don’t want to shed unnecessary blood, so if you stop now, I will forget about it, or does anyone else want to try and die?”(Me)

“They are only 4 people, kill them!”(Scar)

No one dared to come at us.

“Good you guys understand.”(Me)

I held up the sword and went to the circle. 1st they only looked at me with fear, but when I pointed my sword at them, they understood and cleared a path for us.

“Let’s go now.”(Me)

I said as friendly as possible. Dug helped Miedes to walk and they slowly and carefully followed after me.

“You guys dare to go against me?”(Scar)

No one looked at him.

“Fine then I will kill them myself!”(Scar)

He picked up a sword and came at us.

“Sigh.”(Me)

I gave the sword to Miedes and prepared myself to fight barehanded. I took a fighting stance and waited for Scar to attack. His attack was really sloppy and again, I swiftly dodged his upfront swing to the right and punched him in the face.

He fell down on his back and his nose started bleeding. I turned around and didn’t mind him any longer.

“Sigh. C+. I’ll make sure to tell big brother of you. So live your last days as peacefully as possible.”(Me)

I caught up to the other 3 and left the defeated Scar lying on the floor. Miedes and Dug where still cautious around me. At least after half an hour, Miedes regained some strength and could go on without help. He and I took the lead and had a little talk.

“Haha. Don’t worry, I won’t do you any harm. I don’t want to start a war and anger big brother with it.”(Me)

“That big brother you speak of, it’s the Nightmare right?”(Miedes)

“Yes.”(Me)

“I thought so. So you really are from the Dark Continent?”(Miedes)

“Yes.”(Me)

“How is the land, are there other people?”(Miedes)

“I’m sorry, but I can’t answer those questions.”(Me)

“Sigh. Still. I am thankful that you rescued us.”(Miedes)

“I only repaid the favour.”(Me)

“Haha. Is that so.”(Miedes)

He had many questions, but big brother forbid us to talk about the Dark Continent to outsiders.

“What is you purpose in coming to the capital?”(Miedes)

“To meet the king and work for him.”(Me)

“Why would you do such a thing? Working for the Nightmare is the same as working for our king.”(Miedes)

“I’m sorry, I can’t answer this either.”(Me)

Our conversation went on like this. He asked a lot of question, while I couldn’t answer most of them. At least we didn’t get attacked by any other bandits or machineries.