“Captain, did you find it?” Kebfa sat on a rock, breathing a bit heavy as she had just returned and was writing on a large sheet of paper with a quill.

“Yup, I found the entrance. Two annoying bandits were chatting loudly which gave away their positions. I have everything marked up ahead, we just need to leave a few more marks on the way back.”

As they started to head out, Bedgard asked him a question, “Did you kill?”

“I wanted to. They were just blatantly talking about kidnapping and using females as toys when I spied on them. Acting as if they were the kings and nobles.”

“Captain… You’re venting a bit too much again. You can let it all out when we gather the others,” Kebfa stared at him through her helmet in concern.

Hearing the word ‘Noble’, Yuu decided to ask a question to Kebfa in a more quiet voice, not wanting Chrisel to hear, “I keep hearing that word come up a lot in the past few days, what’s up with them?”

Even though she was usually talkative, at least more so than Bedgard, she paused her voice for a few seconds, “Not just in this kingdom, but in other places, the rich own the poor. There are a few places where even if you’re rich, the only power you have is living a lavish life, but most regions have a system where nobles or those with high-power can get away with a lot of things.

“Like if a king asked for a commoner to be his wife, they have little to no power to resist. Even if she’s protected by the public or has a husband, the king can just silently put a kill on them and no one will know. Same thing for a noble. Even if they kill twenty people, they’ll at most just get a slap on the face, compared to a commoner killing a noble which mostly is just a death sentence.

“Luckily such events are dimming down, with more education being put in for the young, regardless of background, nobles are starting to have less power, but even a few weeks ago, a man got killed by an assassin cause he pissed off someone.”

Seeing how her tone was a bit monotone, he could tell that the situation was a bit more serious as this didn’t just happen in books, this was real life, when people wielded power, especially in a place where development for those below was harder, it became easier to be restrained.

Especially since he learned that in other countries, slavery was a rampant yet legal system. It did not happen too much here, becoming only a thing for special prisoners, to not allow for someone to falsely imprison someone and turn them into a slave.

Regardless, there were a lot of issues, and to see the disparities between a noble and commoner made his face give a slightly sour look as it showed how cruel a fantasy world could potentially be.

Just as the four were about to leave the forest after a long walk, they heard a bunch of people shouting in the distance.

“Burn! Burn!” An adult male waved a bottle next to an open fire in the middle of the road and threw it towards the guards outside the wall.

Before that person could throw another, he felt a disconnect between his arm and looked to see it chopped off, falling onto the group while he felt a bolt of pain.

Someone wearing a guard outfit similar to Chrisel and the other two stabbed the man once more before suddenly raising his sword above him. “Ah!” he let out his voice when he felt a sharp object go through his legs.

There were two beings in front of him right now, grinning. To be more specific, two goblins were laughing as they constantly moved, trying to keep the guard pinned as all of his strength went out as the guard was falling on his knees, using nothing but his sword and a gloved hand to block the incoming strikes.

“Gah!” one of the goblins shrieked before going silent. Even while he was being pushed down, the guard managed to stab the goblin in its chest, presumably where its heart was before trying to raise his sword to block against the other goblin. But before he could see whether or not the second goblin would be successful, he saw a transparent blue spear go through its head, completely leaving nothing but blood and guts, not even an intact head.

There, he saw Kebfa release her magic before running with the others towards him.

“Captain!” The guard tried to go up as soon as he saw Chrisel and the others approach, however, while the stab wound on his leg was minor, it impacted his mobile abilities at the moment.

“Rest for now, James, tell me immediately what’s going on!” the captain began placing his palm on the injured guard, healing the wound while waiting for him to speak.

“The worst thing happened, the bandits allied with a few smaller bandit groups, and they actually teamed up with the goblins!”

Everyone's eyes lit up upon hearing this. Even Bedgard didn’t seem as calm as he took out a large battle axe out of nowhere and waited on the captain’s order.

Noticing how grim the situation was, Chrisel did not hesitate and ordered Bedgard to go and support anyone who appeared to be not doing well in battle while Kebfa was to help those currently in an one vs. one battle to help group the guards up to gang on them.

“Chrisel, let me come with you, I may not be much help but I will be able to distract one!” Seeing everyone work during this mess, Yuu did not want to stand still. Seeing how only he was left, he wanted to hear his response before taking action.

“No, I will be heading straight into the beast’s mouth, you can either support Kebfa or go on ahead and see if there are adventurers fighting outside.” Not even waiting to hear the response, Chrisel dashed towards the middle of the battle and started ripping apart the enemies with his sword.

Seeing how he was left, the guard who was previously injured stood up due to his leg being healed, “Come with me if you want to help. I can’t walk properly right now so support me in battle, at least until you can find others.” While healing magic did heal physical damage, it took more skill to heal the damage done to the mind as it was an extremely complicated procedure, depending on the damage itself. Due to being only healed physically, the guard stumbled due to him thinking he was in pain.

Walking at a fast walking pace, they caught up to a guard trying to defend against two goblins, clearly being at a heavy disadvantage. Taking the initiative to take one of the goblins off the tired guard’s belt, Yuu charged forward.

Being too focused on battle, the goblin did not anticipate the scythe coming down towards its head and stumbled back, barely dodging it, however, due to the sudden strike, it fell onto the ground. Even though the guard who was facing them didn’t know what was happening, he decided to take the moment to swing his spear towards the fallen goblin.

“Clang!” the other goblin successfully managed to block the attack, but now it was in a stalemate, unable to move as the spear was pressing down.

It wasn’t until a sword quickly swung against the locked goblin’s stomach, causing it to loosen the short sword it wielded before feeling a spear hit its shoulder. The other goblin that had fallen had already gotten up, but just as it was about to defend the other goblin its vision started to get blurry before falling down. Yuu had retracted back and swung his scythe in time to strike it in its head.

Despite the injury on the stomach, after seeing its comrade fallen, the other goblin released a shriek before aggressively launching towards the guard wielding the spear in front of it, probably because the dead goblin was presumably a friend that it cared for. Before it could actually attack, a sword once more swung at it, this time, at its neck, finally ending its life.

James, the one Yuu followed, helped the spear-wielding guard lay his back on a tree before speaking, “You alright there buddy? Take a minute to get your life together and help anyone else struggling.” Making sure no enemies were near them, he began slightly limping at a fast pace towards another group, “Yuu, let’s go!”