Rufus and Amala arrived at the village in the middle of a white birch forest. It was a humble and poor-looking hamlet where most of the people either hunted or grew sheep.

With amazement, the villagers stared at Rufus and Amala and their Gherseng royal guards. In the eyes of Rufus, the villagers looked pitiful and poverty-stricken.

“We used to be wealthy selling wool we got from our sheep. Our wool was known as the best in the kingdom that was used to make the finest garments in the kingdom. But now those bandits force to give over half of it to them. If we don’t, they will burn down our village and kill us all,” Erwin explained.

As they walked to the center of the village they saw a man hanged from a ledge of the kingdom.

“He stood against the bandits and refused to give in to their demands. They hanged him to send a message and ordered that the same would happen to anyone who would cut him down,” Erwin explained and look pitifully at the hanging man.

Amala shot an arrow at the rope dropping the body. Rufus caught the deceased man and placed him gently on the ground.

“Give him a funeral that he deserves!” Rufus yelled at the villagers.

They took the body away as Rufus was taken into the meek house of Erwin. The around twenty Ghersengs stayed outside as guards of the house that garnered a lot of eyes staring at them.

“Where can we find these bandits?” Amala asked.

“They have a camp deep in the forest where they prey on travelers. They usually arrive during the night to collect their demands. It has been many days since they last came so they could be arriving any day now,” Erwin explained how the bandits acted.

“We should then just wait until they arrive. No use of going to find them in the forest,” Amala suggested.

~ ~

The next night lights were seen in the dark forest. They were coming closer to the village fast.

A group of armed humans arrived at the village on horseback holding torches.

“Wake up my good people. It is time to pay your taxes,” A man yelled with a sinister smile.

No one answered. A young man came out from a house. It was Rufus.

“Finally, someone coming to greet us,” the man laughed.

Rufus looked up at the roof of a house. He nodded as a way to give a signal to someone.

“I am the king Rufus Fairfax. I will give you one opportunity to surrender,” Rufus yelled to the bandits.

They all started to laugh hysterically. To them, it seemed like one of the villagers was imposing as the king.

“Look at those idiots. They think we would believe the new king would come here to save their sorry asses,” one of the bandits laughed.

Stone arrows flew at them killing five bandits simultaneously. They were not laughing anymore.

The Ghersengs came from the houses and surrounded the bandits. They looked confused as heavily armored and powerful-looking grey skins had just ambushed them.

One bandit tried to escape the encirclement but an arrow was shot right between his legs. They looked up and saw Amala on top of a house holding her bow and taking aim at them.

The bandits then felt an immense power walking toward them. They were too afraid of looking straight at the person. Even if they didn’t have divinity the immense pressure of Rufus could be felt by everyone.

Rufus stood in front of the bandit leader. He was taller than Rufus, but in his eyes, he felt tiny when he stared at Rufus.

He then coughed up the courage and took a hidden blade and lunged to stab Rufus on his neck. Rufus grabbed the knife easily and pushed the bandit leader away. The knife crumbled into dust as he was holding on to it. He then placed his palm on the bandit leader's face who was too petrified to move. Cracks started to appear all over his face as tears started to flow from his eyes.

The bandit leader crumbled into dust and died in front of his comrades. Rufus stared at the rest of the bandits who all had fallen on their butts in horror.

“Does anyone else want to resist the king?” Rufus yelled out.

~ ~

The next morning Rufus left the village. He had commanded the bandits to reach out to the black rat gang and join their ranks or else he would go after them personally.

The villagers were more than thankful to Rufus. They all swore undying fealty to their king and vowed to be loyal subjects of him. Rufus felt really confined with the villagers treating him in such a way and preferred them being more casual with him.

~~

“You really surprised me,” Amala said as they were walking back to the river town.

“What do you mean?” Rufus asked.

“The way you acted. The cold way you took care of the situation and made them fear you. Wouldn’t have thought you had it in you like that.”

“Well yeah. I guess I also have changed a bit,” Rufus said and uncomfortably laughed.

Amala rubbed her shoulder against Rufus.

“It is okay to change, but don’t change too much,” Amala said with a wide smile.