River Mildrawn, one of the main rivers that give life to the Barony of Tervynberg. It is the very living blood of the farms, forest, villages, and cities of the western Swazbia. It carries rich blessings from the inland to the sea. Every speck of land it passes becomes bountiful. Its banks were always rich with earth’s blessings. And it is also the favorite location for fruit-bearing plants and trees to grow. In competition, they twisted their trunks and stems to cover the flowing river, which in turn attracts birds from above and fishes below.

Most of the river were covered with large trees that small plants don’t have the chance to grow. So Pierre and Nessi went further downriver to find an open spot where small plants were growing in numbers.

“I-is this really a good idea? I heard some rumors in town that there are bandits and monsters in this part of the forest.” Nessi murmured her concern. She is currently riding saddle side with Pierre as they galloped through the plains, following the river on top of Willheim. The open grass plains made it easier for them to reach this part of the barony.

“It is alright. And if they ever appear, I will defeat them all. I was better than my older brothers in using the sword.” Pierre patted the short sword on his right side.

They slowed down once they reached and entered the deep woods.

“Did… you… fought some bandits in the past?” Nessi asked.

“Ah… N-not yet but my teacher already told me that with my skills, I could handle two or three of them.” Pierre replied.

“I was the first one to ever receive a real sword. My brothers have yet to get one.” Pierre gleefully unsheathed his sword and hoisted it.

“My, my… ” Nessi pretended to giggle then smiled weakly as she looked at the sky.

She knew the life of a woman in this kind of world. She would have to marry, give birth and take care of the house. But she doesn’t know if her future husband will be dependable or not. She witnessed many couples in town that mostly fight after marriage due to knowing the real and true personality of their partner.

So she cannot depend on her mother in selecting a husband for her. She knew the limits of being a farmer’s daughter but she also knew that her beauty and feminine wiles is one of her main weapons in attracting good men with status. This is also the reason why she really took great care with her appearance and body. And why she wanted new set of clothes in the first place.

‘I do not intend to remain crafting baskets in my entire life.’ She always swore to use everything she had to change her life.

Luckily, she was not born with any defects or even freckles like the other town girls. She has a long curly red hair with brown eyes. Her face was even praised by the guards and men of the town to be one of the fairest, second only to the baron’s wife. But this is also the source of trouble for her among the circle of women in the town. Jealousy and envy from other girls were her daily thorns.

And not only that, her family is also the only remaining relative of the baron’s wife. Mylene is her distant cousin by blood from her father’s side. Making her the only known aunt of the baron’s children. But her age does not impede the grown adolescent boys to be infatuated with her.

And one of the fishes she caught was the baron’s son, Pierre whom made his advances towards her aggressively. He is a year younger than her but that doesn’t stop the boy from trying to earn her heart. Although she still doesn’t know if Pierre knew that they are distant relatives.

“How was your week by the way? Any problems?”

“Well, mother and I were busy preparing for the incoming winter. We are preoccupied in earning every coin possible.”

“How about I gave you and your family meat during the cold season? I am sure father wouldn’t mind if I send a barrel of mutton.”

“Really? Thank you Master Pierre.”

Pierre smiled at her gratitude. He is the third son of Baron Gregory but that doesn’t make him inferior than his older brothers and siblings. In truth, Pierre is the best candidate as the baron’s heir than the eldest. He is the only one among his brothers to be exempted from the daily classes. At the young age of four, he can already read books. Then at age 7, he is the first to be able to ride a horse. And when he was 11 years old, he was already assisting his father in managing the barony. Many of the servants even consider him the rightful heir of the barony.

Obviously, this made his older brothers jealous of him, especially Frederick. His achievements and growing favoritism of their father on Pierre made him the worst enemy of the eldest. But they cannot bully or punctuate their rants and anger on him.

Last time they did so, Pierre was able to defend himself and beat up his two brothers. To avoid any more chaos and growing of resentment, their father stopped depending on Pierre.

Then with his father’s permission, he started his martial lessons much early with Ser Gendry, the military advisor of the barony. Since then, he was influence by his teacher and later got a dream of becoming a knight. He still fantasizes about the stories of knights vanquishing monsters, bandits, thieves, defeating evil and saving the kingdom. Remembering his childhood dreams brought smile to his face.

They now headed down the damp, mossy and heavily wooded area of the forest. Then Nessi heard the sound of flowing water.

After several minutes of trekking in the woods, they finally reached the banks of the river.

“Well, here we are.” Pierre showed off the place. They stopped at the edge of the water and watched its clear serene surface being flowed by leaves and fishes. It was so clear that they could see all the way to the white sand at the very bottom of the river. And they could also judge by their eyes on how deep the furthest part is.

“Wow! I have never seen much fratberries growing on a single place!” Nessi was quite amazed to see the long lines of shrubs of fratberries on the open banks.

“I found this place last month when I was taking Willheim on a ride.”

They stopped at the river bank to let Willheim drink and rest. Pierre got down first and tied the reins on a nearby branch of a tree.

“Can you help me get down by the way?”

“Ah yeah, I almost forgot that this is your first time to ride a horse.”

Nessi proceeded to gather berries on her basket. She hummed as she picked every good berry she could find while also chewing on some of them. She also found other types of berries growing on the banks.

‘It’s such a waste that I only brought a basket. Some of the berries here were sought out by merchants and traders.’ She saw other wild species of the rare Nautberries and Vivid berries that is a luxury spice for the wealthy.

“Ahh!! The water here just feels great! The sea really cannot beat the fresh water. Hahaha! Hey! Let’s take a dip later!” Pierre started playing with the river. He already took off most of his clothes, leaving him only with his pants on.

He is still a 16 years old boy but his muscles and body was already chiseled from obvious training and hardwork. He has few scars on his arms which he got from his sparring lessons.

“Yeah, but let me fill these baskets first before that.”

“Hmm… fine.”

She could already feel and know what Pierre really intended for inviting her here. He is a growing boy and at the age where he would obviously start thinking things about it. But she still has to put some distance between them or else she will be considered a woman that is easy to get. Teasing the boy and getting pursued increases the charms and worth of a woman.

“By the way, can you even swim?” Pierre asked.

“Yeah, I usually swim on the sea once a week with my friends.”

She also found mushrooms and herbs growing on the area. But knowing that her basket cannot carry them all, she gathered tall grass leaves and crafted a large pouch then filled the pouches with all mushrooms, herbs and wild plants she could sell and eat.

“Master Pierre, can you help me carry this to Willheim? Just tie the pouches to his saddle.”

“Ah, y-yeah.”

Seeing how Pierre’s reaction is, she motivated him with a reward.

“Once we finish packing these up, we can take a dip together.”

“Ohh! Okay!”

He quickly got out of the water and grabbed the pouches from her. He went towards the tree where he tied his horse’s reins. The saddle has small hooks for this purpose so he was able to quickly tie the pouches.

‘Maybe it’s time for Willheim to wear armor… just to get used in preparation for the future when he becomes my steed in every battle. I wonder if there are blacksmith in Balanli who knows how to craft one… and will it be expensive?’

He was mulling about his future plans when Willheim suddenly neighed in pain and fell to the ground with a thud.

He froze after seeing the arrow that is lodged deeply in his horse’s eye.

It took several seconds before Pierre returned to his senses.

“N-Nessi! G-get back!” he immediately went back to Nessi.

“Eh?”

“S-s-someone… just shot an… a-arrow and killed Willheim. It may have been a bandit.” He unsheathes his short sword and dragged Nessi to hide behind a tree. Then several more arrows landed on the horse’s body.

“W-we should run Pierre!”

“W-wait, we must first see and know on where did the arrows came from. Don’t come out from this tree.” Pierre crept to another tree near his horse. He grabbed the basket from Nessi and poured the contents to the ground. Then he used it to shield his head as he crept.

‘Judging from the positions of the arrows, the archer may have come from that overgrown hill… wait… *sniff *sniff… herbs?’ He concluded after checking the corpse. Then both of them suddenly heard footsteps.

“P-Pierre! We must go!”

“Y-yeah! Come!” he ran back towards Nessi and grabbed her hand as they run.

Pierre led the way. They continued running until he was stopped by a scream of pain behind him and lost the hand he was grabbing. He turned only to see Nessi crouching as she held her leg.

“AHHH!!!!”

There is an arrow that was buried deep on her flesh, causing lots of blood to flow. Nessi was shot on her upper thigh.

‘Shit! There are multiple archers?!’

Both of them went to the direction that can cover them from any attacker on the hill but this time – from the position of the arrow – someone shot it from the woods on their far side.

“M-my leg! It hurts!!!” She fell on the ground with tears on her eyes. The extreme pain she felt is delivered thoroughly on her face.

“P-P-Pierre! H-help me!”

Pierre tried to help her stand but her body didn’t listen. She tried to take out the arrow by herself but was stopped by the piercing pain she received when she touched it.

“Huwaaa!”

An arrow wound is no simple matter. Especially if he also don’t know if the arrowhead is coated with poison or paralytic coating. And from her large wound, he surmised that the arrowhead’s shape is purposely crafted to bleed out its targets.

‘S-she will lose a lot of blood if I don’t treat this immediately! B-but I don’t know how to treat this! I-I am not knowledgeable in this type of situation! W-what should I do?! I heard that if I forcibly took out the a-arrow, she will just bleed out. W-what should I do damn it?!’ Pierre was already sweating in buckets.

Then the footsteps of several people drew nearer with every crunching of dried leaves. Judging by the sound, Pierre could tell that there are more than ten people, Because of the howling wind in the woods, both of them don’t know in which direction they will be coming from and it terrified them.

Running away without knowing which way they should go would be very foolish. Getting impaled by a sword or spear, hidden from the shrubs is just one of his main reasons why he didn’t do so. And also getting shot down by arrows and dying slowly from bleeding is the last thing he wanted.

But awaiting the arrival of these unknown people and getting surrounded is also foolish, so Pierre had to decide on what to do immediately. They couldn’t head back the way they came as that path can get them spotted so easily.

They would’ve been able to get away in time if Willheim was not shot down. But their chance of getting away is getting smaller as every second passes.

His confusion and indecisiveness transformed into fear. He is slowly getting consumed by fear and panic that he is already considering to leave the wounded Nessi lying on the ground.

‘I-I can’t let myself get captured here! I-if I get captured, there is no guarantee that father will even pay for the ransom. T-then I would be more likely be s-sold as a slave. S-so I should-’

“Oho, what do we have here...” a voice interrupted his thoughts.

Several men with leather armors, armed with spears, swords and axes revealed themselves one by one from the woods. Their dirty appearance and variety of looted weapons obviously screams that they are bandits.

“S-Stay back!” Pierre tried to intimidate them with his sword.

“Hehehe… Boss, looks like we bagged a couple in the middle of their tryst.” One of the men grinned as he spotted Nessi on the ground, shivering.

‘F-fuck! Fuck!! Damn patrols! Their incompetence had let this forest get infested with bandits! Fuck! W-what should I do?! Shit! Shit! Think! Think!’ he keeps on thrashing on his mind.

‘C-can I run even if I wanted to? But there is still that concern of the archers. These bandits must have been watching us for some quite a time before deciding to ambush us.’

And one of the reasons he cannot run immediately is because their back is on the river. He can swim, but that doesn’t guarantee his safety from being shot down by an arrow or impaled by a javelin while swimming.

‘What would teacher do in this situation? Would I try to talk this out? No, these men would not risk having their quarry run away. And even if I did manage to get my own safety through words, they would still exchange me for a ransom. Then should I fight? But could I even handle all of them? I don’t want to die just yet! What should-’

Then he saw the engraved name on the handle of his sword.

[ Aurstag ]

The name of his favorite hero.

He suddenly remembered the fantasy bedtime stories. Then he slowly got back his senses. In this situation – surrounded but defeating the bandits then saving a helpless maiden – he can finally become the knight he always dreamed of.

‘Can I beat them? No! I must! I am a noble. It is my duty to protect the honor and dignity of my family!’

Power and strength replaced his fear and panic that crawled on his body previously.

With experience from sparring many times with the Ser Gendry, he forced his body to awaken his inner self that was considered a prodigy by his teacher. Blood pounded heavily on his chest, muscles, eyes and ears. Making him narrow everything down in his surroundings.

“Fuuu… ha…. Fuuu… Haa…” Pierre controls his panicking breathing into a calm state. He was taught that panic breathing will make him tire out faster and easily. And he is surrounded by bandits so he don’t have the luxury to waste a single breathe for a single mistake.

Then after finally calming himself, he analyzes his situation. He observed his surroundings, viewing their equipment, weapons and body height. Then counted every bandit.

‘One, two, three, four… hmm, about fifteen to sixteen road thugs… but no one among them is carrying a bow… so no, seventeen or more if I count the archers that took down Willheim.’

Most of bandits were just farmers or road beggars who looted some weapons and armors on a battlefield. Their large numbers mostly takes up what they lack in skills and experience.

Before they could fully surround him, he must take the initiative and attack first.

‘Saint Georgia, bless me with the blood of my enemies!’