Quite a few bandits were already injured from the house that Clayton had just blown apart. The rest were shocked into a state of mindless stupor. They had not realized that the rest of the Silver Saviors were charging at them until they had already arrived. Most of the bandits had little to no armor on and were easily felled by the Silver Saviors' blades. After the first ten bandits had already died, the rest finally realized what was happening. A few just sat down and gave no resistance. They figured that surrender was their best option now. There were also a few bandits who tried to fight back or dodge the incoming blades from the Silver Saviors. This turned out badly since it just made their deaths more agonizing when a Silver Savior chopped a limb off or disemboweled them with a strike that would have otherwise instantly killed them.

Adam and the other boys just looked on dumbfounded. First there was Clayton blowing that one house to smithereens. Then those Silver Saviors all seemed to suddenly turn barbaric as they killed their way through the bandits! While the boys did not really know what to expect from this fight, they did not expect this. Adam shuddered not just at the carnage but at the mass of souls dispersing as well.

The boys got scared when they suddenly heard Clayton's voice beside them: “This is just a small taste of what war is like. A real war is at least ten times worse than this. At least these bandits are all scum that intentionally hurt others to continue living their despot lives. In real wars you've got good folk on both sides listening to the orders of their higher ups. It is the higher ups that typically have a dispute between them that get good people killed. The soldiers are mostly innocent until they get hit by the war. Then all hell breaks loose...”

Clayton's gaze seemed to be looking somewhere else as he said this. The boys could only gulp when they thought that a war would be ten times worse than what they were seeing now. Clayton then left the boys there to help clean up the mess they made of the bandits' stronghold. It had not taken long for the Silver Saviors to completely occupy it. Most of the bandits were dead or dying with just a few having surrendered. There were also those who managed to flee and a few small groups of the Silver Saviors went out to try and find them.

The first thing that was done to clean up was to securely tie up the fifteen or so bandits that had surrendered. It seemed that even that tough leader had caved in after seeing Clayton's display since he was in the group that had surrendered. After relocating their captives and setting up some guards to make sure none of them escaped, the gruesome process of burying the dead began. If the stronghold was more remote, the Silver Saviors may have not even bothered with this process. However, the stronghold was very close to the road. Many wild animals would be attracted to the fresh corpses and could cause troubled for many travelers going past here. They also didn't want the travelers to have too see the aftermath of the bandits being slaughtered.

The Silver Saviors did not give the bandits any respectable graves. They were merely going to dig up some shallow mass graves and push everything in. This was going to take some time to do even with all of the Silver Saviors present.

While the Silver Saviors were cleaning up, Adam and the others shakily went a distance away to sit down. They were all pale with fright and shaken up. There was something subconscious in each of them that made this fight so hard to look at. Even if they had gone hunting to kill and gut numerous animals, there was something entirely different seeing humans die and watching their arms being chopped off and seeing their blood everywhere. Perhaps it was the harrowing thought that humans are truly no different from animals. They are just as mortal and as easily killed as the weakest swine you could hunt.

Each of the boys were thinking their own thoughts about what had happened. They also cast a few fearful glances at the Silver Saviors. When they noticed the boys sending these glances, they felt a bit hurt from it but understood their reaction. The seemingly good natured people they had become familiar with suddenly went crazy and slaughtered a bunch of others. No matter whether the victims were bandit or not, this is what Adam and the others had seen. No matter how you try to prepare, there is no way to be ready for war.

Looking at the boys Hansen suddenly said: “I know you weren't prepared to see this. Just think of this though; in that last town these bandits had already killed a few good folk. In the future they would only become more brazen and kill more. Would you like it if they came to Madame's and killed everyone there? Each person they killed had a family that loved them. These bandits have to be stopped one way or another.”

When Hansen said this, Adam thought of that old man who had died after they dug him out of that ruined barn. There were also the other bodies in the street of the town when they arrived. Adam and the others could calm a little down when they thought that this was simply something that had to be done or more innocents would die.

Compared to the boys, Silber fared much better. While the loud noises of the house exploding and the war cries from the fight had scared him, the smell of blood brought out some of his wild instincts just like hunting had. Adam had to let Silber down since he was squirming too much from the excitement of the blood. Silber ran around the grass nearby playing his excitement out while Adam and the others calmed down from the ordeal.

Night quickly began to fall and the Silver Saviors set up camp some distance away. They wouldn't use the bandits' stronghold to camp since there was still gore and the smell of blood everywhere. After they had eaten dinner, Adam began to practice with his sword song to completely regain his calm. Instead of letting his thoughts stray to that battle, Adam devoted himself entirely to the sword song.

The way the Silver Saviors camped this night was with the captured bandits in the center of the camp and everyone else generally surrounding the bandits. Adam and the others were not quite at the outskirts of the camp but were closer to the outside than to the bandits. They had been given plenty of room around themselves so that they didn't feel too claustrophobic from being surrounded by the Silver Saviors. They did it this way so that boys wouldn't be so on edge with being close to those who had just slaughtered their way through bandits. It might bring a bit more peace of mind to them while they slept. This set up allowed the space between the boy's camp area and the others to become much darker than other places in the camp.

Adam was currently sitting on the ground with his sword in his lap. Silber was lying down asleep close to Adam. The snoozing Silber suddenly seemed startled as it peered into the semi darkness that surrounded the boys' camp area and let out a couple barks. This brought Adam out of his reverie with the sword song. He stood up as he peered with his elemental sight toward where Silber was barking. The darkness meant nothing to Adam's elemental sight and he easily saw someone who was sneaking his way! As soon as Adam seemed to look at him, the person quickly began dashing at Adam! As the man started dashing, Adam finally recognized who it was: it was that bald bandit leader!

The bald bandit was brandishing a knife as he charged at Adam. This bandit had been an expert at sneaking and had managed to get quite a distance away without being discovered. He had even managed to steal a knife on the way! The bandit felt everything was going his way and he could soon escape from this crazy troupe of mercenaries who were led by a man that could destroy a house with a single swing! He didn't care about any of his subordinates he only wanted to get away as soon as possible and save his own sorry skin.

While he was sneaking away, he found an area that was darker than other places in the camp. This would allow him to more easily escape! The bandit was not expecting a dog to be there to sniff him out, though. While he was going by Adam's camp he saw Adam sitting down. The bandit sneered as he though: “Stupid kids playing soldier boy.”

It was only when Silber started barking that the bandit noticed there was a puppy dog by Adam's side. Adam then stood up as he looked directly towards the bandit, even with a blindfold on! The bandit was startled and suddenly started dashing at Adam with his knife at the ready. He had to quickly kill the kid and the dog and make his escape if he wanted to get out of this place!

As the bandit quickly approached, Adam could see the violent turbid emotions boiling in his soul. This man clearly had bad intentions in his heart. Adam was in fact a little scared of this man. He was larger than himself and was coming to at least injure if not kill him. Even when Adam was hunting he only ever faced scared animals. Even if they were to injure him they did not have the malicious emotions that this man held.

Adam quickly took a breath to calm himself down. If he lost himself in being scared he would certainly die to this man. Just a little calmer, Adam prepared to defend himself against the man who was now right in front of him! The bandit struck out with a sneer on his face. He saw that Adam was a little scared and he was not afraid of some weak blindfolded kid. The bandit had not used any tricks when he swung his knife so Adam was easily able to doge it. As he did so, Adam gritted his teeth as he hissed a distorted hum out. His sword stuck out horizontally as he dodged that knife. Because he gritted his teeth, the hum did not come out perfectly so his sword was not endowed with as much of the sword song as Adam wanted, but it was still enough. Adam's sword cut deeply into the bandits side and reached his middle before it stopped! Both Adam and the bandit looked at the sword that was stuck in him as though it were not real, both oblivious to Silber biting and growling at the bandit's ankles. The bandit simply could not believe he was done in by a kid. Adam was in a state of shock and felt that everything was surreal right now. Not believing his sword was truly in the man's stomach, he yanked on it a couple times before it came out. Some of the man's organs spilled out with a hefty amount of blood. The bandit finally fell to he knees grabbing at his gaping wound while screaming in pain. It was only then that everyone around finally knew what was happening. A bandit had escaped and was attacking Adam!

Adam backed up a few steps before falling backwards on the ground as he just stared at the man with wide eyes. Hansen was the first to come by Adam's side as many other Silver Saviors came over with their swords drawn. Adam could not hear their repeated cries of: 'Are you all right?!' Instead he could only watch as that man's soul started to escape from his body and disperse... this was the first time Adam had truly killed a man.

Only after the man's soul had dispersed did Adam regain cognition. Silber had his front paws on Adam's chest and was looking at him with a very concerned look. The first thing that Adam did was to pull Silber into a close embraces as he gave a ragged deep breath. For the rest of the evening Adam was constantly asked if he was alright as everyone tried to take care of him. The Silver Saviors also doubled their watch over the bandits that were captured. If one could escape, why couldn't another?

Adam found it very hard to sleep that night. He kept playing that scene of him lodging his sword into the bandits stomach over and over again. Part of it was horrifying, but Adam would also justify himself each time he thought of the dark emotions that had dwelled within that bandit. It also helped him realize just how dangerous the sword really was. His sword was even more dangerous since it was spiritually reinforced, other wise he probably would never have been able to cut so deeply into that bandit with just that hissed out sword song he used.

The next day the Silver Saviors were finally ready to head back to Hessler with their contract just about finished. They heavily bound the bandits hands together and tied them up like a chain gang to march them all the way back. Adam and the others were kept towards the front of the Silver Saviors procession and far away from those bandits. The bandits themselves were in the middle with Silver Saviors both in front and behind them. It had taken a week to get to the bandits. Now with the bandits in tow it took almost two weeks to get back to Hessler. The Silver Saviors had to hunt for food along the way to keep themselves fed. During this time no other bandits had managed to escape at all. After that first night the Silver Saviors kept a very strict watch over the bandits.

With Hessler finally in sight, Adam and everyone else felt jubilant to finally finish this subjugation contract. The bandits on the other hand were in a very depressed mood. It was a certainty that they only had a few days left to live before they were hung.

After entering the city Hansen took the boys directly home. Even Alfred went along to pop in and say hello to everyone. While they were going to Madame's, the Silver Saviors marched the bandits towards one of the military outposts protecting Hessler's walls to turn them in.

Finally reaching Madame's, Adam trudged to his room as he returned greetings to those who saw him. He had been gone for nearly a month and was finally back! He was tired and wanted to drop some of his gear off before talking in depth with others. Entering his room he actually found his mother inside! Apparently it was one of her days off and she was relaxing for a while there.

Vivienne was surprised to see Adam. When he left they did not give any definite return date besides a time frame of two to four weeks. Joy spread across her face: “Adam you are home! How are you? How did it go?”

Adam was also happy to see his mother and greeted her with a joyful hug. He then struggled with where to begin with his story. Eventually he sighed and started with: “I killed a bandit.”

This started a long conversation where Vivienne pried out what exactly had happened on his little journey. She was happy that Clayton had kept to his word and kept the boys back from the fighting but was angered that the Silver Saviors had not been vigilant enough to prevent that bandit's escape. Adam very well could have died!

At the end she finally asked: “Now that you have seen all that and actually killed someone... do you really want to continue trying to become a mercenary?”

Her husband Alaric had been a mercenary so she wasn't afraid of Adam having killed someone. She was more worried about Adam's frame of mind. He was also her only son and she wanted to dote on him as much as possible and keep him from facing dangers. Still, she could not keep Adam from his own life.

This was something Adam had also been mulling over since he killed that bandit. Adam thought for just a moment before finally coming to an answer with a firm look: “I had seen a few dead bodies in that town the bandits had raided. I even watched as an old man died from having a barn collapsed on him. People like these bandits should be stopped. I don't want anyone to have to go through that kind of thing or loose their precious family to these vicious people. Even we lost dad and Emilia in a similar way. There needs to be people who stand up against bandits. I want to be one of those people.”

Vivienne was speechless. She had not expected such a strong answer from Adam. The only thing she could do was to give Adam a hug. Her son was not yet and adult but he was already growing to become a strong man. Perhaps this decision would lead to much pain and sorrow from fighting bandits and possibly loosing friends to them, but that was something for the future. Such experience may even make Adam believe he has still chosen to do the right thing. To put himself in harms way to protect the lively hood for others. Even if Alaric had not seen too much combat since he had become a city guard at Fort Erich, that occupation was much the same. For the guard to put themselves in harms way to protect the city. Adam could be seen as truly following in his father's foot steps.

After she was done hugging Adam she then said: “I also have a letter from Cathryn that came while you were away. Do you want me to read it to you?”

Even with Adam's elemental sight, he couldn't actually read books. The ink just blended into the page and all Adam could see was the physical form of the page. He scratched his head as he replied: “Let's wait until tomorrow I kind of want to relax and talk with Helen and the others today.”

Vivienne nodded as Adam then left to find Helen and his other friends at Madame's. Adam first went out to the cafeteria of the dorms. There he found Helen already talking with Alfred. When she saw Adam enter the area, she quickly came over to him asking with a concerned look: “I heard that you fought and killed a bandit. Are you all right?”

The news had spread like wild fire. Franklin had started bragging about their experience and had also talked about how Adam fought that one bandit. For the rest of the day Adam had to constantly deal with 'are you alright' and other comments about how he fought the bandit. Over many tellings it made it seemed that Adam had quite the epic battle with the bandit. While Adam appreciated their concern he began to feel smothered by it. He could only truly escape when the day was done and he went to bed.

The next day Vivienne opened that letter from Cathryn and read it to Adam. Apparently one of Cathryn's friends at another institute had a colleague that specialized in unorthodox paths. He had been studying something out in the field for quite a while so it was only now that this colleague had heard about Adam's path. He was so intrigued that he had apparently decided to come to Hessler to meet Adam personally! According to the date in the letter, this colleague should arrive in just a few days!

Adam was very surprised at the content of the letter. They may just have found a way for Adam to more easily follow his path as a spiritualist. He still wanted to join the Silver Saviors and help subjugate bandits, but if he was able to become a strong spiritualist he could be just as devastating as Clayton was! He felt scared when he thought of being able to spread such carnage on a simple whim, but if it could keep people from having to experience what he had to, it would be worth it.

Adam spent the next couple of days eagerly waiting for the day that colleague would come. Finally when that day came, Adam went to SILU full of anticipation. When he initially arrived, that colleague had yet to arrive. Cathryn took Adam to her office to wait as she talked to him. “I suppose that it is just as good that you came early. After I wrote that letter to you I learned that Henry, that's his name, is actually rather obsessed with unorthodox paths. To sate his curiosity he may have just rushed to Madame's after learning where you lived.”

Henry had already rushed here from far away, why would he not rush all the way to Adam's home if he was going to go this far in the first place? Adam just hoped that Henry was not too weird and could actually help him. Adam told Cathryn about his recent journey with the Silver Saviors and generally talked for a few hours before Henry arrived. In mid conversation Adam suddenly noticed someone had swiftly approached the door to Cathryn's office. The door was hastily opened without even knocking as a disheveled man barged in saying: “I hear that Adam is already here!”

A little surprised by the sudden intrusion Cathryn responded with: “I assume you are Henry?”

“Yes, yes. Enough pleasantries.”

Adam watched as Henry gently waved his hand and a bunch of wind essence accumulated into a semi solid cushion. Henry then proceeded to sit on this cushion of air such that he was sitting down without anything apparent to support him. Vivienne was agape at not only how this man acted and looked but the fact that he was sitting on thin air! Henry then pulled out a note book and started asking Adam question after question without so much as introducing himself.

The questions pertained to Adam's path and how he ended up going down the path of a spiritualist. He already knew everything that happened since Cathryn included that in her letters she sent off to her friends when she asked if they knew anything. He was now trying to get an exact response from the source itself instead of relying on Cathryn's interpreted words. This questionnaire lasted for at least two hours! Not only was he asking questions he also got Adam to demonstrate how he gathered spirit essence and Adam also demonstrated his sword song as well. Whenever Adam said or did something that had not been recorded earlier he would be writing it down as exact and as accurate as he could with a quill pen flying across the pages, his eyes shining with excitement all the time.

After Henry asked all the questions he could think of at the moment, Cathryn finally asked: “Do you know which path Adam has taken?”

Henry responded with a jubilant smile: “I have no idea!”

The response of everyone else in the room was simply a dead look. “Is this guy for real?”

Henry then continued: “There may be some very vague references somewhere but those wont really help Adam progress in his path, I think. Even if we try to preserve the knowledge we gain from our paths, much is inevitably lost over the ages. I do think Adam's path has something to do with music. Adam have you ever composed before?”

Asked the sudden question, Adam was unsure of how to answer. “Um, sometimes I play random songs but I have never actually made a new song before.”

Henry then said: “You should try. I am sure it will help. This sword song of yours is indeed a song. In order to progress your path you probably need to compose spirit essence into a song. Harmonize the different sounds that you hear from spirit essence into a song that leads into a direction of your choosing. I have no idea how you are going to do this, though, since I can not hear spirit essence. Before you, who has ever heard of that before!? Now I will also ask you this; do you want to come with me to the SILU branch in Octavia?”

Adam gave him an incredulous look. “Where is that?”

“It is a large nation on the coast way down south. That is where my workshop is. I promise that I will do all I can to help you with your path. It is my life's work to study unorthodox paths.”

Adam merely blinked like he could not believe what this guy was saying. Adam then began to seriously think about it. This man may be able to help him more than Cathryn but he didn't want to leave this place. He didn't want to leave his friends behind. He didn't want to leave Helen behind. But he could always come back for them right? As he continued to think of reasons why or why not to go, something assailed his mind. It was something large and looming. It seemed to directly touch his soul. It suddenly felt like Adam was staring into a dark abyss that wanted to let Adam know something. “If you leave, you will miss it!” Adam was startled by this thought. He had no idea what it would be that he was missing but he felt that that large looming abyss was connected to his soul. It was as if that was what he could grow into, but only if he stayed.

Adam suddenly shook his head and said with a firm tone: “No, I feel that there is something more for me here. If I leave now I will miss it!”

Everyone in the room was baffled by this response. It was quickly followed by Henry penning something down as he asked: “What is it that you are going to miss? Why do you think that?”

Adam could only respond with: “I don't know. I feel something large that I can only get close to if I stay here. Something that I could never gain if I left.”

Henry mumbled to himself as he wrote: “An intense sense of intuition...”

After writing everything down Henry finally sighed. “I was afraid you would say you wouldn't come. I prepared a few things for you though!”

He suddenly pulled out a notebook and handed it to Adam. “I want you to write down anything new you sense that could possibly be about your path. Get Cathryn to help you send express letters to me so that I can help you work your way forward. It wont be as efficient as if you came with me, but it will have to do.”

Adam appreciated the gesture but he felt awkward as he said: “Thanks, but I can't see what I write. It would be bad and words would overlap and be distorted. Nobody would be able to read it!”

Henry gave a smile as if he was waiting for Adam to say that as he then presented a brilliant glass vial. Inside was some type of red liquid. To Adam's elemental sight, though, it appeared as many vibrant swirling colors. It was positively filled with spirit essence! Cathryn gasped as she said: “You aren't possibly going to give him dragon's blood to write with are you!?”

Henry looked offended. “And why not? I will spare no expenditure when it come to learning more about unorthodox paths. Adam this dragon's blood should make it easy for you to see what you are writing. The main reason you cant see ink on normal books is because they don't hold much spirit essence at all. With his dragon's blood, though, you will have no problem seeing what you write and reading it!”

Adam simply stared at this vial being handed to him: “Dragon's blood... wouldn't that be very expensive?”

Henry waved the comment off: “I can handle it. If you run out I will send you more through the mail! It might take a while, though.”

There was not much more to be said after this. Adam carefully took the vial and left with Vivienne after saying goodbye. Henry left the very next day since he had already done everything he could with Adam.

After his encounter with Henry, Adam started asking the other musicians at Madame's about composing. Another part of Adam's day would now be spent on composing and trying to find harmonies in music. Adam had yet to know how he was going to compose spirit essence but composing instrumental pieces would be the easiest step he could take in that direction.

[AN: be prepared for a large time skip between this chapter and the next.]