Chương 61: Book 2 Chapter 13 - A Family In Danger

Kiara read the letter. To Houses Yountal and Grivalt, We have reached the coast at long last! The port of Herendall is only a three day journey to the South, after which we will secure passage to Chastara. Hopefully within the week we will have secured the trade goods, and can begin the return journey. Progress this week was exceptional, now that we are unburdened by the wagons.

I do wonder, though, how we will manage the return journey, since we have failed to clear a viable path for the wagons on the journey out here. With the wagons full of trade goods, the going will be much tougher and slower on the way back. A problem for future me! Onwards and forwards, I always say. We'll figure it out when we get there. I will write again once we have secured the trade goods and are prepared for the return journey.

Your faithful steward, Mister Tenor Kiara decided to take the letter with her to Portish to see Dustin's reaction. Wednesday morning, after her sword class, she ate a large meal in preparation for the journey. She had never run for hours on end before, but she was sure she would be famished eventually. She was already tired and hungry from her sword class, and briefly wondered if she should have skipped the lesson today since she'd be running a hundred miles to Portish. Oh well, too late now.

She started with a light jog, unsure how to pace herself. It felt too slow and boring though, so she eventually picked up the pace quite a bit. She checked her stats: Stats: Unspent Points: +0 Strength: 289 Mind: 100 (MAX) Endurance: 58 Healing: 32 Sleep Fatigue Resistance: 22 Food / Nourishment Requirement: 22 Durability: 109 Life Expectancy: 67 With her Strength and Endurance stats where they were, she could move quite quickly and keep the effort up for a long time.

She hadn't been putting as many points into Endurance as the World Engine had been recommending at each level, but her overinflated Strength meant she could move incredibly quickly with very little effort. One of the main problems with moving at this speed was the blasted insects! They couldn't get out of her way in time, and Kiara constantly collided with them as she ran. It was bad enough doing it for ten minutes when she ran to her parents house, but doing it for two hours would be a chore.

To combat this, she had commissioned a pair of spectacles in Easton. They didn't help her see any better, they just served as a bug shield for her eyes. She wrapped her head with a thin piece of material as well to keep the bugs out of her mouth and hair. Mages probably had some kind of mana shield they could deploy to save them from this kind of thing, but Kiara didn't have any such luxury. The first few minutes were fun, since she was running in a different direction than she usually took to head home.

Today, she was heading west. Eventually, the journey became boring though, as there really wasn't much to look at out here. Her boredom was solved by the pain in her legs and lungs from running. She was forced to slow down a bit, and pick a more sustainable pace, although she was still moving incredibly fast. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

She settled into a rhythm, focusing on her breathing and her foot placement, and the boredom was replaced by a kind of meditative state where her entire world consisted solely of running. One foot in front of the other, don't step in that pothole, avoid that tumbleweed. Deep, controlled breaths in and out. She found it quite enjoyable, once she slowed down and established a good rhythm. Forks in the road leading away from Portish spread out towards other cities and metropolis areas.

As she passed them, the traffic grew steadily more regular heading towards Portish. There still weren't that many groups on the road, but at the pace she was travelling, she passed one every five or ten minutes. About an hour into her run, she came across something unexpected. On the road up ahead, she spotted a group of travellers that had pulled their wagon off the side of the road, and were surrounded by armed people.

Most groups travelled with some guards, so she thought nothing of the armed people at first, but then she realized the group was way too small to have that many guards. Unless this was a travelling mercenary unit, the ratio of armed people to travellers was way off. Which meant the armed people were most likely bandits. She slowed her pace as she approached, activating [Invisibility 2] to remain incognito. She pulled off the side of the road as well, to avoid kicking up a dust cloud as she approached.

The wagon was small, with no covering of any kind. It was meagerly filled with what looked like personal belongings, rather than any kind of trade goods. A young husband and wife sat on the driver's bench at the front of the wagon, near the horses. Two small children were crouched in the wagon, trying their best to blend into the furniture and crates. Kiara counted eight bandits as she got closer. One, who appeared to be the leader, was up front, yelling at the young couple.

Two bandits flanked him, while the other five stood in between the wagon and the road. Moving slowly, she was able to draw close enough to begin picking up pieces of the conversation without being noticed.

"This is all we have. Our entire life is in this wagon," the husband was saying to the bandit leader, his voice strained with emotion.

"If you take it, we'll be left with nothing." A few of the bandits looked uncomfortable at the man's admission, but the bandit leader snarled, clearly not feeling any kind of sympathy.

"Stop complaining. You're lucky we're letting you walk away alive." The husband's face blanched white at that, his mouth clamping shut. His wife instinctively turned to check on their children. The bandit leader's posture straightened, emboldened by the couple's fear.

"Now get down if you know what's good for you. Hugo, Mason, get those two kids out of the wagon so we can take the whole thing with us." The two bandits flanking the leader grunted in acknowledgement, then moved towards the back of the wagon to pull the kids out. They seemed less uncomfortable than the other five, and even seemed to be enjoying terrorizing the young family.

Realizing that, Kiara wondered if that's why the other five bandits were standing somewhat separated from the other three, maybe they were less confident in the approach the group leader was taking. Kiara got close enough to sense the entire party with [Magical Sense 3]. Three of the bandits were tier 2: the leader and the two he had addressed as Hugo and Mason. The other five, who were standing somewhat apart, were all tier 1.

So maybe they were standing apart because of some kind of power hierarchy within their group? Or maybe this was simply the formation they always used when accosting travellers, and the other observations she was making were purely coincidence. The four family members were all non magic users, which meant they were not only unable to defend themselves, but also fragile and likely to get injured if any fighting broke out. Kiara wanted to intervene, but didn't want to put the family in any unnecessary danger.

If the bandits walked away without harming anyone, she could wait until they were a safe distance from the family before confronting them. She was also extremely curious how she would fare against a group this strong. She tried to imagine what it would have been like facing down three people as strong as Lord Grivalt had been, supported by five tier 1 fighters. She was fast enough that she could always run away if things got dicey, but she wasn't confident enough to jump in when the family was nearby.

That is, until what happened next. The young mother had scrambled out of the driver's seat and into the back of the wagon, gathering the children up in her arms. She was trying to help them down from the wagon herself. Hugo and Mason began yelling loudly at her. Her husband jumped down from the wagon, trying to hurry back to help however he could. Hugo and Mason reached the back of the wagon, and forcefully tore the children from her arms, ignoring her shout of alarm.

As they ripped her kids out of her arms, it pulled her off balance in such a way that she began falling out of the wagon backwards, her arms windmilling frantically. Kiara acted on instinct, using her full acceleration to close the distance in a flash, positioning herself to catch the young woman. As she caught her, her invisibility popped due to the interaction, and the chaos of the situation immediately stopped as everyone froze, startled by her sudden appearance. She quickly but gently set the young woman down.

"Thank you," the woman mumbled softly as she gathered her wits about her. The husband, who was the only one who hadn't froze at Kiara's appearance, reached her side. The two kids, who Hugo and Mason had let go of once they pulled them from the wagon, rushed to hide behind their parents' legs. Kiara stepped in between the young family and the bandits protectively, but wasn't sure how to proceed. She still didn't want any fighting to break out this close to the mortals.

All of that happened within a few seconds of Kiara's appearance. Hugo was the first to recover, and he pulled his sword from its scabbard threateningly.

"Boss, what do we do?" he asked, unsure how to proceed. He took a step or two back to put some distance between himself and Kiara. The bandit leader stepped around the wagon to get a closer look at her.