The old man in tuxedo heroically came in front of me and this damsel in distress, facing Felgard in a fighting stance, "Don't worry milady, I will protect you no matter what, even if it costs me my life, flesh, and very soul."

"Yes, yes, now hurry on with it Sebas," was his Milady's response in quite a standard, I-don't-care tone.

Felgard just looked at him with his stupid looking confused face. Well, I couldn't blame him. Even I was dumbfounded of the situation.

"Hm, boy. If you value your youth then leave without looking back," the old man in a tuxedo spoke in a seriously deep voice.

"Oi, I don't know what's going on but," he too took out his wooden sword. "I'm a boy who welcomes any challenge." He then flashed that annoying half smirk of his in front of his opponent.

"Hoo, so you're a tough guy I see. Well then prepare yourself, for I, Sebas T. Ian, the head butler of the Mayoubhoughergoise Mansion, shall defeat you," the old man in tuxedo then immediately dashed towards Felgard in which he too did the same.

They clashed at each other, seemingly shaking the ground beneath them. The old man in tuxedo gave an impressed look on Felgard's quick response, which he followed up with a fast kick. Felgard managed to dodge the attack and the two started exchanging blows. Standing there watching the fight, I too was impressed of how Felgard became stronger than before. His movements were less polished before unlike today where his movements are more precise and accurate as he dodged and attack the old man with his wooden sword.

"Hooo, impressive you're able to keep up"

"I'm just getting heated up!"

Felgard then took a quick step back and sprung to the enemy as he swayed his wooden sword in the blink of an eye. The old man in tuxedo, or Sebastian, barely managed to dodge backwards but did not expect Felgard to slash his sword twice more. Sebastian blocked the second slash, but in a hurry which gave him a huge opening. The third slash completely hit his torso and he was taken up in the air.

"Got you!" Felgard then jumped up to slash Sebastian down to the ground. This time Sebastian blocked the attack and kicked Felgard away while in the air, hitting him on his left waist and landed on the ground.

"Oi old man! how'd you do that? Kicking me while on the air! That's cheating!" Felgard complained unreasonably.

"Humph! There is no cheat on that boy," Sebastian then took another fighting stance. "It's pure skill!" He then quickly launched a kick on Felgard's on guard wooden sword and once again exchange blows with him.

While in the heat of battle, the little damsel in distress turned to me and spoke like nothing happened, "Now miss Fifirisha, shall we go somewhere? Or perhaps you would like to be invited inside our Mansion?"

I was quite dazed as I only responded a, "Ah... " to which she took as a yes and dragged me by the arm away from the fight. All of a sudden, she stopped for a while as if was reminded of something.

"Oh oh! How come I forgot! Oh, the stupidity!" she let go of my arm and went back to the fight. "Sebaaaas! Don't be late for tea time! Remember it should be high mountain dusk tea and fruit tarts with clustermoon cakes, okay?!"

Without waiting for her butler's response, she went back to me. "Now shall we go?"

"Ugh, I thought you were lost?" I asked her in doubt.

She looked at me with a smile on her face before going back and asked, "Sebaaaaas?! Which way back to the mansion?!

Her butler giving all his effort on the fight, halted for a while and answered, "Northeast milady!" which got him hit by Felgard on the face.

"Okay, but if I get lost, you're going back to sleeping with Mr. Croaky. Oh, and take that boy to the dungeon okaaay?!" and as she went back to me, she reminded him, "Don't forget tea tiiime!"

She went back to me, grabbed me by the arm, and again, "Now let us go" went away from the fight. Before completely going away, I heard from a distance a, "Anything for you milad-guhuaaackhhhh!!"

The moment we got further away, I said "Uhmm, I'm sorry but I need to go." We both stopped as she looked at me with a worry on her face.

"Dear me, oh good heavens! Why should it be that you must leave? Your pursuer is being taken care of. There is no more need to be on guard, nor to be careful."

Thinking of a valid reason, I ended up with a "Truth be told, I am a wanderer and I uhhh, seek the pleasures of the unknown... stuff..."

"Oh, oh oh! How splendid! To seek out your purpose, to have found your calling! Ah! how marvelous!" again, she was swaying almost all the time and suddenly halted. "However, how I want you so badly in my mansion, to enjoy the pleasures of luxury! To be my sister at heart! Oh oh! The conflict! The differences of desires! Oh, so excruciatingly painful."

Watching her became all the more reason to leave. I could just use teleportation magic, but it would raise a suspicion on me. Wait, must I really care about her opinion on me? Then all of a sudden, this happened...

"Ah, the pain in my head is being more aggressive than before. Oh, Sebas, my pain killers please..." and she collapse on the ground as gentle and as lady-like as can be.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Hey, what happened?" I knelt down to her gorgeously formed pose. "Hey, what happened! Are you alright?" I tried shaking her to wake her up, only took my actions in vain. She was passed out completely just from thinking of such unimportant things. Or perhaps she was hungry...

"Now what must I do?" I took a deep sigh and thought of what to do. "Northeast, huh?"

I looked at that direction and to my surprise, saw people coming towards us. "Could they be with the old man in tuxedo?"

As they got closer, I noticed that they were men with weapons on their hands. "Hey, don't tell me they're bandits?" I wanted to hide but I can't just leave this damsel here. Going back to get her butler might take a while.

"Ahaha! There she is!" one of the bandits pointed to our direction.

"Indeed, that's her, the Mayoubh-whatever's daughter," another spoke in response.

"Lucky!" another one responded.

Out of nowhere, the thought of leaving her be and running for myself came to my head. It felt like darkness itself was whispering in my ears. "I'd be sure to run a way safely as they are only after her. Plus, Felgard won't be able to disturb me anymore since he is being taken care of. In other words, it’s my perfect chance." I looked down on her unconscious body and thought, "I don't even know her so I won't feel anything..."

All of a sudden, her words flashed on my memory, "To be my sister at heart..." I began thinking to myself why she would want a stranger like me to be her sister. It annoyed me, it got me so irritated. I was so mad of contemplating that I ended up going I front of her passed out body and faced the bandits with a very angry look in my eyes.

"Huh? Who's the other brat?" another bandit asked his fellows.

"Who knows, anyway the important one is that," the other answered and pointed on to the graciously lying girl.

I stared at them intensely, "A total of seven bandits, huh..."

As long as I use forward attacks, I could probably manage to do it right without harming the damsel behind me, but was merely an assumption. The probability of harming her was still huge. A barrier would be sufficient though.

"Go get her boys," the other one, which seemed to be the leader, commanded his fellow.

"Looks like we'll be having lots of meat for the entire week!" the one who came closer spoke as he took out his knife.

"That's as far as you can go filthy humans," I said in a loud intimidating voice as I pointed my staff at them. "You are not to come any further. Why not just leave so you won't be harmed?"

The bandits merely laughed at me, "You? harm us? Are you in over your head?" The others continued laughing.

I braced myself fully prepared to attack. Just then, they stopped laughing and faced behind me. I got curious and looked back as well and saw the old man in tuxedo with a passed out Felgard being carried on his right arm.

"You shameless filthy vicious disgusting loathsome vile disgraceful pieces of redsheep poop!" he spoke in an enraged voice. "You'll best stay away from these two young ladies!"

"Dang it, it's him," the bandits furrowed their eyebrows. "I thought he was taken care of."

Sebas stared at the seven bandits I as he slowly placed the passed out Felgard to the ground. He then went in front of me and said, "I thank you for standing up for my little miss, little miss." He clenched his fists after and stood a fighting stance, fully prepared to fight the seven enemies in front of him. "Please stay by her side a little longer."

Without warning, he instantly dashed towards one of the bandits and landed a strong punch on the face. "Guhuaackhh!" was the only thing which came out of the bandit's mouth as he flew backwards and landed on the ground. He laid another punch to the next one which managed to dodge, but was hit by another next punch.

"You fool!" one bandit took out his sword and attacked Sebas as another from the back took out a gun. When the gunner shot his gun, Sebas held the sword user by the hand and used the sword to deflect the bullet, which flew towards another bandit's scimitar and fell off. From Sebas' back, the one who got punched stood up and launched a huge punch to his head. Noticing that, he swayed his head to the side, resulting to the enemy to punch his own swordsman comrade. Sebastian then held the back part head of the two and slammed their faces at each other.

"Hmm, not that tough of a head now, is it?" he then noticed another attack from gunner and dodged them as he went and swiped his foot on the ground, tumbling the gunner down. Immediately after, he punched the gunner hard on the belly.

The other two, who seemed to be in some kind of high position, merely watched their comrades being pummeled one by one. Then, with a raise from his eyebrow, one took out his knife and attacked Sebas from behind.

"Behind you old man!" I exclaimed in shock. Sebas heard me and was able to look back before dodging the enemy and griping his arm.

"What do you want to do to the little miss? Why do you want to kidnap her?" was his question filled with rage.

"Heh! You think I'd just easily tell you about the deal we had with the Mayoubhoughergoise family head to dispose of their youngest child? Hah! Then you got it all wrong, cause I ain't telling you nothing!"

"Well, it wasn't that easy but," was all Sebastian could say before he let go of the bandit's arm and punched him hard on the face. "Thank you."

The last standing bandit just smirked on the sight of his comrades writhing in pain on the ground as he said, "Now all payment shall be mine. Thank you for ridding me off these hopeless fools."

Hearing that made me clench my fists even further with rage.

"Tell me," Sebastian spoke in a loud voice. "Did the family head, Mister Ferdirealm Ashthony Mayoubhoughergoise, really paid you to kill his own daughter?"

Although he was extremely serious, he didn't seem to be in shock.

"Hmm, foolish old geezer. Don't compare me to those fools before you," he then took out two guns and pointed them at Sebas. "Unlike these goons, I won't tell you anything about the oldest son's plan to take over everything the family owns. And there's nothing you can do to make me."

"Well, I didn't really do anything to make you speak but thank you," Sebastian bowed his head slightly.

"Heh! Like I said, you won't be able to make me speak up!" the bandit then started firing his guns.

Sebastian dodged the bullets by running to side saying, "Two guns doesn't really mean faster bullets." He then immediately kicked the bandit's side and he flew to the air before hitting the ground.

"Y-you old fart," was all the bandit could say as he writhed in pain. "So now, you intend to make me speak why we're after the Mayoubhoughergoise's youngest child, right?"

"Say no more," then Sebastian kicked him on the face, ridding him off his consciousness. "The boy with a wooden sword served as a better opponent than you seven."

Sebastian then turned towards me and picked up the little damsel on his arms like a princess before bowing down slightly and said, "Thank you once again for standing up for her."

"I would've appreciated it, if I really did do something for her at least," I was slightly disappointed in myself.

Then, without warning, something came out from a distant bush and landed exactly at us. Looking closely, I noticed what it was and immediately panicked. However, it was already too late to shout out its name and the thing instantly exploded sleeping smoke. I got sleepy as my eyes started being heavy but did my best to at least see to whom the thing came from.

It was a sleeping mushroom head, a kind of mushroom that releases a huge amount of sleeping gas when threatened. It is a powerful magic item so rare it could only be found at certain places which has low oxygen level.

I suddenly heard a loud thud and noticed it was Sebas' body which fell to the ground, fast asleep. I too was slowly being dragged to slumber's sweet palace until I eventually lost consciousness.