The night felt long while I was trying to figure out if I could adapt the bandit boss’s swordsmanship as my own. It was proving to be difficult since he had great finesse, especially with the spinning and perfectly using the momentum to continue the onslaught of attacks.

Daylight started to leak through the trees when I made my breakthrough. Even with my big sword, I began getting the flow of the movements he used. It was odd since the more I repeated the motions, the more familiar it felt.

“I guess I have to give you my thanks.” Startled by the sudden voice, I stopped mid swing, causing sweat to fly off from the sudden change of body movement. I turned to the source and found Vaero with his face being the only barely visible body part as his whole body was wrapped up.

“They sure did a number on you.” I say while I placed my sword once more upon my back.

Vaero then looks over to the pile of bodies near the tree line “That man was just playing with me and with Chelsey’s well being in danger, I let the emotions get the better of me.”. Vaero then looks towards my sword “Those moves earlier, they seem rough but I’m surprised you can even move like that with your sword.”.

I look to my shoulder, placing my hand on the hilt “For some reason, the way he handled the sword resonated with me so I wanted to try and use some of the moves myself.”. My eyes then make its way to the pile of bodies near the tree line, focusing on the charred body “Did that guy ever use fire magic on you?”.

“No, not on me at least.” His eyes follow where I was looking and focus on the charred body as well. “What happened to him?” He asked, confused why there was a charred body.

“He never used it during the fight but after I won by chance, he lit himself on fire but I’m not sure why.” I told him, giving him the best answer I could.

“He either did that to avoid being brought to the guild or…” He's stopped himself from continuing.

“It’s okay, Chelsey told me, also I kinda figured it out myself.” I assured him.

“If that’s the case then… I believe he did that since he probably couldn’t return empty handed or else he’d die from them instead.”.

After hearing a possible reason for why he would have done it, I stopped worrying about it. I turn to Vaero and change the subject “They destroyed your guys' carriage and the horses are missing.”.

Vaero sighs while looking up to the sky “I really hoped they didn’t do that.”. “But I really do believe Chelsey will come back from this.” he claimed after a brief moment.

“Yep! That’s the least of my worries. Your health comes first, Vaero.” Said a bright smile Chelsey walking up behind Vaero.

Vaero turns around, startled, “I’m very sorry, Chelsey. If I was only better, you wou-”.

“That doesn’t matter to me, Vaero.” Chelsey says cutting him off, annoyed. “All that matters is that we are alive.” she then continues on, with a gentle smile.

Vaero lets out a sigh of relief “You’re right Chelsey, thank you.”.

“You shouldn’t be thanking me, Crim was the one that saved us.” Chelsey tells him.

I shake my head “No, that's okay. He’s already said his thanks.”.

He then turns to me “No, she’s right. My thanks earlier was half-assed.”. “Thank you for saving us but not just this time but also back by Last Haven. If you weren't there during that time or here, we would have been dead.” He tells me, trying his best to bow over without hurting himself.

I felt awkward, receiving his thanks so I tried changing the subject “What are you guys going to do now?”.

Chelsey looks at me with a big smile “Valero’s right, this will be an easy comeback for me.”. She then places a finger upon her lower lip “While I was getting the medical supplies from the carriage, I saw my monster essences still in their boxes and that was going to be a big deal for me.”. She begins tapping her lip while looking up to the sky “I just need any form of transportation and I’ll be good but that’ll just take a bit of time.”.

“So would you need help to bring those boxes back?” I asked her.

Chelsey returns her gaze to me, shaking her head “No, that’ll be hard to do for us, especially since Vaero can only walk.”. She then looks towards the log house “We should see if they kept the stolen goods of other people there and then bring them to the carriage.”.

I tilted my head in confusion “Why should we bring it there?”.

She turns back to me with a smile “We’ll store the valuables there and cover it up as best as possible and then after that when Vaero and I are back on the road, we will transport all the goods into the new carriage.”.

Understanding her plan, I began walking towards the house to check it out since last time I was in there, I only cared about rescuing these two. Once inside, I heard them following behind and we began searching around the place.

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We searched all around the house to come up with only a decent sized bag of silver coins and random pieces of jewellery. None of us really had any use with the jewellery since it was all stolen so we left it all there.

When we were back outside, the sun was almost directly above us. “It’s best if we left now.” Chelsey claimed as she started walking towards the forest, in the direction of where we found the carriage. Vaero followed after her first while I looked towards the charred body, wishing I caught that guy's name for some reason. After a brief moment, I began catching up to the two.

It didn’t take us too long to find the carriage again since we knew the general area this time and Chelsey began getting into it and checking over all of what she had inside. After remembering that she wanted to cover over the carriage, I began scavenging for long tree branches to help cover it. While both Chelsey and I began doing things, Vaero stood around looking depressed that he couldn’t help out.

Not much more time passes when Chelsey comes out of the carriage while holding a black cloak that belonged to Vaero. “I’m all done there, I’m surprised they really didn’t take anything.” She says while handing over the cloak to Vaero.

Vaero grabs the cloak and begins putting it on “That doesn’t surprise me, their leader was someone who cared more about sword fights.”.

Once I heard Chelsey say she was done, I began stacking all the branches and logs I found against the carriage. Chelsey joined in by grabbing small branches that were dense in leaves on top.

The sun was directly above us and was beginning to fall down by the time we finished. While looking at the now covered carriage “Well, I hope people just believe this is a weird pile of branches if they come across it.” Chelsey says while stifling a giggle.

“This is in a weird spot as is, there a very low chance that someone will find it in the first place.” Vaero claims.

“Alright, now that this is all done, I’m all ready to go back to Trennent now.” Chelsey says while peering over to Vaero and I. With both of us nodding to her words, we all begin walking past the carriage and towards the road.

The sun was no longer above us and was behind the tall dense trees when we finally arrived at the road. Chelsey then stops us and begins setting up a small tower of rocks on the side of the road. “There, just in case we forget exactly where it is.” she says with a satisfied slime and turns around before beginning to walk down the road to Trennent with both Vaero and I shortly following after.

By the time the village gates were in view, the sun was setting and was almost fully below the horizon. When we arrived at the gates, a guard stopped us “I just want to warn you guys about the bandits in the area, they haven’t attacked since yesterday but still be careful.”. Once he gave his piece, he let us through.

While we walked along the side roads on Trennent, towards the Inn that I was still staying at, I told the two “I’m going to go straight to the guild to tell them I dealt with the bandits.”.

Before I could break off from the two, Chelsey stopped me and began handing me over a pouch “Here, take this. You were the one that won against the bandits so it’s your choice what to do with the coins found. You could keep it, give it to the guild or anything else, I won’t judge you.” she tells me with a smile. “We’ll check back in to the inn, so we’ll see you soon?” She asked me, maybe wondering if I was just gonna take off now that they were safe. I just nodded to her words while taking the pouch before turning off and began walking towards the guild.

Once I made it inside the guild, I walked right towards Ilise standing behind the counter. “Good evening Crim! I was just going to head home here but I can still help you if you need anything!” Ilse says while greeting me.

“I don’t think it’ll take too long, I just have something to report to the guild about.” I assure her.

She tilts her head to my words “Oh? What may that be?”.

Not really knowing how I should exactly tell her, I just came out with it bluntly “I dealt with the bandits.”. I paused for a moment before correcting myself so she would understand better “I finished the guilds urgent request.”.

Ilise showed a startled expression “Did you bring anything back as proof of this?”. When I heard that, I forgot that I should have done something like that and I just shook my head. “Well unfortunately if that’s the case then we can’t confirm that you did it.” She tells me.

I remember back to what the guard said and then asked Ilise “Well then if I didn’t do it then why is there no reports of the bandits since I left yesterday?”.

Ilise ponders for a moment before talking again “Now please don’t get me wrong Crim since I know even after the few interactions we had, you’re a capable person but even if it is true that there are no reports, we don’t know if they are still out there unless you have proof.”.

Upset by her answer I then tried to think of a way to prove it for a few minutes before I remembered how I could “Well actually I can.”. Ilise then tilts her head, waiting for my answer “If you guys go along the way to the Capitol, along the road in the forest, not too long after entering it, there will be a tall stack of rocks that mark the starting path towards the place I found them.”.

Ilise stands there furrowing her brows “Hmm… if that’s the case and I’m only doing this because I kinda believe you, I will send someone from the guild to go there and confirm it tomorrow morning. Is there anything else along the way to help make sure they would be on the right path?”.

Once she asked that, I remembered about the carriage “Well actually there’s a destroyed carriage with logs and sticks on top of it.”. I pause before adding “Also if you could, with the reward from the urgent request, could I instead get a small carriage for transport?”. I then also remembered about the bag of silver coins and placed it on the counter “Also this was found in the log house that they used as their base.”.

She looks at the bag on the counter and then back to me “Was the destroyed carriage yours?”.

I shake my head “No, it was my friends.” as soon as the words friends left my lips, my whole body froze up while I tried to figure out why the word friends hurt me so much.

“..im?... Crim?” Ilise snaps me back to reality while flicking her finger in front of me while saying my name. “Are you okay? You looked a little pale there.” Once she knew I was back to my senses she began talking again “With the information you’ve given us as well as this bag of coins, I don’t see why not that we could arrange that as a reward instead. Of course as long as it gets confirmed tomorrow.”. Happy with her response I nod to her and then she smiles at me “Now, is there anything else I can help you with tonight?”.

I shook my head to her and after that she gave her goodbyes as I turned around and began leaving. Once I was walking back to the inn, I started wondering about when I began thinking of them as a friend and why thinking of them as a friend pains me deeply. I didn’t want to think about it too long and decided to put it off to the side and continue on to the inn.

When I arrived at the inn, I was surprised to find Chelsey waving me over to a table that Vaero and her were sitting at. When I came up to them, Chelsey looked to me with a grin “Perfect timing, Crim! Sit down, sit down. I ordered food for all of us a little bit ago and it should be here any minute!’. Taking her up on her offer, I sat down at the table. “So how did it go with the guild?” She then asked me after I got comfortable.

While looking towards her, I answered her “They needed proof so they are going to send someone out to the location I described to them tomorrow.”.

“Hmm, that's unfortunate, I thought maybe they’d be able to set up a meeting with Lord Grue for you since those bandits were terrorizing his village for a while.” When she mentioned that, I completely didn’t even think about asking that for a reward and felt depressed. Chelsey noticed the look on my face and asked me “Why do you look sad? Didn’t you want to meet him?”.

I shake my head to her “No, it’s not that. I actually already asked fo-”.

“Oh yay! Food here!” Chelsey shouts in joy, while cutting me off as the wench began placing our respected bowls in front of us, presenting some stew. Before Chelsey dug into her bowl, she turned to me “Oh wait, I felt like I cut you off there Crim, what were you going to say.”.

A small smirk forms on my mouth “It’s alright, you’ll probably see tomorrow.”. Chelsey looked at me confused for a second before brushing it off and digging into her food.

After we all finished our food, Chelsey went and paid for it right away while booking for her and Vaero’s now extended stay. When she came back to us, we gave each other our goodbyes for the night and I walked the opposite way from them.

Once I was outside of the inn, I went along the back and into the opening where I normally practiced for the night. When I was in the middle of the area, I closed my eyes and began visualizing the bandit boss’ movements with the blade and began trying to mimic them as fluidly as I could remember. When I started to get the rhythm, I lost track of time and began solely focusing on the steps and body movements.