Leo came out of the village through the north gate as his carriage trotted through the small hills next to the village. There was a rough meandering path built through them.

The journey was uneventful with Dyr already fast asleep. At the moment he was neatly curled like a cat in the blue sapphire wool. As for Leo, he was seated in a ramrod position with his eyes gently closed. Faint blue lines could be seen flashing like lightning on different parts of his body.

At first, there were single thick blue lines then with time the thick lines disintegrated into numerous thin fibrous like lines. The lines would flash intermittently all over his body before they got concentrated on his back.

A tense expression appeared on Leo's face once those thin lines appeared on his back. Kel sensed something was off and turned to see what was happening with Leo. Once it saw his expression, it slowed down its speed and started moving gently and slowly so as not to disrupt Leo's current state. Even though he was a beast but he was a magical beast whose intelligence stats rivaled that of humans, especially in beasts whose forte lay in shapeshifting. They had a higher level of intelligence compared to other beasts as shapeshifting required a certain level of finesse for maximum utilization.

Leo's state lasted for almost an hour before his expression eased up and formed a light smile.

"That's a few more channels than I expected to trace. This number should be able to support a few transfiguration spells especially the more intricate ones." Leo silently thought to himself before he opened his eyes to see where they had reached.

He was surprised to see they had only covered half the journey since the amount of time that had elapsed was sufficient for them to have covered three-quarters of it. He then noticed the slow pace of Kel before a look of realization hit him.

"Thanks, Kel," Leo said as he fished out some apples from a chest by his seat and threw them towards Kel who greedily swallowed them midair as it neighed in pleasure.

Leo opened the tarp at his back to check on Dyr. He found the little lad still fast asleep making hand movements with a smug look on his face. Leo on seeing this could only shake his head as a soft chuckle escaped his mouth.

"He must be daydreaming about performing spells again. Though what is with that satisfied smug look he has on? I can't help but feel I may be the target of those imaginative spells of his. Just you wait son, once we activate your mana you'll be officially introduced to the Saarthguard village rules. I can't wait to see the look on your face then. Your mom won't be able to protect you hehehe. Enjoy your dreams little siren who knows how many of these you'll get to have after your training begins," Leo whispered ominously as he closed the curtains.

Dyr who had a smug look tossing and turning making weird poses shivered for a brief moment before he quickly went back to his winning battle theatrics.

Leo had traveled for almost half an hour before the town walls could be seen a few miles ahead. There were no bandit attacks or settlements that one would expect to come across as they traveled. The reason for this was because the area from the Saarthguard village all the way to Bremdal town was land under direct control by the royal family of the Paratus Kingdom and not the nobles.

Saarthguard was the only village in the area for miles with the closest settlement being Bremdal town. This was done by design by the royal family of the Paratus Kingdom.

The village of Saarthguard though located in the kingdom was not a subject of it. There were two fundamental reasons for it. For one Saarthguard village had existed at its current location for the same amount of time as the Paratus Kingdom if not longer. The last reason which is actually the real reason for their independence was that the village was stronger than the kingdom not just the royal family but the entirety of it, inclusive of the noble forces.

To prevent a mishap from happening between the nobles of the kingdom and the people of Saarthguard village, the royal family at the time took all the lands within the proximity of Saarthgurd village up to Bremdal town and placed it all under its jurisdiction. The noble who owned the land was all too eager to trade his lands with the royal family for another that was far away from the Saarthguard village. With that, the area where Saarthguard was located and its environs fell under royal jurisdiction. They forbade the formation of settlements within a hundred-mile radius of the village. This led to the current situation of zero settlements and no bandit activity as even they had the presence of mind to not try and rob areas under the direct rule of the royal family.

This subtle balance between the Paratus Kingdom and the Saarthguard village has been maintained for thousands of years. The presence of the village ended up even being a blessing in disguise for the kingdom. The nobles had no time to scheme against each other or the royal family as they had to constantly be on guard against the monster that was the Saarthguard village that lived within their territories. The other blessing was peace. Having the village within the kingdom served as a deterrent from being attacked by outside forces such as large-scale attacks by other kingdoms.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

This gave the royal family and the kingdom as a whole time to experience a sufficient period of stability and growth due to the peace afforded to them. The Paratus Kingdom may not be considered one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world or even the Pantheon Continent, which is the continent where the kingdom was located. But they have had enough time to catch up with some of the middle-tier kingdoms and deepen their foundation and reserves despite being one of the smallest kingdoms scale-wise.

Existing side by side for all these years also created a friendship between the royal family and the members of the village. The current king of Paratus Kingdom has a deep friendship with the chief of the village and together with some of his children they are frequent visitors of the village. Even one of his daughters married someone from the village.

Due to the huge difficulties the members of the village face when conceiving a child, they do not restrict their members from marrying someone from outside the village. Though the problem has been seen to persist as even when someone from the village marries outside it is still a struggle to conceive a kid. Though weirdly along with those struggles every time a child is born from an outsider they always have the same features as the parent from the village as opposed to the outsider even when the outsider is of a different race.

These phenomena led to the formation of a custom that has been maintained for the past thousands of years which was that all children borne by someone from the village were to share the same last name. And that name was Saarthguard.

This was done so as to create a sense of kinship and togetherness. This was especially crucial to them due to their low numbers and low birth rates. The people of Saarthguard are abnormally powerful but they also have a weakness which is their pitifully low birthrate. A couple may end up having one or two kids their entire lifetime with others not even having one. This is why every life in the village is considered precious. Sharing the same name means they look out for one another, they are all one. They especially needed to do so in the volatile world they lived in, where kingdoms rose and fell like leaves in autumn. If they were not careful and became divided, with their low numbers they would end up buried in time as another tragic history of a people who once were.

This rule applied even when marrying someone outside of the village. Whether marrying in or out the name Saarthguard will have to be retained. If a lady from Saarthguard married a gentleman from outside the village, she would not inherit his name but retain hers. Even if she goes to live with her partner outside the village the rule applies. If a lady from outside married someone from the village they would inherit the name Saarthguard. This applied even to the princess of Paratus Kingdom. When she got married to someone from the village her last name despite being royalty changed to Saarthguard.

As for the children of these marriages, they would without a doubt inherit the name Saarthguard. The bloodline of the people of Saarthguard is so strong there has never been a single child who hasn't inherited the full signature traits of their Saarthguard parent. The blue eyes, golden pupils, and blue hair appear on all their children despite what race or color of hair and eyes the other parent has.

The name Saarthguard was to serve as a protection to all its members whether they lived inside the village or outside of it. The village takes this matter so seriously that every child born out of the village or in has their name recorded in the ancestral records and even a naming ritual is done to ensure they can track them should a need ever arise. The village's actions are completely warranted as there is no shortage of people out there who wonder why the people of Saarthguard are that strong. A zealous mage somewhere or a power-hungry knight might just take that risk and try to find out. And since they can't get someone from the village, their next best option is those living outside of it.

The village's infamy and its overprotective nature spread because of these acts. Any kidnapping case involving their members was met with thunderous retaliation where the whole village retaliated collectively causing shockwaves around the world. A few kingdoms were driven to the brink of extinction because of it with no shortage of infamous underground organizations being thoroughly destroyed.

It was because of these kidnapping events that the village always placed great emphasis on its members to exercise survival above all else. This lesson was thoroughly beaten into them from a young age. The ability to take a beating and make a clean getaway with the beatings helping them to keep a humble attitude and never underestimate their enemy.

It was this attitude that created a rather notorious reputation about the people from the village. Their obsessiveness with increasing their odds of survival led them to abandon all forms of chivalry and common sense. A person from the village will never fight someone one on one if there is another person from the village by his/her side. They would gang up on the opponent despite both of them being overwhelmingly more powerful than their single opponent. No move was ever too low for them as long as it would increase their odds of survival they would take it.

It is one thing for a weak opponent to use all options at their disposal but it's another for a strong opponent to employ those same measures with even more extreme thoroughness.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Leo's carriage arrived at the Bremdal town entrance gates after taking almost double the amount of time it usually took him to make the trip. He sighed once he saw the sun was already high up. He worried he was already too late to find anything worthwhile with all the good stuff having been already snugged up.