The next morning, when Adrian awoke, N was on night watch. "Good morning." N greeted Adrian with a wave and a smile.

Adrian nodded back, not wanting to disturb the others who were still asleep.

After working together with N the previous night, Adrian thought to himself, "Despite being a demon, he still put in so much effort to save us. I shouldn't be too harsh on him."

"You're up early." Adrian initiated a conversation with N after he walked away from the tent.

"Your parents and I took turns keeping watch at night. It's my turn now." N smiled, happy that Adrian would talk to him.

Adrian's parents always let him sleep through the nights during travels. However, he knew that bandit attacks were common and they needed someone to keep watch.

Adrian nodded as he walked to the temporary bathroom.

The second one to wake up was Winnie. N was harnessing the horses when she walked out of the tent. "Good morning," N greeted Winnie with a smile.

Winnie ignored N, still being upset from the previous night. She stared at N with a scowl on her face as she walked toward the ladies’ room. N smiled bitterly, but he didn't let it get to him.

Soon, the east side of the sky started brightening. Adrian and Winnie heated up last night’s dinner for breakfast while their parents washed up. Before departing, Bob and N cast the Earth Element spell, "Sink," to dismantle the temporary kitchen counter, stoves and bathrooms.

With N’s Levitation spell, the wagons continued to travel fast. At noon, after lunch, they deviated from the main road and started traveling towards the mountain.

"The main road will lead us to a town with knights. Let’s take the mountain path." N said.

Even though it was a mountain path, it was still a major road and carriages traveled on it occasionally. Adrian was driving the second wagon behind N and he could feel that the road was not as smooth as the main road with the occasional bumps, but it was tolerable. Trees slowly got denser as they entered a forest path.

"Stop." N suddenly said to Adrian and Tiffany, who were driving the second and third wagons. In just a few seconds, all wagons stopped.

"Dad, why are you taking out your armor?" Winnie said. Tiffany and Bob went into Adrian's and Winnie's carriage and started equipping their armors.

"There are bandits." Bob answered in a serious tone.

"Adrian, put those on and protect your sister." Bob said to Adrian as he pointed to a box of leather armor next to their seat. Adrian had some swordsmanship training from his father so he was swift in equipping himself.

Before becoming farmers, Bob was a Knight Exemplar and Tiffany was a Knight Commander. There were five ranks of knights. From highest to lowest, they were Holy Knight, Knight Exemplar, Knight Commander, Knight Bachelor and Knight Initiate. Each rank was around 3-5 times stronger than the rank below it.

"No problem, dad and I are both here. We've got this. Everything will be alright." Tiffany reassured her children with confidence.

Since Bob was a knight of the second highest rank, it was safe to say that very few people in the entire Kingdom could bring harm to his family. Additionally, very rarely would a Knight Commander level fighter become a bandit, so Tiffany was also considered very strong. This was another reason why no one objected when N chose to take the more dangerous mountain path.

"Let's go with our plan. I will take the front, while you take the back." N calmly said to Bob. Despite being younger, he was going to be Bob's boss and so he took the responsibilities as the leader.

"Roger that." Bob replied and went to guard the back. He was very pragmatic person and was not someone who would play the seniority card.

"Stone Wall." N then cast a spell that formed an oval shaped wall, surrounding the children’s carriage. It only had one opening that faced the front, where Tiffany stood.

The adults worked in sync because they had already discussed their roles prior to the journey.

Bob, Tiffany and Adrian each carried a shield and a sword. The swords had not yet been unsheathed. N was empty handed, but he could have weapons hidden underneath his black robe.

It was quite dark inside the carriage because of the stone wall. With the adults being so serious, Adrian and Winnie felt very nervous. Winnie held on to her brother’s left hand, which was sweating profusely.

After about a minute, around 40 men and women with weapons came out from the forest. While half of them had weapons like swords or spears, the other half were using hoes, shovels, sickles and even kitchen knifes as weapons. Many of them were also using cooking pots as helmets. 20 went to the front and 20 to the back, sealing the escape route of the carriages. They were very confident and acted like they were in charge because of the difference in number: 40 vs 3. Yet, they did not form any defensive formations. As former knights, Bob and Tiffany used to be professional military personnel. The bandits' lack of defensive formation was striking to them. Bob furrowed his brows briefly.

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"Leave your wagons and go back. Then, we’ll let you go." The leader of the bandits declared loudly.

"We have children with us. Would you let us unload one of the wagons so that it can carry the children back?" N replied like a regular traveler with a humble tone. The closest town was about one day away with a normal wagon without levitation, it would be very dangerous for a typical family to walk back in the mountain path even without children. With N's act, the group was unmistakably a normal family in the bandit's eyes.

The leader of the bandits looked around, many of the bandits nodded. "Fine! Stand aside and we will unload it for you." The leader ordered the family loudly.

"Thank you! That's very kind of you!" N smiled.

"Tiffany." N then signaled.

"Got it." Tiffany replied as she hugged her children while keeping an eye on the bandits. Then, she released her Aura. Adrian and Winnie could feel their mother’s Divine Power surrounding them, making them feel safe. They could see a very faint light green layer of light and sparkles around them.

Suddenly, their surroundings darkened, and the air became heavier. They felt weakness in their legs, and their mother quickly put them into a sitting position. The children were surprised, scared, and looked at their mother. "Shhh, it’s ok. Mommy is here. N is just trying protect you. It is alright. Everything will be fine." Tiffany soothed her children. She strengthened her Aura output and the children stopped feeling pressured. After a while, they calmed down and felt safe again under their mother's protection. Out of curiosity, the children looked outside the wagon to see what was going on.

Outside the stone wall, the bandits were not as lucky as the children. The bandits looked horrified as they knelt or sat on the ground, surrounded by a faint layer of dark silver light. Adrian's first impression was that the bandits were surrounded by thousands of swords threatening to kill them. In a few seconds, the bandits dropped their weapons under the immense pressure. Apparently, they were paralyzed. A moment later, the faint images of sword started closing in toward their limbs and throats. "No, please stop! I don't want to die!" Some of the bandits shouted. The swords' freezing cold edges started to touch their throats and limbs. Sharp pain entered their mind even though it was all just an illusion. They wanted to scream, but they couldn’t. Sweating profusely, some of them sobbed and cried in despair.

"I hope I didn’t overdo it." N said as the pressure suddenly disappeared.

Many bandits fainted on the spot as soon as they were released from the pressure. Their leader tried to stand up but couldn’t.

Bob and Tiffany looked back at N. "You overdid it." They said together.

"It was only around 15 seconds though." N said.

"Make it 10 seconds next time, they started hallucinating in just 5 seconds." Tiffany said.

"Well, with the children here, just in case."

"True."

Adrian saw some of the bandits through the opening of the wagon. After his mother walked out, he continued to hold on to Winnie’s hands, sitting inside the wagon. Under their mother’s protection, the children did not see the illusions as clearly or feel as much pressure as the bandits did. However, they still got a good idea about what happened.

"What is your name?" N stood next to the leader of the Bandit and asked in a commanding tone. Their status had switched.

"Noland." the bandit answered.

"Why did you become a bandit?" N inquired.

"We were farmers and there wasn’t enough rain this year. The harvest will not be enough to cover the tax. We needed another source of income, or else, the nobles would seize our lands and properties to pay off the taxes and penalties. We are farmers, we can’t keep on living without a land. So, it was basically a death penalty."

After taking a second look at the pots, hoes and sickles, N continued questioning, "Have you killed anyone before?"

"No, not at all! In fact, the harvest season just started, so you were our first customers."

"Do you know that typical merchants would hire bodyguards? They could have killed you all."

"We know, and we would not show ourselves if the bodyguards looked strong."

"Ok, I looked weak." N smiled and continued "So, what is your plan now?"

"I don’t think any of us will continue to do this after what just happened. We will escape our village in secret during the night. I suppose we will need to give up our identities in the Kingdom and flee to the demon territories. Some of us might sell all our properties to pay the tax, move to the capital and find a job."

The demon territory was a term that referred to the lands not in the jurisdiction of the Kingdom. Traveling there to join the demons was punishable by death. Many died getting caught by knights during their travel or during the journey through uncharted lands. On the other hand, many jobs in the capital required professional certificates. Farmers like Noland typically held the farmer’s certificate but most did not have certificates for other jobs. So, they would have to work as mercenaries or bodyguards. Many former farmers died in skirmishes as bodyguards against bandits.

Nobles and bodyguards often made fun of bandits who were equipped with hoes and pots. However, would they understand what brought them to risk their lives?

N nodded after hearing Noland. With a more serious tone, he extended an offer. "How about working for me after selling your lands? I'll take care of what you owe the nobles. You can bring your families too."

"Who are you?" Noland said as if a God descended before him.

"I am a landlord with fertile farmlands to spare."

"Are you a noble? What about your tax rates?"

"Let's continue this discussion after everyone has woken up."

"Right."

Noland finally managed to stand up. He and a few other people started waking up everyone. After everyone was ready, Noland led N and the family to their hideout, which was an abandoned village in the mountain. Recently, there were a lot of abandoned villages because of the increasing tax rates. Lands that could not generate enough income to support the tax were often abandoned, which pushed tax rates even higher for the other lands.

It was 3pm in the afternoon. Bob and Tiffany selected an empty house to spend the night with their children, while settled in another one nearby.