Ean was quiet during the day, just driving his cart, eating quietly, pacing in cricles by himself in silence. Danny wanted to talk to Ean, but he understood that if he wanted to help his cousin, he had to do it when his cousin wanted to be helped.

At night, Ean would scream and throw tantrums in his sleep. It was these tantrums woke Danny at night.

When the guard at the village gate saw Danny, he said, "Welcome, Danny." When he saw Ean in the cart, he shouted in his throat, "Ean, Ean is back."

An old man came running to the front of the car and Danny said, "Old Joe, not now," but the old man was about to cry and asked, "Ean, my daughter, Helen, Helen, where is Helen?"

Ean looked at Joe with dead eyes "They killed her, they killed her after she was taken prisoner." Old Joe fell to his knees, what he had predicted had come true. Tears welled up in his eyes, he wept silently. "How?" Joe asked.

Ean said, "We were about to win the battle, we were right behind Saul, when there were shouts of joy from the enemy. They started shouting Isabel, Isabel is coming.

Isabel came on her flying beast and rained death on us, killing most of us. The rest of us had to run here and there." At that moment an old couple came crying and said, "What happened to our son Sam?" Joe said, "He's talking about my daughter now." A bitter smile appeared on Ean's face

"Sam was lucky, he took a single arrow to the head and died before Isabel arrived." Joe's teary eyes widened "What did they do to her?" he asked.

"After they were captured, they first lined up and told the women warriors..." Danny covered Ean's mouth. He turned to the old man and said, "Old Joe, you don't need to listen to things that come into your nightmares at night and upset you. She died in the war, leave it at that."

Joe didn't stop, he cried out in pain "Tell me" Ean continued nonchalantly. "Helen and other female warriors and a few unlucky male warriors were raped by enemy soldiers repeatedly and for days on end. During one of these rapes Helen bit off a soldier's penis. Then, as an example, they crucified Helen and cut off her breasts, where she suffered for hours until she died."

All the villagers were shocked. Hank and Elise took their psychologically devastated son out of the cart and took him home.

Ean did not speak. He ignored Eva and Sam who hugged him. "I'm so tired," he said. He went to his bed and slept quietly.

Hank turned to Danny, who looked sad, and asked. "What's going to happen to Ean?" Danny shrugged, "I don't know, but for a guy who spent the last year as a half-starved slave in the salt mines of under a guy whom nickname is cruel Dimitri, Ean is in pretty good shape."

Elise said angrily, "I wish I could have gotten my hands on that cruel Dimitri." Danny said, "Don't worry, Auntie, I blew his head off like a watermelon." Hank was a little surprised to hear these words from Danny, who was normally incredibly loving and friendly.

Hank asked again "Danny do you think there's any way you can help Ean?" Danny said "I don't know uncle, I just know this. This killing and dismembering is hard on my soul, I'll go back to being stupid, innocent and happy again. I'm sorry I can't help you with my inteligence anymore."

In the evening Danny came to the camp. Daniel's body was in some kind of coffin. Arn was waiting at the bedside. Brad yelled at Enkra, "If the boss doesn't come back, we'll tear you apart, lich, you understand that, right?" Enkra calmly said, "He'll be back when he's back, calm down, it's only temporary."

Danny opened the coffin, put his hand on the forehead of the body in the Coffin.

Daniel got up stretching his muscles, turned to Enkra and asked, "All my muscles ache, couldn't you put him somewhere more comfortable?" Enkra said, "If you leave your body empty like this there could be very bad consequences, this coffin is to prevent those consequences, by the way your healer fed you well while you were away from your body.

Arn said, "I bought some scrolls you promised me from the loot money, boss. That's how I became second tier." Arn winked at Daniel, Daniel asked Brad "How much did he spend?" Brad replied "About fifty gold pieces."

Danny turned to Daniel and said, "I'm going back to my village and be my stupid old self." He shoved the money pouch into Daniel's hand. Daniel said, "Before you go back to your old self, tell Ean to find me here if he wants to get stronger."

Danny went back to the village. When he returned, Ean was in his room. Ean was acting like a rambunctious teenager whom don't leave his room. Danny knocked on the door of Ean's room. When Ean opened the door, he went in.

Ean sat quietly on his bed, there were pots of food on the edge of his bed. Danny knew Ean when he was young, Ean was a year younger than Danny. Even in his youth Ean had been very helpful and hardworking.

But now he was behaving like an angry teenager.

Danny said to Ean, "Ean, I just wanted you to know that I'm going to go back to being stupid and happy." When Ean heard this, he reacted "But who will protect the village, all the people in power are dead, who will fight the bandits?"

Danny smiled "There are no bandits anymore, there is only one gang of bandits. Venomblade. The leader's name is Daniel and he's my boss."

Ean was surprised "Are you telling me you're a bandit?" Danny ignored the question "In short, there is no bandit threat, Daniel will soon want to take control of the whole barony, and since he can't do it directly, he'll be up to a lot of tricks."

Danny continued. "If you want to get stronger, they have a headquarters in the area where my woodcutter's cabin is. Go there and join his service, he will help you in any way he can because you are my cousin. He loves me."

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Ean was deep in thought. He began to live every day without leaving his room, without leaving his bed. He tried to shake off the trauma of war and slavery. He didn't even know how much time had passed.

One morning he got up and left his room for the first time in a long time, he had some questions. He saw his mother and asked Elise, "Mom, where is Danny?"

The mother was happy that her son was out of his room for the first time in three months. "He just finished helping your father and now he is outside playing with the children.

Ean went outside. Danny was putting on a sort of fireworks show for the village children with his fireballs. When Eva and Sam saw their big brother coming up to them, they ran to hug him. Ean patted their heads.

Ean turned to Danny and said, "I have questions, Danny." "I'll answer them, answer them," Danny said with a goofy smile. Ean said, "Is that really what you use your power for, what else do you do, make hearts with fireballs for Alissa?"

Danny's face got a sad look on his face, "Pretty doesn't love me." That was the one thing Danny wanted to remember from his smart state. He didn't want to bother Alissa anymore.

Hans appeared next to Ean "Danny can turn his mind on and off at will, he once told me that the intelligence and logic he used when he was smart was a copy of Daniel's and that's why it bothered him." Ean turned to Hans "Look at you, all grown up and less arrogant." Hans smiled. "Daniel said he was always available if you wanted to meet him."

Ean shivered "Are you working for a bandit too?" Hans shrugged "Do you know any other way to get power in this area?" he asked.

Ean's blood was boiling, how could a bandit control everything? He went to his father. "Dad, who is this Daniel, what is this Venomblade gang? How can they control everything?" Hank smiled, "It's nice that you are taking an interest in the village's problems again, Ean."

Then he said, "Don't take the Venomblade for normal bandits. There's a reason there are no other bandit gangs in Danburg. We'll have to live with Venomblade until the Baroness finally gathers enough power to take care of them, and they're not so bad."

"What do you mean they're not bad!" shouted Ean. Hank said, "Simply put, the Baroness's military power has been greatly reduced, you know what happened to Saul, Esther was killed, and now she can only hold the town center with the power she has left.

Venomblade only asks us for the tax we used to pay to the Baroness. The merchants get tolls. They don't make banditry here, since they have Danburg under tribute. They don't want to unite all the lords against them, so they do their banditry only in Honeyburg. That's why all the nobles in the area don't help the Baroness with troops and destroy Venomblade."

Ean took a deep breath. He decided to see this Daniel guy for himself.

When Ean entered the camp he met no one, surprisingly no one in a huge camp with many large wooden buildings.

After wandering around a bit, he saw a face he recognized from before. Brad, Rex the Bandit's right hand man. Brad smiled when he saw Ean and said, "Welcome, Ean." Ean noticed that Brad was in much better shape than before, wearing chain mail from head to toe, plus plate armor on his chest and arms. He looked more like a well-paid high skill mercenary than a bandit.

Ean "You used to run out of my way, what happened?" Brad laughed "I'm one of the Venomblade commanders, second in command, and I am second tier, I have much better weapons and armor than you, Ean. Why should I be afraid of you?"

At that moment a handsome dark-haired man, a cuple inches shorter than Ean, walked up. He was wearing armor similar to Brad's. He smiled and said, "Welcome, Ean, I'm Daniel."

Ean looked at the bandit with fear, if this man's commanders were second tier, he must be stronger. Besides, he had seen how strong Danny was. This man could be even stronger than Danny.

Daniel smiled "Ean my friend, don't be afraid, I will offer you a job, if you like it you can work with us, if not you can live in your village in peace."

He started to show Ean around the camp. First they came to the archer training ground. About thirty archers, wearing leather armor, with quality swords at their waists and quality bows in their hands, were practicing shooting successfully. When they saw Daniel, the leader of the Archers came up to them. Daniel waved his hand and said, "This is Tim, my archer commander." Daniel asked Tim, "How's it going?" Tim said, "The monster hunt yielded results and today one more person managed to move up the ranks. We're up to nine archers at tier one boss, I'll try to get it up to ten before Alister's mercenaries arrive next week."

Daniel nodded, then. "You're doing a great job Dave, you're going to have a bright future like the rest of us. Keep it up."

"Alister, Alister from the legendary Silvergauntlet?" Ean asked. "The very same Alister," Daniel replied with a smile. Ean said, "The Silvergauntlet is a mercenary force of a hundred men. None of its members are below tier one, there are three tier three members. I've even heard that their leader Alister might be tier four. Can you really defeat a force like that?" "Yes," Daniel replied as if he was talking about something very simple.

Ean marveled at the equipment, marveled at the discipline. The last thing he had heard was that the biggest bandit gang in Danburg had thirty men. This gangs only archers numbered thirty.

Then they met a group of fifty men practicing formation training with spear and shield. Ean admired the discipline of the formation. The bandits all wore chain mail armor that reached to their knees. There were some with extra armor, none with missing armor. Their helmets were rather ordinary, but Ean was sure they were made of weapon quality steel.

This time Daniel introduced Frank to Ean. "Formations are great Frank, how are our guys doing about tiers?" Frank smiled "Saul was a big help with the formation, boss. At the moment I have twenty-five first tiers, and there were a lot of tier gains in the last Honeyburg attack."

Ean paused for a moment when he heard the name Saul and then said, "No way, can not be him."

Then they came across shock troops with double axes, throwing axes at their waists and big round shields on their backs. There were forty of them. They were dressed in chain armor up to their knees.

On their heads they wore the same uniform quality helmet. In Ean's eyes these bandits looked more like the army than the army he had once fought in.

Daniel introduced Alex to Ean, again lavishing praise on his achievements. Ean learned that Alex has twenty-first tiers in his unit, and he praised the help of a man called Saul.

Finally, Ean was taken to an area where the horsemen were working. "Since when do bandits have cavalry?" Ean asked himself.

The cavalry was not much different from the infantry in armor, with spears and shields in their hands and swords hanging from their waists. The lead horseman, dressed in armor similar to Daniel's, dismounted.

Ean was almost shocked. It was none other than his old commander, the knight Saul. Saul smiled and said, "Ean, welcome." Ean said, "Why, how could you agree to be a bandit?"

Saul pointed to Ean's hand, "That is the mark of a slave." Then he took off his glove, and on his hand was a slave brand. "Even though I am a knight, my own government betrayed me and left me in slavery. I have lost my dignity and my position, but I can steal back everything that was stolen from me. But to do that I had to become a bandit, and I did."

Ean understood what the other man was thinking and feeling. Ean turned to Daniel "The equipment is incredible, is there a government backing you or something?" Daniel smiled and shuk his head. He took Ean with him and they walked a few kilometers. They came across two large workshops.

One of the workshops had a team of dozens of men working enthusiastically. In a giant blacksmith's furnace, they were turning iron into steel. This steel was then used to make a wide variety of weapons and equipment.

In the second workshop, there was another team, mostly women, who carefully threaded metal rings together to make the chain mail worn by the bandits. A small number of men were making the plate armor that the higher ranking bandits wore over the chain mail.

Ean looked on in amazement. "Where does all this iron come from?" he asked, and a young man with the stamp of a slave, clearly the head blacksmith, smiled and said, "We have our own iron mine."

Ean smiled and extended his hand to Seth, who smiled and extended his hand and introduced himself "Ean" Seth said "Seth" as he shook his hand.

"Where did you found all these workers?" Ean asked Daniel as they left the workshops.

Daniel smiled. "We didn't, your cousin sent them to us. All the workers you see here were refugees. I hired them, it wasn't cheap to be honest, it was quite expensive, but at least we have the equipment."

"You want me to join your bandits?" Ean asked, impressed. "No," Daniel said with a smile. "I want you to build the organization that will drive Venomblade out of Danburg, the Steelguard."

Ean froze in place, "What? Why do you want to destroy your own organization? And how can an organization like mine be your rival when you claim to be able to defeat even an organization like Silverguantlet?"

Daniel smiled "It won't, I'll provide the weapons, equipment and even some of the men. You'll just play the handsome golden-haired hero. You will play the handsome hero Ean, the sidekick of the heroic giant Danny from Danburg.