William had spent the day in bed. His grandfather hadn't broken any bones, but he had crushed everything in the name of flesh and skin. He still felt pain when he was touched.

After many years, he thought calmly again that he could read without thinking about his training.

He was the first to arrive at his father's study. Although the room was empty, he did not sit in Theo's chair, but at the long window behind the chair. He was reading a book with his feet stretched out, looking out over the town.

He had not yet read most of the books Hurim had brought him. The book he was currently holding was about the political structure and nobles of the Jade Wind Kingdom.

Such a book should be completely forbidden, but it was written by the current king himself.

The information it contained was mainly about the general military strength of the nobles and their influence in the kingdom.

When the copy was distributed by the mages, all the nobles objected, arguing that the enemies could take advantage of it, and became very angry. The king didn't care at first, but then he decided to remove it. But it was too late. Those who read read, those who copied copied. Even though it was a forbidden book, the nobles could still find it through various channels.

William thought long and hard about the possibility that the king had done this on purpose. But later, when it occurred to him that the king might be a madman, he decided not to care. His father had advised him to finish this book first.

William learned a great deal from this book. Even the average strength of their barony was written in it.

They were mentioned as follows. "About fifty ruby-eyed cavalry and three iron rank elite soldiers along with the old and new baron. A militia of about a hundred regular infantry and nearly a thousand townspeople and villagers."In the book, it was written that his father used a technique called 'Fire Sword', which was at the highest level of iron. His grandfather's iron body was also mentioned, and he was even praised as 'Sturdy'.

Nevertheless, he had to thank the book. It told him which families he should be close to or stay away from in the future. He remembered them all. But he could say that they were completely wrong about the book itself, or that they had insufficient information.

The number of strong soldiers in the volcano alone had exceeded the two hundred mark. If he added the hundred or so Iron Level soldiers who used the Iron Body Technique, there was a terrifying power lurking.

He was sure that his family was loyal to the kingdom, but he couldn't say the same for the other nobles. Their current strength was enough to suppress the average dukes mentioned in the book in a real war.

He still wondered how his father had hidden such great power from the eyes of the kingdom and what he would use it for. He learned that Theo had also reached the bronze level in recent years. This came as a bit of a surprise to him after his grandfather's advancement.

After a while, when he had just finished the book, Theo came into the study with Hurim. William got up and started to leave, but Theo stopped him.

"From now on you should stay and listen to us. You can help me make some decisions." He said.

William agreed and sat down opposite Hurim.

Then the maid brought a pot of tea and snacks. After the maid left, Hurim began to speak.

He explained the income and expenses of the town, and the number of people coming and going. He even advised Theo about the needs of the townspeople and the amount of money needed. The town itself functioned well. Theo even set up a structure similar to the Adventurers' Guild in the town, where he began to provide them with the necessary supplies, quests, and equipment for their adventures. Most of their income came from this structure. At first, he recruited most of his soldiers for a show, just for publicity. He admired his father's business sense.

He assigned most of the jobs himself under various names. He sold the materials he received as a result of his mission at a more profitable price in the capital.

After Hurim had talked at length about the town, they finished their tea. William poured it first for Theo, then for himself and Hurim.

"Thank you, young master," Hurim said and continued.

"Sir, there are only small problems left." He took a sip of his tea. "In the mountains to the west, where Baron Seth and our lands cross, bands of bandits, large and small, have appeared. They have raided a few villages, but have hardly touched the women and children. They have only forcibly recruited adult males." He said.

"What do you think we should do?"

After thinking for a while, Theo said, "This is probably the work of Seth and his two other helpers. In their mind, they are trying to attract us. How many people are they? Did the scouts find out?"

"Yes, sir. Little Sora followed them. He went to the bottom of their camp. He said there are five iron ranks and about fifty bandits above the third meridian. The rest are about a hundred villagers."

Theo smiled upon hearing this.

"Wow! These guys are so weak!" he said. Then he turned to William.

"What do you think, William? Do you want to go? It will be an experience for you too."

"Are you sending me for three or five bandits?" he said, looking him in the eye. He was a little surprised.

"Why? Is it bad? You will encounter many such situations in the future. Besides, it does not mean that they do not touch women and children now, nor will they in the future."

"I'm not very optimistic about killing people, but I'll go if you want me to, Dad." He said respectfully.

"Then it is settled. I'll tell your old team to get ready and you'll be out tomorrow at dawn." He said.

"As you wish. By the way, how is Wilson? Is he talented? I never got a chance to ask." William asked.

"Yes, more talented than you." He said smiling. "But right now he's not as smart as you. That's why he has nothing on his mind right now but eating candy and playing games. He even cried when we added blood to his food, he didn't want it."

"Ahhh." William sighed. "After all, being me is not easy." He said smiling.

Theo threw one of the books on the table in his face. The book hit William right in the forehead.

"Why did you do that?" he asked, clutching his reddened forehead.

"Showing off is not always a good thing. It weakens your personality. Go now! Prepare for tomorrow." He said. Just as William was about to walk out the door, he spoke again.

"William, take care of your brother. Spend more time with him." Theo said.

"Okay, no problem. I'll teach him lots of games." He said with a mischievous smile and left.

Theo noticed his sly smile. He took a short sigh. "He's still a kid." He said.

Hurim tried to comfort him. "Sir, William is wiser and more mature than any noble, even the children of the royal family. I don't think you need to worry about him."

"You are right. But watching him grow up still makes me unhappy. Fortunately, there is Wilson."

Theo didn't want his children to be as quarrelsome as those of royalty or some nobles. He wanted them to keep their true bond of brotherhood.

"Well, any news from the capital?" he asked Hurim.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Sir, it's not much, but we still have to prepare. In a few years, they will be on the move. I think this conflict that Seth and his two helpers have already started foreshadows that." He said.

"You're right, we should start preparing. Anyway, send Sora after William. I want to know all his moves."

Then he got up from the couch and looked out of the window at the town. "Let's see how talented you are?" he said in a low voice.

...

The next day at dawn, William arrived at the entrance of the castle. There he waited for the others for a few minutes. In addition to his old team, five more firesword wielders joined the team. They made a good team. The leader of the team was, of course, William.

Since they had learned the territory of the barony in patrol training, they knew exactly where to go. From the town, they rode west for about half a day.

As the sun reached its peak, a village slowly became visible. Smoke was coming from the village.

When William realized that the situation was bad, he immediately shouted. "Hurry! Catch up!"

But by the time they reached the village, it was too late. William almost vomited at the sight. This was Matama Village. Some people tried to make a living by hunting and gathering plants.

Now, starting from the village gate, corpses were strewn everywhere. All the villagers, women, children, old and young, were killed in the most brutal way.

Some of their bodies were buried in five pieces, some were burned, and most were impaled.

Even babies were not forgiven in their mothers' arms, they were put to the sword with their mothers.

William was angry at this situation. He kept thinking, "What if it was Wilson?" After staring at the dead villagers on the ground for a long time, he decided to calm down. The first one to get angry was always the loser.

When he calmed down and looked around, he saw that all nine men beside him were the same as he had just been. With a serious face, he said, "Spread out, look for tracks. Find out which way they went!"

They all rode their horses to different sides of the village. After a while, George was the first to arrive. "There are at least twenty hoove tracks from the village gate to the mountain behind us," he said, frowning.

After a while, they saw that George had returned, and they all turned back.

William said, "Follow me!"

They entered the forest through the loose trees, following the horses' hoofprints. When they reached a small mountain, William stopped them because he saw something. Everyone dismounted and looked in the direction William was pointing.

Looking from the top of the mountain they were on, what looked like smoke from a campfire could be seen behind the opposite mountain. The rest of the team, except William, wanted to hurry up and attack, but William stopped them. He told everyone to bend down and tie the horses to the trees a little farther back.

After a while, he gathered everyone together and began to speak. "We know the general strength of the bandits, but we don't know if they have any hostages from the village they just had. So don't be in a hurry. Or they might threaten to kill them. You don't want to see them die, do you?" he said.

Godo said angrily, "Then what do we do?"

"Very simple. First of all, you will be calm, I don't want any of you to make a stupid decision and risk any hostages." He said these words, looking solemnly into each of their eyes.

"We will divide into two teams. You'll just watch until sundown. Then we'll meet back here and talk again. Remember! Watch carefully, watch their every step, watch the guards and find out if there are hostages, how many, and what they look like. But you are strictly forbidden to attack," he said.

Everyone nodded solemnly. Then William divided them into two groups. He chose George to be the leader opposite him. He also assigned Mura to his team. He took Godo with him, just in case. Because he was afraid that he might be impulsive and attack. They went into action immediately. They started to surround the mountain from both sides.

They were able to get within five hundred meters of the camp. In the distance, the bandits gathered around the campfire, enjoying their stolen food and wine. They counted about two hundred people, mostly conscripted peasants sitting quietly in a corner eating their food.

Behind the campfire, in a small recess in the mountain, young and middle-aged women were being held in wooden cages. Most of them were naked. Some of them would be used tonight.

Toward evening, near darkness, they returned. Once again the two teams met in the same place. William had come up with a plan.

"George, you and five of your men will go to the same place and wait in front of the bandits' camp. I don't want anyone to run away. We'll go in first and rescue the hostages. Then we will slowly push them towards you. And you'll catch them from behind," he said.

It was a reasonable plan. If all the bandits were what they looked like, they could handle it. William added Mura to his team in addition to the fire sword wielders. That made more sense since they were on the attack team. They waited until the moon rose higher and deeper into the night. Fortunately, the moon was very bright tonight. It was as if it was telling them to back off and try again another day.

The whole group moved quickly and quietly.

William moved about four hundred meters closer to where they had been watching before. From here on, there was an area where they would surely be scouted at the slightest movement. In a clearing fifty meters ahead, a guard in simple leather armor stood watching, holding a torch.

William told the others to retreat and hide behind the trees. Then he whispered, pointing at Mura with his hands. "I will go up. Shake the bush gently and get his attention." He said and climbed up the tree next to him. The tree was medium-sized and had a few protruding branches, making it perfect for killing someone silently.

Mura nodded at him and moved the bush from behind the tree.

The bandit guard was still active as he had just taken over to watch and he noticed it immediately. He wanted to check it out, because there was a chance that it was a rabbit and he could eat fresh meat.

Mura didn't make a sound as he approached the bush. Silently, he waited for it to snuggle up to him. Despite the torch in his hand, the guard could see nothing.

As soon as William was sure he was close enough, he let himself fall from the top of the tree. He immediately gagged him, preventing him from making a sound. Meanwhile, Mura sprang into action behind the bush. He immediately rushed forward and slashed his small family legacy dagger into the guard's neck.

The guard died quickly and cleanly. William didn't let any of his blood drip onto the leather armor he was wearing. After quickly dragging the dead guard behind a tree, he removed his armor and put it on himself.

He asked Mura for his dagger. "Don't you dare lose or break it!" said Mura, handing him the dagger.

"Don't worry, wait for me here."

William knew that he had handed down the dagger from his father, who had died hunting. So he would be as careful as possible.

After putting on the armor, William went to the next guard. He took the role of an ordinary guard, in no hurry, with a torch in his hand.

The other guard asked when he saw him coming. "What is it? What are you doing here?" he said.

"I'm so bored," William said, changing his voice slightly.

"Hehe, this was your first week, wasn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah, I haven't gotten used to it yet."

"Don't worry, give it some time. We'll leave after we make some more mess."

"Oh, not that, it's just that the wine here is of very poor quality." He said. Then William pretended to hear something.

"Did you hear that?" he said.

"What?" the guard asked.

"I think it came from over there." He walked between the trees.

The guard followed. Then William spoke again. "Hehe, what a luck."

"What did you find?" The guard asked from a few meters behind him.

"Heh, come and see for yourself."

The guard took a step or two in front of him and looked around, but saw nothing. "Where?" he felt William's hand cover his mouth as he asked.

A dagger quickly cut his throat. The last voice he heard was William's, "Here it is."

It was the first time he had killed a human being. That's why his hands were shaking. 'I wonder if Mura felt like this right now,' he thought. If they had told him that he would do such a thing in his previous world, he would chase them away by saying: 'Get the hell out of there!' But he had done it. He was sure that his hand would be covered in more blood from now on.

If he wanted to become stronger, he had to go through these paths. The so-called strong man never had a clean hand. All he cared about was his conscience. He didn't want to become a thoughtless and unnecessary murderer. After these thoughts, he immediately calmed himself down.

William quickly took his armor and gave it to Mura. The two of them blended in and killed three more bandits in about ten minutes.

Now they had to wait for the changing of the guard. They had to go deep into the camp and secure the hostages.

After waiting about an hour, they changed guards, all of them hiding their swords behind their backs so that it would not be obvious that they were strangers in disguise. They made it safely deep into the camp.

They looked at each other from a distance and shook their heads. They all extinguished their torches in one place. William went to the tent that appeared to be the largest, where he thought the bandit leader lived. Others approached the hostages in the back.

As William approached the tent, he could hear the sounds of teasing and rape coming from inside.

He came to the right side of the tent. His bed was here because his shadows were reflected in the light inside.

The man inside was trying to rape the woman, but from the shadows, he saw that she was still resisting. He wanted to attack before he did anything. He drew his sword and looked at the hostages. He saw Mura and the others approaching the women and warning them to be quiet.

After talking to the women, they looked at William and made eye contact. They made a nodding motion with their heads. Mura stayed with them to protect the women.

The other three came over to William. They all silently drew their swords from their backs.

William stepped forward and cut through the tent. As he entered, he saw the naked man looking at him in surprise, and the naked and dressed woman who thought she had been saved.

He swung his sword in anger. But the bandit leader wasn't weak either. He picked up his unsheathed sword on the side and shouted as he greeted William. "Wake up! We are under attack!"

William knew that he was the strongest of the bandits, he had to kill him quickly. But the man had no trouble meeting his sword. He only parried his attacks.

Even the bandit leader realized from his first attack that he couldn't be compared in strength.

Even though he was at the top of the iron level, he wasn't very good at defense.

He was using the Wind Technique, which was a very rare element. His attacks were extremely flexible.

Even William had trouble parrying his fast attacks. He already had a few minor cuts. He was sure that if he didn't have the Iron Body, he would have been minced meat by now.

He knew it couldn't go on like this, with every passing second, the possibility of the bandits waking up and joining the fight increased. William accelerated his attacks, pushing him behind the tent, ignoring a few more wounds. Then his sword caught fire and he yelled, "Now!"

The bandit leader didn't know who he was shouting at, but when he felt the tent cut open behind him and the flaming swords stabbing into his waist from both sides, he realized it was too late to wonder. Even he had not expected such a surprise attack.

Ignoring the two swords that pierced him, he wanted to kill the young man in front of him, trying to gather all his strength to attack, but for a moment he lowered his head and looked at his waist, causing William to be unable to block the fire sword that came at his head.

William's flaming sword cut him in half from the top of his head to his penis.

The bandit leader instantly fell to the ground in two pieces of flesh. William shouted immediately after killing him.

"Godooooo!!! Noooowwwww!" he said. Then he turned to the woman next to him and said, "Go to the other hostages immediately!"

Godo and George, who were waiting outside the camp, had picked up the signal. They began walking slowly. The bandits slumbered out of the tent before they could even put on their armor. But they were all like sheep going to the slaughterhouse, their heads blown off in a spear or sword attack.

The men George killed, on the other hand, lost their lives in a more "bloody" way. His heavy mace smashed the enemy's head. George's team was not even defending all the bandit attacks. When the bandits attacked them, their swords bounced back as if they had hit a stone.

William had not been idle either. He immediately left the tent and encountered an iron-level bandit. He had fought him longer than the bandit leader before him. The bandit in front of him used the Earth Technique. Therefore, it took him some time to break through his defenses. All he could do was attack his wrists, immobilize him, and then attack his body with the power of the flame sword.

William prayed to his grandfather every day that he had chosen Sharpness ability. If he didn't have this skill, he would have a hard time dealing with this guy. He might even run away.

Fortunately, he was not afraid of him. The other two men who helped him kill the bandit leader were also able to kill another Iron Level bandit.

After watching them for a while, he felt that he should congratulate them. Their teamwork was excellent. The man in front of them used a technique of the Flame Element. However, this technique caused him to speed up. He would have escaped if they hadn't constantly blocked his path and targeted his feet first. There was no one among them who was fast enough to catch him.

After a while, all of the bandits were dead. Godo, George, and the others met William covered in blood. William knew that all the blood belonged to the bandits.

They looked at each other and smiled with bloody faces. It looked like a scene from a horror movie, but William liked it.

At that moment, a voice was heard beside them.

"Please forgive us, sir, we were forced to do this! We've never hurt anyone!" cried a man with light white hair.

William had noticed them from the beginning and had even seen some of them attack the bandits on this opportunity.

"What village are you from?"

Almost every man gave a different name. Obviously, no one had surrendered in the village they met at noon. That's why the whole village had been massacred.

William calmed them down and said they could go back with them and then help them reach their village. They dressed the women and, after resting for a while, gathered the bodies and burned them.

They were lucky to have found two techniques. One was Earth Armor, which was a defensive technique, and the other was Flame Steps, which was a movement technique. William took it, saying that he had to show it to his father first. Everyone rested until morning. First thing in the morning, they took the horses from where they were tied and fed them. After all, there was no guarantee that the return trip would be safe.

Ten people completed their mission and left this mountain, returning with one hundred men and twenty-five women.

...

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