It was not so much a forest as a woods, it was not sizeable enough to deserve the descriptor ‘forest,’ but if there was going to be an ambush it would happen when they traveled through here. But still, even when the leather wearing, masked, thugs stepped on to the path, Cass could not quite believe it. Hell, she did not really believe they were bandits.

“Good day there!” The bandit called out with a false cheerfulness. “This here is a toll road, upkeep and all is expensive you know.”

Rammuson barked out a laugh, “Oh come on, why even bother with the play? Are we going to do this or not?” And with that he drew his greatsword and casually twirled it. The strength of a veteran knight with glyphs was quite something to see.

“Well, we outnumber you quite a bit you see.” The bandit did not take the bait, “but even though we could, and will if we must, kill you, we will lose some people for sure- so we would rather you just pay up and be on your way.”

Cass frowned, she had decided to leave dealing with the bandits to Sir Rammuson, but she had not expected them to be actual bandits- and they certainly sounded like they were. Rammuson, apparently, was having the same thought.

“Look,” he apparently decided to try and reason with the thugs. “This is not going to go the way you think it will, and to be frank, I would rather not fight either. But I can tell you right now that there is no chance my Lady will pay, she would be far more likely to kill you herself to be honest. Let it go, and take some advice from me, get further away from Tyine. You are just asking for trouble here.”

The bandit sighed, “well it seems like neither of us will back down. Sorry about this.”

He lifted his hand and signalled to his unseen allies in the woods, and in answer a dozen arrows shout out at the soldiers. However, this was not terribly problematic- it was immediately clear that their bows were not powerful enough to puncture the plate. Only one unlucky soldier went down from a shot through the slots for his eyes, the rest held in formation as the bandits came out from hiding.

At first, Cass thought the group was suicidal. The difference in equipment between her guards and the bandits was larger than the gap between heaven and earth. Outside of pure luck, an unarmored soldier facing up against plate was madness if they were not very skilled with their weapons, but it soon was revealed that Cass’s thinking was naive.

If they had equal numbers to the bandits, Cass’s presumption would have been correct- however, the brigands had maybe three times their number and so instead of meeting the soldiers in combat directly, they came out with ropes. Although they could immediately see and understand the bandits plan, none of the passengers in the carriage were remotely worried. Rather than try to avoid the ropes and the bandits attempt to disrupt his balance, Rammuson stepped in and let it happen.

With one hand on the rope, he yanked the bandit towards himself and bisected him with his greatsword. The bandits were stunned by the superhuman display of might, and Rammuson merely said.

“I would advise you to start running, you will probably survive because none of us can be bothered to chase you.”

“Well damn,” the bandit leader whistled in appreciation of the scene. “That is impressive, but it won’t be enough.”

“Hey Cass,” Owin spoke up with a serious expression as Cass continued to watch the scene play out. “I am starting to think our bandits are making trouble for us on purpose.”

“I am getting the same feeling,” Cass admitted, watching the soldiers fight and demonstrate their strength against the ‘bandits.’ “They seem to organised and determined, but I cannot think of why thieves would bother.”

“Not all bandits are the same,” Owin replied, his noble-born education showing. “If I had to bet, I would say these are not so much bandits as mercenaries that sometimes resort to banditry. Or are hired to pretend to be bandits, perhaps.”

That made far more sense than them simply being thieves and disenfranchised peasants. Aside from one death on each side, so far no one else had fallen. The bandits were showing far to much skill and confidence in their ability to outmaneuver the soldiers to have had no combat experience. That said, the advantage was clearly on the side of Cass’s soldiers. The power of the glyphs was simply too overwhelming, especially when combined with the heavy armor, and even as Cass was watching another bandit fell.

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“Aren’t you going to help them?” Natalie asked Cass, the former wondering why the latter was content to observe. “If you fought with them, the bandits would have been defeated by now.”

Cass was touched by Natalie’s confidence in her, but shook her head in reply. “If I exited the carriage and tried to cast magic, the archers would undoubtedly shoot me down. As for hand to hand well, I do not want to get my dress dirty!”

A large part of interaction in noble society is about presentation, and Cass was traveling with a limited wardrobe to start with. It was not that she would not sacrifice a dress if she needed to, but this situation definitely did not qualify as serious enough. Rather, instead of her joining the fight…

“You know,” Cass mused. “I do not think I have ever seen you fight, Owin.”

Owin chuckled, understanding precisely what Cass meant by that. He grabbed his sword and exited the carriage swiftly, with his sword and the contrast between his attire and the knights and bandits- even Cass had to admit he looked the part of a dashing young noble. The effect was lessened by the fact Cass knew his actual personality was just a little less warped than her own, but as she had thought before, it was all about the presentation.

A few arrows did shoot towards him, but he was long gone before they reached their target. Unburdened by heavy armor, trained in noble swordsmanship and more used to his glyphs than the regular soldiers, Owin almost seemed to flit around the battlefield delicately. That was, however, only if you could divorce his movements from the bodies hitting the ground.

With the new perspective the education she had received as a Hand had begun to give her, Cass was able to really appreciate just how powerful these glyphs were to the Empire as a whole. The surviving bandits were already fleeing, leaving behind nearly fifteen of their comrades dead on the ground behind them. Only a single one of the soldiers had died, and that was more bad luck on his part than anything else.

Of course, that same perspective also allowed her to see that arming, arming, and tattooing a large number of soldiers would be prohibitively expensive- and dangerous. The glyphs do not ensure loyalty after all, though considering her master’s research they might in the future.

“Well done, Owin.” Cass congratulated Owin as he returned, “You fought well.”

“Perhaps,” Owin reacted noncommittally to Cass’s praise. “More importantly, having crossed blades with them, I am almost certain they are mercenaries. What do you think, Sir Rammuson?”

“I have to agree,” Rammuson was wiping down his blade with a cloth. “And they did not feel like they were between contracts to me either. They were too prepared for us and in a rather odd location.”

“I do not suppose we know what mercenary group they are?” Cass asked, “once we figure out what the mercenary company is we might have a chance at figuring out who hired them and why.”

“Or we could work backwards from who would want to stop you.” Rammuson replied, “or rather, you can work backwards. The best part about being a knight is not having to worry about that part of things- all I have to do is swing my blade!” And with that he started to laugh, although Cass did not find it particularly funny.

Cass sighed, “let us just move on…”

Well, Cass said that but there was one last important thing to do before they left. Cass, Owin, and Svala came from the streets after all, so when it comes to looting bodies they were all professionals. It was not an exaggeration to say that they left the bandit mercenaries as little more than a naked pile of corpses by the side of the road, stripped of anything of even the tiniest value.

It was not worth much, compared to the resources that the Hall family could command. But the leather armor was decent and the weapons were well made, and Cass was sure that they would find a use for it at some point. They also recovered the plate off of the fallen soldier, but they afforded him the decency of a grave instead of throwing him on the pile with the others.

The rest of the journey was unremarkable and soon they were passing through the village beneath Rence Manor, about to arrive at their destination. Overall, Cass felt that the journey went well, although everyone else said that was simply because her luck with traveling was so bad that she had lost the ability to differentiate good from bad. Honestly, in the face of Owin, Svala, and Nat saying the same thing, Cass had a hard time arguing with them.

Still, this was the first somewhat major journey that Cass had not been knocked out by an antimagic enchanted orb, and that counted as a win as far as she was concerned. Also, Owin had actually kept his hands to himself during the night and Cass had not had to cover Nat’s ears and then beat the shit out of him- so that was another win. And if they ignored their past, the group was actually quite good for conversations. That did depend on not bringing up certain facets of the past, but Natalie was good at avoiding those pitfalls and everyone else was aware enough to avoid it as well.

That conversation had helped soothe Cass’s nerves, which became more frayed the closer she got to the Rence Barony. Lord Hall had left a lot of responsibility on her shoulders, and Cass could not help but be afraid she would not match up. But now she would have to do her best.