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A few things happened after reaching the next stop, which happened to be a small town, in the late afternoon. The first thing that happened was the kid who had his leg mangled was rushed to a proper healer in the town to get fixed up.

Next was getting the whole convoy accommodated in what few inns the town had, and from what I overheard, Albert and the lead knight, who I now know is named Sir Isaac, decided that in light of recent circumstances, they would extend our stay in this town for an extra day.

After being assigned my room, I went up and plopped down on my bed. A few seconds later, I heard my carriage mates timidly come into the room.

I noticed that ever since we continued our journey after the bandit attack, they had been distancing themselves from me, I sometimes even noticed them try to avoid eye contact with me and steal glances when they think I do not notice.

It did not take a Ph.D. in psychology to know what was up, these kids were scared of me. I pretty much offed 2 bandits right in front of them, these noble kids most likely have never seen a chicken get killed, much less another human, and my bloodstained sleaves were definitely not helping the situation.

I have no idea how to ease their fear of me. The best idea that comes to mind is to mind my own business and hope they come to realize that I mean them no harm because the silence from them is getting awkward, I wanted silence to do some reading in peace, but I did not want the silence to be because of fear.

To help the situation, I promptly changed into a fresh set of clothes and handed my bloodstained clothes to the inn’s staff to launder, with a tip of course.

Just as I got settled into a comfortable position in bed, there was a knock on the door followed by 1 of the escort knights entering the room and asking, “Are all of you from carriage 1?”

After we all nodded in the affirmative, he asked us to follow him. We headed out of the inn and all the way to what I assume is this town’s mayor’s office.

Once we entered, we were led to a waiting room that already had 4 other boys inside, 1 of the boys was the one who had his leg mangled and was sitting there with a splint tied to his leg.

A few minutes after we were seated, a knight would come and call 1 of us out of the room every few minutes. When it was my turn, I was called out and escorted to a conference room where Albert, with his writing materials, and the lead knight, Sir Issac, were sitting at a sizable table.

After I was asked to sit, I was then asked about the sequence of events from my perspective from the moment we were stopped on the road by the bandits.

I quickly realized that me and the boys in the previous waiting room were all from carriages that were directly attacked and that Albert and Issac were doing some kind of After Action Report. And since I had witnesses, I could not say that the 2 bandits that boarded my carriage, killed 2 coachmen, and smashed away part of my carriage simply disappeared or killed themselves.

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So I decided to go with the pure facts and omit whatever I was not asked. By the end of it, it was confirmed that I did use a wind spell to throw 1 of the bandits in front of the horses to get trampled, the only lie that I told was that I used the 3rd circle spell Air Impact to do it and not my own molecule magic.

Other than that, I told them exactly what happened during my fight with the bandit I stabbed in the back of the neck. After I was done with the interview, I was sent back to my inn where I got something to eat and turned in for the night.

***

When the interviews were done, Albert put down his quill and stretched. Once he was done stretching, Issac said, “I need a stiff drink… and it seems you need one as well.”

The moment those words left Isaac’s mouth, a side door opened to reveal Walt, “Did someone say drink?”

A few minutes later, Issac, Albert, and Walt were in a booth at a small but cozy upscale bar, “Nice place, how did you find it?” Albert asked Walt who led them here.

“Oh, while you guys were setting the brats in, I was scoping out the local watering holes.” Walt replied with a cheeky smile.

Albert slammed his fist on the table, “You lazy bastard! Is that the reason you frequently disappear at our stops? You were bar hopping? I thought you were settling the children in other inns!”

Walt waved his hands dismissively, “Pfft… don’t make such a big deal out of it. Besides, if I did not do it, I would not have found this nice little bar.”

After some back and forth and some beers, Issac asked, “So what do you guys think of that Ironcrest boy… if the rumors from the maids back at the Earl’s place are to be believed, Earl Beaufort seems to have an eye on him and even offered one of his granddaughters to try to bring him into the family.”

“Aye… that kid’s a sharp one alright, especially at his age. Had to become a bit serious when smacking him around during his evaluation.” Walt slurred from 1 too many beers.

“Indeed”, Albert said, “I did some digging and found out his family was 1 of those targeted by assassins during the scuffle with the Valorhelm Dominion a few years ago… by seeing his actions, I can only assume that seeing assassins attack him and his family may have motivated him to excel at such a young age. I can only hope he does not overdo it and break himself, it would be a waste of such great potential.”

Issac sighed, “Kids should not be witnessing death at such a young age, and he has already witnessed it on 2 occasions. On top of that, the report you are going to send is definitely going to garner him a lot of attention, the good and the bad kinds of attention. I don’t suppose you can omit Ironcrest’s involvement from your report?”

Albert shook his head, “If it was just the 3 of us witnessing everything, sure. But there are multiple witnesses, especially the children, and I don’t trust them to keep their mouths shut, if word on the street differs from my report and it is investigated, I will get into big trouble for falsifying my report. Nothing good comes of that. The only upside is that my report will be seen by the Royals first, and hopefully, they will pick up on Luke Ironcrest’s accomplishments and stake their claim on him before the Noble Faction tries anything funny to get their hands on him.”

Issac raised his mug, “We can only hope.”

Albert and Walt raised their mugs and echoed Issac, “We can only hope.”