Chapter 29: The Mountain Bandits of Calmaria

The villagers of Calmaria could see Vlad return from his visit to the orphanage, without noticing him spending a long time with the place, as if he just visited the respective place.

Besides, they couldn't perceive his stay in the village long either, since he moved toward the other path out of the village, taking him in the wilderness.

"Just leave him be. If he wants to get killed by Malus, who are we to stop him?" commented one of the warriors of this village, still bothered by Vlad's visit.

He breathed out in relief knowing he got lost in the direction of the mountain pass, where the hateful bandit mountains along with the wild beasts called home.

On the other hand, Vlad was walking slowly, taking his time, checking around the necklace with his sense of touch.

"Titania, how does this pendant look?"

"It is from gold while the bird is colored red, like the blood."

"Go on, more details. To the best of your abilities. Let me see if I can visualize it in my head." mentioned Vlad who was trying to make out the shape of the jewelry piece, slowly making out the shape.

"I'll try, but this is the first time I see such a necklace. There are a lot of details on it, as if it is your cane. With different symbols engraved on the pendant"

"I am all ears."

The Fairy was on Vlad's right palm, checking around the necklace, telling Vlad about the various things she could see, easing up his process of visualizing this necklace in his mind. Still, there were blurry parts of the piece, but he was satisfied by the progress he achieved in his mind in regard to the image.

"Also, the pendant, I think you need a key to open it."

Hearing Titania state that fact, he opened his blind eyes, finding this information interesting, and taking out from his hair a long hairpin, he asked calmly, without a person in mind.

"I wonder, can you do it, scrap metal?"

The hairpin shook a bit, and instantly it began taking the shape of a key that he later inserted inside the lock of the pendant, yet the key didn't seem to turn as if it missed more details that perplexed him.

"Doesn't fit. Titania, are you sure this is how the pendant lock looks?"

"Yes, I can't be wrong, it is exactly like those locks from back home."

"Okay, sure, but there's something missing." remarked Vlad continuing to walk toward the village conversing with Titania while they were alone.

Titania who was resting on his hair began scratching her autumn leaf-colored hair, later lowering herself once again into his palm, taking a closer look at the magical sword that took the shape of the key, and she couldn't see what was wrong.

"I didn't make any mistakes at all in what I've told you. The sword fits perfectly in the lock."

Seeing the Fairy stress around this small thing, amused him, and pulling out the key from the lock, and touching the sharp teeth of the key, his later comments only acted as fuel for Titania.

"There's many other types of locks that look the same as the ones from home. But there's something called security that each locksmith places inside certain devices. Otherwise, if all locks looked the same, where could the security of the object be if I can simply take a random key and insert it."

"There's no way, I can see it with my eyes, it is the same. It must be you who didn't understand my description."

"No, I understand what you've told me, but there's also a hidden side of the lock that we can't see."

"Right, so it is only that lock which is weird." mentioned Titania, who looked at the lock with a challenged expression, as if she wanted a small piece of that golden necklace.

"More or less. It would be fine if I could open this pendant with the sword, but it is not like I will die from curiosity to try and find what's inside. If this thing didn't come with a key, it means we have to find the key."

"Where? We got to many places to be around." said Titania, who returned back to her relaxed side, jumping on Vlad's hair.

"I don't know. Maybe on our journey we will find some locksmith?" shrugged Vlad, placing the necklace on his head, and continuing his journey where he intended to give a visit to the bandits of this island.

For now, he closed the subject of the necklace, leaving this problem for another time, as he was taught from young to take things step by step, instead of rushing to achieve something done from various directions.

Entering inside the village, he moved unbothered by anyone, with their stairs lingering on his back, but it wasn't a bother for him, as he got used to this burning sensation on his back since living inside Picodras.

Meanwhile, the villagers of Calmaria could only stare at how serene Vlad was moving inside their village, ignoring anyone approaching him with questions.

At first, this arrogance shown by Vlad was taken as disrespect with most men wanting to throw him off their settlement, but the idea that he would go hunting down the bandits was enticing for everyone who didn't want to risk their skin.

Thus they stared at Vlad passing by and moving toward the exit leading toward the second exit, which would lead toward the forested area of the Island, and down the line toward the sole mountain of the small Island.

The whispers and gossip regardless of the place sounded the same to Vlad, especially when it talked about him.

"That blind guy is really crazy and wants to kill himself by attacking Malus. It's been 2 years since we've settled with Malus on an accord that we will give him monthly food supplies just so he doesn't get ideas of attacking us."

"Shouldn't we stop this guy? What if everything goes down the drain and after Malus kills this guy, he will descend on the village, causing havoc with his bastards?"

"Captain has things sorted out. This time he is prepared for an attack."

Various chattering among the villagers from the dangers of what Vlad tried to do, to the risks of repercussions, sometimes even taking a bit of pity that he was blind and wanting to act so heroically, but those thoughts were just fog and smoke to Vlad's thoughts who listened to Titania's vivid description of the places around himself.

'This place isn't half-bad. It has a rustic touch to it, and even has some advantages of being slightly mountainous.'

'I wonder if there's any volcano in this place?'

"Titania, can you tell me if the mountain has a volcano?"

"No, I can only see a lot of trees."

"This means, this island belonged to a forested part of Atlas. I guess. Overall, it is irrelevant information.

Still, it is fascinating to think about the fact that maybe this entire separated South Region was a whole continent and that everyone lived under the umbrella of a certain kingdom."

"Maybe."

Like this, Vlad and Titania continued their casual talk, and taking the trodden road leading toward the forest, he was to encounter some beasts, but to his disappointment, there were only weak beasts, such as the common animals lurking in a forest.

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'It seems that not all places have those huge monstrous creatures.'

Using his senses to guide him in this unknown place, with his cane acting like an extension of his sight, where Titania was the color his eyes lacked currently, he made his way inside this forest, not deviating from the road unlike when he was alone.

"Isn't it strange?? There are marks of wagons around here." pointed out Titania next to the road, where she saw the marks of wheels on the ground.

"It isn't strange at all, Titania. Haven't you heard of those peasants? They give food supplies to that bandit to leave them off, so they wouldn't have to fight him. Keeping him fed, wouldn't make him daring to go attacking those poor peasants."

"Ohh, so these are their wagons that carried the food." replied Titania, while nodding her small head, seeming to understand the reason for those marks.

"Mhm."

Vlad could only look in the direction he felt Titania move her hand, and slowly check those marks, and with nothing out of the ordinary, he continued his journey on this forest, leading him to a higher elevation compared to the Calmaria Village.

Then, something happened to Titania which made him confused, she was out of words the moment he stepped into a part of the forest that was cleared out to his senses.

"Something is on your mind?"

"We reached an abandoned village.

"No, it doesn't look abandoned but destroyed." mentioned Titania, who could see in front of her a small settlement that had its buildings burnt and destroyed.

She had a feeling of helplessness seeing this place, and as she told Vlad about this village, she could see Vlad continue on his journey without commenting anything, as if he too had something on his mind.

And she was right, Vlad in the moments he heard about this destroyed village, the memories about his raids on the Bulgarian Region where he unleashed hell on some innocent people came to haunt his mind, even in this world.

'That was for a greater cause, there's no way you can compare the mission I had in my early life with what some ignorant group of peasants who only do this for money.'

'The smell of burnt wood still lurks inside this place, and if I would look closely inside the buildings, I might even find corpses or skeletons.'

Step by step, Vlad's silence took over Titania also, and the duo kept the silence as they passed past the destroyed village of the forest, and after he was off this village, entering deeper inside the mountain in what he thought to be just a hike, he stopped abruptly.

His body tensed up immediately once again, having his weird senses act up before he could understand a reason for why, but seconds later he got his answers of what was happening.

*Arrow whistling*

The sound of the arrow whistling while hitting the air was clear enough to his sensible hearing that he took Titania by surprise when he crouched down and immediately lay on the ground as if he was dead.

He heard the arrow hit the tree, but in those moments he pulled out one of his old schemes of fooling his enemy that worked when outnumbered or when he wanted to hunt down some nobles.

However, Titania didn't understand what was going on, and why he would get to the floor as if he was hit.

"Why? Because it will be easier for me to get to those bandits. Now stay quiet, get to the back of my neck and bury yourself in my hair."

"Understood."

Titania quickly moved at Vlad's orders, as if she was swimming in this dark lake, reaching the back of his neck that she embraced tightly, while covering herself in his hair.

Not long after she did that, the voices of 3 guys could be heard, sounding rather pleased with themselves, especially when their remarks could be picked by Vlad.

"You've got that stupid idiot who climbed the mountain to get to the camp?"

"Yea, spot on. That was a Bullseye. I've never seen someone drop so nicely on the floor."

"Hmm, maybe we should also train using those stupid idiots on the farm."

"Guys, what if this idiot is one of those who want to join our group? Boss told us to let them reach the camp…"

"That's just bullshit. The last time I checked, Boss Malus told us that only outsiders that receive one of our recommendations can join the group. This guy is all by himself, which means there's no recommendation. He might be one of those rats placed to spy on us."

It was a conversation that went back and forth close to Vlad's ears, where he began taking note of certain things they were speaking about, such as their group organization and how one would require someone to stick their hand out for you.

'This is so limiting. If you are a criminal, that's the least you would wish, to be limited by those laws you've placed upon yourself. Still, principled and also ambitious.'

With Vlad having his thoughts run about the bandits of this place, he senses that one of them began approaching him closer and closer, with the intent of checking if he was dead or not.

The initial thing the bandit wanted to check Vlad was to kick him in the midsection, however, he was shocked to see the "dead" body raise up, and in a flash, he felt an excruciating pain around his neck with his own world turning black.

"THE DEAD HAS RISEN UP!" shouted the other two guys, who placed their hands on their weapons trying to apprehend Vlad.

Still, what they saw next was again stuff of fantasy, noticing a needle-like pin morphing around into a Kilij that he used to quickly dismiss those two bandits whose attempt at fighting back was pathetic.

"Thank you for helping me."

"HAH? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING YOU BASTARD."

"If you weren't so vocal, I wouldn't know where to fit without adapting to your movements. Now, go to sleep for a bit. We'll talk later."

It was a confusing remark, but soon they saw Vlad vanish from their faces and they saw their own world turn black, getting unconscious exactly like the first guy who didn't stand a fragment of seconds against Vlad who began dusting off his clothes.

"It got dirty right?"

Titania who had her eyes closed the entire time, holding tight on his neck, made space in his hair to peek, and she could hear how her surroundings got quiet again.

"You've defeated the bandits?"

"Weaklings."

Making the entire situation a clear silence, after he cleaned out his black pants and white shirt that got dirty by his act, the first thing he did was to transform the sword into a large rope that he wrapped around the three bandits he knocked out.

"What will you do with them?" asked Titania standing on his shoulder, while Vlad was tying the black rope down.

"I'll take them to get some information. Nothing important. I doubt those guys even have something interesting for me. But for the sake of always being prepared, I'll leave it to myself."

Afterward, he took those three guys toward an isolated part of the mountain, closer to the destroyed village, where he woke them, starting off his interrogation after ignoring most of their curses.

*Punch*

"Cursing me will not help you."

"What do you want, you bastard? Are you a marine sent by those villagers to capture Boss Malus?"

"Ohh, something interesting. Why are you asking?"

"Because Boss Malus already fought against some Bounty Hunters that visited the village to claim his great bounty." retorted another bandit, who first spit in Vlad's direction.

So sure he would catch Vlad's face, he saw the man whose eyes remained close, move his head and appear in front of him, grabbing his throat and beginning tightening down that grip.

"You've got quite the gall to try to spit on me, you peasant. This is your first warning, if on the second warning you try something silly, I will twist your head.

Now, continue with your story. I am not a bounty hunter myself, nor am I a marine.

Just a traveler who wants to test himself. Tell me more about your achievements, this Boss Malus achievement."

"Haha, you'll regret this, trying to fight boss Malus. It means you are that stupid to listen to those sheep inside the village."

"No, you are mistaken. I don't really care about their cries of helplessness. I am just doing this because I am curious to check on the strong people of this world."

"That's why you'll regret it. Boss Malus is a man with the bounty of 8.750.000 𝔅."

"Ohh about some years worth of my salary back home. Isn't this guy quite the big gun? Hmmm, wait no. Damn, why did I remember what Wormblod and Quinn say about their bounties being some number with lots of zeros, billion was it called?"

"What's this motherfucker even talking about? There's no person with such bounties on the sea. Only the Pirate King can achieve such a high notoriety and status. Revered by the world and pirates." commented a bandit who tried to move from the black rope, but without much success.

"Doesn't matter what I am talking about. And instead of worrying about me, you should be worrying about yourself. If I was in your place I would rather talk."

"And if we don't?"

"Simple."

Saying that, he touched the rope that started morphing while being tied on the bandits, making them cry in agonizing pain, while blood started filling the forest.

The rope had sprouted from nowhere iron spikes that pierced the flesh of those unfortunate guys.

"We'll talk, just stop this pain."

Vlad didn't bother with those cries, and instead made more spikes which instantly had the three guys chirp like birds, confessing everything they knew about themselves, Malus, other bandits and so on and so forth.

They confessed everything they did from childhood to adulthood, who they fucked, who they raped, who they pillaged, that it began to bore Vlad down.

They only wanted to survive in those moments, but unlike their ideals, Vlad didn't promise them anything, such as their freedom.

To not waste any of his remaining time, he touched the rope and the sound of blood could be heard accompanied by some muzzled cries that died down.

Titania was hiding inside Vlad's hair, and she didn't move from there nor did she wish to see how the bandits got ended.

Nevertheless, the sight of their chest being filled with a large spike hole was a nightmarish picture.

"This can be a method of fighting. Whips? I've never used them in combat. They might hold some advantages for me where I can make use of the surprise attacks."

Titania when hearing those comments could only shake her head, looking with some disapproval at Vlad, yet she knew she couldn't do anything to stop what was to come ahead of them.

'Will I ever be able to change him, so he wouldn't hurt so many people?'

It was a sensible question from the young maiden where she had no answers for, nor the one she wanted to change could answer.

After the incident with the bandits attacking early, about 30 minutes passed, and with the journey being resumed, Vlad and Titania found themselves standing beside the wooden walls of an encampment.

Inside this encampment standing at the center was a building made out of stone and bricks while the rest were simply by wood.

"So that bandit was serious about fighting off those bounty hunters. He even turtled down on this mountain, inviting those fools to have their heads cleaved.

Anything else I should be aware of, Titania?"

"Be careful. I will not be able to return home by myself if you get hurt."

"My lady, you are imagining a scenario that will never happen to me."

Saying that Vlad casually jumped the wooden walls, making them look useless, and where he landed was relatively close to the mansion.

After his landing, he expected to be apprehended by someone, but to his surprise Titania couldn't see anyone, and he could hear activity inside the mansion.

"Would you look at that Titania, they prepared a banquet for us. Shouldn't we greet them with our presence?"

"I don't know. I don't like violence at all."

"Heh, what a jest."