---------Numina Border-------------

The next day for the students consisted of easy traveling on safe roads. The group came across a few other merchants and farmers moving wares but refrained from saying anything other than a warm greeting to avoid tempting their cover any more than they already had. They encountered a few more Paladin patrols as well, each as ragtag as the first they'd seen. These young patrols of Vernicus's youth seemed far far less dangerous compared to the stories the students had heard about the Order of Justice's Paladins fighting in the war. A few of the students almost wanted to go back to the Madeline Front to see if they were truly so different from the Paladins they had met so far. They couldn't comprehend how the friendly kids their age could be the same Paladins of Justice they heard horror stories of from survivors from the front.

Returning Hervalle soldiers spoke about Luxia's Paladins like feral beasts charging unhesitantly across chaotic battlefields chasing their last meal. Virgoh even caught wind of a few bedtime stories designed to scare children into behaving based around them. The one Virgoh had overheard about the ravening killer Forga Magebane even led to a nightmare or two of his own.

So for the group of Hervalle students, every image of young men and women running around doing basic tasks like overzealous neighbors just made their feeling of confusion grow greater and greater.

While in this numb stupor of thought, the group found themselves forced to come to a halt to avoid running over a disheveled old woman sitting in the road. The woman with wild white hair spiraling from her scalp was hunched over the ground using fingers on both hands to draw intricate patterns in the dirt. She was wearing a heavy grey overcoat that covered everything, but her head which was marred by dirt.

Virgoh's first impression was she was crazy. A sentiment that was only encouraged when he heard what the woman was muttering to herself.

"Damn that Bandit King brat. Damn him and his whole rotten empire to hell along with those light-loving, child-abducting freaks. Hear my pleas great Sage and burn their temple of depravity to ash purging the land of criminals and saving the pure souls like me. Any who would get in the way of a mother and their son deserve no lesser fate." The woman continued to mutter similar statements on a loop ignoring the group of students who had stopped in front of her as she continued drawing in the sand with fervor.

Virgoh planned to just step around such a concerning individual before continuing his way leaving the crazy woman to her own devices, but that plan was quickly shattered to pieces when the innocent voice belonging to the subject of Virgoh's most recent and very real nightmare sounded out.

"Excuse me miss, may we help you?" Avior's voice rang out.

The woman looked up from her sand drawings as if shocked someone had spoken to her. "Ah. Hello I am Emeritus Em--I..I mean Lady Jiordina. What's it to yah?" She shot the students a menacing look, or at least as menacingly as an old woman could manage.

"Nice to meet you Jiordina. My name is Avior. My companions and I happen to be traveling to Numina. If you happen to be going that way would you like to travel with us?" Avior's one-sided friendless to the woman seemed unusual to his companions. He hadn't offered anyone else the option to travel with them so why was he doing so to this seemingly crazy lady? They were supposed to be trying to do whatever they could to avoid revealing themselves, not picking up new party members!

Christina immediately saw the gesture as a sign Avior had taken a liking the the woman romantically completely ignoring the apparent age gap. This resulted in Christina glaring menacingly at the old woman, doing her best attempt to imitate a wolf guarding her kill.

The woman who called herself Jiordina ignored the girl glaring daggers at her, instead, she seemed surprised by the offer of joining them. After a brief moment, she replied to the inquiry, "Oh no I'm afraid I'm going the opposite way. Off to that damned Holy City to find a runaway brat who doesn't know what's good for him."

Going against his companion's expectations Avior seemed uncharacteristically concerned about the woman. "Lady Jiordina do you mean to say you traveled from Numina by yourself? Did you encounter any bandits we've heard they lurk in every roadside ditch in the territory?"

The woman gave a gruff snort, "Of course I encountered bandits! That damn Bandit King's done nothing but encourage their actions since that damn Hervalle war started, worse he even convinced my worthless dull headed dungheap of a son to leave Warport Krovak's safe walls to go galavanting about with some gaudily robed nancies."

The previously silent Piran cut in not able to keep up with the crazy woman's words. "You said the Bandit King knows your son?"

The woman gave a snort before responding with a squint. "Of course, that bastard knows him, the brat's his son too."

Piran's eyes grew wide hearing the woman's words while the rest of the students unfamiliar with the Bandit King gave him confused looks.

Avior ignored all of the new information speaking just as he had before with a worried tone, "Are you hurt or in need of food? We could at the very least provide some medical assistance and rations to hold you over for the rest of your trip to Solis."

The old woman lowered her head displaying the wispy white hair on her scalp to the students before letting out a chuckle, "You ninny piglets wouldn't know a bough of blackleaf from mistleweed as besides I've got everything I need to patch up these couple scraps right here. Don't you lot have eyes."

Before Avior could retort that he actually did know the difference between the two from growing up with an herbalist for a mother, the woman stopped rearranging the dirt in a pattern at her feat and pulled out a lavishly decorated canteen from beneath her heavy grey overcoat.

Now alongside the intricate pattern on the canteen, Virgoh realized he could see faint matching designs on the woman's coat which was currently covered by a thick layer of dirt giving the coat its shabby grey appearance and masking the intricate work.

The woman unended the canteen onto the pattern and to the student's surprise, channeled her mana into it. The water split up in lines moving continually as they adapted to match the shape in the dirt below. As soon as the water completely matched the pattern it began to shrink until it was just as big as a man's palm.

The woman then swung her canteen into the pattern with vigor, but instead of splashing the pattern apart the pattern adhered to the canteen's exterior. A moment later the students felt the moist air surrounding them become dry as a visible whirlpool of moisture appeared above the empty canteen pushing water into the container aggressively. The woman lifted the canteen and vigorously gulped water out of the canteen. In her enthusiasm, water splashed wildly onto parts of her dirty face and overcoat revealing fine skin and colorful patterns.

With a slam, the woman secured the canteen's lid back dispersing the whirpool which dropped to the ground turning the woman's intricate pattern in the dirt to unreadable mud.

Victoria was unable to help herself seeing the display, "That was runecrafting! You just made an artifact Lady Jiordina!"

"Damn right I did. Now get lost kiddies as you can see I'll be plenty fine on my own. I'd worry more about what those bandit mops will do to yall. Although I'd wager a guess your group isn't the doe-eyed shrimp bait you let on."

Watching the woman stomp away from them after accomplishing a feat only Avior in the group could match the students turned their attention to the muddy remains of her rune on the road.

Victoria's eagerness was quickly repaid with disappointment as she found nothing usable left of the pattern. "Making an artifact pattern just from drawing in the dirt she must be a master crafter! And did you all see how powerful that water replenishment rune was? It filled her canteen faster than she could drink! Imagine if we equipped every city's well with a rune like that, no one would ever go thirsty!"

Virgoh chimed in with a stark contrast to Victoria's remarks. "Victoria if we did that in the grasslands everything would go up in smoke. A few years back a tribe had a water Mage bring rain to help their crops and it led to the surrounding tribes experiencing droughts for over a year. The wildfires that sprang up required the Duke himself to end them. Three tribes were turned to ash before he managed to."

Victoria didn't understand, "That's horrible, but why would making it rain lead to droughts?"

Christina the water specialist spoke up, "Although water mana can be used by itself many water spells rely on drawing moisture from surrounding air to manifest storms or the like. Even using water mana to heal is usually done by moving the water in someone's body to accelerate healing hence why dehydrated bodies are the hardest to heal solely using water mana."

Victoria's eyes lit up in understanding, "Oh so the water Mage took the moisture from the nearby areas leading to the drought. That's horrible didn't they know what they were doing?"

Virgoh spoke up this time with a grim tone, "They knew. And although the water Mage was never found, the leaders of the tribe who hired him were executed for their actions and the rest of the tribe was dissolved and forced to integrate into rival tribes." Seeing Christina's eyes widen in shock at the brutality Virgoh continued, "There's no room for idiotic greed in the grasslands. If those fire's weren't stopped far more than three tribes would have been slain. The Duke told me how once when he was a boy, a fire in the grasslands grew so large it managed to turn the entire Hervalle River bone dry and destroy two large cities before it hit the coast where water Mages had enough resources to end it."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"The Falflame Disaster." Avior spoke up absentmindedly, his eyes still locked onto the crazy woman now disappearing over a rise in the road.

Virgoh raised his eyes in appreciation, "Yes the Falflame Disaster. Few know about it outside of the Grassland Wastes where'd you learn about it?"

Avior brought his attention back to his companions, "Oh I don't remember, I just like history. It doesn't change."

Avior's odd words made Virgoh remember his companion didn't follow common sense and decided to keep any further questions and praise to himself. The rest of the students remained silent deciding collectively the social hole Avior had made with his indiscipherable comment was too much effort to try and bridge.

The group continued on, leaving Vernicus territory by midday and making it a few hours into Numina before nightfall forced them to stop. The students set up camp much in the same way they had before only the earth wall was made twice as high this time due to the greater risk of bandits. They divvied up into the same shifts for keeping watch. Jessica and Christina had first watch. Victoria and Piran had middle watch. While Avior, James, and Virgoh had third.

The roads in Numina were less developed forcing the group to move slower. The following day there was little that occurred other than a few wild animals giving the group a scare. But that night they ran into trouble.

During the middle of the night while Victoria and Piran were keeping watch a very unlucky group of bandits decided to attack their camp.

Piran and Victoria were quietly talking to help each other stay awake when a bright torch flew in from over their earth wall and landed in the center of their camp. Piran, who happened to be closest to it, picked it up and threw it back outside of the walls.

A chain of loud cursing from outside the walls confirmed to the sleepy Victoria and Piran they had just been the victims of possibly the most feeble raiding attempt in history. The bandits were so loud Piran and Victoria didn't even have to wake the other students before everyone was awake and ready to confront their attackers Christina even managed to beat Avior who had been in his usual half-asleep, half alert and training mindset, to the camp wall.

A thudding began coming from one of the earth walls where the bandits were attempting to beat down the camps surrounding earth walls with some kind of club. The perplexed students prepped themselves for the inevitable "real assault" when the thudding stopped accompanied by more loud cursing. It appeared the bandits decided breaking down the wall would be too much trouble. The students listened as the bandits loudly discussed their new plan which would involve heaving each other up and over the man-height earth wall surrounding the camp rather than going through the trouble of trying to break it down.

True to their word a few moments later a face concealed with a black scarf poked over the top of the camp wall before being fully heaved over and into the camp where they found themselves alone surrounded by the eight supposed victims.

Virgoh after going through enough near death experiences wasn't one to ask questions and slashed the bandit across the face with his sabre while Piran put Avior's metal tube point blank to the reeling bandit's face and triggered the artifact sending such a powerful air assault an audible crack was heard as the bandit's neck snapped under the strain.

Just like that, the sleepy students found they'd killed their first bandit. The sickening snap still echoing in the student's ears they found their adrenaline was now at full blast. Well all of them except for Avior, who positioned himself near the back realizing the group of bandits attacking them didn't appear to have a Mage with them which meant all they really needed to worry about was unexpected archer fire. A threat that was largely being mitigated by the earth wall around their camp. All Avior had to do to completely eliminate this threat was keep an eye at the tree limbs high enough above the wall to offer any ranged bandit a clear shot inside above the wall. A simple task which he did while he returned most of his focus to training.

The students had a far less relaxed mindset. They hadn't fought from an enclosed position before and they didn't like it. The lack of vision, the crowded space, it was nothing like their fight with the Muck Eater or the Comet Legion. They wanted to see their opponents. Virgoh and James both dug footholds out of the earth wall which allowed them to stand and look over it to see what they were facing.

What they found was six men with concealed faces huddled together speaking much more quietly than they had been before.

"I'm telling you they'll be surrendering any second now. Terry went in there and we all know how much of a son of a dragon Terry is. Those kids won't know what hit them."

"I know, I know how scary Terry is, but we haven't heard anything. Maybe something went wrong?" Another bandit spoke up.

"Psh, they're a bunch of kids how could they overpower Terry."

Virgoh and James shared a look before nodding and launching their attacks. Virgoh sent dark clouds to obscure a bandit's eyes while James sent a fire bolt at another while they both heaved themselves over the wall with weapons in hand.

"What the heck!"

"Why'd it get darker?"

"AHHH! IT BURNS!!!!"

The bandits cried out just stirring the chaos.

James and Virgoh didn't hesitate after clearing the wall and launched into the fight. Virgoh landed a few fatal slashes on the blind bandit's unprotected neck while James managed to deliver a strong slash to the bandit who he'd struck with his fire bolt. James surprised himself as the flaming bandit failed to protect themselves and his slash opened them through their light armor from nape to navel.

A few moments later the two were joined by Jessica and Victoria came over the wall next attacking the unprepared bandits with equal fervor. A fire lance from Victoria went straight through a bandit's lower chest leaving a burning hole where their intestines should be. Jessica cut through a bandit with her greatsword with enough force to sever him to the spine.

The one sided bloodshed was only halted when the next student popped their head over the battlements and let out a shrill scream.

"STOP!!!!" Christina's voice froze her companion's actions as they were broken out of their fight or flight mentality to find they had just partaken in a one-sided slaughter. All the bandits were dead or screaming in pain. Jessica took one look at the bowels coming out from the dead bandit at her feet and immediately threw up, followed immediately after by James and Piran doing the same.

Virgoh seemed a little uneasy but managed to hold it in, he had killed people before even if it was a few years ago. Victoria managed to be the most poised other than Avior who was doing his best to pretend to be uneasy by the scene he'd seen enough to forget more times than he remembered.

As for Christina, she didn't waste time gagging instead running directly to a few of the downed bandits who she thought she might be able to save. Seeing where she was going with this Avior decided to help out and went over to aid Christina with dressing the wounded.

Victoria followed suit as well after giving a quick scan to make sure there weren't any other bandits hidden in the area waiting for an opportunity to strike. She'd heard of similar tricks and baits being used in the past.

Christina dressed the wounds of the two bandits still unconscious but still breathing while thinking about just how stupid these bandits had been to attack Mages without a proper plan. No wonder Piran's parents had been able to become so notorious here if this was all they had for competition.

The first one to collect himself, Virgoh, was also the first one to question Christina. "Why are you trying to save them? They attacked us just let them die. Don't waste mana." He emphasized his point moving to the only still conscious bandit currently screaming his lungs out before kicking him in the head knocking him unconscious and blanketing the gory battlefield with an sudden silence.

Christina gave Virgoh a dirty look, "They made a mistake, but they didn't even attack us really. I think they just wanted to intimidate us. They didn't deserve to die."

Hearing her words Piran began spewing once more now with the thought that the first person he'd ever killed had been the equivalent of a harmless street performer. Worse an idle thought drifted through his mind about his parents. Had he just killed one of their old friends?

"You don't know that." Victoria came to Virgoh's aide."Christina, it's important to help people, but they attacked us in the middle of the night we shouldn't look to lessen their crimes. Virgoh and everyone's response was justified."

"Justified," Christina said the word out loud as if mulling it over. "Fine. What do you want me to do with them then." She gestured to the only two partially patched-up bandits who had wounds anywhere even close to saveable.

"Just let them bleed out," Virgoh spoke without a second thought.

"Just let them bleed out." Christina mimed, "Is that what you want when someone defeats you in battle, for them to just leave on the side of the road to bleed out?"

Virgoh guffawed, "I won't have to worry about that because I'll never be a bandit attacking campsites in the night!"

Christina gave up on the conversation and went back to finishing patching up the two bandits.

Avior who was curious to see how his companions would deal with this situation was happy to see James stoke the flames a little.

"If we let the two live they might come back for revenge." James brought up a good point while wiping throw-up off the sides of his face.

Virgoh was quick to jump on the idea, "Yeah like James said, if we let them go they'll definitely just come back with more bandits for revenge."

Christina seeing the opposition continue to mount against her turned for aid from her rock. Avior. "Avior what do you think?" She asked hoping for him to rescue her while setting her conscience at ease.

Avior decided to play the neutral card for now to avoid alienating Christina, "Let's interrogate them once they wake up and decide after hearing what they have to say."

"That sounds a lot more reasonable than letting them just die." Piran finally weighed in supporting Avior's words and siding with Christina.

Not willing to go against Avior, Virgoh let the matter drop with a huff retreating back to his bags to clean the blood off his sabre. Victoria followed suit returning to her bedroll after scanning the area for any other lurking bandits and coming up empty.

No longer having to argue Christina finished channeling some more mana to stop the last of the bleeding in the two bandits then had James and Jessica help move them over the walls into the camp where the bandits were secured with rope and gagged with cloth.

Some went back to sleep after that, but Piran, Jessica, and James stayed up after finding themselves unable to sleep after killing their first human being.

The rest of the night was uneventful. In the morning they discovered one of the bandits had ended up succumbing to his wounds in the night. It seemed there was something Christina had missed in her healing. As for the last bandit, they were focused more on their own pain than anything.

They didn't give any helpful information other than the group being a local bandit group who thought the kids carrying expensive-looking weapons would be an easy mark. Apparently, the group usually raided with more bandits, but for this raid had lowered their size in an attempt to get a larger individual cut of the loot.

Not wanting to ruffle feathers everyone agreed to leave the bandit in the camp tied up when they left. They assumed his bandit colleagues would find him after investigating the group's disappearance, but by then Chrstinan believed they'd be long gone and it wouldn't be a problem even if they did want to go after them.

Just like that the group broke camp, using footholds on the earth wall to easily get out before making their way further down the road. A few minutes out from the camp Virgoh made an excuse to go back saying forgot something. When he came back with a freshly cleaned sabre only Christina seemed to remain oblivious to what he'd really gone back to do.

To avoid rocking the boat everyone stayed quiet about Virgoh's actions even if it went against what the group had decided.