The remaining bandits ran away, leaving behind a dozen dead comrades, whose corpses would see no good end. They had come to steal but hadn’t expected such a strong resistance.

“Hah! Must’ve been one of those bandit groups who couldn’t find many to steal from and came here,” the man fighting near Ning. “They did not expect us ready to fight back hard.”

“Their leader had a power,” the woman next to him with the pickaxe said. “I thought they would be one of the better ones.”

“Power or not, they’re still bandits. They aren’t trained to fight like us.”

The last woman turned to look at Ning. “What you did was wrong. Don’t put yourself in danger next time. It won’t be so easy to get out of it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks,” Ning said. She was only just looking out for him, so there was no point in being angry with her.

He got back on the carriage, sitting next to Shara.

“Are you okay?” Shara asked.

“Oh yeah, no problem,” Ning said.

“You really like getting yourself into situations where you could die,” the woman said. “I was certain that mark of death on your head would be for this very moment.”

“Is it that prominent?” Ning asked.

The old woman looked just inches above his head and shook her head. “No, it is still distant,” she said.

“Then I won’t die for a while,” Ning said.

“That’s not what that means,” the old woman said. “This just means that your death is guaranteed in the future. The closer to death you are, the more clear this mark becomes. I haven’t even seen a mark this clear with old folks one foot into the grave.”

Shara looked horrified. “Does that mean he had some sort of incurable disease then? Something that will kill him?” she asked.

“Most likely,” the old woman said. “But it could be other reasons too. The way he likes to get himself into trouble, maybe he comes across a fork in his journey where all paths lead to death.”

Ning wondered how true this woman’s divinations were and if they would come before or after the experiment was over.

The fighters began hauling away the corpses, tossing them to the side of the road for the animals in the forest to feed on. Then, they got back onto their carriage and began moving.

Over a dozen people had died there, and not even that many people had felt a sense of loss. Perhaps, that was understandable as everyone was just happy to be alive in the end.

People rarely got sad when bad people had bad things happen to them, even if things were this extreme.

The carriage rolled away, the atmosphere in the carriage quickly returning to normalcy. They arrived at the town a while later and got out of the carriage to rest for a while and have something to eat.

The small town was used to such weary travelers and had various places set up for these reasons precisely.

The talk of bandits took over the town, and Ning heard quite a few people complain about it there too. Apparently, they had to keep watch at night for the bandits these past weeks as bandits had increased a whole lot in the area.

“With the war getting bigger again, the soldiers have been scouring the area for all bandits. Most of them have run in this direction, thinking the duchy is a place where they can prosper. They don’t realize we take the matter of our so seriously,” a woman serving Ning and the others food said regarding the matter of the war.

“The war is getting bigger?” Ning couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh yes,” the woman replied, happy to gossip. “The Emperor is trying to end this war once and for all, so this is likely to be his last attack. But before that, he needs to get the Kingdom of Marsh and the Kingdom of Olvia to accept that he is the one who should take that throne over at his old lands.”

“The Onyx throne,” Ning said.

“That’s the one,” the woman said.

“This soup is delicious,” the old woman said with a small smile.

The serving woman smiled. “My husband only uses the best ingredients when making it. Eat up, we have more in the back if you want.”

She left.

“So they’re trying to end it once and for all, huh?” Ning said softly.

“The Golden Republic has no ruler, right? So who is making the decision there?” Shara asked, confused. In an empire, the Emperor made the decision, in a kingdom, the king. Even in the duchy, there was a duke.

But the republic had no ruler.

“They have rulers,” Ning said. “Or I should say, governors. They make all the rules and make all the necessary decisions for their country.” S~eaʀᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“So there are multiple rulers?” Shara asked.

“You can think of that, in a way,” Ning said. “They are mostly chosen by the people so they can lead them without bias. Ends up being a cesspool of thieves and corruption half the time though. I wonder which one this is.”

“Just stick your thoughts on the food for now. You don’t need to think about another country’s political situation. You’re not the ones making the decisions there,” the old woman said, forcing the two to give up on their talk and eat their food.

After they were done eating, they paid up the few bronze coins for the food and got back into their carriage. It was past midday when they resumed their journey again, making their way back to Yalkost.

The path to Yalkost for the rest of the way was filled with open landscape, hard for any bandits to hide in. So, Ning and the rest had a pleasant journey the whole way through.

After nearly 5 hours of travel after that, Yalkost City could finally be seen in the distance.

They had arrived.

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