From Londoner To Lord

For a while, Calubo couldn't stop himself from grinning. The bandits liked to beat up the stonecutters after surrounding them in much higher numbers. That was why he had been beaten so badly the first time he tried to run away from the quarry. But this time, it would be a one on one fight. Let's see who comes out on top this time!

At this point, both he and the archer knew exactly where the other was, but Calubo was still confident about his chances.

When he had seen the shrubs at that moment, he had gauged that those were perhaps little more than a dozen yards away from him. While that was quite a lot closer to the archer compared to his initial position, he was still not at a sword-fighting range. So he needed to get even closer to the archer, somehow. He nodded to himself. Just two short sprints, and he would reach the archer.

However, since he was so close now, he couldn't easily risk running from cover to cover this time, since the archer would be able to see him much more clearly now, and could shoot him down easily. Thinking about what to do, he looked around the tree where he was hiding, and he saw just more trees around him.

No, that wasn't right. Looking at the ground, he saw many small fallen branches, apart from clumps of dirt and even a few small stones scattered around the area. He nodded to himself. He could take advantage of the fact that the archer knew that there were many guards who had come to see the body of fatso.

Since he didn't want to risk leaving the cover of the tree - especially since it was a narrow tree this time - he carefully gripped his sword from its blade and used its cross-guard to pull a few stones and some small wooden sticks towards him. It would have been much easier if he had a scabbard with him right now, but Hudan had given him the same sword with which he had been running towards the village - and when he had looted that sword from the fatso, he hadn't thought of taking the scabbard with him in his hurry of getting away from the bandits.

Before long, he had a small collection of stones and branches ahead of him. After discarding the smaller ones, he found a few stones and branches of just the right size for what he wanted to do. Now he just had to make the bandit think that there was another guard drawing closer to his position.

Picking up one of the stones, he threw it a little distance away from the left side of the tree. Right after he heard the sound of the stone hitting something, he knew that the archer would be looking towards that direction now - thinking that Calubo was running to another tree there - so he immediately threw a stick from the right side of the tree, this time with a lot more force.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

That stick flew to some distance, before it thwacked loudly on a tree there. This should make the archer think that there was someone else reaching close to him for certain, but he would still be confused about the direction of the approaching guard.

So, Calubo stood up slowly with his sword in his hand, getting ready to run, and after picking up another wooden stick, he threw it again towards the right, and luckily, the stick broke on contact with a tree - sounding exactly like how it would if someone had stepped on that stick. That should give the archer more reason to think that there was someone approaching him from the right, while he would believe that it was only a wild animal on the left. Discover hidden content at empire

And just as he expected, he heard the sound of an arrow hitting a tree to the right, and since he was ready to run, he used that moment to sprint to a new cover on the left behind another fedarus tree, reaching much closer to the archer. Being much closer now, Calubo knew that the archer would have heard the sound of his feet for sure, but this time, the bandit wouldn't be certain of his exact position - since he would have been looking in the opposite direction, thinking there was another guard there.

Calubo had seen the shrubs again while running, and while he expected that now he was only half a dozen yards away from the archer, this time he simply couldn't risk sticking his neck out to one side to confirm it, or he would immediately get an arrow in his head.

Keeping his ears open to make sure that the archer wasn't running away, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself and to get ready for the coming battle. Then he held his sword tightly in his left hand, and picked up another two sticks from the ground. Then he threw those sticks one by one from the left side of the tree, and while one of them simply hit the ground, the second one loudly hit a tree - hopefully making the archer think that the other guard was circling around him now.

Since he was quite close to the archer this time, he heard the twang of the string just as an arrow left the bow - wherever the archer had shot it. And even before the arrow made a sound of hitting something, he sprinted from the right of the tree with his sword held in front of him, and immediately saw the archer nocking another arrow on the bow just a few yards away from him. It was hard to tell the archer's expression in the night, but it had to be of surprise - after suddenly seeing a guard so close to him.

However, Calubo immediately recognized who the archer was. This was the bastard who kept trying to make moves on Hyola again and again even though she kept telling him no.

The bandits ogling the women from far away was one thing, but a few times Calubo and the other stonecutters even had to pull the archer away from Hyola forcefully, when he was too drunk on Nokozal's cheap ale and didn't want to take no for an answer.

Seething in anger inside, Calubo didn't waste another moment and immediately struck his sword down on the bandit, who had to hold his bow in front of him with both hands to defend himself. As Calubo pulled his sword back for another strike, the bandit used one of his hands to draw a dagger from behind him, holding the bow in only a single hand as a makeshift shield.

Calubo barely paused for a moment, knowing he had the advantage of longer reach over the bandit, and exchanged a few more slashes and strikes from his sword, but the bandit somehow defended all of them with his bow. And the moment Calubo took a step back to catch his breath, the bandit thrust fast towards his neck with the dagger, but he barely reached close to Calubo.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Calubo quickly held the wrist holding the dagger from his right hand, and stabbed again towards the bandit's chest, who used his bow once again to defend himself. But this time Calubo had jabbed his sword forward, instead of slashing it horizontally like earlier, so the bandit wouldn't be able to stop it easily. And just as he had thought, after grazing slightly across the bow, his sword pierced the archer's chest, making the bandit cry out in shock.

It felt like a very long time, but it was probably only a few moments as Calubo felt the bandit's hand slowly grow limp and saw his life leaving from his eyes. As he pulled his sword back with a grimace, the dagger and the bow fell from the hands of the archer, before he fell to the ground, clutching at his bleeding chest futilely.

Although he knew that the bandit couldn't survive this wound for long, he stabbed once again at the bandit's chest exactly where his heart would be, to be sure of it.

And just before the bandit died, Calubo spat towards him, "This is for Hyola, you bastard! I hope you rot forever in the stomach of a bakkore."

*******

~ Maisy ~

~ Hiding behind Elsie's older brother ~

Maisy was feeling scared. Very scared. For herself, for Timmy, and for all of Mr Kigeir's family. She didn't know how everything had turned bad so fast. Just a short while ago, she had been happily enjoying a feast along with her best friend Elsie, but when Mr Kigeir had told them all to return home, she had been a little sad that she wouldn't be able to eat more, but she had also been happy, because she had still been able to eat a lot, after all. But before they had reached their home, scary looking bandits had stopped them from going further in that dark alley.

Since then, she and Elsie had been hiding behind Leif, while Mr Kigeir was still holding their younger brothers - both of whom were bawling loudly now. Even Elsie had begun to weep silently, but Maisy wasn't crying. This wasn't the first time she had to face bandits, and she knew that it wouldn't be the last time either. Good times rarely lasted for orphans like her, after all.

But she still didn't know what would happen tonight. She had been able to dive into a garbage heap along with Timmy to hide when bandits had come to the village last time, but she couldn't do that now. Would the bandits take Timmy away from her? Would they take both of them to sell them as slaves somewhere? She didn't know, and so she was feeling very scared now.

Earlier, one of the bandits - who was really huge - had been demanding Mr Kigeir to give up all his grain and coin, but after trying to fool the bandits that they didn't have any grain, Mr Kigeir had given up when the bandits had threatened to kill his wife. Then he had taken them towards his home, and after putting down the boys, he had opened up his shop and showed the bandits the little amount of grain he had.

When the bandits had begun to load it in a sack, Mr Kigeir and his wife had begged them to leave some grain for their family, but the huge bandit had simply told the other man to keep loading up everything.

By now, Mr Kigeir's wife had also started crying, while Leif was still trying to hide the girls behind himself. When the bandits had taken everything there, the huge man gazed at all of them for a moment, then demanded them to give up all their coin. Mr Kigeir quickly showed them an empty box, saying this is where he kept the coins, and there was nothing left anymore.

However, Maisy knew that there was a small pouch of coin buried under the ground behind their house - when she had seen Mr Kigeir putting more coins into it a few days ago - but she certainly wasn't going to say anything about it to the bandits!

It didn't seem like the bandits believed him at first. But then the huge and scary bandit looked at all of them again, his eyes stopping longer on the girls. Maisy didn't like the look in his eyes at that moment, while Elsie began to cry loudly now, clutching Leif's tunic from behind.

After a moment, the huge bandit shrugged his wide shoulders. "In that case, I'll have to take your girls with me instead of the coins. Fair's fair, after all. And I do have to make up my quota of slaves this winter."

Immediately, Mr Kigeir and Leif ran in front to shield the rest of them with their bodies. "You can't do that!" Leif shouted at the huge bandit, while Mr Kigeir began praying to the Goddess to help them. But the huge bandit just scoffed, and gave a backhanded slap to Leif, which threw him away to the ground. Immediately, Elsie clutched Maisy while bawling loudly.

Then Mr Kigeir tried to run at the huge bandit to attack him with his bare hands - even though he barely reached the huge bandit's shoulders in height - but after giving a laugh for a moment, the bandit punched him on his face, making him fall down on the ground with a thump. All this time the other bandit was just watching everything with amusement, while holding the sack full of grain on his back.

Maisy could only watch everything that was happening with teary eyes, and she hated that she couldn't do anything.

As she saw the end of the happy times with her best friend, her heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would fly away from her chest. She clutched back Elsie in fear, while glancing at Timmy - who looked terrified as he gazed back at her with teary eyes - but Maisy still tried to smile at him, hoping he wouldn't lose courage after the bandits took her away.

She also looked at Mr Kigeir and his family for a moment. She had really enjoyed living with them for so long, but she knew good times didn't last for people like her, after all.

This was it, then. This was probably the last time she was seeing her brother - her only family in this world. She didn't know what would happen to her and her best friend if the bandits took them away, but she just hoped that they would leave Timmy alone - so that at least one of them would survive in this cruel world.

As the huge bandit took a step towards them - probably to pick them up - Leif weakly stood up once again. After reaching in front of her and Elsie, he spread his hands wide, trying to shield them from the huge bandit. Was Leif really willing to give his life to save her and Elsie?

The huge bandit just tilted his head a little. "You don't learn your lesson easily, do you?" he taunted Leif, and drew his gleaming sword from his back. "Move!" he roared loudly.

But even then, Leif kept standing in front of them, although Maisy could see his arms shaking in fear. Leif's mother was screaming in fear now, telling them to stop, while Mr Kigeir was still on the ground - probably because he was still passed out after that blow to his head.

As Leif still didn't move, the huge bandit just shook his head slowly, and raised his sword high in the air, ready to cut him down.