Chapter 65 - Gratitude

The road was lonely, as the dust settled in the wind, flying softly as if waiting to be tenderly touched by the sun during dusk.

The environment however was not so calm as the previous description. In the road, there was a young tender man, dressed with a clean, old shirt, short pants, and some old boots. His face looked delicate, and he was quite slim, though noticed properly, he looked quite healthy and his muscles were partially defined. This was Nerun, as he was traveling through the roads in the kingdom. There was a small dog right next to him. Man and beast walking through the road would have been quite a picturesque scene, had it not been for the rowdy group of men surrounding them.

There were approximately 15 men, several of them quite burly, and with sleazy eyes. They had different assortments of armor, and some had weapons like daggers and swords. Nerun was looking at them with his curious eyes, and examining them one after the other. The men were looking back at him, with several grades of hostility. One of their companions was already on the ground with vomit all over his face and retching violently.

There was a simple carriage, not far from them, and the 2 horses attached to it were trapped in a web made of ropes. There was a family made by a couple, and their two small children, a boy and a girl. The couple was protecting their children.

"Well brat. You have not even grown any hair down there, but you think you are man enough to pick a fight with us. Good. Very good. It seems that you are bored of your current life, that you want to run towards Hades", said one of the burly men, who had a stubble, and the only one with some metal in his armor. He was the leader of this band of men.

Going back some time, Nerun had already been on the road for 12 days. He managed to reach another town on the way after traveling for seven days, but he had barely been able to cover a little bit more than 300 km from the town of Radem. He wasn't in a particular hurry to get to Eonia, since he had not left his hometown, except when he went to the Frontier with Maikal and Elijah more than 6 years ago, therefore, he wanted to enjoy this experience of traveling by himself.

In the town he arrived in, he met this couple and their children, who wanted to travel towards the County of Rosas, one of the counties that borders the Capital. The Kingdom of Ansem is made up of 18 Counties, of different sizes and each having several cities and towns. Most of them are managed by noble families. The five Great Families are precisely called like that because each one of them is in total control of one county. They are all, however, subordinate to the Royal Family, since according to the law, all the land belongs to the Kingdom, and they are administrators of sorts. The rest of the Counties are usually managed by two to three Noble Families, and there are some exceptions, where the Counties are actually managed by Sects. The Frontier is different, since the Royal Family and the Army are in direct control.

As Nerun was going towards Eonia, he talked to the couple, who agreed to let him travel with them. They had left the town 2 days ago, and had planned to join a Caravan in the next city, the capital of the County of Syracuse, where Radem was situated in the periphery of the Kingdom. However, unbeknownst to them, they were being eyed by this group of robbers, called the Greedy Wolves, which had a bit of fame. They had surrounded the carriage and wanted to rob the couple of their belongings.

The couple had given up resisting the Band, and decided to cooperate with them, however the gang had decided to kidnap the children and sell them as slaves. The couple, then, started to retaliate, only to be quickly overwhelmed by the men. They had asked Nerun to run away with the children while they helped them keep the men back, but Nerun did not listen to them, and went to one of the men who were closer to the children and punched him right in the solar plexus, making him bend over from the pain and vomit profusely.

So it was that the current situation was formed. Nerun, however, had quite a lackadaisical attitude, as he simply said: "I'm quite sorry. I didn't know he would be so weak", said Nerun with a simple smile on his face.

The veins in the men's foreheads started throbbing and some of them wanted to jump towards Nerun and cut him into pieces.

The leader of the gang then started lauching. "Hahahahaa…. You've got guts boy. I'll take you to our lair, and cook your dog and eat it right in front of you. Then I'll sell you to some gentlemen with particular tastes. I'll make sure you regret this for the rest of your life".

"Man, can you be even more prosaic? I mean, you guys are robbers, I get it, I could have let that go. But even going for the children as well. I guess this kingdom would just be a bit better without guys like you around. Also, you guys talk too much".

The leader finally lost his composure and said "Get him". Two of the men approached Nerun fiercely, one attacking from above, and the other from below. There were other men waiting in the surroundings, blocking every route that Nerun could possibly take to escape. That being said, they had thought too much. Nerun never thought of escaping. At least with these guys he had no need.

Nerun's knees bent a bit as he assumed a sideways pose and raised both his arms in front of his body in a relaxed state. His ochre colored eyes had a golden halo surrounding it. When the first robber got close to Nerun and extended his arm, Nerun stepped forward once as if he could see the future and was right in front of the man, and pass the arm that wanted to grab him. Nerun then quickly attacked the man's exposed gut and punched fiercely. Having done that, he quickly sidestepped on the foot of the other attacker, and did a quick jump hitting the man's shin with his knee. Both men were quickly knocked out.

All the other men started shouting and 5 more went towards Nerun, some of them with weapons. Nerun, however, stayed calm and started moving his arms slowly and when the men were closer to him, he quickly parried their attacks and hit them in the joints, the gut, the neck and the groin. In but a few seconds, half of the men surrounding Nerun were incapacitated on the ground, several of them with blood or foam on their mouths and eyes gone white. Nerun had attacked with extreme prejudice, however he had not taken their lives.

Even to this day, Nerun tried not to be unnecessarily cruel to his enemies. In that, he just couldn't agree yet with Elijah.

When the rest of the men noticed how quickly and easily Nerun took care of their companions, some started shivering and stepped back. The teen in front of them was no child at all, but a monster.

"Do you still want to have a go?", asked Nerun to the band leader, whose eyes had constricted a bit.

"So you have some skill to back your mouth. I could let you go kid, but you have to stay away from our business. You have no idea what you're getting into", threatened the man. The leader had noticed that Nerun was a Qi master, at the very least from the readings in the boy's Qi. A young Qi Master could be very talented, but this boy looked too green, and was probably inexperienced. He was a Qi Master as well, close to becoming a Qi Grandmaster, so he believed he still could salvage the situation. So he had decided to try and intimidate Nerun, and deployed his full Qi power, with a dirty whitish snake surrounding his body.

Nerun however disappeared right from where he was, and appearing right in front of the man's head threw a fierce kick towards the man's temple, sending him flying tens of meters back, and crashing on the ground. The head of the leader had some skull fractures and he had completely lost consciousness.

"I had already told you. You talk too much. If you want to fight, fight, what's with all this nonsense" said Nerun. Looking back at the rest of the men he asked "So, do you also want to give it a go?".

The men started trembling non-stop and went quickly towards their fallen companions and picking them up, quickly scampered out of there. Nerun did nothing to stop them running away.

"Wow, big brother Nerun, you are so strong. Awesome. Are you perhaps a member of one of the Noble families, or one of the sects maybe?" Asked the young boy behind his parents. The couple were thankful towards Nerun, since he had saved them, nevertheless they stayed cautious all the way.

"Well, Nerun, you surprised us. I never knew you were so powerful. Thank you so much for saving my family. This favour is one of life and death, and I'm sincerely grateful", said the man as he bowed to Nerun.

"Don't mention it, Uncle Joel. It was my pleasure. You all have been very kind to me, so it's the least I could do." answered Nerun.

"Perhaps you should not have let them go. They could have companions and come later for revenge. Sometimes in this world, you need to be a bit more callous. Otherwise people might take advantage of your kindness. These men in particular were quite cruel, and I'm sure there is a lot of blood in their hands. Actually it's strange that we were robbed when we are so close to the capital of the County. Aren't they afraid of the City army nearby?" said the man named Joel once more.

"My brothers would agree with you. But I have my concerns, and besides no harm has been done to us, just some scares. I guess, they did not deserve the death penalty in my eyes just yet. Besides, I like to fish." said Nerun with his usual smile. Joel did not really understand what fishing had to do with the current situation, but decided to say no more.

Everyone mounted the carriage one more time, and Joel quickly checked for damages and such to the small cargo they had. Having found no problems, they quickly left towards the city.

A few hours later, they could see the city walls on the horizon. Both Joel and his wife could finally relax their tense nerves. Nerun was admiring the city. It was a little bit bigger than the City of Corona, but not by much. However, that didn't mean that the city was not imposing.

There were a couple of tall buildings that could be seen even from beyond the wall. Nerun had never seen buildings as tall as those, and wondered what could be their function.

"Are you watching those buildings over there?" Asked Joel. "I know this is your first time coming to one of the capitals. You won't see those buildings anywhere else. One of them is the Mint. They are the biggest bank in the whole continent, and there is such a building in every capital of every County in the kingdom. They are quite the powerful group, and the Jobs Association is usually in the same building.

The Jobs Association is made by Alchemists, Apothecaries and Blacksmiths, and is also one of the most influential groups in the world, since they are artisans that are greatly valued for their products. So you could say that one of those buildings is the economic center of the County. The other is, of course, the local branch of The Temple. Since they are the most important religion in the whole continent, their presence in every major city is a given."

Said Joel while smiling. They had made it to the major city, and all that was left was to search for a Caravan towards Eonia. When they traveled with the Caravan they would be a lot safer than traveling alone.

"Where are you gonna stay Nerun? Do you want to stay with us?" asked the young boy, who had made Nerun his idol.

"Boy, do not bother Nerun. I'm sure he is busy with other things." said the mother.

Nerun actually was thinking of staying with the couple, but when the mother said that, he understood that even though they were thankful for his help previously, they wanted to part ways with him. Maybe they were afraid of the trouble that could come after Nerun from the robbers that got away after they went for backup. How fickle can be the human heart. It seems that that was all that Nerun's saving grace amounted to in this couple's mind.

Nevertheless, Nerun didn't take it to heart. He smiled back at the lady and said to the young boy: "Your mom is right. I do have some other business to take care of. But don't worry, if EON wills it, we'll meet each other again."

Joel was a bit embarrassed and wanted to say something else, but Nerun simply left towards the gate. Being alone was always better than being where one was not invited. Perhaps, in the future, they would regret this decision. Gratitude could be a funny thing.