Chapter 57

"You will have to be careful." George said as he was sitting beside him.

He was a useful ally to have; he had probably the most information on the different Magus Academies besides the Black Robed Knights and White Robed Acolytes.

"Are you worried about me, my dear George?" Harry laughed as he ate the rations he had received.

"Ourin and his Lackeys will definitely try to do something for you. Remember the dead guy? He was the last guy that tried to get close to Bessita." George explained earnestly.

"I know. And they are weak. You should know that. So what is it that you really want of me, that you are trying to butter me up first?" Harry asked already, having made a good guess.

"Perceptive like always, Harry. We will soon enter the most dangerous part of our journey. Let's make an alliance and defend each other." Offered George with a grin of his own.

"Sure." Harry agreed. He had been planning to go into an alliance with someone, and while he was reasonably confident he was the strongest person in the caravan, it still would look suspicious if he didn't attempt to raise his chances of survival.

And he wanted to remain undercover.

Then he had an inspiration: "Can Bessita join too?"

George looked at him strangely and asked, "If she wants to, It's almost as if you want to provoke Ourin, ah! You are really dangerous, my friend." The blond-haired boy chuckled as he finally got it.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked innocently and approached Bessita.

The girl was sitting with another group right now and was surrounded by her Simps.

"Bessita, got a minute?" He asked, ignoring the boys around her.

"Sure, Harry. What do you need?" The girl's eyes lit up as she saw Harry.

"Soon, this place is going to be really dangerous. It's better if we work together. George and

I are forming an alliance. Wanna join?" Harry asked without hesitation; he could already see the anger on Ourin's and Simp's faces.

"That sounds like a good plan! I am in." She nodded brightly, not noticing the faces of the boys around here, as she stood up and hugged Harry on his arm.

The faces of her siblings were now really blackened. But they were inside the camp and couldn't just attack Harry. They could only watch as he walked away with Bessita on his arm.

———

Harry regularly went out to collect data on the local plants; thanks to his knowledge of the world he was in, he knew that this was a necessity to reach far.

And why should he waste time and daddle around if he could do something productive and collect more knowledge with the AI chip?

This time it would be a bit different. Right during the next stop after asking Bessita to join their alliance, Harry got cornered by Ourin and his fellow Simps.

"Did you need something?" Harry asked politely as he watched the group of young Simps block his path.

"You…" Ourin was speechless that Harry wasn't the least concerned. He was aware that Harry was probably stronger than him, but even then, he had taken precautions and gathered as large a group as possible.

It was thirteen times one.

"Yes me?" Harry asked, unimpressed.

One of the other Simps asked, "Is he an idiot?"

"He is mocking us." Ourin said, angered, "But you should get the situation. Stay away from Bessite. You will now go to her and tell her you don't want to team up with her anymore."

Harry blinked at them and then simply said, "No."

They all starred at him, baffled. "That guy is really not taking us seriously. He should know we already killed one guy."

"Then you choose death." Ourin gritted out, annoyed, as he pulled his sword out.

Just what Harry wanted—even if someone was close by, they wouldn't interfere. They didn't really care if someone was stupid and caused trouble for themselves. The only time they bothered to interfere was inside the camp.

Harry didn't hestiate and punched Ourin directly in the face, causing the boy to drop his sword.

Of course he didn't use his full strength, or the boy would have died. Harry's body was far stronger than any of these kids. The only ones in the caravan who could fight him physically were the black-robed knights, but then Harry also had his magic.

"Nice Sword." Harry laughed as he swung the silvery blade around a bit.

"I will kill you!" Shouted Ourin from the dirt, "Get him! Together, he stands no chance."

Coming at him together would have been the smart choice if the strength between the two parties wasn't so different.

It didn't take long, and all thirteen of them lay on the dirt, holding their limbs in pain. All of them were littered with blue and greenish bruises where Harry had hit them with the flat side of the sword.

"Got enough? Or do you want another round of beating?" Harry said while grinning and swinging the sword threatingly around.

It was good that he could confirm that he didn't lose his swordsmanship without having his skills anymore. For them, it wasn't really necessary.

"Yes, we are sorry. We won't bother you or Bessita anymore." Ourin cried out from the ground. He had gotten it the worst. At least his arm was broken.

"Hmm, really? I don't believe you." Harry pretended to be suspicious. "Why don't you show me your sincerity and compensate me for my troubles? Hand over all your magic crystals!"

"No! You can't do that! Do you have any idea how much my family has sacrificed to get them?" Ourin cried out from the ground, his Lackeys having similar complaints.

"Well, you should have thought about that before. Was a pretty face really worth it?" Harry asked unbothered, "Think about it that way. If you hand them over now, you at least have the chance to join an academy, and I won't have to take them from your corpses."

"You won't get away with that!"

"With what? I did nothing. I was just taking a stroll. You guys probably encountered a beast or something." Was his innocent reply.

"Okay, I will give you my crystals. I left them in the carriage!" Ourin tried, but Harry just looked at him as if he were stupid.

"Are you mocking me?" Asked Harry as he put the tip of the sword at Ourin's throat, "Nobody with more than two brain cells wouldn't carry something so valuable with him. Now is the is the last chance!"

In the end, he collected magic crystals from thirteen people, and with the entrance fee for any Magus Academy being $10, he had gained quite a lot of them. In fact, he had 156 of the small black crystals on them since anyone of them had 1 to 3 additional ones in possession.

He also kept Ourin's sword; that way, he didn't have to get one from his inventory and needed to explain where he got it from.

Did it bother him that he just robbed them of their chance to join an academy? Nope, they were fodder characters that never appeared again in the story. They would have done the same to him.

Now that he was no longer under the effect of Gamer's mind, he had to become ruthless. This was a world where the weak would be used and only the strong progressed. And he had to acclimate himself to that mindset.

———

Ourin and his lackeys didn't bother him anymore.

While one of them tried to complain with one of the Black Robed Knights, the man just looked at him unimpressed and told him that he hadn't seen anything like that happen.

A clear message to anyone is that they wouldn't interfere as long as anything didn't happen in front of them.

The rest of the journey, on the other hand, went pretty uneventful. At least from Harry's perspective.

Bessita, after seeing the blade on his waist, got even closer to him; it was a clear confirmation of his strength.

It was a smart move, even though she wasn't aware of it.

Harry didn't have any feelings for her beyond physical attraction; after all, a pretty face wouldn't impress him.

The women around him were beautiful, and if he wanted, he could have seduced them.

Still, he had used her for a plot to actually get a small amount of wealth, making his future journey much easier. Which indebted him to her slightly.

The least he could do was to ensure that she reached their goal safely.

Sure, the great plains of death were dangerous for regular humans, but he was too strong and could look after himself and others. If things really got out of hand, the three Magi Acolytes would interfere.

Like in the novel, pretty early after entering the dangerous part of the great plains, they had been attacked by a pack of direwolves, which made the fictional story he had used as an excuse for why he was unconscious in the great plains more bearable.

On the other hand, Ourin died during one of the raids; the wounds he had given him and that broken arm were simply too heavy. Most of his lackeys survived.

But Harry wasn't bothered that they would look for revenge. They were too meaningless.

That journey was a true eye-opener for many of these noble kids. The Direwolves had been at the bottom of the food chain. Every day, they encountered even more danger.

While Harry wasn't threatened, he had to remain in the camp to avoid any suspicion from their company about his true strength. He held himself in the background as often as possible and only interfered when necessary.

For Bessita, the Journey was a real eye-opener. While she traveled thanks to Harry relatively safely, seeing so much danger and death made her realize how dangerous the world truly was.

She is a princess of a small country and has grown up, been pampered, and is in safety. But after passing through the great plains of death, she became quieter while thinking about something.

It took them almost ten days to pass through the dangerous part of the Great Plains.

Only after they had reached some kind of limit on deaths that must have been probably determined by their mission parameters did the three Accolytes truly act and set up several defensive measures to protect their charge.

But finally they had reached their destination, a small town-like place bustling with life.

Mostly, it was filled with other youths around their age who were about to become acolytes for the different academies.

Their carriages stopped in front of the camp.

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