Chapter 6

The duo stood on a hill in the dead of night, overlooking a small encampment of bandits that have been terrorizing the local village. They were comprised of just regular bandits that were led by one bandit that was on the level of a trained squire.

"See that camp? You are to kill all the bandits inside, save any prisoners you see, and bring back any gold they have stolen so that we can give it back to the village." Merlin said as he sat down and put his staff over his lap.

Sirius nodded. Dropping his bag and darting towards the camp formulating a plan to prioritize the captives first and foremost. When he arrived at the camp he found most of the bandits by the fire, and most of the captives in a cage. Though there were one or two being used as 'sleeves'.

It angered Sirius, but he kept his cool. He used magecraft to soften his steps with the wind so as to not make noise. "Oi, I need you all to be silent. I am going to release you, and you are all going to rush to the hills while I deal with the bandits."

The villagers simply nodded. Sirius used alchemy to reshape the lock, allowing it to open. The villagers ran into the hills towards Merlin and Sirius ran to the campfire to get rid of the bandits. Sirius dropped his hands onto the ground and caused the ground to explode with earthen spears that skewered the bandits.

The only ones that survived were crippled, blind, and unconscious, allowing Sirius to easily dispatch them with his sword, allowing him to save some of his ode. The noise however alerted the rest of the bandits, making Sirius square off against five other people, one of them being a fallen squire.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" A large man walked forward in front of the group. He was a tall man standing at around 203 centimeters with a large beard and bald head. He stared down Sirius. He had a large shield in one hand and a longsword in the other.

"Who do you serve, boy?"

Sirius, a tad nervous, stood ready. "No one. I am but a peasant."

"Ah! But a peasant who knows magic and quite possibly the sword judging from that thing in your hand." While the man blabbered on, Sirius moved the mana in his body to prime the spots under the bandits to tear through when told.

"You have no idea who you just killed, do you boy?" Sirius looked at him in confusion. "Just a bunch of commoners from a nearby village trying to feed their families and you just murdered them like the poor sods they are."

"Don't think villager made bandits would kidnap other villagers or use the women as toys." Sirius replied coldly.

"....Whelp gigs up, might as well kill you for ruining what we had going. Though that sword will do me nicely as compensation for what has occurred here." Then he dashed forward, straight into the spell Sirius had ready for him, that broke once it met the man's shield.

The other four spells went off skewering the others straight through the chest. Sirius raised his sword parrying the oncoming slash that was coming from his right and with the help of his reinforcement, putting the large man off balance.

"Ho ho ho! You are pretty good, boy!" This time the man brought his shield forward, implanting it straight into Sirius' gut, after all he is but a boy. Stronger than most adults but still a little behind those who know battle.

"Oof!" His body shot away rolling. When he got up he was bruised in some areas and his ribs felt like they had been indented by the shield thrust.

'Fuck that hurt!' Crouching down and igniting his circuits for the magic he was about to cast, Sirius shot forward, flipping onto the shield the man had used to defend a predicted sword slash and planting his arm onto it. He used alchemy to make the iron shield sprout a blade into the wrist holding it.

"AHHHH!" The man screamed while holding the stump that was his right hand. "You CUNT! I'm going to fucking gut you!" With craze the bandit chief swung his sword at Sirius who parried his strike and went for the riposte, shoving Arcane through his chest.

"Cough!" The man coughed up blood splattered over Sirius' face as the body slid off Arcane, leaving it bloodied. It made him truly realize that he ended a human life, he cut down their fate, ending their story. He will not meet people he was going to had he lived or kill people he would have met after this.

The men from before with the little girl was a numbed killing. He had killed them after truly realizing just how horrible the human race could be. The bandit chief was no different, only difference was this tine, Sirius was making a vow to himself.

It made Sirius realize that killing was an act of taking burdens onto yourself. 'I can't hesitate, it doesn't matter if they are good or bad, if they have a family it doesn't matter. As long as they cast their swords and spells towards me or my family, they will die by my hand.'

Sirius swore while his sword hand, a little shaky, gripped Arcane tightly.

Sirius swiped Arcane painting the ground with the fallen squire's blood and went to ransack the camp for gold so as to bring it back to the village it belonged to. Then he went in and covered the women inside and set them on their way with the other villagers he freed.

When Merlin opened his eyes he found Sirius sitting in front of him with a large sack of loot next to him. Merlin looked at Sirius questioningly. "I thought I told you to bring gold, not all of their weapons and armor."

"The villagers can sell the weapons and armors, that money can be used to hasten the rebuilding process." Sirius replied.

"I see..." Merlin said, then used his magic to look into the battle only for his clairvoyance to alert him of a change in the weave of fate, a miniscule change, but a change nonetheless.

Merlin turned his head to Sirius in shock who was busy cleaning Arcane. 'He was the reason a hole appeared three years ago! He can change fate!' Merlin reassessed the boy's level and got up, alerting Sirius' time to move.

…

With his bag of loot and his own bag of belongings thrown over his left shoulder, grasping the strings with his left hand. He rested his right hand on Arcane's handle making him look like he was ready to draw it at any moment which was true.

The duo, along with the freed captives following them, walked into a village with some of the houses burned down and down casted gloom riddled the town after the recent raid the now dead bandits had done. When they made it to the center Merlin slammed his staff down alerting them of their attention from reuniting with their families.

"The bandits are dead! Slain by my apprentice Sirius Wilhelm. We bring the stolen gold and weapons and armors used by the bandits." Then Sirius put the bag on the ground, opening the top allowing the nearby people to see gold coins as well as weapons and armors just as they said.

"My apprentice fought valiantly against thirteen bandits single handedly and came back without a scratch!" Sirius looked at Merlin weirdly. 'Why is he announcing my actions?'

A vague feeling of weight was felt by Sirius but he shrugged it off easily forgetting about it completely, Merlin however did not let that get past his eyes. 'His legend is being built, good.....'

"He is even the adoptive brother of the Lady of The Lake! Not like Sir Lancelot, like a son but a brother." Sirius couldn't feel it directly other than the tiniest amount of weight, but his legend was slowly being woven into the minds of man, making him a hero, a small hero with a giant potential for growth.

After saying a few more words Merlin and Sirius left the village, heading towards Merlin's tower so that he may begin teaching Sirius magecraft. "Did Vivian teach you any magecraft she had developed?"

The sudden question through Sirius for a loop. "No, but she did teach me how to cast the basic versions of spells such as bounded field and transmute."

'Though now that I think about it. Vivian was cheekily explaining developing this one particular bounded field that would make it so no one not free of sin could get out. She couldn't teach me it since I'm human and cannot be an embodiment of mystery.'

Merlin felt a shiver when Sirius was thinking of this thought, but he shook it off and asked another. "Did she give you her blessing?"

"Is that even a question? Of course she gave me her blessing, you dingleberry! Why the fuck would she not? Hell, if I had the ability to give blessings I would given her mine too!"

The two continued to bicker all the way to the tower.