Chapter 3

As the blade was about to be slid over Gary's throat, the bandit felt something was off. Something was restricting his body from moving even an inch, and to make matters worse, Gary had a grin on his face.

It was not that his body was restricted, but more like it had lost all of its power. This made him look back in reflex, as it could only be something from behind causing this weird sensation.

What he saw behind him was a knight, clad in silver armor, looking at the bandit with pure hatred, and a blade stabbed into the bandit's back.

"Now go to hell where you belong!" This was the last thing the bandit heard before he fell to the ground lifelessly and with a shocked face still plastered on his face.

Gary was not much better; he was unconscious on the ground as well. His face had been bruised quite a bit by the punch by the bandit. A punch from a grown man who had fought many men against a 12-year-old kid who had never fought another man before was sure to do some damage.

"Madam, What do we do with him?" The knight that seemed to be the leader asked towards the carriage door while he looked at Gary on the ground.

All 5 of the knights there knew exactly what Gary had done, even though they had not seen what happened. They all looked at Gary on the ground with both sympathy and respect. They had never seen a kid like him show such bravery.

"Let him rest inside the carriage with us while we go to the capital!" A woman's voice came, answering the knight.

"But ...!" The knight leader wanted to say something, but he suddenly felt an imposing aura surrounding him. "As you wish ...!" The knight leader continued with a wry smile.

Following that, the knights went over to carry Gary, as they took him inside the carriage and placed him on one of the polstered benches inside.

"You can leave now! I can take it from here!" The woman said after they had placed Gary on the bench.

After the knights left, the woman and the little girl took a closer look at all of Gary's injuries. They wanted to be sure that none of them were fatal, as they knew this only happened to him, trying to protect them.

"Good thing none of the injuries are serious!" The older woman said as she looked at the little girl with a relieved smile. "Now, we can only wait for him to wake up!" The woman continued before she proceeded to look out the carriage window.

Half a day quickly went by, and they had long since left the small forest they had been attacked in and were now only a few hours away from the capital.

Gary slowly started opening his eyes. 'What happened?' He felt a sharp headache that was quite unbearable. His vision was also quite blurry as he tried to look around to figure out he was at the moment.

'Oh yeah, I was holding off the bandit, but in the end, I was too weak ...' Gary remembered back to what happened and figured that must be the reason his head was hurting as much as he was.

He slowly regained his senses as a few seconds went by. It was also at this time he started wondering why he was lying down so comfortably.

Regaining his vision, he looked around to see where he was. He quickly figured out that he was not outside in the forest but inside a carriage. At the same time, he saw opposite him were two women.

One was a mature lady, who looked gorgeous, even a kid like Gary could appreciate that. She had long blond hair and a face that looked like it was sculpted from granite by god himself. This was not the beauty Gary was most fascinated by. It was her eyes that caught him.

One of her eyes was a beautiful blue color, something akin to the sky, while the other eye was a gorgeous golden color. The golden eyes were by far the most fascinating, as Gary was staring straight at it, feeling lost.

The little girl by the woman's side looked like the spitting image of her, but she had some more childish features.

Both women had not seen that Gary had woken up as they were preoccupied. The girl was sleeping with a happy face while the woman was in a daze, looking out from the carriage window.

As Gary kept staring at the older woman, The woman quickly turned her gaze towards Gary, as she could feel the presence of his stare.

"Oh, you have woken up! That's good!" The woman said when she saw that Gary had woken up. "First, before anything, let me thank you for protecting my daughter and me so selflessly!" She continued with a grateful tone and a slight smile.

Hearing what she said, Gary quickly realized that the two women in front of him were the royalty he had tried to protect in the forest.

"I-I did nothing really ...!" Gary said while bowing his head. He was embarrassed about how he had actually failed and almost lost his life.

"You might not have defeated the bandit, but you delayed him until the knights came! This potentially safed some of the knights, much less me and my daughter's lives!" The woman said as she knew exactly what would have happened if Gary had not been there.

Gary did not know what to say at this point. He was flustered and embarrassed while also in the presence of royalty. He did not dare to speak at this moment, but he was glad that the woman had a favorable opinion of him.

"As you might have already guessed, my daughter and I are from the royal house, but still, let us introduce ourselves!" The woman suddenly said as she saw that Gary was keeping his head down.

"My name is Evaline, And I am the queen of Asera!" The older woman said. "And this here is my daughter Jasmine, the third princess of Asera!" The woman said while gesturing towards the young girl by her side.

At this moment, Gary raised his head so quickly in shock that his vision turned blurry once again. 'The queen, did I really help the queen and the princess!?!' His head was in a panic when he started to think back at how he had just slammed the carriage door in their faces.

"May we know the name of this young hero?" The queen said as she looked at Gary. The princess had long since awakened from all the talking, and by the shiny eyes she was showing, it seemed she wanted to know Gary's name too.

"M-My name is Gary, Gary Kingston!" Gary said as he spoke with a shaky voice. He was already nervous before when he thought they were from the royal family. Now that he knew that they were the queen and the princess, he was more in a panic than anything else.

"Oh? You are Elora and Brian's child?" The queen looked at Gary with a much more tender look.

"Y-You know my parents?" Gary looked at the queen with surprise. He had no idea that his parents actually had these kinds of connections.

"Haha, yeah ... Your mother and I are childhood friends! We both come from duke households who are both located in the capital!" She said with a nostalgic look.

Gary once again had a shocked expression. 'My mother knew the queen before she was even the queen? What kind of family was I born into?' At the moment, Gary's thoughts were in pure chaos.

The time quickly flew by as the queen, the princess, and Gary talked the whole way to the capital. The queen had long since figured out that Gary was going to the capital. Gary also knew that it was because of the queen that he could take the test at the academy before time.

He had also started to talk with the little princess and figured out that she was the same age as him and was also going to the capital to study at the academy. She was going to study magic instead of martial arts like Gary.

The queen and the princess let Gary ride with them all the way to the academy as a favor for saving their lives and because their families had some ties.

Arriving at the capital was quite a shock to Gary. He had never been outside of the small village his parents were located in. There were around 4000 citizens in that small village; compared to the capital, the village looked like a small farm in the middle of massive fields.