The Open Road

I turned the corner and headed down the road that leads off the plateau. It was then that I stashed the backpack away into my inventory. It actually had nothing but clothes in it, so it was not even the slightest bit heavy, not that it would matter. Before I could leave and officially start my journey, I had one last thing to do. To ensure the safety and security of my family. I decided to make a very small detour to Wandermere Village and visit a certain old man who will love to see me.

I entered the village and easily made my way to the village elder's home without a single person being able to detect me. Even as I open the village elder's door and waltz right in like I own the place, no one has noticed me. One may wonder why this is, well, the answer is very simple…. I put everyone to sleep! The entire village was currently sleeping. Everyone except the people dealing with the village elder.

So I could easily just walk right up to the door to the village elder's study and open it right up to see an old man spitting tea out across the room. "You!? Why are you here!?"

"Why?" I answered back with a question while tilting my head. "The answer is simple." 

I walked over and took a seat while waving for the servant to give me some tea. The old man looked as if he was about to jump across his big wooden desk at me but sadly for him, it would be a futile attempt. "I came here to tell you that I will be leaving for the capital. The king has awarded me for my duties in the war, and I will be attending the Royal Magic Academy."

"And? Do you want me to congratulate you? If it was not for you, do you think my village would be in the mess it is in now? Would my grandson be dead?" The old man yelled. But I could care less. I took the cup of tea the maid gave me and took a sip. The tea was not too bad. It was a wonder how he was still getting such good things. After taking a few more sips, I put it aside, sat forward, and clasped my hands together while giving the old man a confused look.

"Why would I care about what happens in your village? It has nothing to do with me. I am only here to tell you that if you do not wish for your precious village to be wiped off the map, nothing should happen to my Cyrilia Village. When I mean nothing….. I mean... If a single incident happens, no matter how small it is, I will destroy your precious village with you along with it. Even if it is not anyone from your village's fault, I will still blame you before finding the true culprit. So always keep this in mind no matter how long I am gone for. Because even if you kick the bucket and you somehow get another heir to your disgusting bloodline, I will kill them and everyone else along with them. I am sure you have seen the crater next to the cliff.  I think my power is plain to see." I stood up after finishing my words and picked up the teacup once more and down the rest of its contents before turning to the servant and giving her my thanks. Only then did I turn and leave the pale faced old man to his thoughts.

I figured I would give him this warning. This warning alone will be enough for him to realize that any schemes he may come up with will be his full undoing. He will forever be under my finger. As I left the room, I heard the sound of porcelain breaking. My guess is he threw his teacup, which was a shame as it was a pretty cup. 

After leaving Wandermere, I was now finally standing at the edge of the plateau, looking out over the road I was about to take. I turned back and looked at the houses that were off in the distance and gave a slight bow towards Cyrilia village. "Until I am able to return once again." 

The path down the cliffside was not wide by no means, big enough for a merchant's carriage to make it up or down one way. If someone was coming down it, it would be impossible to pass each other safely. While it was a narrow path, from what I know, there has never been a single accident. That was because once a year or after big storms, people will come out and test the path to make sure it was safe to travel. Loose rocks will be removed off the cliffside if they look like they would cause a landslide. Such jobs were easy to do with earth magic.

The path itself zigzagged down the side of the cliff, making it longer than it needed, but in return, it made it safer.  Now, I could have easily just jumped off and slowly landed on the ground, but this was not why I was leaving so early. I wanted to enjoy my journey. I wanted to take my time and see the sights as I made my way towards the capital. 

Twenty minutes is what it took to reach the bottom. From here, it was a long dirt road. While there were many small towns and villages along the way, I did not know if I would stop at any of them, as, well, I am a demi human. There is no telling how much I will be hated. I just hope the capital is not as biased. It seemed the knights that I met were perfectly fine with me, but they could have been handpicked. Only the snickering young knight was a bit of a headache, but that was for all different reasons. 

Speaking of the capital, I hoped Adel would calm down by the time I entered the academy, her gaze kind of freaked me out. Well, maybe more uncomfortable than freaked out. But that possibly could be contributed to her being overly excited. Luckily though, she did not seem too into my father as I had thought. I do not know how I would have handled the whole mistress appearing out of nowhere cliche. I mean, I might have had to roast the girl. She seemed only my age, so having to roast such a young girl did not sit right for me but to keep my family happy, I would have to close my eyes, grit my teeth and puff out a bit of fire. 

As I walked down the road, I hummed a song. Nothing more than something I made up that has no words and was probably really out of tune. On Earth, I listened to very little music as I was always studying or reading, so there was no way I would ever remember any songs from my past life. 

I will say this, though, the sky was a clear blue with only a few clouds off in the distance. The birds flew in flocks across the meadow. The ugly man standing in front of me with a sword in his hand, pointing it at me with a lustful gaze, was also very peace…. It seems I might be in a little bit of a pickle.

I had read about it in books and have fantasized about fighting them myself but never in my life would I ever think I would ever run across bandits in my entire life. Real live bandits. There were ten in total, from the looks of it. Some wore bandanas while others did not. There was even the bald scared bandit standing in the front who looked more muscular than the rest. My guess was that he was the leader.

I touched my finger to my chin to decide how I should deal with this situation. I had quite a few choices to choose from. There was the heroic act where I gallantly tell the bandits: "Stand down, scum! I will not let you stain these lands. Either give up or die!" 

Then there was the whole frail maiden act: "Ahhh! Bandits! Please don't hurt me! I will be good and hand over all my goods!"

I could even do the seductress act and try to seduce them but…. I looked down at my body and sighed. "I guess that one will have to stay on the shelf." Not that I could even ever do such a dirty thing. I have read stories where girls would try to save their lives by giving themselves up but for me, no. A big fat no. I would rather fight to the death. 

I could act like I was one of them and call them old buddy. They looked stupid enough. But I do not think that would work either. I only had two options left. The first was to ignore them completely and continue on my way, or the second one which was to just say nothing at all and kill them. To be honest, I would prefer not to kill anyone. The last thing I want is my ancient will popping up out of nowhere.

So I guess I will just ignore them. But who would have thought that the bandits would not let me pass? "Little lady, it is not your lucky day. Hand over all your valuables and come with us. We will make sure to find you a really good home for a few silver coins, of course."

--AN: So this is the start of volume 3! I hope everyone is enjoying the novel so far. I want to thank everyone who has been supporting me. I would like to announce that the Novel will be going premium soon. I will be working on 20 privileged chapters in the coming week or two, and when they are done, I will be going premium. I know many of you may stop reading this, and I will be sad to see you go, but it was to happen eventually. Sadly I can not keep the novel free for all as I do have bills to pay. But still, I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting Faith. Thank you.--