The insurgents had lost 32 people in the fight. He was furious at the Duke and wanted him to pay for it. He sent some of his men to the city as spies. He told them to find any useful information they could about the Duke. Ethan knew that if the Duke had control of bandits then it would be hard to fight against him. He didn't expect there to be a 6000 person strong bandit group.
He decided it was time to pay a visit to the bandit group. The Duke could not protect them in the forest. Ethan decided that if required he would kill all of the bandits. He sent out his people to search for the bandit group in the forest.
After 2 days the people he sent to the forest returned. From their Intel he understood about the deal done by the Duke. If the bandit groups were not a single force he had nothing to fear about. He also found out about Jan's husband's illness.
Ethan had a hunch on what the disease could be. He also found out that none of the members from this group died in the fight. Ethan knew that even if Jan placed them in the rear it was almost impossible to have zero casualties. The only explanation was that the bandits all knew how to dodge arrows.
Ethan was interested in the leader of this group. He decided to pay a visit to Jan to see if he should make them enemies or allies.
The next day Ethan along with his people went to the area of the bandits. Jan was expecting their arrival as Ethan told his people to inform her of his visit today.
Jan didn't know what to expect from the meeting. She knew nothing about the new group except the fact that they had archers. As she saw Ethan and his men come towards her group she was confused to see less than 300 people coming towards her.
Jan thought atleast a 1000 people will come to visit her today to show their power to her. Seeing Ethan in the lead confused her more. Having a female leader was an exceptional thing as her husband was the leader and she was just a stand in till he recovered. But having a child as the leader was unheard off.
She didn't comment about it when Ethan reached her because she wanted to find out what he had in mind.
Ethan said "I know that the Duke bought you to take care of my group. I am not here for that matter I came here to join you guys to my army."
The bandit group was bewildered. They brought so little people and they want to make their group surrender to him. It was a big joke. If the group was not scared of the archers they would have attacked Ethan by now.
Jan was in a dilemma. If she attacked Ethan now then his archers would definitely decrease a lot of her groups strength. But if she didn't order her men to attack Ethan then everyone would think she was a coward.
Coming to a bandit group and asking them to surrender only had one outcome. A full on war.
Before Jan could say anything Ethan said " I know what you are thinking. I brought such a small group and you have over 2000 people. You can easily kill me so why would you need to join me.In exchange for joining me I will cure your husband from his disease."
Jan was at a loss for words. Even the best doctors in the city were not able to cure him how would this 8 year old boy do any better.
Ethan said " Let me look at your husband. Then I will tell you whether I can save him or not."
Jan said " I will let you check my husband and if you can heal him I will join your group. But if you are not able to heal him you have to give yourself up to the Duke. Do you accept the deal?"
Jan wanted her husband to heal. If Ethan can manage to heal him then that would be good. If Ethan can't manage to heal him then she could simply use the money given by Duke to take him to the royal city for treatment.
Ethan said "You have a deal"
The people with Ethan had fill trust in him so they didn't object to the conditions. They knew Ethan would not make such an agreement if he didn't have the confidence to heal the patient.
As Ethan looked at the bandit leader he understood that his hunch was right. The bandit leader had cholera. It was a minor disease in the modern world but in this world without information of the disease it was very hard to cure. Ethan was relieved knowing that it was just cholera. All he needed to do was give the bandit leader water with sugar and salt mixture to heal him.
But Ethan knew that if he made the disease seem that easy to cure then the people would not think much of the treatment. So instead he told Jan " I know the cure for the disease. Tomorrow I will send my people with the cure you have to make him drink it every few hours for a week. He should recovery in no time after that.
Jan was suspicious but she didn't see any harm in following Ethan's instructions. If he tried to poison her husband he would have nothing to gain. The only way she would accept to join him is if her husband was cured by him.
Ethan went back to the village and simply made the mixture of salt and sugar with water and poured it into a big pot. He ordered 4 of his men to transport it to the bandit leader.
After that he went to meet with Samuel. Ethan had decided to teach Samuel his techniques. He needed Samuel to be an influential prince so that in the future he would have less hurdles.
As Samuel saw Ethan come towards him he took a fighting stance ready to attack him. Samuel had fought with Ethan before and lost to him without any competition. He practiced harder and harder to try to close the gap between them.
This way of training helped him improve fast but he had only been here for less than a month so he was not a match for Ethan. The fight ended in less than 10 moves.