"Damn it! What's with that woman?!" the bandit leader thought. "How could she easily kill one of my underlings with just a beginner set?!"
The bandit leader was confused when he saw a woman equipped with a beginner set could defeat one of his subordinates so easily.
He didn't expect such an incident to happen because he firmly believed that with a high level and some decent equipment, he and his underlings would not be defeated by anyone that looks weaker than them.
"Moreover, that guy, I thought he was an ordinary coachman," the bandit leader thought. "But it turns out that the coachman is a very strong person since he can kill one of my underlings with just a cheap sword."
"Leader! What was that?!" one of the bandits asked the bandit leader as he pointed to something.
The bandit leader signaled to his underlings to stop running and check what one of his underlings was pointing at.
As soon as the bandit leader saw what one of his underlings was pointing at, he immediately looked pale and frightened as if he had seen something terrifying.
"Hey, leader?! Are you okay?!" one of the bandits asked the bandit leader.
The bandit leader slowly turned around and then he said, "Run," to his underlings with a frightened facial expression.
As soon as the bandit leader said that to his underlings, suddenly he and his underlings were hit by a dazzling yellow light.
They were all burned down without a trace when they were hit by the dazzling yellow light. None of them were able to survive and only left burn marks on the ground they stepped on earlier.
"Tsk... what a foolish human, how dare they set foot on my land," a woman said as she looked at the place where the bandits died from far away.
On the other hand, Alex and Valdez were in an awkward situation. They just kept silent and didn't say anything after what happened to them.
However, with the heart of a brave man, Valdez gathered his courage to hold Alex's hands who he recognized as Abigail and looked into her eyes.
"I'm not going to ask why you got so strong or anything else, and I'm going to keep this a secret between the two of us," Valdez said to Alex. "What I want to do is you come with me because I need to apologize to you."
Without saying anything, Alex just stared coldly at Valdez because he didn't know what kind of expression he should show as a woman to Valdez in that kind of condition.
"It's better for me to stay silent in this situation than for me to add unimportant variables to the problem I'm facing," Alex thought.
Once again, without saying anything, Valdez took Alex's hand and led him to walk with him even though his right leg was dislocated because he fell from a tree branch.
Valdez and Alex kept walking until they finally heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from the north which is the direction they are going.
"Isn't that the sound of horses' hooves?" Alex thought. "I think it will be good if the ones who will come here are good people so they can help us, I mean help Valdez."
Not long after they heard the sound of horses' hooves, they could see a group of people riding horses and heading toward them.
Those people were seen wearing full, shiny silver armor that reflected the sunlight towards Alex and Valdez so that they could not clearly see the faces of those people.
"It's too bright, I can't see their faces at all," Alex thought.
"I think I really need to change the dazzling armor to armor that looks more dashing," Valdez thought.
Not long after they thought like that, the sound of the horses' hooves stopped and those people who were heading toward them have been right in front of them.
"We pay our respects toward his highness the crown prince," one of those people said as he knelt before Valdez, followed by the rest of them.
"You guys can stand up," Valdez said.
As soon as Valdez said that, he realized that he had subconsciously revealed his true identity as the crown prince in front of Abigail.
"I hope he doesn't get even angrier with me because I hid my true identity from him," Valdez thought as he slowly turned around toward Alex.
However, unlike Valdez's imagine, Alex whom he knew as Abigail did not show any expression as if she already knew Valdez's true identity from the first time they met.
"Somehow my interest in Abigail has become a sense of suspicion," Valdez thought.
Meanwhile, Valdez thought like that, what was on Alex's mind was how he was going to pee since he was in a state of urgency.
"Ah, shit, I really have to pee," Alex thought as he looked around.
One of those people takes a step closer to Valdez. He looked him up and down without exception as if he was trying to inspect the condition of Valdez's body only with his eye.
"Oh, my god, what happened to you crown prince?" one of those people asked Valdez as he looked at Valdez's right leg.
"I'm fine deputy commander, you guys should probably be more worried about the woman I'm with because we just got attacked by a group of bandits," Valdez said. "Oh, that's right, why did you bring troops in large numbers? Is-"
Before Valdez could finish his words, the attention of the deputy commander and the troops he was carrying were directed towards Alex who was standing still and not doing anything.
"Is she your secret lover, your highness?" the deputy commander said as he looked at Alex lecherously.
Seeing the deputy commander observing Abigail so intensely, Valdez felt anger well up within him and immediately beat the deputy commander for no apparent reason.
The troops under the deputy commander were bewildered by the horror they had seen with their own eyes since this is the first time in a long time they see the crown prince become so violent.
"Shit, he really is brutal," Alex thought as he looked at Valdez.