Sillion was making his way to where Timothy had pointed him to, where the home of that doctor supposedly was.
The road was bumpy and beaten down to the point where even on foot, it was difficult to traverse so he doubted a carriage would have an easy time either.
It seemed peculiar that the way leading to apparently the only doctor in the area would be a hellscape for a sickly person to traverse but Sillion put his thoughts aside for the moment, simply hoping that this Ithelisemou would be able to tell him, at the very least, where his brother had gone to.
However, Sillion wasn't in luck today as a group of rickety people came stumbling out of the forest, led by a man with a very well kept mustache, definitely their leaders.
The man was on the verge of speaking up when one of the last to arrive just trippep over one of the indents in the road, smashing head first onto the path, making the well-kept man stop and just rub his palm over his face, sighing loudly before just waving his hands in the air, as if used to this.
He coughed a bit and eloquently said: "Traveler! Be nice and relinquish your possessions to us and you won't be hurt."
His men nodded amongst themselves, not about his threat but talking in hushed tones about the unusual word he had used.
"Will you shut up for a moment? The gentleman is trying to speak!" he silenced them and as he smiled at Sillion.
"Ah sorry, they are a bit..." he looked at them for a second, "... Inexperienced, I am certain a distinguished fellow like you is used to more rigorous robberies! Ahaha!" he laughed and a second after that, the others also did, following his example.
Sillion was weirded out by the strange bandits but not laughing, just staring at them with an oddly neutral expression.
"Or, if you don't wish to give up your belongings, you can fight back, if you think you'll be able to come out victorious of all of my men" then added the bandit leader with a smirk.
Sillion just raised his right arm and the leader noticed something strapped to his forearm and wrist, which quickly extended, revealing a small but certainly compact and well hidden crossbow, already loaded with multiple bolts, a marvel of technology.
"Nice try, but they aren't afraid to get- What the hell guys?" he interrupted himself as he saw his bandits just running from where they came from without hesitation.
"Seriously? He has like, five bolts in there! Can't you get shot for some good money? You have shields too, shields I bought! Cowards!" yelled the leader at the fleeing backs of his part-time bandits.
He then turned back to Sillion, who had the crossbow now aimed at him.
"Whoa, hey, now let's calm down, I might have tried to rob you but I was largely unsuccesful and I didn't have bad intentions! Making a living is a honest thing right? So, it cancels out the fact that I tried to commit a crime" the man defended himself.
Not seeing the noble heir stop aiming at him, the bandit leader switched his approach.
"So huh... You going to see Theli? Are you a friend of his?" he instead asked.
"You know the doctor?" replied Sillion with another question.
"Yeah! Absolutely, and I am fairly certain he isn't home at the moment" said the bandit.
"Elaborate" ordered the noble, only slightly lowering his aim but not nearly enough for the bandit to feel any safer.
"I saw him leaving a few days ago and he doesn't tend to return so quickly but who knows, perhaps you will be lucky!"
"When you see him, tell him that you talked with me, my name is Venec!" spoke the man.
Sillion retracted the crossbow to its more inconspicuous form, "I guess shooting a friend of the doctor wouldn't be a good idea" he said, his action make Venec sigh in relief.
"Oh, so you don't know him? Lucky for you, Theli can be pretty friendly, however..." the bandit stopped himself but Sillion pressed him to continue his sentence.
"Well, if he isn't there, you will have to speak with Malina and frankly speaking, I think she is a psycho, it depends though, what do you want from him?" asked Venec, at first, Sillion had considered the idea that this guy and his men might have something to do with the disappearance of his brother and that of the search party but clearly, these guys weren't capable of such a thing.
"I just want to ask him questions about my missing brother, you wouldn't happen to have seen him by any chance?" he showed Venec the drawing but the man just shook his head.
"Nope, it's been a while since I last acted around here, I have been building up some stocks for some dog fighting at the royal castle, my next business venture!" spoke the man with pride but Sillion didn't want to waste any more time conversing with him and just started walking again.
After a few moments of passing by Venec, the bandit called out to him.
"Hey stranger, whatever you do there, be careful and if you see a dark-haired girl, run! Jump out of a window! Anything that will put you far from her, if Theli isn't around, she won't hesitate!" warned Venec before running off into the nearby woods.
Soon enough, Sillion reached a wooden gate and after some probing around, found a bell and he rung it but no one answered even after several minutes.
Not ready to just turn back now, Sillion tried to open the gate before just deciding to scale it.
He looked around, quite surprised by the greenery and the vibrant colored plants, this was no amateurs gardener's work.
Pushing these thoughts aside, he walked up to the door, knocking directly on it, even then, he didn't as much as heard a single footstep or anything.
He waited around for a few dozens of minutes, looking through windows and knocking but no one came.
But after a whole hour, he finally heard soft footsteps approaching the door...