"What's happening here?"
A new voice intruded into the commotion.
It was coming from the forest on their right.
The rustling of leaves and tall grasses echoed in the tensed silence.
"!"
Milleia opened her eyes wide when she saw the clothes the man was wearing. It was the same uniform as hers. He was also in his first year considering the red tie.
A wave of relief washed over Milleia upon understanding that he was a fellow classmate of her. At least he wasn't another enemy.
"Um, excuse me, could someone tell me the way to the Royal Eden Academy?"
The black-haired handsome man asked.
Though his blue eyes showed innocence, he was definitely on his guard.
"Another one from that academy? Lady luck is with us, Boss."
One of the bandits smirked.
"Help me! They are bandits!"
Milleia shouted at the young man.
"Bandits?"
He looked at the bandits and nodded before turning back to the girl.
"You must be from the academy, right?"
"Yes! I'm Milleia Sophren! I was going with a few other people to the central station b-but they ambushed us."
"I see…I am Jayden. Pleased to meet you, Milleia, and pleased to meet you as well, guys."
Jayden said and went in front of Milleia.
"Playing the hero? It will cost your life, brat."
The bandit leader said.
"I'm pretty late for the entrance ceremony so hurry up."
Jayden beckoned them to come with his hand.
"You will regret this brat. Guys kill him and bring me the girl."
At his cue, four men rushed at Jayden and Milleia.
"You can take on two?"
"Yes!"
Milleia nodded at Jayden and faced two of them, while Jayden the other two.
They both overwhelmed the bandits. Milleia with her dull sword and Jayden with bare hands, but they underestimated the bandit leader's cunningness.
"Hyaaa!"
""!""
When Milleia and Jayden turned around, they saw another bandit who had a child with him as a hostage. While they were fighting, he sent one of his men to take a hostage from the carriage and it worked.
"Aaahahaah! You are just brats in the end!"
He laughed at their naivety.
Everything was allowed in a fight for him. As long he wins in the end, no morals exist for people like them.
"B-Big sis!"
The six-year-old girl cried and called out for help from Milleia.
"Leave her!"
"Don't move if you don't want to see her head separated from her neck."
The man said, grabbing the girl's hair.
"Ouch!"
"Please! Leave my daughter out of this! I will do anything for you!"
The mother of the girl pleaded as she climbed down from the carriage.
"Shut up woman! Stay away or I will kill your daughter! We don't need your approval to get everything from there!"
"We have to save her!"
Milleia tried to take a step forward but immediately stopped when the man's knife grazed the girl's neck. Blood came out from a small cut on the neck.
"M-Mommy!"
The girl completely lost her composure and wept loudly.
Milleia's face turned pale when she saw this. She couldn't believe that someone was cruel enough to harm a child. She chose not to move anymore, scared of what could happen to the girl.
"Don't move."
Jayden said with a serious expression.
The serious expression on his handsome face made Milleia relieved and her heart even skipped a bit.
"B-But, the girl…"
She couldn't bear to see the crying child.
"Are you ready, Zeus?"
"?"
"Don't worry, it's as usual, I will not overexert myself, it's an important day."
Milleia was confused when Jayden started a conversation alone.
-Crackle
-Whoosh!
-Thud!
"Arrghhh!!!"
Following a trail of blue lightning, the man holding the girl screamed in pain. His shoulder was charred black. The girl landed on the ground, now free.
"Mommy!"
She immediately rushed toward her mother.
"Now!"
Jayden shouted at Milleia and the latter nodded.
She rushed toward the screaming man to finish him.
"You aren't going anywhere!"
The two men she was fighting before blocked her way.
"Not on my watch!"
Fortunately Jayden was there.
Now he was fighting four men at the same time.
"Come!"
He grinned as his fist crackled in lightning.
"Thanks!"
Milleia said and swung her dull sword at the screaming man.
"Bi*ch!"
The man parried with his sword with his only remaining hand.
-Boooom!
"!"
Before Milleia's horrified eyes she saw the carriage burning. The two children and the other travelers were still inside.
"Don't underestimate us, brats."
The leader's palm was still burning after what he had done.
"Get off of the carriage!"
Milleia shouted but they couldn't.
The entire door was recovered on earth.
She tried to rush to help them but two other men appeared in front of her.
"J-Jayden!"
She tried to ask for help from Jayden but the latter was busy against the four experienced men who were fighting well together.
"Waaaaaa! I'm burning!!!"
"HELPP!!!!!"
"Hyyaaaa!"
Screams and weeps of adults and children rang from the carriage.
"..."
Then nothing.
All the screams faded away.
Milleia fell on her knees.
Tears fell from her eyes.
She talked with these people happily for several hours.
How did it end up like that?
Only the crackling of fire rampaging on the carriage echoed.
The bandits were all smiling, satisfied with their job. Though they would never have thought that it was going to end up that easily.
Jayden was looking at the burning carriage with wide eyes. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Did they really die? He couldn't do anything? Again…
The coachman was crying in despair, for his carriage and the people.
The mother was hugging her child tightly.
But at that moment, the sound of broken glass echoed.
They all turned to the other side of the road.
A young man was there.
Jayden and Milleia opened their eyes wide.
He was wearing the same uniform as them.
He wasn't wearing any blazer, he was just in his white shirt but the blue tailored pants betrayed his identity as a student of the Royal Eden Academy.
They couldn't see his face though.
He was wearing a black hat and a golden-black mask covering his eyes to his nose. The only thing visible were his lips and dark red eyes.
Suddenly, as if the space was torn apart, a mirror slowly formed behind him. A pure and clean transparent mirror which wasn't reflecting the man's back.
…and from that mirror glass came out one by one all the people who were supposed to be dead inside the carriage. They were as shocked as Milleia when they came out of the mirror. When they saw a man in front of them, they stepped back a bit. They understood he was the man who saved them. They could only remember a mirror appearing inside the carriage and being pulled inside it.
"!"
Milleia opened her eyes wide when she saw them alive and well.
Her heart fell at peace upon confirming that no one died.
Some adults were burned on their arms and legs but nothing serious and the children were alright. They just needed a good bath.
"Woooow! It's the masked prince!"
The little girl who was hugged by her mother shouted, seeing the masked man.
"Yeah! It's him! The masked prince will save us!"
Though the man didn't seem to show any reaction, inwardly he was barely controlling his entire body from collapsing after hearing the innocent words of the girls…
"Who are you?"
The bandit leader asked, barely holding back his burning anger. It was going well until that girl first appeared, then the boy and again another guy and they were all wearing that same damn uniform.
The problem and the risk escalated much higher.
If they kidnapped just the girl, the authorities of the Celesta Kingdom wouldn't put into an astronomical effort to find her, even more so when Milleia was just a commoner. But what if two students disappeared? They will start to take the case seriously and will look for them. And if something happened to a third student of that academy, the day of the entrance ceremony… He was sure to be caught up by the entire squad that they would send to find the students. It was a matter of security and image for them.
The only good news was that the blue-eyed boy and the pretty girl were definitely commoners. The way they acted and walked, the bandit leader was sure of that.
But the third man, he had no idea…
If he was a noble, he should just run away.
No.
Even if he wasn't a noble, he would run away. From what he had seen, the girl and the boy were strong enough to take out his men and the last man was using an unknown ability he had never seen before.
"Did you hear me, brat?! I asked your name! Answer if you don't want to die!"
He threatened to get a reaction but-
"..."
He still didn't get any reactions.
"He's the Masked Prince!"
"Yeah! The Masked Prince is here to save us from bad people!"
"Aargh."
"Eh?"
It wasn't him but the two girls who got a reaction from the masked man. He was squeezing his chest painfully…
Was he perhaps depleted of mana…?
[!] JAYDEN RAYENA's PROFILE and REF ILLUSTRATION have been added in the [Protagonist] auxiliary chapter!