Edgar will teach business to Roy. He let Albert teach him how to make connections with officials and nobles without walking into a hell pit, then he also asked the king to let someone in charge of intelligence to teach Roy.
A few days later, Rey finally submitted a plan to sweep the bandits, and Edgar approved it.
In the evening, Edgar was staring at the three moons in the sky through a window in his bedroom. His memory of his family flashed through his mind.
When he was younger, three-year-old Sasha was blowing air into his palm, trying to decrease the pain of the wound from his training.
Then one day, his uncle Tony cooked food late in the evening.
Tony put the steaming food on the table when Edgar just got home from work. "Come here. Don't sleep on an empty stomach."
"Thank you, uncle."
Tony patted Edgar's head as the boy ate. "We are family. You can rely on us. Don't carry the weight on your shoulder alone."
Tears were falling from Edgar's eyes while he was eating.
When he was nineteen years old, he got into an accident a few days before his plan to buy the strength potion.
Tony and Fei were worried as they looked at the abrasion and purple skin on his back. Edgar wore his shirt with difficulty. His breathing was quite difficult.
"It looks dangerous. You should take a health potion," said Fei.
Edgar shook his head. "To heal it, I need to take a few health potions, which are expensive. I already had a checkup. At least there is no fracture. It is quite difficult to breathe because my injuries are painful when I inhale."
He looked at Tony and Fei with a smile. "It's fine. It's not as dangerous as you think. I need to make sure that I have enough money to buy the strength potion."
In the evening, sweat and grimace appeared on Edgar's face as he got up from his bed. He walked to his table and drank a pain reliever. There was a knock on the door. It was Fei.
"We did not tell Sasha as you said because we all don't want her to worry. Here, I bought better medicine for you."
Edgar took the paper bag with a smile. "Thank you."
Fei nodded her head and walked away.
Edgar put the bag on the table and looked inside. There was a box in the bag. He opened the box as his eyes turned teary. They were health potions. Tears fell from his eyes as he held a potion. "I will protect you all."
***
Tears were falling from Edgar's eyes while his memory of his family was playing in his mind. He wiped his tears and clapped his cheeks with his palms. He thought,"I will keep them in my heart. Feeling homesick will decrease my resolve to stay here. I have to survive for as long as I can. There were bits and pieces of information on how to pass the trial. The guilds will not willingly share their information to the public. The information that spread is just accidentally heard by random people from guild members and spread on the internet.
The clues have always started with a god. There was a challenger who saved the last believers of a god from being persecuted by a powerful kingdom. To defend them, he had to make his kingdom more powerful. The believers got exposed before his kingdom was ready. There was a war, his kingdom was destroyed, the believers were annihilated, he was killed, and then the trial failed.
Totally focusing on searching for clues about God is not a good plan. A challenger focused too much on searching for clues and spent so much of the kingdom's resources. His kingdom became vulnerable, and then neighboring kingdoms pounced on it like hungry lions. He failed after staying in the trial for only two years. He complained a lot, so many people heard it, and it easily spread. He did not get a tiny bit of information about God after spending so much resources. He was the first challenger to the mysterious trial. If this is that trial, then my main goal is to survive for as long as I can and learn as much as I can."
Edgar gripped his fists hard as he stared at the three moons in the sky. "The operation tomorrow will temporarily calm the internal danger of Baynard and buy me time to increase the power in my hand. I will have the money to carry out the plans. I will make this kingdom stronger. Even if I fail, my mind will bring home the treasure that will give us the power to defend ourselves."
In the morning, Rey prepared a plan to fool people's eyes and let 200 royal guards disappear without being noticed. One hundred royal guards are sent outside of the capital.
He deliberately spread the information that royal guards would train outside for one day and divided it into five batches. They will go outside the capital when the sky was still dark in the morning, and they will return in the morning at the same time they went out.
The first one hundred guards had already disappeared and gone to the meeting point. Another hundred royal guards went outside the capital and returned immediately to pretend to be the royal guards that went outside yesterday. The sky was still dark, and their helmets covered most of their faces, so it was difficult to notice that they were the same people. The next day, another one hundred royal guards disappeared and went to the meeting point.
Two hundred guards were at the meeting point. They were wearing silver armor and a white cape. They will be divided into four teams to avoid giving bandits and nobles that are connected to them enough reaction time. After a brief meeting, each leader lead their team to a rendezvous point for their steed and supplies.
Their steed was a black horse with a horn on its head. It was tall, had streamline muscles, and beautiful black skin. It was as fast as wind and, during impact, was as loud as thunder. Its name was Tundra. There were 51 tundra on each team. The extra one was for an official that will facilitate the loot and help deal with nobles if an issue appeared while sweeping bandits. They rested, ate, and waited to get dark. When the three moons rose in the sky, they started riding Tundra.
In a faraway place in the south, the royal guards could see the shadows of huge mountains. Over the mountains were flowing beautiful auroras.
Hidden in the huge mountains beneath those beautiful auroras was filth that royal guards had to sweep.
The galloping tundra left dust as they quickly ran on the ground. The tundra's speed was not affected. The supplies for guards were light. Tundra easily carried the guards with their supplies. They were as fast as speeding cars. A team of royal guards was riding on open ground. Not too far from both sides, there were huge, rocky mountains. The shadow of the huge mountain in the south was getting closer, and the blue aurora with some white color was also getting more beautiful. Two teams reached their destination at dawn.
Dan and his team were below a towering mountain. Hidden in the lush forest on the mountain was the den of the hideous Fierce Axe Bandit. They already had intelligence on the route to bandit dens. There was even a guide for each target. Many ordinary people were willing to help the royal guards for free because they suffered too much from bandits. The whereabouts of bandit dens were exposed because they were too unscrupulous and confident that the army would not attack them. Even if they were attacked, they believed their informant in a noble household would give them a warning.
Dan hid the tundras in a hidden area of the forest and tied them to trees. They ate and rested a bit. They took potions that recovered stamina, then Dan left some guards to guard the tundras. He followed the guide to the bandit den.
Two suns were already high in the sky. In the stockade of the Fierce Axe Bandit, there was loud laughter and the whistling of bandits. There was a sound of pleading by a woman and the cry of a child.
"Please! Let go of my child! I'm begging you! Use me instead! Please! Huhuhu!" The woman is pleading and crying. Her face was full of despair. She was lying on the ground, and her hair was being grabbed by a bald bandit. Her dress was already dirty, and some parts were forcefully torn. The bandits were still laughing. The show was entertaining for them.
"Orec, try to keep it alive! Slave sellers might still buy it! Hahaha!" said the bandit leader named Brandon. He was laughing while drinking wine. The bandit dragging the child was his cousin.
"Mama! Mama! Help me!" The little girl was desperately crying and calling for her mother. She was being dragged by an ugly, dark-skinned bandit. The mother's heart was being torn to pieces. Her heart hurt so much for what was happening to her daughter. Her child was too young. She should be playing. She should not be there, suffering from a bandit.
"SHE IS JUST A CHILD!" was the desperate cry of the mother. Her heart was really painful. She was just an ordinary woman. She did not harm anyone, but why is fate so cruel to them? Why? This question is what is running through the woman's mind.
"DAMN BEAST!"
Everyone was startled by the loud shout.
EARTH SPIKE
Two earth spikes flew. The head of the bandit that dragged the child disappeared from his neck. Half of the head of the bandit that held the woman disappeared. Blood splattered on the woman's clothes and face, but she was not afraid. She was thankful because help has arrived.