John started slowly keeping his weights on a series of basic swordsmanship moves that he learned spying on the soldier's garrison. Slashing , piercing defending and using his footwork to make use of his strength better after another two hours of practicing the basic moves, he took a short break then started to swing his sword a thousand times.
Darkness was slowly creeping in and John finished his training for today then headed inside to wash himself help the nannies serve the dinner and after that spending a little time with his little brothers and sisters. Night came and John tucked himself in his blanket falling asleep immediately after.
Two weeks flew in a blink of the eye and everybody was excited by the coming reinforcement, Gathered at the city gates some knight were watching from above towards the road expecting the silhouette of a knight maybe two. In short while a silhouette could be seen riding on average pace towards the city, the rider weren't bulky nor very tall as everybody was expecting from a strong knight sent as reinforcement by the Military Council. In while the rider reached the city gates and the soldiers opened them wide, as he made his way towards the city center he got down and looked in his surroundings. The knight looked a little annoyed and could not be said that he was well equipped wearing quite a shallow full leather suite that made him look more like and official from the political side. He was a little tall standing at 6.1 feet looked middle-aged having had a strong jawline a pair of sharp brown eyes and a medium long brown hair getting a little over his ears he wasn't bulky but his body could be seen easily that he trained it a lot.
-Ok, thank you for your warm welcome my name in Robert Cromwell I am a retired soldier and I was assigned to protect this city, for the moment the Military Council ordered that no punitive force should be sent after the bandits because we are short staffed and their power it's unknown.
- I am an advanced master rank expert and I can guarantee your safety in the city.
Quite a sad atmosphere fallowed trough the people and knights.
-Sir I request that you reconsider your decision we need to revenge the death and honor of our chief they only hade advanced knights , I implore you please help us get revenge.
Said Conrad while bowing towards Robert. They could defeat them if not for the tricky ambush and poison smoke and their chief was only and early master expert with an advanced one they could wipe everything cleanly , he could not understand the approach of the Military Council.
-I understand your sadness for your former comrade and leader but councils orders are final and irrevocable.
-Now if you could be nice tell me a place were I can get some good alcohol I didn't taste it in a long while.
-I am the owner of the best Inn here sir I can sell you some high quality alcohol. Said a burly middle-aged man awkwardly.
-Good show me the way.
-Also knights please take care of Caesar he is a little bit temperamental
As they left the Knights took Caesar away and felt that they were looked down upon as if he wanted he could beat both knights and do whatever he wanted unhinged. The crowd dispersed and the rest of the knight continued their daily routine.
John looked in the direction the new Chief knight headed and thought that he was very unreliable he had the strength but he refused to act ,a coward indeed also he seemed a little alcoholic. If he didn't look well trained nobody could guess that he was and expert.
He sighted thinking that the very desired peace was not coming soon and they needed to continue enduring the threat of the bandits. In the last two weeks at least another five groups of merchants had most of their members killed and their merchandise stolen. If this continued no merchant caravan would come this way and the city would become isolated and soon after it's citizen will leave making it an abandoned town.
A few more days passed and John became more and more disappointed the new Chief was simply a fraud he didn't posses any quality of the former Chief. He was drunk most of the time and otherwise you could find him napping near the road because he was too drunk to go home.
-Why this guy was chosen by the Military Council beside his high realm he didn't posses anything impressive he was a lazy no value man who probably is too scared of the bandits god knows if he was not hiding behind his comrades that's why he survived until now.
sigh if only he would have been a little dependable.
The atmosphere in the city become grimmer by the day everybody could see the chief dead drunk on the road and the second he wakes up he goes back to drinking. Some citizens even started to doubt that the Military Council ordered for guards to not attack the bandits and the new no value Chief just didn't want to fight to them because he was scared .Probably even his realm was fake.
But nobody could question the chief what if this guy got angry and wanted to arrest them for spreading false news or dirtying his image high rank official had the right to defend their image.
Some people even tried to convince the Vice-Chief to send a new letter to the Military Council, but he knew that no matter how bad the Chief's character looked nobody would dare to falsify the Council's orders it's so bad of a crime that your whole family will be executed and your kin branded with the traitor emblem. Only a suicidal maniac would do that.
After another three days a shocking news hit the town some people where missing nobody knows how they disappeared or when. They were some lowly beggars so nobody knows when they actually disappeared it become more evident only when one morning a crying beggar was running trough the center screaming "Save me, please I don't want to get captured by those brutes, they will kill me for sure". The situation became tricky the Vice-Chief started his investigation and found out that quite a numbers of beggars and lone people disappeared. The panic spread once again in the already tensioned city now even here in the town they are not safe. Where should they go?
-Sir please wake up a lot of the town's people disappeared and the citizens started panicking please come forward and calm them.
Snore Snore Snore Snore
The Chief was snoring without a care in the world. Then vice chief infused his voice with mana and said again.
-Sir.
His loud voice could be heard in an kilometers area startling a lot of people and animals.
-What's the deal with you Conrad can't you see I'm taking a nap do you think that drinking is something you can do without proper rest??
Complete silence no word could escape Conrad's mouth. He wanted to slap the hell out of this so called Chief, why he had to deal with this low life. Conrad calmed in the next few seconds and said again.
-Sir a lot of people started disappearing the perpetrators were quite meticulous they targeted only lone persons or beggars that no one would fin anything suspicious even if they disappear for a few days. We believe that the Red-Skull bandits may have started a slave business and are trying to sale them on the black market . Please order an execution warrant and let's kill those dregs.
-Sigh, the only enemy I will fight is a giant bottle of rum my order was only to defend the city so that it doesn't get destroyed why should I care about some beggars that would probably still die in the winter and some nobodies that were left alone either way.
Listen here Conrad if we are not under siege by those bandits or a rum monster is making rampage here don't disturb my sleep.
Silence again.