3 The Bandit

The rest of the week passed by quietly without any further incidents.

The young man who claimed to be the son of a count did not return, and there were no signs of anyone intending to shut down Rain's shop.

At the end of the day at the end of the week, Rain packed all of his wares away, closing the shop for the weekend. He was careful to set up several defensive barriers and traps around the storage room ever since the last incident, where a bandit group thought it'd be a good idea to try stealing some of his potions.

Luckily, the only potions they managed to steal were his experimental potions that he was pretty sure would cause the user's face to swell up like a balloon. His only regret was that he wasn't able to locate the bandits later to observe the potion effects in person.

It would've been better if he was able to see it for himself so he could add the result to one of his countless notebooks recording the results of his various experiments. As a result, he ended up having to capture some criminals to test the potions himself.

As a self proclaimed law-abiding citizen, Rain never harmed innocents, instead choosing to perform his tests on criminals, usually people with blood on their hands.

After he finished casting a lock spell on the doors of his shop, he brought out his luggage and activated the normally invisible magical array at the back of his shop.

The intricate patterning on the array lit up with a crimson glow and out of the center of the pattern, a vehicle began to appear.

It was a pitch black coach with humanoid skulls for lanterns. The coach had dark red curtains that matched the color of blood and cast the interior in darkness. At the front of the coach were a pair of equinine monsters with sharp spines along their backs and fiery orbs for eyes.

With a snap of his fingers, the aura of death surrounding the black coach quickly disappeared and it transformed into a regular coach with golden accents pulled by a pair of black-coated horses.

He gently patted the neck of the nearest night mare. Although they were normally quite aggressive, towards him they were as docile as regular human-bred horses.

Rain entered the coach as a dark shadow stretched from his feet and transformed, taking the form of an elderly gentleman. The elderly gentleman carefully lifted up Rain's luggage, putting it away in the storage compartment at the back of the coach.

This elderly gentleman was his special nightstalker who had the unique ability to transform into various forms, unlike the regular nightstalkers who could only transform into a vaguely humanoid form. His name was extremely long and hard to pronounce, so Rain often called him by a simplified version of his name in the common tongue, Kavi.

"Sir, are we heading to the old fortress today?"

"Yes."

Kavi leaped up to the front of the coach once he received Rain's approval, taking command of the reins.

The black coach set off, silent except for the sound of the horses' hooves against the paved road.

In the middle of the journey as they were passing through a low valley, the coach was suddenly stopped.

Bladeswinger was the leader of a group of bandits. They often set up ambushes on large roads where potential prey might pass by.

He had thought that today, perhaps there wouldn't be anyone worth robbing, but luckily, a target suddenly appeared.

There wasn't a single family crest on the side of the coach, and there were no guards visible, but based on the golden trimmings on the coach that seemed fake at first glance but based on his experience were actually real, the owner should be fairly well off. Bladeswinger thought maybe it was a noble or a young master traveling in disguise. He wasn't able to detect any mana from the coach, so he was also sure that it couldn't have had anyone powerful enough to defeat him inside.

Bladeswinger quickly leaped up to mount his horse, his brothers just as quick to follow suit.

His group of bandits split in two. He left his half to the front of the coach while his second-in-command led the other half to the back of the coach. The valley was surrounded on either side by a large cliff, so the coach was completely surrounded, all routes of retreat blocked off.

"Halt!"

He directed his horse to the front of the group so that the old man driving the coach could clearly see him, as well as the large broadsword strapped across his back.

"This is our territory. If you want to pass safely, there will be a toll!"

Even though he said it was simply a toll, everyone knew that it was little less than straightforward robbery. His brothers drew their blades and shouted lines that contained barely hidden threats.

The old man looked weak, without any fighting strength at all. Although the curtains hid the interior, Bladeswinger was confident that his strength would be enough to defeat anyone, especially since there were no traces of mana.

Bladeswinger dismounted from his horse and stepped towards the coach with the intent of opening the door.

If the coach held a young man, then he would just take the valuables and leave. But if there was a pretty young lady, well… He could consider not taking any gold.

Meanwhile, a few of his brothers rode up to surround the old man, preventing him from doing anything.

Just as Bladeswinger's hand was about to make contact with the handle of the coach door, the door opened and he had to move back to avoid getting hit by the door.