Journey

"And if you tie the knot like this, it secures the arrow tip to the shaft." Luca spoke as he taught Jin how to make arrows on the go. "Now you try."

He then handed Jin the materials for another arrow and smiled as Jin focused on retracing the steps Luca had just showed him.

They were currently riding inside a small cart that was part of a caravan. Many villages would gather together to form a small sized caravan when they wanted to travel deeper into the continent.

The leaders of this caravan were merchants trading goods that can only be acquired from the sea and transporting it to various cities further in. Luca had hopped on as a 'guard' as well as to take Jin to the main mountain after Jin's decision to meet Baek. They could've reached the main mountain much faster if they were on foot but Jin's stamina would not be able to handle the distance. So instead he decided to take a more leisurely path. They weren't in a hurry after all.

And as much as Luca disliked the idea of walking into an 'enemy' territory, he had responsibilities as a father to support his child as much as he could whilst pushing aside his own interests.

"I did it!" Jin completed putting together the arrow tip with the shaft as he shouted out in glee.

"Haha, close. But it's a bit loose, you need to tighten it a bit more before you have the first loop..." Luca smiled as he demonstrated once again.

There were others in the cart as well. The person who stood out the most out of them was a thin lady who was dressed up in a tight linen outfit with a small sword on her side. She was a promising talent from a nearby village who was on her way to the capital to enter an exam for the imperial academy.

She seemed to be around 14 or 15 and was staring at Jin and Luca's familial atmosphere with a sad smile.

Her name was Sarai. She had lost her parents during a stampede when she had been young. Though she had escaped earlier alongside the elderly and the other children, her parents had died in order to buy time for them. Though she lived a decent life with her grandparents as happily as she could, they were old and had now both passed away from age.

Left alone as an orphan, the only thing she could do in order to feed herself was scavenging and gathering small amounts of materials and living day to day on the money she made. Thankfully, there had been a retired soldier in the village who had escaped alongside in the past who had taught her the basics of a sword.

He often apologized to her and blamed himself for the deaths of many villagers of the stampede in the past but, he had lost his eyesight and had retired due to that reason. Her grandparents had dragged him way as it would've been a dog's death if he had stayed behind.

Since then, she had reached small success in muscles and was already at middle success of blood. Her bones were not far off from reaching small success but she wasn't very good with pain so her bone training had been a bit lacking.

Jin noticed her gaze and smiled at her as she quickly turned away in embarrassment. He had noticed her staring at them for the majority of the ride and wanted to greet her but she constantly dodged his eyes.

"Girl, I can teach you as well. Come, it's okay." Luca noticed Jin's gaze as he smiled at Sarai before inviting her to join with a smile.

"N-No, it's alright. Thank you." Sarai's face reddened as she denied in haste before turning to stare at the outside view.

"Mmm, alright then." Luca shook his head as he pulled out a small whetstone and a dagger before proceeding. "I'll teach you how to sharpen your dagger now, it's important that you perform maintenance on your gear often. A faulty weapon or armor could cost you a limb or even worse after all."

Jin nodded as he focused onto his father's hands again as he started to sharpen the dagger.

But before Luca even went through the first motion, he suddenly tensed up as his head snapped into a specific direction.

"Jin." Luca spoke in a solemn manner. "Stay in the cart, no matter what. Got it?"

"Uh. Yeah, what's going on?" Jin looked at the direction Luca was staring towards in confusion before seeing nothing but trees as he asked.

"I'm not entirely sure yet but there's at least 20 people or so quickly approaching this area with a malicious aura. Wait here." Luca disappeared on the spot before quickly appearing beside the head of the caravan as he whispered something into the merchant's ears.

"Enemy attack! Defensive formation! All civilians, enter your carts and stay inside!" The head merchant shouted as he pulled out his sword.

The others in the same cart heard Jin and Luca's words and had already started preparing as they quickly slowed down their cart before setting up what basic defenses they could.

Sarai sat in the corner of the cart in terror as she was at a loss at what to do.

"Hey, what's your name?" Jin crawled up and asked.

"S-Sarai." She replied.

"Alright, I'm Jin. It's a late introduction but you should brace yourself. I see you have a sword and I assume you know how to use it, we should be fine but you should still prepare for the worst." Jin spoke as he pulled out his bow before quickly gathering the arrows he and Luca had been making over the trip.

"A-Ah...Okay." Sarai pulled out her sword before gazing out into the forest with fear as Jin knocked an arrow onto the bow and aimed it at the direction Luca had been staring at through a small window gap whilst remaining hidden within the cart.

As for Luca, he had hidden himself within the trees between the direction the people were coming from and the caravan.

After a short amount of chaos, a tense atmosphere befell the entire caravan of around 30 people.

Then, people started to appear out of the woods one by one. From their outfits, they were clearly bandits.

Jin noticed Luca's location, from the abnormal changes in the wind essence above the bandits, and realized his intentions.

'Ambushing the ambush... Haha.'

The merchant leader, with his sword at ready, shouted at the bandits. "What do you guys want? We're just a group of poor villagers, there's nothing of much value in these carts!"

"Haha." The person at the very front, who seemed like the leader, played around with his hatchets as he spoke. "It's not whether the things you have are valuable or not, it's just that we're kind of in a need for some more food. If you just hand over the foods and other goods, we'll let you go in peace."

"...Are you sure that you'll let us go?" The merchant leader asked and made a weird gesture with his fingers.

"I swear upon the heavens." The bandit leader spoke out. "Just leave the goods behind and you're free to g-"

The bandit leader's speech froze and his eyes opened up wide.

Ssss...

An ordinary breeze blew past the caravan.

And then all the heads of the bandits fell rolled off their bodies and fell onto the ground simultaneously.

But Jin had seen everything.

A tremendous amount of wind essence had gathered around the dagger Luca had been holding onto before he jumped down without a sound and swung at their head level behind the entire group.

The extremely condensed wind essence traveled on a plane, like a giant blade, and blew past all the bandits before silently dispersing back into the formless wind.

Luca walked past the bandits as he picked up their pouches that held their coins and approached the caravan with a smile.

"All set, no one has issues with me taking all the spoils right?"

Silence fell upon the caravan.