Chapter 17: The Outsider

“We’re late again.”

Looking at the messy bandit lair before them, the old man in silver armor sighed as he spoke. He turned to look at the young noble beside him, revealing a helpless smile. Although at first glance, the old man before them appeared very kind and gentle, as long as one saw the eagle carved on his armor, almost no one would not know this old man’s identity – this was the emblem of the Pale Hawk, one of the three major knight orders of the Kingdom of Wester.
And the old man before them was Duke Balen, the commander of the Pale Hawk Knight Order.

The young noble didn’t respond to Duke Balen’s words. He frowned, his expression dark and angry.

It’s no wonder he appeared so angry. As the controller of the Golden Trade Route, Pelzen had always been dedicated to maintaining the safety and prosperity of the Golden Trade Route. As one of the most powerful great nobles in the Kingdom of Wester, Pelzen had always hoped to achieve some unique accomplishments to glorify the family name. So, he finally set his sights on these bandits hidden on the edge of the Golden Trade Route. Pelzen was very clear that these bandits had always been a stubborn disease of the Golden Trade Route. Although generations of the family had tried their best to strike at them, there had never been much result. Because of this, Pelzen chose to start action with the goal of eradicating these bandits. In his view, if he could eliminate all the bandits in the Golden Trade Route, he could improve his reputation in the family and even among other great nobles. Taking a step back, even if he couldn’t completely eliminate these bandits, striking at them would make the order of the Golden Trade Route better, and in this way, those merchant alliances would naturally become more dependent on him…

To ensure his actions could be completed smoothly, Pelzen even went to the royal city, spending a large amount of money and connections to invite the Pale Hawk, one of the kingdom’s three major knight orders, to help him. In Pelzen’s view, the main reason why people in the family hadn’t been able to completely strike at these bandits’ arrogant in the past was that the strike wasn’t enough. Although their family was considered a great noble family, it was precisely because they were nobles that the military power they could control was extremely limited. Because of this, the actions to encircle and suppress those bandits had never been very successful. But now, with the help of the Pale Hawk, plus the intelligence he had put great effort into investigating, there should be a perfect result.
Unfortunately, things never progress as one would like.

Since entering the Twilight Forest, Pelzen found that things seemed to have gone quite differently from what he had expected.

Relying on Pelzen’s intelligence, the Pale Hawk quickly found the hidden bandit lair in the depths of the Twilight Forest, but just as they were about to start the attack, they were surprised to find that someone had already beaten them to it – all that was left for them were corpses and empty lairs.

If this situation happened occasionally, it could barely be understood. After all, mercenaries would also appear from time to time in the surrounding area, carrying out actions to eliminate bandits. But all along the way, Pelzen and his group had continuously explored several bandit strongholds, all with the same situation. This was a bit incomprehensible.

It’s well known that fighting bandits in the Twilight Forest is a very dangerous and arduous task. Because of this, even with the power of a great noble like Pelzen, it’s impossible to completely eliminate these bandits. But now someone had achieved this. They not only completely eliminated these bandits but also cleared out their lairs, leaving nothing behind.

“Who on earth did this!” Half surprised and half angry, the young noble couldn’t help but growl.

“I can’t guess…” Duke Balen said, stroking his beard, then turning his gaze towards the messy lair before them.

“However, I can be sure that their numbers are not many, but their strength is very strong.”

Saying this, Duke Balen raised the knight’s lance in his hand, pointing towards the corpses before them.

“Judging from the wounds on these people, they were basically killed with one strike. No one could withstand their attacks… Honestly, this is unusual. I’ve dealt with bandits from the Golden Trade Route before. Although their strength isn’t strong, they’re at least at the level of low-rank swordsmen. And those who can eliminate these bandits without suffering any damage, I think their strength should be at the upper intermediate level.”

“Upper intermediate?!” Hearing this, Pelzen couldn’t help but widen his eyes in surprise, unable to believe Duke Balen’s judgment. In fact, as a swordsman himself, he knew very well how difficult this was.

On the continent, swordsmen are divided into several levels. The initial level is low-rank swordhand, they are just as their name suggests, merely swordhands who use swords. After breaking through the bottleneck, they will possess soul power called protective aura, becoming intermediate swordsmen. This protective aura not only can protect them from being easily injured by ordinary attacks, but can also be attached to weapons and shields, making them sharper and more solid. It can be said that if a low-rank swordhand fights with an intermediate swordsman, ordinary weapons simply cannot withstand attacks enhanced by protective aura. Unless the opponent is also an intermediate swordsman who has comprehended protective aura, or if the weapon in their hand is a magic weapon, otherwise, the outcome is obvious.

On the continent, regardless of which country, most of their soldiers are only low-rank swordhands. Only the elite troops are composed of intermediate swordsmen. Take the Pale Hawk for example, there are only a few thousand intermediate swordsmen among them, and they are all the most elite knights. Although the techniques mastered by intermediate swordsmen vary greatly due to different training methods in various countries, their basic strength is not much different.

Above this are high-rank swordsmen. They have gone beyond the scope of merely being able to use protective aura. On the contrary, these high-rank swordsmen can burst out the soul power in their bodies, forming large-scale lethal attacks. Moreover, after becoming high-rank swordsmen, they are not just using ordinary soul power anymore.
Because of this, Duke Balen’s words surprised Pelzen. It should be known that intermediate swordsmen are quite difficult to recruit. Not to mention armies supported by state machinery, even in the forces of great nobles like him, although they could recruit several intermediate swordsmen if they offered good enough conditions, they were all lower intermediate or ordinary intermediate at best. As for upper intermediate swordsmen, they are not easy to recruit. It should be known that reaching the upper intermediate level means they are only one step away from high-rank swordsmen. Generally, people at this time would only choose to focus on cultivation, how could they possibly come here to eliminate bandits?

Although according to Duke Balen’s deduction, there were only about a dozen people, it was precisely because of this that Pelzen felt nervous. It should be known that a dozen upper intermediate – almost high-rank level swordsmen were active in his territory, yet his intelligence network hadn’t received any news. This would make anyone feel uneasy.
But uneasiness aside, what Pelzen was concerned about now was another matter. It should be known that his plan to encircle and suppress bandits with the help of the Pale Hawk had already spread throughout his territory and the royal city. Everyone was waiting to see the outcome. According to the plan, if he really eliminated these bandits, he could return gloriously and enjoy praise and rewards. But now? From setting out until now, all he had seen were bandit lairs and corpses, without seeing a single living person. If he just turned back like this, how would other nobles view it? How would the royal family view it? If it were just his private soldiers, he could choose to seal their mouths, but the Pale Hawk was a royal knight order. Their soldiers naturally wouldn’t listen to him. At that time, once they returned to the royal capital, if these soldiers casually said a few words while drinking like “That idiot noble, he didn’t even know the bandits in his territory had been killed, and still stupidly led us in…” and so on, within a day’s work, he would become the laughingstock of the entire noble circle.

Catching the young noble’s expression in his eyes, Duke Balen just smiled and didn’t say much. Although at first, he also suspected whether this might be an action by some bandit group trying to reclaim other bandits. After all, in a place like the Golden Trade Route, there were also many battles between bandits. But soon Duke Balen denied his own thoughts. Unlike Pelzen, Duke Balen had carefully examined those corpses. Except for those who died in the initial battle, most of the remaining corpses were unarmed. In other words, the opponent killed them after disarming these bandits. If it were a fight and merger between bandits, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. After all, bandits are not armies or mercenary groups, they can’t arbitrarily recruit and hire other people. Because of this, prisoners after bandit fights would generally join the opponent’s camp. Although occasionally there would be a few who would rather die than submit, they were always the minority.

What puzzled Duke Balen more was the abnormal state of these corpses. This mummy-like state was absolutely rare. As the commander of the Pale Hawk Knight Order, Duke Balen was well-informed and experienced. He could be sure that this was definitely not something an intermediate swordsman could do. Although necromancers might be able to do the same thing, it didn’t seem to be the case either.
Who exactly was it, and for what purpose did they do this?
Duke Balen narrowed his eyes and began to think.