"The wagon will set off soon!"

"Hurry up, you lazy ass! If we are late because of you, I swear to my mother that I will kick your ass!"

"I am going!"

Numerous noises converged at the center of the small village with fewer than 200 inhabitants. Twice a year, a merchant with his wagon came to sell his goods, which made it a rare event in the boring lives of serfs and peasants.

However, while for most, the goods themselves were the most important part, for the youths with ambitious dreams, it was not what they desired. No, what they wanted was a ride. A ride to the town where they could develop themselves and become successful. Or, in most cases, come back home after broadening their horizons.

The wealthy and mighty merchants wouldn’t do such a thankless service as letting poor people ride their wagons, but for someone like Bor, a small merchant with two old horses and a half-broken wagon, this kind of extra income was indispensable.

"Is everyone here? If yes, then we can go. We are already late…" Bor said as his bald head was sweating despite the cold weather. He wanted to quickly leave this place and return to the town as he could afford only two guards on his journeys, which made him an easy target for some more fearless and desperate bandits roaming the roads.

And so, he already hopped on the driver's seat and took reins into his arms.

"Hey, for how much do you give a ride?" However, at that moment, a deep voice with a light accent resounded beside him, which gave him a big scare.

"Ahgh?! W-what?" He wanted to curse at whoever scared him, but when he saw the man covered in a black robe being over two heads taller than him, he shrank back, fearing this man could be dangerous.

"For how much?" The man asked once again.

"Ehhh… That would be four bronze pieces, dear customer." Visibly nervous, Bor said with a very light voice.

The man reached his right arm into his robe and soon took out four bronze coins and put them into the merchant's hand.

"I will go find my seat."

"A-ah, yes!" Bor nodded like a chick with a fawning smile until the man disappeared into his wagon. Then his face turned ugly as he muttered to himself.

"Fucking great, another weirdo. This guy definitely isn’t from this village. His talking was weird. Fucking outsiders. Hopefully, he won’t do anything…"

Illyan, who opened the wagon doors, heard the mumbling of the merchant, but he didn’t react as he simply entered. Several people were already sitting there, and when they noticed the new traveler, they turned their heads at him.

However, Illyan completely ignored the stares watching him as he found an empty place for him to sit and for his luggage to put off.

Then, he simply closed his eyes and started to meditate.

"We are setting off now! Hiya!" Soon, the merchant Bor yelled out as he whipped the reins against the old horses.

With a strong shake, the wagon’s wheels started to turn as they began to make their way towards the closest town in vicinity.

The journey was peaceful as most of the people minded their own business. However, there were always exceptions in this world.

"Ah, I can’t wait to get into Winterfrost town! I heard that it is also called the ‘Northernmost Town’ in the entire continent. That is what people told me, at least."

A young man, around the tender age of 16 or even younger, started to speak to other youths around him. Some of them rolled their eyes while others smiled wryly. It was obvious that they knew the youth but weren’t in the mood to reciprocate his chattiness.

"Cut it down, Terren. Nobody cares about your talking. You are repeating yourself every day, as if you believed that we would forget after hearing it so many times."

Other youths whose complexion was extremely pale because of a lack of sun during the winter frowned when they heard the boy start his rant excitedly.

"Nord, don’t be like this! This is the beginning! The beginning of our new life, of our success!"

But the kid’s enthusiasm wasn’t doused in the slightest, and he started to talk to other travelers. Some of them were from the same village while others were from different villages that the merchant visited before.

And some of them were not happy that their peaceful time was disrupted like this.

"Hey, kid! Can’t you be quiet?! People are tired after a long ride!" One of the guards who was inside lashed out at the kid, who winced at the yell and got quiet.

"Damn it, kids these days are so noisy." The guard then snorted as he leaned on the wagon’s wall.

He was riding inside on the command of the merchant, as Bor feared there could be some pesky thieves trying to take some of his leftover goods that he didn’t manage to sell. And it suited the guard well as he could laze around all day. Although, the long rides could be really tiring just as he said.

The other guard was sitting next to Bor as he observed any possible danger. Or at least, that was his mission, but it was obvious he was lazing around just as much as the first guard. This place was usually safe, and so he didn’t have the reason to be too uptight.

"Sorry… I will be quiet…" The boy shrank down at the yell of the guard and shut his mouth.

Some girls who boarded the wagon giggled at this while the boys snickered, but nobody spoke out.

In this manner, several hours passed.

Some of the youths showed hints of nausea after all of the shaking, but the merchant Bor didn’t have intentions to stop at all until the sunset. The only things they could do was to bear with it or throw up, facing the displeasure of other passengers.

Terren also wasn’t feeling the greatest, but his natural curiosity won over his nausea as he was always looking around while fidgeting.

"Stop the shaking, immature brat! Making me nauseous and all!" The old man on his left side turned at him with a red face as his fidgeting limbs were annoying him.

"Ah, sorry, hahahah." Feeling the gloomy atmosphere around, young Terren didn’t want to make it even worse and so he apologized as he held the back of his head in embarrassment.

But he still didn’t stop looking around. He liked to look at the back of the wagon where he could see through the waving cloth the outside road and changing terrain. However, looking in that direction made him involuntarily look at the man on his right closest to the exit of the wagon.

He boarded as last, but he was sure this wasn't a villager from his place.

If

that was all, then he would be only a little curious, but the man seemed even more interesting since he wore some kind of robes that seemed to be better than regular clothing and covered his face. Not only that, but he was the tallest man the young Terren ever saw.

Yet, despite his size, when someone looked closely, they could see that his left arm was more covered, as he only moved with his right arm. As if he was wounded on his left arm.

‘Does he have some kind of injury? Moreover… Why is he not moving at all? He is like a stone statue…’

Wondering about this mysterious man, Terren finally settled down until the sunset came. When the sun was already close to the horizon, the merchant’s wagon slowed down on the forest road as he found a clearing made for merchants like him.

There, another wagon was already parked while the bonfire was warming a bunch of people. Soon, both parties noticed the other party as they stared at each other.

"Hey, Bor. You comin’ out of that hole beyond this forest?" The merchant who owned that wagon called out to Bor as he smiled with his teeth bared. It wasn't a pleasant sight as he missed quite a lot of teeth while the ones he had were yellow and crooked.

Seeing him being so friendly, Bor rolled his eyes as he spat in disgust. Being a merchant in this kind of place was quite a risky profession as there were no proper customers since everyone was too poor to buy a lot of things. Every good they could sell counted.

That made every merchant who could potentially steal the customers a concurrent or, more rather, an enemy. The lives of merchants depended on it.

"None of your fucking business, Ujir…" He ignored the guy as he put his wagon as far as possible from the guy before finally stopping.

"Tch. No fun with ya." Ujir only shrugged his shoulders before he turned his smile towards one of the people next to him who wore a gray robe with a pale face.

Bor, who saw that, snorted as he started to get down from the wagon.

"Go find some firewood and make a bonfire." Without even looking, he waved at his guard to hurry up.

The guard groaned at that but didn’t talk back as he turned towards the forest.

"Wait a second. I changed my mind. Screw that, stay here." Bor changed his mind when he looked at Ujir’s side. He noticed that he had more guards by his side which was unusual for such a money-grubber as him since every new guard is one new person you personally need to take care of.

Food, a place to rest, drinkable water, tool and gear maintenance…

Usually, the merchant was the one who paid for this during the duration of the service. And with so many guards, it was so costly that the trip wouldn’t be even profitable.

And this made Bor more cautious. There was no way Ujir would do this without any reason. He could think of several reasons for this, but he didn’t like any of the conclusions he could think of.

One of them was that he heard rumors about bandits or wild animals roaming around lately and needed some protection. Another was that he wanted to take care of somebody. Like him, for example.

Shivers went down his spine when he thought about that. However, soon he calmed down.

‘Calm down. There is no way he would try something stupid like that. There are too many witnesses too…’

Instead, he turned his head on the variable that he noticed.

The pale man.

He couldn’t guess his age but Bor believed that he wouldn’t be over 30. He didn’t recognize the man but knew that robe. Once in a while, Winterfrost town was visited by a group of men covered in such robes. They were quite mysterious as most people didn’t know where they came from.

Not only that but even the mayor of the city seemed to be wary of them, always fawning over them as if his life was at stake.

This made the entire group outcasts in the eyes of the townsfolk.

Before he could ponder more, however, the pale man suddenly lifted his head as he stared back at Bor. That made the merchant flinch as he quickly turned his head and headed to the back of the wagon to tell others to make a bonfire.

Meanwhile, Terren was enthusiastic that they finally could get out of this place as his body couldn’t bear not to move the entire time.

"Ah, finally! We will finally-" Thud

But as he hurried towards the wagon’s back door, he accidentally tripped over the man he looked at before.

"Terren, you idiot! Can’t you for once do something that won’t bother other passengers?! I am so sorry for this idiot! Terren! Apologize too! Sir, I hope you can forgive this imbecile. I-"

The moment he tripped, one of the girls who was quiet the entire time stood up as she started to apologize to Illyan. She seemed to know Terren quite a lot and had a good relationship with him.

"Ah! I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to-" Terren also realized what he did as he noticed everyone was staring at him unpleasantly and started to apologize in a fluster.

"No need. I don’t really care." However, for someone like Illyan, this wasn’t something to get angry over and simply stood up as he exited the wagon, leaving everyone behind.