Moving on

Within a few hours the sun began to rise on the bandit camp, shining a spotlight on the massacre that had occurred. Each body of a bandit only had a single lethal wound whether it be a stab or slash.

There had been 3 other slave girls besides the elf girl named Falanya Silvarre, and the healer Michelle Green. Duran had agreed to guard them on their journey back to a city and said he would even take them to Xyrus since he was already heading that way.

However besides Falanya and Michelle, the 3 others had originally been from Valden which is where the Frisham family lives. Duran was not worried about running into any problems with them as the 3 slaves girls had been the bandits, and he didn't plan on letting Michelle or Falanya be seen as they wished to travel all the way to Xyrus with him.

Through the night Duran had separated from the girls to allow them to wash and get ready for the journey. He took this time to plunder all the treasures of the bandits of course. He was not disappointed either, Duran found the belongings of Melania Frisham in the bandit leaders tent.

In those belongings was something he had only heard stories about from his grandfather. A spatial ring. It was much too flashy and gaudy for his taste, having a big red Ruby at the top and smaller sapphire and emeralds wrapping around the band of the ring. But he didn't care how it looked as long as it functioned as intended. All it took was for the user to concentrate on it and it would transport them mentally inside where they could see the contents. And inside Duran couldn't help but smile as he saw that Melania seemed to carry all her belongings in this ring.

Potions and elixirs, books on various magics, cultivating tips, history of Sapin and the continent as a whole, as well surprising books on alchemy. Duran already knew much about mixing herbs and creating medicines, but this book created a bunch more and even went in depth on poisons.

Piles of gold and silver coins littered the space easily dwarfing his meager amount his grandfather had saved for him. The last thing he found that sent a chill down his spine was a book on slave marks and slave collars. He had no interest in creating his own marks or collars, but he did read it so that he might be prepared when he comes across more of them.

As much as he wanted to take out the Frishams for their slave trading, they were still a noble family and he was not strong enough to defend himself if they truly wanted to kill him. So far he had only fought weak mages, but from the stories he had heard from his grandfather a true mage wields the power of the elements either internally or externally.

Duran had yet to fight anything that produced external attacks with its mana and he still wasn't completely sure how he would fight against such a thing.

Shaking from his thoughts he popped out of the spatial ring and began placing anything of importance inside it. Though he organized it a lot better than Melania as the items easily moved with just a show of will. He placed a majority of the meats and other foods the bandits had managed to acquire as well as all the best quality weapons.

There weren't many of them, but money is money and he wouldn't complain especially when he got them for free. If you disregard the killing of the owner of the weapon. He took the bandits wealth as well which ended up being less than what he started with, but he split the coins between himself and the girls evenly.

They had tried to refuse claiming they didn't deserve the money he had won fair and square but they eventually relented when he continued to insist. After all it would do no good if they just ended right back as slaves as soon as he left them.

A merchants wagon had been loaded with all the girls and Duran as well as the things the girls had decided to take for themselves. Duran at first thought to give them Melania's clothes, but that could be bad if someone recognized the clothing and tried to punish them for it. So Duran had settled for placing the body of Melania in the cold box storage artifact in the wagons floor along with her dresses and feminine belongings that Duran would not need.

After all he planned to return the body to her father, one to see the man's reaction and as well to get a preemptive lay of the estate for his future endeavors.

With the wagon set up and 3 horse at the front to pull and the remaining horses that the bandits kept, tied off to the back the group was on their way to Valden City.

"Say, Falanya, how long will it take to get to Valden?" Duran asked the elf sitting next him in the drivers seat. She had been extremely quiet since she had cried in front of him, and any time she looked at him her cheeks grew red and she would look away hastily.

Duran knew that this meant the elf girl liked him in some way and he didn't know how he felt about it. Does she feel like that because he saved them? Was it his looks? He was handsome enough, but he was pretty boy prince with the long hair and slender body.

He was more of a rustic handsome. His hands and feet were callused from manual labor, his skin was rough and tanned from the sun and marked scars from accidents and battles wild animals. He had wide shoulders and a muscular body, bright green eyes and brown hair that was shaggy and unkempt barely reached his eyebrows.

Duran was sure there were plenty of people in this world that looked like him. Though even with all of that there was another reason he was hesitant with the elf, his parents had been killed in the war against the elves.

His grandfather had taught him to not hold prejudice against a people that were just following orders and surely that went double for the child of said people. But he just couldn't shake the uneasy feeling when he thought about it. When he had first seen her pointed ears he had wanted to kill her right then and there, but he held back.

His grandfather would not have approved killing her like that, just for being an elf.

Falanya looked up from her hand and over to Duran who stayed faced forward. She felt her cheeks warm slightly and she turned completely away almost as if the tree line became increasingly interesting. She didn't know why she felt this way when she looked at the boy that had saved her. Was it because he saved? She wondered, but shook it from her head.

She went to open her mouth but the voice of Michelle came from the back.

"At this pace we should reach there in 2 days." Duran nodded in thanks and spurred the horses on. Falanya couldn't tell what age Duran was, but on her guess she would say around 16 or maybe 17 like her. Unconsciously she glanced down at her chest sighed wearily.

Like most elves they tended to be rather "lean" compared to humans, she wasn't small by elf standards actually she was quite large in the bust by the standards of her people. However even she couldn't contend with the likes of Melania and Michelle, who despite their young ages produced a mature allure due to their bosoms.

Michelle was only a year older than Falanya, but gave off the air and presence of someone in her mid 20s and had the appeal of a seductress in her eyes. Even Falanya couldn't help but sneak peeks at the red heads chest when it came into view.

Falanya looked down again and sighed, but when she looked left she saw that Duran had been staring at her. She felt her face heat up and she managed out a question.

"W-what is it?" She noticed his eyebrow raise as if surprised she asked him a question. His gaze deepened as he stared at her and then she noticed his eyes flicker to her ears then back to her face.

"Can I-? Ah no, that would be inappropriate to ask." He waved off as he turned back to the road, keeping the horses going at a steady pace. Falanya felt like she knew what question he would ask and her heart thumped a little harder until she was able to speak.

"You can touch my ears if you'd like." She managed squeak out as she looked away, but even that couldn't hide the blush that reached all the way to the tips of her pointed ears. Duran responded to this with a cough of surprise as he turned to towards her just to find her faced completely away with her hands balled tightly.

"Ah, it's fine. You don't have to worry if you're uncomfortable with it." He tried assure her, but this time she turned towards him and he could see the redness that spread across her pale cheeks and couldn't lie to himself that she was very attractive.

"I insist." She claimed as she grabbed his closet hand and brought it to her ear. As soon as the touch and callused hand wrapped around the ear and fumbled it between its fingers, she gasped and Duran could feel the heat coming off the ear it self.

He released the elf's ear and smiled genuinely.

"Thank you Falanya, for entertaining my curiosity." Now even Duran had a bit of pink dusting his tanned cheeks and Falanya smiled inwardly. She no longer felt like her attraction was one sided and she was happy.

Michelle leaned in from the back, her breasts resting on the bench in between Duran and Falanya.

"Alright you 2 love birds, you can chat more later but a couple of the girls are hungry and need to use the bathroom." She said bluntly and noises of protest could be heard from the back cabin causing Duran to chuckle lightly as he eased the horses to a stop.

It was midday anyways and a perfect time to stop and let the horses rest. They were at the bridge that would let them cross the river for the last day and a half stretch to Valden as well.

"Alright, let's take a break for a little bit. You girls stick together and yell if you see anything. I'll come running." Duran said as he hopped down and began to tend to the horses

~~~~~~~~~~~~~chapter end~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May have went a little to heavy on the flirty/romance, but oh well. At first I had considered making Michelle older, but now I've decided I'm gonna keep her as a permanent part of the group. Who doesn't need a healer after all?

Also I think I'll bring her to the academy with Duran and Falanya as I don't remember their being an official age limit to joining, just most kids enrolled as soon as they awakened as mages.

Are 2 girls considered a harem? I don't really plan for both to be live interests, but for future scenes where people exclaiming that Duran has a harem I'd like to be accurate lol.

Anyways thanks for reading

Until next time