Arriving At The Capital

Arthur could barely react to this, but he did manage to pull up his sword to block the strike. He used the force of the strike to pull back a little. He needed to stabilize his stance before he could counterattack.

Both dashed towards him again, but now that he had got a footing, he was confident again. He now knew their fighting strategy, which made it easier for him to counter them.

The big guy swung his hammer towards Arthur's head once again, and Arthur took a step back and avoided it like before. The seax guy once again attacked like before, but Arthur was ready now, as he stabbed towards the stomach of the seax guy.

*PUCHI*

*BLURGH*

Having no time to react, he was pierced by the sword. He threw up a mouthful of blood before falling to the ground, clutching his stomach. His face was twisted in pain, as he had not quite died yet.

"AAARGH, DIE!"

The big guy suddenly roared as he rushed in with his big hammer. It was a stupid choice by him, as Arthur could clearly read all of his moves. In the end, he sliced with his sword towards the neck of the big guy and cut through half of it.

Once again, the stream of red left the big guy's body and entered Arthurs, once again giving him a warm feeling.

Blood sprayed everywhere and even drenched Arthur crimson read. There were now five bandits left, and they all looked at Arthur like he was some kind of monster. Only the leader was somewhat composed when looking at Arthur.

"Little friend, I apologize for having offended you!" The bandit leader suddenly started talking. Seeing Arthur drenched in blood now felt like looking death in the face. He did not want to die here, so he wanted to see if there was a way out.

"Hmm?"Arthur just looked at him with an indifferent expression. Like he was looking at an ant.

"Little friend, might there be a way for you to let us go?" The leader asked with a nervous look.

"There is not!" Arthur said with a small smile.

The man just stood there, stunned in front of Arthur, not having an idea of what to say. He had hoped that this young man was naive and would let them go. If he had been able to get away, he would have, of course, gone to get help, then come back for revenge.

"I can promise a painless death, though, if you just kill yourselves!" Arthur said, his smile not fading.

"RUUUUN!"

The leader didn't even think about it, as he did not wish to die at all. The five bandits still alive all ran in separate directions. Arthur decided he could only get one of them, so he decided to kill the leader.

It did not take him long to catch up to the leader, as he was young and quite fast. Pushing down the leader on the ground and then raising the sword. "No, don't kill …" Before he could finish, the sword had cut off the leader's head.

Returning to the carriage, Arthur went over to the two bandits who had been wounded. The one with a wound in the stomach was already half dead. He went over to him, ended his misery, and then enjoyed the warm red stream coming from the kill.

After that, he went to the man that lost a leg. Honestly, this guy was not much better, as he had lost a lot of blood. He could die any second now. Arthur did not hesitate at all as he cut off that guy's head. He did not forget to loot all of the corpses for anything useful, but there was barely anything other than a few copper coins.

After this whole ordeal, he just went inside the carriage and told Bruno to keep going. Inside of the carriage, though, his face had become quite pale. This was his first time killing, and thinking back on the scenes, he felt he was quite a gruesome guy.

'It is kill or be killed in this world!' After thinking for a while, he did not feel too bad anymore. Looking at himself, he saw that he was drenched in blood and did not have any extra clothes. This was a problem, as he would stand out a lot inside the city.

'It is decided. The first thing to do in the capital is buy some clothes!' He thought to himself. His parent had given him a few silvers that he could use for food and clothes.

Further down the road inside the forest, they found many dead bodies. Both from guards and bandits, and by the looks of it, the bandits had lost here. There were around 30 bodies overall, 28 of them being bandits and only two being guards.

These bandits seemed to have been a bit stronger than the ones Arthur had been finding, as some of them had chainmail armor which was a little worn out. The weapons on them were all like the ones he had been fighting, rusty and dull, though.

Arthur saw that one of the guards on the ground had some clothes which looked virtually untouched. So he decided to take that from him, instead of the bloody clothes he was wearing at the moment.

"Rest in peace, sir!" Arthur said as he looked at him and clasped his hand in prayer.

After getting the new clothes, Arthur looked more like a soldier than a nobleman. He did not mind this, though, as he just wanted to get a clean set of clothes that didn't smell too much. The clothes he had taken from the guard were a red wool shirt with a golden lion logo on the chest. A pair of red wool trousers and some regular leather soldier shoes.

He still didn't want to walk around the streets in these clothes, as it might look like he was part of another family. He would just use these until he could buy some new clothes.

The rest of the journey was quite an event free, as they met no nobles or any more of these bandits. Arthur could just enjoy the view of all the beautiful scenery on the road. Arthur was quite curious about everything. He had only really been out of his hometown when they were at small banquets in neighboring towns.

"It seems we have arrived, young man!" Bruno said with a big smile.

Hearing this, Arthur looked out from the carriage. He could see massive stone walls standing tall all around the city. A few buildings were towering tall than the wall, though. One of them was, of course, the royal palace.

Looking at the majestic royal palace from the distance brought awe to Arthur. It looked like something one would only hear about in fairy tails. The massive towers wanting to pierce heaven, the beautiful marble walls which could make even a blind man amazed, and finally, the royal air coming from it. It was indeed a majestic and magnificent sight to behold.

After seeing the royal palace, Arthur was looking forward to entering the capital. He wanted to go closer to the royal palace to feel its prestige and, hopefully, enter it one day to get his own nobility title. This just made Arthur much more pumped than he already was.

As they were closing in on the capital, the traffic of people became much more visible. There were a lot of people going in and out of the capital. It was mostly commoners, though, as many of them went into the capital to sell their grain.

There were a few carriages with nobility in them, probably people doing the same as Arthur. They were also here to enter the military.

One could not just join the military even if you were nobility. You still had to go through a sparring match with a knight, and then the knight would decide if you were good enough to join the military as either a commander or normal infantry. Most nobility started as a commander, though, as they had their own forces to join them. Arthur did not have his own force, so he would probably be assigned to one of the knights' squadrons.

Arthur did not even want to start as a commander, either. He would much rather start as regular infantry, like all the commoners, and let his achievements speak for him. He knew he was strong, but he also knew he was not as good as a commander.

Arthur could not help but feel amazed by the structures around him inside the city. They were more advanced than his hometowns, as these were made of stone, with wooden beams holding them all together. The ones from his small town were all made of wood, with hay roofs. Only their mansion was made of stone in that little town.

The streets here were also bustling with many people. They all looked happy, and you could hear the excitement from the people all around.

"Bruno, could you please put me off outside a tailor's shop?" Arthur said.

"Of course!" Bruno answered immediately, making his way to the nearest tailor shop. He knew Arthur did not have much money, so he would, of course, not go to the most expensive one.

Bruno stopped outside a small stone building with a small wooden sign hanging above the door which said Christi's tailor. It was definitely not a high-end tailor, but it was still a place some of the low-rank nobility would visit.

inside the shop, many different fabric roles could be seen all around. There were also some clothes hanging to the side, which were the clothes that were already made for a customer, but had been returned.

Arthur knew that the cheapest thing to buy was the premade clothes, as most people would rather pay extra for perfectly fitted clothes. So Arthur decided to go over and look at clothes at the side of the shop.

To his surprise, most of it was relatively affordable, even though it was made from linen. He decided to buy a long-sleeved tunic with a pair of linen trousers. It would cost him 1 bronze and 10 copper coins.

100 copper coins =1 bronze coin

100 bronze coins = 1 silver coin

100 silver coins = 1 gold coin

to put it into perspective. You could buy a loaf of bread for three copper coins. A normal peasant earned around 60 copper coins a month.

Arthur had no idea of how much different things cost because he had never been asked to buy stuff. So when he saw that he had those three bronze coins, he thought the clothes were actually quite cheap.

Going up to the shop clerk, asking to buy these things, a young man stepped into the shop. Arthur did not pay the young man that walked in any attention, but the young man immediately saw Arthur.

"Hey, you!! Why are you bearing my family's crest? You don't seem to belong to my family?" The young man yelled out, seeming a little furious.