Chapter 122 - 122. Highway Robbers Known To Rob With Politeness

"Are you sure you are letting them go all by themselves? Would they get hurt or something?" Patricia asked me and tugged at my arm as the seniors and junior members were getting ready to move out to the Northern Forest.

"Hmm, I don't think some cuts and bruises would cause much harm. It is not as bad as those rats that live in the dungeons under our castle right now." I reminded Patricia on how Adam and Ingles got bumped and grazes after the rats swiped those wooden crates that sent them flying and hit on the heads of those two before.

"Aahh... As what you had thought before and also can't help agreeing to it. Furthermore, we cannot let our children be huddled up in comfort and not letting them spread their wings when it's time to fly, am I right?" Patricia finally understood what I had meant and have no other choice but to agree to their choices. If the time for them to progress is not now, then when?

Prius and Rebecca nodded to each other and at us as we had made a decision to let our children be independent and to finally let them spread their wings and fly. Furthermore the members decided to grind at night is to firstly improve their perception, secondly, gain soils which they can sell off and thirdly gain experience Points to upgrade.

All the juniors are at Level 1 and it seems that their seniors had levelled up to 3 and all they wanted is to catch up and be par to them, earn another 100 points from me to allocate and then the rankings of Castle Keating-Macleod would rise to the top.

Across the board, all adventurers except for the founders of the House are still Level 1 and had gained below 85% progress. The only way to bring the rankings was to hit Level 2 midway. The members were all rating to go for their night raid and before they leave I summoned them and announced, "I any of you had met any imminent danger, leave the Northern Forest immediately and return."

"I myself had not gone to the Northern Forest at night so, if the odds are against you, return immediately and report your findings. It may be interesting to do night raids but first and foremost, do not jeopardise others for the sake of your interest alone. Good luck and dismissed."

I finally said as they chorused their acknowledgement and filed out of the Castle grounds in twos as they marched out, led by the seniors, our children. It was quite a sight to behold as it seems like a tiny group of an army marching out of a parade square.

Then I heard someone rang out a marching song and it was led by Adam himself. I wonder where he got the song from but it sure sounds like this:

"Everywhere we go, oh..."

"People want to know, oh..."

"Who we are, ah..."

"Where we come from..."

"So we tell them..."

"We are from CKM..."

"High and mighty CKM..."

"March on..."

"One two..."

"Three-four..."

"Left-right..."

"Left-right..."

"One two..."

"THREE FOUR..."

I looked at the rear end of the marching members and wondered if they were given bass drums and snares I'm sure they would wake up the whole neighbourhood and be pelted by eggs and tomatoes... Hmm, eggs and tomatoes... It would be great with steamed rice and stir-fried vegetables... Hah hah.

I looked back at myself and instead of being a true adventurer, I had turned more to a business management guy in the past 3 series. Ah well, not everything must have blood, gore, clashes and battles, right?

.....

Meanwhile, in Wildeborough, the last town at the end of the outskirts of the Eastern Border, our travelling advertising merchants had just completed their yet another round of order takings and had accumulated all the forms and were getting ready to leave.

They had made almost one trip for every 8 days to receive the orders from the customers requesting for beauty products as well as answering inquiries about being an adventurer and stuff like that.

After answering some of the queries, the husband and wife team decided to pack their items and leave while heading to the local courier to send the order forms back which proved to be faster than them.

Normally when they had reached the 27th town of the outermost border, as they make their way back to Ingmery, they would pick up some more order forms that were made by last-minute orders and it would be categorised into individual towns and sent in as a compiled list when they returned to Ingmery.

This would be their usual practise and it was a career that they had enjoyed most in their lives. Although the advertisement caravan only carries a few products per category, it was still spacious enough to ferry their children around with them. Most of the time they would camp out just outside the town and set up a small fireplace for them to cook their meals and keep themselves warm.

It was a life they had grown accustomed to and they don't mind since they were able to save up during their career and supplies for food were given free to them to sustain them during their journeys.

However, ever since the Ruler of Aermagh had become young again after drinking a drop of water from the Fountain of Youth, his previously iron fist ruling when he was a 65-year-old man sis bit subside and tide over. However, his greed for wealth and power without lifting a finger had left his citizens with barely enough to sustain their lives.

These citizens became bandits, snatch thieves and kidnappers. In short, to say, these poor citizens had turned against the law and their own principle in life for survival.

Fertile lands around the town perimeter were scarce and even if it was well fenced up or stonewalled, beasts and marauders still persist to steal the livestock and destroy part or all of the harvest. These farmers too, turned into vile citizens just to survive and all the villains started to group up and target travelling merchants.

One thing they all knew, travelling merchants have money on them as well as produce.

Soon every single town except for Ingmery and Aermagh has a division of these ill-mannered citizens as they banded together and called themselves 'The Rusty Blades' and surprisingly, the combined number of these gang members per town exceed even the number of total adventurers in the whole of Ingmery.

Then tragedy struck one of the travelling merchants. As they travelled away from the 18th town and was en route to the 17th, the caravan was ambushed by a group of highway robbers. Some potholes were dug on the ground to slow the caravans that were passing through and when one of the poor wheels got stuck in the pothole, that's when the highway robbers took action.

They emerged from some bushes nearby and approached the caravan. One of the robbers, presumably the leader of the henchmen, spoke up, "Good evening lady and gent. We are sorry that your wheel got stuck in one of the potholes that we had dug on the ground. Let us introduce ourselves first. We are 'The Rusty Blades' and there is no need to get acquainted with names and so on.

"Right now, you are being held up in a highway robbery and all we need from you is to hand over your credits and valuables and then we would help to unstuck your wheel and you could be in your way. We do not want your lives. We just need your valuables and credits.

Do not try to do anything funny, because we are not that easy to be tickled with laughter."

"Alright, lady on the left, gents on the right, get off your caravan and hand over your credits and valuables right away. There are a few caravans on the way and they may need to use that pothole to get their wheels stuck and get robbed on purpose. QUICK... YOUR CHILDREN TOO, GET OFF NOW..."

One of the highway robbers started to brandish his sword and acting like he was a pirate from the Caribbeans especially when he was brandishing a large thin-bladed curvy sword. In fact, he was indeed a land pirate.

The unfortunate travelling merchants had to disembark and brought the children with them as the interior was ransacked by the robbers. Every single sample pieces of beauty product were taken down and whatever valuables they could find were taken as well, especially the Level 4 mesh iron reinforced tunic that they had brought along for demonstration.

"Alright... Hand over your credits... We all know you are not doing any selling but just to do advertising and collecting orders, come on... Out with the credits." one of the robbers menacingly pointed his dagger at a child's throat and he quickly poured out the credits that he had stowed in his storage bag.

However, all our merchants were smart enough and hid their actual storage contents not on their physical clutch or shoulder bag, but in the buckle of their belts. That's right readers, Eastern fantasy hides their storage in rings but Western one especially in this era his theirs in the buckle of their belts.

"Bbaahh... What a crock... They had only a paltry 100 credits in their storage bag. Alright, move along now. Thank you for your compliance. Even if this robbery is not that fruitful to us, those beauty products in their porcelain ware sure would bring in some extras."

The leader commented when he looked at the loot and ordered his henchmen to lift the wheel of the caravan off the pothole and let them continue their journey.

"Honey, our saving is still intact, right? We need to report this matter immediately." said the wife of the travelling merchant as they make their way to the 17th Town and reported the matter to the guards there. Then they made a letter and addressed it to us, stating if the existence of highway robbers that called themselves 'The Rusty Blades".