"ha... ha... r-really?"

"yeah as I see it you'll be walking on your own in no time"

Mars and Varvei was currently walking through a forest following a dirt road, Mars was lending his arm to Varvei as support while they slowly walked forwards

"...but"

"no but's I know you can do this"

"okay..."

as the two of them walked Varvei gradually reached her limit so Mars picked her up again and carried her in his arms when suddenly Victoria jumped out of a nearby shadow with her horns glowing

"Mars... there's bad... people... ahead"

"bad people..? you mean bandits?"

"yes bandits... they are attacking... a carriage"

"hmm... let's go take a look, you don't mind me killing bandits do you Varvei?"

Varvei looked a little pale but still slowly shook her head

"...no I don't"

"great then let's go take a look"

Mars speed up and soon he reached the place were the bandit's where and just like Victoria said they were attacking a carriage that was guarded by what looked like mercenaries although they were on their last leg with only 2 of them left fighting back against the 20+ bandits

"...sure looks like bandits"

"aren't you going to help them?"

"well sure then let's do this, Victoria make sure none of them get away"

"okay..."

Mars put down Varvei and gave her a pat on the shoulder

"don't start crawling away this time princess"

Varvei face lit up before she turned it to the side and mumbled

"...I won't"

"good then I'll be right back"

Mars activated [Instant movement] and disappeared from Varvei's view

"...idiot"

Mars appeared next to what looked like the bandit leader that was standing in the back and mercilessly slashed at him without warning severing both his legs

"AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!"

the bandit's scream drew the attention of the rest of the bandits

"who's that!?"

"he hurt the leader!"

"kill him!"

"surround him!"

the bandits changed Mars that just stood there leisurely with sword drawn and a casual smile on his face as he calmly said while he pulled out his steel mercenary tag

"I'm here to a.s.sist"

"he's a merch, kill him!"

a bandit charged forward and sashed at Mars with his sword, Mars just took half a step back and then he kicked the bandit in his family jewels with all his strength

"AAAAGGGHHHH!!!"

the second agonising howl sounded out as the bandit fell over clutching his family jewels, this seemed to dampen the bandits l.u.s.t for battle as they just surrounded Mars and looked on as the family jewel less bandit rolled around in agony on the ground

"not coming..? then here I come!"

Mars kicked off the ground and sent out a slash that spilt another bandit at his waist sending the 2 parts of him to the ground as the smell of blood got thick in the surrounding area, Mars quickly sent out another slash sending the head of another bandit flying into the air

"he's a monster!"

"run!"

the bandit's scattered and begun running into the forest, one of them ran towards Varvei but right before he reached her did a fire lance hit him and set him ablaze right before Mars suddenly appeared in front of the burning bandit and cut his head cleanly off sending it flying into the air

"n.o.body touches Varvei"

Mars walked over to Varvei and asked

"you okay?"

"...y-yeah I'm fine"

"that's good"

Mars picked up Varvei and walked over to the 2 surviving mercenaries, one man and one woman both humans both of them bowed their heads to Mars

"thanks for saving us sword master!"

"thank you sword master"

"it's nothing, I'm sorry for not getting here sooner"

"please dont be sorry we're just glad you showed up at all sword master"

"okay..."

"erm... what about the rest of the bandits, should we pressure them?"

"my magic beast Victoria is taking care of the ones that ran"

"okay..."

the man walked over to the carriage and knocked on the door before he loudly said

"mister Baker it's clear now, the bandits have run away"

the door of the carriage opened and a human man dressed in expensive looking clothes stepped out and looked around, seeing all the bloodshed he frowned lightly before he turned and asked the merch

"what happened? how did you beat them?"

"it was this swordsman that drove the bandit's away"

mister Baker turned his head and looked at Mars with a aporving look on his face before he walked over and reached out with his hand

"my name is John Baker, I'm a humble merchant"

Mars s.h.i.+fted Varvei so he had a hand free and reached out and shook the merchant's hand

"my name is Mars, I'm a steel ranked merch this is Varvei"

"...h.e.l.lo"

"oh so a frail maiden and a handsome swordsman, truly a match made in heaven, please by all means join me in my carriage if you are also headed south?"

"we are, we would be glad to join you mister Baker"

"oh wonderful! then please join me in the carriage, after you Mars"

Mars walked in and sat Varvei down on a seat before he sat down next to her, the inside of the carriage was surprisingly comfy and wide, clearly John Baker was no mere 'humble' merchant, as soon as John sat down the carriage begun moving again

"I really must thank you once again Mars, if you had not come to my aid I would likely have been taken prisoner by those foul bandits"

"no need to praise me mister Baker I only did what I thought was right"

"I see, such a admirable sprit... Although it might be rude I would like to ask into miss Varvei's condition, is there anything I can do to help her"

Mars looked over at Varvei and discovered she was fast asleep before he spoke

"i'm afraid not mister Baker, it's simply malnothison that has made her frail, she was imprisoned for a long time you see"

"ah, I that case my company has some nurtistion pills, when we reach the branch in Ely I should be able to provide some free of charge of cause"

"that would be much appreciated mister Baker"

Time pa.s.sed and eventually night fell and the carriage stopped, they were still in the same forest, the 2 mercenaries prepared camp while John showed his skills at cooking by making a marvelous dinner for Mars, Varvei and himself, as for the 2 mercenaries they could only munch on biscuits and dried meat while watching enviously after dinner one of the merchs came over to John and raised an issue

"night watch is it?"

"yes sir, it's hard when there's only the two of us"

"hmm... this is trouble..."

"mister Baker I believe I have the solution to our problem"

"oh, please speak Mars"

Mars didn't speak, he turned towards the dark forest and called out

"Victoria!"

soon after he called Victoria jumped out of the brushes and showed herself to the group with her horns flas.h.i.+ng while she walked over to Mars

"what... is it?"

"can you help with the night watch?"

"sure..."

"good, Victoria says she can help with the night watch, if we include me that's 4 people on night watch that should be sufficient"

"but Mars I would hate for you to stand night watch, you are after all our saviour"

"I truly don't mind John in fact I will get uneasy if I didn't help out"

"...if that's how you feel then it's fine I guess"

"thank you mister Baker"

"no I should thank you Mars"

Mars and John exchanged smiles meanwhile Varvei gave a sigh and looked down into the ground, Mars spotted this and sat down next to her and after some time pa.s.sed he asked

"what's wrong?"

"...it's nothing"

"...don't make me tickle you to find out"

Varvei blushed and tried to move away from Mars, but was quickly grabbed by the arm

"if you don't tell me I don't know how to make it better"

"...fine"

Varvei gave another sigh before she spoke in a small voice

"...it's just I feel so useless"

"that's because you are useless"

Varvei sent Mars a glare

"how cruel! how could you tell a maiden such as myself that!"

"well it's the truth, you are useless right now, in fact you're a burden"

Varvei's face sank, tears begun to from in the corner of her eyes when Mars spoke again

"but that doesn't matter right now your only job is to get better"

"...really? you won't throw me away because I'm useless?"

"no, why would I do that when I went through all the trouble of rescuing you?"

Varvei started at Mars' face before she gave yet another sigh and broke eye contact with a light blush on her face

"...fine"

"that's good, now get some sleep"

"okay..."

"you want me to tuck you in?"

"n-no I'm fine"

"okay then"

Mars got on his feet and walked over to the campfire a little ways away and sat down and looked into the fire, Victoria quickly came and took her usual spot on his lap while she purred lightly as the night grew longer...