The sins of Andric’s father could be forgiven with time, but the way Andric captured Miss Erminhilt’s attention could never be forgiven! Audovacar and his gang might bow down and turn mild before Miss Erminhilt, but they would resume their ferocity as soon as she went away.

“What kind of fun is this, getting into a group and surrounding my Andric. Don’t think that because I’m a woman I don’t understand what’s going on!” Miss Erminhilt angrilly rebuked. In the current age, it was common for women to be looked down upon as stupid. None of the youths would say so, but some of them thought Miss Erminhilt wasn’t capable of understanding the animosity between themselves and Andric.

‘My Andric?’

Miss Erminhilt’s words were chosen in haste, and she said something that implied a stronger relationship between her and Andric. It wasn’t until a few seconds after she spoke that she realized what she said, and her face turned red, but it was too late to take the words back. Many of the youths had caught what Miss Erminhilt said, and it only served to bring more fury to the hearts of the youths who pined for Miss Erminhilt.

“Miss Erminhilt, I heard that you baked a cake for Andric’s birthday. Was that true?” a girl on the sidelines asked.

Along with townspeople disliked Andric because of his origin and his favor with Miss Erminhilt, there were some who wanted to stir trouble between Audovacar and Andric. In a small town like Einburg, watching two people fight was a rare piece of entertainment. For a long time, many youths had hoped Audovacar and Andric would enter a physical brawl.

“Eh? Why would you bring that up? It doesn’t have anything to do with the current situation,” Miss Erminhilt responded, slightly flustered.

Andric grinned and replied for her, “Yep. It was a pretty good cake, too.”

Since he was already being kicked out of the town, there was no reason not to push Audovacar’s buttons as far as they would go. There wasn’t anything Audovacar could do to Andric while Miss Erminhilt was nearby, giving Andric a grace period to provoke Audovacar and his bunch as much as possible. Andric knew for a long time that he could go to Miss Erminhilt if he wanted the children who antagonized him to be told off, but his pride prevented him from relying on a woman. However, if she came to him, it wasn’t so much of an issue.

The plan to exile Andric from the town must’ve taken no short amount of time to create, and someone had to think of the idea in the first place. No matter what Andric did to him, Audovacar would have a limited amount of time to respond. Furthermore, because Andric was already leaving the town in a set amount of days, there wouldn’t be any members of older generation helping Audovacar. If he turned to one of his elders to retaliate against Andric, that elder’s response would be something alluding to Andric’s quickly approaching departure.

“You make him a cake?” Audovacar almost couldn’t believe that Miss Erminhilt had made a cake for Andric. He didn’t want to believe that the two of them were so close. If so, it meant his chances with her were infinitely slimer.

Miss Erminhilt ignored the question. Instead, she strolled through the crowd of people and arrived next to Andric. She looked at him and said, “Come with me.”

“Okay,” Andric said, and Miss Erminhilt led him down the street.

The crowd of people stayed behind, including Audovacar and his group. They wanted to keep Andric inside their circle, but none of the important players dared to go against Miss Erminhilt. The various girls still wanted to stir up trouble, because they had no objectives when it came to Miss Erminhilt.

Miss Erminhilt talking Andric away as advantageous in the short term, but it wouldn’t help the following day. Miss Erminhilt couldn’t come to Andric’s rescue every day, and Andric’s pride prevented him from making arrangements to make it happen.

The two of them made a looped around the town, eventually arriving where Miss Erminhilt originally intended to go. “Wait here,” she said, and she left Andric outside a metalworking shop. A few minutes later, Miss Erminhilt walked out, carrying a sheet of paper.

“What’s that?” Andric asked, interested in why Miss Erminhilt had left the town hall in the middle of the day.

“It’s a log of all the weapons sold by the shop. The mayor is sending a report to the capital about all the weapons that have been sold in Einburg, so I’ve got to get sales logs from the merchants who haven’t turned there’s in. Some of those old blacksmiths don’t like complying with the old mayor, so, instead of sending guards, he sends me to get the logs,” Miss Erminhilt replied as they walked toward the town hall.

The town hall rarely had visitors in the middle of the day. Most visitors came in the morning or evening, and they needed to have an appointment to meet with the mayor, except during a town meeting, where the mayor was always present and anyone was allowed to join. Besides Miss Erminhilt and the mayor, most of the mayor’s family also worked at the town hall. As such, there wasn’t much rush for Miss Erminhilt to return.

Andric and Miss Erminhilt walked slowly, leisurely chatting along the way. Not much had happened in the last week except for that one event. Because Miss Erminhilt worked at the town hall, she knew about the townspeople forcing Andric to leave the day after it happened.

“It’s nothing, really,” Andric said to her, downplaying the severity of his exile. He actually didn’t care about leaving the town a few years earlier than expected. His only concern was finding enough time to practice his meditation technique.

“You don’t know, because you’ve never left Einburg. Let this big sister tell you about the outside world. Our town is surrounded by hamlets. The distance between Einburg and the next town is close to two hundred miles, which is about ten days of travel time. If you’re going all the way to Mahtzig, it’ll take you over fifty days!” Miss Erminhilt explained a few things.

She continued, “A lot can happen over fifty days. You might get attacked by wild animals, or by bandits. The weather could turn to storms. A lot of bandits like to attack during heavy rainstorms, so you’ve always got to be on your guard. But, even if it’s not raining, you could still be attacked. Really, unless you're inside the borders of a town with a strong guard, you’re open to being attacked by bandits.”

“Wow, Miss Erminhilt, it sounds like you know a lot about the area outside Einburg. Have you ever left the town?” Andric asked after fully listening to Miss Erminhilt. She hadn’t told him anything he didn’t already know, but she spoke in earnest, trying to help Andric prepare.

“I haven’t left Einburg, but my fiance sent me many letters when he was traveling across Hochland,” Miss Erminhilt replied.

It was no secret that Miss Erminhilt once had a fiance, but the man had been away from Einburg for over five years, and he severed his relationship with Miss Erminhilt less than a year after his departure. Nonetheless, there were no ill feelings between the two of them. The mayor’s oldest son had been betrothed to Miss Erminhilt when they were children, but the mayor’s son turned fifteen and discovered he had a talent or the martial way, and he left Einburg shortly after the discovery.

Andric only knew some of the story between Miss Erminhilt and the mayor’s son, but he was the reason she worked at the town hall, and also the reason she wasn’t married despite being nineteen.

Andric and Miss Erminhilt returned to the town hall with Miss Erminhilt continuing to talk about the areas around Einburg. Although she hadn’t left the town, her work in the town hall allowed her to interact with many people who had, and she had studied various maps of the surrounding areas.

“I have a question. If there are martialists in the merchant caravan, would they have to worry about bandits?” Andric asked.

“Of course they would,” Miss Erminhilt replied. “The bandits around Mahtzig aren’t very strong; otherwise, the military would be sent out to deal with them. But, even so, they’re still martialists! In most merchant caravans, there is only one guard for every ten merchants. A guard costs money to hire, so the merchant caravans try to get by with as few as possible. On the other hand, bandit troupes are always growing in size. While you’re on the road, you could meet a couple of criminals who decided to work together, or you could meet the remnants of a destroyed sect who’ve resorted to banditry!”

In the kingdom of Hochland, sects made up of martialists controlled about thirty percent of the land. The weaker sects paid tribute to the kingdom, and the stronger sects participated in its defense during times of war. When sects expanded, they would attack other sects and steal their land. When a sect was destroyed, the sect members would either join a new sect, go their own ways, or create bandit troupes. The kingdom of Hochland rarely involved itself in the disputes between sects, which made the martialists from destroyed sects think their kingdom didn’t care about them and that becoming a criminal was justified.

There were no sects near Einburg, but Andric had seen wandering groups of martialists in the past. They traveled thousands of miles to search for rumors, and all of them were in at least the Novice realm. Martialists who didn’t have an ability like Spirit Sight couldn’t tell what realm or stage a martialist was just by looking at them, so Andric had to be told what realm the traveling martialists were at. For the traveling martialists that didn’t advertise their realm, Andric healthily assumed they were even higher than Novice realm.

“Oh, and don’t forget about spirit beasts! They won’t go near the towns and hamlets, but they’re all over the wilderness. You’ve got to watch out for waldbars, waldschwein, steinbar, windspinne, and many others!” Miss Erminhilt said, listing a few creatures that Andric had only learned a tiny bit about.

“I’ve got it,” Andric tried to calm her and waved his hands.

“Overconfidence! Nothing is certain when you’re on the road. What would you do if all your food spoiled and all the people around you turned out to be cannibals? No matter what you do, there’s no way to account for the actions of the people who will be traveling with you. If just one of them is careless, you could have an avoidable disaster thrust on you,” Miss Erminhilt argued, angrily looking at Andric. He sighed and looked away from her, and they kept walking.

Andric and Miss Erminhilt arrived at the town hall a short time later. They paused beside Miss Erminhilt’s chair outside the town hall building, and, just as Andric was about to turn around and walk away, Miss Erminhilt muttered something and grabbed the back of Andric’s head.

“I’m going to regret this,” she said, so softly that Andric couldn’t hear, and she turned Andric’s head toward hers and kissed him.

Miss Erminhilt released Andric’s head, and he stumbled backward. Her attack came as a surprise, and it moved Andric’s frozen heart. For a brief second, he couldn’t analyze the moment with his intelligent brain. Millions of possibilities ran through his consciousness, but they were snuffed out a second later. He reminded himself of his status, and he knew he couldn’t allow himself to be involved with Miss Erminhilt in that way.

Andric turned around and walked away, slightly hasty in his steps. Miss Erminhilt watched him for a few dozen feet, then sat in her chair. Unknown to either of them, a young boy was watching from a far distance.