“You… aren’t you that noble that took off two weeks ago?” A bald, skinny man in armor yelled out. “You’re deserters.”
I recognized him. He was the guy who was in charge. He had shoved me on the wall as soon as we got here. We left only shortly after. I may have not told him where we were going. I mean, it wasn’t like we were part of his army. I was still a lord, and I had the right to do what I wanted. However, I did understand from their point of view, it looked like we took one look at the army, and then fled. I hadn’t considered that until I noticed several angry faces glaring at us.
“Why should we listen to you!”
The crowd was quickly going south. I even heard some people calling for us to be killed as traitors.
“It’s not true! I’ve been trying to deal with this Bandit threat since we left!” I tried to reason with them.
I wasn’t lying. Since we left, I had killed hundreds of Bandits. Then, we returned a kid home to his village, helped resurrect the broken town, rescued their hostages. Then, we went up north to try to masquerade as a bandit band. Although that plan seemed to have fallen through, we had been focused on the Bandits since the beginning. Had I not been mortally wounded, these last three days of rest would not have been necessary.
Then again, we probably had a lot easier life than the people who were trapped in this city constantly being bombarded by crazed Bandits. The way we looked, with clean clothing and repaired armor, it probably looked like we hadn’t helped Regency at all.
“Yeah, right!” Someone shouted.
More people started to take up the call. Since there was a lull in bandit attacks, we seemed to have gotten the attention of just about everyone left in the burning city.
“It’s true! Master was just saying in bed last night that he regretted not being able to do more for you!” Leave it to Lydia to try to defend me and only make things worse.
Revealing that I was sleeping around while they were fighting for their lives was not the best action. I was already a slave owner, so revealing I was sleeping around with my slaves, and then forcing them to fight for me, well it was clear my popularity was plummeting by the second. They were starting to boo us. I was starting to consider fleeing the city on my own.
“Enough!” A person roared out, causing many people to quiet down. “At least, he came back!”
An old man in a robe started to come down the stairway from the wall. It was the Grand Master who had been remaining in town up until now. He looked very tired these days, and if there was any color in his hair two weeks ago, it had long since left and left him completely white. Behind him trailed his familiar assistant and apprentice, Siti.
It looked like he was bailing me out of another situation. I had once been wary of him, but the guy was starting to grow on me. He was exactly the kind of powerhouse I needed on my side!