Chapter 34: A Sudden Halt
A halt and some life learnings.
A busy market, abundance of people, strays roaming around. Stalls full of stalk, grains, fruits and vegetables and buyers who were busy negotiating the prices.
In such a scenery a path laid in centre cutting the market into two equal halves. And on it a lavish carriage ran through, all the bypassers could not help and became spectators of this reverential occurrence.
Our three familiar ones were riding inside, while Stefan was busy in guiding the horses to the correct path, the ones inside were simply resting. All except one that is, our red haired salamander girl, Ahem... I mean the honourable one was trying to swallow the cute little butterflies who were flying around in this busy and narrow streets.
This grand and busy scenery looked a repetitive for some time, then after a while, the horses took some long strides and the scenery finally changed.
The Carriage found itself in a narrow patch of groves now. The path was muddy now, the lavish wooden wheels were spilled with it now.
Aurelion was taking a nap, and then the carriage pulled a hard break.
SCREECH
The wheels made the sound.
BAAM
Aurelion and Lyra banged their heads against each other.
"Ouch, Lyraaa." Aurelion cried.
"Oow, Your highness, I apologize. I was dozed off." She explained.
Aurelion look outside the window and realized that the carriage had stopped suddenly.
"Stefan, what happened?" Aurelion asked while knocking on the side of the wall.
Stefan took a pause and then replied.
"Your highness, there’s some commotion in front, it seems that that we should have taken some escort knights."
"Knights? Looks like something serious happened your highness." Lyra emphasized.
"Ahh, whatever." Aurelion took a step outside. Sally was still dozed off without a care in the world.
Lyra followed Aurelion behind. Stefan left the helms and came down.
In front, a barricade kind of setting had become, two wagons with cages on their back were fallen on the path blocking the route they were treading. So, they had no choice except stopping there and resolving the situations.
"Your highness, there are people fighting there." Lyra pointed with her finger.
Inside the cage, some figures could be seen, though too far to identify them from where they were standing.
"They look like mountain bandits, your highness." Stefan suggested.
"No way, we are still within the perimeters of Capital."
"The security is not that lax that there will be mountain bandits here." Lyra cleared.
"Well, we will get to know that in a few steps." Aurelion and the others walked a little closer to the scenery.
They noticed besides the assumed bandits, there were slaves in the cages and three fully armored knights, two tall and buff and one much shorter with a lean body structure.
The Knights were attacking at the bandits, though they were outnumbered by a lot.
"I see, they are slave traders." Stefan cleared.
"Slave traders? But Slaves are banned in the Empire." Aurelion leaned.
"You are still young, your highness and rarely comes out of the Royal Castle. Although, on paper, many things are banned in the empire, not only they still operate but actually gets heavy fundings by some Nobles. As a helmsman, I have seen multiple crimes, the further you travel from the Capital, the more heinous they get." Stefan explained with a sad expression.
"I see... I understand. Thanks Stefan for opening up my eyes. I know what to do from here on." And then Aurelion gave Stefan a trusting smile.
I MUST HAVE BEEN MAD. ALL THIS TIME I HAVE BEEN SEEING THIS WORLD AS A FANTASY OR ISEKAI WORLD. EVERYONE HAS BEEN SOME NOVEL CHARACTERS FOR ME TILL NOW. SINCE, IT HAS BEEN THIS WAY THEN, FOR THE SAKE OF MY NEW PERFECT LIFE AND ALSO AS THE CROWN PRINCE OF THIS EMPIRE, I MUST REMOVE TRASHY SCUMS CHARACTERS LIKE THESE FROM THE PLOT.
Aurelion strengthened his resolve and took a step forward.
The slave traders ranged in 50s, even though the knights look stronger but they were starting to get pushed back.
He channelized Mana from the Mystic Heart, took a short stride, waved his hand in clockwise motion and manifested a fire circle.
FIRE ARROWS
He chanted.
Within seconds, hundreds of arrows made up of completely fire elemental magic rained down the site.
The arrows landed accurately only on the traders, not a single one gazed the knights or the slaves. A work of marvel.
All the slaver traders were incapacitated. The group went closer towards the site. Stefan helped the knights to steer back the fallen cages.
The chibi knight came in front with helmet and armor still on. She gave a light bow as gratitude but did not look too pleased so, stepped back, one of the tall and buff knights came forward and said.
"Thank you very much, young warrior. We appreciate your help." He said with a deep and husky voice.
The other added. "It was much needed. We appreciate it but wait, how old are you? You look not more than 8." He said in a very informal way.
"How rude, do you even have any idea who you are talking to right now." Lyra intervened to teach him some manners.
"It is fine, Lyra." Aurelion stopped her charging while placing his left hand in front of Lyra.
Then, he turned to the knights and said "I will be turning six soon." And smiled.
"Woah, the same age as—"
The knight with husky voice elbowed him. And continued. "How unthoughtful of us, we should have noticed from your attire and talent that you belongs to an aristocratic family, young master." He bows and then pushes the other guy’s head down with hand simultaneously to show respect.
"As a matter of fact, we do too." He added.
"Young miss." He called the short knight.
The knight came in front and removed the helmet and offered hand for a handshake.
"BEAUTIFUL" Aurelion said out loud.
Everyone started at him.
Oops
[To be Continued]