Emperor's Reckoning

The just-risen sun shone softly on the small-town streets. The birds were chirping as the sun gave its golden finger toward the sky. The bright hope above gave a new fresh of twenty-four hours; however, the place was not as lively as it used to be in the morning.

The empty streets were lacking the festive it had yesterday.

All of this was because of last night's event. They were trembling inside their houses, peeping on what's going on through their curtained windows.

The continuous wail and scream of the bandits were harrowing and left the locals with no sleep. Now, they didn't dare to open the door of their own house to step outside.

Everyone hesitated, even the mayor of the small town.

He was standing behind the door that led outside his house but his hand was trembling whilst grabbing the knob. He looked at his worried wife with sweat on his face and a son that was only a waist young.

The mayor nodded before he pushed the door open. His prepared eyes didn't blink as he looked at the street but only opened wider.

"N-Nothing."

There was nothing on the street. His nose was twitching but the smell of iron was not there. The street was left the same and not a single building was destroyed despite the huge tremor that brought them to their knees yesterday night.

"Hey look, the mayor is outside," said one of the residences before he opened the door and stepped outside.

It was like a domino effect and everyone suddenly found themselves with an empty street in front of them. It was the same as yesterday, not even a crater was found. The everyday scenery brought some of them to contemplating before someone gazed upon the hill above.

"L-Look over there!" said one of the residences before the other followed his sight.

They all gawked with their pupils shrunken. There was a certain amount of disbelief regarding the image that his eyes received. A part of the hill was clearly destroyed and could be seen from afar. The fresh crater stopped the words coming out of their mouth as they began to stutter at the first word.

"W-What kind of strength had that capability?"

"I-Impossible..."

*Neigh!

They suddenly heard a neigh from a horse. They turned around only to see a carriage was being dragged with its driver on the driver seat.

The driver was old and had a fair share of history growing up in this small town but the moment he laid his eyes on the hill, his narrowed eyes snapped open in disbelief, "Wh-What in the world.."

"Oh, you must be the carriage driver that will transport us to the capital."

The nonchalant voice immediately froze the mayor and the rest of the locals but the driver. A youth was approaching the driver with a smirk on his face and a pair of hands behind his head. He was followed by the group he came with.

The bearing coming out of the youth was calm but the ones coming out behind him were commanding. There was not a single ounce of will for them to ask what happened to the bandits nor the treasures that they stole their entire career.

The wise mayor could only shake his head as he saw the locals were looking at him. The youth dare enough to offend Hezar himself, even worse, he survived the bandits' attack.

The driver suspected nothing as he saw the group of youth coming toward him. "Ah, you must be our champion!"

The driver let out a smile before he furrowed his eyebrows, "Oh? I see some old faces like Porealus and Ivy, even the boy Zet is here, hahaha."

"Greetings, uncle," said Master Verdu as he stepped forward before giving him respect with a bow.

"Ah Verdu, no need to be so humble boy," the driver laughed.

"Please give me a break uncle, you know I can't do that," said Verdu as he smiled wryly.

The driver smiled before he landed his gaze on the unfamiliar young man.

"Ah, you must be a new champion," said the driver before he reached out his hand.

The townfolks froze as the driver casually give a hand. The young man in front of him not only triggered Heaven's Prism, but he had also deleted the famed bandits just yesterday night.

Lyon looked down to see the smiling face of the driver. He smiled back before shaking his hand. The slight gesture might not mean much for the driver but the townfolks were sighing a sigh of relief.

"What is your name, young man?" asked the driver.

"My name is not that important," said Lyon before he walked past him and entered the carriage.

Cecile shrugged before she and Lumina followed his steps.

Graham suddenly walked forward, approaching the driver. He stopped right in front of him and his aura was intentionally suppressed so that it will not fail the old man's heart.

"Give me the reign, I will drive," said Graham.

"That would be a bad idea, I will do it instead," said Assid.

"Ah? Are you sure?" asked the driver.

His eyes saw no hesitation from the two before he nodded. "Alright then, but I will sit between you two and lead you the way, besides, the horse has been with me for quite some time, I don't mean to be rude but he is a bit of a fright one hahaha!"

"It's not a problem," answered Graham before Assid nodded.

"Alright then, the rest of you please enter my humble carriage, I'm sure it's spacious enough since it was built for ten." the driver sighed. "They really did us dirty, they only give us five slots from the original ten."

"They will get what they deserved when it's due," said Verdu.

The driver nodded before he went to the driver's seat.

Porealus and the rest entered the carriage and oddly enough it was sufficient for all of them to sit.

Assid took a glance back before he commanded the horse to move. The carriage only used a single horse to move all of them but it let people amazed at how fast the single horse went.

"Ah?" Zet raised his eyebrows. "What about the fifth one?"

"The fifth one?" asked Porealus as he furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you... oh."

"Who is the fifth one?" asked Ivy.

Cecile chuckled, "I doubt he or she might dare to show up, we don't know who won at the end since they didn't announce it before that happen."

Lyon suddenly laughed harder than he should.

"Hm? Is something wrong?" asked Lumina.

"Nah, I just remembered this exact scenario back in Nostria. There was a man who eventually refused to join on the D-Day."

(Damn, now that I think about it the outfit that I wear was quite wild, especially with that unnecessary meteorite-based long curved sword as if it could cut a huge pipe or something by the design alone, oh wait, that was my idea) thought Lyon as he smiled wrily.

Lyon suddenly furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered the date he made with Sylviana and Fei together. He put his hand on his chin as he contemplated. The gesture courted the attention in the carriage.

"What's wrong?" asked Kesya.

Lyon eventually shrugged his shoulder. "Nothing significant."

He leaned back before looking at the sky from the window. (That tailor is probably from earth too, but I forgot his name).

Meanwhile in the driver's seat.

The old man sat between the two men with a wry smile on his face.

"Hahaha, I feel really safe with you two sitting beside me, however, after the next turn we will be off the eyes of the town. Be careful, those places are filled with bandits, slow down and don't talk rudely. I have the pocket money prepared for the pass."

"That would be unnecessary," said Assid as he kept the pace of the carriage.

"Huh?"

The horse didn't stop at all as they traverse the forest.

The old man was looking left and right but found nothing. He crossed his arms before he contemplated. "How weird, they didn't show up this early morning at all."

"Do you always pay them to get through this forest?" asked Assid.

"Yes, these old bones were not trained to fight those guys," the driver sighed. "Making an honest living sure brings peace but you won't make a lot."

"There is no need to worry about paying the bandits anymore," said Graham as he kept his gaze forward with his arms crossed.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The bandits are dead," said Graham.

The words made him open his eyes wide, "W-What?!"

"They are all dead and buried," said Graham before he took a glance at the old man.

Seeing the seriousness in his eyes the old man immediately turned nervous as he averted his glance to the road, muttered, "I-I see, even the leader with the scar on his temple?"

"Especially the leader," said Assid.