"Okay, what kind of beasts do you want to have?" William inquired. "I will give you a bit more leeway and allow you to choose a beast that is at the initial stages of Class B. Anything higher than that is impossible. Now, tell me what you want."
Conrad and Dave exchanged a glance at each other before telling William what kind of mounts they wanted.
A devilish grin appeared on William's face before he nodded his head in understanding.
-----
A week passed and the students that went to help subjugate the various Dungeon Outbreaks in the Hellan Kingdom finally returned to the academy.
Naturally, there were casualties among the student bodies, but it was lower compared to what Simon had expected. Even so, each student that passed away was a great loss for the Kingdom. The King had given the families of these brave students proper compensation and a monument was built inside the academy to honor their bravery.
It took some time for the students to recover from their traumatic experience and all lessons were put on hold for a month to allow the students to recuperate.
Simon decided to postpone William's Ceremony until everyone in the academy had regained a semblance of normality before shocking them all again with the event that he had planned for Celine's one and only disciple.
While things were on hold at the Academy, William took this opportunity to take the members of the Angorian War Sovereign outside of the academy to conduct their special training, capture mounts, and gather resources.
-----
"Gwaaark!" Dave, the officer in charge of the Logistic Team, used a tree as a support as he vomited everything that he had eaten for lunch. He could taste the sourness in his mouth as tears streamed from his eyes.
A few meters away from him, several students were also puking their hearts out. William and his officers watched them with understanding and allowed them to take a break for the time being.
"I never thought you were this ambitious, Sir William," Priscilla said in admiration. "However, with just this, it won't be enough to cover everyone's equipment."
The beautiful girl addressed the young boy who was wearing a hooded traveler's cloak and was standing in the center of the bandit's camp.
William gave his Vice-Prefect a side-long glance before looking at the gold chests beside his feet. "Fortunately, this Kingdom has plenty of scumbags ripe for the pickings. We won't be running out of bandits to hunt anytime soon, so you don't have to worry about not having enough funds, Vice-Prefect."
Kenneth didn't expect William to be someone who didn't bat an eye when killing people. He did it in such a natural manner that it made the delicate looking boy look at him in a different light.
Conrad had killed a bandit once in the past due to self defense. Because of this, he was able to slightly endure the heavy scent of blood in the air. However, he didn't dare to look at the pile of corpses that were lined up on the ground.
After killing two bandits, he had already reached his limit and didn't force himself to kill more. It was William and Priscilla who mercilessly slaughtered the bandits using their bows and arrows. The funny part about this was that both of them only killed the strong people among the bandit group.
They left the weaker ones for the students to deal with in order to give them some "life experiences" that they would need to survive in the world.
Even Spencer, and Drake, had to admit that they didn't expect that their Head Prefect, who was only fourteen-years-old, could be this merciless. The two of them had already been trained by their families to take human lives, but the scene in front of them still made them feel uncomfortable.
"Spencer and Conrad, go to the town and tell the Guard Captain to bring his men to clean up this place," William ordered. "Also, remember to collect the commission afterward. Some of these bandits have bounties on their heads. We need every gold coin we can salvage from this lot."
""Yes, Sir.""
Priscilla and Kenneth were paying extra attention to their observation of William. For some reason, the usual happy-go-lucky atmosphere that their Head Prefect always radiated was gone. It was now replaced with a boy who's killing intent oozed out of his body.
Ella walked towards William and stood beside him. Dia and Ragnar had stayed with Ella when William gave the order to attack the Bandit Hideout. The Angorian Goat didn't hide anywhere, but stood back a safe distance in order to not intervene with William's bandit subjugation.
Dia immediately crawled onto William's clothes. After she'd coiled herself around William's neck, she playfully removed the boy's hood and nuzzled his cheeks. She was like a spoiled daughter that was asking for her father's attention.
The red-headed boy smiled and lightly rubbed Dia's chin. The killing intent surrounding him disappeared completely, and the usual William who was bright and sunny returned like a refreshing breeze.
"Thank you, Mama," William said as he picked up Ragnar from the ground. He then rubbed the puppy's head and the latter licked his cheeks in response. Thor was currently staying by Wendy's side, so he didn't bring him along on this trip to the South.
Kenneth and the others were dumbfounded by this sudden shift in character. They even felt that the indifferent William that they had seen a few moments ago was just a figment of their imagination.
William didn't know what his officers were thinking because he was too busy shielding his face from Ragnar's and Dia's combined assault. The two "children" peppered the red-headed boy's face with their affection, while Ella watched from the side with gentle eyes.
"Sir William, what is our next plan of action?" Priscilla asked. She was doing her best to keep the smile on her face from twitching because of the sudden change in William's character.
"Let's wait until Spencer and Conrad return," William replied in a casual manner. He then raised his head to look at the sun and made calculations inside his head. "The day is still early, we'll have enough time to raid one more bandit hideout before we have dinner in the next town."
Dave and the others who had just finished emptying their stomachs suddenly felt that the world had lost all its colors. Surprisingly, they were not afraid of raiding another bandit camp. What they were afraid of was having dinner, after killing the bandits in the Southern Regions of the Hellan Kingdom.
The way they were now, they would be unable to stomach smelling or eating meat for the next few days.
Now they finally understood why their Head Prefect rarely ate meat when eating in the Dining Hall.
William gave his pitiful subordinates a devilish smile. Unlike the red-headed boy, the people in Hestia were faster to recover when it came to the concept of killing.
This was also why they were able to accept the fact that they had just taken a human life without guilt whatsoever. In this world, where the lives of people were like grass, those who refused to fight would sooner or later be cut down.
As students who had enrolled in the academy, they were not oblivious to this concept. More than anyone else, they were faster to adapt because their environment required them to fight.
Although they were suffering right now, they were still better off compared to William who had experienced going to hell and back.
-----
James read Ezio's report with a calm expression.
He had ordered him to keep watch on William, Matthew, and Leah in the academy. Since the newlyweds were currently staying in the academy, Ezio deemed that there was no need to look after them and sneakily followed William and his subordinates.
Ezio was surprised that the first thing that the boy did after leaving the academy was to hunt down bandits. What surprised him the most was that the boy had meticulously picked targets that they were able to fight.
He didn't go towards the notorious bandit camps where strong fighters congregated. Instead, he picked weaker camps that could be taken down with the current forces at his disposal. This action made Ezio recognize that William had grown from the experiences he had encountered in the past four years of his training.
Ezio had written all of this in the letter he had sent his Lord as he continued to monitor William's movements.
James knew that aside from gathering resources, William was also training the students how to take human lives in preparation for the war that might happen a few months from now.
He figured that his grandson wanted to create an Elite Unit that wouldn't shy away from taking the lives of others when they headed deeper in the enemy's formation. Even so, he was still worried that his grandson would do something reckless and bite off more than he could chew.
"Damian, Gideon, come here," James ordered.
"You called for us, Boss?"
"Is it our turn to shine?"
Two men standing two meters tall with sturdy bodies appeared in front of James with a grin.
"My grandson is currently clearing out some bandits in the Southern Part of the Hellan Kingdom," James explained. "Make sure the old salamander doesn't make a move on him. That old bastard still holds a grudge against me and he might vent it out on William. Make sure that he doesn't go too far."
"The South?" Gideon tilted his head. "You mean THAT South?"
"The South where that Grumpy Old Lunatic is staying?" Damian asked.
James smiled and nodded his head. "William has wandered into his territory. I want the two of you to bail him out if HE does something unnecessary."
Damian and Gideon glanced at each other. Although they were confident in their strength, the person they were going to deal with was one tough cookie.
Afterall, it was none other than James' nemesis, and the sole Sword Saint of the Hellan Kingdom, Aramis Bran Caliburn.