A group of five guards led by an amicable middle-aged man arrived by the chubby young man’s side. Max glanced at five guards they were only comparable to the knights of Garfield family, they any weren’t threat to him but his eyes rested on the amicable middle-aged man who stood in front of him, he couldn’t feel how strong he was.
“Young man, did our young master offended you in any way?” He asked calmly.
Chubby man shouted from behind “I didn’t offend him uncle. I was just kicking that commoner out of the way when he suddenly almost broke my leg.”
The people around looked at the chubby man in disdain. It was clearly a normal kick only meant to block him from hitting the boy. How can he blame his own incompetence on him? But they didn’t said anything, they wouldn’t mind watching a show for free. Moreover, they knew that almost everyone here had significant backgrounds so they didn’t want to offend either side.
The amicable middle-aged man didn’t seem to listen the chubby guy’s shot and stared at Max, a slight smile never leaving his lips. Max didn’t know what this man wanted and because he couldn’t judge how strong he was so he answered.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Oh, he didn’t. Good.” The man nodded. “Do you know this young man here?” He pointed to the boy who was still kneeling.
Max vaguely understood what this man was trying to do. He wanted to apply the invisible pressure of being wrong and then take action so that he would hesitate, making his attack more effective. This meant that the man felt that Max was equally strong to him. Max felt amused at his antics and shook his head “No, I don’t.”
“So you hit my young master because he wanted to hit someone who has nothing to do with you. Is that right?” The asked again and slowly stimulated his mana but there was no ripple in his voice or expression.
Max didn’t bother to speak and just nodded. The man smiled slightly thinking that Max was being suppressed and started to feel fear.
He then continued “So that’s to say if I were to hit that boy, you would also hit me. Isn’t that right?” He thought that Max would refuse and apologise which would show their dominance but Max’s reply shattered his fantasy.
Max nodded “Yeah, do you wanna try me?”
“Huh?” The man seemed genuinely surprised. The chubby man was even more shocked. He knew his uncle’s tricks. He would make other party feel that they were in the wrong so they would hesitate, giving him opportunity to attack freely. But his trick didn’t worked on Max.
The people around could also guess his intentions which wasn’t strange as if the reason was on your side, you can even kill the other party without fearing their retaliation. The royal family made this rule so that others would not abuse their power and get Scott free. If other party’s family wanted revenge, they just need to prove that they weren’t in the wrong and no one would blame them. People chuckled seeing his manipulative attempts failing with one sentence.
The man looked at him in silence for a while and smiled “No, I just wanted to know what happened here. I apologise on my young master’s behalf. He shouldn’t have kicked someone without reason.”
Max didn’t say anything seeing that the man back down. He looked at boy on the ground and then flicked a gold coin toward the guards “We three are going in. Keep the rest. Follow me kid.”𝔬𝑽𝓛xt.𝒞𝒐𝓜
Max entered the city with his driver following closely. The guards also didn’t stop them After all this was the boy’s turn to enter. So what if they allow two more to enter with him if they could extra 70 silver coins to themselves.
The boy looked at him surprise, disbelief, relief and joy. He was in disbelief because of the fact that someone dared to stop a noble from bullying him and even paid his entrance fee. He was grateful to him for this because if he didn’t help him, he would have lost this opportunity to join a academy and change his future. He quickly followed behind Max. He didn’t mind even if he wanted to use him as his servant in return of his help.
***
After entering the city, Max found the roads full of people. ‘They are right to not allow everyone enter or no matter how big this city is, there won’t be any room for normal activities.’
Just past the entrance gate, a temporary market was established by merchants, selling different kinds of things such as spell books, magic weapons, defensive artefacts, rare artefacts, medicines etc. There were merchant stalls on the both sides of the road with many people forming groups around them looking at things and buying them.
Max wasn’t in mood to buy anything after the tiring journey. He just wanted to find an inn to rest. Just then he saw a skinny girl around 12 or 13 years old came running to them. She wore cheap clothes but clean clothes with her hair tied in a ponytail. With her short hight and sparkling eyes she looked adorable.
She looked at three of them and seeing that Max was most handsome and noble looking she bowed to him and said “My lord, would you like a place to stay during your stay here. Our inn is very cheap compared to others and we provide very good service. Also, it’s very quiet there, No will disturb you. You can live without any disturbances of the city.”
“Okay lead the way.” Max nodded. Girl’s face blossomed with smile hearing him agree to stay at their inn. She happily nodded and led them to the outer area of the city.
After walking more than 20 minutes, they still didn’t reach their destination. Max frowned. He was already very tired by the long journey and now after walking a great distance they still didn’t seem to reach their destination.
Noticing Max frown, she panicked and said “Young master we are almost there.” She walked faster fearing that they would change their mind.
Max nodded and followed without saying anything. The boy and driver didn’t complain seeing Max silent.
After a while, they finally arrived in front of a old wooden house. There wasn’t any sign board either. Girl entered the house and yelled “Grandpa, we have customers.”