Everyone saw with surprise as the guard brought the bandit to Joshua. The minute he got near him, the leader of the bandits started cursing him out loud.
"I knew it! I knew you had a master, but you hid him! You sneaky bastard!" The leader started shouting.
The head guard smacked him with his foot to shut him up. None of the people understood what he was talking about.
"What is he saying? What master?" Joshua asked the head guard.
"Well, to be honest, we weren't supposed to win this battle. They had a large number of people and would be able to swarm our guards. But for some reason that didn't happen. We found a lot of bodies across a 50-meter radius of this place. We think that they were killed before they even got to us." He said.
"On top of that, a lot of the 1st Circle Aura Knights were killed mysteriously. The people who were attacking me alongside their leader weren't killed by any of the guards nor me, yet they mysteriously fell to the ground helping me greatly."
Just as he was saying this, Leo walked back to the camp after catching the last bandit who tried to run away. He saw that everyone was gathered together and walked to join them.
The minute he entered the camp, everyone's eyes turned to him. None of the members in the encirclement remembered him being with them during the battle. No one knew where he went during the entire time.
Their eyes turned to the dagger in his hands that was drenched in blood. Leo saw this and looked down at his weapon which was dripping blood on the ground. He quickly leaned down and grabbed the shirt of one of the bandits on the floor and wiped his dagger.
He then walked slowly toward everyone who was still looking at him. After a minute of awkward silence, he decided to break it by asking a question.
"Is anything.... wrong?" Leo asked.
Joshua took a huge breath. "Leo, right?"
He nodded.
"Were you the one who helped us during the battle?"Joshua asked.
Leo shrugged. "I helped a little. But the head guard did most of the work. He was the one who caught the leader of the bandits."
Leo didn't want to take any of the credit. He wanted the head guard to get it because he was kind to him from the start of the trip. He was the one who offered Leo the food on the first night.
The head guard shook his head. "Well, I'll be damned. If such a young man is this strong then the next generation will truly out shadow us."
Everyone suddenly crowded around Leo, the person who changed the course of the battle. He was quickly overwhelmed by this. He didn't think they would be this grateful to him for just getting rid of the smaller bandits.
What he didn't comprehend was exactly what everyone there was feeling. Since he knew nothing would happen to him, he didn't feel any fear. But everyone else here thought that they were going to die.
He somehow escaped thanks to the help of Joshua. "Stop crowding him. We still have to rest to start our journey tomorrow. Go get rest." He told everyone.
Everyone tried to do that, but with dead bodies everywhere they didn't get an ounce of sleep. Everyone was restless.
While everyone was stuck in their tents, the guards were cleaning up the bodies and managing their new prisoners. They had chained them with ropes which seemed like they weren't going to be enough to imprison Aura Knights but did the job. They were a special kind of rope.
Leo didn't need any rest so he decided to help them clean up the scene. They piled the bodies up to light up a fire. They didn't start the fire yet since it was still the night. The smoke would make it difficult to breathe and the fire would attract unnecessary visitors.
The clean-up only took two hours. After that, most of the guards got some rest while only two stayed awake to stay guard. It wasn't that they were being lax. They just needed the energy to guard the caravan during the day as well.
Leo was leaning on his horse. Surprisingly, none of the horses were hurt or scared during the entire affair. They stayed in their corner without any problem.
The rest of the night passed peacefully. But since their rest was disturbed, they were all very tired when they started traveling again. When they did, Madison immediately went to Leo to ask him about what happened.
"You never told me that you were an Aura Knight!" She said. She was very shocked that he hadn't told her yet.
Leo smiled. "You never asked." He said in response.
"Well... I told you that I was trying to become one. And I also said that I was trying to join an Aura Knight Academy. You were supposed to share that about yourself." She said.
"Okay. I'm a 1st Circle Aura Knight. I am planning on joining the Eldridge Aura Knight Academy." He said.
"No, dummy. I meant about yourself. You don't have to replicate what I said." Madison said.
Leo chuckled. "But I do want to join the academy." He said.
Madison was shocked. "But... you have to be 15 years old or younger to join the academy. You are already a 1st Circle Aura Knight who can beat so many Aura Knights." She was stuttering in shock.
"I'm 14 though," he answered.
"My father's workers said that you killed Middle-Stage 1st Circle Aura Knights with a single attack. If you are already a Middle-Stage 1st Circle Aura Knight, then how are you this young?" She asked. She started doubting herself.
Even though he couldn't read her mind, he could read her expression. He knew that she was doubting herself. He decided to console her.
"You don't have to worry. As long as you practice, you can easily get to where I am. For the past 6 months, I trained for more than 10 hours every day." Leo said.
His sentence was a beautiful lie filled with truths. He had indeed spent more than 10 hours every day practicing for the last 6 months. Heck. For the last two months, he hadn't spared a minute for rest. But very less of that was actually toward Aura training.
And also, he failed to mention that he also only started training Aura a couple of months ago and that he only trained for a couple of weeks. These omissions made the lie more believable though. Madison bought it.
"Okay. Then what should I do to reach the stage where you are at now?" She asked him.
He thought for a while and remembered how she said she was going to train for the next few months. He decided to give her some inspiration.
"If you practice your aura for 5 hours and your aura techniques for 5 hours a day, then you can reach my current level in 3 months. But if you spend more time than that, while giving yourself enough rest, then you can even cross me." He said.
