The bandits looked strong, they were armed and one of them was using a black wand, it was well crafted and had a green crystal on the end.
"Get out of the carriage," one bandit shouted.
Carl was laughing but obeyed. He and I were out of the carriage.
"Now give us everything of value."
"No."
"We're outnumbered and you have the nerve to say that?" The bandit approached Carl and pointed a knife at him, then came closer and put the knife to his neck. Carl just laughed.
"He looks like a pervert who takes pleasure in pain," said one of the thugs.
"I do, but not in my own pain."
"You've got a lot of guts, but I want to see if you're going to keep laughing like that," he tried to shove the knife into Carl's neck, but the Count moved too quickly, he used his right hand and squeezed the thug's hand, the force Carl used was so great that it tore the thug's hand to pieces, he managed to crush it.
The bandit started screaming and the others started attacking.
Carl was just playing with the bandits, at least that's what I thought when I saw how confident he was.
"Attack the others, but take it easy and don't kill any," he said as he put a collar on the bandit with the crushed hand.
I didn't want to fight, but I had no choice, I started attacking several at once, I used what I had learned with magic, but my attacks were weak, so I gave up on magic and started using spiritual energy and attacked the bandits using water. I drowned one, burned another and cut some. I mixed up the types of attacks so that I could get used to fighting again. But they weren't very effective, I was still too weak.
Carl looked at my attacks and remained silent, the bandits weren't approaching him, but me, because I was the only one attacking.
He intervened, used magic and made each one fall to the ground, he attacked one at a time, which left me impressed with his speed. It seemed faster than I remembered.
The movements he made seemed trained, they certainly weren't random. He always stayed in the library and avoided direct confrontations, so I was quite surprised by what I had seen.
I'd seen him fight a few times, but these moves were controlled so as not to cause too much damage and end up killing.
He put the collar on everyone and then used healing magic to healed all the bandits, including the man with the broken hand.
"Why did you do it?"
"I don't know, I just felt guilty."
I stared at him.
"I'm kidding, I just think it would be better if we handed them over like this."
"You're quite different," he wouldn't think twice about killing a human.
"Maybe so, or I've always been like that and I just haven't had any opportunity to show that side."
We stayed there for a while, Carl shared some of the food with the bandits and then we went back to the city of Vorth, there we went to the adventurers' guild, the bandits from the silver raven's group were being hunted and there was a big reward for whoever captured them.
The people stared at us, and when they realized it was the Count, they fell silent.
A muscular, tired-looking man. He was the leader of the guild.
"To what do I owe the honor of having someone like you in the guild?" He said slowly, it seemed that he respected the Count very much.
If this guild works the same way as the guilds in my world, perhaps Carl puts a lot of money into quests, so he is respected, or just his position makes people treat him that way. That's also a possibility.
"I want to register this boy as an adventurer," he said as he placed his right hand on top of my head.
"How old is he?"
"11, in less than a month he'll be 12."
"I'm sorry, but I can't register someone so young, adventurer work is too dangerous for a child, when he's 13 I can register him for small, safe missions."
"He needs to be an adventurer, that's the only way he'll get the reward for capturing some bandits from the Silver Crow group."
"What?" Several people said at once.
"He captured two and I captured the others, they're outside."
The guild leader went towards the door and looked at the ten men trapped in a cage. Yzi had a cage ready, when we arrived in the city we put all the bandits inside and then removed the collars with magic.
"How is that possible?" Sylas asked but then gave up on getting an answer.
My registration was accepted, but the amount of mana I have is so small that it's not even on my card, yet they agreed to register me as a mage. Carl preferred it that way, he wanted to put more emphasis on that than on me being a swordsman.
People were talking quietly about what had happened, Carl noticed and offered a free round of drinks to everyone in the guild, they accepted and thanked him.
The guild was quite large and was divided into four main parts, the first was the restaurant, which was right at the entrance, the second part was the market, which sold meat and other monster parts, as well as some items. The third part was the service desk and the quest wall. The fourth part was upstairs, where the guildmaster's office and a few rooms were located. The guild also functioned as an inn.
After a while, the attendant came in with a bag containing several gold coins; each of the bandits got 1 gold coin each. I didn't understand money in this world, and when I asked what I could buy with those coins, I was surprised. Because 1 gold coin paid for all the drink Carl offered and there were still a few silver coins left over as change.
Getting used to the price is necessary, but it's very confusing, the idea of metals being used in this way is something I can't understand.
"I need to get stronger, I'm weak to the point of being ashamed of my strength," I said as we headed for the mansion.
"Your body is still fragile, don't cover yourself up too much, I know how hard it is, but little by little you'll get used to it, and in time you'll be stronger. But, I admit, I miss the way I was, I don't like this human body and I don't think I'll ever get used to it."
He said laughing, but I could feel the disgust he was showing.