An hour down the road, Seren caught sight of the bandits. Half a dozen ruffians littered the road, and with only one horse between them, it was clear they were not travelers. Two of the men were trying to calm the mare as it squealed and kicked in an attempt to bolt from them. The others stood with wooden clubs, ready to intimidate the young man on the donkey cart. Seren sat upright and widened his noble eye, he wasn't sure how he should act but he had heard a lot of nobles thought very little of the commonfolk. With that in mind he tried to ignore the men and pass by them. "Hey!" shouted the man in front, "You need to pay the toll or -" catching sight of Seren's bright eye, the man grabbed those nearest him and dragged them to their knees. "I'm sorry, sir, my mistake" he said, as Seren prepared to continue on his way.

At the side of the road the panicked horse was getting out of control. One of the kneeling men stood and walked over with his club, trying to swing it at the frightened mare. "The donkey would have made an easier meal" he said, motioning to Seren's Little Brother, "With this one we might have to kill it first then drag it back to camp..." In his years working at the inn's stable, Seren had never ridden a horse, and yet he'd taken care of so many, often talking to them and stroking their manes as they fed. He stopped the cart, wanting to see how far his noble eye could take him.

Seren would not begrudge a man for wanting to eat, but he couldn't bear to see the stolen mare in such distress. Stepping down from the cart, Seren walked over to the horse and shooed the men away dismissively from his path. He took the reins in his hand and the horse seemed to calm for a moment. The bandits marveled at the noble's control of the beast. Letting go of the reins, Seren slapped the horse hard on the flank and it bolted off in the direction of its former rider. While one of the bandits ran after it, another forgot himself and pushed the young noble who had just deprived them of their meal. "You bastard!" shouted the bandit, as he swung for him again. His friend tried to hold him back, but then the leader seemed to notice something...

"Say, noble" said the leader, "why didn't you fight back when Arl pushed you just now..? Power's out?" The leader came closer to Seren, who was starting to realize he should have left when he had the chance. "I've never met a noble that wouldn't kill for less than that..!" The courage of the bandits grew; if this noble was drained and couldn't fight, out here on the Road to Famine he was no better than the commonfolk. Seren suddenly became a target again, ripe for the picking. The men closed in with their clubs in hand, almost certain they could take him, but keeping out of shocking distance just in case. The leader poked at him with his wooden club, "We would have let you leave after taking your stuff" he said, "but on account of you being a noble and all, we can't risk you coming back here once you're all charged up..."

Seren steeled himself to fight back as best as he could, hoping to disarm at least one of the men, when he heard the thunderous sound of hooves racing closer. In a second of stupidity, Seren thought the mare had come back to save him, but these hooves were at least a dozen in number and gaining ground on the bandit gang. The men with clubs tried to hide Seren from view of the riders, but it was too late; the shimmering blue spark of Seren's eye had attracted the attention of the man riding at the front of the group. "Whoa!" he cried as his horse came to a stop, followed by those of his companions. The bandits started to panic and laid down their weapons, it was not just one, but now four nobles they had to fear.

A tall man, sun-baked and dirtied from his journey, swept back his long, dark, sweat-soaked hair to reveal a dazzling gold light shining in his eyes. The bandit leader lay prostrate on the floor before him and begged, "Please noble sir! Forgive the sins of this fool and the sins of his brothers!" The bandits quickly followed suit, lying on the dirt road and pleading for forgiveness. The tall noble crouched before them. "You're asking the wrong person" he said, before motioning with his chin towards Seren, "it's up to him how we deal with you."

Seren was staring open-mouthed at the new arrivals. It was the first time he'd seen a proper noble, and their powerful auras were unmistakably bright. So this is the energy of a real noble?  he thought.The spell was broken when the bandits started clawing at his feet, asking him to spare their wretched lives. Seren looked down at the commonfolk men, they seemed so weak now in the shadow of the nobles. "Well?" asked the tall man. Seren bent down and removed the bandits' hands from his clothes, as the bandit leader broke into sobs, "Please sir, I'm sorry... we, we do what we must so we might live... we only wanted to live, sir!" Seren put his hand on the leader's shoulder, "I understand" he told him, the tall man watching them closely, "I'll be going now."

Seren walked away from the dumbfounded bandits under the bemused, glowing gaze of the tall noble. He took out a sack of potatoes from his donkey cart and handed them to the bandit leader along with a small, hemp pouch; "Sand carrot seeds, they can grow almost anywhere... if you want to live, at least try living well." Taking his seat on the cart, Seren nodded his gratitude to the nobles and prompted Little Brother to move, his heart was beating fast with nerves and excitement. The tall noble laughed at the unexpected scene he'd witnessed, and mounted his horse. Seren's entire body was tense from the strange encounter, clutching the reins tightly as he drove, he realized the noble riders had not passed him. Slowly turning his head, Seren looked back and saw the three horsemen trotting behind the donkey cart.

Catching his eye, the tall noble called out to him, "Let us escort you... the road is far from safe." Seren cursed under his breath before smiling politely and signaling for the riders to continue on without him. The tall noble took the opportunity to ride alongside the donkey cart instead, putting some distance between himself and his companions. "Where are you coming from?" asked the noble. Seren knew very little about nobles in reality, but of the few things Kaio had hastily taught him, one thing he remembered was that every noble child was registered somewhere in the Empire. In other words, an unregistered child like Seren was strictly forbidden. "I... I'd rather not say" he answered, hoping to avoid the discovery of his noble ignorance.

"You can't have been coming from the capital... so... Stelion? Abunrom?" guessed the noble, "Hm... abroad, perhaps?" Seren remained silent and prayed to Lunis that the nobles would quickly take their leave. From behind the donkey cart, one of the other riders called out impatiently, "Master! We really should make haste!" Seren felt relief, but it was only momentary, the tall noble dismissed his servant with a wave and continued to match the speed of Seren's cart. "Are you injured?" asked the man, pointing to Seren's eyepatch, "Were you in a fight? Suffering spark fatigue..?" the noble was making every effort to start a conversation but Seren was too terrified to answer, for fear he would reveal too much of himself. "You were about to be beaten by those commonfolk... so spark fatigue for sure... but why did you just let them off like that? Why didn't you ask us to punish them?" To this, Seren finally felt he could speak. "Because... they're just trying to survive. Who am I to punish them for that?"

The tall noble was overjoyed that Seren had responded, "That's a good question," he said, "who are you? I'm curious... Can you tell me your name? Your family name perhaps?" Seren was treading dangerous ground, he didn't know how nobles named themselves so he couldn't think of what to say. He still had so many questions for his mother. "I cannot tell you that" said Seren, in half-truthfulness. He was sure Adalina must have had a noble name, but he certainly did not know it. The tall noble's companions were getting restless, trying in vain to catch their master's attention, but all the while his sights were fixed on Seren, determined as he was to find out something of the strange blonde boy before they could part with him.

"Where are you headed?" asked the noble. The Road to Famine led to one undeniable location, "The Drybrush Plains" said Seren earnestly. The noble felt this boy was provoking him, "Where in the Drybrush Plains are you headed? And... bear in mind, if you fail to answer I will simply follow you there!" "Master!" cried the noble servant to the rear, desperate to press on with their journey. Seren was left with little choice, he didn't know the villages of the Plains by name and the difficult questions would continue if he failed to answer. It seemed better to satisfy the man's curiosity and escape his scrutiny. "I am going to Ruel Moss's farm" he told him.

"Ruel Moss's farm...?" the noble sounded each word clearly back to him. Seren nodded his head, and with that, the noble smiled widely, a flash of gold blazing in his dark eyes, "I'll be seeing you then!" he shouted as he sped away up the road, his servants quickly following and calling after their master. Seren was suddenly alone, and the tension in his body evaporated with the diminishing sounds of the nobles' horses. He slumped in his seat and stopped the cart. "Fuck" he said, "Little Brother, what the fuck just happened?"

Further along the Road to Famine, the noble servants had caught up with their master. "Master! We can't afford to waste time like that, we must return to the Northern Faction at once!" Lord Rhenac brushed off his valet's caution, "Whenever we arrive my grandfather will still be dead, Palel. Isn't it better that we do our bit to save the living?" Palel scoffed at his master, "What part of saving him involved riding alongside him for so long?" Rhenac laughed amiably and patted his servant on the back with some force, "Do you begrudge me making a friend, Palel?" Palel grumbled, "A royalist friend no doubt... yes I begrudge you for for that!" The third rider had remained silent throughout this exchange but pricked up his ears at the mention of a royalist. "So it was a diplomatic mission?" asked Captain Lutel, "In that case, Palel, we're ahead of schedule." Palel huffed and rode on ahead, leaving the two friends trailing behind him.

"Lutel, have you heard of Ruel Moss's farm..?" The Captain shook his head. "Could be a newcomer... or a commonfolk, we haven't been north in a long time. I'll ask the men when we arrive, and find out if anyone's heard of it. Unless..." "Unless what?" asked Lord Rhenac. "Well" said the Captain, "He could have been lying." Rhenac seemed baffled by the prospect and flashed a conceited smile as if to challenge such a ridiculous thought. "Why would he lie?" he asked his friend. Captain Lutel looked over his arrogant companion, "We've been travelling non-stop for, what, a week now?" Rhenac mulled it over and agreed, "About that, and?" "And" continued Lutel, "You look like shit." Rhenac was struck with the sudden realization, "Why didn't you tell me?!" he called out, as his friend laughed fiendishly and raced onwards to join Palel.