I moved over to the man and helped heal him. My hands glowed as I held them over his wound. As the wound started to heal, he made a noise of surprise.

“Thank you!” He said, and then made a bitter face. “Those men on the wall wouldn’t heal me at all! They said that unless I was going to fight with them, I should just go cower inside the walls! I’m no coward, but I’m just a Merchant Guard! Who said I had to give my life to secure an entire city?”

“You are a coward!” A man in the corner snorted. “Probably left the merchant and his wagons to be sacked by the bandits!”

“As a result, I reached the city gates in time to warn them about the approaching army!” The man shot back.

Of course, he didn’t deny the accusation at all. This only showed as proof that he likely did abandon the merchant as charged.

“And let me guess, you were hoping she’d be around to heal you?” The bartender snorted.historical

“That doesn’t matter now.” The man shook his head, “You guys didn’t see the size. It’s definitely the Bandit King, and you all know what they want. If a bunch of us grouped together and leave now, we can probably slip through before they finish enclosing the city. This is our chance to get out.. who is with me?”

Most of the people in the bar, even the maids, were looking at this man quite rudely. A few of them spat on the floor. I really wished they wouldn’t do that. I wasn’t the one who had to wash the floor, but I certainly felt sympathy for them. As for this man who was cowardly, I was less sympathetic. Admittedly, I wasn’t much different when it came to fear, but I knew you had to stick with the crowd if you wanted to survive. Strength in numbers or something like that.

“You’re seriously all going to choose to die? For her? Just because she healed a couple of us?” The man shook his head in disbelief.

“I think you should get out of my inn, friend.” The bartender spoke darkly.

The injured man’s eyes suddenly turned to me. “You, stranger, you’ll come with me, right? I don’t even live in this city, and neither do you. These people all want to risk their lives for a pretty face. They know what the Bandit King wants, but they don’t want to give her to them. I’ll help protect you. I just ask that you heal me.”

“Ah..” I hated being put on the spot all of a sudden. “Actually, I’m still just relaxing. I haven’t decided one way or another.”

It wasn’t like I was being willfully brave or anything. I just thought that a mad dash was rather inconvenient and I had a feeling this guy would abandon me in a heartbeat if the going got tough.

I had already had an encounter with these bandits, and I felt like they were steadily becoming troublesome and I might have to do something about it. Besides, this posed no risk to me. If push came to shove, I could always portal back to Chalm and be perfectly safe. At least, for now, I was interested in finding out a bit more about what was happening here.

“Get out of my inn!” The innkeeper insisted to the man after it was clear I wasn’t going to join him.

“You’re crazy! All of you are crazy!” The man turned and fled the inn followed by a group of angry stares.

“Stranger..” The bartender turned to us. “Thank you for staying out of that.. and healing that man too. A second healer would be good in the upcoming fight. I’m glad you decided to stay, but I’m curious as to why you did so at your own risk?”

I didn’t want to sound pompous by saying something like I was in no real danger and I was just curious, but as soon as I opened my mouth, Miki spoke first.

“Isn’t it because Master heard there is a pretty girl?”

Miki smirked mischievously while Lydia and Celeste looked at me tearfully. Was it my imagination, or were their looks asking whether I felt the three of them weren’t enough? I drank the last of my beer. It looked like there were no more rubs for Deek tonight.