Heir Of Yggdrasil 14 Of Bandits And Merchants

A few days had pa.s.sed since Nerida had acquired her beast form. I had been leisurely growing tin, copper and iron ingots while trying to teach Nerida martial arts.

I found it to be unexpectedly difficult to teach someone how to fight without having a body myself.

But soon my attempts had to be postponed. Some of the villagers had seen armed men in the forest. These men, presumably bandits, were a real danger for the village.

Nerida hastily ordered all villagers to remain in the village for the following days. The few magi would take turns keeping watch with two able-bodied villagers.

I was expecting the bandits to first spy on the village and then attack during the night. But... they decided to just charge in during the middle of the day without even scouting ahead. There were 20 of them. Their weapons weren't well cared for, they looked like hoodlums to me.

"Hand over all your food and maybe we'll just leave."

Nerida stepped forward, followed by the magi and a few others.

"We don't wish for any conflict between us but we won't hand over our food. Please leave."

The bandits looked at each other and the entire group resumed their charge towards the village. The one who had made the ultimatum upfront.

"Beast mode!"

These were the last two words the bandit leader heard before his skull was smashed by a gray fist. Nerida had transformed and attacked without hesitation.

By the time the other bandits recovered from their shock Nerida had finished four more of them. They turned to flee as two more fell and took off as fast as they could. But how could they escape a superhuman like Nerida?

Yes, they should split up! My thoughts exactly.

Not the thoughts of those bandits though. They chose to cry and scream for help.
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Only a single bandit survived. Nerida had dragged him back for interrogation after killing the others.

"Why are you bandits here in the wilderness? There should be few people to rob out here."

"We didn't mean to come here. The king decided to expand into the wilderness and had a city built near the border. We were offered great rewards to pioneer into the wilderness but ultimately they just sent us out to scout without any provisions."

"Are there more of you in the vicinity?"

"Not anymore. Some of us went back to inform the city while we planned to raid you."

In conclusion there likely would be more of them coming here. Or so we thought.

The next week pa.s.sed without any disturbances. All our cautious behavior was wasted. On the eighth day, a figure appeared on the outskirts of the village.

A middle-aged man sitting on a horse cart. A merchant called Aldi hailing from the new city. He said he came for trading and claimed to know nothing of the scouts. His true purpose had likely been to gather information on this village.

That was until he caught a glance of me. More specifically, of what was hanging on my branches. He was a seasoned merchant no doubt. It only took him a second to discern that one of the ingot types was high purity iron.

"Is it a custom of yours to hang precious metals on some tree?"

He made a probing joke. Just that Nerida took it the wrong way. Aldi had unknowingly insinuated that I was just some soulless tree which to Nerida was an insult to her friend.

"HE grows those metals himself!"

Yup, she was mad. Thankfully, Aldi was quite perceptive and noticed his mistake.

"Apologies that was inconsiderate of me. But I have to ask, are you... is he willing to sell these metals?"

"Why don't you ask HIM yourself."

Nerida strode off at a furious pace. Aldi was left alone staring blankly for a moment. Then he seemed to get ahold of himself and approached me.

"Greetings... lord tree? May I ask for your name?"

A name! I must confess I had never thought about my name. Sure, I had a name in my previous world. But using it here... seemed inappropriate. I'd have to decide on a new, fitting name.

The waiting look Aldi gave me started to become uncomfortable. He probably thought I was evaluating whether he was worth telling him my name.

But here I was, still thinking of that very name.

Another minute pa.s.sed and I had finally decided.