Yaku left the village on foot as he doesn't have any money to buy a horse, walking on a dirt road singing,
"Oh the south, oh the south, don't go to the south, poors and illness aplenty, ohhh the south, oh the south."
It's a song made by nobles to make fun of southerners, but even people in the south sing it because it holds no lies.
Yaku keeps on walking and singing for hours until he trips on a rock, which makes him fall face first, shutting him up. He rolls around and lays there looking at the sky, thinking of when he will reach the Round City of Bagio. And as he's deep in thought, a carriage with a horse pulling it stops.
"HEY BOY, MOVE AWAY! WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD?" screams an old man.
Yaku immediately gets up and looks at the old man like he's going to request something.
"Hahaha, you don't need to say a word. Come on, sit next to me. I need someone to talk to me while I head to Bagio anyway," says the old man.
Yaku jumps of joy and sits next to the old man.
"My name is Yaku. What's your name, old geezer?" asks Yaku.
"Don't call me a geezer! What happened to manners these days? Hahahaha, my name is Bone," Bone responds.
"Bone?? Who names their child Bone? Hahahaha," exclaims Yaku.
"My old man was a hunter, and when my mother gave birth to me, he remembered all the animal bones he'd sell, so he named me that. Hahahaha," Bone answers.
Bone and Yaku keep on talking about their lives and what the Round City looks like until night falls, so they decide to make a camp and sleep for the night. As Yaku is fast asleep snoring, the old man Bone looks at him with a big smile. Yaku reminded him of his dead son. He died fighting a war between two lords, and the family was compensated with just a bunch of bread.
As it gets late, even Bone gets tired and falls asleep without noticing. Yaku wakes up to the sound of fighting.
"Yaku, wake up! It's bandits!" screams Bone.
Yaku immediately reaches for his sword, but it's gone. It's two bandits that ran into their camp by chance.
One of them is holding the old man to the ground with a knife to his throat, and the other is holding Yaku's sword on top of him, threatening Yaku not to move.
"I told you to give us everything valuable you have!" screams the bandit.
Yaku doesn't know what to do. If he tries anything, the old man could be killed. Yaku holds his hands up.
"Okay, okay, we have a hidden carriage not far from here. I'll guide you to it," he tells them.
The bandits lick their lips with a greedy smile on their face.
"Yes boy, take us there and we'll let you live," answers the bandit with Yaku's sword.
Yaku gets up and starts walking slowly with the bandit's sword right up to his back, poking it. Yaku keeps on walking slowly and waiting for his chance, and once they're away from the other bandit, Yaku immediately squats and leg sweeps the bandit, making him fall and immediately disarming him. The other bandit hears the noise and lets the old man go to help, but the old man holds on to him and tries to choke him from the back.
Yaku hears the fighting and starts to run back as soon as he knocks the bandit out, and when he reaches their camp he sees the bandit with his knife lodged inside Bone's stomach.
"NOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Yaku screams.
The bandit takes the knife out, and the old man immediately falls to his knees and puts his hand on his wound. The bandit gets ready to fight Yaku, but Yaku is now enraged. His eyes shine blue for a moment, then his sword starts chirping like a bird. He has put all his mana into his sword all at once—something he's never done before—and before the bandit even moves a muscle, Yaku is already in front of him. Yaku looks at the bandit with blood-lusted eyes and grits his teeth.
"AHHHH YOU WILL PAY!" Yaku screams as he splits the bandit in half. The mana sword was so sharp and fast, the bandit was cut in half in less than an eye blink.
Yaku falls to one knee with his entire mana reserve depleted. The old man on the ground with his hand on his wound looks at Yaku with disbelief.
"Y...Yaku?" he says with a tired voice.
Yaku lifts his head up and looks at the terrified old man.
"Huff... huff... I'm glad you're still alive. Let's wrap this wound and try to look for a priest or any healer," Yaku says while barely being able to walk. Yaku patches the old man up. It takes a while since Yaku is working with blurry vision and total mana depletion.
"I think he didn't hit any vital areas. If we find a healer, I think I'll be alright. But Yaku, what was that?" asks the old man while wincing from pain.
"I... I don't know," Yaku answers and immediately lays on the ground breathing heavily.
"I need to recover my mana. I'm going to try to meditate. If the bandit I knocked out shows up, please tell me," Yaku asks Bone.
The knocked-out bandit woke up but decided to run away, so there was no more danger. Three hours later, morning came. Bone had been sleeping from exhaustion from the wound, and so was Yaku. Yaku got woken up by the chirping of birds. His mana is recovering nicely. He helps the old man lay in the back of the carriage until they find someone to help him, and on the road, Yaku spots a side road leading to something inside the forest.