"Max, what's happening up there?" Mia's voice breaks Max out of his dazed state.

"It's safe, come up here." Max turns around and says.

The two begin ascending up the ladder and they get on top of the docks.

"Whoa," Mia exclaims at the sight.

"It's so… amazing," Beth says.

"Yeah." Max agrees.

They stand there for a minute to take all this in. Stratford island is all they knew growing up. The mainland is literally a new world to them.

"Okay, let's get moving. We don't want to stay too close to the ship." Max says after regaining his composure.

"Alright." The two reply.

They go off the docks onto the road and start walking along the port away from the ship.

The people seem to be speaking the same language, but their conduct and apparel are different from those on Max's island. Their clothes vary a lot. Some people are wearing very expensive suits and dresses while others can barely cover themselves in their ragged cloth. Most of them are armed with their weapons on display. Max and the others are wearing simple robes, so they are not doing too bad in terms of blending in.

One odd thing that Max notices is that the people walking around on the streets on average are much less attractive than what Max remembers seeing on Stratford Island.

It makes sense to Max after he thinks about it. The residents on the island are from a very isolated gene pool created by the noble knights of the past. Max's guess is proven right when he sees the other people catching glances at the three of them.

"Why is everyone looking at us?" Mia asks.

Max doesn't want to just say because she is cute, since that would make Mia hard to deal with, so he looks for another explanation.

"Probably because we are all drenched," Max says.

He is right. Water is dripping down from their clothes as they walk along the port, but that is clearly not the real reason. A bunch of sailors is walking around with wet clothes, but they are not getting any of the glares like them. Mia doesn't seem to realize.

"Right."

"Where are you going?" Beth doesn't care about the attention they are getting.

"It's best for us to not be seen in public for too long. Uncle Joseph told me about inns, where a tourist can have a place to sleep." Max replies.

"That's pretty convenient," Beth says.

"Yeah, but the problem is that I don't know where to find one, so let's just walk around and look for someone we might be able to ask."

"Okay."

They have now walked some distance from the ship, so Max begins to relax a little. Everything has worked out almost perfectly so far, so he decides to stop stressing about anything and just enjoy the outside world he has wanted to see for so long.

"Let go of me, you know you won't get away with it!" A muffled voice of a child comes from the inside of a small boat right beside them.

The voice catches their attention.

"Someone please shut that bitch up." This time, it's a deep and annoyed voice of a man from the same boat.

Beth and Mia look at Max. Their eyes clearly show that they want to do something about it. Max shakes his head.

"Let's not get mixed up with something shady on our first day," Max says.

The girls look reluctant, but they seem to understand their situation.

"You will be sure to shut up after what we will do with you." Another man in the boat says smugly.

Hearing that, Beth grabs onto Max's shoulders.

"Max, t-they are going to…" Beth is now flustered.

Max is surprised by Beth's sudden reaction. There wasn't anything criminal like that in Stratford Town, but they can still figure out what is going on. Max turns to Mia, who looks to be on Beth's side.

"We should do something about it," Mia says with concern.

Max doesn't really care what happens to the kid, but seeing how determined Beth and Mia are, he has no choice but to cave in.

"Fine, but you two stay here, I will check it out alone," Max says and places his hand on the handle of his sword under his robe

"Are you sure?" Beth asks.

"I was the best of the academy, don't forget that." Max smiles and turns around to the boat.

Max doesn't know the situation regarding combat on the mainland. He and Beth have been trained relentlessly on the island, but almost everyone is armed here as well. He just hopes that whatever happens doesn't get too out of hand.

He jumps onto the dock and runs toward the boat. It's a much smaller one than the one that got him here. The one in front of him is more like a large fishing boat than one used for transportation. He leaps across the water and lands on the deck of the ship, which causes the boat to rock.

"What was that?!" The men inside the cabin notice Max's presence.

Max doesn't give them a chance to react and kicks the door to the cabin open.

Inside there are 5 big men holding weapons dressed like bandits described in history books Mia told Max about. They stand surrounding a tied-up boy around Mia's age with a comically big hat. He is dressed in a pretty typical fashion. There is nothing special about this person that could cause someone to be kidnapped, but the men are clearly professionals, so they must have wanted something.

They freeze at Max's entrance.

"What is going on here?" Max asks calmly.

"Haha, I actually got scared for a second. I can't believe it's just some random brat." The one that looks to be their leader laughs and the others copy him.

Max grips his sword hard, ready to unsheath any moment.

"Even though you are just some stupid kid, we can't let you live after you've seen this." Their leader continues with a wicked smile.

"Boss, can I have some fun with this kid?" Another bandit speaks up half chuckling.

"He's all yours. Just don't get too messy like you always do. Blood is hard to clean off of wood, you know." The others laugh even harder at the leader's remark.

The kid in the middle opens his eyes wide in fear. He looks like he is trying to tell Max to run away with the restricted waving of his tied hands.

Understanding that things are now already out of hand, Max sighs. He examined the bandits the second he saw them. Their weapons are not maintained properly. The bandits' combat stances are amateur at best. They pose no threat to the experienced swordsman that Max is.

The bandit walks toward Max with no sign of defense. He raises his sword high up slowly, completely exposing his front side to Max.

It's like practicing with a wooden dummy, Max thinks.

"Get ready to die." The bandit says coldly and begins to swing his sword downwards at Max.

The tied-up boy shuts his eyes tight.

At an instant almost too fast to be captured by the human eye, Max takes his stance and unsheathes his weapon. He swings his decorated broadsword steadily across the air at a speed many times faster than the incoming blade. Before the Bandit can even get close to Max with his sword, blood begins squirting out of his throat and shooting into the air. The bandit coughs and gurgles but continues his swing, which Max dodges with ease.

The bandit drops his sword after his attack misses and covers his throat with his hands in an attempt to stop the bleeding to no avail. His eyes are so wide they look like they are about to pop out any second.

Max rests his sword to the side, which isn't even stained with blood, since the cut happened so fast blood couldn't even touch the blade. Then he gives the bandit a kick and he falls flat on his back with a slam. Blood continues to spill out and creates a pool beside his head.

The whole incident happened within less than 2 seconds. The room falls to complete silence at an instant. The other bandits have not yet even reacted. They just stare in disbelief. Noticing that the laughter has stopped, the kidnapped boy slowly opens his eyes. At the sight of the bandit lying on the ground dead in a pool of blood, he looks at Max with surprise in his eyes.

"Looks like you guys aren't up for a talk," Max says completely emotionlessly.

That was the first person to die at Max's hands, and yet he doesn't even bat an eye. He sees these bandits as inferiors, beings undeserving of empathy.

The other bandits seem to have now returned to reality.

"Y-You stupid brat, you will pay for this!" The bandit leader yells in lividity and raises his cutlass sword.

The leader rushes toward Max and his comrades follow behind him. Max lifts his sword back up and resumes his stance. The bandits begin swinging their swords at him one by one. Max doesn't even bother to block their attacks, he just steps side to side and avoids all of their slashes.

Tired of the slow and boring charges, Max begins his counterattack. He dashes forward and with one swift swing, two bandits drop dead while choking on their own blood. Then he kicks off of the wall and backflips back to another bandit, kicking on the head on his way down. The bandit bends over in pain. Immediately after he lands, Max spins around with his sword with such force that he decapitates the bandit. His head falls onto the floor and rolls toward the leader, who is the only one left.

Completely stunned by how his entire crew just died at the hands of a child, the leader drops his sword.

"P-Please spare me, I am sorry for what I did. Take the kid with you, just please don't kill me." The bandit leader drops onto his knees and pleads.

Max side-eyes at his pathetic opponent with disgust. With no hesitation, he pierces his blade through the bandit's throat and pulls it out. Max watches him fall over as life disappears from the bandit's eyes.

Realizing the fight is already over, Max sheaths his sword and walks over to the tied boy on the other side of the room.

The boy still hasn't fully understood the fact that he has just been rescued. He stares at Max in fear as he approaches.

"Calm down, you are safe now." Max distinguishes the killing intent in his eyes and says with a gentle tone, absolutely ignorant of the pile of dead bodies behind him that he has just created a second ago.

"A-Are you going to hurt me…?" The boy says frightfully.

"What? No, I am here to save you." 

Now that Max has gotten a closer look, he notices that the boy is really good-looking in a feminine way, even more so than some of the people on Stratford Island. He is wearing a large beret hat covering his hair. His clothes are more sophisticated on a closer inspection.

"Who are you and why did you save me?"

"Don't sweat about the details, let's leave this place. We will talk more later." Max says as he bends down to cut the rope restraining the boy.

After he is freed, Max offers him a hand. The boy hesitates for a moment and looks into Max's eyes, then he takes Max's hand and stands up.

Max begins walking toward the door and crosses the pool of blood like it is nothing, but walking past dead bodies clearly bothers the boy as he is actively trying to look away.

Soon, they got onto the deck. From there Max can see Beth and Mia waiting on the docks. Their faces light up when they see Max walking out of the boat and rush over to them.

"Max, are you okay?" Mia asks in concern.

"Yeah, I am fine."

"What happened there?" Beth says.

"Not much, just some bandits. I took care of them pretty easily, though."

"And this is?" Mia points to the boy who Max brought out beside him.

Max turns to the boy who is still a little shaken up, expecting him to make an introduction. The boy seems to have caught on.

"Oh, right. My name is Chloe, thanks for saving me back there." He says as he reaches for his hat and begins a bow.

"Chloe? Isn't th-" Max is surprised at the sound of the female name.

Before he can finish his question, long, silky hair flows out from Chloe's hat. Her hair has a very distinctive, fiery red color, and it extends down to Chloe's waist.

"Y-You are a girl?" Max says in surprise.