Chapter 44 - 44. Overbearing
The sixth treatment went more smoothly than the others.
The advantage of having reached the level of a mage showed itself during the process as Noah was able to ignore almost completely the inhumane pain that he had to go through.
When his bedridden time was over, his Master abruptly sent him outside the mansion to complete missions.
"Getting the second rune might be difficult but I should be able to do it. For now, just focus on the missions that I give you."
That was what he said to Noah before sending him away.
Noah completed the usual tasks of defending villages from magical beasts' attacks or hunting them down when their packs became too large.
It was not much after he became 13 that a seemingly important mission was delivered to him.
It consisted of escorting a noble caravan from Mossgrove city to Lansay mansion.
Apparently, the Lansay family, a middle-size noble family, committed a crime against the Shosti family and as a punishment, added to a heavy monetary fee, they had to send their main descendant as a political hostage in Mossgrove city.
Now that the punishment ended, the descendant had to go back to his mansion, yet, he chose to set up an escort before starting his trip back.
'I feel that I'm getting myself into some political struggle, why would the main descendant need an escort otherwise?'
Noah was the only one from his mansion that took the mission but a group of soldiers and wanderers had already formed in front of the caravan of the Lansay family when he arrived.
He was wearing his usual tight black outfit with the two sabers sheathed on his back, and his hair was tied together in a simple ponytail.
As he moved toward the group, the soldiers looked in his direction and started to laugh and taunt him.
"What are you doing here little kid, are you lost?"
"Ehy look, those are some nice blades, why don't you lend them to your uncle here? I will give them back after the mission is over!"
"This mission should not be so bad since a kid showed up, hahaha! Look he is coming to us! Are you mad young boy?"
It took Noah one instant to understand what he had to do but he could not help to feel irritated by their words.
'Every fucking time! How is possible that weak people are always so stupid? I'm getting tired of being treated like a kid!'
He neared the soldiers while enduring their taunt and when he was in front of them he just put his hand in front of him in and handshake gesture.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Noah. I hope we can take care of each other."
Noah was smiling innocently and had a pure and clear tone of voice, he was the perfect image of innocence.
His words caused another rain of laughter from the soldiers' group while one of them returned his handshake.
"Don't worry little kid, we will take good care of you."
The soldier could almost not contain his laughter when he spoke those words, yet his face froze when he felt the pressure applied by Noah's grip.
CRACK!
The soldier fell on the ground with his broken hand still in Noah's hand and begged for mercy.
"AHHHHH, please, I was wrong. Please let me go, it hurts!"
The other soldiers were still laughing thinking it was some kind of performance from their friend to mock the kid, however, their expressions paled when they saw the state his hand was when Noah released him.
The hand was completely soft, it seemed that no bones were inside it.
Noah turned his gaze toward the soldiers and pointed at two of them.
"You and you, I believe you mocked me earlier. Come here, I need to congratulate with you."
He still had the same innocent smile as before but it only caused fear to appear in the eyes of the witnesses this time.
The two soldiers looked around them just to notice that the group was stepping away from them.
One of the two tried to apologize.
"Uhm, I am sorry, I didn't know my place."
Noah just shook his head and stated in a cold voice:
"Your hand or your life, your choice."
The other one got angry and unsheathed his sword, yelling loudly.
"If you think that I will be scared of you, you are mistaken. Come, take my life if you have the guts to!"
Noah shrugged his shoulders and moved toward the soldier with a calm expression.
At that moment, a burly man wearing a green robe with an emblem sewed on his left chest area jumped between them and faced Noah.
"Stop making all this noise before we start the selection for the escort or you will have to face me!"
The soldier with the sword in his hand relaxed seeing the man from the Lansay family and lowered his sword but then he felt his vision spinning and then descending into darkness.
These were the last things he saw.
Noah was beside his headless corpse with his hand raised in the direction of the remaining soldier.
The man from the Lansay family felt cold sweat running down his spine when Noah completely disappeared from his field of view only to reappear behind him.
The remaining soldier was scared stiff but after some seconds, he managed to place his hand inside Noah's one.
CRACK!
He fell on the ground with the bones in his left hand broken but uttered no sound, he was too scared of enraging the monstrous kid in front of him.
All the presents gulped and swore to themselves to never look Noah in the eyes in the days to come.
Noah went in front of the burly man still petrified on the spot and asked smiling:
"I'm sorry, were you saying?"
Before the man could answer though, a voice sounded from the caravan and another man donned in the robes of the Lansay family appeared.
"You must be the envoy from the Balvan family, William could have not chosen a better disciple. I'm Kevin Lam, head of the guards of the Lansay family, I hope you can accept my excuses for the bad behavior of my man."
Kevin was the most brawny man Noah had ever seen, he was more than two meters tall and his arms were almost as large as a man's waist.
Noah felt a faint sense of danger coming from him so he chose to stop to his overbearing attitude.
He lightly bowed and said in a cool voice.
"If it is Mister Lam's request, of course I will accept them."