The Bandits' Ambush

Ye Wei'an woke with a splitting headache.

His mind was foggy, as if he were trapped in thick mud.

After struggling to come around, the first thing he felt was a sharp pain in the back of his head, followed by something soft and warm.

His vision slowly cleared. The first thing he saw was a canopy decorated with dark patterns.

The air was filled with the smell of wood and leather, along with a faint, delicate fragrance.

His vision gradually sharpened. He managed to turn his head and met a pair of anxious, light-brown eyes.

The girl was very young, around sixteen or seventeen, but already a budding beauty. Her black hair was tucked beneath a maid's headscarf, revealing a smooth forehead and a pair of moist brown eyes like a fawn's. Amid the fine hair where her ears should have been, the tips of a pair of ears, slightly longer than a human's, revealed that she wasn't pure-blooded human.

The girl bit her lower lip, brows knitted, and gently pressed a hand to his temple.

"Young master, you're awake? How are you feeling?" Seeing him open his eyes, the girl visibly relaxed. "The carriage stopped so suddenly just now. You hit the side..."

Ye Wei'an opened his mouth, unsure what to say, and could only manage a vague "Mm."

Only then did he realize he was resting his head in the girl's lap.

Uncomfortable with being so close to a stranger, Ye Wei'an instinctively tried to sit up.

"Don't rush!" The girl quickly supported his arm and helped him lean against the thick, soft down cushions.

That gave Ye Wei'an a chance to take in the inside of the carriage.

It was quite spacious, with dark velvet lining the walls and soft, comfortable seats. Even a small table with a dark wood grain was secured in one corner, bearing a plate of washed fruit.

Even by modern standards, the carriage's interior was excessively luxurious. It clearly wasn't something an ordinary person could afford.

As Ye Wei'an tried to make sense of the situation, a muffled commotion came through the walls of the carriage.

There seemed to be shouts, the clash of metal, and... screams?

Something was wrong outside.

Ye Wei'an's heart tightened. Without thinking, he reached over and pulled aside the heavy curtain.

The sight outside made him hold his breath.

The carriage had stopped in the middle of a forest road. The peaceful highway had become a bloody battlefield.

On one side were a rabble of men wearing haphazardly assembled armor, swinging rusty swords and crude wooden clubs. A few with hunting bows lingered around the perimeter, loosing arrows. They looked like bandits.

Their targets were a small group of guards who appeared to be on his side.

Compared to their opponents, the guards were far more disciplined. They wore matching studded leather armor and had formed a tight circle with their backs to the carriage, covering one another and fighting in coordination as they desperately kept the bandits away.

Unfortunately, none of that could make up for their numerical disadvantage.

From what Ye Wei'an could see, some of the guards had already fallen into pools of blood.

But they weren't the ones deciding the battle. That came down to the duel between the two leaders.

At the center of the fighting, a knight clad in plate armor was locked in a fierce battle with a bare-chested giant.

The knight wielded a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. He had to withstand the giant's powerful attacks while also shoring up gaps in his men's defenses whenever he could. He looked badly overwhelmed, but thanks to his excellent skills and sturdy plate armor, he was barely holding the line.

But in Ye Wei'an's eyes, it was only a matter of time before the defenses broke.

Thunk!

Just as he was watching intently, an arrow slammed into the outside of the carriage.

Seeing its tail feathers quiver, Ye Wei'an jerked his head back inside, his heart pounding.

"Young master, stop looking outside! It's too dangerous!" The maid hurriedly drew the heavy curtain closed and tried to reassure him. "It—it'll be all right... Knight Cain is very strong. With him here, he'll definitely drive these bandits away."

Seeing Ye Wei'an still sitting there in a daze, the little maid picked up an apple from the small table. "Were you frightened? Would you like something to eat to calm your nerves?"

As she spoke, she took out a small silver knife and began peeling it.

"I'm... fine, Ailian," Ye Wei'an blurted out.

Then he froze.

Ailian... who was that?

Was that the maid's name?

But how did he know the little maid's name?

As he wondered, another memory surfaced.

It was... him as a child.

A man who claimed to be his father had brought a group of little girls before him and told him to choose one as his personal maid. He'd picked and chosen, eventually selecting a young half-elf girl, Ailian Huici. Huici was her surname as a descendant of Sun Elves, while "Ailian" was the name he'd personally given her.

No... That couldn't be right. I came from a white-collar family. Where would I have gotten a personal maid?

Where had these memories come from?

The more Ye Wei'an thought about it, the more confused he became. Suddenly, his head began to throb again, and more memories flooded into his mind.

Only then did he understand everything.

He was no longer on Blue Star. He wasn't even in his original world.

This was the world of Abeir-Toril, on the continent of Faerûn, in the kingdom of Cormyr.

The person he'd transmigrated into was also named Ye Wei'an.

Only this Ye Wei'an's surname wasn't Ye. His full name was Ye Weian Xiaxing, the son of Baron Harandir Xiaxing—or, more accurately, an unacknowledged bastard.

His mother's surname was Ye. She came from the distant eastern land of Shou Lung and was said to be a merchant's daughter. She'd been captured by pirates during a trade voyage and enslaved, before eventually being bought by the baron and made a maid.

She'd died in childbirth, leaving him only the name Ye Wei'an Xiaxing—Ye Wei'an, or Iovianus.

Though mixed-blood, Ye Weian Xiaxing had completely East Asian features, just like Ye Wei'an in his youth.

Ye Wei'an strongly suspected that he was this world's version of himself—or perhaps he was his own reincarnation, only now awakened to his past-life memories.

In any case, it meant he wouldn't be going home anytime soon.

If that was the case, he'd just have to live on as Ye Weian Xiaxing for now.

As a bastard, the title and family estate were certainly out of his reach.

Perhaps his father still felt some affection for his mother, or perhaps it was because he'd seemed more intelligent than other children from a young age. When he was twelve, his father had sent him to the Battlemage Academy in the capital, Suzar, hoping he would become a noble Wizard.

Ye Wei'an had disappointed that expectation. After four years, he still hadn't learned a single first-circle spell.

Half a month ago, an urgent letter had arrived at the academy: the baron was gravely ill.

He'd had to abruptly suspend his studies, take his personal maid Ailian, and set out for the family estate with a small group of family guards. They'd nearly reached the estate when they were caught in this sudden attack...

Bang!

A loud crash interrupted his recollections.

The carriage door was hacked in half. Through the gap, a blood-covered brute blocked the entrance. He wore battered leather armor and gripped a long sword with a chipped, ragged edge. He was clearly one of the bandits.

The man's bloodshot eyes swept across the carriage, then settled on Ye Wei'an. A cruel grin spread across his face.

"Haha, there really is a noble brat hiding in here... The boss's bounty is mine!"

What did he mean by "really"?

Ye Wei'an spotted the key point.

These bandits weren't here to rob at random. They'd come prepared!

Something was going on here!

But the bandit gave Ye Wei'an no time to think. With a growl, his burly frame squeezed into the carriage, and he thrust his long sword straight at Ye Wei'an's heart!

Ye Wei'an tried to dodge, but the carriage wall was right behind him. All he could do was reach out with both hands and desperately seize the man's wrist before the blade touched him.

The cold metal pressed against his fingertips. The sword point hovered less than an inch from his chest, trembling slightly.

"This is all the strength a noble brat has?" The bandit sneered and pushed harder. The overwhelming difference in strength became obvious at once. Ye Wei'an felt as if his fingers were about to snap, yet despite giving it everything he had, the deadly point kept inching toward his chest.

Was he going to die?

Had he really just transmigrated, only to die for no reason at the hands of a bandit?

Just then, a scream rang out.

"Ah—!"

It was Ailian.

The bandit's attention was entirely fixed on Ye Wei'an and the bounty. He hadn't noticed her curled up in the corner.

Ailian had been huddled there, trembling, but somehow found the courage to grab the silver knife and stab wildly at him!

Squish.

The table knife plunged deep into the bandit's right flank from behind, sinking all the way to the hilt.

The bandit's forward momentum abruptly stopped. His sneer froze, and he slowly lowered his head, staring in confusion at the blood seeping from beneath his ribs. His grip on the sword slackened slightly.

Now!

Ye Wei'an shoved the blade aside, then bent his knee and slammed it into the man's unprotected lower abdomen.

"Ugh!"

The bandit let out a brief, muffled groan, clutching his stomach and curling into a ball like a cooked prawn.

But that wasn't enough for Ye Wei'an. He picked up the bandit's sword, clenched his teeth, and drove it into the man's chest again and again, stopping only when blood had sprayed everywhere.

The carriage fell silent. Only the distant shouts from outside and the two of them panting in terror remained.

Ailian stood frozen, her hand still poised from the stab. Her little face was pale, her whole body trembling violently as she stared blankly at the pool of blood on the floor.

Ye Wei'an slumped against the cushions, his heart racing. The brief struggle had drained every last bit of his strength.

Misfortune never came alone.

Before he could even catch his breath, another bandit broke through the guards' line. Holding a bloodied axe, he grinned as he charged toward the carriage.

The first bandit had died purely because he'd been careless and overlooked Ailian hiding to the side. That was the only reason the two of them had managed to bring him down.

With the first man's corpse as a lesson, this bandit would certainly be on his guard. They could only wait to die.

"What do we do? What do we do...?" Ye Wei'an panicked. Then he suddenly thought of something. "Didn't this little noble study magic? Even a cantrip would do! Is there anything I can use?"

He hurriedly searched through the memories he'd just acquired, but the more he looked, the more disappointed he became.

"What? What? What? What have you even been studying for four years?!"

[Light]?

Was he supposed to blind the man with it?

[Minor Illusion]?

Was he supposed to conjure up some illusion to scare the bandit to death?

[Prestidigitation]?

Was he supposed to change the color of the man's axe? Or make him smell so bad he'd drop dead?

"Couldn't you have learned some magic that can actually hurt someone?"

Just as he was genuinely considering what sort of illusion might scare the bandit away—

A cold notification suddenly rang in his mind:

[Defeated Lv. 1 Bandit. Gained 25 experience.]

[First experience gained. You may choose a class.]

Ye Wei'an froze.

Experience? What did that mean?

Before he could figure it out, everything around him suddenly changed.

Ailian's trembling eyelashes, the dust floating outside the window, the blood spreading across the floor, the bandit charging through the door... Everything froze like a paused film, and the colors faded until the world became a patchwork of grays.

No, not everything had stopped.

He could still think. He could still "see" it all.

Then a familiar interface appeared in his vision.