My health recovery is incredibly fast.

"I'm done eating. Shall we leave now?"

Audrey took the boy's hand and led him outside.

“I will introduce you to him, as my brother. You must remember everything he says. This is a rare opportunity to learn about the war.”

There's a consensus within the circus: their new fire-breathing man, Shazo, is a boy who doesn't like wasting time in leisure places.

That is indeed the case.

Shazo had gone to the tavern with Snake and the others before.

There are many different chessboards to choose from.

Winning gives you money, but you gain very little experience, almost like cooking a dish.

What's more, losing means not only losing money and lacking experience, but also wasting time.

Gaining experience through entertainment is clearly a very unwise thing to do.

The tavern we came to with Audrey today is much more upscale than any Xia Zuo had visited before.

In the lobby on the first floor, booths separated by wooden boards and curtains replaced the long benches and square tables in a typical pub.

Customers whispered and chatted to the clear, melodious strains of the piano.

The bartender at the bar was neatly dressed, with a bow tie at his collar, and his meticulously groomed beard was even more exquisite than Xia Zuo's hairstyle.

Xia Zuo quickly combed his hair and straightened his robe before following Audrey into the corridor and into a private room.

A middle-aged man with a scar on his cheek sat upright at the dining table.

Upon seeing the radiant Audrey, he stood up with a smile to greet her, "Audrey, you are even more charming than before."

"Wilson, it's been a long time. You look as radiant as ever."

Audrey extended her hand and shook hands lightly with the other person, then looked at the boy beside her, "This is my younger brother, Shazo. Shazo, this is Uncle Wilson."

"Hello, Uncle Wilson"

Xia Zuo gave a polite smile and cast a detection spell on the other party.

..

Character name: Wilson

Identity: Piek Fortress military personnel

Health points?

force 7

Agility 9

Stamina 6

vitality2

Perception 6

Willpower 6

Spirit 2

Charm 5

Character traits

What are the effects of breathing exercises?

..

Wilson's attribute distribution is similar to that of Audrey and others, both having high strength and agility.

People who practice breathing techniques all have this characteristic.

Aside from Vans, he is characterized by strong willpower.

..

"Hello, little one. Please sit down with me."

Wilson pulled out chairs for Audrey and Chazelle and ordered the waiter to bring tea and snacks.

The two former comrades-in-arms first reminisced about their past military experiences, and then talked about their current situations.

It's not hard to tell from their conversation.

Wilson used to be the captain of a mobile unit, responsible for rushing around to provide emergency relief, drive away bandits, or kill wild beasts.

Audrey was his teammate, and the only female teammate.

The two met again after several years.

Audrey became the ringmaster of the circus.

Wilson distinguished himself in the army and became the third-in-command clerk of the Piek fortress army, responsible for recording all matters large and small in the army and providing advice to the commanders.

Audrey gently stroked Shazzo's hair and said to Wilson with a sorrowful expression:

"Old friend, let me tell you the story of this boy."

In a calm tone, she recounted how Xia Zuo was captured by a villainous alchemist for experiments and was eventually rescued by a circus.

Wilson was engrossed in Audrey's words.

When Wilson heard that among the boys in the cave, only Xia Zuo had escaped alive and had even walked through the forest for two days, he looked at the boy with great admiration.

“Very courageous, Xia Zuo.”

A smile spread across Wilson's stern face.

"Thank you for your compliment, Uncle Wilson. I have moved on from this sadness."

Xia Zuo maintained a polite smile and nodded in response.

Wilson stood up, reached across the table, patted Shazo on the shoulder, and looked at him with admiration.

"When you turn 18, you're welcome to join my army. We need a great young man like you here."

“That won’t do, Wilson. Shazo is the fire-breathing man in our circus.”

Audrey chuckled and chimed in.

Wilson's smile froze, then he shook his head slightly and joked in a regretful tone:

“Little one, I didn’t know you had this skill. Audrey is really lucky.”

Audrey picked up her teacup, took a sip, and used the cup to cover her smug smile.

"How have you been lately, old buddy?"

"A complete mess..."

A hint of helplessness flashed across Wilson's face. "Something seems to have happened in the desolate wilderness south of the kingdom. The bandits' ways are completely different from before."

Audrey and Shazo exchanged a glance and turned to listen.

Wilson rested his arms on the table, interlacing his fingers as if in thought. "Audrey, do you remember how we wiped out the bandits back then?"

Audrey said with a smile:

"I'll play the peasant woman washing clothes and carrying vegetables, you'll pretend to be a laborer, and the rest of us will work in the fields with our faces covered by headscarves. When the bandits come, we'll launch a joint attack and catch them off guard."

Wilson nodded slowly. "In the past, bandits only wanted to enter the village to find some food, take away a few cows, or steal the villagers' money bags and clothes."

"The villagers either had to unite and drive away these half-starved bastards, or simply surrender to the outnumbered bandits. Either way, the casualties in the village would certainly not be as... as terrible as they are now."

Wilson's tone grew increasingly serious:

“In recent months, it seems that the bandits are not after the village’s supplies at all.”

"As soon as they entered the village, they attacked the villagers, killed and looted them all, and then set fire to the village and burned it down."

“Every time the fortress received an alarm and sent troops to the scene, it was a scene of charred blackness.”

Xia Zuo frowned, a vague guess forming in his mind.

It seems that a hostile force is manipulating bandits to harass the fortress of Piek, attempting to disperse the fortress's forces and wear down the army's manpower.

The number of villages in Rosac province is extremely large.

The circus caravan traveled along the trade route, passing through a village every twenty or thirty kilometers.

With so many scattered outposts, it would be extremely difficult to station permanent troops in each one.

In general, the guards in a village consist of a few fortified soldiers and a group of militiamen wielding hoes and pitchforks.

Throughout the Rosac province, the main military forces were concentrated in the various fortresses.

Once banditry occurs in a certain area, the village's garrison soldiers will ride to the nearby fortress to raise the alarm, and then the fortress's military camp will send troops out of the city to suppress the bandits.

The relationship between bandits and villages was more like that of a sickle and leeks.

Only living villagers are good villagers; dead villagers cannot produce food or other resources.

For the bandits, killing villagers brought them no benefit other than being sent to the guillotine.

Audrey had the same thought: "Was there not a single survivor in the village destroyed by the bandits?"

"No."

Wilson shook his head and said:

"You know, the army needs to clear the rubble and remove the bodies to prevent the spread of disease. We've thoroughly searched the site, and there are no survivors."

"Uncle Wilson, I should be considered a survivor."

Xia Zuo was unsure, his tone uncertain.

Chapter 15 The City Garrison Mage

Xia Zuo was captured by the evil old man to test medicine, thus escaping the bandits' plunder of the village and avoiding being reduced to ashes like his hometown.

He was the only one who escaped alive from the evil old man's clutches.