The other people stopped seeing their youngest member falling to the ground but they were helpless against the bear and going near it would only make them its food.
But the man in his 30s didn't give up and ran towards the boy to save him but he was too slow to reach him and the bear reached the boy first and swung its paw.
The boy closed his eyes in fear and thought that he was going to die.
But before the bear could reach him, an arrow was shot from afar which appeared before the bear out of nowhere and pierced its eye.
The bear roared in pain and was about to thrash around swinging his paw when a figure of a man appeared who raised its huge axe over the head of the bear and slashed it.The axe passes through the bear-like butter and splits the bear into two halves.
The boy was horrified watching the scene.
He didn't know himself what horrified him more. The mad charge of a bear coming for his life or this man appearing out of nowhere and slicing the bear as if he was cutting butter.
Max wiped off the blood from his face and gave a gentle smile which was not gentle in any sense for the onlooker who watched him rather than thinking of him as a hero, he looked more like a demon.
Max was about to engage in a conversation when he was hit in his head.
Max flinched back to see Alex looking at him with a rotten expression as if someone had stolen his money.
"Your Highness."Before Max could speak anything, Alex kicked him and pulled the broken arrow from the bear corpse and caressed him.
"Oh, My poor child," Alex spoke with a sorrowful expression and glared at Max and scolded them.
"Do you think money grows on trees? How dare you break my precious arrow? Do you know each of these arrows would sell for 2 silver coins?"
"Did you forget the value of 2 silver coins now just because your earning increased? How dare you?"
Max didn't know what to say seeing Alex's angry look.
"Your Highness, wouldn't the weapon be damaged when we used it in war." Max tried to refute.
"So you are saying if I have tons of money, I should walk around throwing money?" Alex grumbled and put the arrow back in the quiver and looked at the boy who seemed to be similar to him.
"Are you alright?" Alex asked.
"Yes!Thanks for saving me. I will make sure to repay you." The boy spoke and started to pull out his small pouch wallet in fear.
"You can repay me by guiding us to Steelfield Fortress. We have lost our way and badly need help and someone's guidance to reach there" Alex spoke.
"When did we lose our way...?"Max howled but was forced to stop his sentence in the middle.
Before Max could finish his speech, Ben wrapped his shoulder around his neck and closed Max's mouth and looked at the boy and said"He wanted to say that we don't even know how we lost the way."
The man in his 30s looked at the group of people and asked who they were, only to get the answer that they were reinforcements who had come there to help fend off the beasts.
.......
Alex, with their newly found companions who lead the way finally, arrived at the fortress after much hustle and bustle.
The Fortress of Steelfield whose house had been guarding the western mountain pass against the beasts in the forest for generations.
In the western region, there was the Mountain of Loran along with a huge forest.
Beyond the mountain and Forest lay the assholes of the Bright Kingdom who were starting to get on Alex's nerves recently.
If not for the current state of Nevan, Alex would have already chased after the head of the King of Bright kingdom who was trying to mess with his kingdom by trying to sabotage the situation in Nevan.
Though Steelfiel territory was one of the places whose borders were shared with the Bright Kingdom, the place was of great importance to both the Kingdom.
Peril lay here along with many fortunes.
Going by the saying, the huge number of monster and beast invasions also bring many fortunate encounters.
The carcass of the monster and beast was of great use and if a core was found then it was just icing on top.
Also, many herbs and medicinal insurgents can be found deep inside the forest which can either be sold for a good price or from it potions can be made.
Alex observed the huge wall of the fortress on which a mark of time can be seen. The wall had clearly withstood many battles, seen many soldiers basking in glory and was still holding on against the time.
Except for the few minor cracks and dents, the robust walls were as high as 40 metres tall. Inside it was a small city or citadel and the only entrance inside it was huge doors.
Many nearby villages near the fortress generally stayed outside even though there was a huge risk of life but they couldn't let go of their culture.
Each village had its own significance where people lived either by hunting or doing jobs in Steelfield City.
Alex and a hundred brave warriors stood before the huge city gates.
Tiredness could be seen on their face as they had fought all their way till here.
Alex even carried the corpse and brought the leader of the pack head as a trophy so that people here may not think of them as soft rice.
For people who were involved with the military, it's better to show your glory and valour through deeds rather than flower and flattery words which disgust the soldiers who fight risking their lives while many sleep in comfort.
The guards on the City wall looked down and asked for confirmation.
Alex took off the Royal insignia and showed them as they prove.
The huge metal door opened and as he entered, he saw a huge number of soldiers armed with weapons standing at the side leaving behind a space in between for them to walk in.
As soon as Alex's horse stepped forward, they bowed down and shouted"Hail To The King."
Alex waved his hand and smiled to calm them down though inwardly he was frightened for a moment and thought that they were going to attack him with these huge numbers.
There were at least 400-500 more soldiers stationed here. Half of them were old soldiers of Nevan and half of them belonged to Steelfield private knights.
In the middle of the soldier's group, a man with a long white beard kneeled along with a woman.
Behind them, two boys and a girl kneeled showing respect to Alex.
Alex climbed down the horse and asked them to rise.
He stood before Count Steelfield and, raising his hands to shake, he said"Uncle Hamilton thanks for taking care of Nevan. Without you, I don't think Nevan would have lasted till now."
Hamilton felt as if he was meeting his nephew by seeing Alex's gesture and the way he called him.
"Ha hah hah." Hamilton laughed and said, "You should thank the Gods that you were able to recover."
"If you didn't wake up early, I don't think an old person like me would be able to keep the borders safe."
"Your Highness came here and met my family."
"She is my wife Lena and beside her are my two sons Eon and Charles and my lovely daughter Ava."
Alex nodded and gave a gentle bow to Countess and exchanged some pleasantries which made the Countess laugh while the children of Hamilton though seemed a little cold and distant there was no animosity between them.
Alex was happy to see that there was no hard feeling between them and Alex.
They just find him a stranger due to Alex being younger than him.
Both of them were above 20 and achieved disciple rank.
While his daughter was 11 years old, it would take a few months for him to awaken mana.
And what made Alex happy was that the meeting didn't turn out like a typical cliche where one of the children would hate the mc and play tricks on him to make him look down on others and once his deeds are revealed, he would be disowned and soon became a villain who will go a long way.
