With my mind now at least somewhat under control, I focused in on the conversation with Edman about the bandits, asking, “Why would the stops happen frequently?”

  This was something I was having a hard time understanding, as it did not seem like a normal thing in my eyes. I mean, what normal person would resort to banditry with all of its risks when there were other perfectly viable and more lucrative options avaible? However, the expression on Edman's face seemed to challenge that, as it appeared that he did not even understand my question.

  A moment ter, he seemed to find an answer to whatever problem he was having and answered my question, saying, “Most bandits only make small stops to ask you for a few things in exchange for using their roads. Of course, refusing them could lead to dangerous consequences, but most of the time their demands are fairly reasonable as they don’t want to get on the bad side of the Empire or the various Sects. However, there are some cases like today where their egos get too big for their own good, and they start doing things they shouldn’t. This would usually lead to one or more groups of soldiers clearing the roads, or cities paying the nearby Sects to do it for them. Sadly, that doesn’t prevent the bandits from ciming at least a few victims before they’re caught.”

  Hearing everything that he had to say was certainly eye-opening, as I did not think that banditry would be nearly as big of a problem as it apparently was. However, the actual effect of it was not something I would have expected either. To be honest, it was simir to a few things that I have seen back on Earth. The only thing that did not seem simir was the occasional deaths involved, though, that was to be expected.

  And the only reason why I was even thinking about this was because I came into direct contact with this.

  Noticing the direction my thoughts were about to go into, I halted that line of thought and refocused on something else, saying, “It sounds simir to illegal toll roads or strong-arming someone to make them ‘pay for protection’.”

  Edman stopped at that and looked at me for a few seconds before answering, “It is paying protection money. Though I don’t know what these toll roads you're talking about are. Is it something that you can find in the core of the empire?”

  I expected the first part of his response, but the tter half left me confused, as I thought he would have at least heard of something like this as a merchant. Still, I took a moment to think of the best response before expining, “Toll roads are something that is built by either the government or a company to provide a faster and safer route of transport for a small fee.”

  Edman looked at me again for a few seconds before saying, “I have never heard of this, but it sounds simir to what most bandits do.”

  After this, we talked about a few more minor things before he walked away, and we got ready to move on to the next town. By this point, the battlefield was mostly cleaned up, and all the weapons and gear were put away. From here, everyone mounted up or got in formation, and we started moving. It was also at this point that I finally looked out the window and tried to focus on anything that would keep my mind out of those lines of thought, which would cause me to break. I knew deep down that this was not a good idea or the right thing to do, but I could not think of anything better to do at this moment.

  I guess this became fairly obvious, as even though I tried to keep up some level of conversation with my companions who were in the carriage with me, I still remained fairly quiet and despondent. Lou Xia appeared to be fairly concerned about me, but she did not try to do anything and instead sat there floundering like she was trying to come up with something. Lanalia, on the other hand, kept trying to keep me engaged with various other topics until she settled on the elemental forces of the world.

  It first started with her asking about my opinions on the five fundamental elements that made up the world, which set me off about the inaccuracies of that statement and the existence of the periodic table of elements, which then led me into teaching her about that. This, in turn, kept my mind out of its darker side and focused on the different ways in which this world worked. The side effect of this was the various new ideas that came out of our discussion.

  I was honestly going to have to put some time into researching this ter when I got back to the sect, and also reached beyond the foundation establishment stage.

  This conversation sted until the sun started to reach the horizon, and we were interrupted by her father, Edman, opening a small window at the front of the carriage. This window was used to allow those on the driver's seat to communicate with the carriage’s occupants. What Edman was informing us about this time is that the next town had come into sight, and we would be able to rest in town by the end of the day.

  Having a more secluded pce to go through my thoughts would be much appreciated.

  Vulthurtoor