Hello fellow reader/s before we get this story started, i would like to thank you for taking the time to read this story. I know thousands of these have been done before, but this is something i needed to do. anyways enjoy the story!

Prologue: The Nomad Swordsman

Wearily trudging along one of the many farmlands scattered around southern Ylisse, the golden wheat seemed to shine in the morning sun and wave in the gentle breeze that caressed the plains. This peace however was broken by loud grumbling noise that was my stomach. Gods if I don't find something soon the idea of eating my boots isn't so bad.

Following this train of thought my stomach rumbled again seeming to agree with the idea of roasted leather boots. However, keen to not eat my boots just yet I picked up my pace to a jog as the wheat fields had come to an end and a large hill surfaced along the path. Upon ascending the hill, a village lay at the bottom of it not a particularly large village by any means as it only had 4 houses, a barn, a windmill and blacksmith. But hey where there's a village there's definitely food.

With new found vigour I quickly made my way down the hill and into the village. Upon arriving however, it was not the type of welcoming I was expecting, if you could even call it a welcoming.

"Hello is anyone there!" I called out. I was greeted with silence. You've got to be kidding me. Greeted by this heartfelt welcome I made my way to the centre of the village. Passing by the house and the smithy it confirmed my suspicions that there was indeed no one here.

"Just when I was praising my luck of finally finding something edible" I deadpanned and swiftly kicked a nearby bucket, which rocketed off and broke through a nearby window.

Oh hells way to make myself welcome.

At the sound of shattering glass, multiple people wielding various farming equipment burst out of the nearby barn, with an elderly man with tattered robes and a withered old staff, who was probably the elder of the village, stepped forward to speak. I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword just as a precaution that they did attack.

"Begone you filthy ruffian, haven't your kind done enough damage to our homes!" he bellowed while waving his staff at me, while the other villages took trembling steps towards me wielding their various farming equipment.

"Now hold on gramps, I haven't got a clue on what your talking about I just got to this village" I spoke calmly trying not to agitate them even more then I already had.

"Don't try to play the fool! You're with that bandit gang that harasses our village, takes our food and steals our livestock all so we can live under your so called 'protection' "the old man spat "I mean look at yourself, do you really think us fools to trust a stranger that dresses like that" he said with some amusement.

At that remark I gazed at my appearance through one of the nearby windows, with my brown hair all tangled and mattered covering my dark brown eyes if I didn't brush my hair out the way, my once black cloak now turned brown and tattered, my was shirt shredded, my pants also had various holes and tears in them and the leather boots I wore were also quite damaged as well. The only part of my outfit that was in pristine condition was the red sash I had wrapped around my waist and my curved sword that hung around my belt.

"Okay point taken gramps, but if I really was a bandit wouldn't I be here with my 'gang', also how do you expect to defend yourselves with farming equipment, I mean seriously that guy is just carrying a stick" I stuck my finger out to the one villager's with a copper pan on his head while wielding a small branch with both his hands. At that the villages turned their heads towards the culprit, some of them muttering under their breath and others face palming themselves, the villager with the stick went bright red at this remark and shuffled his way to the back of the group.

"Ugh point taken you young fool, how-" The elder sighed out, but whatever remark he had coming for me was cut off by the thundering of hooves as a group of horse's road into the centre of the village scattering the villagers. The riders dismounted and circled myself and the elder, all of them wore tattered clothing and carried various weapons, one of them probably their leader even carried a large two-handed broadsword that looked like it could cleave a horses' head in two.

"I'm guessing this is those ruffians you were talking about gramps?" I dryly remarked, the elder only giving a grunt as confirmation to my question. The man with the broadsword stepped forward from the bandit gang, he had a malicious grin on his face and when he spoke, he spoke with an accent that was common in Plegia.

"Well Elder Cain this wouldn't be signs of a rebellion from our protection would it? I mean hiring another bandit to take out our little group?" motioning with his hand towards me.

Before I could correct him that I'm not a bandit, a title that I was not enjoying, the elder quickly spoke out.

"Y-Yes we did! And though he might not look like much, he's the best of the best!"

You sly old dog

Giving out a large sigh I stepped forward to speak to the leader of the bandit group.

"Yes this wonderful old man here, did hire me and we were just discussing my payment before you so rudely interrupted us, right gramps?" I remarked dryly. The elder only giving quick nods as confirmation.

"Well then, looks like we got a problem now don't we?" the leader spoke as he stepped forward. We were now standing face to face, the elder quickly ran off to hide with the other villagers with none of the bandits stopping his escape. The silence in the air hung like a thick fog, neither the bandit leader or myself making the first move to attack. I used this time to size up the other four bandits, while they did carry actual weapons they didn't look particularly skilled in them, the leader himself probably had the giant sword just for show. This would make this fight a hell of a lot easier.

Giving a quick grin I slammed my head into the bandit leaders nose, hearing a satisfying crunch as his nose erupted with blood, quickly stepping back I delivered another two quick strikes to his nose again, hearing another crunch as my fists came away with his blood. The leader screamed clutching his now shattered nose and stumbled back yelling out to his comrades. "Don't just stand there kill the bastard!"

At that command two bandits charged at me, one with a high overhead slash, but I quickly closed the distance between us and delivered a punch to his gut, causing him to drop his sword while it was still over his head. Quickly snatching it out of the air, I slammed the sword into the bandit's gut causing him to keel over as a fountain of blood sprayed from where the sword was. The other bandit quickly stopped in his tracks, and hesitated, using this to my advantage I quickly drew my curved blade and slashed at his throat. He soon fell to the ground clutching at his throat trying to stop the blood flow, to no avail. Two down another three to go.

Quickly scanning my surroundings, the bandit leader drew his broadsword and charged at me with a roar, another bandit with a spear came up from behind trying to surprise me. The spear bandit quickly thrust his spear out, and tripped and lost his balance, I quickly grabbed the spear and spun it and the bandit who clung to it in front of me, just as the leader swung his giant sword. The broadsword buried itself deeply into the bandit's ribs, causing him to give a gut wrenching scream of pain and fall to the ground dragging the leader with him. Standing over the dead bandit and the leader buried underneath him, trying to shove his dead comrade off him, he quickly noticed me above him and his eyes filled with fear and began begging.

"H-hey c'mon you don't have to kill me; I'll leave this dump along from now on! I pro- "

Whatever he had to say he didn't finish it, as I stabbed my blade through his throat and turned to face the last bandit. He stood across from me tears in his eyes and he was trembling so much he could shake a house down, taking a stepped forward blade pointed towards him I gave a bloodlust grin.

"Boo"

This was the final straw for the last bandit as he turned tail and ran as fast and far away from me as he could, ignoring the horse that he rode in on it wasn't to long before he was out of sight of the village.

Wiping the blood from my sword on one of the dead bandits cloaks I called out to the elder.

"Hey gramps the bandits won't be problem anymore!" at this the elder stuck his head out from one of the houses and viewed the scene before him dumbstruck.

"H-how could we ever repay you, those ruffians were causing us trouble for months" he stammered

"First off you can repay me by giving me some food, and then you can point me in the direction of the closest village, preferably a larger wealthier one" I remarked. He quickly agreed and before long I had a small rucksack with food and water and directions to a village just south of here. Before leaving the village however, the elder stopped me.

"Young fool wait. You never gave us your name, just who are you?" he inquired

"Me? I'm just a wandering mercenary, Roland's my name" I gave small smile and a wave as I began to leave the small village behind, hearing the joyful cries and cheers of the villagers as I left for my next destination.

Authors Notes: Hello again reader/s if you've made it this far down it must of meant you finished the prologue chapter, if you've enjoyed this chapter please leave a review on what i can improve upon so i can continue uploading, the first couple of chapters will be quite action heavy much like Awakening, I'll also be bending canon here and there but the overall original story won't change.