Wolfram wondered how he was supposed to read all the books assigned to him when almost all his free time was spent on lessons. And if he did manage to take some time away from them, Yuuri would start complaining that he was paying too little attention to him while refusing to accompany him to read. So it ended up that his books had not been retrieved by the time he left for Bielefeld. And since Otwin announced that he was going with them and would continue his lessons even in the carriage, this meant that even then, he would not get away from him.

Therefore, he decided to take his entire troop and leave for the Fire Mountains before everyone else to avoid this fate, at least for a little while. Yuuri would be riding with Gwendal for part of the way anyway, who would wait and detach toward his territory only when Wolfram returned. Therefore, any complaints from his boyfriend about leaving him alone made no sense. It wouldn't even take him a day, after all.

They left in the midst of the rain just after the sun appeared on the horizon and rode until they reached a bend in the road, from where the Fire Mountains could be seen in the distance and where they had arranged to meet the other men of his unit.

The soldiers already waiting for them were wearing the same rain cloaks as the rest of Wolfram's subordinates, so there was no difference at first glance. Well, except perhaps for the giant axe carried on the back by the man at the front.

Wolfram smiled at the sight of it. He could never marvel at how Lodin could handle something like that without a problem while he was not even able to lift the axe from the ground.

They slowed down, and Wolfram took a close look at the soldiers Anneliese had sent him. There were ten of them, and curiously enough, they were all dressed in decent uniforms, unsoiled and with all buttons fastened. He was impressed. It seemed that the woman had done quite well in training them.

"Welcome to the honorable commander!" exclaimed Lodin, riding up on horseback next to Wolfram. "And I already thought that for the rest of the year, all we'd be doing is shacking up in barracks and digging in the fields." He laughed in a tubular voice that could probably be heard far away in the woods. Lodin was a huge man, bigger even than Gwendal, and Wolfram had always associated him with a bear, so when he was now dressed in a Bielefeld uniform, he looked very out of place.

"I almost got locked in the castle, too, so there was no way around it." He tried to look under the hoods of the other men to see who exactly had arrived. There were five archers and three with swords that had joined his troop along with Anneliese, but there was also one man whose face he didn't recognize, and he didn't see any weapons at his side. "Who did you bring me?" he asked, pointing his head to the stranger.

"Ah, this one here." He turned and waved a mighty hand, signaling for the man to come over to him. "This is Derwen. Madam Captain caught him recently when he was loitering around somewhere like a stray, and she thought we'd be more useful to the crew than locked up in jail." He slapped Derwen on the back so hard that the man coughed. "Come on, say hello to your commander."

The man merely nodded, probably still unable to speak.

"It's the first time I've heard of Anneliese taking the initiative in such things." He tried to see anything amidst the halves of the cloak to figure out why she thought it would be useful to him. However, he was unable to see anything.

"She thought you might like this one."

"Like him?"

"'Yeah. He's an assassin. And a good tracker on top of that. That's why we figured that since you're looking for bandits, he might be useful to you."

He looked at Derwen with new interest. So he's an assassin. That's why he couldn't see anything of note in him. He wondered if he had daggers hidden somewhere. Or maybe some throwing knives and poison. The cloak covering him was voluminous, so a lot of stuff could be hidden under it, and from under the hood, only his eyes were clearly visible. Greenish yellow ones that now seemed to reflect Wolfram's curiosity.

Lodin laughed again and patted Derwen on the back.

"See! I told ya he'd like you."

Wolfram cleared his throat and corrected himself in the saddle. He has work to do now, he can't get too excited about such things. Although he had to admit that he was quite happy that he now had his own assassin. Let's just hope Yuuri doesn't find out about it.

"So we're going to search. There are a few places I wanted to check, so we can - "

"No need for that!" Lodin again tried to pat Derwen, but the other man dodged this time, and his hand only snarled in the air. Yet he did not seem to care about this. "Our new boy was so eager to show off to the captain that he had already sniffed out our troublesome bunch in advance. So we know where to go."

"All right. Lead the way then." He raised the corners of his mouth slightly at the sight of Derwene's gaze directed at the axe-wielder as he talked about him in this way. Lodin, however, spoke that way about everyone, so he'll have to get used to it.

The tracker led them from the tract between the trees directly toward the Fire Mountains. This was the only way to reach them for reasons known. Only the people of Bielefeld considered them an attraction and didn't mind if others didn't steal their business.

Anneliese's men and some of his direct subordinates rode together, but there were a few who preferred to stay behind. They had not spent enough time in his unit to get used to these people. Unlike Wolfram's officers, Anneliese and the rest of her gang were not nobles. They weren't even normal citizens, and if it weren't for Wolfram's interference, they would be stuck in jail right now.

However, the fact that it was difficult for him to get members willing to serve under such a young lord, coupled with the fact that he thought they were all interesting characters who would be perfect as the main characters in his favorite books, he made them an offer to join him. Of course, they couldn't be his official soldiers, and he couldn't take them with him to the castle either, but they were perfect for when he was short of men and were willing to take on jobs that the mostly promotion-oriented commanders wouldn't even look at. And Wolfram didn't care too much about promotions in the army. He was already the successor of one of the ten noble families anyway. Not to mention that hunting with this bunch for bands of minor bandits was fun.

The rainfall meant that the sulfur smell wasn't as strong, so it wasn't until they saw the red glow between the trees that they knew they were approaching a river of lava. They emerged onto a swath of scorched earth, and Derwen turned left. Wolfram could already guess where he was leading them. Not far away, where two separate rivers of lava flowing from different volcanoes twisted each in opposite directions, there was a patch of solidified black earth to walk on. It was wide enough that two horses riding side by side would fit on it.

"A clever place. They would be hard to find in this forest." Wolfram looked around, trying to spot any tracks, but the rain had obliterated everything.

"There were markings painted on a few trees. Probably so no one would lose their way." Derwen pointed with his head in the direction of the forest, but Wolfram wasn't sure if he was pointing to a specific tree with markings or just in an undefined direction. He himself was still unable to see anything.

They stopped at a passageway, and Wolfram dismounted from his horse, ordering the others to wait for him. He walked on his feet along the passage, to the end and then back again, then returned for his horse and grabbed it by the reins.

"It's stable enough, though I'm not sure that taking horses there is a good idea." He stroked the back of his mare, who was clearly not happy to be so close to the lava. Maybe their horses were well-trained enough not to panic in such conditions, but he didn't want to frighten them unnecessarily. They also didn't know what the terrain would look like further.

They all dismounted obediently from their horses, and Wolfram assigned the two men with the least experience to guard their horses some distance away from the passage. Since they can't handle his training yet, they're unlikely to make it to the Fire Mountains.

They crossed the passage between the lava rivers, and Derwen began to show them the route he thought the bandits were using. Most of the time, however, it was Wolfram who was in the lead, making sure the ground was stable, and they had no lava surprises underfoot. The rain seemed to have stopped here, so everyone had taken off their rain cloaks earlier and left them by the horses, but some had already started to take off their jackets.

"If we're lucky, we might be able to see you without clothes," joked Arwin when Wolfran almost fell into the lava when the ground slightly crumbled under his feet, and he only stayed on his feet because Helgard, who was helping him, stabilized the ground in time.

"What's so lucky about that?" Wolfram asked confusedly, to which several soldiers giggled quietly. And when he looked at them, they refused to look him in the eye.

"Never mind. I'm just worried that if you're not careful enough, you'll really burn all your clothes. Wouldn't it be better for Helgard to stabilize everything right away?"

"I don't want him to lose his maryoku when he doesn't have to. He'll have a lot to do once we find their hiding place. Besides, I have spare clothes."

"So you've already planned how to catch them? And you haven't communicated anything to me?" Arwin asked, slightly indignant.

"You don't need to do anything other than what you usually do. I only have tasks for the mazoku of earth."

Arwin looked defiantly at Helgad, who smiled for him but said nothing more.

The Fire Mountains had it that there were few places to hide here (or at least safe places). So since from where they were, there was nothing visible that looked like a bandit hideout, Wolfram suspected that it would be somewhere behind the next mountain that loomed up in front of them. This one was not an active volcano, and its black slopes were gentle. The closer they got to it and the area they could walk on, was more stable he began to see boot marks in places where the earth was softer. Actually, it was rock and not earth. Black rock, in some places, crumbled enough to make indistinct shoe marks imprinted in its shards.

"Do you think they have any lookouts here?" Arwin began again, this time observing the mountain.

"There isn't even a big enough rock nearby to hide behind. If anything, they should put someone out in the woods, but there was no one there," Derwen answered him.

"They probably think themselves to be unbelievably clever by hiding here and decided that they didn't need any watchers. I've hunted such gangs before. Thinking they are too smart to be careful." Lodin muttered in a muffled voice, which in his performance, sounded like the normal conversation of the other soldiers.

"I wouldn't expect much from someone who uses cow horns as their symbol." Derwen snorted, and it seemed to Wolfrm that it was probably a laugh. Like Otwin, he thought to himself.

"Cow horns?"

"They painted them on marked trees."

"So it sounds like an easy job. We'll have time to take care of it and get back before His Highness has time to miss his boyfriend." Arwin smiled broadly and stopped when Wolfram looked at him and also stopped. "Please don't push me into the lava." He raised his hands in a defensive gesture."

"Then you'd better be careful what you say, or you'll be the one checking the ground."

He walked forward a few steps ahead of the entire group, but there seemed to be no more need to check that the ground was stable. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lodin poking Helgard and asking him something, this time so quietly that he didn't hear him. Helgard answered him while shielding his mouth with his hand, after which the axe-wielding man nodded with understanding. He wanted to say something about the gossip behind his back, but he also noticed that Derwen was watching him closely.

"Something happened?" he asked, but the tracker did not answer him. So he shook his head and moved on.

They rounded the mountain, not spotting anyone the whole way, and came out into another open space without lava. Here, however, was a black lump that Wolfram had trouble identifying for a long moment.

"It looks like stone walls." Derwen stood next to him, also looking at the strange black shape.

Wolfram raised his hand, letting the rest of his men know not to come out from behind the cover of the mountainside, and backed away himself as well.

"'Who would build walls here?" he said to himself, trying to observe the structure from afar, but he could not see any details there. So he turned to the scout. "Are there any guards on them?"

Derwen shook his head, standing right next to him and also observing.

"The gate is ajar, though, and there seems to be someone walking behind them."

"How do you see it?" he asked irritably, straining his gaze. He probably managed to see the outline of the gate, which may have actually been ajar, but he couldn't say anything about the things inside. And he didn't have bad eyesight at all. On the contrary, he was quite good at observing things from afar. However, these walls were too far away for him.

He nodded at Helgard to come closer to them and pointed with his head toward the black stone building.

"Do you think you'll be able to reach there?"

"I might have problems. Maybe only the front."

"Derwen, go with Lodin and his men from the other side of the mountain and see if there is another way to get there. And you, Helgard, take your earth mazoku and create some decent cover for us to get close. Only slowly, so that they won't notice that something is moving if anyone comes onto these walls."

While waiting for his soldiers to do their jobs, Wolfram continued to watch the buildings, trying to spot any signs of people inside there. He doubted that these bandits had built it themselves. It's probably some ruins that they decided to use as their hideout. The thought crossed his mind to explore it later, but knowing the thugs, even if there was anything interesting there, it had long since been destroyed.

He left a few soldiers to watch the road leading to them and began to slowly approach the walls, hiding behind rocks that were slowly rising from the ground. Everything was uniformly black, so even if a guard was watching on the walls, he wouldn't have noticed their appearance.

In the end, it turned out that, indeed, the gate was ajar. It was as black as the rest of the walls, and Wolfram wondered if it was also made of stone, and the bandits had no idea how to close it. The closer they got, the smaller the structure turned out to be than he had initially assumed. Smaller even than some of the farms. In one corner of the walls was a tall tower, half collapsed, and the walls themselves were some two or three meters high.

When they were more than halfway there, he again ordered them to stop and wait for the rest of his men. It didn't take them long to do so. Derwen suddenly crouched at his side as if he had materialized out of thin air, and Wolfram almost didn't scream in surprise.

"There is a narrow passage on the other side. They have blocked it off and are making sure that no one goes through both ways. This is also the only gate."

"Alright. Helgard, you can start."

His friend nodded and settled comfortably on the ground, putting his palms against the rock. The ground shook slightly, and another wall began to grow around it, emerging from the ground like a huge hand clasping onto the structure. Only when Helgard's creation began to outgrow the original walls and slowly closed over the structure could screams be heard inside. However, no one decided to flee.

"Arwin, take the rest of the men and go to the exit," Wolfram instructed, standing up and watching what was happening.

The wall created by Helgerd formed a narrow corridor at the exit gate, through which only one person could squeeze. So if someone wanted to go outside, he could only do so this way.

He waited for his men to line up and decided to further encourage the bandits to flee. He started releasing his maryoku as he approached the walls, then lit it and sent a huge fireball that fell inside the structure through a small opening at the top of the dome created by Helgard. He didn't want to burn anyone, so it stayed high, but it was hot enough that if someone stayed there for a long time, they would start to boil. He quickly heard that it worked.

Amid shouts and curses, the first bandit fell outside, immediately caught and tied up by the soldiers. After a few minutes, they already had fourteen, bound and seated in a pile. Most of them seemed to go on without knowing what had happened.

No one else ran out, and Wolfram became slightly concerned. Yuuri had told him that the bandits outnumbered his men, so what he had here was definitely not enough. Where are the rest then?

"You know what." Lodin stood near him, placing his axe on the ground and leaning on the handle. He grimaced in displeasure. "I was setting up for a fight here, and you're herding them out of there like pigs. Or cows, as they prefer to call themselves. Why did you even have us here?"

"That's not all of them," Wolfram replied. "I doubt they have a second hiding place, but the other part of their group may have split off somewhere." He looked at the bandits sitting on the ground and approached the nearest of them. He pulled a sword from its scabbard and put it to his throat. "Where are the others?" he asked sharply, looking down at him.

The man's face contorted as he prepared to spit at him, but Wolfram knew it all too well by now and kicked him in the face before doing so. Not too hard, though the man wobbled anyway.

"Talk, you dog. I don't have all day." This time he pressed the sword harder against the bandit's neck so that a trickle of blood dripped from it.

"Do you think a bunch of such pimped-out kids will do anything to us? The Roaring Cows aren't afraid of the lousy underlings of this stupid king."

Lodin snorted behind his back and nearly fell over, falling off his axe handle.

"They seriously call themselves cows!" he roared with laughter, holding his stomach. "Maybe you'll also say that when ye go on raids, ye say your leader leads ye out to pasture!"

The bandit with whom Wolfram was talking turned red with anger.

"We're taking them away. Lodin, if you have so much energy, take your men and go ahead, watching to see if the rest of this herd comes back." He hid the sword in its scabbard and attempted to shake off the black dust that almost completely covered him. He had such a good plan and wasted it on such a hopeless bunch. "You'd better step carefully. You probably don't want to fall into the lava." He said over his shoulder to the prisoners and smiled when they flinched.

All the way to the passage between the two rivers of lava proved to be trouble-free, and even from a distance, it was possible to see the disappointment in Lodin's stature. The big man strutted like a disappointed child who happily rushed to the bakery only to find that all the sweets were already sold out. Wolfram hoped they would run into the rest of the gang after all, even if he had to wait for them.

However, when the front of his company was already approaching the passageway, cheers spread from there, and after coming within a few steps, Wolfram already knew that he wouldn't have to wait after all.

"Stop!" he called out before Lodin and his company could rush blindly at the enemies located on the other side of the lava. They obeyed him, and the massive axe fell to the ground, emitting a bang that caused a small stir among the bandits' men. He might intimidate them, but to keep them from running away. Wolfram had no intention of chasing them afterward. "Take the prisoners aside and surround them with a wall, made of rock or lava, so that they don't escape!"

He approached with the rest of the soldiers and looked at the bandits gathering at the passage. With them stood two merchant carts, probably recently raked. They looked rich, so maybe this would motivate the thieves not to run away. That they also had to be so unlucky that they ended up just at the moment when the bunch decided to go on an outing and would now be fighting on unfavorable terrain. At least they decided to leave some of their men in the hideout, so Wolfram's men had the advantage in numbers. Still, there were at least twenty of them.

"Do you still have some power left?" he asked Helgard, who nodded quickly. "Then make it so that the passage is only stable on our side."

After leaving Helgard alone with his work, he approached Lodin's bunch, Arwin and Derwen behind him.

"Did they find our horses?"

"They came from the other side, so rather not," one of the soldiers answered him.

"Start firing in such a way that they won't think to flee that way," he gave the command to the archer and went to the very front. Lodin continued to stand in place, looking like an enraged bull. Just a simple sign, and he would fly to attack.

"You now have the opportunity to surrender yourselves into our hands voluntarily!" he shouted at full lungs, pulling a sword from its scabbard. "If you do not put down your weapons, we will make you do it by force."

The laughs that came from the bunch meant that they chose the latter option. So be it.

He turned his head to Lodin and was already about to give the order to attack when there was a stir among the bandits, and a massive man in rich furs and with gold chains stepped forward. He was probably the leader of this band. The cow horns awkwardly attached to his head clearly indicated this. He probably started to say something, but Wolfram completely ignored him. He had no intention of taking these people seriously.

He waved at Lodin, who smiled broadly, lifted his axe from the ground, and rushed forward, leaping high into the air where the ground was no longer stable. He landed right in front of the leader of the bandits, swung his weapon, and hit him in the head with the poll so that he flew to the side. His head shattered into pieces with an unpleasant crack, the remains of his skull, along with blood and chunks of brain, splattered on Lodin and the bandits standing behind their leader. Most of them went pale at the sight. Wolfram caught his forehead and sighed.

"And what's the use of hitting him with the blunt side if it's going to kill him anyway, you idiot!" he exclaimed, to which Lodin only looked at him apologetically. Sure, grin, you're not the one who will need to explain it later.

The first round of arrows flew, cutting off the escape route of the bandits, who began to retreat at the sight of what had befallen their commander.

"Take care of them quickly before this idol kills them!" he called out to his men. "Helgard, stabilize the road!"

Once the ground was suitable for passage, Wolfram ran forward quickly, and once he was in place, the first thing he did was give Lodin a ferocious whack on the head with the pommel of his sword. And, of course, the man didn't even falter.

"If you keep murdering people like this, I'll take that hatchet away from you!" He shouted, not paying attention to what was going on around him. His men were efficiently dealing with thugs devoid of morale.

"Forgive, Captain. It's just that kind of weapon. It's hard not to smash anything with it."

"I don't care what you do with them; the important thing is that they survive this. Do we understand each other?"

Lodin thought for a moment, then grinned.

"Aye, aye, Captain! I'll make sure no one has the means to escape." He grabbed his axe with renewed vigor and rushed after the two bandits who were trying to squeeze between the wagons and escape. After a moment, one of them was already missing a leg.

"Handling him is like dealing with a wild dog." Wolfram sighed, looking around, but the situation was already under control. All that remained was to tie up and bandage the captured criminals, and they could return. It was a good thing they had those carts at hand, it would be easier to take them away.

And there was still the question of the body with the shattered skull. Wolfram didn't particularly care what would happen to the bandits, whether they would survive or not, and whether they had all their limbs. He might as well have beheaded them all here on the spot, the evidence of their crimes being at hand, after all. But he knew Yuuri wouldn't like that, so he refrained from doing so. Even so, there was still one death due to an uncontrollable idiot.

Well, such things do happen, don't they? Unpleasant terrain, the fervor of battle, someone could accidentally lose his head. He will hand over the body to the guards in the city and tell them to take care of it. He just hoped Yuuri wouldn't ask about it, because it would be hard to explain. He wasn't sure if he would even be able to lie. Therefore, it would be better if the conversation didn't happen at all.

They prepared for the road by herding those who couldn't walk onto the carts, then tied the rest up and lined them up, and then, after bringing their horses, took them towards the city.

All the way, Wolfram had to listen to Lodin herding the prisoners like a herd of cows.