Please forgive me if this is off-topic, and it's just a question out of curiosity:
the hero was traveling without an army!!! How is that possible:smile07:? It's unclear...

It's possible!! And there are many ways to do it! Here are two examples:
1) We have an army consisting of 1 Dragon. We approach the Seer's Hut (the "question guard") and give away the dragon ---> the hero is without an army.
2) During a battle, we summon Elementals. All our monsters are killed, only the elementals remain, we bribe our way out with money, and then buy a hero without an army in the tavern.

Heroes without an army move at maximum speed!! (in TES, they move at minimum speed.)