Chapter 120: Persuading Eddison Part 2 (1/2)
Honestly, all that meant just one thing…it was just too late to run away now…
“If the enemy is truly that strong then that’s all the more reason I won’t let you guys off the hook.” It was then that Ancarin showed a side of her which I had never seen before. While she was still smiling, that smile had a sinister undertone to it. “If you’re so adamant about rejecting us then I’m afraid I’ll have to employ certain measures instead.”
“Hmph! A one-star like you?” Eddison said scornfully. A one-star mage’s powers were clear for all to see. Even if she was a hundred meters away from him, he would be able to deflect her spells easily with his aura, let alone at this close distance. With a few rapid dashes, he could easily cover a hundred meters in mere seconds and punch her. Of course all this was under the assumption that she had no enchanted gear.
“Of course not, I still don’t have the strength to defeat a three-star warrior, but in terms of forcing a person to listen to my whims, I’m a lot stronger than you.”
As those words left her mouth, Eddison furrowed his eyebrows partly in confusion and partly in alarm. Even I was confused by her baseless declaration.
“What do you mean by that?” Asked Eddison.
“I know that you’re unwilling to participate in a battle you aren’t sure of, and I also understand that you’re concerned about the wellbeing of your village. However, seeing as you aren’t able to make this decision yourself, I’ll just have to make it for you.” She declared once more with that sinister smile on her face.
“Just now, I mentioned that we killed a couple of trained wolves and ended up implicating Plateau Village. From this point alone, one can see that the bandits see us as enemies. Given their nature, what if we were to…flee to the East Plateau Village in the event of our defeat? I wonder what those bandits would do then.”
“…” His face darkened in an instant, his gaze a bone-chilling cold. His eyes no longer held the admiration they had before and instead contained an undisguised hostility. “I’ll hand you over to them then!”
“Hah, the fact that I dare to say this now means that I’m more than confident about being able to evade capture. Even a three-star like you wouldn’t be able to catch a mage dead set on escape.” Ancarin tossed him a disdainful smile as she casually brought out several low-grade equipment and fiddled with them.
“All these are magical tools meant for escaping. This piece here increases my running speed. This hinders my enemies’ movements. As for this, it has a levitation spell built into it, this…”
As if reading off a catalog, she began introducing every piece of magical tool she had. With each piece she brought out, Eddison’s face became increasingly more sullen. The moment she mentioned that she still had much more in the carriage, the fatty had basically given up on trying to capture her.
According to her, should this plan ever fail we would flee to East Plateau Village and use it as a shield. While the village fought with the bandits, we would make use of that opportunity to escape. As we still had Duran’s sports car of a carriage ready in the wings, being able to flee from the bandits was a guaranteed fact.
When the bandits discovered that we were gone, the first people they would blame would be the villagers. Even if they knew that they weren’t sheltering us, the bandits would make use of this excuse to raid the village. After all, by the time they reached the East Plateau Village, they would still be in the midst of a bloodthirsty frenzy after massacring the three other villages.
Even if the intention wasn’t to wipe them out, the bandits would still make use of this chance to show their dominance in order to deter any future resistance.
“So that’s your plan?”
Eddison naturally wasn’t foolish enough to doubt what a bunch of strangers would do, so he posed this question to George.
“…I’m sorry but I do not wish for the villagers to get massacred, so I chose to resist.” George avoided answering his question directly, but even so, his apologetic tone was evidence enough. While he wasn’t going to take part in this scheme actively, he still gave his tacit approval to it. Deep down, he desperately wanted Eddison to join their side even if it meant resorting to such a threat. With several hundreds of lives in his hands, there’s no trick too dirty to use.
“But I do not wish for my villagers to get embroiled in a battle we are bound to lose!”
By now, he had completely abandoned his calm demeanour as he glared furiously at the girl. Yet just as he was about to continue yelling, the beautiful lady servant came in with a platter of portioned out fish.
As if she hadn’t heard a word we said, she silently served us our fish and ended with a “I’ll go prepare the mashed potatoes.”
Eddison calmed down slightly at that. After waiting for her to return to the kitchen, he let out a long helpless sigh. “Even if I join you guys in fighting them, you still won’t win against Dawson. If that story is true, then even if he isn’t a four-star, he still possesses the strength to kill one.”
“Four-star…even if four of us gang up on him, we still can’t defeat a four-star. Not to mention that there’s still Dohby, the Second Chief, and at least 500 bandit minions…”
After a short introduction, I learnt that Dohby was the older brother of Doran, and was even stronger than him; making him at least a three-star peak warrior. While he might not be able to defeat George in a one on one, he could still stall for time.
Thus, we were placed in a precarious stalemate; we wanted him to help us defeat Dawson but he was unwilling to do so as Dawson was too strong. If this farce continued any longer, the situation might take an unexpected and fatal turn. We might end up pushing him towards Dawson or force him to attack us instead. Even if he didn’t do so, there’s a chance he might fake allegiance and backstab us at the crucial moment.