Chapter 131: Hostages (1/2)

“I only came to know of this by accident; the clothes we wore had wolf fur mixed into them.”

The fact that his clothes were made of a special material had escaped all of our eyes until the bandit guide pointed it out. Now that he mentioned it, everything finally clicked. No wonder the wolves didn’t attack them and even listened to their simple commands, those wolves thought that the bandits were their kin thanks to the scent of the fur.

“So that’s why the Wolf’s Fang bandits smelt like wolves, I always thought that the wolves’ scent had rubbed off on them since they spent a lot of time together.”

I had to admit, this was a pretty ingenious move on Dawson’s part.

Leaving the hidden room, we made our way to the other portions of the stronghold, slaughtering any bandit along the way who was foolish enough to attack us.

After a short and sometimes bloody tour, we heard a scuffle break out in the distance along with arguing.

“What’s going on over there?” Asked Dioh who had his curiosity piqued. Yet as he did so, he sneaked a glance at me before looking away a split second later.

What are you looking at me for? Are you sick or something?

“Over there is…” The bandit stammered, his eyes darting back and forth as he hesitated.

“Spit it out!” Yelled Dioh, startling the injured bandit. He crawled backwards reflexively and shut his eyes for a moment before stammering out an answer: “That’s the pros…prostitute camp…”

Prostitute camp?

I doubt there was anyone here who didn’t know what that name meant.

Upon hearing that, Dioh gaped in shock for a moment before swiftly understanding the meaning of those two words. He sneaked another glance at me, and after seeing that I had no reaction, turned around and said with crimson red ears: “Pros…prostitute camp…alright, I got it.”

With a wave of his hand, George signalled for the group to head towards that direction. It wasn’t long before we stumbled into Io and his hunters who were currently facing off against ten bandit minions. These minions were particularly noteworthy in that they were currently surrounding several dozens of naked women, and from the looks of things, these women were their hostages.

Notably, there was a familiar face within that group; that traitorous spy who sold out Plateau Village, Gill!

At this very moment, Gill was holding the hands of one of the girls, and seemed to be protecting her as he kept her hidden behind his back. While he had a slightly guilty look in his eyes as he faced off against Io, he absolutely had no intention of backing down now as he argued loudly with the hunter.

In front of Io were several bandits of whom I wasn’t even sure if they were still alive or not. Their bodies were riddled with arrows and blade cuts which I assumed were from the hunters.

“What’s going on?” George asked as he turned towards Io, ignoring the traitor completely as he did so.

With a finger pointed at the bandits and the prostitutes, Io gave a basic rundown of the situation: “Not long ago, I heard some screaming from the prostitutes and brought some people over to investigate. As for what happened after that, the situation is as you see right now.”

If I’m not mistaken, these bandit minions were probably trying to take the women away with them, but were unfortunately interrupted by the hunters who were lured here by the din they caused. With their arch-nemesis status, the two parties naturally engaged in battle at first sight with the outcome being obvious; a complete victory for the hunters who had the three-star hunter, Io, aiding them.

Seeing the unstable look on George’s face, Gill immediately begged for mercy, fearing that the hunter would give the order to massacre them: “Big…George, you’ve already won, there’s no need to massacre everyone is there?”

“Massacre everyone?” George gave a cold laugh as he said that. “Dawson seemed to had no qualms about massacring us just recently. What’s the matter, are you all afraid now? I don’t remember you questioning Dohby when he called for the massacre of the villagers!”

“…” Gill kept silent at that. Back when the order was given, he hadn’t participated in the massacre. While he had sold out George and Plateau Village, he still had some basic humanity left in him and didn’t kill the innocent villagers. Plus, if he had stood out then, Dohby would’ve killed him on the spot to protect his reputation.”

However, what’s the use of saying all that now? Would saying that turn back the hands of time?

The moment Gill sold out George to the Wolf’s Fang, there was no turning back. A meeting between the two would have to end in the death of one.

It was then that a towering, middle-aged bandit with three blade scars running down the right side of his face, pushed past Gill and took the center stage. He had a burly build with the back of a tiger and the waistline of a bear while his arms were probably as thick as a normal person’s thigh. Judging from his stature, he was probably some troop leader within the Wolf’s Fang.

This troops leader clearly wasn’t afraid of these two three-star warriors as he boldly pointed his blade at George and threatened him with his own unique yelling technique: “I don’t care what you all are here to do but right now I have these hostages in hand. If you’re smart, you’ll stand aside or else I’ll murder all these women!”

That…would it kill you not to come on so strong right from the start? Such murderous intent from the get go.

Hostages huh…so the camp prostitutes ended up as a negotiation tool. These women were the poor souls who had been kidnapped by the bandits over time. They came from a variety of backgrounds: some were Plateau Villagers, some were from merchant families while a small portion were born into prostitution.

Putting aside those who couldn’t stand the humiliation or died for being too old, the hostage group did indeed contain some villagers. In fact, some of the hunters even recognized some familiar faces within the bunch.

Seeing as the enemy held someone they cared about, saving the hostages was basically a must now. With that, Io began negotiating with the troop leader.