CHAPTER 477: EVEN A GOOD-NATURED PERSON LIKE ME WILL GET ANGRY (1/2)
Her mission was in the small mountain village of Lyon, located roughly 25km from where we were. It was said that people often went missing in this village, only to be found later as a corpse drained of its blood.
Normally, such a case would be attributed to Vampires, but Vampires were often more discreet in their dealings, given their obvious weakness to sunlight and fire. Because of this weakness, their normal methods were to raise Blood Ghouls as a source of blood and as protection during the day.
(TL: I’m assuming the author meant to say that the vampires didn’t usually kill their victims or leave them lying around. The original text was quite disjointed.)
Lyon was a large village of over a thousand villagers. Had it not been for the remoteness of the village restricting merchant trade, such a village would have already evolved into a town.
By convention, only settlements that were at least a town could apply to the headquarters of the Demon Hunters to have a branch office set up in their settlement. In other words, Lyon did not qualify for a Demon Hunter branch and could only rely on outside help to solve their troubles. Which would not have been a problem, if the Humans were more proficient in dimensional magic like the Elves. Basically speaking, there weren’t many teleportation arrays in the Human kingdoms, and those that existed were all in the hands of the elite or required exorbitant amounts of gold to use.
For the villagers of Lyon to issue a request for help, a large amount of time was required. By the time help arrived, a portion of the villagers had already begun migrating away. However, a large majority still chose to stay behind because moving away wasn’t a good option either. The living conditions in the Western Human Realms weren’t high in general, so even if they moved away, they did not stand a good chance of surviving. Rather than starve to death in the wilderness, it would make more sense to take a chance in one’s home.
Under the leadership of Jill, we quickly reached the outskirts of Lyon, about ten kilometers away from the entrance. As luck would have it, we encountered a band of bandits on the road. They were roughly one hundred strong, decked out in patchwork leather armor and armed to the teeth with a hodgepodge of weapons.
Unfortunately for the man, his otherwise impressive opening was quickly blotted out by his underlings. “A robbery! This is a robbery! Hand over your coins right now!”
I just knew that bandits were all cut off the same cloth, no matter what world we are talking about…
“Master… they are…” As always, our resident timid girl was ready and waiting in my arms, shivering away in fright. In contrast, Mo Ning was more annoyed than scared as she stomped on the grounds a couple of times in irritation.
Being at the head of the pack, Reyage and the remaining guards all hopped off their horses while Zurnalin, who was riding beside me just now, got off and shielded me from the front.
It was then that Jill rode up to me and whispered, “Lady Mo Ke, I think that bandit leader is at least Four-star, how about we…”
“Don’t worry, just leave this to Zurnalin and Reyage.”
“But their numbers… and we have horses on our side. There’s no chance at all that they can catch up to us. We can always regroup and attack them later.” Still unfamiliar with our strength, it was only understandable that she was worried right now.
However, her words were picked up by the leader who immediately said, “Hah! You think you can get away just because you have horses?!” At that point, he waved his hand and a couple dozen bandits stepped out of the crowd, each wielding a hunting bow, nocked and aimed right at us. “We only want your coins, not your bodies. As long as you hand over the toll, we will let you pass unharmed. Otherwise… our arrows are more than ready to make your acquaintance.”
A few seconds and nothing happened. Seeing that we weren’t reacting at all, the bandit leader tried to intimidate us once more. Yet just as he was planning to do so, his eyes came to rest upon me. His lips curled into a smirk and his eyes ogled me for a good long while before, finally, he said, “Hey, you there, the smug-looking woman. You and your maid had better surrender right now or else. In fact, if you do not wish to suffer a fate worse than death, you had better serve me well.”
Am I hearing things right? A soon-to-be-dead bandit is trying to perform the act of unsanctioned fornication on me?! I see now. Just because I don’t lose my temper often, a bunch of small fries think they can step on me!
I gently ruffled Jezsere’s hair then sneered at them. “A fate worse than death? What exactly do you have in mind?”
“That will depend on you. If you serve me well, then that’s it. Otherwise, I will have to have you practise with my underlings as well.” The bandit leader then broke out into a boisterous laugh. “Hahaha. Make your choice: me or them?”
“Of course she’s going to choose us, boss. Just look at her, she’s not going to be satisfied with just you.”
“Boss. Boss. Don’t forget about us once you’ve had your fun! This is one’s a looker, she is. My body is just aching thinking about how I’m going to feel her up and down. Too bad about that chest though. But I guess flatness has its advantages too.”