CHAPTER 480: IT’S ALL UP TO ME NOW (2/2)
Even though Neneth was admittedly a cute girl, there were some mistakes that couldn’t be overlooked. Especially when it came to my gender.
“Huh? So it’s pretty brother then?” Neneth hopped off her horse, bread safely cupped in both her hands. She then leaned in and gave me a sniff before breaking out in a smile, “Oh, sister is such a kidder. There’s no way a boy would ever be so fragrant.”
“I…” But I’m really a man… why does no one believe me…
Yet just as I was busy being tormented by the question of my gender, Nicole who hadn’t spoken up till now suddenly asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m Mo…” I barely managed to catch my tongue in time. Thankfully, I was able to stop myself when I noticed Nicole’s eyes sharpening when I said Mo. I swallowed by reflex and said, “I’m Mo Na.”
Good daughter of mine, I hope you won’t mind that I borrow your name for a while. I promise I will return it right away once I’m done. So be good and don’t cause trouble. I swear, I’m at wit’s end here…
“Mo Na…” Nicole softly repeated the name of my daughter, eyes never blinking as she stared at me. My heart couldn’t help but race as I worried whether or not my cover had been blown.
“Greetings, Sister Mo Na, I’m Neneth.” Said Neneth while she happily waved at me. She then introduced Nicole as well, “This here is my sister, Nicole.”
“Greetings as well. I plan to travel to the nearby Lyon, what about you two?”
Now was the time to take the initiative by stating my objective before Nicole. This way, even if she felt that this was too much of a coincidence, she shouldn’t be all that suspicious. After all, her intelligence shouldn’t have any report about me being here.
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“What a coincidence. We’re heading there too.” As she said that, she waved her obviously bitten bread and smiled happily. “Well, since we’re both heading there, how about Sister Mo Na join us!”
“Alright, I was thinking the same thing as well.” I quickly threw her an approving look. Even though this girl seemed callous at first, she actually wasn’t such a bad person after all. However, when my eyes swept over the kneeling bandits, I realised another problem. How was I going to find an excuse to let them go? After all, with that spider in their bodies, there was no way they would ever dare defy me. Leaving them alive could prove useful in the future.
“So what should we do with these fellows?” I casually asked.
“You’re the one who captured them, this has nothing to do with me.” Nicole impatiently snapped.
“That’s right. Sister Nicole, how you handle them is up to you.”
Their attitudes towards this matter were crystal clear: they didn’t care. Yet I clearly couldn’t let them off the hook so easily either. In that case, there was no choice but to have them suffer a little and fake their deaths.
With that in mind, I declared, “A trial is unnecessary then. Bandits are all bad people, leaving them alive would only bring tragedy in the future. In that case…”
“No! Please, we’re actually just villagers from Lyon. We had no choice but to become bandits… please let us go, brave heroines… Didn’t you say that you were heading to Lyon, we can guide you all to the village!” Having completely missed my point, the bandit leader honestly thought that I was about to kill them all so he immediately jumped to his feet and yelled. “I know you. You must be from the Demon Hunters. I recognise the insignia on your clothes. We really had no choice but to become bandits… it’s all that Vampire’s fault…”
The bandit leader then began his woeful recount of how a Vampire brought ruin to their village. As he spoke, I could clearly hear the resentment and resignation in his voice.
So they really were forced into becoming bandits…and not the professional kind.
The village of Lyon was a highly populated settlement. But because of the village’s inherent bad geography, the majority of the villagers were impoverished. Unlike my previous world, this world wasn’t a kind one to the ordinary folk. Even if they were suffering, the leader of the territory would never spend a dime on bettering their lives.
It was under such a backdrop that the situation of the villagers got increasingly worse. Leaving the village carried a very real risk of starving to death or just being captured as slaves. Yet staying behind was certain death as well.
Faced with such a disaster, those that had the ability to leave had already left. Those who could not weren’t going to quietly wait for their deaths either.
In actuality, the villagers of Lyon had not only requested aid from the Demon Hunters, they had also made the same request of several mercenary troupes. Because of a Vampire’s obvious weakness to sunlight, even ordinary troops stood a chance at victory as long as they were crafty. Unfortunately, the Vampire in question was just too strong. They had hired three mercenary troupes in the shortest time possible, each more powerful than the other. Unfortunately, every one of them had been met with failure. In fact, some of the mercenaries had even turned into slaves for the Vampire. The fact that their efforts did not weaken the Vampire but ended up strengthening it instead was just sad…
It was also because of this that this mission was stuck in limbo for a good long while in the Demon Hunters. The constantly rising difficulty of the mission meant that the Demon Hunters could not figure out who to send to rescue the villagers. After all, Lyon wasn’t the only village they had to look after. They couldn’t waste unnecessary manpower on a task if it did not warrant such effort. When facing a Vampire, sending more than necessary might even backfire…