CHAPTER 489: A TRAP (1/2)

Leeder watched with a heavy heart as Mo Ke and the others rode off into the distance. Yet he wasn’t the only one that day that had a heavy heart, the villagers watching with him did as well. In actuality, there were a lot of unusual points about the Vampire’s incursion. Perhaps the other villagers might not have noticed, but as the interim village chief, he had to be more observant than the ordinary villagers.

For example: why did the Vampire even attack them to begin with? Lyon wasn’t the only village within a fifteen kilometer radius, there were at least two others with a population of several hundreds. Logically speaking, the resistance he would face in these villages would be a lot less than what he faced in a large village like theirs. So why did the Vampire even attack them to begin with?

It was a strange choice, to be sure. Furthermore, since the two months he started attacking this village, he hadn’t targeted any of the other villages. And he only took one victim with him, no more, no less.

The Vampire’s motives clearly weren’t just about hunting prey or raising livestock. If he wanted to capture livestock for himself, there was no way he would ever allow the villagers to get wind of his activities. After all, Lyon had sent three expeditions to slay him because they had managed to get word of his activities. Rather than filling his belly with blood, it would make more sense to say that his actions were aimed at terrorizing the village.

Before Mo Ke, the previous village chief had sent out three waves of mercenaries, even losing his life in the last wave. After each wave, the Vampire would change the location of his nest, so Leeder did not know the exact location of the nest. Initially, he planned to mobilise the villagers to help track down the nest of the Vampire, in a bid to curry some favour with Mo Ke. Yet who would have thought that before he could even make the suggestion, Regine and Reyage had already brought back news of the Vampire’s exact location.

With that plan now dashed against the rocks, Leeder was more than a little concerned about his well-being. After all, Mo Ke was a monster who could easily order the slaughter of ninety people without batting an eye -ninety lives!

Even though he was a bandit, the amount of people he had killed wasn’t many. Certainly not ninety in one go; he was after their money, not their lives. Other than killing off some of their more persistent targets and harassing some beautiful women, Leeder felt his crimes weren’t that bad at all. For the most part, he saw his actions as means of survival.

At the start, his plan was to just run away to the city and settle down after his first robbery. Unfortunately, the members of his bandit troupe still had family members they were concerned about in Lyon so that plan didn’t pan out in the end. Plus, he himself had a father to avenge. That was what led to them staying behind. None of them expected then that this fateful decision would lead them to the disaster known as Mo Ke.

However, all that wasn’t important now. Mo Ke was now off to find trouble with the Vampire. Whether he succeeded in slaying that Vampire or whether he ended up being killed by that Vampire, he was happy either way. To some degree, he was trying to comfort himself: perhaps if Mo Ke died, his parasite spiders would die along with him as well. And if they didn’t, hopefully Mo Ke would be able to slay that Vampire.

By now, Mo Ke’s entourage had disappeared into the horizon. Leeder chased away the gloomy thoughts in his head with a shake. Yet, somehow, he felt tired. Even though he had just woken up, he wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep.

But just as he was about to reach his home, an old wizened voice called out to him.

“Leeder, come here for a moment.”

“Granny Adele?” Leeder turned in the direction of the voice to find a hunchback old lady standing in front of her home, waving in his direction. She wore a relatively clean, set of black robes that obscured her hair with its hood. The only parts of her that were visible were her wrinkled face and shrivelled hands that resembled a chicken’s feet.

“Good lad. Come over here quickly, and have a seat with your granny.

Leeder was quite familiar with this old lady. She was a kind lady that often gave sweets to the children of the village. When he was young, he himself was given some of her handmade treats; till now, he still couldn’t forget how delicious they were.

Having entered her home, Leeder found himself an available seat and sat down, back faced against the wall. “Granny, you were looking for me?”

Granny Adele poured some hot water into a cup then handed it to him. “They have gone to slay the Vampire?”

“Mhm.” Leeder absentmindedly answered the question, following which he gulped down a mouthful of the liquid. It was piping hot, as you would expect. The drink itself was bitter at first but left a sweet aftertaste in the mouth. It was tea made from the Sorrel Herb. The poor weren’t able to afford coffee beans so they often used this herb to serve their guests instead.

Upon drinking the tea, Leeder’s anxiety finally calmed down.

“Do you think they will succeed this time?” Granny Adele smiled at him from the side.

“I think so…” As he said that, Leeder couldn’t help but remember the frightening display of prowess brought to bear against his bandits. The more he thought about that almost miraculous monster summoned out of pure flames, the more he felt sure that the Vampire was doomed and that salvation had come to his village.

“They will definitely succeed.”

“That’s right, they will definitely succeed.”

Regardless of whether or not he had a parasitic spider in his belly right now, the Vampire was a problem that had to be solved sooner or later. Even if the villagers were strong of will, it was only a matter of time before they collapsed mentally from living under the thumb of that Vampire. Not to mention the fact that the villagers already had their hopes dashed thrice. If Leeder who was a Four-star was already about to give up, those ordinary villagers weren’t going to fare any better.

“What about Ludean and the others who left with you?” Perhaps Granny Adele had sensed the unease in his voice, but she suddenly changed the topic. “In the past, everyone who left with you would return together, so why do I only see the eight of you this time?”

“Ludean and the rest… are busy outside. They won’t be returning anytime soon…”

Ludean was one of the bandits slain by Mo Ke. Being reminded of him all of a sudden also brought up memories of how he was force fed a spider, bringing a bout of cold sweat to him.

Noticing this as well, Granny Adele continued asking, “Busy? Shouldn’t they return with you? And isn’t it too much of a coincidence that all ninety one of them suddenly became busy together?”

“Haha… that’s just how it is sometimes with coincidences… I can’t help it as well. We struck a really good deal this time, once they all return, we will all be rich… the village as well… we can rebuild the village and everyone will have a better life…”

Leeder didn’t dare reveal the death of Ludean yet, so he had no choice but to come up with a random story to explain their absence.