Chapter 9 (1/2)
Chapter 9: Palette squad
They walked until dusk came, then just like usual they stopped to rest in a rather open clearing. Eric drew out his sword and chopped the long gra.s.s growing on the ground. After clearing it up, just when he was about to set down the box from his back, his movements suddenly paused for a moment.
Yi Longlong felt his s.h.i.+ft in demeanor, her head popped out from within the leafy clothing that covered her body. She asked with confusion, “What’s wrong?”
Eric had a moment of silence, as if he was confirming something. After some time, a smile appeared. “Someone’s heading in this direction right now.” He added on, “Around ten people… no, eleven. One of the people have very light footsteps.”
As light as a cat walking on a cus.h.i.+on.
Yi Longlong also became silent for a moment. “Hey, Eric, should we go hide ourselves?”
Although she really wanted to see other living people, there were so many coming all at once. She was still a bit instinctively timid. Should the opposing party harbor ill intentions, they would definitely be the ones suffering if a conflict arose.
Eric warmly laughed, then touched her head with a fingertip. “No need to be afraid, humans aren’t that bad, you should interact with them more.”
When the two were conversing, the other party was already closing in. The first one to emerge from the forest was a purple haired youth wearing light leather armor. Yi Longlong quickly shrank back into the leaf, her eyes a.s.sessing the incoming people through a gap.
That youth looked around the same age as Eric. A dagger hung by his waist, a crossbow and backpack on his back. His was thin but not frail, his movements extremely alert. He had dark purple short hair. Beneath his long narrow eyes was a vertical scar. At first glance it seemed like a long trail of tears, but his sharp eagle-like expression made him not look like the type of person to cry.
When he stepped out from the forest, his footsteps produced no noise at all, well at least Yi Longlong couldn’t hear it. Seems like this is the person with very light footsteps that Eric had mentioned before.
Seeing Eric, the purple haired youth was taken aback, as if he had never expected to see another person in this type of place, but he reacted quickly, his sharp expression was instantly swept away and replaced by a courteous look of goodwill. The change was so quick it nearly made Yi Longlong think that everything she had seen just then was all an illusion.
The purple haired youth lifted a hand, placed it on the other side of the shoulder and saluted with a nod towards Eric. “Please forgive my rash intrusion; we are travelers pa.s.sing by this place. May I ask if you are in the company of others?”
Eric smiled and replied in the same manner. “No, there’s only myself, and also the little fella on my back.”
The purple haired youth also felt there was something hidden in the box of leaves on Eric’s back, but he thought it was just an animal and didn’t place too much importance on it. Hearing that Eric was by himself, his movements slightly relaxed and said, “I still have companions at the back. Would you mind letting us rest in this place?”
They had walked all this way and only seen this place with a wide patch of clearing. If they were to keep moving forward, the dark night will greatly inconvenience them.
Naturally Eric smiled and said he didn’t mind.
Receiving his approval, the purple haired youth speedily returned to the forest, and then a while after that, he once again came back leading a group of people.
When she saw this group of people, Yi Longlong came up with a thought: Ah! A palette.
There were a total of eleven people in the line, five standing in front and six at the back. The six people at the back all had the same outfit and carried heavy items on their backs. Judging by their humble expressions, they were most likely followers or servants. As for the five standing at front, each person had a different hair and eye color. Other than the purple haired youth Yi Longlong had seen at first, the rest of the four were distinguished as: blond hair blue eyes, red hair fiery eyes, grey colored hair and eyes, black hair green eyes.
Each person’s colors were different, colorfully standing together simply just like an art palette.
When these people stood together, Yi Longlong could tell with a glance that among them, the blond blue eyed youth was the leader of this squad. It wasn’t because he was the handsomest of them all, and not because he wore the most extravagant and finest clothing on his body, and especially not because the sabre by his waist was fully inlaid with bright sparkling jewels, and absolutely definitely not because he had the same colored hair and pupils as Eric.
-It was because of his slightly arrogant elegance coming from his body, a concealed dignity.