122 The Bandit Fortress (1/2)

The group of bandits took a few minutes to recover from the scare. After the bandits recovered, both Lucien's group and the bandits headed to the ”fortress”, the bandits home.

Everyone was walking in silence as they did not want to offend the devil, who was among them.

The men did not find it difficult to keep their gaze away from the beauties as the image of their comrade's head flying away was still very clear in their minds.

But the women, even in fear, could not help but take quick looks at Lucien. After all, the devil is very ”tempting.”

Neola was also looking at Lucien, sometimes with a confused look, other times thoughtful, some even angry. But strangely, she wasn't so afraid of him anymore.

That is actually a side effect of his life mana, which made people who tasted it feel more comfortable around Lucien. After all, it is pure life energy.

Of course, both the effect of Lucien's demonic energy and life mana was fatal to women of the Zero Realm, but it would be less efficient with people of the Mortal Realm and higher Realms.

Lucien saw Neola looking at him, and he couldn't help but smile at her. ”Still afraid of me or are you angry because I told you the truth about you stinking?”

Neola didn't want to be easily provoked by Lucien, so she changed the subject. ”How do you know who I am? How do you know about Enzo? I don't even know your name.”

Lucien introduced himself and was sincere about how he knew about them. ”Some of your friends are staying in the Bluewind castle prison. They told my friend about you and Enzo.”

Not only Neola, but the other bandits made a face. Even though they were bandits, they were a group and would not be happy knowing that their comrades were tortured and imprisoned.

Still, they couldn't do anything against Lucien right now, so Neola kept talking in an attempt to distract Lucien.

”So, you found out about us, the terrible bandits, and as the heroic knight of the kingdom, you only came with your women to solve the problem?”

Lucien shook his head. ”Not exactly... Well, I'll tell you the truth since you'll be my loyal servant soon.”

Neola had to restrain herself from telling Lucien to fuck himself because of his arrogance, but she was silent and listened to what he was going to say.

”I first thought of just killing you guys. Fast and effective. But the truth is, I need troops. I have powerful mages and incredible warriors, but I have no soldiers.”

Neola couldn't help but make a confused expression. ”Do you want to recruit us, forest bandits, for your personal army?”

”Yes, why not? I can offer rewards that no one else can or do you really like living in the forest smelling like that?” Lucien smiled at her.

'Patience, Neola, patience... We're almost there... just keep-' She tried to stay calm, but Lucien's insults about how she smells somehow made her angry easily.

”FUCK OFF!!! Can you stop saying that I stink?” As soon as she yelled at Lucien, the other bandits were tense, but again he didn't seem to care.

Lucien shrugged. ”After I spend two days washing you, and you stop smelling, I will stop commenting on it.”

Neola blushed, not by embarrassment, but anger. ”Why are you so arrogant? Do you think you are a god just because you are handsome?”

”Don't insult my man! Gods are disgusting creatures!!” Lust complained, leaving everyone confused about what she was talking about.

Lucien hugged Lust's waist as they walked, making her calm down. ”Okay, let's not fight. We need to save our energy to fight the Light Empire's soldiers.”

Lust liked being spoiled by Lucien, so she leaned her head on his shoulder. They were not running, just walking fast because they were already close to the fortress.

”Only one mile, and we will arrive at the fortress. It's in the clearing behind that hill.” Neola pointed to a hill about eight hundred meters from them.

Lucien knew that there were many people above the hill, but that is not the fortress. The fortress is two miles to the west, Lucien could hear more people there.

He could also hear people talking on the hill. It is a trap set up for cases where a group of them is taken as hostage.

It seemed very well thought out. The hostage group would take their kidnappers in the direction of the fortress, but they had no way of knowing about the watchmen who would alert their people if the bandits used another route, thus initiating the trap.

But how could Lucien be caught off guard? He could hear everything within a range of almost three miles, even with several different sounds in the forest.

Almost five hundred meters from the hill, Lucien stopped. Neola couldn't help but panic. ”What happened? Is there a problem? We're almost there.”

Lucien looked into Neola's eyes. He couldn't blame her for still being hostile to him. But he did not want to kill the group of bandits who could be his vanguard.

”I will forgive you for this trap this time. If you want to avoid a massacre, then tell your comrades not to attack my group.”

'FUUUCK!! What's is up with him? What kind of monster is he? A real devil?!?!' Neola can't help but curse Lucien in her mind.

Still, cursing him wouldn't change the fact that her trap wouldn't work. Now, what should she do? Take the devil to her fortress? He always seemed to be one step ahead of her, so she feared the worst.

Lucien saw that Neola was in doubt about what to do, but time was something they didn't have right now.

”Every second that you spend thinking, the less time we have to save your people.”

Neola looked at him angrily. ”Is all you know how to do is threaten us?”

Lucien sighed. ”It is not me that you have to fear. I'm talking about the Light Empire army that arrived at the gates of your fortress.”

”Also, they brought hostages and are threatening to kill them right now.”

”WHAT?!?!” Neola was surprised for a second before making a thoughtful expression.

”How can you say that? Do you think I will believe this joke? I-” Neola stopped talking when she saw Lucien pointing in the exact direction of the fortress.

Not only did he point the fortress, but he also started to speak names. Names of people he shouldn't know. Then he pointed to the hill and began to speak the names of the people who were also there.