153 Better the Devil than the Pig (1/2)

Rebecca's smithy, Portgreen, during the night.

The sounds of metal against metal echoed through the room as Rebecca hammered a metal breastplate.

She was finishing a black cuirass that was very thin but incredibly durable. She sighed as she spoke to herself.

”This will undoubtedly be my best work. I should have charged him more for this masterpiece.”

As she continued to work on the black cuirass, she also thought about Lucien and how handsome he is. But then some of her thoughts caused her to blush.

”Maybe I could request a special reward from him? Perfect, that definitely sounds reasonable…”

Then she heard someone knock on the smithy's door. ”Who could it be at this hour?”

Rebecca pushed her glasses up onto her forehead and went to see who was knocking on the door. She also took her forge hammer in case the person was looking for trouble.

”Who is there?” She asked, looking at the door.

An angry voice came from outside. ”Open the damn door right now, or I'll break it.”

Rebecca held firm the handle of the hammer as she spoke in an upset tone. ”Fuck you, who do you think you are? I'm going to smash your face in and then call the guards to drag you to prison.”

*Bang*

The door was kicked open, breaking the lock and sending it flying through the air. The door was very durable, so Rebecca was sure that the man who kicked it is very strong.

Still, she wasted no time and attacked him with her hammer. ”Your bastard!”

But the big man quickly grabbed the handle of the hammer and stopped Rebecca from moving it. ”You are very bold, as I was told.”

Rebecca took a good look at the big man and recognized him quickly. ”Black Hand? What do you want here?! I have nothing to do with mercenaries.”

Black Hand pushed Rebecca back and threw her hammer to the floor. ”You refused to pay the protection fee to my boys... They also told me that you are beautiful, so I had to come and personally solve this problem.”

He got a good look at Rebecca. She appeared to be almost 1.70 m tall, fair skin but slightly tanned because she spent a long time in the forge, green eyes, and medium-length blond hair.

Rebecca was disgusted by Black Hand's gaze. ”Then that's it? you just attack anyone now? Aren't you afraid of the Guild?”

Black Hand started walking towards Rebecca as she was walking backward. ”The Guild does nothing without a leader. I am the city leader, and now everyone has to follow my orders.”

She kept stepping back because she knew the city was really in chaos, and Black Hand is currently the most influential person still here.

”I don't have so much money right now. I received some orders recently and spent almost everything I had buying materials.”

Black Hand looked at her with a malicious smile. ”If you have no money, you can pay me in another way. Like serving me.”

Rebecca was really disgusted by his expression. ”I would rather die than serve a pig like you.”

He put his hand on his sword that was on his belt. ”If you prefer the hard way, that's fine. But know that I will let my boys play with you before you die.”

Black Hand started to take his sword out of his sheath, but then he stopped and took a step back while laughing.

”I heard that you are an excellent blacksmith, and as you are gorgeous, I will give you two days to think. You either pay me or work for me.”

He didn't wait for Rebecca's response and left the smithy. Outside there were several mercenaries, and he pointed to some of them while giving orders.

”Watch her. In two days, bring her to me.” Four mercenaries stood guard at the blacksmith's door while the group followed Black hand.

He required ”protection fees” from everyone in the city. The adventurers didn't like it, but they couldn't do much about it, because the mercenary groups Magic Band and Red Lady's Party accepted the command of Black Hand after their leaders disappeared along with part of their elites.

While the Guild was desperately trying to find Olivia and Ivan, the adventurers tried to stay out of trouble with the mercenaries.

Some tried to ask Lord Larousse for help, but he only cared about finding his son and sister-in-law, so Black Hand had no problem taking control of Portgreen city.

Inside the smithy, Rebecca started hitting the furniture and throwing things at the wall while she was furious.

”Damn mercenaries!! Go fuck yourselves!!”

Rebecca, like most people, did not think the situation would get so out of hand. She thought of leaving town before but chose to stay in the end.

Now she looked hopeless. She knew it wouldn't matter to ask the Guild for protection. Before, maybe, but now that Black Hand had personally requested her services, no one in the city would protect her.

She thought of running away, but she saw the four mercenaries watching the door. She could defeat two at most, but the four together would be a problem.

While Rebecca thought about what to do, she heard some strange noises outside the smithy. She was surprised when she looked at the broken door.

The bodies of the mercenaries who were watching the entrance were quickly thrown into the smithy.

”Who's there?!” Rebecca asked with a worried tone because there were arrows in the bodies of the mercenaries.

Then four hooded figures entered the room in a swift movement.

One of them took off his hood and smiled. ”Nicely done!! The synchronized arrows were perfect.”

The others took off their hoods as well, revealing their faces. A woman could not help but commend her teammates in a cheerful tone.

”That was amazing, really well done, guys.”

”I thought it would be difficult, but it was actually quite easy.” Another of them commented.

The man who had first removed the hood responded. ”It was easy because our targets equaled our numbers. If they outnumber us, they could have alerted others.”

The group seemed very excited after killing the mercenaries, which made Rebecca very confused.

”Who are you?! What do you want here?!?”

The group leader made an embarrassed expression as he bowed to Rebecca. ”I'm sorry, my lady. We are just messengers.”