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Chapter 04: Meet the Adventurers
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Being surrounded by the horses, all that Neraz could do at that time was counting the number of people around him and try to formulate a plan to escape. There were around 50 people in total and from their appearances; there were probably adventurers who came here to subjugate the bandits. They must have thought that he was one of the bandits since he came from their hideout.
Neraz who couldn’t stand the tense atmosphere any longer spoke, “Just so you know, I’m not a bandit. They kidnapped me and I managed to escape just now.”
A warrior wearing black gilded armour stared intensely at Neraz. He was contemplating whether the words that Neraz said were believable or not. From his experience, youths like Neraz were sometimes kidnapped to be sold as a slave, but he couldn’t just blindly believe him since he might be lying just to get away. In the end, he made a decision to just restrain Neraz first until the bandits had been subjugated.
“For now, let’s restrain him first. We’ll question him later after we’re done with the bandits,” he gave out instructions to his comrades.
Neraz was tied again for the second time in this world. He really wanted to complain to the God that brought him here for his misfortune but just kept silent since he knew that it would be futile. He allowed the person who was garbed in armour suitable for a rogue.
The person was a woman with gray hair and her armour’s size was the perfect for her, emphasizing her lines and curves. Her clear azure eyes were captivating if one were to directly look at them. Her pink alluring lips would make any man tremble in holding in their desire.
Whether it was unfortunate or not, Neraz was actually in some way or another, a person who hated love. To be exact, he hated the relationship of a man and a woman. It was because in the past, when he was 11 year-old, he had been thoroughly rejected when he confessed his love to a girl.
It would be fine if the girl just nicely said that she doesn’t have any feelings for him, but she actually called her friends to come to the place where Neraz called her and after he insulted him with words like ‘asshole’ or ‘dick’, or… well, it’s those kind of words, her friends were the one to continue insulting him next. To add, her boyfriend that was nonexistent before came and kissed her in front of Neraz. Believe it or not, it was actually an 11 year-old who did this. Oh, and this is just an extra, but the guy who kissed the girl was found half-dead in a trash can three months after that.
The blow that Neraz receive at that time was really huge to the point that he truly hated relationships between man and woman. That was why, even if he saw a beautiful woman like the rogue who tied him up, he wouldn’t really feel anything special in his heart. His only thought of the woman was, ‘Damn bitch. If only I have any information whether killing you guys would be troublesome for me or not in the future, your head would’ve long since left your body.’
After tying Neraz up, the woman stood opposite to where Neraz was tied to while the others went to the bandit’s hideout. Incidentally the current Neraz was tied using a thick rope along with the tree behind him. Not only his torso was tied, his legs too, were unable to make any movement. Being in the uncomfortable position, he could do nothing but glare at the gray-haired woman in front of him. Neraz right now had a little bit of comprehension regarding his strength when fighting a normal human, though he doesn’t really know the standards of normal in this world.
The woman, as if not noticing the glare that was given by Neraz, kept watching him in an uninterested manner. Physically, she was definitely watching Neraz so as to not let him escape but Neraz could feel that she was actually thinking about something else. Her absentminded face had revealed everything to Neraz.
Seeing that she wasn’t really focusing on him, Neraz wanted to use that chance to break free but when the sound of the rope ripping a little bit was heard, the gray-haired woman suddenly appeared in front of him while holding a dagger right in front of his eyes. He was obviously startled to see the sudden appearance of the sharp point of the dagger right in front of him. He didn’t dare to move even a bit.
The woman moved to check the condition of rope and indeed she saw a part of the rope had been ripped. She then took out a small silver sack from god knows where, and took out another rope. The diameter of the rope was four inches from what Neraz saw and from that alone, he could not even think how the rope could fit in such a small bag.
‘Could it be that it’s this world’s inventory system?’ he thought,
The woman, not minding Neraz’s inquisitive eyes, tied him with that thick rope and when she completed her task, the only thing that could be seen of Neraz was only his head and feet. Though he was really furious at the woman for the moment, it had been suppressed by his curiosity.
He really wanted to ask the woman about the sack but he was afraid that if the sack was something that every people would have, he asking about it would definitely cause some suspicions in the woman’s heart and it’d definitely lead to a trouble in the future. In the end he didn’t say anything and just stood there silently.
Just after around three minutes of him being tied up for the second time, the other adventurers came back with perplexed looks on their faces. Neraz knew why they made such faces but the gray-haired woman on the other hand, was quite shocked to see that the others had returned already. It had only been a few minutes since they left and they had already returned back from subjugating a gang of bandits.
The warrior with the black gilded armour faced her and shook his head.
“We went there but the only things that we found inside were the items that had been collected by the bandits. As for the bandits themselves…,” the guy seemed to hesitate a bit before continuing. “… they had all been eradicated. None of them were left and some even had their body parts separated. The scene was truly…”
The man did not continue his words but anybody who listened to them could imagine what the scene appeared like. When the gray-haired woman heard the man’s words, she felt as if she was struck by lightning. Her world crumbled and she started having a hard time to breath.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The adventurers who were there became worried when they saw the woman’s condition. Immediately, two female healers came forward and chanted some gibberish in Neraz’s ears. When they finished the chant, their right hand started glowing a golden colour and they put one hand on the woman’s chest and the other one covered her nose and mouth. After that, the gray-haired woman was able to breathe normally again.
Neraz who saw this scene was incredibly surprised. He could guess that the magic earlier was healing magic but because of his experience in gaming and reading litRPGs, when it comes to healing magic, it would only be able to heal wounds or remove any debuffs. In some cases, healing could even be used to fight undead mobs. Never would he think that healing could help in aiding people with sudden breathing problems. It was a new discovery for him.
He himself have to skills that could be used to heal, even if its effect was significantly lower than the effects of healing casted by healers or priest. Now that he had gotten this information, he really wanted to experiment with his skills, even the ones restricted for combat use only.
When the woman’s breathing had completely stabilized, she said, “I’m going to look at it,” and immediately ran towards the direction of the cave. The two healers followed her in case she got a sudden attack again. After the woman was out of view, the black warrior moved his sight towards the youth. He was shocked to see that the rope used to tie him became bigger since when he first left, he was sure that the rope used was smaller.
However, seeing this only increased the warrior’s vigilance. The usage of a sturdier rope meant that the one used earlier was unable to properly restrain the youth. From his knowledge, even he would have a hard time in breaking free if he were restrained by the first rope used. Even he would’ve to take a few hours before breaking out but the youth was able to do that in only a time span of a few minutes!
The warrior had seen the current situation inside the bandit’s hideout and a few questions would naturally pop out inside his head. ‘What happened?’, ‘Who did this?’, those questions kept circulating in his mind and the only clue that he have in answering the questions, was the youth who only his head and legs could be seen after being tied up by the gray-haired woman.
He needed the youth alive so that he’d be able to get the answers that he needed. He stood in front of the youth and let out a strong killing intent. He first wanted to test the ability of the youth in front of him. He expected that the youth would at least last for a while. He would’ve never thought that the youth would immediately faint.
Neraz, even though he was able to kill the bandits mercilessly, he was still just an 18 year-old youth who had been living in a peaceful world without any serious conflict happening in his country. Furthermore, he doesn’t even care about those politics and what those politicians said because in his opinion, even if he took notice of them and actually participated in those voting, what one vote would change nothing when money was passed around under the table.
Imagine someone who never had never come in contact with a strong – no, even one at a moderate level, killing intent, would he be able to last even for a short time in it? The answer is no. It’s like someone who had been living in the Sahara at its hottest season was suddenly thrown to Antarctica during its coldest moment. He’d surely break.
During the time that Neraz was unconscious, the gray-haired woman came back while covering her face. From the trails of water that could be seen on her cheek, it’s clear that she was crying. The sound of sobbing that occasionally left her mouth confirmed it. The warrior who saw the crying woman gently hugged her shoulders and spoke in a gentle tone.
“You need to be strong. Even though he became a bandit, he was definitely the one that made it possible for the attacks around the area to decrease.”
“But…”
“You don’t need to be worried. He’s still your brother even if he said that he had abandoned everything. We might’ve been able to save him if we came earlier but because of a certain someone…” the warrior glanced at one of his companion.
That guy was a mage. He specialized in controlling fire magic. At the last place that they rested before arriving here, the mage lost control of his magic and a portion of their ration and sleeping tents were burned. So, they decided to hunt some game first before moving forward to the destination.
The mage started sweating bullets when the warrior’s gaze fell on him. He knew that the woman’s family had a large authority, despite her weak aptitude for magic, which the power behind her coveted. If she were to say that she wanted him dead, no matter how strong he is, he would die. Even if he didn’t, he’d live a life that’s worse than death. He’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t scared of the power behind her.
But when the mage heard what the woman said, he felt relief in his heart.
“No, it’s fine. It’s not his fault. More importantly, I want to know who was the one who did that,” said the woman after she had regained her composure.
“Well, we don’t know who that person is but that kid there might know,” said the warrior while pointing at Neraz.
The woman looked at unconscious Neraz and seemed to be deep in thought. She might’ve thought of something since her eyes were widened for a while but she probably discarded that idea because after that she shook her head.
“Well then, let’s bring him back to the capital,” said the woman.
“Understood,” answered the warrior.
After that, the large party mixed of different classes of adventurers went back while bringing along with them the loot from the bandit’s hideout. Usually, a party like this that would go on a subjugation mission would usually come back with less people but this time, surprisingly, there was an addition of one person, and that person was Neraz.
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This is the last one for today. I might not post tomorrow since I needed to get a good rest. Haven't slept for over 28h.Or maybe I should just stay longer. Meh, we'll see.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading it.