Chapter 133
Dear Old Friend
While Lord Bernie was leading the preparation for the excursion into the forest, Martell was having a discussion with Akula and Illumca in front of the Hunter’s Guild.
“This time, I want to be the one leading the party, is this fine with both of you?”
“Fine with me. Your bloodline is better at tracking than mine,” Akula said while checking her bow. “How about you, Illumca?”
The Dark Elf nodded. “Saves me the hassle,” she gestured in the direction of the local Hunter’s Guild. “But shouldn’t we also get the quest? An Urgent Quest worth a lot of points for our ranking.”
“No. We shouldn’t,” Martell said with certainty. “There are a few reasons. First, Mistress did not tell us to take it. Second, if we took the quest, what we do will become an obligation. It will be of monetary value, yes. But that’s all. What’s more important here is doing these people a favor.”
“Doing something good without asking for payback is what heroes do,” the Centaur said. “We all have enough money to last us for a lifetime, after all.”
“Indeed. That’s all it is, Zalkhin Altanghazar,” Martell smirked. “What we are doing is…heroic.”
After a while, three Hunter parties ranging from D to C rank were gathered at the town square. There were also ten men from the local militia, all of them wearing a mishmash of leather armor and iron plates. Lord Bernie climbed onto the top of an ancient stone chair and explained what they were about to do.
“…that’s all. The goal is to find three of the missing children. Three young boys. My son, Clause. Orland’s son, Matt…” the man paused, before saying with a bit more grit than needed… “And Barry’s son, Harry. Is there any other question?”
One of the Hunters, a man with a greasy mustache spoke out loud with arms folded arrogantly. “Why is there a Beastfolk boy with us? He’ll just be a hindrance.”
A dirty-looking woman with matted hair who seemed to be a member of his party growled, showing half-rotted teeth. “Yeah, go back and suck yer mama’s teeth, boy. This is an adult’s job.”
“The boy can hold his own,” Illumca interrupted her, silver eye glaring at the woman with a no-nonsense vibe. “And you, keep your opinion to yourself. That goes for all of you.”
The woman faltered. She then said with a trembling voice, eyes averted from the single eye that seemed to peer into her. “Tch. Don’t blame me if you got ripped apart in the forest!”
Lord Bernie smiled wanly and attempted to bring the focus of the goal at hand. After that, they set off towards the forest, accompanied by the looks of worry of the townsfolks.
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Meanwhile, outside the Mayor’s house, the mother of the boy with the broken leg was fidgeting with her eyes fixed at the door.
When she saw Nick coming out of the house, she and a man who seemed to be her husband came towards him.
“Mr. Hunter! How is our son?” she asked.
Nick closed the door behind him. “It should be fine. Milady is treating him.”
“Lady? Is she a Noble? I’ve never seen a Noble who’d choose to become a Hunter,” she said.
“She is a Noble, alright. Otherwise, why’d the Baron be so respectful towards her?” her husband said. “But can we trust her with our son?”
“Can anyone in this place help him not lose a leg?”
“Well…”
“There you go then,” Nick waved his hand vaguely. “By the way, is it normal for monster activities to rise at this time of the year?”
The pair of husband and wife looked at each other. “…it isn’t actually. This only happened for the last two years. The years before that, things aren’t this bad.”
“Hmmm…” Nick turned her gaze towards the forest to the east of the town. “I hope Milady has it right, entrusting this to them.”
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The search party arrived at the entrance of the forest not long after. They had two hunting dogs with them.
“I advise you to separate into groups, Lord Miller. We’ll cover more ground faster that way.”
“I’d like to, but there are many powerful Monsters in the forest. If we spread too thin…”
“Then let’s group the people into four groups of five according to their levels.”
“But there are only 23 of us including me.”
“We can go at it just by ourselves, Lord Miller.”
The Militiamen looked at the boy pityingly, seeing him as a naïve boy who had overestimated himself and his companions. After a quick deliberation, Lord Bernie agreed and let the two dogs they brought with them a sniff of the boys’ belongings. As it was autumn and people rarely bothered to wash their clothes during such months, there was no worry of their clothes losing their smell.
In fact, there was too much of the smell. One of the dogs sneezed upon sniffing Harry’s socks.
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“Let me take the scent too, Lord Bernie,” Martell politely said.
“Are you sure?” the fat heir of the Barony asked. He did not know how to treat Beastfolks as he was afraid of offending his Mistress. Martell ignored him and took a deep whiff of the piece of the cotton shirt on the man’s hand.
“Don’t you worry about a thing. My nose is the reason our party managed to save the Maiden of Water from being kidnapped by the Demons a few weeks ago.”
The Hunters who were looking down on him and was about to disparage him shut their mouth in time.
“Now, let’s continue the search while we still have some light.”
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Having separated from the group, Martell led Illumca and Akula deep into the forest. He and Illumca were familiar to the forest terrains, even in a mountainous region. Thus, they traversed the forest with great ease. As for Akula, due to being more used to flatlands, she had some trouble navigating her four legs around.
“Aren’t you cold in that getup?” Akula asked Illumca after a few minutes of calling out the boys’ names.
“Not as much as I thought it would be,” Illumca answered as she exhaled, creating a wisp of white fog that rose into the air. “Connie said that it’s the effect of my Cultivation Stage rising. Soon I won’t even need to eat every day.”
“I still find it hard to understand that you could stay alive without eating or drinking for weeks. How is that even possible?”
“Being with Connie, I find that most of what she does is impossible,” she said as she carved a symbol on a tree. She was not familiar with that forest and preferred to not get lost.
Martell suddenly stopped crouched on the ground. He scraped away a few pieces of broken twigs and smushed leaves. “I’ve found some footprints,” Martell said. “These belong to two children. One of them is Bernie’s son.”
His ears twitched when he noticed something else. They could hear snarls and growls echoing around them. An Iron Wolf appeared before them. Followed by another, then another.
“Though it seems that something else found us instead. Many somethings,” Akula took out her Sukheri with a grin. “But no matter how many Level D Monsters there are, we can take care of them.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Martell said as she took out Wild Geese from his box. “Let me try something I’ve been learning just for this occasion.”
“Dream of a Red Pavillion,” Martell said as he began plucking his instrument. A sonorous soft melody resounded in the forest. At first, the wolves were wary of this strange sound. But soon their bodies began to sway, and their eyes began to flicker. Drowsiness took over their consciousness before they began to fall, one by one.
With the end of the last dying note, Martell grinned.
“Okay, now let’s start bashing heads in.”
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In a natural cave that used to be utilized by the local hunters to rest, the two Dark Elf Assassins were licking their wounds.
“Hngh!” Leyn grimaced as Arryn bound the wound on his shoulder with a clean cloth.
That dagger was cursed. The male Dark Elf Assassin gestured harshly with his eyes glaring with hate at the knife that was lodged into his flesh just recently. His complexion was very pale. The wound kept on bleeding even though they had treated it and had used dozens of Potions.
We need to get to Arleine fast. Leyn gestured with his one good hand.
What are we going to do with them? Arryn asked as she pointed at the two young boys tied up and gagged near the back of the cave. I don’t want to kill children. If we do, will we not be the same as the Demons?
Their eyes were staring at them, filled with fear. The two unlucky boys stumbled upon the Assassins while they were running from the stray Iron Wolf.
Let’s just knock them out, then.
Suddenly, Arryn’s ears perked up and she quickly gestured for Leyn to stay silent.
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After disposing of the gathering of Iron Wolves, the sky had grown dark, and it was becoming harder for Akula to move.
“Ugh,” the Centaur groaned. “That’s the fifth tree I bumped into now. My head’ll soon have a dent in it if I keep this up.”
Illumca shook her head wearily at her comment. It would take many more trees before it could make a dent on the Centaur's exceptionally hard head.
When they reach a hill, Martell suddenly crouched low and whispered to them. “Go down, go down.”
“What is it?”
“Do you see that cave down the slope there? I smelled two of the boys inside,” he said quietly.
“Then what ‘re you waiting for?” Akula was about to stand, but the Beastfolk boy grabbed her by the wrist. “Wait, wait. I also smelled one…,” Martell sniffed the air one more time. “No, two other people with them. I also smelled blood.”
“Can it be some locals?” Illumca offered.
“No, Lord Bernie had forbidden people to enter the forest,” Martell said. “So, here’s my idea. Illumca and I will get down there and check. Zalkhin Altanghazar will stay here to provide backup when we need it.”
“Alright, what’s the signal?” the Centaur asked.
“Us screaming for help should be enough, I think,” Martell said.
Illumca and Martell slid down the slope and walked to the entrance of the forest warily.
As they walked into the cave, they saw Clause and a freckled boy tied up on the dirt floor. The moment the children saw them, they shook their heads desperately.
Illumca suddenly felt danger coming and cried. “Watch out!”
Illumca dove towards Martell and rolled on the ground as two figures lunged at them from the shadows above.
“Telekinesis! Control!” Martell shouted from Illumca embrace. He did not know who they were, but having children tied up and gagged meant that they were up to no good.
With a snap, he launched a sword towards his attackers, but they were faster than he expected.
The two Assassins were experienced. The moment they saw that they were disadvantaged, they immediately threw knives at them before running out of the cave.
“Dammit! They’re quick!” Martell said. “Illumca! Go after them! I’ll take care of the children!”
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Outside, Akula saw two shadows passed her by. She did not manage to react fast enough, and they were already gone by the time she turned around.
“They went that way! I’ll help Martell!” Akula shouted when she saw Illumca. She quickly nodded and ate one of the new Pills Connie concocted. The Fleet Foot Pill. The moment it entered her stomach, she could feel her legs feeling lighter.
With the newly boosted speed, she chased after the fleeing shadows and soon after managed to catch up to them.
Illumca ignored the safety precaution and fired a few butterfly-shaped Fireballs at them.
The two went momentarily wide-eyed at seeing a Dark Elf Assassin casually throwing magic at them. This lapse of focus proved to be their undoing as the larger Assassin was hit on the back with it.
“Oof!” he rolled on the forest floor on impact.
Seeing her companion falling, the female Assassin was enraged and roared a roar that sounded like a wounded animal.
The Assassin rushed forward, intending to pierce Illumca with her short sword. But outside of her expectation, the one-eyed Dark Elf’s dagger slid along the sword’s blade and quickly disarmed her. A counter stab by Illumca using her other dagger came at the enemy, which tore the coat.
Illumca frowned from her miscalculation of her enemy’s arm due to the cloak and brought her dagger across. Her opponent let herself fall on the ground to avoid getting cut and rolled away.
The female Assassin scrambled towards her sword, but Illumca pushed forward and brought her heel down on the Assassin’s hand and twisted it, crushing her bone and earned Illumca a cry of pain.
“Now, tell me who you are. And why you’re here,” Illumca ordered.
The Assassin roared, ignoring her broken hand, and pushed forward for a tackle. Fortunately, Illumca was fast enough to step away and avoided being tackled on the ground.
“Guh!”
Illumca kicked her heel down. The hidden dagger in her right boot slid out and she kicked at the female Assassin’s head.
However, the Assassin managed to turn her head just in time that the sharpened edge only managed to graze her mask. Illumca grabbed the Assassin by the neck and turned her over to finish her with a quick stab into the heart to finish her off.
It was at that moment that she came face to face with her past.
A face that she wanted to forget. A face that she would see in her nightmares.
The face of the friend who abandoned her.
Unconsciously, the name of that friend escaped her lips.
“Arryn…”