Chapter 200 - The Village of monsters

The battalion from the kingdom of Serbek had reached Carto village. Once they were near the battalion surrounded the village. The adventurers and mercenaries who were in the village noticed that the village was being surrounded, but the time they noticed it was already too late. The commander of the battalion stepped forward and spoke with a spell that enhances his voice. 

"Bring out the leader of this village!" The commander didn't even bother to state his name as he demanded the village elder to approach. The adventurers wanted to flee but the moment they saw the battalion surrounding them they knew that escape was impossible. 

The mercenaries that already been paid by Kithra decided that the pay they were given wasn't enough for this level of danger. So the moment they find an opportunity they will escape. 

...

"Come out, I wish to talk to the leader of this village!" The commander once again shouted at the villagers. 

Everyone including the adventurers and mercenaries were expecting an old man to step forward. Since usually the leader of a small village such as this was the eldest among the group of people. Yet the person that stepped forward was a young beautiful maiden. 

The adventurers and the mercenaries have been in the village a couple of months now but this was the first time they saw the beautiful maiden. Yet upon closer inspection, the maiden looked oddly familiar. 

"Isn't that the 'Silent Death' Lara?" One of the adventurers commented. 

"Oh, now that you said it, she does look like the 'Silent Death'." Another adventurer commented. 

"No, look closer, she's smiling. The 'Silent Deth' has never been seen smiling before. I've seen her a couple of times in the Adventurers Guild, and her face seems to only have one expression and smiling wasn't it." 

As the mercenaries and adventurers were getting confused as to who this maiden was, Lisa approached the commander of the battalion. 

"Little girl I was asking for the leader of this village, not his granddaughter." The commander looked at Lisa with a frown on his face. Now that he was face to face with the woman in front of him he noticed that she had two short swords dangling on her waist. 

"I'm not the granddaughter of the leader, I am the leader." Lisa smiled at the commander as she gave out her answer. Everyone present except for the villagers were surprised to hear her answer.  

"Are you kidding me?" The commander glared at Lisa. 

"This is no joke my dear sir, so what do you want?" Lisa answered unperturbed by the commander's glare.  

"Fine then, give me all of your food and weapons. If you do as you're told we won't have to kill you all. So little leader what do you say?" The commander didn't plan to fight since even against such a little amount of adventurers and mercenaries would result in losses that he can't afford to have at the moment. He especially didn't want to report that he lost even a single man while raiding a small village. 

The mercenaries and adventurers present sighed in relief as they heard the commander's offer. It would seem that they can survive their current predicament. Some of them were already expecting a gruesome death but hearing what the commander said made them loosen up, that was until the beautiful maiden suddenly laughed. 

The commander of the battalion frowned deeply as his killing intent rose which he directed at the girl in front of him. 

"Is there something funny in what I said?" 

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to laugh so loudly. It's just that, you want us to give our food supplies in exchange for our lives. That's a pretty funny trade since we both own our lives and our food. So how can we trade if both the things are ours, to begin with?" Lisa answered with amus.e.m.e.nt in her eyes. 

The surrounding soldiers, adventurers, and mercenaries were shocked to hear Lisa's answer. The adventurers and mercenaries on the side of the villagers thought that Lisa was crazy. Why was she aggravating the commander?

"Don't you see we have your lives in our hands. You no longer own it, we do." The commander signaled his men who all raised their weapons, and the mages with them started gathering mana while chanting. 

"Well, in my eyes it's actually the opposite." No one was able to see it but Lisa's swords that were on her waist were now touching the neck of the commander. Seeing that his head was almost lopped off the commander sweated a bit. 

"How about that, not only do we still own our lives and have the food supplies but now I own your life. Just a little push of my hand and your head would separate from your body."  Hearing Lisa's mocking tone, the commander gnashed his teeth. 

"Even if you kill me my men won't retreat. After my death, my men will kill all of you and burn this village to the ground." The commander once again tried to threaten Lisa, who responded in an unexpected way. Lisa started laughing again, and this time as she laughed she started to circulate the mana in her body.

The mages that felt Lisa's mana were frightened by the sheer amount of it. As they were trying to guess what she would do next, Lisa turned her back to the commander. The commander was about to say something but then he fell to the ground his head had already been cut off from his body. 

"That's not much of a threat since you guys don't have the ability to kill any of us." Lisa shrugged her shoulders as she whipped her swords making the blood that stuck to it fly out. 

The mages from the battalion started firing spells at the village, but to their surprise, their spells were warded off by a powerful barrier that surrounded the village. They weren't able to sense the barrier not until it activated. As the soldiers were about to initiate a melee battle, the villagers suddenly charged at them. From the young to the old each one of them started rushing at the soldiers of the Serbek Kingdom. 

The adventurers and the mercenaries hired by Kithra to protect the village were shocked and scared by the scene they were witnessing. The villagers of Carto village who they had friendly conversations with for the past few months, were now massacring an army that had five times their numbers. 

'We were hired to protect these people? Shouldn't they be hired to protect us?' The adventurers and mercenaries had conflicting feelings as they watched the kind villagers crushing the enemy battalion. They felt that they were hired as a joke of sorts. 

In fact, Ren simply told the adventurers and mercenaries to protect the village, not because he feared for the villagers' safety. No, what he feared was that the Restetis might try to cause trouble and the secret of how strong the villagers were would be known prematurely. Since the villagers did not look menacing, which might make the Resteti family think it was easy to get a hold of the villagers and use them threaten to threaten him. Ren decided to hire adventurers and mercenaries as a deterrent.

This was at the time when Ren was still regarding the Resteti family as an enemy. Now that he knows the truth about the Resteti family the adventurers and mercenaries were no longer needed to act the part of fake bodyguards.