Chapter 529

My Villains Episode 529

68. Travel to the Royal Road (2)

When moving in groups, the bicorns never give up the lead.

There doesn’t seem to be any great reason. This two-horned beast is just a guy who needs to be the first to run.

Fortunately, Bicorn usually took the lead without much difficulty thanks to his leg strength.

when was that ‘Brightmere’, a beautiful white horse and rare horse, overtook a bicorn thanks to Theodora’s blessing. At that time, the guy wielded a pair of spiral horns like a knife and threatened, even showing his teeth to bite the butt that was ahead of him.

The bicorn, whose eyes were half-rolled, stopped only after I repeatedly hit its head, and as if it couldn’t seem to get rid of its anger, it began to dig into the ground with its hind feet or break nearby trees. Even after arriving at the stable, he did not calm down, so he had to be bound with a thick chain.

Anyway, since then, I’ve been trying to avoid provoking him as much as possible.

The situation was the same even now as they crossed the forest with a few cavalrymen, and the men who went out to search were adjusting their speed so as not to overtake the bicorns.

Major Randell, who was riding right behind me, asked the forest keeper who had brought him as a guide.

“How much further do I have to go?”

“You are almost there. Maybe somewhere over there.”

The place the middle-aged forest keeper pointed to was densely covered with thickets, but not a single trail was visible. When Randall remained silent, suggesting that he was suspicious, the forest keeper continued to talk nonsense about the nearby terrain and the sightings of the residents.

The reason why I was searching the forest with ten or so horsemen on a moonlit night when the wind was blowing was because of the report the Gedenmundz official sent after dinner.

A rough summary of the story the Daegwan had spread was that people had recently been missing one after another in the thick forest to the east of the village.

In the last 10 days, a total of six people have disappeared, including a herbivore, three charcoal-burning fathers, and a hunter brother. Unexpectedly, the Daegwan sent seven of the town’s guards to search the forest, but even they disappeared.

I thought it was strange that a city-born bureaucrat who was full of desire for success bothered the lord who had visited after a long time with ‘something like this’, but it turned out that Princess Theodora was the problem.

Theodore, who visited the small church in Gedenmundz, was treated to a simple dinner by the priest and held a service together. In the meantime, they found an old woman crying sadly, and that was the herbalist’s mother who was said to have gone missing in the forest.

A paladin who considered serving the weak as both a duty and a pleasure met an old woman who desperately wanted help. What more do you need to talk about?

When Theodora, wearing the brilliant plate armor ‘Pure White’, asked what had happened, the old woman, who was on the verge of going mad with worry about her missing child, told the story of everything she knew.

It was a long and disjointed story, but Theodora listened as always, and the lover, a family friend of the other missing people who had only been paying attention, got the courage to explain the situation to her and ask for help.

As soon as he heard about the skit at the small church, the magistrate ran to me and reported the disappearance. He must have thought that it would be better for the governor himself to speak before the problems of his town entered the ears of his superiors through the mouth of an outsider. It was a bonus to say, “Don’t worry,” as he plans to mobilize 15 guards and hire a similar number of mercenaries to search.

Of course, it was something I couldn’t just let go.

As a lord, you have an obligation to protect your people. Second, you can smell the experience points just by looking at it. It was me who had been suffering from experience starvation ever since the Blademan War. Can’t pass up this opportunity.

“You have to be careful.”

Moonlight seeps through the dry shadows cast by the tall trees. The forest keeper, with a pale face beneath him, came out in a whisper and warned Randall.

“There is no law that it is always a human being lurking in the forest. It could be a hungry troll, or it could be an evil being like a banshee or a draug.”

“Fuck.”

I would be grateful if only the forest trolls appeared without even wishing for the draugs.

Considering the fact that 2.4 million experience points are required to reach level 45, the 4200 experience point given by the troll is also a small amount. But it’s much better than catching and killing highwaymen and stacking them by 15.

I thought about it and raised my expectations, but I soon clicked my tongue.

“It doesn’t smell like trolls or undead.”

Their senses, which are superior to that of most wild animals, provided more information as they got closer to the destination guided by the forest keeper.

Boasting unrealistic regenerative abilities based on rapid metabolism, trolls exude a body odor that is more than you can imagine. As undead are moving corpses, they give off a poisonous smell.

But now the smell flowing into my nose was nothing more than a ‘moderate’ stinky smell. It must be the smell that an unwashed vagabond would give off for about fifteen days.... It was accompanied by the smell of burning wood, the smell of boiling porridge, and the subtle smell of iron fish.

The gooey smell of iron fish, or the scent of blood, was the faintest and faintest of all. But the mucous membranes of my nose gobbled up even those tiny blood particles.

I quietly narrowed my brows. It is undoubtedly human blood. It must have been the smell left by one of the three hunter brothers, a herbalist or charcoal maker who was said to have gone missing in Gedenmunz.

See it!

A brisk gong sound mingled with the screams. Those in thick quilted clothes, those who were naked, and those who wore chain mail—they were gently ground and scattered in the vortex containing intense magic power.

Thanks to that, even after killing sixteen, there were almost no obstacles on the way to the basement. Most of them had been blown away by the wind of blood, and there were only chunks of flesh with iron rings or a few feet in leather boots rolling around.

“It’s bigger than expected.”

Then Golman entered the clearing with two horsemen. The guy calmed down the raging horse and looked over the thieves’ camp.

“They must be from out of town.”

“I need to find out.”

“how? Did you even learn how to talk to minced meat?”

As soon as I laughed, Gollman sighed and shouted at the forest.

“Major Randell! We don’t need a siege, so please come and help us!”

He listened intently for an answer, then turned to me and continued to grumble.

“You dared to step forward and caused a lot of chaos. Only then will I have the ability to deny even if the innocent people of Gedenmundz were among them.”

“No.”

“How do you know that?”

“You know just by looking at it. At a cursory glance, they are bandits or deserters.”

“Of course, it may be different, but it is difficult to distinguish whether a person is a thief or a farmer when they are ground so finely. It’s just nice to have the most disgusting rumors.”

“Stop whining and plug that hole.”

“A hole?”

Goleman looked back in the direction I had chinned with a bewildered face. He found a boarded-up staircase among the charred remains of this mine and stuck his tongue out.

“What is this again...... They were quite well prepared.”

“Preparation is just luck finding a decent den. There seems to be more than that, so I’m blocking it well.”

“What about Nari?”

“I’m going to interrogate.”

Goleman looked at me with round eyes. Although he was only a hand and a half taller in two years, his calf-like eyes were still those of a boy.

“Is there anyone left?”

“uh.”

After I got off the bicorn and captured the ruins of the saint in the saddle, I headed for the stairs from which the thieves had jumped out. Seeing me walking away with empty hands, Golman threw a ceremonial word.

“Come in with me.”

“it’s okay.”

As you step into the underground air, you can feel the presence of the thieves holding their breath through the feeling of a feeling that spreads through the narrow space.

“Look at me. You will come back at your leisure.”

“Yes sir.”

Leaving my subordinates behind, I calmly calculated as I descended the stairs.

Judging by their presence, there must be no more than ten people. One or two of them will have to be saved, so is seven or eight people the limit?

It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. You have to think positively. It’s not common to have a situation where you can enjoy yourself to the fullest without caring about anyone’s gaze in the darkness of the underground. In this environment, a small number can be replaced with a high quality of satisfaction.

So I calmed myself down and moved toward the first prey closest to me.

The basement was at most the size of a basketball court, but it took a little over an hour to complete the search. It was a satisfying time.