The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 604: Chasers are the spice in any fantasy quest

Chapter 604: Chasers are the spice in any fantasy quest

"Nothing?"

Renna shook her head, looking a bit guilty, even though it wasn’t her fault. What a diligent and sincere girl. "They are only commissioned by the mercenary guild to track us, and..." she opened a bag containing the stuff we looted from the rangers. "I guess they were tasked to poison us--here are sleeping potion, and here is...I think a paralyzing poison."

"Ah, so they wanted to paralyze us for the main squad?" I glanced at the thirteen tied-up people behind us.

"Death."

I stroked the vision lizard on my shoulder to calm it down, before shifting my gaze back to Renna. "What about these lot? Can we get something from them?"

"It seems doubtful," Jin muttered. "They are too low rank to know anything."

Ugh, right--they were just like those poisoners used by the Specter and the nightmare, never knowing who orchestrated everything until they died. Bottom feeders.

"I’ll still try," Renna said, taking out a black mask and putting them on while walking toward our prisoners.

Immediately, her demeanor changed. Just like I thought, she was the kind who could change once she put on a performance, a script. I just didn’t think a real mask would be involved. A nice aesthetic, I must say.

But all in all, the interrogation was rather boring--or should I say, bland? I blamed this on that movie Natha put on in the banquet, putting my standard high for no reason. I left the place midway, returning to the camp so the girls and Ian wouldn’t get worried.

Although...they didn’t look worried at all.

"Hey, you’re done?" Zarfa raised his hands, which were holding a bowl. "Want some soup to warm up?"

Oh, right--it was autumn here. I didn’t feel any cold since Ignis’s contract always warmed me up, but I could use some food after all that exercise. Aina had warmed up the meat stew she had made last night--it was meant for dinner, but since it was past midnight anyway, we’d just treat it as an early breakfast.

We huddled around the campfire until the other three came back with seventeen waddling mercenaries. Renna shook her head, which told me that they were all basically the same: merely a group of mercenaries receiving a request.

"This one’s the one who received the job and gathered the others, but--" Jin dragged someone out and released the person. They slumped into the ground, lifeless.

"Self-poison?" I tilted my head.

"Yeah," Jin glanced at the other mercenaries, who had become more terrified. It seemed like they really knew nothing, if they were shocked at that person’s suicide.

"What are you going to do with them?" I asked curiously, and the mercenaries immediately shifted; fidgeting, looking around, visibly panicking. Perhaps looking for the best person to plea their life to.

Funnily enough, they thought it was me.

"Sir, Please! We’re just...we’re just lowly mercenaries!" one of the guys scampered toward me on his knees, dragging the people that got tied with him on the ground. I wondered if the other mercenaries agreed to the ’lowly’ thing, though. "Please spare us; we weren’t trying to kill you, I swear!"

"Y-yeah!" one of the rangers followed eagerly. "We were just going to keep you asleep and unmoving so we could take your belongings, that’s all!"

I tilted my head. "Our belongings?"

"Their quest was to take all of our possessions," Jin explained. "Maybe for the bead?"

Ah...it sounded plausible when they said it like that. That being said...

"A rather extravagant party for robbery," I pointed toward the magicians and shield warrior with my chin. That was definitely an assault squad, right?

"It’s just in case! In...in case the paralyzer did not work!" the first begging mercenary responded swiftly. "Just so we could take the stuff. The order was just to take your stuff, not your life--truly!"

Hmm...they did seem scared enough. The other mercenaries suddenly followed the first one and started to make a plea with their whole body, bowing their torso and prostrating in my direction.

Why? Was it because everyone seemed to be answering to me? Did they not pay attention when I hit their heads earlier?

"The only punishment for people who dare to lay their hands on Valen is death," my little inquisitor lizard hissed threateningly.

Which...was not wrong by the demon realm standard, but we weren’t there. "We can’t do that in other people’s territory, Ignis."

"Hmph."

I smiled apologetically to the humans. "You can decide among yourself."

All I wanted to do was find the Goddess, not enacting justice. So, I leaned back on my desk chair while listening to their discussion. Zarfa and Aina were surprisingly vicious--I got worried for a bit that they were influenced after spending time in the demon realm--and said we shouldn’t let them live in case they’ll come back to pursue us again, while Fatia and Ian argued they were just doing a quest and only meant to ’rob’ us without killing.

In the end, Jin decided to leave them somewhere before we continued our journey. "Let’s leave it to fate," he said. "If fate said they’ll make it, someone will find them. If not, well..."

We stared at the mercenaries; we didn’t beat them up that much, but some had a pretty hard concussion, and some were still bleeding. Naturally, we did not bother to heal them--a waste of potions and my mana, really--so they would probably die if no one found them soon enough.

Oh--naturally, we would not provide them with any food or water.

Honestly, it was a pretty diplomatic approach. Whether they die or live and cause us more trouble, we could just blame it all on fate.

And so, once dawn came and it was bright enough for us to continue, we got rid of the camp and led the mercenaries to a pretty secluded place that the forest told me. It was deep inside, with no path leading there, and covered by plantations.

We used the ranger’s sleep potion to keep them unconscious without leaving the place. The best part was probably the forest helping me to hide all of our tracks--of course, the mercenaries’ tracks too. Anyone who came to check later would think no one had ever entered the forest.

Yay for networking!

In case those mercenaries managed to stay alive, we made them think we were going to exit the section of the forest that led to a countryside path. But we turned back and went toward the cliff--to the mountain.

"We need to work out harder, but this way is also faster," Jin said as we craned our necks below the cliff.

I turned toward Zarfa and Aina, wondering how they would go through this. Catching my eyes, Aina took out a pair of gloves with several dots attached to the palm and fingers. "Suction gloves!" she grinned. "I used this to climb your tower!"

Pfft--this girl truly made invention her weapon. But I couldn’t help thinking it was worrying--the cliffside wasn’t as smooth as the Lair’s outer wall, and they still had to drag their body up, which was exhausting. With how tall this cliff was, I was worried they wouldn’t have enough stamina since we didn’t get much sleep the night before. Moreover, what if there was a faulty on the way?

I took out Alveitya and poured my mana there, "That’s good, but since we’re trying to be fast, let’s go the easy way."

Under their inquisitive gazes, I struck the bottom end of my spear into the cliff and sent my mana inside. Being contracted to Ignis not only increased my proficiency with fire but also stones. It wasn’t hard for me to carve out a staircase on the side of the cliff, all the way to the top.

"It’s rather steep, but I think we can go faster this way," I said. Of course, I also made a railing for extra precaution.

"Whoaaa!" Aina stuffed her gloves inside her expandable tool belt and raised her thumbs. "As expected of the Boss!"

Oh, good--I had thought she would be disappointed, but she immediately climbed the stairs with no hesitation. Zarfa laughed and told me that it reminded her of those temple sites back on Earth with hundreds of stone steps that felt like a challenge.

With the stairs, we quickly reached the top of the cliff, and we continued the journey across the mountain after I got rid of the stairs. If we came across another cliff, I made the stairs again, and just like that, we went through the mountain faster than planned.

Unlike the day before, we were haunted by a sense of urgency and tried to move as fast as possible in case more groups were sent after us. It was only after we spent another night without any disturbance that we felt more relief.

Being chased and getting rid of the chaser was not a problem, but it would be dangerous if they found out where we were going exactly and the templars’ existence were exposed.

Oh, how grateful I was that this world didn’t have social media yet. Or phone, for that matter.

Still, we tried to make ourselves look as inconspicuous as we could--and that meant wearing the worse-looking, coarse adventurer garb before we reached the village where we would get some horses. You know, just looking like your regular band of mercenaries. They still made me wear a cloak and cover my head, however, saying I still looked too eye-catching.

Oh, whatever.

We didn’t stay long there, only looking for a few strong horses to buy. Even though we’d only use them for a day, we had no means to bring them back, and they weren’t that expensive. We could still buy them with the money Natha gave me in the pouch.

The village itself thrived on selling horses, so it wasn’t difficult to find some. Perhaps because it was located near plains and meadows, which was perfect for the horses. They were good, too; very colorful in character, and I would have brought them home if I could.

But we couldn’t. We ride the horses for a day and night before stopping near a gorge and letting them loose.

"Go," I stroked the horse I had been riding. "Take your siblings and roam the plains. Go as far as you can."

And led anyone who managed to track us far, far away. Far away from our destination.

We bid our farewell with the horses and went down the hill to the bottom of the gorge. There, we helped Aina construct a boat and made our way to the small river village where we spent our night in a fishy inn that got Ignis sulked because all it could sense was water.

Perhaps the whole inconvenience was a test for a reward, however, because the next day...yes, the next day, I would go back to the Demon Realm and see my family again.