Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.16)

We have just discussed how to go, and we decided to ride. I don't know why we have to ride, but Sanson insisted to do so.

So now Karl and I are riding along the main road of Renus City, between us are the eight soldiers walking in two columns. Ah, we are on the horses and the soldiers are walking on foot, although we didn't lock these soldiers up, it looks exactly like what captives transfer looks. The could be what Sanson tried to achieve.

I glimpsed that the soldiers' faces all turned red, and they are walking with their heads down, not looking up nor looking around. However, the citizens in Renus City can see us clearly. People are whispering.

"Hey, aren't those Baron Silikian's guards?"

"Really, why are they like this?"

"The lad riding on the horse is that kid this morning! He cut the troll's neck...."

Karl looked around and unwittingly blushed, he murmured:

"Ah, we are really like going to a exchange of prisoners."

"Huh? You're right! Karl! Good analogy!"

I tried hard to make an awesome expression. Although I hope Jamini can walk elegantly, but Jamini is just like walking in the fields, more like shuffling, which makes me really unhappy. Ah, forget about it.

Jamini is Jamini. Regardless it's the horse or the human.

And Sanson is at the back of the soldiers. He let Iruril to ride his horse "Meteor", and he is grabbing the reins and walking on the ground. Iruril with a very worried tone asked him to ride together, but Sanson firmly refused.

And further behind are Cherine and the servants of the hostel. We asked them not to come, but Cherine said we are their guests, so he has to be responsible in the end.

"Perhaps when that Baron saw your number, he'd do it hard. Once you enter the house, it could be difficult to come out again. Though we are unable protect you, at least when the Baron see we have so many people, he would probably not imprison you deliberately. "

Cherine said those words, and led the people to follow us. One of the few passers watching us shouted:

"You see! What've they done?"

That leader Hanster immediately shouted back:

"You stupid pig! These people killed the trolls, of course they will need to pay compensation. Now we are escorting them to the Baron."

I almost fell from my horse, Karl, Sanson and Iruil are also laughing. The passer spitted and scratched his head:

"Bah! What, you said who is escorting who?"

People began to laugh. Ah, riding a horse does have many benefits. Hanster viciously clenched his fists, but because he is empty-handed, he can't do anything. All their halberds have been broken by me.

By the way, I really feel very uncomfortable. I constantly think of that Archmage Aphnaidel. What kind of person is he? Tyburn can summon Balrog, then this Archmage might be able to summon a dragon?

"Hanster, excuse me, what kind of person is this Aphnaidel?"

Hanster looked up at me unhappily, then winced and said.

"He's not human being. He is very frightening."

"He's that scary?"

"If I were you, I would only go to deal with him when I want to die...."

Hanster hasn't finished his words yet, his body began to tremble incessantly, my whole mood turned worse. We punched the men of the horrible Archmage, and now we are bringing them back like this, uh, this isn't good.

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We finally arrived Baron Silikian's mansion. It's a very majestic mansion, but there is no time to look at it. As compared to the mansion, I found a more attractive picture which drew my attention.

On the courtyard in front of the mansion, there is a shed, under the shed there is a red carpet. A very ornate chair is placed on the carpet, and someone is sitting on it, I don't know whether he's the Baron or not, but he seems to know we are coming, and is waiting here. Although he is wearing gorgeous clothes, those clothes look too expensive that make people afraid to eat as if they would dirty the clothes. A servant is kneeling and holding a bowl, something like biscuits is in it. He has been constantly eating. Really terrible!

Beside him there is a man in robe, holding a wooden stick, impatiently looking at the sky. When I saw this robe on this man, I thought of Tyburn's. Tyburn's robe is kind of a functional clothing that you can even sleep in it. But now looking at this robe, it's completely like shouting at people: "I am an Archmage!" If not, why it's all painted with stars and sparks patterns? Maybe this man is the Archmage Aphnaidel. I would like to look at this man's face, but he has been looking at the sky, so I can't have a clear look. However, he is unexpectedly young. I thought grand mages should all be elderly. On their left and right sides, they are lined with soldiers wearing chainmail and halberd, about thirty or so.

Because the main gate is opened, we can walk directly into the courtyard. Behind us are Cherine and his servants, as well as curious citizens. Once the citizens noticed that the Baron and the Archmage are there, they began to get excited. The crowd is getting louder and louder.

I sighed and talked to the soldiers:

"Well, your men are there, do you want to stand next to them?"

But those soldiers' faces are covered with fear, they hesitated to go back. What? How could this be? The leader Hanster stammered:

"We... We are dead! Aphnaidel the Archmage is there......"

At this time, the Baron sitting on the chair made a gesture to retreat the servants, he began:

"Welcome to my house, my guests!"

Karl looked at me and got down from the horse, Iruril behind also dismounted. Then Sanson and Iruruil walked over. The baron nodded.

"Three men, one elf. Right!"

"So you're the Baron Silikian, owner of the arena?"

I asked. The baron's temple twitched, he said:

"Owner of the arena? Yes, I am Baron Silikian."

"I heard that you are a fake baron?"

The baron seems to explode soon. My mouth can just tell truth, so I can't help even if it makes him unhappy. Baron Silikian didn't shout at me, but looked at someone behind me.

"Hanster!"

Hanster with a desperate look came forward, suddenly knelt down. Baron Silikian said:

"How come I can't see the compensation? What is it? Why does this guy dare to be so presumptuous here?"

"We were ambushed! Once we arrived at the hostel, they set things up with Cherine, the owner of the hostel, and ambushed us! So they got our equipment...."

I couldn't hold my laughter. So stupid! Please think about the situation before you lie, how could he be so stupid? Baron Silikian's face is twitching, looking angrily at Hanster, until Hanster couldn't stand anymore. He began desperately kowtowing.

"Are you trying to fool me?"

"I deserve death, please forgive..."

"You really deserve death."

Hanster raised his head desperately. But the baron'eyes have turned to the Archmage. I stepped back a little.

Aphnaidel's eyes which have been looking at the sky, are now looking down at Hanster. Hanster's face is already half-dead. He fell and sat on the ground and kept crawling back.

"Help ...... Please forgive me!"

Aphnaidel put his hand into his robe, and then took something out carefully. He is now holding a black rope.

"Scream. Let's see if you still have any living value, Hanster!"

Aphnaidel's voice is cold. He threw the rope to Hanster.

"Uh ah!!!"

As if seeing a snake flying over, Hanster is screaming in horror, and began waving his arms. What? He is afraid of rope? Aphnaidel began muttering. Just like those random unknown words from Tyburn, and then said quickly:

"Bind! Tie & Knot!"

The rope flying over seems to come alive, it's now crawling around Hanster's body and wrapping his neck. Hanster in order to prevent the rope from tightening around his neck, is desperately clutching both ends of it, but he can only try his best to stop it, but there is no way to rip it off.

Hanster has flushed.

Aphnaidel again took out something like powder from his robe. He sprayed it over to Hanster, and cast another  spell.

"Rope Trick!"

At that moment, one end of the rope wrapped Hanster's neck began going up towards the sky, the other end stood stiffly on the ground. Then, Hanster because of his body weight, got the rope tighten on his neck.

"Uh, uh ahhhhh!"

God, so he is going to die! Whether that guy is a scary Archmage or not, I can't stand it anymore.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

Before I yelled, Iruril had already taken action. I saw Iruril's brunette. She ran towards Hanster, and then raised her left hand dagger and cut rope. A crash.

Huh? Isn't that a rope? Iruril embarrassingly looked at Aphnaidel, she wanted to help Hanster. However the upper end and the lower end of the rope are like tightly pulled, so Hanster's body is lifted naturally, his neck is hence tightened. Aphnaidel mockied:

"That is not a normal rope, silly elf...."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.15)

Sanson didn't draw his sword. He said to the soldiers:

"You insulted my lord, so I have to duel with you. Do you want to come one by one, or once together?"

The soldiers looked at each other. Anyway, if they so many people are going to fight against a person, it would hurt their dignity. One of them, that soldier who got his halberd broken by me, took over another soldier's halberd, then took a step forward. This man seems to be their leader. He looked at me standing on the stairs above, said:

"Hey, do you want to come down?"

"Why should I go down? Ah, are you begging me to fight with you?"

Thay guy grunted, and then suddenly stabbed with his halberd towards Sanson who hasn't drawn his sword. But Sanson has been monitoring his footsteps, so before he could move his arms, Sanson had already read his intentions. Sanson gently stepped back, and then kicked the ground with the same foot, then charged towards the soldier who lost his balance. Sanson sent a heavy punch. Bang!

"Ah!"

That guy was hit right in his face, he looks like that he is going to faint, and began to retreat. Sanson said:

"Did you really close your eyes? This guy's foundation is too bad."

Sanson then drew out his sword. That is the sword our thane spent almost all his money to purchase, in order to deal with Lycanthropes, it's coated with a layer of silver, so it's a very beautiful sword. The soldier also waved his halberd nervously, Sanson held his sword horizontally, and then parried the halberd. The halberd hit the sword, emitting scrubbing noise, and then bounced away. It takes time to lift the heavy Halberd again, Sanson took a step forward and gently stabbed. The soldier's hand immediately stopped moving. Sanson pointed his sword at the guy's throat. Simply, the duel ended.

"Ah, ah -"

That guy emerged bloodshot in his eyes, watching the sword pointing at his throat. Sanson shaked his sword around a few times and said:

"I will not kill you if you apologize. But if you want to die, you should know what to do."

"Damn you!"

Another soldier waved his halberd suddenly, and Sanson took a step back swiftly. Then, the soldier who lost raised his halberd again.

"You son of a bitch! Do you know who we are!"

All the rest of the soldiers swarmed over. I have never seen such despicable persons. I raised my bastard sword and the then jumped forward. Because I was standing on the stairs, so I can jump quite high. I pulled out my sword in the air, and then held the blade and scabbard with my hands.

"Ah ah!"

Using the power of jumping off, I destroyed two halberds with this strike. I cut one with my sword, and broke another one with the scabbard. Then, after I was standing on the ground again, I immediately performed 'Unaware Slash', because both of my hands are raised, so it's easy to follow the center force, I again destroyed two other halberds. Although they don't act like human, I wouldn't have a single thought of stabbing their bodies with my sword. This is not for these guys, but for myself. So I swing my scabbard.

"Uh ah!"

The soldier who got hit in the cheek by me, even had his teeth popped out, and he fell to the ground. I put my sword back into the scabbard, and then started waving. I hit two other soldier's arms, they are scared and retreated. I hit their arms like chopping with an ax, they should be very painful  right? Are their arms broken? They should be able to live in this lesson in a month.

Sanson looked at me and seemed to understand my intention. Similarly, he withdrew his sword back into the scabbard, and then waved it. Before that, I hadn't felt that Sanson even tried, but once the sword was back into the scabbard, Sanson's moves became very cruel. Because there is no further consideration, he started hitting neck or chest or other important parts. So even it's a scabbard, among the soldiers who got hit, no one didn't faint after screaming. Sanson thinks those fallen soldiers are clumsy, so he kicks them away, or simply steps on them, and then continues to attack the others.

So the two of us are crazily beating them with our scabbards. After a while, on the road in front of the hostel, there is no healthy soldier left. The eight soldiers are all lying on the ground together and groaning.

I kicked the guy who tried to ambush Sanson and said:

"You bastard, I'm an ogre killer. How dare you!"

Come on, I've dueled with Ogre, Gargoyle and Gorgon, those monsters illusion, and even fought with real Orcs, Urcs and Trolls. Although my foundation is poor, in fact these soldiers are in similar level as me. But compared to them, I have those horrible experience. So probably because of those experiences, I am able to  defeat them so easily. I aggressively scared them, Sanson stopped me.

"Stop, Huchi. If they are as capable as us, then it doesn't matter. But their foundation is really poor, I start to feel sorry doing this."

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Cherine standing on the stairs is looking at us blankly. Soon Jusina called some servants to help the soldiers. But Jusina seems to don't know what to do, Sanson as well. Sanson frowned at the achievement me and hims have just done, he said:

"If we leave, it creates no problem to us. But Cherine and Jusina have to do business here, things must end satisfactorily. Let's move them to the lobby."

Jusina gratefully looked at Sanson. The following servants helped to move the soldiers into the hall.

Once we entered the hall, Sanson asked the guy who looks like the leader to sit down, together with Karl and Cherine at the same table, while the other soldiers are taken to other few tables, sat by me and Iruril. Jusina brought mugs of beer to us and the soldiers. She seems to want to treat this as a simple matter like a fight between energetic teenagers in a village, and now it should end with a smile. In fact, no one suffered from serious fatal injuries, so Jusina's action received very good results. What a calm girl, she can catch the essentials! Soldiers don't seem very happy, but they didn't refuse the beer.

Karl and Sanson are talking with the leader(his name seems to be Hanster?). Hanster although looks miserable, I can still feel his anger. Sanson also looks angry but  is suppressing himself. Karl and Cherine are trying to coordinate between the two of them.

I took the beer mug and stand against the wall, monitoring the soldiers sitting there and drinking the beer. Iruril is standing beside me, against the same wall. The soldiers have been staring at me, whether they are enemies or not, I really don't want that kind of expressions while enjoying beer.

"As long as you keep your hands on the table, plus, do not stand up, I will not interfere you." The soldiers heard me and smiled a little. Some soldiers are touching their abdomen, some stroking their cheeks, and sipping beer.

One of them said to me:

"Hey, lad."

"Why, please call me Huchi."

"So your name is Huchi? What a funny name, I am called Kelly. Why do you have such a big strength? Also, you mentioned that you are an ogre killer? You mean you've killed an ogre?"

"I have fought against ogres, gargoyles , gorgons, hobgoblins, minotaurs, also nine Urcs at once, and trolls this morning. Trolls are the most annoying, they just keep regenerating. "

The soldiers are all surprised. Kelly said:

"Kid ....Are you bragging?"

"You should have seen the trolls we killed. The others are also true. Why would I lie to you?"

Kelly didn't reply. I stated a long list of monsters, looks like they haven't even seen them. I am surprised to say:

"Aren't you mercenaries? You got to be useful so that you were selected, right? Why are you so surprised?"

Kelly unhappily smiled, and then replied:

"Lad, if it's not redneck like you, no one dares to touch us. We have never thought that someone would really mess with us, so we just relaxed our guard."

"Really? Sanson and I had sufficiently warned you, and you were still relaxed?"

"...... Although I don't know whether you can keep this arrogant attitude, if our troops are all deployed, you'll be finished in a minute. So stay happy when you still can."

I am not very happy about those words. But this time Iruril spoke first.

"Then I would like to ask a question, why weren't you deployed when the trolls were breaking out?"

"We were sleeping! It's early in the morning!"

The soldier replied unhappily. But I am very angry. That was already long after dawn. I recalled our hometown guards, who wake up for training before the sun rises in order to protect us. I said:

"What? Don't you have sentry? And before we started stopping the trolls, they had already come out for a while. And then we fought for a long while. In such a long period, you should have had some men here! "

Kelly hesitated to answer:

"Where we live is far away from the market place."

Heard these words, Jusina laughed. The soldiers looked at Jusina ferociously, but Jusina came closer to me without looking at them and said to me.

"Silikan's mansion is just next to the market. Oh! It's so far away! About one minute away."

I'm really speechless. I finished my beer.

"Well, thank you, Miss Jusina, please give me one more."

Jusina smiled and picked up the mug. However, Iruril said:

"Please don't drink anymore. You have been drinking since you sat down, totally six pints."

I didn't have time to reply before Jusina's words, she said:

"Ah, he can drink whenever he wants to. That's none of your business right?"

Huh? Wow, really powerful businessman spirit. Do you want to make money so much?

"No, it does not matter, Jusina. I shouldn't drink anymore indeed. And well, do you have to be so blatant of your business mind?"

Jusina looked shocked and looked at me. Why are you so surprised? Then Jusina suddenly changed her face and shouted at me:

"You Retard! Do you think that I want money from you?"

Jusina ran away. I am tongue-tied. Huh? When your mind is exposed you should escape quietly, why the hell she shouted retarded at me so loud? Really sinister girl. The soldiers are tittering. What are you laughing at?

I leaned against the wall, and then pulled out my sword and checked the blade carefully. This sword has slayed trolls, crashing with halberds. After the few battles, I want to see if there are damaged areas. Fortunately, the blade is still intact. Ah, thinking carefully, this sword hadn't crashed with metal before. However, when the soldiers saw me looking at the sword, all of them became tensed. So I put my sword back into the scabbard. Kelly again said to me with an unhappy voice:

"You lad, you may be able to gloat around with your strange strength, but if you meet magic, can you still be so easy?"

"Do you know magic?"

"Ha! Mr Baron employed Aphnaidel the Archmage! Aphnaidel will be dealing with you people, and maybe he will suck your soul out before killing you. If we let Aphnaidel know what you've done on us, he will! "

"Ah, an Archmage...... Not a good news."

Really bothering. I think of Tyburn, he can make the trolls flying to heaven, summon Balrog to kill Taurens, and also make a lot of horrible monster illusions. But now this is not even an ordinary wizard, but an Archmage!

Sanson shouted to me:

"Oi, Huchi! Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"We should go to visit the Baron. Talking to his men is not enough."

"Ah? We are walking into the enemy's camp?"

Sanson heard what I said, and immediately smiled.

"Come on man. Of course we have go to make this clear. We helped to handle the trolls, but he sent the soldiers to seek compensation, sure, we don't feel good. Although we won't ask for rewards, we should make our reasons clear, and we should send these soldiers back nicely, so that they won't say anything. "

"Wait a minute, wait a minute! I just heard that there is a wizard! No, a nArchmage!"

Sanson although looked lost, he turned calm shortly.

"So?"

He asked me, I have nothing to say.

"Then let's go. The Archmage is waiting for us!"

Cherine nervously held Sanson's shoulder, said.

"Are you really going there? Do you think if you go there, he would apologize and repent their faults? Don't you think you are silly doing that? Just leave this town. You don't have to do it for us... And the Archmage, Aphnaidel is a very cruel man. It's because of this Aphnaidel, the Baron gained such a power in this city."

"We certainly know it could be dangerous, but if we go with his soldiers, try to talk with him, he shouldn't be severe on us."

Cherine shook his head.

"Is it that simple?"


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