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Chapter 201 - Forceful (Thank you for your support, j3t!)
🕑 Added 2024-11-18 08:49:11 +0000 UTC“This direction is…”
Clarice looked a bit more tense mid morning when she said that… I didn’t realize the direction we were heading before, but it looked like based on the position of the sun, we were heading Northeast… toward the central part of the Aeloria Dominion.
Clarice was pretty sure that the families that had any influence in the central parts of the Aeloria Dominion were all under the control of her brother. Although there were some overbearing ones that would underestimate him thanks to his age, they wouldn’t do something so reckless and risk opposing him.
In any case, soon enough, we reached the next town and things got a bit more complicated. We had to change our clothes since we couldn’t go look like members of the unseen arrow. As if that wasn’t annoying enough, the last traces of Glacien ended up where the marks of a carriage started.
“She can no longer make any marks, and that will be the case for a while… It is rare to see carriages here. Can you handle this?”
“... No problem.”
We headed to the area where the signs of the carriage came from and soon we found another important looking tree with a shop at the base. Some people were around, but they were acting odd. They looked interested in the stuff being sold there, but they weren’t showing any signs of wanting to buy anything.
‘Fake customers, huh? I didn’t think that I would see this kind of stuff in this world. To think that even Elves would want to scam other Elves.’
“Excuse me, I want to know who the owner of the carriage here is, and I want to know where it headed.”
“... The owner isn’t around and I am not allowed to give this kind of information.”
The shop clerk was a man who had sharp features. He still had the handsomeness of a male elf, but he had a bit of a pointy face, too. That made me think that it was his shrewdness or something taking physical form.
In any case, he studied us with a bit of disdain in his face and voice, so perhaps it was from there my annoyance came from.
“We have some serious business with him and we believe that he helped move some people that are important to us, so we need this information right now.”
“I already said that I am not allowed to answer anything.”
Clarice began to look annoyed, but she couldn’t do much since the mood of the fake clients got serious as well. As expected, they worked for this guy and this guy’s boss as well. In any case, Clarice couldn’t give up that easily, so she began to bite her lips.
The clerk looked amused, but soon the expression changed when he noticed my gaze and my eyes. I was holding my chin, wondering how to handle this. I could just wait a bit and capture this guy at night and force him to speak, I could also use my camouflage gear to make most of those guys disappear in order to avoid escalating the problem, or I could give zero fucks and then save time by doing what had to be done. I decided to use the third option.
“Ah…”
Clarice didn’t have time to do anything… Before anyone could see what I had in store for them, I used rapid fire and arcane arrows. I fired shocking arrows on the legs of all the elves around and made them fall on their butts while groaning in pain. I nocked and pointed one at the head of the clerk and he began to sweat cold immediately.
“If I ask those questions again, will I receive a different answer?”
The clerk didn’t say anything, but he raised his arms, showing that he was surrendering. I wanted answers, though. Not that. I pulled the bowstring a bit more and then he began to shake uncontrollably.
“Don’t kill him… if you are willing to take it this far, then we can just bring him with us and then force him to take us to where his boss is. I have an idea of who she might be.”
“Good idea. We can’t afford to let him lie to us. If he lies or wastes our time, he will get an arrow in each limb. Now move.”
“... She was heading to Castellana! I swear! I am not lying.”
I looked at Clarice and she nodded. For some reason, she didn’t believe that he was lying, but I wanted more countermeasures against trouble.
“You will lead the path.”
“But I am not lying! That is where our leader’s base of operation is!”
“I don’t care. Lead the way. Find some horses for us.”
After hesitating for a bit, the clerk decided to move when he heard the sound of the bowstrings reaching the limits of their elasticity. We were causing a lot of commotion here, but I didn’t care. Soon, the clerk resigned and then left the shop to guide us. Before following him, I turned around.
“This time, I only shoot my arrows to stop you guys from moving, but if you guys try to follow us or cause any trouble, I will shoot my arrows and make sure that you won’t have the chance to do anything anymore in your lives… choose well.”
Soon enough, we headed to a stable where we got some horses. There were no guards there… It looked like thievery wasn’t a thing around these parts.
Eventually, we left the town. I was a bit surprised that no one tried to stop us, but few people in the area had their weapons with them and they also recognized the clerk, so they probably thought that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get involved.
“Hey, sorry about all this… I will make things right now matter what this time around.”
Clarice hadn’t been using my name in a while. She was smart enough to do that in order to avoid further complications. I didn’t know if that really mattered at the moment, since I was already acting pretty harshly.
Considering how things ended the last time, I wondered how far her determination would take her. She can be pretty stubborn at times, so it was hard to say.
“No worries. We all agreed to this. While it was our plan that made this somehow possible to happen, this kind of thing tends to happen to me as well, so I am not surprised. Still, I need to warn you to prepare yourself. If things get troublesome, I will solve them with brute strength. I won’t take any chances if there is a possibility that something might happen to Glacien.”
Clarice just silently nodded. It was hard to say if I was going too far for Glacien. She technically was just an animal, after all. Was it logical to start a conflict over a single animal? For me, it sure was.
An animal or not, Glacien was my ally, the only being right now that I could trust that it wouldn’t turn on me no matter what. Part of it was because of my skill, another part that made me think that was the fact that even against some crazy odds, she fought alongside me.
In any case, I had to solve things fast now before more humans get involved. I didn’t know if Rayner was back home, but I was certain that Jacques and Gerard were… if they heard that I am causing trouble here. They will come to protect the honor of the family or some shit. They were that predictable.
Just to be safe, I ended dropping some of my blood in my bolts and made some decay bolts. I had a decent supply of them since I made them daily, but I only made a certain amount to avoid worsening my fighting condition.
This time, I wouldn’t have to worry about that since I was going to use everything that I had in my arsenal… even my vampiric powers.
In any case, we had to travel for a couple of hours before we reached our destination… even from a distance, I was able to tell that we were in a bind. The towns in the Elven territory weren’t known exactly for having guards, but I could see a bunch of guys patrolling the area. Clarice signaled for me to slow down… and the clerk began to sweat cold.
“It looks like they had enough time to prepare the defenses against us since their attack failed… we can’t risk invading the town without starting a huge fight.”
“That really isn’t a big concern, is it? I can explode a bunch of them at a time.”
“The moment you start that, they will spread the information that you went berserk here for no reason. All the families around will be mobilized to hunt you, and you won’t have the chance to defend or justify yourself.”
I guess I could consider the cunning that comes with the long life of Elves. Still, it was a fairly simple plan. Not that I still cared that much about it… the only problem was that I didn’t know if they would keep Glacien alive if I went on a rampage. If they are willing to take hostages, they will go to even greater lengths to cause me all the grief possible.
“Let’s make a detour and talk to my brother. Once he hears about this, he won’t stand still and let people target our family. With his influence, he can pressure them enough to give up on this and free grandma and Glacien.”
That seemed like the best option to avoid risks. However, her brother had no reason to do anything for Glacien… someone in such a high position wouldn’t do anything that would cause him trouble to help an unknown person, even more so an unknown animal.
While I wouldn’t be satisfied with a peaceful solution here… I needed first and foremost to make sure that Glacien would be perfectly fine no matter what and then only after that, I would make my point and use those guys as an example to all those who are planning or want to mess with me.
“Trust me. My brother won’t lose the chance of making me owe him a few favors. In order for that to happen, he will go to great lengths to make sure that things will go as we want… he might as well even crush these guys afterwards for this whole incident.”
Comments
MagicWafflez
... I have zero faith in clarice's brother, but we'll go her way for now. poor regulus. His only friend is captured and it is obviously causing him a lot of distress. Lets hope he can be calm and articulate himself... except *last time* he tried to make an example of a guy, the entire damn battlefield collectively decided to forget about flooding a Labyrinth to kill him. so regardless of justification, they're going to make him look unhinged instead of justified like he wants. A pity, since this place is actually decently cordial to him for once.
