Chapter 243 “Hunting”
Du Wei immediately noticed the young knight standing behind Rugaard. He’s the same person with the metal mask from yesterday.
Still as valiant as ever, the only part that was off is how chilly that elegant smile was.
“No need for introductions.” Du Wei smiled: “The young general and I already met yesterday. Sir Cybuster, I didn’t expect you to return so quickly after leaving the city in such a rush.”
Young Cybuster smiled and said, “My men were getting lazy so I wanted to bring them out for a little exercise. Enough about me, I heard from some of my men that you made quite a show in last night’s banquet. To think the Duke is not only a master magician, you are also an expert marksman. I fear all the glory in today’s hunt will be monopolized by the Duke.”
Rugaard smiles and waved his hand: “Bring out the prey!”
At his command, a large cart with a gigantic cage began to roll out from one of the tents.
At first sight, Du Wei almost couldn’t believe his eyes when the soldiers removed the blanketing veil…….
The truth is while the cage was being carted out of the tent; Du Wei could already hear the wailing cry behind that blanket. Now that he got a closer look, his speculation was confirmed!
What prey? Inside that gigantic cage are clearly a dozen or so young girls!
Judging by their skin complexion, these girls can only be the slave girls brought in by Totoro from the Southeastern Sea. Aoi may have managed to escape by herself, but her foolish actions have consequently harmed these poor girls in her place.
Once the cage was opened, these girls were eventually driven out to kneel before Du Wei and Rugaard.
Du Wei really wanted to sigh at the scene.
Not only were their pitiful cries painful to the ear, he can clearly see the bruises and whip lashes on their naked body. What should have been delicate fine skins is now ruined because of someone else’s fault.
Looking over their ages, the oldest is at most 18 and the youngest is so small that he didn’t know where to begin. No matter which face he scanned over, it was always filled with fear and terror at what is to come. There’s no doubt about it, their eyes had the look of impending doom.
“General Rugaard… … This is……” Du Wei tries to ask a question.
“Hmm?” Rguaard raises a brow at his word: “The a.s.sa.s.sin from yesterday is part of this group. Since I don’t have the energy to interrogate them one by one, I thought, why not just kill them all? Better all than to miss one……”
At this point, Rugaard’s eye revealed a hint of killing intent.
Without showing any changes in his expression, Du Wei can only close his mouth.
He may not be showing it on the outside, but his insides were churning at Rugaard’s brutality.
Just when his mind began to waiver over whether if he should do something to stop all this, his sight inherently fell upon Rugaard’s firm gaze. In the end, Du Wei decided to let it be, he’s simply not the type to do something he knew is pointless.
“Listen up!” One of the cavalry officers raised his blade into the air, his voice thunderously loud: “General’s command, you girls should have been executed without exception for being accomplices to the a.s.sa.s.sin! However, the general is merciful and is giving you a chance to live!”
The officer then rides over to one of the camp fire to light up a torch. Using only one hand, the officer then stabs the torch into the ground and began to talk again: “Starting as of this moment, you girls can flee into the forest. If you can somehow make it out of the woods without being caught after the torch burns out, you are free to live!” The officer then reveals a grin: “Now then, RUN. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”
With that, he gives an eye signal to the other solders to cut off the shackles binding these naked girls.
Likely too scared to face reality, all of these girls had a stunned look on their faces. For some that still believed they might get lucky by pleading, these foolish ones ended up with bloodied foreheads from how much bowing they were doing.
Du Wei couldn’t stand it anymore. He’s not heartless like Rugaard. Biting his lips, he pulls out his sword and rode up to one of the pleading girls: “QUIT CRYING! Your cry is annoying as h.e.l.l! If you want to live then hurry up and flee!!” He then points the tip of his sword up to the girl’s face.
Seeing the chilling weapon in front of her, the girl reacted like she was just woken up from a dream. Looking up at Du Wei’s eye, something in her mind finally clicked like a realization finally donned on her. Faltering a few times in her struggle to stand, this panicking girl began to make her way into the forest with all her might.
If there’s a first, there’s a second….. Very soon, all the girls began to make their way into the forest after understanding their fate if they don’t. If they want to live, they must fight for it, and the only way right now is to make it out of the forest. Many of their tender feet’s were harmed in the process due to the sharp rocks on the ground, but a little cut means nothing in the face of imminent death.
Watching the dozen or so girls fleeing for their lives, Du Wei could only sigh: This is about all I can do for you girls. Forgive me……
Letting out a ha-ha laugh on his horse, Rugaard raises his hand above his brow to overlook the forest: “Very well! Brothers, let’s begin the hunt!”
With that, the old weasel glances over at Du Wei: “Du Wei, I’m sure you’ve hunted before in the capital, but…… Hunting an animal cannot be as fun as hunting a person!”
At this point, Rugaard pulls out his bow like he was itching to go at it.
Seeing the last remaining girl still idling on the ground, Du Wei can already guess what the old b.a.s.t.a.r.d intends to do. Raising an arm to block Rugaard’s aim: “General, a moment please.”
Looking up at Du Wei, Rugaard frowned: “what’s the matter?”
Du Wei casually smiled: “Since this is a hunt, it will only be interesting if there’s difficulty … … Why don’t we wait a while longer to let them gain some more distance. The further they run, the more fun it will be.”
A cold voice drifts over from his side: “Who would have thought the Duke is so kind to the opposite s.e.x.”
Without explanation, the young Cybuster rode up to the front and suddenly drew his own bow. Since the distance between him and Du Wei was too far apart, Du Wei couldn’t make it in time to stop the arrow.
Swooosh
A spiked arrow shot through the sky and into the depths of the forest…….
From afar, a miserable cry of a woman’s pain drifted into everyone’s ear.
Cybuster lowers his bow, his eyes clearly full of contempt: “Its’ definitely more fun if they run further away….. However Duke, shooting one down to scare the others will encourage the rest to run harder.” His mocking smile was so obvious even a blind person can see it.
Confronting the person behind that mask, Du Wei can somehow sense a killing intent shooting his way. Did he offend this young general, why is he so aggressive towards him? Du Wei rummaged through his memory but nothing came up.
From behind Du Wei, Hussein suddenly made a cold grunt. Slowly, our Saint Knight rode up to Du Wei’s side to stare down at this Cybuster. From the eyes to the chest, Hussein’s gaze eventually stopped at the young knight’s sword that was strapped to the waist: “Eh? That sword looks very similar to the legendary sword ‘Beauty under the Moonlight’.”
Hussein was clearly the fiercer beast in this meeting.
Unlike Hussein that didn’t feel threatened in the least, Cybuster felt like his chest was being pounded by an unknown force. From his usual arrogant and proud look, Cybuster for the first time revealed shock and surprise in his eyes as he looked over the mysterious person before him.