Chapter 167: Leaving High Cliff
Translator: Atla.s.studios Editor: Atla.s.studios
“What… did you say?”
The Captain of the Guard’s face turned pale. After a while, he curiously asked.
“I thought you clearly heard what I said.” Rhode put down the teacup in his hand and said leisurely.
“You mean… the Elder, the Village Chief, is the mastermind behind those undead creatures? The reason our village got attacked is also because of him?” The Captain of the Guard looked at him unbelievably and shook his head.
“Sorry, I still can’t believe it.”
“Whether you believe it or not, it’s not my problem.” Rhode waved his hand and stopped him from arguing.
“I only told you what happened last night. You just have to listen to it; as for whether you believe in it or not, it’s your problem. I can’t afford to waste time here to explain it to you. Understand? You don’t have the right to ask me; you just have to listen and that’s it.”
“Woah…”
Standing in front of the entrance, Anne was peeking inside while holding her breath. After that, she quietly turned around and showed a frightened expression. “Leader is very frightening. He didn’t even leave him any face.”
“It’s because he’s really angry.” Marlene moved the wand in her hand answered in disapproval. Clearly, she didn’t have any good impression toward the villagers who had been suffering in the tavern hall. However, it still made the other mercenaries surprised. Although Rhode was usually cold, he was still courteous. But now, he wasn’t courteous at all and even sounded somewhat overbearing, completely not caring about other people’s opinion.
“But… but…”
Because there was an example of another idiot before, the villagers only felt shocked and angry, but were unable to raise their heads to refute him. In their opinion, they definitely wouldn’t believe the words of the man in front of them. How would the respected Village Chief be connected to those undead creatures? Most likely, this man was purposely looking for an excuse to kill the Village Chief, so he told this kind of lie. That’s right, it’s a lie! But…
Even if they knew this man wasn’t going to tell the truth, when they saw the sword strapped on Rhode’s waist, they couldn’t help but swallow their feeling of dissatisfaction. They held in their anger and bowed their heads in silence. This was their only gesture of disapproval and the only thing that they could do right now.
“Finally shut up? Very good. I believe a sword wins over a mouth… It’s not a good thing to waste time talking about a pointless topic.” Rhode stopped moving. He narrowed his eyes and coldly looked at the villagers. “That’s right, about this matter, I will report it to the church and ask them to investigate and purify this place. I think it’s a must.”
“What?!” Hearing until here, those villagers who stayed silent raised their head and looked at Rhode in fear. They started to panic, but Rhode didn’t care. “But, but Sir. Didn’t you say before that the undead creatures have been completely destroyed…”
“Indeed, I said that.” Rhode nodded.
“It’s just for insurance. In case something happens, I still need to report it to the church. No matter what, the Village Chief was an evil demon follower. He’s been hiding this fact for so many years, and there’s no guarantee that there’s no helper among the villagers. Just in case, before I left, I asked the guard to seal the entire village until the investigation was finished… Do you have any problem about that?”
“Mr. Rhode… No, sir, I don’t think we have to do that.”
Hearing this words, the Captain Guard expression turned bad and other villagers also became uneasy and looked at him pleadingly. Of course they understood what Rhode meant by that, but it’s the most unacceptable heavy price for them.
The evil demon follower reputation was very bad to the people up there, everyone would avoid them. Not to mention if the entire village became a evil demon follower. If it’s like that, then no one would no longer care about the real truth and would only think that the entire village were all evil demon follower. This kind of thing was just like plague. If Rhode did report them to the church and the rumors about them spread, then the whole High Cliff Village was definitely done for. Until then, even there’s no evil demon follower in the village, those merchant still wouldn’t come here to trade. No one would also buy the goods from them, and perhaps they wouldn’t even interact with them anymore. If that time comes, then High Cliff Village was definitely done for.
In fact, the reason they thought Christie was a disaster was because of the incident that happened to her. From that onwards many people rarely trade with them. This all happen because of that girl who’s being possessed by a demon. When Rhode mentioned about it, they immediately remembered the incident that happened previously.
However, the only thing different before was that they still have a room to maneuver, since the one who’s being tempted by the demon was an ordinary person. But what can they say now? According to what Rhode have said, the Village Chief Elder have died and people who have died definitely wouldn’t argue. But if he did crawl back from his grave it’s indeed a problem…
Thinking until here, the villager already forgotten about their anger. Have to know this problem was related to the survival of the village! If they didn’t do anything to stop Rhode, then High Cliff Village is finished!
“Si, Sir, I think, I think we don’t have to do that.” The Captain of the Guard rubbed the sweat on his forehead and said. He was also afraid that this matter would be known. If this matter spread around, then he, as a person who was born in the village, would be suspected by the people. Many people were eyeing his position as the Captain of the Guard. If those people knew about this matter, then not only would he not be able to keep his position, but he could only go back to the village to sell sweet potatoes!
“I can guarantee that all the villagers here are nice. They wouldn’t interact with any demon, I…” Seeing that Rhode didn’t show any emotion, the Captain of the Guard only swallowed his saliva and stopped talking. He hesitated for a while and wanted to continue, but Rhode started to speak.
“Frankly, I don’t want this matter to be troublesome. If I report this matter to the church, I also must be investigated. Of course, it’s better to reduce the trouble. But… my mercenaries this time received a very heavy casualties…” He strongly stressed the word “casualties” on purpose. But he really did received very heavy casualties. There were five mercenaries who were injured, and the magic potion decreased by two-thirds. Not to mention the broken weapons and armories. The casualties were very heavy, weren’t they? Especially for Rhode’s mercenary group, which only had about 10 members.
“I understand, Mr. Rhode.” Hearing Rhode’s words, the Captain of the Guard was relieved, then nodded his head. “Since you and your subordinates have protected our village, we will of course show our grat.i.tude. Of course, I can guarantee it, but how about this…”
The Captain Guard hadn’t finished his words yet when he saw Rhode raising five fingers. He hesitated for a bit and tried to ask. “Fifty?”
“…” Rhode coldly snorted and didn’t say anything.
“Five hundred? … Is it?…”
“Ten thousand.” Rhode said. After hearing Rhode’s words, the Captain of the Guard and the villagers seemed to be surprised.
“You, this, this is impossible! We don’t have that much money!”
“It’s supposed to be 5000, but since you guys didn’t want to give the money, I can’t help but double it,” Rhode said, then took back his hand and leisurely sat in the chair while looking at everyone who broke into sweat.
“Enough, make your decision. I hope none of you will make a stupid decision that will make you unhappy.”
Yes, we shouldn’t make a decision that will make you unhappy. The Captain of the Guard secretly cursed him, but didn’t say anything. Facing Rhode’s cold glare, the only thing he could do was to lower his head to hide his emotion.
In the end, the villagers couldn’t help but to agree to Rhode’s condition. They collected 5000 gold coins. Frankly, they were unwilling to give up this sum since the village wasn’t crowded with merchants like before. These 5000 gold coins were acc.u.mulated throughout the years. But now, it was actually being taken away by him with just one sentence. No one wanted this to happen, but what could they do? Point a gun at him?
Because of that, when Rhode’s mercenary group left, the villagers didn’t bid farewell to them. They only talked behind the mercenaries’ backs and didn’t even glance at them. Their gesture showed their anger and dissatisfaction. Rhode clearly didn’t care about that. He was already happy enough after receiving the money. He knew that his reputation in this village won’t be so good and he would be leaving an enmity. But who cared? Didn’t he still get what he wanted?
As the saying went, take the money to do things. Since he already took the villagers’ money away, he wouldn’t report it to the church. However, he already decided that after going back to Deep Stone City, he would report this matter to Klautz “truthfully.” He would hand Klautz the thing that he got from the Village Chief Elder after the battle and he believed that Klautz would make a wise judgement.
It didn’t mean that he broke their promise, right?
But after leaving High Cliff Village, something still happened.
Truthfully, Rhode hoped that Christie would leave the village and go with him. She had also accepted his invitation. Frankly, she didn’t have any good memories toward the village since the people there didn’t really treat her nicely. Moreover, in the Starlight mercenary group, whether it was Rhode, Marlene, Anne, or Lize, everyone liked her. This made Christie feel warmth that she had never felt before. That was why she didn’t have the slightest hesitation when Rhode asked her to leave with them, because at least living with him wouldn’t be as bad as living with the villagers.
But even so, when they left the village, Christie still felt somewhat reluctant. No matter what, she had been living in this place for ten years. If she left with a stranger, she wouldn’t be sure about her own future. Now in Christie’s heart, there was a trace of regret. If not because of her, such things wouldn’t have happened, right? Was she really a disaster? She turned around while silently looking at the village.
“You don’t have to care about it.” Rhode could understand her feeling. He stretched his hand and patted her head. After that, he lowered down his body and focused on looking at her.
“Remember, Christie, this is not your responsibility, so don’t feel responsible towards it. What happened to him was caused by his own wrongdoings, not because of your existence.”
“En…” Seeing that Rhode was trying to make her feel better, she exposed a smile. “I know, Rhode… Thank you…”
She softly said. Her voice sounded as clear as the wind. At the same time, she caught Rhode’s finger with a little force while pulling at his clothes.
“Their relations.h.i.+p sure is good.” Looking at Rhode and Christie, Anne’s mouth twitched and she complained.
“Leader is not fair. I’ve joined the mercenary group for a long time, but you’ve never smiled for me!”
“Me too. Since the moment I know him, he’s never smiled to me…”
Lize said with dissatisfaction, then she stretched her hand to touch her face.
He slapped me though…
Marlene’s expression also looked complicated. She looked to the left, then looked to the right. In the end, she sighed and helplessly gave up.
At this moment, she saw a boy suddenly run over them. He brought a rock and cruelly threw it toward Christie.
“Get out, you demon!” Facing the boy’s sudden attack, everyone was surprised. Christie turned around and saw a rock flying toward her. She screamed in fear and closed her eyes instinctively.
However, she didn’t feel any pain like usual. To the contrary, she only heard a shrill scream, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that the boy was crying on the ground, half of his face full of rock fragments. A woman screamed, rushed toward that boy, and hugged him.
At this moment, Rhode stood in front of Christie. “Enough, let’s go.”
He said towards Christie. Rhode didn’t even look back to see the mother and son behind him, even though their hateful and angered eyes pierced his back.