Chapter 63: 57: On the way to Ranville

When you meet up with Delta on your way up you decide to give her some final instructions. With a heavy dose of [Submission] for good measure.

“Find a three or for eunuchs to change places with Hercule for now. Ask Gamma she’ll know what I’m talking about,” you say to the bunny girl and cast [Submission] for your next orders. “More importantly, do not attempt to heal Chi anymore, no matter the circumstances. She’s stable for now. If Chi ends up wounded from an escape attempt or any other altercation treat her as hostile and do everything in your power to kill her.”

Delta nods after hearing your instructions. It should be fine, you think. Chi can’t even walk, the amount of damage she can do is low and she can’t get without teleportation spells. For a moment a thought crosses your mind of Xi coming here while you’re away to save his sister. He is the only one now who knows about you and what to look for. But the only countermeasure to that would be to stay cooped up in your base for the rest of your life, waiting for an attack that could never come. That’s why you need to get mobile fast and find Xi, before he finds you.

When you reach the main hall, you see Alpha standing like a statue near the archway that leads to the outer gates. Elza is yawning, resting against her backpack of supplies. Oh, God, where did I put my backpack? You remember the troglodyte corpses, which by now must reek like all seven hells combined. You comfort yourself with the thought that no matter who finds it, by now the little corpses will be so repulsive, that nobody will dare to touch them.

Meanwhile, Epsilon is using two of the seven small goblins for target practice, using the long reach of her whip to slash just beneath the scrawny little legs of the goblins and make them run circles around her.

“Come on—I’m barely even trying!” Epsilon screams at them with a laugh and raises her arm for another lash. “This is for your own good! You’ve got to learn to dodge better than this if you’re going to survive in this world!”

“ENOUGH!” You shout at Epsilon and she freezes mid-swing of her whip. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Just killing some time,” she replies with a nervous smile.

“Go to the others,” you say to the two goblins. None of them are the three that you talked to before, so you don’t even have a clue what their names are and can barely tell any of them apart anyway. Apart from being scared to death, at the very least, there doesn’t appear to be a scratch on them. Looks like Epsilon was just having some light fun, in her own, cruel way.

“I hope you’ll be just as enthusiastic against opponents that can actually fight back,” you say to Epsilon and turn to the archway to finally get on the way. “Let’s go!”

“What took you so long?” Elza asks while getting up, but then takes one look at Delta and turns away from you, not bothering to wait for an answer.

“A Demon Lord is never late,” you say, but don’t feel like quoting the rest of the line you read once. You simply lead the way out of your dungeon-castle. When you open the gates you see the clear, dark, star-filled sky. It’s night already. Of course, it is! It is so easy to lose track of time inside the window-less mountain. Returning back now would look silly, and camping right outside your base would be even sillier, so you simply head out. Everyone is well-rested after all, and the sooner you reach your destination, the better.

“Elza, lead the way,” you say to the ice-magic casting bandit.

“Ah, sure, erm… give me a minute,” Elza looks to the stars above her. There’s not a single cloud in sight. Now that you think about it, you don’t remember if you ever saw so many stars. Such a sight is impossible in light-polluted cities where you used to live.

“It’s that way,” Elza points to the other part of the giant forest you walked through from Birdville.

“Remind me, how far are we from Ranville?” you ask her.

“About five days if we keep a good pace,” Elza answers and walks ahead.

You almost let out a sigh as the daunting realization truly sets in of how crippled you are without means of fast travel. That dismay is only surpassed by your determination to find a teleportation spell user no matter the cost.

“I don’t remember seeing any horses in your base. Why is that?” you ask Elza.

“We had teleportation,” Elza states the obvious. “And for traveling longer distances horses aren’t any faster than humans, especially in this terrain. Unless there’s a chain set up to exchange for fresh ones. Not to mention that they can be easily frightened, misdirected or driven away by a single fire-casting magician.”

“And Xi did not hold back. Ever!” Epsilon adds.

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“How did you even end up where you were, under someone like Xi?” You ask Elza.

“I… I rather not say,” Elza looks away.

You consider for a moment using [Submission] to make her tell you, but decide against it. There’s more than enough time before you even reach Ranville, and you don’t feel like listening to a tragic sob-story. Especially one that is forced out.

For the next two days, your journey continues uneventfully. You hardly met a soul apart from animals in the forest. Some might even look terrifying to an average farmer – wolves and bears. But none dared to so much as take a single step in your direction. Perhaps animals in this area are smarter than some humans, you think.

Close to the sunset of the second day of your journey, when you are already about to set up camp for the night, you hear howling of wolves and shouting of people close by.

“Ooh, bloodshed!” Epsilon jumps up and looks in the direction of where the noise is coming from, turning her ears back and forth like radars, searching for the carnage.

“We should concentrate on the task at hand,” Elza says while preparing a comfy spot to lie down.

Alpha offers no comments and at times you forget she is even here.

“We need to know what is going on at the very least, if we’re going to be sleeping here toning,” you say and walk up to Epsilon. “Can you locate them?”

“Yep! They’re close!” Epsilon says and runs ahead.

“Slow down!” You order the excited bunny girl and follow her, with Alpha and reluctant Elza behind you.

Just over a slope and behind some trees you see a clearing with a party of four, near a campfire, with their backs against each other. They’re surrounded by a pack of several dozen giant, black dire wolves. Each of the wolves is nearly the size of a bear you encountered before.

Of the four adventurers, one looks like the most typical dwarf you could imagine—long, bushy, brown beard, heavy steel armor, with a square helmet on his head, double-bladed thick steel axe... All that he’s missing is an excited cry before charging into combat.

The second is an archer girl with a short bow drawn and pointed at the closest wolf. Her tight leather armor is unlikely to protect her even against a single bite of the dire wolves, who’s fangs you can see shining even from a distance.

The third one is a short boy that looks like some kid or a teenager playing pretend at adventuring. He’s dressed in a mishmash of clothing and armor—leather bracers, bronze chainmail, one worn leather boot, the other is missing altogether leaving his left foot bare, no doubt caught off-guard by the attack. He also has what can only be described as a pointy wizard’s hat. In his hands, he has a light book and you barely see the boy chant something. A barely visible, thin purple line appears and encircles the group of adventurers, separating them from the dire wolves that creep closer.

The last, but certainly not least is a giant green orc with a broadsword in each hand. Most of his armor is already ripped to pieces and he’s bleeding heavily. Despite that, the orc’s stance is firm, and you have a sneaking suspicion that he’s the sole reason the others are still alive.

“I don’t want to see this before going to sleep,” Elza says with a frown. By her tone, it appears that she’s convinced this is going to be a slaughter.

“But I do!” Epsilon grins. It seems, she also expects a bloody massacre.

“Knock yourself out then,” Elza says and turns around to head back to camp.

What do you do?

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