Chapter 31: Soldiers of Feilon City (4500, Requesting Continued Reads)
“So, we are off.”
The next morning after breakfast, Fisher pulled the carriage out of the cave again, and Ke Lili and the others came out to see them off.
“Is your next stop Feilon City?”
“Yes, just passing through.”
“Ah, I’ve heard many subhumans say that the City Lord of Feilon is a really good human.”
“A good person?”
Fisher became somewhat interested. Most humans who come to the Southern Continent are here for wealth, and the traditional virtues seem far removed from them. Even Fisher wouldn’t dare claim to be a great person. He never expected to hear a positive remark about a human from a subhuman.
“Just a rumor. He has adopted many subhuman children who lost their families.”
“It could be experiments, or he has some particularly disgusting fetish for children, or maybe he just has a collecting habit.”
Fisher jokingly applied the worst speculation to that City Lord, but if it was a rumor, it should have come from the subhumans.
Ke Lili said nothing further. After Fisher put on his hat, before urging the horses to leave with his whip, he bid farewell to the three subhumans,
“Farewell. You’d better find another way to survive, and don’t trust humans too much.”
Xiya and Famasi, who was still bandaged from being injured by him, opened their mouths, watching the carriage getting further away but still couldn’t understand the meaning behind his words.
It was Ke Lili who first patted them both and floated back into the cave,
“What are you still waiting for? Let’s go back. But he’s right, pack up your things, we should hide, go into the mountains. After all, it won’t be long before this place will be in chaos.”
Fisher had driven for less than half a day when the few Dragonfolk became a bit familiar with him, and they weren’t always hiding in the carriage now. Ral liked to squeeze in next to Fisher in the narrow driver’s seat.
Then, while pointing at the wilderness outside, she talked to Fisher about what was in the Southern Continent.
Although their home was in the distant Southern Continent, she said that northern merchants often traveled south, both humans and subhumans, from whom they could learn a lot about northern affairs.
The Southern Continent has indigenous humans; some places are quite primitive, while others are less so, but the highest it gets is by village units. Most of the humans from the Western Continent fled after they arrived on this land.
Humans are cruel to subhumans, and they aren’t much kinder to their kind.
Local mines and city workers are filled with locals treated as beasts, while the women’s quarters are full of their wives and daughters. Such propaganda had been heard back in Kekken City, where it was said that Western merchants even transported a batch of natives back to the West Continent, allowing the nobility there to experience “exotic flavor.”
“Bang! Bang!”
Gunshots sounded from a distance, and Fisher immediately patted Ral’s back, who was about to fall asleep in his arms.
“Go back to the carriage, get everyone else back too; something’s happening up ahead.”
“Okay!”
Ral rubbed her eyes and called her companions who were blowing air outside back into the carriage. Raphael was the last to enter, but the door behind Fisher was left ajar, with a pair of jade-green eyes watching from the inside.
The carriage moved forward, and soon they saw many soldiers in uniform lined up, pointing their guns at the forest in front.
“Sir, sir, please stop!”
“What’s happening up ahead?”
A military officer with noticeably different clothing and appearance stopped Fisher’s carriage, and upon seeing Fisher’s attire, removed his hat and explained,
“Ah, we are soldiers from the eastern city of Hamate. This road is often attacked by goblins, and we’ve come at the City Lord’s order to clear them out. We didn’t expect some leftover goblins have escaped here. You can take a detour or wait for us to deal with those goblins; it won’t take long.”
Fisher took Ke Lili’s advice and took a detour to avoid unnecessary trouble; the road ahead was the only one leading to Feilon City.
“I’ll wait here for a moment.”
“Okay, we’ll finish up soon.” The officer smiled at Fisher, then put his hat back on and shouted to the soldiers in front, “Hurry and flush them out; let’s get back before nightfall!”
“Yes, Officer! At my command, set fire!”
Behind that row of soldiers aiming their guns at the trees, several soldiers threw firebombs into the thicket ahead. A strong, acrid smell wafted down from the front, and soon a fire began to rage in the forest that had probably existed for a long time.
“Ku du da la, Ula~”
Thick smoke billowed, and from the forest ran several two-meter-tall, tusked, green-skinned humanoid creatures; these were goblins. A dozen male goblins wielding stone axes and spears, their clothes burned black, still howled as they charged toward the humans outside.
“Open fire!”
But the result was predictable. With a volley of gunfire, the seemingly large goblins fell one by one to the ground, while the leader who had shouted the loudest was nearly riddled with bullets.
Within a single volley, the last remnants were almost extinguished.
“Officer, there are more goblins coming from behind!”
“Oh?”
The flames behind grew stronger, and more figures emerged from the forest, but compared to the previous stout goblins, their heights were noticeably different.
The last to emerge was a group of female goblins, only about one and a half meters tall, looking very disheveled, with their clothes burned away. They slowly walked out with their arms outstretched, and behind them, one could faintly see a group of children hiding behind their mothers.
This is the last remnant of a tribe.
Fisher frowned, his expression deepening, while the temperature behind him continued to rise.
But the leading officer laughed, waving his hand to signal his men to shoot. There was no need for orders; the soldiers had already grown accustomed to it. Before the officer’s hand fell, bullets densely shot toward the defenseless goblin females.
“Ku tu tu si te!”
As those goblin females fell, they screamed words Fisher couldn’t understand, frantically shielding their children behind them. But just like their husbands and sons, their bodies quickly ceased to breathe, collapsing to the ground.
“Reload!”
As the soldiers reloaded, the sound of the crying children of innocent, clueless goblins rose as they stood up from their mothers’ sides, gazing bewilderedly at their surroundings, staring at the remaining children.
“Open—”
“Roar!”
Suddenly, a fiery meteor erupted behind Fisher, bursting forth in an instant from his carriage and blowing his hat into the air.
But even faster than that wind was a red figure spinning rapidly through the air, like a spinning top, barreling past the lined-up soldiers. Wherever it went, those soldiers were knocked away, gun fragments and fingers landing on the blood-soaked ground.
“Ah!”
“What is that thing! So fast!”
“Wait, rear guard, get ready!”
The front line of soldiers fell into chaos, but quickly under the officer’s command, more soldiers formed ranks, aiming toward the smoky forest ahead caused by the red meteor’s movement.
The flames behind broke the tall trees, and at this moment, beside the bewildered goblin children stood a tall figure of a crimson dragon, slowly letting out a breath, watching the soldiers in the distance with eyes that seemed ready to ignite.
The hat from the sky fell back into Fisher’s hands. He blew off the dust, silently watching Raphael in the distance, but said nothing, and his staff had somehow fallen to his feet.
“That is a Dragon Race!”
The officer saw the female dragon’s red horns, and of course, noticed her armor-like scales.
“You kill even the children! Damn humans!”
Raphael roared, and her entire body erupted with a tremendous amount of steam, then ignited like a meteor, charging toward the group of humans aiming their guns at her.
“Fire!”
Gunfire struck her bursting steam envelop, producing a piercing friction noise, and large sparks flared. Raphael let out a deep “Hmm,” but still charged into the mass of people. In an instant, sounds of bone snapping and gushing blood filled the air, as quite a few soldiers were thrown down, crashing to the ground.
“Officer, I request permission to use that!”
“…Mm.”
The officer silently nodded, then took off a ring from his hand, whispering, “Fall.”
He suddenly threw the ring into the air, which lit up with four green rings, and then the rapidly moving Raphael halted under the glow.
“Roar!”
Gritting her teeth, Raphael slammed her steam-covered body to the ground, and the moment her claws touched the ground, cracks resembling tortoiseshell spread out.
It was a gravity spell.
Gritting her teeth, Raphael struggled to take a step, but the next moment a hail of bullets poured onto her steam shell. This was a unit of hundreds; even if Raphael had knocked down many, the next soldier each could shoot her to death.
“Ah ah ah!”
She roared, several bullets having passed through her steam shell, grazing her body, hot blood trickling from the wounds causing her to become utterly enraged, her scales shining like the sun.
“Enough.”
But in the next second, a man’s voice rang out, causing the soldiers to pause slightly.
“Officer!”
“Uh.”
Beside their officer, Fisher had grabbed the officer’s neck from behind, seemingly posing no threat, yet the officer looked as if he was about to suffocate, his face swelling purple.
“Stop shooting at her, or he will die immediately.”
“Uh, uh, uh! Help me!”
The remaining soldiers hesitated for a moment but slowly lowered their guns. The glowing scales of Raphael began to dull, breathing heavily, yet she continued to shoot bitter glares at the surrounding soldiers.
“Alright, let her come over; I’ll let you send your officer back.”
Raphael opened a path, slowly walking back next to Fisher, who then released the officer to return to his side.
“How dare you collude with subhumans; do you think you can still walk back, sir?”
The officer rubbed his neck, waved in Fisher’s direction, and the soldiers behind him raised their guns to aim at Fisher.
“It’s fine; the main thing is to get her back to avoid accidental injury.”
Fisher’s staff glimmered with a hint of light, but was suddenly interrupted by gunfire from the forest.
“Bang! Bang!”
“There are his accomplices behind!”
“Enemy attack!”
Amid the maelstrom of gunfire, goblin children emerged from the burning forest behind them, many soldiers on horses in uniform blue attire appeared.
Those soldiers, well-equipped, with cold gazes, after firing a few shots, the leader shouted loudly,
“We are soldiers from Feilon City, sent by the City Lord to take custody of the goblin tribe’s women and children. Those who are sensible, hurry and get out of our way!”
“They’re from Feilon City!”
“Damn, how can we fight this?”
“Officer, should we retreat?”
The officer ground his teeth, looking at the increasingly numerous soldiers riding horses emerging from the forest. He even saw artillery and mages’ shadows. His face stiffened as he glanced back at Fisher and Raphael, who bore no expression, ground his teeth, yet shouted to the remaining soldiers,
“Take the wounded soldiers and retreat!”
Raphael had already injured at least dozens by herself, both lightly and heavily, though this was partly due to her special circumstances, it showed the combat prowess of an adult dragon.
Raphael gasped several breaths, but turned to see Fisher looking at her with a cold face.
“Stupid.”
This was Fisher’s assessment.
Raphael bit her teeth,
“They, they’re still so small, humans…”
“Is that really your unthinking reason to charge in alone against a hundred? Without me, even if you killed many, you would die under a hail of bullets. Growing your body after adulthood didn’t complete your mind’s development, right?”
Faced with Fisher’s indifferent words, Raphael tightened her claws.
“…”
Raphael bit her teeth, not looking at Fisher. She wasn’t very injured, but there was still a wound on her face that kept bleeding, dripping down her cheek.
“Raphael.”
“…”
“Raphael, look at me.”
“…”
Reluctantly, Raphael turned her head, yet still did not meet his gaze.
“You must act with a calm and contemplative demeanor, even when filled with passion. Understand?”
“…”
Raphael did not reply, appearing unconvinced.
But to draw the line, Fisher didn’t waste more words, just walked past her, carrying his staff.
In the distance, several soldiers carefully picked up the crying goblin children from the ground, still very unwilling to let them look at the already lifeless mothers.
“Uh, um, ku… ku tu lu, Ba De.”
The soldiers awkwardly spoke the goblin language they had just learned before, wiping the tears from the eyes of the crying goblin children, holding them in their arms to shield them from the sight of their dead parents.
“Sir, thank you for delaying the time a bit. I am Sergeant Harry of Feilon City’s unit, nice to meet you.”
After ensuring no unseen children remained, the young man on horseback came over to Fisher.
“Fisher.”
“Ah, Mr. Fisher, hello. What brings you here?”
“We’re headed to Feilon City and happened to pass by.”
Fisher assessed the personnel they had deployed from the forest; these soldiers were well-equipped, differing greatly from the earlier ones, plus there were far more of them.
They could mobilize so many soldiers just for a group of women and children?
Feilon City
“If you’re going to Feilon City, you might as well travel with us; this way it can save you some trouble. Although the checks at the entrance are fair, it may take up a lot of your time.”
“…Troublesome.”
“Not at all; someone as kind as you is most welcome by Feilon’s City Lord.”
Harry smiled, lightly tugged the reins, and turned back to command the soldiers to prepare to set off.
Requesting Continued Reads and Votes, thank you all.
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(End of chapter)
