Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
Beauty and the Bloodhoof Warrior
After the Scheming Frog finished speaking, he made a gesture to Gou Fugui.
Gou Fugui understood immediately and directly cast three Flame Bursts, which flew into the sky and exploded with a “boom.”
This was the opening ceremony’s fireworks.
It was a bit too simple, but the meaning was conveyed perfectly.
Although the surrounding townsfolk were confused, Xi Wei, a former Blue Star person, almost couldn’t help but laugh.
“Now, let’s invite our performers!”
“Clap, clap, clap.”
The Scheming Frog, as the organizer of the play, was the first to applaud. Gou Fugui joined him, but that was about it.
The townsfolk stared at them as if they were idiots.
“Frog Brother… We?”
Gou Fugui pursed his lips, his dark horse face filled with awkwardness.
“Stop yapping, just clap. As long as I’m not embarrassed, they’re the ones who will be.”
The Scheming Frog’s gaze remained unchanged, looking straight ahead.
He whispered a few words to Gou Fugui, his mouth barely moving.
He continued to clap, and although his words conveyed indifference, a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.
That was due to nervousness.
He wasn’t the only one who was nervous; the actors in the drama troupe were also nervous. Their small drama troupe had just been formed and was named the “Touch Your Belly” Drama Troupe.
This name was extremely strange, but the actors attributed it to the particular preferences of their superiors.
Leading the way was Miss Elena, the famous Thorn Rose of Most City.
Unlike her usual attire of professional combat gear and leather armor,
Elena was wearing a beautiful floral dress today.
The material of this dress was very ordinary, and any townsfolk could buy a similar style at a tailor shop in Most City.
However, when worn by Elena, it made her appear fresh, refined, playful, and cute.
She was like a girl next door intimately calling out “brother” to you.
Many young men in Most City felt a stirring in their hearts, as if struck by Cupid’s arrow.
They couldn’t help but whistle,
hoping to attract the attention of the beauty with such a clumsy method.
However, today’s beauty was destined not to belong to them.
For closely following Elena was a massive Bloodhoof Warrior.
Standing over three meters tall, Miss Elena appeared as small as a child in front of him.
Carl Bloodhoof wore a straw hat and simple linen clothes, looking somewhat agitated.
It wasn’t just the discomfort of being watched by so many humans, but also because the clothes were too tight, lacking a sense of freedom.
He still preferred to be bare-chested, displaying his developed pectoral muscles.
The two lead actors and all the supporting cast were in position. The soldiers brought out some props and models, and soon all the necessary scenery for the plot was set up in the center of the plaza.
The play then began.
…
Carl was a free Bloodhoof Warrior.
Until one day, he took an arrow to the knee. Severely wounded, Carl got separated from his kin while being pursued by the human army, and had no choice but to hide in the mountains to eke out a living.
Carl thought he would spend the rest of his life as a companion to wild beasts in the deep mountains, greeting the dawn with dew and sleeping under the stars at night, until one day he encountered a gravely injured maiden named Bell.
“She’s human, an enemy, I shouldn’t save her!”
“If I save her, I’ll expose myself, and I’ll die.”
Carl told himself this.
But his kind heart ultimately led him to treat the maiden. However, to be safe, he used beast hide to cover his ugly bull face.
“Oh, mighty warrior, thank you for saving me.”
“I will do my utmost to repay your kindness!”
It turned out that Bell was the daughter of a commoner. Because she was delicate and lovely, she caught the eye of the local landlord’s wicked and tyrannical son, who wanted to forcibly abduct her.
Bell’s father was unwilling, but he couldn’t stop the landlord’s laborers. He could only inform his daughter of this news in advance, so she could be mentally prepared.
Would Bell accept such a fate?
Of course not.
She was a girl who yearned for freedom; she liked powerful warriors, not a landlord bully with rotten teeth who only knew how to bully the weak.
So Bell fled, running into the mountains.
However, the mountains were fraught with danger, and she was soon targeted by a pack of hungry wolves. The outcome was self-evident; if Carl hadn’t arrived in time, she would have become a wolf’s meal.
The plot then became cliché, involving the Bloodhoof Warrior and the human maiden living together in the mountains. The male and female, starting from not knowing what to say to each other, gradually warmed up, and their feelings began to grow.
“Carl, can I see your face?”
“Sorry, I…”
Elena would ask this every day, but Carl would always offer various excuses to pacify her.
Until one day, Elena couldn’t hold back any longer.
She took off the beast hide while Carl was asleep.
She was stunned.
Beneath the beast hide was a hideous bull’s face!
Elena fled.
For a time, she couldn’t accept that the man she deeply loved was not human.
She ran all the way down the mountain and encountered her father and villagers who were preparing to go into the mountains to find her.
Elena didn’t tell her father or the villagers about meeting Carl in the mountains, only saying that she had lived in a cave for a period of time.
Back in the village, Elena wept endlessly.
She was tormented by the feelings in her heart.
The landlord’s son had also not given up his covetous gaze on Elena. One evening, he finally couldn’t resist and planned to sneak into the girl’s house to cook the raw rice into cooked rice.
But then he overheard Elena muttering to herself:
“Carl, I’m sorry, I think I was wrong, I love you, I should go back, go back to you.”
“The landlord’s son wants me, he’s daydreaming. I’ll return to the mountains tomorrow to find you, wait for me.”
The landlord’s son was instantly enraged upon hearing this.
He didn’t know who Carl was, only thinking of him as a wild man living in the mountains.
A wild man had stolen his woman, how could he stand for that?
The landlord’s son no longer held any hope of making Bell fall in love with him.
So he tied up Bell and her father with his slaves and locked them in the dungeon.
Then, he led a group of slaves into the mountains with various weapons.
He wanted to make that wild man pay a price, break his limbs, and force him to watch as he intimately embraced Bell.
Meanwhile.
Carl in the deep mountains was also filled with grief.
In fact, he wasn’t asleep that day. He had deliberately let Bell remove the beast hide from his face. He was gambling, betting whether Bell would reject him because of his appearance.
In the end, he lost the gamble.
However, he still secretly escorted Bell down the mountain. After confirming that Bell had been picked up by the villagers, he, a solitary bull, returned alone.
Afterward, he fell into despair and became ill.
—
ps: The next chapter is stuck…
The daily life part is mostly over, and it’s time to get back to the main storyline.
