[NR] That Sort Of Guy - Chapter 574 (Patreon)

The man, with his hands on his waist, throws his head back and lets out a full bellied laugh.

Jason, Rosha, and Courtney fall back a few steps and group up.

With a shake of his head, the man sighs, “Been hunting these beasts for a week! Stupid blighters kept hiding whenever I came around.”

He shakes his head again, “Sorry that you three ended up being used as bait of sorts. I didn’t plan it, but, well, that’s how life works sometimes.”

Courtney stepped forward to say something, but she didn’t get a chance. The man looked like he had started to walk away leisurely, but each step, despite his stride not getting wider, kept doubling in distance. Nevermind the fact that while looking slow, he managed to take enough steps to vanish into the distance even before Courtney could finish her step or begin to say anything.

Jason rolled his eyes, “With the direction he went, I’d say we have good odds of seeing him in the settlement. Though I must admit, that guy is the closest anyone I’ve seen in this life has come to matching the arrogance of cultivators. Despite that, I must admit, that movement technique was pretty spiffy.”

Rosha turns to Jason, “What do you mean?”

Jason shrugs and points towards the chimera corpses. Except, when Rosha and Courtney look over, they find that the bodies are gone.

Jason sighs, “Always with the flowery apology while at the same time they’ll loot right out from under you. Not that we had any right to that stuff. Still, despite what he said, we were definitely allowed to be bait. Someone that capable would have seen us coming a mile away.

“Maybe if it was just you, Rosha, you might have gotten reasonably close. That is, if you were sneaking. With the three of us all tromping through the forest? No chance he didn’t know. Maybe his own conscience is clear because without intervention, this could have killed us.

“And no, I’m not going to snivel about how if he could detect us in danger he should warn us no matter what. However, this wasn’t some random encounter he had no connection with. Those were his prey. He was hunting them and so had some responsibility for what was happening. At least, in my own opinion.”

Courtney nods, “If he was just out in the wild, it would be one thing. The fact he was hunting those specific monsters? Part of preparation should be to secure the area.”

Rosha frowns, “If you’re tracking something, you can’t exactly know where you’ll end up.”

Jason nods, “True, but that wasn’t the case for him. He knew they were here. His problem wasn’t tracking them down, but being able to get close enough to attack without them hiding. My guess is some supernatural sense or limited time sight danger sense sort of shenanigans that let them hide whenever he was going to show up.”

Rosha, “Oh, in that case he can take a long walk off a short pier.”

The others agree with the sentiment, but cut their chatting short when the sounds of “nature” return. Which in this case means the various roars, hisses, and assorted other sounds of distress and triumph. Not that the area was always in a constant state of battle. Just most of the time and the trio didn’t want to get caught up in whatever decides to come and check out what happened here. In theory, the strong guy’s presence moments ago should keep anything weaker than him away. Which just leaves anything as strong or stronger to come and mess up their day.

Though it seemed that last encounter was the turning point for their journey, as the rest of the trip was relatively peaceful. Then again, in a way, they could be seen as following behind that man and so it would make sense that all the powerful monsters are in hiding. Anything strong enough to worry the group, would also be strong enough to sense their death coming when that man passed through the area.

Though once back in the settlement, the situation reversed. Not as in there were dangerous monsters prowling about, but rather that it was slow going. Sure, they had known the place was a proper town of sorts, but there has never been all that many people out and about. Now though? While not packed full of people, it was busy enough that they couldn’t just head over to their contact. And the reason for all this?

Of course, it was that guy. They didn’t see him, that would have required pushing through the crowd, but they heard all about how he was parading around with the body of those monsters on display. A gaudy mess, as far as the trio were concerned.

Jason simply felt that getting so worked up over what was to the man, pretty weak prey, served little purpose. On the other hand, Rosha and Courtney saw it from the perspective of politics, families, and face. To them, for the man to make such a big fuss about it himself, simply pointed to an uncultured upbringing and lacking knowledge of etiquette. You don’t toot your own horn, that is what other people are for.

Besides, if you’re going to cause such a scene, you need to prepare for it beforehand. It isn’t like parades happen at a moment’s notice. There is planning involved and permits. Plus, this all has clearly distracted the guards on duty at the wall. Which certainly wasn’t a good thing.

This is a little harsh on the settlement, not that any of the three will admit it. Though it didn’t help that they were missing a lot of context. For instance, those chimeras had been terrorizing the locals ever since the most recent major terrain shift had happened. The man returning with the slain chimeras was more like Hercules returning with the slain Nemean Lion’s pelt instead of just another adventurer coming in with some rat tails to prove they cleared the sewer. So the sudden celebration could be understood to a point.