Chapter 148: Hasty Retreat (Patreon)

Declan Cawane ground his teeth and balled his fists. Notwithstanding the arrogant manner in which the trio interacted with him and rebutted his authority, their actions undermined his authority and weakened his position.

He hated them right now. Even if they did not agree to follow him, common reason stated they should at least leave him a stage to step down.

As a noble, he had a status, honor and prestige. Why did they go against him? He hated them so much.

“You are not above me. Just because you know a few tricks with magic, do you believe it will save you? Nothing will change, we will still take your proofs.

Charge with me, brothers! Whoever gets injured will get a bigger share.”

The noble youth hollered loudly at them and tried to raise morale. As a leader, he had to stand above them and establish his authority.

As soon as he finished speaking, a scalding hot mass of fire flashed by his raised finger and smashed a tree as thick as his wrist into pieces, scattering pieces of wood into the group of followers.

Palpable silence permeated the air. No one followed the order to charge and someone swallowed loudly. If it was not for the new fireball appearing in the air, the whole situation would portray an exquisite painting in the woods.

Although neither side acted and only glared at each other, each passing moment was a hard slap in Declan’s face. His followers refused to comply with his orders and nervously wavered from side to side.

“What are you all looking at? Charge already, rough them up, I don’t care. Today, we will rob them and show them what the consequences follow when someone offends the group under me, Declan Cawane!

Do it already!”

With a red face, his voice in a high pitch, the young noble shoved the members of his group next to him, ordering them again and again. Nonetheless, he did not act personally and feared taking the lead. Hence, an odd stalemate developed. Nisha and Unico had an unwilling smirk on their faces, they did not fear these greenhorns who had never fought for real before anyway. Lisa was torn between amusement and nervousness, although her friends gave her great assurance, it was her first time to face such a great number of opponents, and fellow students to boot. If it was not for her brave group, she would have tried to run away long ago.

On the other hand, her heart fluttered madly. So many boys confronted them and tried to extort them, yet they all feared a little group composed of two girls and a single young man. To her, a commoner studying at a prestigious academy, it was the stuff straight out of a heroic story. The heroes facing a group of evildoers came to her mind. The thought of being a hero from those stories made Lisa grasp her sword and shield tighter, determined to fight it out with those villains.

“I wonder, what are you talking about? We declined your offer and now you are talking about robbing us. I don’t think that’s the proper way to handle this hunting trip.

How about this, you let us go and we won’t mention this incident in front of the teachers. If they catch you while you force unwilling students into your group and take their proofs of subjugation, what kind of impression will they get?”

Unico twirled the dagger in his hand and leisurely chatted with Declan’s mob. Compared to their tense faces and twitching hands, he was exceptionally relaxed. Together with the elf and his own fighting prowess, they had nothing to fear.

“What do you know? Do you think the teachers will even care? There are no rules against taking payment for helping others through the assignment, do you think that this is the first time this happens?”

Although he had not managed to entice his followers into an attack, Declan needed to keep a superior position in the face of a small group opposing him. Leaking a small amount of information did not matter.

“I heard from my cousin, the instructors won’t care as long as no one gets hurt … too much. As long as we are stronger, we can beat you into submission and no one will care. Being stronger means we are worth more than weaklings that got robbed. Furthermore, this method has been passed down from previous students, it has been tested and none of the teachers had ever handed out a punishment for recruiting others in this way. You think you are strong? We can easily take care of you, two hands cannot block four, you will get beaten in the end. And for every hit you inflict on my brothers, we will give back ten when you are on the ground.”

The longer he talked, the more courage flew into his body. He pointed at the three standing before him and raised his voice.

Declan did not lie to them either. Countless numbers of his family members used the same strategy to shirk responsibility when faced with the instructors. And the teachers did not really have an alternative either. Even if they intervened or attempted to compensate the wronged party, it only gave the elites more benefits to press out of the losers. Over time, a careful balance developed. As long as the nobles did  not step over the bottom line, no one cared about small clashes or robbed resources. After all, the real world did not forgive either, hence they treated it as an early life lesson.

Hence Declan talked himself into a frenzy and built an imposing momentum, which in turn gave his followers the courage to go through fire and water for him. The only thing they wanted were some small benefits from sticking to a highly ranked noble.

Nisha hardly cared about their thoughts. Ever since the dragon was born in a forest among monsters and beasts, she had to fend for herself and her three siblings. In the Wilderness it meant learning how to use every advantage and leverage influence - mainly whoever can bite the hardest in this case - to ensure their survival.

“Do you think you can throw your weight around currently? Maybe the past turn it would have been possible, but at the present?

There are tons of foreign noble children attending the academy, many of them with greater influence backing their families than yours. So what if you are a future Count?”

To tell the truth, Nisha had no idea whether the instructors changed their stance on the hunting trip regulations at all, yet the greatest change compared to previous turns was the increased number of classes and students coming from abroad. Humans feared the unknown and the elf used that to her advantage.

“I can tell you, this is not about points or arguments anymore, the crown will not allow anything to happen in their academy. I bet there is a teacher around, monitoring us, at the moment.”

Compared to Declan, who swelled with pride and had to talk himself into having courage, the dragon naturally radiated charisma. Like a bright ray of sunshine, no one had the ability to cover it up and her simple counter arguments gnawed at the hearts of his followers. The mob eyed Unico, his purple skin intentionally displayed by the young man, reminding them of his origin. Declan gnashed his teeth, yet he had no avenue to confirm whether or not this foreigner had a background more formidable than his own.

Nonetheless, he did not wish to give up and shouted back.

“Who knows what you are saying is correct. I never heard any rules when we left the carriages and started hunting, you are just making up a bunch of nonsense to talk you out of following us and paying your fee. We can just beat you up first and then apologize later if we were wrong. What is going to happen anyway? Will we lose face from beating a few losers? No, let’s get them, brothers!”

The young noble rallied his group again, eager to get the whole affair done. In the beginning, he had been in high spirits and was happy enough to smile in his sleep after forming his own faction and setting out for a group hunt, yet the first soft target they picked on drove him to the point where he almost failed to get angry anymore. The sooner the whole situation concluded the better for him.

Those behind him also had reached a conclusion in their mind during the debate. Although it was shameful to pick on a small trio of two girls and a weak looking boy, they had cast in their lot with the young lord Declan and they stood on his side decisively. In case punishment followed, they had the chance to share it among each other, quite likely reducing it to a paltry amount. It was their story against another, maybe the could get out of the affair without any repercussions at all.

Seeing the other side grip their weapons more tightly and shaping up to get in an attacking formation, Nisha confirmed the signal she received from Little Lia through their bond earlier, now with her [Spirit Sight]. Smirking, she laughed out loud. The twinkling of silver bells filled the air, enchanting every male and female present, spellbound with the pure melody.

“So we have a visitor. Can I invite your esteemed presence to adjudicate and solve the dispute fairly for us?”

At first her words made no sense at all, lacking context and a receiver. The elf had turned to the side between both groups and earnestly made a small bow.

The fairly inexperienced tracker on Declan’s side suddenly swore a curse underneath his voice and hurriedly reported to the boss.

“This is bad, a presence is approaching from over there. If I’m not wrong, it might be an instructor.”

Apparently whatever one tried the hardest to avoid came to pass. The whole group felt an emotional upheaval as their readied weapons once again dropped.

“Damn.”

Even Declan cursed, a rare occurrence for a noble.

Lisa and Unico on the other hand were really surprised. From their interactions with the elf so far, they had never seen her act deferentially like this in advance. When they practiced in the yard, she advanced bravely and struck decisively with whatever weapon she had on hand.

Greeting an unknown instructor like this did not fit with her character.

“So we were protected by a powerful warrior. Teacher, please come and take a look. It seems like there was a misunderstanding here. Record everything clearly so there won’t be any accusations later on.”

Like the flip of a coin the young noble man changed his tune and pretended to earnestly welcome the teacher as well. As a future heir, he knew how much a first impression counted, especially when it came to human relationships. If he had to let go of the trio, maybe he could forge a relationship with a teacher in return, giving him a small profit at least.

Declan straightened his back and stood forward to welcome the visitor, he had to seize the initiative from the elven girl once and for all.

Lisa looked alarmed and wanted to speak up, now there was an instructor to observe and she had nothing to fear as a retaliation. Before she had a chance, Nisha grabbed her wrist and did the same to Unico. One of the remaining fireballs under the dragon’s control smashed into a tree next to them, producing a loud bang.

The opposite gang flinched collectively at the sudden action and a few of them gave the trio angry stares while the rest still had no clue about the sound’s origin and stared at the rustling bushes.

“Let’s go, we have to run.”

Nisha whispered to her friends and dragged them towards more dense undergrowth, ready to break into a sprint at any time.

Declan had an premonition something was about to happen and swept a fierce glare over the trio, who distanced themselves. Before he had the chance to instruct his group, a giant body covered in brown and red colours with a hint of gold in its coat broke through the trees and fiercely eyed the dumbfounded students.

Instead of a teacher, Nisha learned from Accalia that another monster roamed around the area and had the wolf make some noise to attract it in the general direction of her master. With the fireball, the dragon enraged the [Bronze Fleece Sheep] and plotted for Declan’s group to take the fall while they made their getaway.

She had estimated the emerging monster to be around the second rank and Nisha was not disappointed. What no one had forseen was the fact that this exemplar had almost transcended its current stage and approached an evolution as its strength actually already reached the late second aura rank, explaining the golden specks covering the sheep.

Little Lia learned at quite a rapid pace, even for a beast. Yet they simply were not partners long enough for the wolf to know many expressions in the monster language, therefore the elf only expected a [Bronze Fleece Sheep] after hearing ‘second rank monster’ from Little Lia.

At least she learned much faster than Nisha’s other beast, the floating armor occupying a spot in her treasure grove inside the [Inner Space], which had yet to utter a single word. And the elf knew it learned from her every time she looked through the grove to add or remove items or gold.

They had no more time to waste, as the monster locked onto the group of youth and bellowed loudly, charging head on to trample them.