From the Holy City of Fields to Pudara, the journey was long, passing through more than a dozen large and small cities along the way. Apart from that, between these cities, there were almost no villages or settlements.
Because living in the wilderness, without towering city walls for protection, aside from being plundered by bandits, once the winter tide arrived, they would also be attacked by suddenly appearing magical beasts.
Living outside the city was very dangerous.
But there were still some poor people who could not settle inside the city and could only wander outside. These people were called “wildlings”.
They lived in the unprotected wilds, relying on hunting or farming to survive, often unable to fill their stomachs, each of them skin and bones.
Their short lives might end due to hunger or disease, or at the hands of bandits and magical beasts. Only a very small number of lucky ones could avoid those dangers and survive a few more years in the harsh environment.
When Muli followed the Golden Lion Mercenary Group to the Holy City of Fields to receive goods, they had once passed through this area. More than a dozen wildlings had lived here before, opening a few small fields to plant some vegetables and grains.
Now, when they came here again, this small wildling settlement had already been destroyed.
“It should have been robbed by a bandit group. Look at these knife marks and footprints, it should be a small bandit gang.”
The mercenaries checked the destroyed settlement for a while and then returned to report to the leader, “Most of the things were taken, only some rotten vegetable leaves left in the field.”
“Are those bandit groups starving to madness?”
“Hahahahaha! Those little bandit gangs are no different from the wildlings, right?”
A proper mercenary group had always looked down on those small bandit gangs that preyed on wildlings — most of them were wildling-born too, and those who were a bit bolder just became bandits. At least being a bandit was a bit better than being an ordinary wildling.
On the barren wasteland, humans, like other animals, were prey that could be hunted. Compared to those alert animals, wildlings were the easiest to hunt.
So, in this destroyed settlement, there wasn’t even a single corpse. They had been taken away as prey.
“Pack up. We’ll rest here tonight. Keep your eyes open and don’t let those wild dogs get close to the goods.”
“Wild dogs” referred to those bandits.
As long as it wasn’t a medium or large bandit group, the mercenary leader didn’t care much. He simply ordered everyone to rest here for the night.
The others were used to it as well. They dismantled the shabby huts built by the wildlings to use as firewood, and some went to the fields to find any vegetables that weren’t destroyed, bringing them back to make soup.
Anyway, if they didn’t eat them, the vegetables would only end up cheap food for the beasts around.
Meili had eaten meat with them for several consecutive days, and she couldn’t digest it well. Her stomach hurt for a whole day. She always remained quiet, curled up in the cage without making a sound, silently enduring the pain. After all, compared to the pain she once endured when her mother used magic to infuse fairy life into her, this was nothing.
Yesterday when they were resting, Muli, who was guarding her, as usual handed her some roasted meat. Seeing that she didn’t take it for a long time, he felt puzzled. After thinking for a moment, he tore the roasted meat into small pieces before handing it to her again.
Suffering from pain and unable to eat at all, Meili had no choice but to tell him, “I can’t eat, you eat it.”
Then he silently ate it.
Since yesterday, she hadn’t eaten anything. Meili could feel hunger, but her pain prevented her from eating. Now that it was time to rest and eat again, she held her stomach, thinking that today it would probably be roasted meat again.
If it was always like this, she might die.
Muli went to get food as usual. The others had already witnessed how terrifying his appetite was, but seeing him continuously pile roasted meat onto his plate still made them click their tongues.
After taking the roasted meat, Muli saw someone nearby making soup. He paused in place, then took a bowl over.
“I want a bowl of soup.”
The person making the soup heard that voice, his hand trembled, and when he turned back to see Muli’s tall figure, the corner of his mouth twitched. He didn’t say anything and scooped a large bowl of soup for him.
After Muli left with the soup and meat, that person stirred the pot and muttered, “No wonder Muli doesn’t like to talk, his voice is way too mismatched with him.”
“Clack.” Meili heard the cage door being opened. She opened her eyes, and a bowl of steaming hot soup was placed in front of her.
Small pieces of meat and green vegetable leaves, white roots mixed together in the hot soup.
She pushed aside all thoughts of death in her mind, reluctantly sat up, and drank that bowl of soup.
The few pieces of meat left at the bottom of the bowl were indeed eaten by Muli again. In just a few short days of being together, Meili found that he would not waste any food.
This was a world where survival was difficult, where people lived even harder lives than in her original world. Food was hard to come by.
During their rest, members of the mercenary group came over to see her, as usual.
“I say, Muli, how are you taking care of the goods? Look at her face, did she smear mud or something? So filthy you can’t even see her face clearly!”
“That’s right, at least wipe her face a bit! How can anyone look at this!”
The two men complained just like they did yesterday.
Ever since Meili intentionally smeared black ash on her face to make herself filthy, fewer and fewer men came to look at her. Muli, who was responsible for guarding her, was cold and indifferent, not liking to talk to anyone, and was the same toward her.
He would not protect her out of pity or anything like that, he guarded her only to ensure that the goods were not damaged.
The leader had also come to see her. He was different from those mercenaries who only had women’s bodies in their heads. His gaze toward her was one of assessment, the gaze one used when inspecting valuable goods.
“When we get close to Pudara, remember to change her clothes and wipe her face clean. If she looks bad at that time and we lose money, it won’t be good.”
At night, Meili couldn’t sleep because of the dull pain in her stomach.
She heard the crackling campfire, the sound of Muli breathing outside the cage, the snores of mercenaries sleeping nearby, and… footsteps slowly approaching.
Someone was coming toward the wagon where the goods were stored.
She sat up and saw a few fingers stained with oil and blood lift the curtain, gripping the chrome-silver bars.
She was startled, and just as she wanted to warn the sleeping Muli beside her, she looked up and found that the place where Muli had been leaning was already empty. And those fingers gripping the bars suddenly dropped into the cage with bloody splatters.
Someone outside let out a pained scream, waking the entire camp of mercenaries.
“It’s a bandit ambush!”
“Get up, get up!”
“Bandit ambush!”
The awakened mercenaries banged their shields and iron blades, and the entire camp came alive.
Outside the black cloth, screams kept sounding. Meili stared at the severed fingers in the cage, recalling the scene where she saw her mother, Lady Pegg, killing people and taking their hearts.
She covered her mouth to suppress the urge to vomit, kicked those severed fingers out of the cage, and with trembling hands lifted the black cloth to look outside.
It was chaotic outside. Her vision only saw directly ahead — a bandit holding a knife with a vicious look — wearing ragged clothes and a broken leather armor, with a shaved head, completely unlike a mercenary. He was undoubtedly a bandit.
This bandit was raising his blade to strike Muli.
The man as tall as a hill raised his hand to catch the blade, easily breaking it as if snapping a tree branch. Then, with his broad palm moving forward, he pressed down on the bandit’s head and slammed it against a nearby tree.
Meili heard the sound of a melon being smashed.
She lowered the black cloth and covered her mouth even harder.
The battle outside ended. Torches were lit again throughout the camp, and it became lively once more. Some people were cleaning up the corpses, and the men handling the bodies let out low cries and discussions near that tree.
“Muli did this? His strength is way too much!”
“Exactly, with just that one strike, this guy’s head and the tree shattered together.”
Afterward, someone came to check whether the goods were intact.
She was checked as well, and Muli, who had returned to sit where he was, said, “She’s fine.”
No one dared to ask him to lift the curtain and take a look.
During the second half of the night, Meili still couldn’t fall asleep. Her sense of smell in this body was very sharp, she could smell the thick scent of blood. That smell lingered at the tip of her nose for a long time even after they left that camp. Then, belatedly, she realized the blood scent came from Muli — blood stained his cloak.
Once those bloodstains dried, they blended into his black-gray cloak as if they were just ordinary dirt.
The bandit attacks at night didn’t happen only once. A few days later, they encountered another bandit group. It was probably also a small bandit gang, the battle ended not long after it started.
This time, because the bandits hadn’t come close to this side, Muli didn’t take action at all. He sat still outside the cage and slept. Meili hid behind his back while listening to the screams, and she heard him make small snoring sounds.
After half of the journey, Meili began to adapt to such traveling and the not-so-tasty food. If things continued smoothly like this, she would be delivered to a noble estate in Pudara in half a month, becoming a pet or some other consumable.
This seemed like a fate she could not resist.
On the sixteenth day of traveling, the Golden Lion Mercenary Group encountered a magical beast.
It was a maddened mountain of flesh that suddenly stood up from the forest and pounced toward the mercenary group. The mercenaries were completely unprepared. Two people and their horses were immediately trampled into meat paste by the magical beast.
“It’s a magical beast! Damn it, why would a magical beast appear at this time?!” The leader’s eyes nearly split from anger, cursing his misfortune in his heart. Normally, magical beasts only crossed the polar region during the winter tide and came near human settlements.
They had encountered an unexpected situation!
“Guard the goods! Anyone who dares run away is dead!” The leader drew his long sword and shouted, “Use bows! You useless trash! Hurry and stop it!”
A dozen people raised bows and arrows to shoot, but they only slightly slowed the terrifying monster’s steps. Seeing several more people die, the leader couldn’t withstand it anymore. Fear rose in his heart, and he shouted while turning his head, “Muli! Where’s Muli! Why isn’t he helping?!”
But in just a moment, he had come up with a plan. Make Muli block the magical beast, they would take the goods and run away. Sacrifice one Muli, and the rest could live.
Magical beasts — even a large mercenary group would suffer heavy losses encountering one. They were only a medium-small mercenary group. If things went wrong, they might lose all their lives.
He only knew that Muli was strong against bandits. He didn’t know whether he could stop a magical beast. Now, he could only pray that this young and easily manipulated fighter could delay the magical beast for some time.
Although he thought that way, he did not see Muli when he turned around. Thinking he had run away, the leader immediately started cursing.
Only Meili knew, Muli had already silently entered the forest. While everyone was distracted, he had snuck behind the magical beast.
Reaching behind the magical beast, Muli drew two white bone spikes from his waist — those were his weapons.
The two bone spikes pierced into the magical beast’s hard scales, accurately stabbing into the gaps. With the bone spikes, he swiftly climbed onto the beast’s shoulder. Crossing his hands, he slashed open its neck.
His movements were too fast, dazzling to the eyes.
From the moment the leader and the others saw him suddenly appear behind the magical beast, to the moment they realized he had slit its neck, it only took the time of a single blink.
Some people were still foolishly shooting arrows, which bounced off the magical beast’s thick scales.
But the beast’s neck, also covered in scales, suddenly sprayed out a jet of blood under Muli’s hands. Muli leapt down from the creature’s shoulder through the rain of blood. Half his body was stained with the beast’s blood, and a winding trail of red flowed down the white skull atop his head.
Shaking his blood-soaked cloak, he inserted his weapons back at his waist, and under the stunned gazes of the leader and the others, he simply walked back to the wagon with the cage and silently, steadily sat back in his place.
