The cage was lifted up. Meili hurriedly grabbed the cage bars. At the moment she was flung out together with the cage, her body suddenly felt light. Suspended in mid-air for a moment, she then fell downward, landing hard on the ground with her butt.
Beneath her, the bandit chief’s face twisted in a grimace. His large face was squeezed by the bars; the flesh on his face bulged out between them like sponge.
Meili had sat right on his head. She instantly jumped up, flustered, and stepped twice more on his face. She probably stepped on his nose, it felt a bit sharp underfoot.
“You… stinking… wench—” The bandit chief looked like he was about to explode with rage, his yellow teeth jutting out as he forcefully shoved the cage off his body.
Meili’s vision blurred, and she saw the cage was back in Muli’s hands again. He seemed to be treating this cage as a weapon. He took it back and made another sweeping strike, sending the bandits who had rushed up to help their chief flying.
The chief climbed up with a twisted expression, swinging his broadsword down toward the cage.
Seeing this, Muli tilted the lifted cage—Meili rolled backward and curled up into a corner inside it.
With a sharp sawing sound, a section of the cage was forcibly sliced off.
The bandit chief refused to give up and brought down a second strike. He deliberately aimed for Meili inside the cage, still bearing a grudge over her stepping on his face just now.
Muli tilted the cage again. Meili held her head and rolled to the other side. As soon as she landed, the bars she had just been curled against were chopped halfway through by the blade, and even the chains shackling her neck and wrists were incidentally severed.
The cage suddenly had one big gap and one small one.
Muli directly tipped her out through the gap, his palm supporting her waist. Meili, dizzy, rolled onto his hard, rock-like arm, and was then casually flung over his shoulder. It felt like her waist was about to snap.
Tossed and rolled around, Meili covered her mouth, barely managing not to vomit on the spot.
While she hung over Muli’s shoulder like a fur shawl, Muli caught the bandit chief’s third strike.
It was a broadsword both sharp and heavy. Even though the chief was stronger than most people, after three swings with full strength, he was already running out of power.
Before he could raise the blade again, Muli tightly grabbed the sword, pulled out a snow-white bone spike from his waist with one hand, half-crouched, leaned forward, and with great force drove the bone spike upward from below, piercing diagonally into the chief’s jaw.
Meili felt a wave of warmth on her exposed leg. Some sort of liquid splattered onto her skin and slowly dripped down.
The surrounding bandits who had been shouting and fighting all suddenly fell silent, fearfully staring at Muli and their chief.
The chief of this bandit group had absolute control over all of them. Everyone feared him. But now, he was dead — and died miserably.
Seeing the tall, blood-covered man dressed bizarrely, who casually wiped the bone spike clean and slid it back at his waist, the other bandits unconsciously retreated.
When he lifted his head and looked around with those eyes hidden within a skull stained with blood, a bandit screamed and turned to flee.
It was like a signal. One after another, the others spun around and ran. Having witnessed the man take action and kill their chief with their own eyes, they didn’t dare even think of surrounding and killing him. They didn’t even dare to look back.
In an instant, this battlefield that had been noisy and chaotic just now became quiet. Only Muli was still standing among the mess.
The mercenaries were all dead.
The bandits had run away.
He stood in place, glanced at the mercenary captain’s body that had been cut into two, then at the cargo scattered everywhere. He didn’t know why, but he let out a sigh.
Meili could no longer hold it in. She struggled off his shoulder, staggered to the side, and threw up furiously.
Muli walked to the trees at the side and used the bandit chief’s sharp broadsword to dig into the earth. He dug a large pit, preparing to bury all these corpses on the spot.
After Meili finished vomiting, she saw he was preparing to bury the bodies. She hesitated, then rummaged through the pockets of a corpse beside her and found a small money pouch.
It belonged to a bandit corpse. Inside were actually several gold coins. Truly a wealthy bandit group.
She silently rummaged through several bandit corpses, and the small pouch in her hand was soon filled.
Suddenly, a shadow fell before her. She looked up — Muli was lowering his head to look at her. Because of the blood-stained skull mask, she couldn’t make out his expression. Meili’s hand, which was searching bodies, trembled slightly. She offered all the gold coins she had found to the big boss.
It was her first time looting corpses. From clumsy to gradually practiced, she took nothing but money. In the end, she gathered a small pile of coins, all of which she offered up to Muli.
Of course, while he wasn’t paying attention, she secretly hid a few gold coins just in case.
Muli threw all the mercenaries’ and bandits’ corpses into the pit and set them ablaze. Otherwise, if he only buried them, hungry wildlings would come dig the bodies back out.
With a blazing fire in the pit, Muli then began gathering the scattered goods of the mercenary group, placing them back onto the carts and securing them. The merchant’s horse that had been slain was replaced by the horses the bandits left behind when fleeing.
Since there was no one else left, he gathered everything and organized it into two large carts.
Meili stayed off to the side. Watching him tidy up so efficiently and skillfully, she wanted to help but couldn’t find anywhere to start.
When everything was set, Muli said to her, “You drive that one.”
She didn’t know how to drive a cart. And just a short while ago, she had been cargo locked in a cage — now she was to drive a cart alone?
“It’s easy to learn.” The ruthless mercenary who had just terrified bandits, spoke to her in a soft, youthful voice. His tone was serious and solemn, but not frightening at all.
Having just felt frightened by the gruesome scene of him killing, Meili had unconsciously wanted to curry favor with him. Now she didn’t feel as scared. Listening to this voice, it was impossible to remain afraid… She suddenly understood a little why Muli didn’t like speaking.
Once the bodies were burned, the two-person mercenary group left.
Two large carts — the one in front moved steady and straight; the one behind wobbled from side to side, and before long veered off the road and tumbled into the weeds off the roadside.
A newbie on the road — Meili, with terrible skills, grass stuck in her hair, struggled in the ditch beside the road. Muli lifted her by the shoulders like plucking a radish and set her aside.
Then he walked into the field, lifted the fallen cart, and casually placed it back on the road.
Meili couldn’t see his expression clearly and worried constantly that he might crush her skull with one hand, since she was no help at all.
Placed back onto the driver’s bench, she saw that gloved hand reaching toward her and instinctively shut her eyes. In her mind flashed the image of that hand snapping a blade, stabbing through a jaw, smashing a skull and a tree.
Muli extended two fingers and pressed lightly on the small head of the woman to him, careful not to crush her, making her lower her head slightly.
“Look here. I’ll teach you again.”
With the urgent fear of “if I still can’t drive, this big hand behind me may crush my head on the spot,” Meili learned earnestly. At last, she managed to drive, though still clumsy. The horse wasn’t very obedient, sometimes slipping out of control, but she managed to keep up.
Muli occasionally looked back. Seeing the red-haired woman’s smudged face and clear green eyes focused nervously and seriously on driving, and that nothing had gone wrong, he turned back and continued to rest.
His shoulders slumped with a bit of troubled frustration.
Where exactly was all this cargo supposed to go? He hadn’t been responsible for that before, so he hadn’t remembered.
At night, they found a place to rest as usual. Meili, who had driven for so long, was exhausted to the point of almost fainting, leaning against the cart shaft unable to move.
Muli didn’t order her to work. He went to gather firewood and start a fire to roast meat, and even found a pot to specially cook meat soup for Meili, remembering how she had trouble swallowing roasted meat earlier.
Ordinary humans were far more fragile than he expected. Those mercenaries and bandits were already fragile — one accident and many died. And this woman was even more fragile.
When the soup was presented before her, Meili jolted awake, dumbfounded, holding the steaming bowl while watching Muli sit back by the fire, cutting off charred chunks of meat with a knife and stuffing them into his mouth.
She glanced at the hot soup in her hands, and once again felt that this terrifying man who killed without blinking… wasn’t quite so terrifying after all.
She took a sip of the soup… his cooking skills were rather terrifying.
Meili held the bowl and hesitated before sitting down by the fire.
Sure enough, Muli buried himself in eating meat without paying her any attention. He always ate with complete focus, nothing could distract him.
Meili slowly drank the soup, trying to digest everything that had happened today.
The mercenary group was gone, only one person left. So… did she have a chance to escape? She did not want to become some noble’s plaything.
If she escaped, where could she go?
During this half month of travel, she had learned that only people with identification could live inside the city. She didn’t have any. Living outside the city was dangerous, she could be killed by bandits at any moment. Not only bandits, even ordinary wild beasts could kill her.
There were still shackles around her hands and neck, a length of chain hanging down. Meili held that piece of chain in a daze.
Muli finished eating and leaned against the cart to rest. Meili also went to sit on the driver’s bench of the other cart. There wasn’t any extra space for her to lie down and sleep, she could only sit.
Nearby was a small lake. At night, small animals came over to drink water, and the grass by the lake rustled with movement.
Meili also heard something moving in the bushes beside the cart. She opened her eyes and stared nervously at the shrubbery, always feeling as though there were eyes inside watching her. She didn’t know whether it was a wildling, a bandit, or a beast.
She was a bit too far from Muli. If she fell asleep, maybe something in the bushes would drag her away.
She hopped down from the bench and walked to Muli’s side, sitting down half a meter away from him.
Muli rested with his eyes closed, but he wasn’t asleep. He was always like this — looked as if he were sleeping, but in truth was constantly alert to all surrounding sounds.
He knew when the red-haired woman walked over. She soon fell asleep. Probably feeling cold, she scooted closer and closer, until her head burrowed into his cloak.
Muli opened his eyes, pulled aside his cloak, and glanced at her. He originally wanted to push her away, lying on his lap was a little troublesome.
But she was very light, not heavy at all, and she looked so pitiful, like a scrawny red fox — the kind that tasted very good.
He recalled the red fox he once hunted, and his attention shifted. He didn’t push her away right away and simply let her use him as a pillow.
Only…
“Why is she a bit fragrant?” Muli wondered.
She occasionally carried a faint scent — if he wasn’t paying attention, he would suddenly notice it. Where exactly was it coming from?
