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Chapter 14: Ruthless, Unperturbed

“Watch out, big bro!”

Seeing Thief Marlon zooming towards him like a cannonball, Barret, the stout Ink Steel-level strongman, immediately raised his shield, blocking Francis in a wall-like fashion.

He was extremely robust, towering over two meters with a hulking physique, and his build was even more impressive than some beastmen. With a thick, heavy steel shield that was larger than Marlon himself, he looked incredibly reassuring.

With Barret’s protection, Francis felt a bit more secure, but his mind quickly shifted to how to retreat from these two women disguised as magical beasts.

That earlier blonde girl, who had used some unknown method to knock out the stone beast, had already put him on high alert. He thought that the seemingly frail-looking priestess, Vilyric, would be an easy target to ambush or severely injure, and then they could team up to deal with the other woman.

If that didn’t work, he’d just escape.

Since they were so determined to snatch the reward from this commission, he had to trip these two women up in some way.

Even if that idiot, the girl Holy Knight, saw him, it didn’t matter; she was too naive to be cautious. He could just kill her to silence her, and if all else failed, he could always run away.

The world was so big, was there really no place for Francis to hide?

After all, he was just a seasoned criminal who had been lurking around here in Flame Dragon City to evade retaliation for his past misdeeds.

But he never expected this woman named Vilyric to be even more absurd—she not only snapped a steel dagger between her fingers but also completely shrugged off his fourth-tier Fire Explosion spell?!

In fact, Francis had a precious space transfer scroll on him that could teleport him ten kilometers away. That was the main reason he dared to act.

It didn’t matter if everyone else died as long as he could survive. However, it shouldn’t have come to that yet; why not try a normal retreat first…

Boom!

A massive body crashed into him, scattering the rapid thoughts in Francis’s mind. The overwhelming force sent him rolling on the ground for six or seven cycles; his bones were screaming in agony, and he nearly passed out from the pain.

“Guh… wh-what…?”

Like a stunned fish, he twitched a few times, his face bruised and battered, with numerous scratches all over his body and his mage robe torn to shreds as he struggled to lift his head from the dirt, his eyes shining with fear and disbelief.

Not far from him lay Barret, the muscular man whose arms were twisted at bizarre angles and whose shield bore a massive dent; blood poured from his mouth due to ruptured organs, motionless and already breathing shallowly.

As for Thief Marlon, he had exploded into bits upon the collision, with various unrecognizable remnants scattered across the ground.

Step, step, step…

The sound of leather boots stepping through grass and mud approached rapidly, echoing in Francis’s mixed feelings of shock and despair, like the death knell tolling.

He desperately tried to reach for the scroll in his pocket but found he couldn’t move his arms, which had been broken in the collision.

“So, who doesn’t know their place?”

The Black-haired Girl looked down at the pitiful man, her silver-blue eyes devoid of smugness or arrogance, cold to the point she seemed to gaze upon a corpse.

“I originally didn’t want to fuss with you, but you just had to keep pushing, do you really think… I won’t kill you?”

Her emotionless, icy voice reached Francis’s ears, overwhelming his heart with intense regret and resentment.

“Bastard…”

Knowing he was inevitable in his doom, the man initially wanted to utter some nasty words to annoy the woman in front of him, but she didn’t give him a moment. She simply raised her holy priest’s staff.

“Stop!”

From another direction, a girl’s furious shout and the swift clanking of armor approached, but Vilyric acted as if she hadn’t heard, her hand flicking down like lightning.

“Crap, you…”

Pfft~

Accompanied by the sound of a burst watermelon, Francis’s vicious curse was abruptly cut off.

At that moment, just realizing the series of events unfolding, Miss Holy Knight Edwina rushed to Vilyric’s side, barely making it in time to stop the black-haired girl from killing her former teammate.

“What a waste of time…”

Vilyric disdainfully waved her artifact, the “Eternal Staff: Heart of the World,” retracting the untouched priest’s staff and casually dispersing the shield she had raised to block the splattering blood.

Expressionless, Vilyric turned to look at the Holy Knight girl, who pointed her sword at the two of them, her face full of confusion.

“Miss Edwina, do you wish to oppose me too?”

The young Holy Knight trembled uncontrollably.

It was as if she had transformed into a different person.

Just a moment ago, they had been laughing and chatting, sharing tales of their adventures, but in the blink of an eye, for reasons unknown, everyone had died at the hands of this black-haired priestess, and Edwina hadn’t even had the chance to help her comrades.

Ruthless, decisive, without a hint of killing hesitation or hesitation.

Edwina felt that because she hadn’t reacted in time, nor intervened in this battle, she had miraculously survived.

Otherwise, the girl would truly kill her, just like squashing a bug.

But as a Holy Knight, a knight serving the gods should not fear death, even if it was dangerous; she had to speak up.

“Miss Vilyric, why… did you kill them?”

“?”

The priestess suddenly laughed, the coldness in her eyes dissipating as she pointed disdainfully at the dead Barret and the decapitated body of Francis.

“They wanted to kill me, so I turned around and killed them; isn’t that reasonable?”

“But…”

Edwina shouted excitedly, “Even if it’s true that Mr. Francis and the others are at fault, it shouldn’t be up to Miss Vilyric to take their lives! I believe it’s right to deliver them to Flame Dragon City, allowing the gods… the law to judge them!”

“Tch, so naive and stubborn…”

Vilyric began to grow impatient.

“Then, if I were truly just an ordinary priest who had been ambushed and killed by them, what could you have done? Let those so-called gods or laws punish them?”

“I…”

Edwina’s momentum suddenly faltered.

“I-I would try my best…”

“Then come back and preach to me after you’ve tried your hardest, Miss Edwina. Less talking, more training with this.”

She pointed at her weapon, and Vilyric couldn’t be bothered to entangle further with her as she left with Little Dragon Daughter.

“…”

Edwina didn’t stop them, merely lowering her head, her face incredibly pale, showing she had received a significant shock.

On the matter of the Holy Knight’s principle against taking private vengeance, believing that a specialized authority should determine guilt, Vilyric actually had no objection.

In Blue Star, most rule-of-law countries adhere to this regulation, which indeed helps maintain social stability.

But this was another world.

The strong could rise above the law, just as Vilyric had previously said—if Francis had really killed her and Xiao Guang, would the law or gods ultimately punish him?

The answer was certainly no.

Francis was a land-level adventurer, accompanied by two loyal followers; relying solely on Edwina wouldn’t capture them. Given her intellect, just surviving to escape back to Flame Dragon City to testify was a significant achievement.

Even if she could, what then?

Francis acted without hesitation, which indicated he had killed before; even if the matter came to light, he could definitely foresee the wind rising and escape from Flame Dragon City, starting anew.

Still, the point remained: possessing powerful strength allowed him to do many things, effortlessly securing a comfortable life, unless he truly committed a heinous act, the kingdom’s laws would have no hold over him.

Edwina’s views, in such situations, were nothing but impractical talk; the most straightforward and effective way to deal with people like Francis was with violence.

Vilyric didn’t know what the so-called Holy Empire she hailed from looked like, whether divine law ensured equality for all, but at least in the United Kingdom, where the law and enforcement were not robust enough, this wouldn’t work.

Whatever, she wouldn’t be seeing Edwina again anytime soon; there was no need to dwell on those pointless thoughts.

Alright, time to get down to business. Let’s hope nothing unexpected happens again.

Huh? Did I just set up two flags?