Chapter 149 - To High Cliff Village
“High Cliff Village?”
Everyone was surprised once they heard this name.
“The villagers were attacked by undead creatures?”
Marlene frowned and thought for a while.
“If the undead creatures were in their ghost form, then there’s a high possibility that it was due to a Hell Rift. Or… it could be some creatures affected by the dark energy, in which it could get thorny.”
Although Marlene’s primary concern wasn’t wrong, the rest were more concerned on another matter.
“Sir, have you accepted the request?”
Shauna’s expression dulled as she asked with uncertainty.
“Anne hates that place, can I don’t go…”
“…. Mr. Rhode, is it really that bad?”
Marlene purposely neglected Old Walker’s insults and asked with doubt.
“It’s even worse than what you imagined, by a thousand times.”
Rhode answered swiftly. The bad reputation of High Cliff Village wasn’t only amongst the NPCs. Even in the game, they were too. The missions they gave were troublesome and time wasting. After finishing the task, they wouldn’t acknowledge it and not only that, even when the players wanted to teach them a lesson, they would immediately turn to the village guards. When the low-leveled players faced these highly skilled guards, they could only retreat with unwillingness.
However, after the players managed to grow to higher levels, they would find the opportunity to revisit this place and slaughter everyone time and time again. No matter young or old, humans or animals, they would leave nothing behind.
If the Parliament was considered hateful, then the High Cliff Villagers would be utterly disgusting.
“… If that’s the case, should we still accept it?”
Even though Marlene had not met such disgusting people before, the happy-go-lucky Anne and the kindhearted Lize had already expressed their resentments, so she felt that this wasn’t a good choice.
But Rhode simply nodded his head.
“Why not? No matter what, our remuneration is guaranteed by the Deep Stone City’s owner, Klautz. We don’t have to worry about those scums finding excuses. Besides, don’t you all have any interest to see how those scums are suffering right now? Just imagine — those poor sods kneeling and begging in front of you for help, won’t it feel great?”
“This…”
“Of course it will feel great. Anne is going crazy just thinking about it!”
The young girl shouted with both her arms in the air as if celebrating in a parade carnival.
“I hope they will apologize to my previous leader and atone for their impolite behavior, but…”
“… but that will not be an easy task. Yes, we know that, kid.” Old Walker finished Lize’s uncompleted sentence.
“Those bastards are like mice. Once you give them some slack, they would worm right through your kindness. You want them to listen to you obediently? That wouldn’t be an easy task…”
“Don’t worry about these matters. You guys just need to do what you are supposed to do, that’s all.”
Rhode waved his hand to stop Old Walker from continuing.
“For the next step, leave it to Marlene and me.”
“Me?”
Hearing her name, Marlene pointed at herself with her index finger.
“What do I need to do, Mr. Rhode?”
Marlene was rather worried. She knew everyone had a bad impression of that village and Rhode didn’t seem to have a positive attitude towards them too. This made Marlene secretly worried. She tried to guess if Rhode was about to use her magic to intimidate those villagers. Although they may be disgusting people, to Marlene, such intimidation acts would damage her identity and her family’s honor — Rhode shouldn’t intend for her to do that, right?
Contrary to her expectation to her curious question, Rhode put his index finger on his lip. From the maiden’s expression, Rhode already guessed her what she was thinking, but he didn’t intend to reveal it.
“Not to worry, Miss Marlene. We’ll see later. Even if I don’t ask you to, perhaps you would have done the same.”
After saying that, Rhode clapped his hands.
“Alright, all of you go and get prepared. Randolf, get Lapis here. I need her to provide the potions for this mission.”
“Yes, Sir!”
After hearing Rhode’s command, Randolf bowed respectfully and immediately left. Everyone else didn’t say much after realizing there’s no other way to change Rhode’s mind and swiftly proceeded to prepare their equipment. Just when everyone was dispersing, Rhode stopped Marlene who was also about to leave.
“Oh yes, Miss Marlene. This is for you.”
Rhode placed a piece of paper on the table.
“This is…”
Marlene quickly walked up front and grabbed the piece of paper.
“This is the contract that you wanted. Due to your special conditions, I’ve given you an unlimited deadline, similar to Lize. The only difference would be, you can choose to leave anytime and there will be no termination penalty. At the same time, I hope you understand that this contract doesn’t represent a membership of my mercenary group, but rather, you are my assistant in adventures and battle… what do you think of this condition?”
Marlene was stunned and a red blush started to flush on her face and began to stutter a little.
“T-This… Mr. Rhode.”
“Hmm?”
“If I did not misunderstand you… what you meant was… this contract doesn’t require me to become a mercenary, but to become your assistant in battle?”
“That’s right.”
“S-So… Can I take it as…”
As Marlene stuttered, she unconsciously stretched out her hand and played with her shoulder-length hair.
“W-What you meant was… I can stay by your side for as long as I wish?”
“…”