Coincidence
“I don’t care what you’re thinking right now. Give me that warhorse!” Leylin watched him, his eyes full of ridicule.
“He... hehe... I’m only borrowing it from Rafiniya. I was going to...” The archer had a forced smile on his face, but then his expression suddenly changed, “Look there!”
Without waiting for Leylin to turn, he raised his arms and shot three spring-loaded arrows towards Leylin’s face.
“Go!” After shooting those arrows, the archer did not even give Leylin another look. Instead, he whipped the horse he was mounted on, wanting to leave as soon as possible.
He could tell that Leylin had no injuries at all and was in a much better state than he was. To be able to break out of the encirclement of the ogres without injury meant that Leylin was not someone he could contend with at this point. Hence, the archer firmly chose to flee.
“A great decision, though it’s a pity that it’s pointless...” A magic missile flew from Leylin’s hands. With a strange trajectory, it sent the arrows flying, and without losing power struck the archer’s back.
*Pak!* The archer suddenly flew from the horse, a terrifying sunken wound on his back.
“You– You’re a wizard!” The archer struggled, eyes full of longing as he reached towards the skies fiercely with fingers like chicken claws. His body thrashed around wildly as if he was in the throes of death. Seconds later, he stopped moving.
Having lost its new master, Nick stopped galloping. The warhorse whinnied as it began to leisurely nibble at the grass on the side.
“I’m your master now.” Leylin moved forward and grabbed Nick’s reins, swinging onto its back without hesitation as he announced his ownership.
Nick had no objection whatsoever to his actions, as expected of a warhorse with no integrity. Or perhaps, it had a one-track mind and had no ability understand something so profound. As Leylin squeezed his thighs against the horse, the black warhorse immediately seemed to turn into a streak of lightning and began to speed ahead on the ground.
As a knight’s mount, it was obviously more spirited than other horses, and Leylin found it wonderful.
He wasn’t too far from their previous battlefield, and there was the occasional luck, or perhaps unfortunate, person who had escaped the ogres’ pursuit. Leylin chose to pay no attention to their cries for help.
Even if those merchants showed off their sparkling gold kronas, they meant nothing to him. After all, the added wealth of all these little merchants might not even be enough to make up the amount of gold krona that he used in a single experiment. Why would he bother with this?
However, after passing by a small forest, something unexpected happened. Nick, who had been tame all this while, suddenly went mad and dashed into the bushes.
“Why is it doing this? Don’t tell me...” While he could forcefully control the horse, Leylin only pulled at the reins for a bit and then gave up.
In his opinion, there was no harm in doing something if it was convenient for him, and he could even save his own party without putting in a lot of extra effort. He had no idea how effective his help would be, though.
After passing through the thick layer of black brambles, a desperate scene appeared in front of him.
A carriage that had lost its mount had collapsed to the side, whereat Hera and her sister were embracing each other and shivering. Numerous terrifying ogres surrounded them, eyes full of unconcealed greed.
Rafiniya was holding her sword with both hands, her armour full of holes. There were traces of ground flesh and blood on it, and it was clear she had experienced countless bitter battles.
The female knight now had a deep wound on her thigh, where one could even somewhat see the bones. This made the girl grit her teeth, crystalline tears appearing at the corners of her eyes. Despite it all, she maintained the determination on her face. Without her protection, Hera and her sister would long since have become rations for the ogres.
Putting two and two together, Leylin had a general idea of what had happened. After being separated in the streams of people, they had run wildly all over the place. With Rafiniya’s help, they took care of many enemies and had finally arrived here.
“However, if they chose this direction purposely instead if accidentally, Hera is more wise than I previously assumed...” The three ogres that were attacking them were normal warriors, and there were no shamans present. They may be huge threats to the heavily injured Rafiniya, but they were nothing at all to Leylin.
“Hey, beautiful ladies. Good morning!” Leylin seemed to arrive like an unexpected guest, leisurely greeting everyone as if he had coincidentally and naturally bumped into them on his afternoon stroll.
“Nick!” Rafiniya saw her black warhorse, eyes blazing, “And Ley! You darned thief! If not for my companion being stolen, how would I have...”
Leylin was completely immune to the words of this female knight. Upon hearing her words, he merely rolled his eyes, automatically tuning her out.
*Growl...* After seeing Leylin’s appearance, the few ogres with simple minds had no other thoughts as they pounced forward.
“My longsword was discarded just now. What a pity...” Leylin patted at his warhorse, and Nick was able to leap in a way it was unable to usually. It jumped over the ogre’s head and came to Rafiniya’s side.
“Give me that sword.” Rafiniya initially looked ready to refuse, but for some reason she felt a sense of terror as she looked at Leylin’s calm face. She obediently handed it over.
‘Strange... why did I...’ Before she had the time to ponder this, however, her little mouth opened in shock and amazement.
“Not bad!” Leylin shook the knight sword in his hands. As a high-ranked knight, Rafiniya’s equipment was all of a high grade. Whether it was her horse or her sword, they were much better than what he had before.
The glaring brilliance of qi burst forth from Leylin’s hands.
Battle technique: Qi Strengthening! Battle technique: Charge! Battle technique: Cross Slash!
Leylin’s figure instantly turned into a streak of black, and the longsword was enveloped in the luster of qi as he began his assault on the three barbaric beings.
Cross-shaped light-rays flashed ahead, and three malicious heads flew off. Even after the corpses of the giant ogres crumpled to the ground, Rafiniya still seemed to be in disbelief.
‘On top of being able to activate Qi, his advanced battle techniques and his proficient battle techniques are even better than my teacher’s...’ Rafiniya looked absent minded, not even able to catch her longsword properly when Leylin tossed it back.
The battle techniques Leylin had just shown were not inferior to the most powerful person she’d ever seen, and that was a high-ranked paladin!
“Thank you.” At this moment, Hera hugged her little sister as they stood up, eyes full of gratitude aimed at Leylin. If not for Rafiniya and Leylin, she and her sister would long since have turned into jerky for the ogres to stockpile. There was no way to even escape.
As for Leylin’s sudden ‘disappearance’, this lady rationally chose not to pursue this. Things were very dangerous now, and in a situation where Rafiniya was gravely injured, they were in need of Leylin’s protection. Leylin did not even need to harbour malicious intent. As long as he abandoned the three girls, they were in deep trouble.
She immediately spoke out, “Thank you Mister Ley. I’ll increase the commission once we reach the town, I’m sure it will satisfy you.”
She had especially lowered her own status while speaking, and Leylin nodded on the inside.
“Wait... If you’re going to talk about raising the commission, then poor Old Pam should have a part of it too!” At this moment, the carriage at the side completely fell apart, and a dwarf with a broken leg rolled out like a ball.
“Things were completely chaotic when we were surrounded. Thankfully, we had Rafiniya protecting us, and we also bumped into Mister Pam after that...” Hera smiled forcefully as she explained the situation to Leylin. He merely rolled his shoulders, speechless at the dwarf’s luck in keeping his life. Or perhaps, he was really blessed by the Goddess of Luck?
Leylin and the group set out immediately after some rest and reorganisation. This was still a danger zone, after all.
However, the horse carriage from before was now useless. Leylin had no choice but to modify the remains of the carriage to a handcart, allowing Hera, her sister and Rafiniya to squeeze together. They had to bring the dwarf Pam along as well. The warhorse, Nick, was regrettably demoted to a worn-out old horse, exerting all its strength to pull the cart forward slowly.
“You didn’t see it, but three ogres pounced towards Old Pam! Each of their mouths were as large as my head...” From atop the cart came Old Pam’s bragging with gusto. Rafiniya squeezed forward, looking at Leylin.
“When are you returning Nick to me?”
“Give me a ransom in exchange. Don’t forget, this warhorse is something I got from winning against the archer. This is a place is protected by the laws of the kingdom. If you want the horse, go look for the archer...”
Sitting atop Nick, Leylin spoke seriously. This was much like the thinking of a bandit.
“Damn it, that archer’s corpse should have already entered the stomachs of the ogres!” Rafiniya mumbled to herself, occasionally muttering words like ‘thief’. At the end, she unwillingly tossed a gold card at Leylin.
“These are all my savings. I have nothing more...”
“That’s not bad...” Taking a look at the numbers, Leylin then began to whistle contentedly, “Deal! It’s yours!”
Rafiniya then gloomily found out that she was unable to ride Nick due to her injuries. Everything seemed to stay the same as before.