“Haaa, I did some reflection last night,” Old Ronnie sighed to hide his fear before saying, “That group clearly doesn’t want us to tag along. As such, we shouldn’t insist. We’ll just wait for the next escort group that passes by.”
“T-the next escort group that passes by? We don’t know when that would be. It could take days or even a whole week! If we stay in Sunpeak Town for that long, we might as well stay here for life!” the person said with shock.
After all, three days was enough to catch the Curse of the Purple Umbala. They wouldn’t be allowed to leave Sunpeak Town once that happens.
“W-we’ll wait one day. If we can’t find an escort group to tag along, we’ll go through Goblin’s Road by ourselves,” Old Ronnie compromised.
He valued his life, but he didn’t want to stay in Sunpeak Town for life either.
Nevertheless, the person couldn’t understand what Old Ronnie was afraid of—so much that Old Ronnie would rather put the merchant group in danger by traveling alone than travel with the escort group they encountered.
“Is there something you’re not telling me, Sir?” the person inquired.
“It’s…. better if you don’t know,” Old Ronnie said carefully after looking around nervously. He was uncertain if the person that threatened his life last night was still around somewhere or not.
“I see…”
The person eventually grasped the situation based on Old Ronnie’s odd behavior and didn’t pry any further.
…
…
…
Meanwhile, Vaan left Sunpeak Town with the escort group and the two witch sisters.
While Captain Rhys’s men pulled the wagon, Vaan enjoyed the leisure ride on the back of Linetta’s Earth Salamander with her and Lillias.
Nevertheless, Captain Rhys suddenly paused his steps, having second thoughts about their route to Redpine City.
“Considering there might be assassins waiting for us ahead, wouldn’t it safer to tread more carefully? We’ll be at a disadvantage if we exhaust our stamina and encounter enemies on the road,” Captain Rhys mentioned.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Linetta calmly said after glancing at Vaan.
Captain Rhys was immediately baffled by Linetta’s confidence.
If the escort group’s stamina was exhausted from their hasty trip, they would be too tired to fight goblins, let alone trained assassins.
Nevertheless, Captain Rhys chose not to overthink. It was clear to him that Lady Linette was acting according to Brother Vaan’s plan.
Unfortunately, the young warriors didn’t share the same thoughts as their captain. They weren’t in the best conditions for traveling, let alone traveling at a quick pace while pushing and pulling a wagon.
An hour into their trip, everyone in the Steelguard Escort Group beside Captain Rhys was already puffing with exhaustion even though they hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Some had even vomited along the way.
“Captain, we can’t keep up with this kind of pacing. We need a break,” one of the young warriors complained.
Captain Rhys immediately frowned while Linetta revealed her displeasure.
“If you didn’t drink so much last night, do you think you would all be in this state after an hour into our trip? I told you that it wasn’t too late to celebrate after we complete our mission!” Captain Rhys berated his men.
However, a few moments later, Captain Rhys’s ears twitched at a sudden noise coming from the woods on their left, which was in the direction of Red Goblin Mountain.
“Quiet! We have company,” Captain Rhys alerted as he unsheathed his sword. He was prepared to take on the entire wave of goblins by himself.
After all, the new recruits were useless in their current states.
Swish!
The grass in the woods rustled.
Half a breath later, several green goblins quickly jumped out with their wooden clubs and stone axes., wearing nothing but a simple yet terribly dirty loincloth to cover their nether region.
But before Captain Rhys could act, Linetta shot them all down with metal spikes that were the size of threading needles.
They didn’t have a lot of attack power, but their lethality was more than enough for the likes of green goblins from Red Goblin Mountain.
Linetta didn’t need to bother pulling out the big metal spikes she prepared to deal with Rank 2 and Rank 3 monsters.
“Don’t bother with the small fries. Let us continue the journey after a small break,” Linetta said.
“Understood, Lady Linette,” Captain Rhys nodded.
The green goblins had nothing of value. As such, Captain Rhys and the young warriors didn’t bother salvaging them.
After the young warriors recovered some of their stamina, the group resumed their trip to Redpine City at a quick pace.
They continued to encounter more green goblins in small groups, but they were all swiftly dealt with by Linetta.
Due to the size of Linetta’s metal needles, her mana consumption had been minimal. Furthermore, she received Vaan’s massage to stimulate her pores and recover mana along the way.
As such, Linetta’s mana reserve remained high.
Sometime later, the sky darkened at the arrival of nighttime, but they were only three-quarters towards reaching their destination.
They didn’t make it to Redpine City by nightfall due to the repeated breaks they were forced to take in between.
“This is strange… The assassins were definitely ahead of us,” Captain Rhys mentioned.
When they went to sell their beast carcasses to the butcher stores, they learned another group had sold their stolen beast carcasses and wagon ahead of time.
“If the assassins wanted to make their move, they had plenty of chances to do so already,” Captain Rhys added with doubt.
Linetta and Lillias also revealed their confusion.
Although they followed Vaan’s plan, they didn’t know the full details. They only knew they were trying to mislead their enemies by feeding Old Ronnie false information.
However, there was no point if they would take the same route they told outsiders.
“You don’t have to worry about the assassins. They are probably still waiting to ambush us on Hobgoblin’s Road like idiots,” Vaan casually said with a slight smile.
“Oh? They knew we were going to use Hobgoblin’s Road initially?” Captain Rhys uttered with surprise.
“Yeah, you can thank one of your guys for that. He did a good job selling our information to the enemy.”
“What!”