Because she was exhausted from all the trials and tribulations of that morning, Atties swollen eyes, mired by her tears, began closing slowly until she slumped into slumber.

  With her resistance worn away as she slept, her body freely leaned on Baiyis back, her hands instinctively grabbing his cape.

  Glancing at her, the Soul Armature sighed. “When she isn’t being obstinate, this girl can be quite adorable, huh?”


  He dismounted from the goat so that Attie could lie down completely on its back.

  Baiyi travelled like that for a while, leading the goat with Attie sleeping on its back. The surrounding area was quite chaotic. Everybody hurried from here to there, their minds occupied, so no one had bothered to stop or even noticed him. Baiyi didnt mind. He simply hadnt had enough downtime to himself in a while.

  He found the Divine Warriors, who had been waiting outside.

  They were bored because no one dared to even get close to them (who could blame them, really), so they had started a game that only Alpine barbarians would call fun. One man would stand in the middle of the field, and another would knock on him hard to drill the man into the earth until only his head was the only thing that was exposed. The buried man would have to use his own strength to set himself free. The winner would be the one who could free himself in the shortest amount of time.

  It was Charchars turn to free himself when Baiyi met the trio. The buried Divine Warrior gave out a hoarse cry, his veins popping as he burst out from the earth. In the wake of his escape was a large gaping hole, similar to many other deep holes lying around. It didnt take much deduction skill to figure out that the game had been going on for a while.

  “Haha! Youre slower than me! I win!” ZarZar gave a hearty laugh.

  ?

  Seeing Baiyi watching them, ZarZar waved eagerly at the prospect of a new challenger, “Hey bro! Wanna try?”


  Baiyi shook his head very quickly at his invitation. He wasnt worried about not being able to free himself. He was worried that he would not be drilled into the hole, instead, his whole frame would collapse like a house of cards when they started to pound him.

  “It is done. Lets go,” Baiyi said to divert their attention. He looked back at the slumbering Attie, then lowered his voice, “We got our person, we got the object we were looking for and I think these barbarians wouldnt dare disturb the Alpine people anymore.”


  After hearing the news, the three Divine Warriors’ faces fell as their eyes enlarged in sadness. Their big boys toys had been taken away

  CharChar looked down as he said in a sad, low voice, “Now what can we do when were bored?”


  Huskar did not say anything immediately, but after looking around with a wistful expression, he finally said, “Im going to miss it here. Everything outside of home is always so exciting. I had so much fun on this excursion.”


  Even ZarZar had a few kind words to say. “Brother Hope, thank you so much for such a fun trip! If there is ever another chance like this, you must invite us! Well have another javelin-throwing match while we play with other toys!”


  That warmed Baiyis heart. It might have sounded juvenile, but the real meaning behind it was that Baiyi could always rely on his help. It was a powerful promise, even if most battles would be just a game to ZarZar himself.

  The Huskar eyed the girl on the goats back. “Who is that ugly chick?”


  “My new servant,” Baiyi replied without much thought.

  “Servant?” The trios face were blank.

  Obviously, the term was foreign to them. There werent much people in Harrogath, so there wasnt much need for social order. If it was a family business, the family or the person themselves solved it; if it involved others, then a small discussion between the parties would commence; and lastly, if it was a thing too big for the living to decide, they would just go to their ancestors. The Huskar might be the leader of the Divine Warriors on paper, but there was no concept of social caste or division between classes of people based on birth.

  The concept of a servant girl was, therefore, beyond their understanding. They immediately rationalized it into one of the roles women in Harrogath could have. A wife or a consort of some sort.

  Being the helpful frat-bro that he was, the Huskar could not contain himself. “Brother Hope, your taste is frankly too terrible. Just bad. You can attract so many more women with your strength! Why must you settle down with a hideous one like this?”


  Baiyi also could not help but slapped his own forehead, at loss for words. Those peoples rigid beauty standards were beyond ridiculous. Without the grace of a leopard, the power of a gazelle, and the flexibility of a viper, no woman could possibly be beautiful is it? Good looks? Well, those dont help in battles, does it?

  Perhaps roused by hearing someone talking about her, Attie woke up blurrily.

  She almost burst into tears when she saw three looming figures staring at her.

  Of course, her dread was short-lived, because she quickly picked up the foul expression on their faces, as if they were staring at rotten food. She took that as them not being interested in gobbling her up, and proceeded to politely greet them, even introducing herself as Baiyis servant.

  The trio continued wallowing in Baiyis unfortunate choice of a ‘wife/consort’, while answering Attie disinterestedly. She took the opportunity to talk about how Baiyi got his hand on the War Gods Sword. Deep down, she still couldnt believe the Soul Armatures words.

  “Oh, him? Oh, yes, pretty okay for a fighter. Looks weird but he was a speedy bruiser, with some very creepy fighting techniques!” the Huskar gave pretty good review of Sven the Rogue Knight, but he continued. “He wasnt good enough to beat Brother Hope though, so he lost.”


  “If you ask me, Brother Hope shouldnt use that shiny stick to fight him. Bad choice of weapon! Should have used my javelin, then he could have easily force the last breath out of his lungs when it pierce through his chest!” ZarZar added in.

  Attie was dumfounded. She knew the Alpine people long enough to know that they would not lie. Judging from the Divine Warriors words, all that the demon had said, did happened. He did coincidentally met that man, and defeated him, and obtained the sword?

  Could so many coincidences happened at the same time? Or was it the sword’s will that led to all the coincidences?

  The latter was possible. Her own story with the sword was just as full of coincidences and fate, as if the War God himself had orchestrated the entire sequence.

  Atties doubt towards Baiyi lessened a bit more.

  Of course what the Divine Warriors recounted did happen…… but there was only one actor. With Mias power breakthrough, new powers opened themselves up to Baiyi, and one of them was controlling his other body like a puppet using mana.

  So he had put up a good show in front of the trio using two of his bodies. To mask the fight well, he even chose the venue of his “fight” at a place the trio could see, but not too clearly to the point of recognizing him. In that state of vagueness, Baiyi upped the ante using the Charlatans tricks, disguising Svens look.

  Illusions tricks would always be perfect to be used against barbarians, no matter if they were from the Alpines or the Steppes.

  He spent considerable efforts planning a big show like that because he wanted to distance himself from his past disguise as Sven the Rogue Knight. People might doubt his story, but not many would be suspicious towards the famed honesty of the Alpine Barbarians. The Charlatan sometimes used that technique to dispel the distrust and suspicion against himself. Although it was slightly overused, it was nonetheless effective. It lessened some of Atties doubts, and Baiyi had no doubt it could trick others, too.

  Baiyi did not interfere with their conversation, but he read the girls face and had surmised that she had bought the story.

  Once he had gotten the results, Baiyi would then decide if he would set the girl free with the sword returned to her, or let her remain by his side.

  Thinking about his research made Baiyi a little impatient. He wanted to quickly reach their rendezvous point but the Huskar was obviously enjoying the trip as he slowed down his speed.

  After a while, Cuckoo returned to ZarZar.

  After a brief conversation between the two, ZarZar turned to Baiyi. “Cuckoo says, there is a group of people heading towards your friends place.”


  Baiyi was stunned, but very quickly recovered. “Oh, a little mishap? Well, a group of how many people?”


  “Cuckoo says, about ten.”


  “Oh, I wouldnt worry about it then.”


  Although the strength of the original rescue team was unimpressive to Baiyi, but they were a pretty solid team. There were the Defense Fighter, the range-and-magical-fighting Young Sorcerer, and the supporting chaplain. Coupled with the experience of the three Zhang Bros, along with the support from Mia and Tisdale and a recuperating Butterfly Saint of Swords an enemy of ten would not be too difficult.

  Still, prior to leaving Mia behind, Baiyi had left some spying magic on the hammerhead shark plushie. As long as Mia had the plushie with her, he could use its eyes to scan the surrounding as well.

  At the thought of that, he activated the spell to check on their status……

  And saw smooth, ivory mounds with a deep cleavage between them. Half of the “hills” were submerged in water