Chapter 413: 391 Chaotic Territories
Summer weather, the sky clear.
The weather today was very good.
The sky was cloudless, azure, allowing the hanging sun to cast its golden rays down below, illuminating the land.
In such clear weather, a carriage was speeding along an obviously well-maintained main road, at an abnormally fast pace.
There was no helping it.
For behind the carriage, a large group of rough, weapon-wielding men on horseback were in hot pursuit.
"Don’t run!"
"Run for what?"
"Stay and have some fun with us!"
"Hahaha!"
The rough men chased while emitting vile laughter and shouts, their demeanor making it clear to anyone but a fool what ill intentions they harbored toward the carriage ahead.
Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that the equipment worn by the rough men was irregular.
Some wore heavily worn armor, others clothes made of animal skins, some had bloodstained garments, and there were those who went bare-chested, not wearing any clothes on their upper bodies but with vicious scars, and with that coarse air and the violent emotion ever-present in their eyes and on their faces, their appearance and demeanor could not possibly give one the impression of being good men.
The leader, a man even more burly and rough than the others, kept his greedy and lustful eyes fixed on the carriage ahead.
"Judging by the size and decoration of this carriage, the person riding inside must be either rich or noble, and even if not a noble, still a wealthy merchant."
"The horses pulling the carriage are top quality, prices for such horses in the black market could rival those of military steeds, and it would take quite a few Gold Coins to buy them."
"It seems we’re going to strike it rich this time, finally running into such big prey."
The obviously leading burly man licked his lips, unable to contain his excitement.
Because of the peculiar nature of this territory, it had been a long time since they had encountered such big prey.
In the past, rich merchants from wealthy families or nobles had made thorough preparations knowing the state of this territory, either sticking to secure official roads, even if it meant taking a longer route, or marching forth with a large retinue of guards or Knights, causing these bandits to either miss their prey or hesitate to act out of caution.
So it had been a long time since they had come across a situation like today—with only one carriage traveling on the main road; typically, they could only rob passersby or attack small, unlucky merchant caravans. While it didn’t mean they couldn’t make ends meet, they didn’t have much profit to count on either.
But today, this one job appeared to be a big score.
"Driving such a luxurious carriage in our territory without any escort, aren’t they just signaling to everyone that they’re easy targets?"
The burly man sneered.
"No matter whether the one inside that carriage is a noble or a merchant, either way, you have been too foolish this time, so kindly become our prey."
The burly man—Motte—continued to sneer as he shouted to his brothers around him.
"Hurry! Catch up and block them! The city is just ahead! Don’t let them run into the city!"
At his words, the bandits stopped playing around and spurred their horses to move faster, rushing forward.
Their steeds might not have been a match for the splendid horse pulling the carriage, but that splendid horse, despite being fast, was ultimately slower than the bandits’ steeds ridden by individual sword-wielding men.
Thus, they quickly caught up to the fleeing carriage, several of them even drawing level with the carriage, using their machetes to hack at its sides, creating crack after crack.
"Stop!"
"Won’t you stop?"
"If you don’t stop, we will shoot arrows!"
The bandits made such threats.
This made the young valet sitting at the driver’s seat, who was pulling the reins and whipping the horses to run faster, look anxious and desperate.
"We’ve been caught up to! Miss...!"
The young man shouted toward the direction of the carriage.
"Please hurry and use the communication magic crystal to ask the master for help!"
The young man’s shout was met with a voice that was almost crying.
"I, I’ve already contacted my father, but he said the distance is too far, and he absolutely cannot send help in time!"
Hearing this, the young man clenched his teeth in frustration.
Indeed, this was the territory of another noble; although it wasn’t far from their own, being different regions’ territories, no matter how fast one could travel, it was impossible to send help in time in this urgent situation to rescue the two of them.
"Is there really no way out?"
The young man couldn’t help but recall all the rumors he had heard in the past, the outcomes mentioned of the sheltered ladies who fell into the hands of bandits, and his face started to turn pale.
"No! At the very least, the Miss must escape!"
The young valet could not bear to see the Miss he was infatuated with fall into the hands of the bandits and be defiled.
"Think of something, Gel!"
The Miss’s crying voice came from the carriage once more, making the young man bite his teeth even harder.
However urgent he felt and however much he regretted, none of this would improve the situation.
"Still not stopping, huh?"
Motte from behind, seeing that the carriage was still running, immediately gave an order.
"Archers! Release!"
At Motte’s command, several bandits trailing from behind and both sides spurred their horses, drawing bows and beginning their assault.
"Swish swish swish———"
Before long, the whistling sound of arrows tearing through the air rose, and one after another, they flew towards the carriage, striking its body.
Arrows pierced continuously into various parts of the carriage, quickly turning it into a porcupine. Some arrows even soared past the carriage, targeting the driver’s seat and the horses pulling the cart. The accuracy wasn’t very high, but the hail of aimless arrows would inevitably hit something.
"Damn it!"
A young retainer named Gel drew the sword he carried, holding the reins in one hand and his sword in the other, slashing through incoming arrows with his sword.
But perhaps the horses were frightened; the carriage began to sway erratically, causing a small scream from within.
"Haha!"
"We’ve caught up!"
Thanks to the covering fire, the bandits who pursued and slashed at the carriage with their cutlasses finally overtook Gel, who was on the driver’s seat, and moved in front of the carriage.
They began blocking the road and even attacked Gel, causing him to suffer a careless gash while desperately defending.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh...!"
Gel let out a terrible cry as he tumbled from the driver’s seat.
"Gel...!"
The noble lady inside the carriage also let out a cry of despair at the retainer’s scream.
The horses pulling the cart were brought to a stop by the bandits, forced to slow down and halt in the middle of the main road.
Only then did the bandits encircle the carriage and block the thoroughfare, thoroughly eliminating any chance of escape.
"Miss!"
Seeing this scene, Gel, who had fallen from the carriage, was shocked to his core and tried to get up.
But before he could, a foot kicked him in the back.
"Thud!"
With a dull sound, Gel was kicked a distance away.
"Run!" Motte appeared from nowhere, his face distorted with cruelty, walking towards Gel and kicking him while shouting, "Keep running, why don’t you!"
"Bastard!" Gel thought about resisting, but the wound from the earlier slash hindered him, making him lie on the ground bleeding and unable to rise.
"Go!" Having confirmed this, Motte smirked and instructed his men, "Drag the people from the carriage down for me!"
"No!" Gel, as if struck by a tremendous shock, disregarded his own injuries, raised his sword, and roared at Motte, "We are people of the Alisier family! Do you dare to assault a noble family...!?"
At this declaration, not only was Motte undaunted, but he also kicked again, knocking Gel to the ground.
"The Alisier family? Isn’t that the viscount from next door?" Motte sneered coldly, "I didn’t expect someone from the viscount’s house to be so foolish. Even if you haven’t experienced it yourselves, you should have heard about the affairs of this territory, do you really think those words would scare us?"
The bandits around him sneered in unison.
"Nobles? How many times have we robbed nobles already?"
"I dare them to come and judge our crimes!"
"Get real, those nobles would rather stay far away from this land than come here and suffer; they’d prefer to enjoy their life in their own estates, why would they bother with us?"
"It’s infuriating to think about it. Why should those worthless nobles live in luxury while we suffer in a place like this?"
"Exactly."
Far from being apprehensive about Gel’s words, the bandits were increasingly filled with indignation.
"Enough of this, what’s the use of talking to this kind of man?" Motte said with displeasure, "Hurry up and get to work. Since they are from a noble family, we should be able to squeeze a good ransom out of them."
As Motte spoke and was ready to proceed with the familiar task of kidnapping, a lookout suddenly called out.
"Boss, there seems to be another carriage coming from behind."
The report from the underling caused all the bandits, including Motte, to instinctively look towards the rear.
Shortly thereafter, a carriage indeed appeared, traveling along the other side of the main road, and came into view of everyone present.
The eyes of the bandits shimmered with excitement.
They couldn’t help it.
"That carriage looks even more luxurious than this one here!"
"Could it be another big fish?"
"Haha! This is great!"
The laughter of the bandits caused Gel, who was on the verge of losing consciousness, to cry out subconsciously.
"Save... save us———!"
That shout caused the approaching carriage to stop.
Inside the carriage, a young man who seemed to have been resting with his eyes closed opened them.
"This place... is indeed quite chaotic..."
The faint murmur echoed within the carriage, subsiding after a while.