Chapter 426: 400 Master Nipede_2
"This has indeed troubled Earl Hadi," Nipede slightly bowed his head and said, "Please convey my thanks to Earl Hadi afterwards."
"I will deliver the master’s message to my father, and I believe he will be pleased," he replied.
Ophelit readily agreed.
Suddenly, the person sitting next to Nipede spoke.
"Actually, we could fly there, Grandpa."
The speaker was a young girl, several years younger than Ophelit, around seventeen or eighteen.
Like Nipede, the girl wore a magician’s robe and held a gem-encrusted staff in her hand; she wore a single ring on her delicate, pale fingers, unlike Nipede, who nearly filled all ten of his fingers with rings.
At her waist, the girl also had a belt, but instead of many crystals and potions, there was only a small cloth bag emitting faint Magic Power fluctuations, clearly not an ordinary pouch but a powerful magical artifact.
As for the girl’s appearance, rather than beautiful, she looked cute, with a youthful, pale face devoid of sunlight, purely childish. Were it not for her height, well over 160 cm, and her flaxen hair paired with clear, tea-colored eyes that gave her a mature look, she would have certainly been mistaken for a child.
At that moment, the girl, who had been silent and seemed to be gazing out the window, suddenly spoke coolly.
"Little Dragon can fly, carrying both of us with plenty of room to spare; didn’t we come this way? Can’t we continue to fly to Bessare?"
Her statement made Ophelit’s face stiffen slightly.
"Antie," Nipede immediately scolded the girl softly, saying, "Don’t talk nonsense."
"I’m not talking nonsense," the girl muttered, "It’s true."
"What do you know?" Nipede tapped his granddaughter’s head with his staff, saying, "Meipros territory is teeming with magical creatures, including many flying types. If we were to fly carelessly over this land, what would we do if we were attacked?"
"If we’re attacked, we’ll fight back," Antie puffed her cheeks and said, "We’re all magicians, not swordsmen who need to be up close to fight. We can just sit on Little Dragon and cast spells to attack. What’s there to fear from magical creatures?"
"You..." Nipede gave a rueful smile and then turned to Ophelit, saying, "I apologize, Lord Ophelit, my granddaughter Antie rarely interacts with others, so she doesn’t quite understand the etiquette of dealing with people. Please do not mind her bluntness."
"I..." Antie seemed unhappy with Nipede’s explanation and wanted to retort, but a stern glance from Nipede silenced her.
Only then did Ophelit recover.
"It’s fine," Ophelit reassured, "Miss Antie is innocent and means no harm. I can still sense that."
Ophelit, who said these words, failed to notice the slightly disgusted expression that Antie was giving him.
Clearly, she did not particularly like this young master of the Hadi family.
She wanted to say that although she meant no harm, she had spoken that way intentionally to embarrass him.
She couldn’t help it; this young master occasionally cast glances at her that made her feel nauseated, and his reputation was notoriously bad. If it weren’t for her grandfather being there, Antie would have been tempted to teach him a lesson herself.
"It’s all Grandpa’s fault, why did we have to stop in Caludi?"
Antie felt resentful in her heart.
Nipede and Antie had come to Meipros territory by invitation.
They were headed for the Meipros house, but because they had been traveling for a long time and wanted a short rest, they stopped in Caludi.
They were aware of the location of Bessare and had a clear idea of how to reach the Meipros house as they had a map and were unafraid of getting lost.
Nipede claiming he didn’t know how to reach the Meipros house was merely a social nicety.
Who would have thought that the people from the Hadi family, who controlled Caludi, would come calling and insist that Earl Hadi wished to host Nipede, thus inviting him to stay as a guest in the Hadi household?
After completing the visit, the other party enthusiastically offered to send the two to the Meipros family, but Nipede couldn’t refuse, so he could only board the specially made carriage of the Hadi family and head to Bessare with Ophelit.
Antie felt very dissatisfied with this situation.
Although she also knew that her grandfather had a prestigious reputation in the Kingdom of Ginas and the surrounding countries and was a respected Magician, often receiving such high-level receptions wherever he went, such occurrences were not rare and could even be said to be frequent. Antie was usually accustomed to it, but Ophelit’s behavior still made her very displeased, causing her to become irritated like this.
"Forget it, let it go."
Seeing Nipede still engaging in some terribly troublesome pleasantries with Ophelit, Antie had to turn her head away.
"Just pretend I didn’t see anything, just endure it."
However, it would still take a day to reach Bessare, so wouldn’t she have to spend a day in a carriage with this disgusting young master?
"Damn, not again."
Feeling as though the other party was casting a gaze that seemed to want to lick her entire body, Antie suppressed her disgust and mentally kicked and punched Ophelit, while sighing and murmuring.
"I hope this day goes by quickly."
Carrying Antie’s expectations, the luxurious magic carriage, built at great expense by the Hadi family, finally left Karudi, passed through the gates of Karudi, and came outside.
However, as soon as they arrived outside, those in the carriage, including Ophelit, immediately heard a very noisy disturbance.
At the same time, the voice of a Knight beside the carriage came through.
"Young master, it seems there is trouble outside the city; for some reason, the refugees have blocked the road."
The Knight reported this, causing Ophelit to frown.
"What’s happened?"
At this moment, Ophelit’s tone and demeanor were no longer as polite as they were with Nipede, but rather, he spoke with suppressed emotion, quite displeased.
"So noisy, and even the road is blocked, how is this young master supposed to pass?"
No sooner had Ophelit’s words fallen than Vite and two guards approached from outside the carriage.
"I’ve seen young master Ophelit," Vite saluted towards the direction of the carriage, saying, "I’m terribly sorry, but there have been some complications here. I will have someone clear the road immediately, please wait a moment, young master."
Ophelit’s frown deepened, and his displeasure was more apparent.
If it had been any other time, he would have already exploded in anger.
His time was very precious, even wasting a bit of it on those refugees was a great waste.
A group of filthy commoners, daring to waste his time, was absolutely a criminal act.
But now, Ophelit needed to be mindful of his image in front of Master Nipede and Antie, so he couldn’t lash out as he wished.
Thus, Ophelit could only suppress his displeasure, and for now, he pulled back the curtain to look outside.
His gaze swiftly swept over those dirty refugees and focused on the center of the commotion.
Upon seeing this, Ophelit was suddenly captivated by a figure.
"Is that...?"
Ophelit first froze, and then, his eyes burst with unprecedented admiration and... greed.