Chapter 519

Chapter 142: Sir, What Are You Doing Here?

“Ahh! Ahh—”

The soldier screamed in pain, his face twisted in agony. The crowd gasped again. The other two soldiers quickly moved forward. One of them drew his short sword with a metallic “clang,” pointing it at me threateningly. “Let him go! Let him go!”

“Damn…”

“Careful, Sis Hilly!”

As Ryan’s shout echoed from behind me, I took a step forward and released my grip. With my left palm, I pushed the kneeling soldier aside forcefully, while my right hand formed an arrow-like gesture. There was a loud “clang” as my middle finger struck the sword blade aimed at me. It was so swift, like lightning, that others could not react in time!

The soldier holding the sword probably only saw a blur before him. Suddenly, he felt an incredible force, causing his entire body to tremble. His short sword slipped from his grasp and spun halfway around in the air with a whoosh. Then, with a “zing—” sound, the sharp tip pointed directly at his nose, while the hilt was now in the girl’s hand.

At the same moment, the third soldier had just taken one step forward when he froze on the spot.

“Do not shout, do not move.”

I felt relatively calm.

Although they looked at me as if I were some kind of unbelievable, irrational creature, at least the soldier I kicked away earlier could already get up from the ground. And I hadn’t broken anyone’s fingers or caused any injuries, which showed I had controlled myself.

Despite still being very angry inside.

I glanced coldly at the few of them and said calmly, “I want to ask you something… don’t move.”

The soldier whose head I pushed down and who then got back up seemed either irritated or still in pain. He lost control of his emotions and lunged at me fiercely. I immediately lifted my foot, pressing the bottom of my red boot against his lower abdomen with slight force, pushing him back to the ground.

“Do not move, and do not shout. I have a question for you.”

“Sag!”

“Stop! Stop now—”

“Who are you? What are you?”

“Just passing by, an ordinary strong man.”

Amidst the chaos, the other party shouted loudly, and I answered calmly. My patience was wearing thin, and I forced myself to speak. “If you move or shout again, I will use Order Power.”

“You…”

This threat worked effectively.

Although these soldiers were drunk, their minds were probably just a jumbled mess. They couldn’t control their emotions or desires, so they dared to do outrageous things, such as attacking a group of young men from a small town. They didn’t consider what the Church Knights responsible for law and order would do to them once they sobered up. That would be a matter for later.

However, although they were drunk, they weren’t completely out of their minds. Their jumbled brains still retained some basic sense. They clearly knew who they could provoke and who they couldn’t—

Due to the unclear situation in the southern region, where the battle was reportedly extremely fierce, to prevent the conflict from spreading, some heretics took advantage of the chaos to break into the northern region. The Holy Church set up a solid defense network south of Woodworth Forest and implemented a series of measures under the guise of protection but actually for surveillance in surrounding villages.

As one of the many protected villages, during such a lively night, there were naturally numerous priests and powerful warriors in Buckbeak Town. To prevent heretics from taking advantage of the situation and causing irreparable damage and casualties, the warriors dispatched by the Church, who were always ready to fight demons, possessed awe-inspiring strength.

Such power, for these ordinary soldiers of Silgaya, was always something they admired and revered, a topic of endless conversation in taverns over drinks. For them, those people were perhaps one legend after another, one feat after another. In short, they were never someone they could provoke, especially not in a drunken dream.

They would never dare provoke such people!

So when the girl mentioned “Order Power,” all the soldiers were stunned.

They certainly knew that there would be such people in Buckbeak Town recently. Although they had never seen them, and the girl in front of them was hard to associate with the powerful warriors in their imagination, this was simply a boring joke.

But they were still frightened.

Frightened to the point where no one dared to make a sound, no one dared to move, all frozen in place, looking at the girl as if she were a forest sprite from a thousand-year-old legend—may the gods above bless her, she was even more beautiful than the legendary sprites, truly making one want to hold her down and love her thoroughly. That would surely be the most wonderful feeling in the world, and for that, they would even rush to the battlefield tomorrow.

But such desires were eventually suppressed by their concerns—although they couldn’t connect the girl’s appearance with the word “warrior,” her display of skill just now was enough to explain many things.

The soldier who spoke just now felt something was off as soon as he said “you.” Subconsciously, he changed it to, “You, you are…”

He didn’t know how awkward it felt to address a seemingly innocent little girl with “you,” but he did it because she was pointing a sword at his nose.

“Who are you?”

The soldier raised his hands, forcing a smile, and swallowed nervously.

The girl remained expressionless. “Just passing by, a strong man.”

“Cough… cough…”

He was still trying to figure out what “strong man” meant when the girl spoke again. “I’m saying, you are soldiers of the Republic, right?”

She seemed to stutter…

Speaking slowly, her voice soft and sweet, incredibly cute.

“We, we are definitely…”

“Why aren’t you fighting in the south?”

“Uh…”

“Why are you drinking here?”

“That…”

“Do you know how many people died there?”

“…No, we were just ordered to escort the grain—”

“Don’t you have family there?”

“…No, of course not.”

…What nonsense, of course not.

“We are soldiers, after all, so we must follow orders… There are so many starving people now, but someone has to go and save them…”

“But this is your country.”

The young girl slowly sheathed her sword and threw it back to the soldier, who hastily caught it, almost cutting his hand on the sharp blade.

“This is your country. The enemy has invaded and massacred your countrymen. But those standing in front of them are knights of the Church. Many have died. And you, these soldiers who should be defending Silgaria, are all hiding in the Northlands… guarding supplies?”

“No, you seem to misunderstand. We are the ones responsible for guarding the supplies, so that’s why…”

“Do you think I don’t know what’s happening over there?”

The young girl’s voice suddenly turned cold, and her eyes were icy as they swept over everyone present. For a moment, the soldier was intimidated by this aura.

“Uh…”

“You haven’t sent anyone. Those who went were only three thousand or so… also guards for the supplies, marching grain, completely unable to fight. Does that mean the Republic… has only supply guards left? Soldiers?”

…It’s hard to respond to that.

It was a decision made from above, and as a small soldier, he could only obey orders. Whether the capital truly had troops… of course, there were troops. How could there not be? But why weren’t those Republic soldiers sent first to resist the demons? Instead, it was the Holy Church’s Third and Sixth Knight Orders. He wouldn’t know about such matters.

Not having to go to battle was a huge blessing; they were relieved they didn’t have to, so who would care why they weren’t sent?

That was a decision made by the capital and the Church’s upper echelons.

But he certainly couldn’t say that.

“That… miss, heretics have been attacking for centuries, and it’s always the Church fighting against them. We… honestly, we can handle bandits and such, but those demons… if we go, it’s just suicide… The Sacred Church understands this and won’t send innocent people to their deaths…”

I stared into his eyes.

This answer did not satisfy me…

“Why are you talking so much with her? You’re really being fooled by a little girl!”

Perhaps after a moment of shock, the alcohol rushed back to his head, and his companion regained his senses. Feeling humiliated by being knocked down twice and showing fear just now, he pointed at me again and shouted, “Don’t let her leave! And those few troublemakers, none of you are leaving! Dare to fight soldiers? Just wait for the knight lord to deal with you!”

Although he tried to appear fierce, he was clearly still very drunk, speaking nonsense without logic… Who said they wanted to leave? Do I look like I’m leaving? You haven’t even compensated me for my sweet biscuits.

“Move aside! Move aside!”

From behind, the crowd quickly parted, and five or six knights in golden armor finally arrived. One of them, seemingly the leader, glanced at several young men standing aside, then at the soldier whose armor was still muddy, and frowned, asking, “What happened?”

“Knight Lord, these villagers are arrogant and disrespectful. They looked down on us! We were resting when they provoked us on the road!”

The soldier I kicked first had already recovered. Now supported by others, he saw the First Knight Order arriving and hurriedly spoke up, walking towards the leader knight while glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, then clutching his side in apparent pain: “I’ve been injured and might need treatment…”

“Huh.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

A Republic soldier, a grown man, looking like this when drunk, was truly ridiculous.

“Nonsense! Knight Lord, they are lying!”

“We couldn’t possibly beat them!”

The young men retorted, their faces filled with anxiety. Ryan pointed at the red-haired youth’s slightly swollen face and argued loudly, “That soldier kept slapping my friend’s face just because we accidentally bumped into him. They wouldn’t let us go! If you don’t believe me, ask them. Everyone saw it!”

He gestured towards the crowd, some nodding slightly, others avoiding eye contact. A woman pulled her excited child away, muttering, “Let’s go, there’s nothing to see,” and squeezed out of the crowd.

The leader knight frowned, staring at Ryan for a moment, then at the soldier. After a brief pause, he showed disdain—was he stupid? It was clear these young people were not from wealthy families. Why would they provoke soldiers? Especially a group of drunk ones, the stench of alcohol almost reaching his face.

However, the procedure still had to be followed. Due to recent special circumstances, he had to guard against the one-in-a-thousand chance that these young people might have ulterior motives, trying to confuse something. Their identities might not be as ordinary as they seemed…

“Where are you hurt?”

The leader knight asked with a frown, and the soldier quickly pointed to his side: “Knight Lord, here, look at this kick. It dented the iron armor.”

Indeed, there was a dent near the waist of the armor. The leader knight felt a chill, realizing this wasn’t something ordinary kids could do. His expression turned serious, with a hint of wariness in his eyes: “Who did this?”

“It was her!”

The soldier pointed at me.

His expression was like a child returning home to complain to his mother after being bullied outside.

Thus, the leader knight turned to look at me.

Due to the shadow blocking his view earlier, he seemed to have just noticed the girl here. Frowning, he took two steps closer, wanting to get a better look—his expression solemn, his vigilance deepening. One hand slowly rested on the hilt of his sword, and his aura began to emanate. However, in the next moment, he froze.

The knight’s pace suddenly halted, his eyes momentarily confused, then widened. Immediately, he quickened his steps, rushing to me and standing at attention with a right fist over his chest, his tone respectful: “…Your Excellency.”

“You… how did you come to be here…”