Chapter 658

Chapter 43 – Extortion

“Ah… What?”

Betty looked dazed, her little face blank. She couldn’t possibly have noticed the nefarious intentions hidden among the crowd, but those gazes didn’t escape my notice.

One at the east side gemstone stall, two in the crowd to the west…

At least three people were watching us, and they had been doing so for more than a quarter of an hour.

Such malicious intent…

Hehe, interesting, interesting~

I tilted my head, my eyes rolling as I gave the little girl a sidelong glance. “Let’s go out. Let’s leave here first.”

“Why… why do we have to…”

Betty was pulled by me through the crowd. After a few steps, she seemed to suddenly realize what I meant, her shoulders shaking as she panicked.

“Who… who is watching us…”

The little girl instinctively looked around, but I pressed down on her head, stopping her. “Don’t look. Just follow me.”

“What’s going on? I don’t see anyone…”

“They’re professionals. You won’t see anything.”

“Oh…”

The little girl responded dully, still bewildered as I dragged her out of the street, leading her through the market and onto a quiet alleyway. The three of them continued to trail us from a distance, perhaps thinking it wasn’t dark enough yet and there were still some pedestrians around, so they hadn’t made any move to approach.

So, I slowed our pace, pretending to look around at the scenery, rummaging through baskets by the roadside for food, as if we were hungry beggars with no home. Although the little girl was confused and anxious, not understanding what I was up to, she guessed a bit of it and thus restrained herself from looking back, clutching my clothes with one hand, trembling as she followed.

“Hey, sister…”

After walking further, the sunset’s glow dimmed, and there were fewer people around. The three of them slowly approached from their hiding spot at the corner. Betty accidentally spotted them and clung tighter to my arm, starting to feel afraid. “What kind of people are those…”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why are they following us… What do they want…”

I tapped my chin with my finger, thought for a moment, then replied, “They must be here to give us money.”

“To… give us money…”

The little girl suddenly froze again. Realizing what I meant, her face twisted, then relaxed, as she sighed in relief and laughed. “That makes sense. Betty was too nervous, forgetting how powerful sister is… Hehe.”

“Don’t laugh.”

“Okay okay…”

“Or you’ll scare away our food.”

“Mm!”

The little girl nodded frequently, quickly suppressing her smile. We turned another corner, wandering into a narrow, dark alley between earthen houses. Here, old baskets and garbage were piled everywhere, emitting a foul odor. Besides real homeless children, no one else would come here. It was perfect for bad people to act.

Sure enough, as soon as we entered this dark alley, the three figures lurking in the shadows acted simultaneously. Two men quickly approached from behind, while the third abruptly changed direction, disappearing into another alley nearby.

“Sister, they’re coming, they’re coming…”

“Hey, hey hey!”

As the little girl warned, the rough voice came from behind. I calmly turned around to see two men, one tall and one short, both thin, walking briskly towards us. They stood at the entrance of the dark alley, blocking our way.

They wore crude robes and white headscarves. The shorter one spoke, laughing when he saw me turn around. “Where did this little brat come from, wanting to eat here without knowing the rules!”

He shouted while another person quickly took out a white ball the size of an egg from a cloth bag at his waist and threw it towards us.

What is this…

They didn’t waste any time; the speed at which they threw the object was fast, but only by normal standards. The ball flying towards me seemed to move in slow motion, accompanied by a “whoosh” sound of wind. At the moment it approached my eyes, I easily caught it with my hand.

…Is it a mushroom grass smoke bomb?

“Betty, step back!”

Boom—

In the next moment, the ball exploded as expected, but instead of the expected gray smoke, countless fine dust particles burst open, spreading everywhere in an instant.

I quickly pushed Betty backward. In front of me, the two people took off the cloths on their heads and covered their faces. The tall one reached into the wide robe’s collar and pulled out a sack, running over.

This is…

It’s an anesthetic powder made from mandrake seeds.

I didn’t expect to see such things in East Continent…

“Hey, this unlucky little thing… Your reaction is pretty quick; you actually managed to catch it with your hand! But this is mandrake powder; what’s the use of catching it…”

“Sister—”

“Shut up! Two little girls, daring to walk around boldly in Wester, truly fearless… Go and catch that little one.”

“Do we need to check the goods first?”

“Don’t talk nonsense, move faster! Catch the person first, then we can go to the tavern and have a good drink… Whatever you want to do afterward is up to you.”

“They are all young… If they look good, they will surely fetch a good price. It’s been a long time since we’ve encountered such fresh merchandise. Tonight we are really lucky…”

…Oh, so they are doing this.

Seeing the two people gradually approach, when they were less than ten meters away, I suddenly waved my hand. A blue light flashed in my eyes, and thin frost mist spread out in front of me, the cold wind howling, dispersing all the floating dust particles around.

“Huh.”

I looked at the two people who suddenly froze, a smile curling at the corners of my mouth as I sneered, “You are quite lucky tonight.”

“Sister, are you okay?”

Betty’s trembling voice came from behind. I gently waved her off and said, “Cover your nose and mouth, and step back,” before taking a step toward the two completely stunned guys.

“…Human traffickers?”

“You, you inhaled the poison from the mandrake seeds, why haven’t you collapsed…”

The tall, thin man became wary and asked sternly. I winked at him: “Guess.”

Sorry, but this stuff doesn’t work on me at all.

“Uh…”

The two were completely confused, but they quickly recovered. Instead of fleeing, their first action was to encircle me from both sides. The tall, thin man drew a dagger from his waist with a “clang” and sneered, “Well done, today’s goods are quite unexpected…”

“Heh heh, two little girls, not running away at all, truly don’t know the meaning of death…”

On the other side, the shorter guy suddenly accelerated, taking several steps to my side, apparently intending to grab me. He even tried to turn his head to shout something to the tall one. His mouth opened, but in the next instant, I had already raised my left hand and swung it casually.

However, with a “thud,” my pale hand struck the man’s face like a heavy hammer, sending his teeth flying, blood spurting from his mouth. His body spun like a top in mid-air, landing with a “plop” in a pile of dirty garbage, twitching for a few moments before becoming still.

“Hey, I said…”

I shook my arm, expression calm, then turned to look at the tall, thin man holding the dagger, who was now looking dazed: “Do you have any money on you?”