18 Trouble

Stupefied by the man's actions, which could only be described as a kidnapping attempt, Foo could only give in and be dragged along. This situation was odd. The situation was odd indeed.

Was Foo going to be dragged away and sold to the academy for some referral award? It surely sounded that way. The alarm bells was sounding in his head. But then again, he wanted to learn magic...

Torn on what to do, they suddenly arrived at their destination. Before them was a house that had seen better days; the door was barely hanging on its hinges, the exterior was in a pitiful condition and it was just somehow radiating gloominess.

The excited man suddenly stood still in shock, before he bellowed: "SHIT!" And rushed in to the building, with Foo dangling behind in his now even tighter grip, looking like a question mark.

Well inside the building, Foo noticed that the gloominess that he felt outside was just an illusion; inside it was even gloomier! The few furniture in the house was trashed and the rug was looking worn... In fact, during closer inspection, the "rug" on the floor was actually a layer of dirt...And it did not help alleviate the feeling of gloominess at all.

And fitting nicely in the house was three orcs, one of which was holding the arm of a crying little girl. Also present on the floor was two human sized bags of trash. Foo was a bit puzzled about the orcs' presence in the house, but it was common in the novels that he had read back in his world that different species coexisted.

When they noticed the two entering figures, the leader of the orcs turned around and said: "Hehe, we got the news that you was coming back to pick up your sister, which apparently has a wizard class. It seems that you have been sending her magic scrolls and notes, without thinking of us at all. However, we are not so rude that we would let you leave without giving you a farewell party." The leader said when grinning.

Fascinated over the talking orcs, Foo asked the man that was still grabbing his hand: "You know these orcs? How come they can speak? I thought they were too stupid to speak at all, and especially so fluently!" Which was greeted with a awkward silence.

Had the words been spoken in mockery, the three "orcs" would definitely have beaten him up at the spot. But the thing was, the words was spoken in pure curiosity. There was not even a slightest trace of mockery, everyone present could feel the sincerity.

The silence was abruptly interrupted by a adorable fit of laughter. The "orc" that had been holding the girl was so stupefied that he had let go. And the girl in question was now rolling on the floor while laughing. Tears was flooding out of her eyes, but now due to the hilarious man instead of the frightening situation earlier.

The leader awoke from his stupor, and yelled at the "orc" that had been responsible for the girl: "Damn it! Do not let her escape!"

However, no matter how you looked at it, that girl was not going to escape anywhere anytime soon. This realization made the leader even angrier. While almost exploding from anger, the leader who was now starting to lose control of his speech, grunted: "Shadap! Yur little girlie!"

The sound that now indeed sounded like an orc not only failed to intimidate the girl, but even intensified her laughter. This made the leader fuming even more with anger. However, to survive this long as a thug one must be able to think calmly in such situations. As such, he did not hit the girl, which with his power would surly have killed her.

Instead he lifted her by her leg, having her dangle upside down. Had she worn a dress, the situation might have been arousing, but apparently due to poverty, she had just a normal pair of pants. Not that Foo would have been excited by such a situation anyway. And he definitely did not picture that scene in his head, at all.

But Foo was distracted from the thoughts that he was not thinking by the leader's now calm voice: "Stop trying to be funny!" Only then did Foo realize that something was off. The "orcs" was wearing crude and dirty leather clothes and had the ugliest faces he had ever seen. But they were undoubtedly human.

"Ah, sorry, your faces was so ugly that i mistook you for orcs! Not that i have seen one..." Foo tried to resolve the situation. But when the leader head this sincerer and heartfelt apology, the calm that he had worked so hard on dissolved in an instant. Had the words been said as mockery, he would just have been offended. But there was no doubt that the man before him truly had mistaken him for a orc due to his ugliness.

The realization made his heart feel like it had been hit by a stake that was slowly twisted around. His vision started to darken and he felt dangerously close to coughing blood. However, he was a professional thug. He had long ago left vanity behind him. Were it not for this man's malicious tongue, which had reached a godly level of insults, he would not at all be bothered by mere insults. Of course, he would not allow any insults, but he would not feel pained by them, just pissed off.

Trying to vent his frustration and to salvage the situation, he yelled: "Do you not realize the situation here?!" He said while pointing towards the dangling girl.

All heads then turned towards the girl. Seemingly unaware of her situation, the girl was just giggling with a beaming smile, that seemingly lit up even this gloomy place. Looking content and happy, the little girl did not seem anything like a hostage. In fact, it looked like she was having a great time.

Unable to take anymore, the leader's last thought before he coughed up blood and fainted was: ``Can't you at least cooperate a little here? (ಥ﹏ಥ)`` Fortunately, the girl had a soft landing on the thug when they fell.

Everyone was stunned.

Then suddenly one of the thugs exclaimed in fear: "Damn! He must be Foo!" And the other thug worriedly responded: "THAT Foo?!! The one who can make even gods puke blood from just some words?! The one that killed the branch master of the adventurers' guild during the friendly ranking examination?! The one whose tongue's viciousness have reached the damage of at least a F rank adventurer?!!" The thugs had many ways to gain information. One could not survive for long if one was not able to follow the happenings in the city. Especially who not to mess with.

Upon realizing who they were up against, the thugs quickly stuffed their ears with fabric from their clothes and quickly dragged the leader out of the house.

The only thing that Foo could do was to cry. Why is such slanderous lies circulating in the city? Even some random thugs had heard of them! He then squatted down in despair and drew circles in the dirt on the floor.