The first squad

"Young miss… with the mask on… What are you doing here all alone?" Two people, a girl, and a guy ran after my carriage and asked. They were panting. I had noticed their presence thanks to the basic training, so I deliberately sped up the cart. Although, I would've kinda regretted it if they were good people for real. But, I have a good idea of this terrain. No one speaks with someone else unless they have something in for it. Even if they were normal working-class humans than bandits, it's always better to keep a certain distance away from people considering the history of this place.

Anyhow, they seemed like they were perplexed about my opera mask. I mean no one wears a mask like this in public. It's mostly a showpiece for those people. But, right now, this mask served a purpose for me. Well, it did hide my identity. But, more than that, they hid my emotions. After all, I was smiling like a maniac under the mask. No one knew about that… Except one, of course.

[Dang, if you're gonna smile like that for a few more minutes, it's gonna get stuck like that, you know?]

{As if! Let me at least smile a bit in peace, dude!}

[A bit would be an understatement in this case. Anyway, I guess I shouldn't care about trivial stuff like this. Seems like those two are looking for an answer. What are you gonna do?]

{What else? I'm gonna answer. What kind of question was that?}

[I was asking… Never mind. Just do what you wanna do.]

Hearing Goldy conceding after listening to my lame joke made me extremely happy for some reason. I was smiling a lot more than I expected to. Maybe I'm doing so because the prey came right to me without even putting out a struggle. It seemed way too easy at this point. Ah, maybe I should answer these guys.

"Well, I'm a wandering merchant. I sell exotic stuff like the mask I got in my face. Quite a masterpiece, isn't it? Although the mask in itself is not for sale, everything else in this cart is. I'm here because I heard someone say that this is the easiest path to the south of the country. Since the worth of my stuff is triple in the south, I didn't want to waste any time in the north. There you go. That's my answer." Initially I tried giving out an exotic accent to match the exotic apparatus that I "apparently" held in my cart. Soon enough, I found out that my tongue doesn't like talking that way, so I reverted to my normal way of talking. Now that I think about it, I should've asked to change my voice or something. I know he's capable of creating visual illusions. But, is he capable of doing auditory ones?

[I could've. You just had to ask, you know?]

Ah, he did have that ability. Not that it matters. I really didn't want to rely on his illusions for this particular masked character that I'm playing. This is supposed to be me and my own personal glory, you know?

So, while I was deep in thought, the two before me glanced at each other with confused looks on their faces. I gotta tell ya, these lads are pretty great at acting their parts out. Like, the way they gave out their expressions is just sublime. They could act in a theatre or in an opera with expressions like these.

"Young miss, you really don't know the rumors about this place?" The boy asked. His face looked concerned when he asked that.

"What rumors are you talking about?" I asked, trying to act oblivious. I mean, I gotta do my part too, right?

Both of them sighed almost simultaneously. "This mountain is filled with bandits trying to rob people of their belongings. For people like yourself, who travel alone, they have to worry about a bandit group named the Weasel bandits. They target people like yourself who travel alone and take all their belongings." The girl explained as if she wasn't part of the said bandit group at all. Are you feeling proud when you're talking about your group with me? I can see that slight pride in your face, you know? By the way, if you're gonna talk about them to a random stranger, you should also speak of how those guys dress up as concerned travelers trying to help a fellow traveler, just like what you're doing right now. I mean, when you're speaking about something, you should never opt out of information like this, right?

Well, this was perfect in a way. The way they put it wouldn't evoke even a tinge of doubt towards them. So… I'm gonna continue acting that way as well. Screw you, sheeple! I'm pulling in some serious big brain moves right now. You better be amazed by the end of it!

"Oh, is that so? No one told me about that!" I spoke with a shocked look on my face… Not that it mattered though, since I had the mask on my face. Anyway, my voice was enough to convey my "shock".

"Yea, those people like to see you get robbed by those filthy bandits. They're all the same, young miss." The boy sighed. I gotta give it to him though; calling his brethren filthy and stuff just for the sake of completing the task that's been assigned to him… That's some serious skills. Seems like the weasels got quite a few talented personalities other than Guo Ning… Except the expertise is not the way of the sword this time.

"My, my. What shall I do now? This is indeed a huge predicament for me. Who's going to protect my PRECIOUS commodity away from those bandits? Ah, it's so PRECIOUS that even my own life looks worthless before it." I spoke, emphasizing the word 'Precious' way more than I should've. Anyway, I don't think there's any harm in saying that.

So, what I expected was the faces of two people salivating by the thought of every precious thing inside my cart. Instead, what I got were two gravely concerned faces. The stark difference between what I saw and what I expected was pretty baffling to me. "Young miss. It seems like you're a bit inexperienced in this line of business. You shouldn't outright speak of precious things in your cart in such a lax way." The guy spoke, almost as if he was giving me a lecture. I know that, you dumb kid! I just did that because I wanted you to catch my bait. But, it seems like you two are some slippery bastards! Anyway, yet again, I'm impressed by their acting chops. Rather than salivating, they were scolding me for my words. Like, this is some next level shite. Well, this is truly the best way to gain trust from a person, eh?

"Ah, you're right about that. Indeed I'm a bit inexperienced. However, it seems like you two are people in whom I can place my trust. So, I didn't feel the need to hide about the presence of precious commodities in the cart." I replied.

"Thank you for your trust in us, but you shouldn't trust people like this, you know? Who knows when someone will betray the other? This is the red mountain after all…" The boy spoke in a grave tone. By gawd, the tenacity of these two. I'm telling this to you right now, if I was a wandering traveler as I told them, after all this conversation we just had, I would've naturally believed him. However, unfortunately for them, I'm not big of an idiot!

"I see… But, I really have no one to help me at this point. So, if I don't trust in good people like you, who can I even trust with the commodities?" I asked. My tone was almost in the weeping stage.

"Ah, miss! I understand your concern. You know what? We'll protect you from all the incoming danger. That's the least we could do as human beings." The boy replied as the girl silently nodded.

Ha! Got you! The least you could do as humans, huh? Do you know what normal people do when they enter a place like this? They avoid human contact as much as possible. And here there's two talking about being humans by doing the only thing people avoid doing in this place. You'll protect me, huh? That'd be fun. It's been a long time since I saw a pro-wrestling match.

"Oh, my! You two are literally angels! How can I even pay back your benevolence?" I toned up my annoying weeping voice upon speaking. It used to work on my parents, so there's no way it won't work on these two chumps.

"You're praising us too much, miss!" The boy replied, almost embarrassed by my remark. He looked pretty good while blushing like that.

"So, shall we get a move on?" I asked the two of them to which they nodded their heads. I felt like I accelerated the events a bit faster than normal. Well, what can I do? I'm genuinely excited. After all, the second squad will be arriving any time now!

#