Chapter 9 – Stay at Snowyfield village

Third person POV

 As he stopped his bus, Russell was breathing heavily from his second rampage. "That was intense…" he said to himself. He then sighed in relief, and the villager came and knocked on the door. Russell opens it.

 "Thank you…" the villager said to him, "…for saving us."

Russell then looked at him and smiled. "You're welcome, anytime."

With that, the villager responded, "Okay, let's go back. I'll have the bandits' bodies picked up by my friends."

 "Okay!"

And so, the villager hopped in, and Russell shifted the gear to Drive, making some actions to make a U-turn so they could go back to the village.

 A minute later, they arrived back at the village, where Azalea and the rest of the villagers were waiting for them while being concerned and worried for their safety. Upon seeing them, Azalea and the rest were stunned to see that they had survived and come back alive. Russell then stopped his bus aside and opened the door, allowing his villager friend to get off. Russell eventually unbuckled his seatbelt and got off the bus and towards Azalea and the others.

 "Russell-kun!" Azalea ran to him.

She then checked his body for any injuries. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you or something?"

 "No, I am not injured," replied Russell positively.

Azalea then looked at him. "Okay, did you take them down?"

"Yup!" the young bus driver happily replied back.

Before Azalea would doubt that, the villager testified and confirmed his statement.

 As a result, Azalea was amazed and relieved that her village was out of harm's way. "Thank you so much," she said to Russell as she bowed deeply for a couple of seconds. Her father came and thanked Russell for saving their village.

 "You're welcome, sir," Russell happily responded back.

The other villagers gathered around and gave out their thankfulness and gratefulness for his help towards them.

Russell was a bit overwhelmed by their sheer number of compliments for him, but he was at least grateful that he did something noble, even with a strange thing like his bus.

 After that, the entire village took care of the bandits' dead bodies, including the ones outside of the village, and buried them at a mass grave north of the village's outskirts. As for their equipment, armor, and weapons, the village took them as a form of payment for raiding their home village. They did all of that while Russell was resting at Azalea's home. Even though he wants to help, Azalea and her father and mother insist that he should rest. Russell accepted it because of their insistence.

 Then, at 7 o'clock, the cleanup was done, and the entire village is now hosting a feast on Russell's honor for saving their home in the mountains. When Russell came out, he was very surprised to see such a big feast, and he accepted it wholeheartedly without question. And so, he and the whole village ate and drank together. Russell ate a lot of delicious food cooked and prepared by the village's best cooks, which also included Azalea's mother and grandmother. It seems that he is happy in this new life, even though he misses his old life. But he believes that he should move on instead.

 At the same time, Azalea started to have feelings for him slowly and steadily. But she couldn't show that to him because she was so shy. Also, as he eats and drinks, Russell becomes worried about Adrian and his well-being in his party, which was an SS-ranked one and was under Elai's leadership. At the same time, he decided to stay in the village for 2 days because he wanted to explore and such. And the best part is when he receives a lot of money from the village elders as a reward for saving their village. Russell couldn't accept such a big amount, so he asked to reduce it a little bit. They accepted his request without hesitation.

Later, at 9 in the evening, Russell was now in a bedroom in Azalea's village house resting. He was now in his regular, peasant's clothes so he could have a change of clothes for the night. Those clothes are burrowed from Azalea's family, too. His bus driver's uniform was on the desk, all neatly folded. Azalea and her family are in the house doing their last nightly chores and preparing for bed. As he lay on the wooden bed, Russell was staring at the ceiling while thinking.

 Meanwhile, some officials stationed at the village had sent a letter regarding what had happened to Southern Plains' capital city, Rossley, directly to the ruling royal family. Upon receiving it, the royal family, who only consisted of the king and his crowned prince son, were very surprised and stunned to read that the village in the mountains was saved by someone who mounted what the officials call a 'big metal carriage of death'. So, the small royal family decided to investigate this by sending out their spies to Snowyfield village to monitor whoever was responsible for saving the village. But they have no idea that Russell was behind it because the officials who sent the letter didn't mention his name.