Chapter 161 - Ruffians

Clearing the mountain range as the sun began to set, the lights of a nearby settlement came into view within the encroaching darkness. Touching down roughly a quarter mile away from the settlement's outskirts, I turned back to see how the women were doing. Finding all three women with poofy, pomeranian hairstyles, only Ghislaine seemed amused by things. The other two stared at me as they attempted to fix their hair.

"Jeez, you two are such babies.", I snickered, snapping my fingers, "You realize I can fix that with magic right?"

Feeling their hair return to normal, the two patted themselves down realizing I had also fixed their clothing as well.

"If you could do that, you should have said something.", Hilda complained, checking for bugs in her hair, "Are you incapable of erecting a Wind Barrier to shield us?"

"I certainly can do that, but only when we exceed one hundred miles an hour. For your information, we were barely doing sixty when you two started complaining. Just so we are clear, both of you are really big babies. My wives, and even Ghislaine, do not mind that speed at all.", I stated, glancing over to the Beastwoman who was still a bit tired having woken up from a nap a short time ago.

Asking her if this was true, Hilda shot her a look as if asking her to not back me on this. Completely missing the cue, Ghislaine agreed with me and stated she found the speed very relaxing. Asking them to keep their screams to a minimum next time, as they disrupted her napping, Hilda groaned in defeat.

"Ugh…fine!", Hilda huffed, "Since you can fix our appearance and we did not fall off, I promise to shut up about it."

"How about you?", I asked Ciri.

"Hehe, I only did it to mess with you.", she snickered with glee, "It was payback for not clearing me a path through the thicket after killing the Minotaur. Next time, please do so…it is not a fun experience to go through."

Letting out a sigh, I promised to do that moving forward to avoid her pranks in the future. Recalling that she had traveled much faster than that in other worlds, it should have been apparent that she was having fun at my expense.

Suggesting that we get moving before the light faded away, the four of us made our way to a small walking path and walked toward the settlement. Reaching the outer gate as the sun disappeared both guards watching the gate lowered their pikes at us. Assuming the worst-case scenario, they demanded we show them our papers.

"None of ya are gettin' in without papers!", one of the guards growled.

"Is this how you treat all travelers that show up at your gates?", Ghislaine asked, fishing around in her satchel for her Adventurer's license, "Here you go, asshole."

Glaring at her as he snatched the paper from her hands, the guard took a look at it and nodded his head. Handing it back to her, he told Ghislaine that only she could pass.

"The noblewoman is my charge, she needs to come with me.", Ghislaine informed them.

"Right, and my uncle is the Captain of the King's Guard.", the man mocked her, "No papers, no entry!"

Searching her person for any identification papers, Hilda's expression soured as she knew she had nothing. Having not intended to be teleported away from home, she had nothing on her to prove who she was. Not wanting to spend a night outside the safety of the settlement's walls, the woman was going to beg before I motioned for her to stop.

"If you have nothing to show us, fuck off!", the other guard said, thrusting his spear at me.

"You will let us pass without issue.", I told them, waving my hand in front of them, "We are acquaintances you have not seen in many years."

Using my Deceit Powers, along with a pinch of hypnosis, the two men began to sway side to side as it took effect. Shaking their heads a moment later to shake off the cobwebs in their minds, they apologized for forgetting about us and let us in without further trouble.

"Sorry about that friend, we let in a group of refugees a few weeks ago and they have been nothing but trouble.", they explained apologetically, "Those assholes have been leeching off our kindness, eating through our food stores without payin', and have even tried flirtin' with our wives and daughters. We want them gone but do not have the strength to throw out their leader."

"I understand, family comes first.", I agreed, patting him on the shoulder, "For letting us through without papers, we will look into chasing them off for you."

"That would be great!", the second guard said with relief, "Their leader has been making moves on my daughter, she just came of age. She leaves in a few weeks to be with the boy she has been smitten with since childhood. He left our village to join the Royal Knights, she is movin' to the capital to be with him. I am afraid that bastard will force himself on my baby girl and take away that future."

"Do not worry about it…I will take care of him, personally…", I said, thinking of my darling daughters back home.

Asking for directions to a local inn, the guards pointed down the road to a tavern in the middle of town. Telling us that they were the only place that offered rooms to travelers and adventurers, I thanked them and led the group there. Once we were out of earshot, Hilda leaned forward to ask how I did that.

"Was it magic?", she inquired, curious about my capabilities, "You did not chant anything though, maybe you can use magic chantlessly?"

"There is a lot more to magic than you realize.", I told her, "Are you a mage by chance?"

"I would not say mage, but I do know a few elementary spells. My father insisted I learn a few spells to protect myself in case of an emergency. Unfortunately though, those spells only serve to annoy and anger strong monsters.", she replied, with a nervous laugh, "I hope to never be in that situation ever again."

Changing the subject, as there was something more important on her mind, Ghislaine asked me how we would deal with the supposed refugees. Shooting her a wicked grin, I told her we would treat them with civility up till they tried to do something.

"When they make their move…we execute them on the spot.", I snickered, "If they are flirting with nearly every woman in this settlement, they will definitely make a move on you three. No offense to the ladies here, but the three of you are a cut above the rest."

Noticing Hilda turn red hearing my compliment, Ciri and Ghislaine simply smiled with gratitude. Hearing a lot of commotion within the tavern as we approached, I told Hilda to stay with Ciri and Ghislaine no matter what happened. Nodding her head in compliance, she slowed her pace a bit as we walked into the building.

"Where is my mug of ale!!", a bulky man shouted at one of the tables in the back, "How do you expect me to eat your shit without it?! This crap is barely edible even with alcohol!"

"Yeah, where is our soup too!!", a muscular woman complained throwing her empty bowl at the wall, "I thought you wanted to help us, refugees!"

Mimicking their leaders, a dozen other people began heckling the kitchen staff. Seeing a few waitresses cowering behind the swinging doors, none of them wanted to step out into the dining room. Knowing that they were suffering, the locals could only look on trying to make themselves non-existent in the eyes of the troublemakers.

"Good…good evening sir!", a middle-aged woman stuttered as appeared behind the check-in counter, "Are you looking for a meal, rooms, or both?"

"If possible, I would like to rent four rooms for us.", I requested.

"I…I am sorry, I only have two available at the moment.", she replied in a low voice, "Is…is that okay?"

Noticing her white knuckle grip on the counter, she must have gone through a lot with the refugees. Agreeing to take the two rooms, with meals included, I asked if we could get a bucket of warm water sent to Hilda and Ghislaine's room. Figuring that Hilda would want to wash the dirt off herself, this was the only way she could do that out in the frontier.

"Of…of course, that will be an extra five copper.", she said, immediately shielding her face from me.

"That is fine, here are a few silver coins for the tab. If the ladies need anything, please use the change to cover it.", I told her.

Hearing the coins slide across the counter to her, the woman looked at me and then back to the coins. Counting them silently, she thanked me and handed the two keys over to us. Telling us to take a seat anywhere that was open, I motioned to a table near the refugees. Looking at me with a smirk, Ghislaine and Ciri knew what I was planning to do.

Sitting with my back to the group, the women oriented themselves accordingly to protect Hilda. Noticing our arrival, one of the men got up and wandered over to the table. Completely ignoring me, he leaned onto our table and got right up into Ciri's personal space. Smelling the alcohol on his breath, she immediately asked him to say what he wanted and leave.

"How about you come over and dine with us?", he said, slowly inching his hand closer to her, "I can show you a good time after-"

Seeing what he was doing, Ciri whipped a dagger out from her hip and plunged it straight through his hand and the table. Seething in pain the drunkard let out a scream as he instinctively jerked his hand back effectively splitting his hand open. Watching his blood pour from the wound he stumbled backward completely oblivious to my leg stuck out behind him. Tripping over my leg, the man crashed into his table spilling the food they had all over the floor.

"What do you think you are doing?!", the bulky man shouted, getting up from his seat.

Looking at his injured man writhing around on the floor in pain, he followed the blood splatter back to our table and saw Ciri's dagger stuck into it. Realizing what she had done, the man immediately began shouting at us in anger.

"Why did you do that!?", he demanded, "What did Devo do to deserve that?!"

"Existing.", Ghislaine snickered, with amusement as her tail flicked around with excitement, "That a problem?"

"Is this how people of the Asura Kingdom treat refugees!?", he howled, glaring at the locals.

"Oh, my friend and I are not from the Asura Kingdom.", I corrected him, as I stood up from my seat, "We are from the distant country of shut the fuck up, and sit down. I am hungry and all of you are holding up the kitchen."

Even though he was roughly a head taller than me, I locked eyes with him, daring him to try it. Having enough sense to realize we were purposefully trying to get him to fight us, he took a step back out of fear. Even though his group outnumbered us, something in the back of his mind told him we were not to be messed with.

"Al, what are you doing!?", the muscular woman badgered him, "Devo is bleeding out!"

"Heal his wound, and I will let this slide!", he demanded, pretending not to be afraid of us.

"Sure thing!", I obliged, pointing a Fireball at him, "Right away!"

Blasting him with the spell, the man let out a single scream before being reduced to ash. Watching me kill the man without breaking eye contact with him, locals and staff alike began moving toward the exit. Knowing that things were about to get ugly, they wanted to avoid being collateral damage.

"So you are a Mage, then I will kill you first!", the bulky man shouted, unable to back down now that one of his men was dead.

Reaching for his sword, I placed my hand on his chest with a smile.

"Wrong choice.", I said, using my Destruction Power to erase him from existence.

Watching their leader disappear without a trace, the others immediately rose to their feet to fight. Joining me on their feet, Ghislaine and Ciri drew their blades ready to dispatch them. Without hesitation, I snapped my fingers signaling the two to execute the group. Leaping out ahead of Ciri, Ghislaine decapitated half of the group in an instant.

Momentarily stunned by this, a few members were easily cut down by Ciri leaving the woman and a few others to me. Snapping back to reality, the woman immediately began trying to bargain for her life with me.

"Please wait a moment, we have plenty of money to pay you with!", she shrieked, holding a bag of coins out to me.

"You steal that from the locals too?", I asked.

"No!! We are not refugees, we are the remnants of a mercenary group.", she said, leaving the locals in shock, "Most of our group died during our last mission. Since we could not go back, having failed to escort several thousand gold in goods to its destination, we abandoned the job and came here. Our boss, the second man you killed, took this from the merchant before we left him to die. If this is not enough, I…I will give you my body!"

"Ha…HAHA!!!", I laughed at her, "Do you think I care about money or a woman like you? Both of you have been touched by so many people that I cannot even count. You look tough, but in reality, you are all bark and no bite. I bet you were sleeping with the boss to get your position in your group. There is no place for a woman like you beside me, Cruel Sun!"

Forming a five-foot sun over my head, the woman dropped the bag and ran for the entrance. Following her, the rest of their group asked her to wait for them as they did not want to die. Throwing the Cruel Sun at their backs, it crashed into them just as they exited the building. Filling the streets with their screams, I shook my head in disappointment.

"They always try to run.", I stated, "Pride Flare!"

Redirecting its volatile energy into the sky, a pillar of brilliant fire lit up the night sky for miles around. Now that the trash was gone, I snapped my fingers using my magic to repair the damage to the building our fight had caused. Watching everything go back to the way it was, I turned to the staff looking out of the kitchen at us.

"I apologize for having to get rough with them, but I cannot stand people like that.", I told them, with a smile, "Could we please get a few menus and glasses of water?"

Taking our seats again, everyone in the building was still on edge about our presence there. Using telekinesis to lift the bag of coins off the floor, I floated it over to the innkeeper with a nod.

"They have no use for it anymore, and neither do we. I think it should be used to reimburse you for the food they ate and anything they destroyed.", I said, wanting to demonstrate we were not bad people.

Looking in the bag, the innkeeper's eyes lit up in disbelief. Knowing that there were roughly fifteen hundred gold coins in there, judging by the bag's weight, I figured it would be enough to make a big impact on this small settlement.

"Are…are you sure sir?", she inquired.

"Please do.", I assured her.

Accepting our kindness, the locals and staff relaxed a bit. Slowly easing themselves back into normality again, the guards ran in to check if everything was alright. Telling the innkeeper that they saw the pillar of fire and heard the explosion, she asked them to calm down for a moment.

"It is alright, the people you sent over cleared out those ruffians.", the innkeeper said, with relief, "They were even generous enough to give us the gold those people said they did not have. If we place an order with the merchant tomorrow, we will be able to resupply the village before winter!"

Seeing the relief on their faces, Hilda nodded her head in approval. Even though she had not done anything, she enjoyed seeing their happiness. 

Rushing out of the kitchen with drinks and orders for the locals, one of the servers came to us with menus. Thanking us repeatedly for disposing of the ruffians, she told us that the cooks promised to make their meals extra large as thanks. Quickly looking over the menu, we placed our orders and then sat back to discuss our plans for tomorrow.

—An Hour Later—

Going up to our rooms with full stomachs, we bid Ghislaine and Hilda goodnight before entering our room. Locking the door behind us, I placed several powerful barrier spells on the building to ensure nothing would harm the two women.

"What are you doing?", Ciri asked, in a low voice.

"Making sure that while we are away nothing happens here.", I stated, "I do not intend to stay the night here, I have to tuck my kids in and read them a story. After that, there are husbandly duties that need to be attended to."

"The first part is cute, the second…not so much.", Ciri jabbed, with a smirk, "I will tag along with you, I-"

"Ciri, my bedroom is for my lovers only. We have not reached that point in our relationship.", I told her, returning the jab.

Twitching in response, I could tell she wanted to hit me.

"I was going to say I wanted to sleep in my comfy bed at your home. Now I am not so sure I want to…", she said.

"Oh okay, well see you tomorrow then.", I remarked, beginning to walk through the portal.

"Damn you, I am coming too!", she spat, unhappy that I did not react the way she wanted me to.

With that, the two of us returned home for the evening for a good night's rest.