Did she already know what I would ask her for?

Ch 136: The Golden Lion guild

"Be careful! Their weapons have poison in them!"

"!!!"

With my warning, the entire course of the battle changed. As people who make our living from fighting, we know that there will be some cuts and small wounds when exchanging attacks, but everything changes when a poison is involved.

A slight wound can be the undoing.

In all these seconds, there is only one red dot on my map that hasn't moved. From my experience, I know the reason behind this. I can't let him call for reinforcement. So, hiding behind a tree and without anyone seeing me, I withdraw the bow from my inventory and shoot an arrow with the [Silence] skill.

The soundless arrow embeds itself in the man's stomach.

If only I had had enough time to enter the state of total concentration, then that arrow would have hit his head. Unfortunately, time is short. 

'I must not be such a perfectionist.'

I quickly put away the bow, and equipping my sword again, I ran towards the man and gave him the final blow. Then I put the arrow in my inventory.

I must protect my two identities in this war. The Golden Archer must be someone different from Emir. Those men accompanying the three annoying beauties will be the witnesses of my swordsmanship.

All the remaining red dots are close combat people, so there will no longer be a need to draw my bow again.

So far, I have killed three men. And looking at the battlefield, I realize that Alessia has killed one man and is about to kill another. In other words, after the next kill, the fight will change to 9 vs. 9. So, our chances of winning are high.

The three annoying beauties fight in a coordinated manner. Even when in front of them there are three different men, somehow they manage to swap opponents constantly without letting the other side get used to their style of fighting.

The wounds were piling up on their enemies until the opportunity arose. Irina skewered her spear into her opponent's neck.

Elsewhere, Alessia dodges each of her enemies spear attacks with great agility. She has long practiced the different styles of the spear, so she is best suited to fight this type of opponent.

As soon as her enemy got careless because of his anger, she performed a style of four diagonal and horizontal slashes. Unable to react to the speed of her attacks, the man was slashed again and again until his body could not withstand any more injuries, falling to the ground dead.

While the escorts on this mission are not experienced in combat, they understood perfectly what it meant for their enemy to possess poisoned weapons. So, they did not allow themselves to be harmed in the least and used every opportunity to attack without mercy. Hard work pays off, and at some point, they manage to murder their opponents.

All our fights continued... until the last of them fell.

"Don't waste your time collecting the spoils of war. We must escape at once!" shouted Irina.

Since the Red Flag guild is a few minutes away from this place, there is a possibility that one of them will come over to corroborate the situation. We are all smart enough to deduce this, so we start running without looking back.

***

*Whistling*

With our whistles, the grazing horses raised their heads and looked at us. Skillfully, they recognized their temporary owners and came toward us. Not only Alessia and I, but also the others, leased horses.

This got me thinking... 

'Why is my horse so dumb compared to theirs? Have I been sold a pig in a poke? Well, if I think about it, the horse I bought from Danes city looks pretty young compared to these. Maybe I should hire an expert to teach it new tricks so it doesn't freak out every time I cast the Space Travel magic.'

After riding for some time, we arrived in front of dozens of tents with a flag on each of them. The symbol drawn on them is that of a fierce lion with golden fur.

Zia, Miria, and Irina got off their horses and spoke to a guard guarding one of the tents. He nodded and entered to make the information known to the owner. Seconds later, a man appeared.

[Fabian] [Knight Lvl 27]

[(Guild: Golden Lion)]

Fabian is a man with orange hair that is very close to being reddish. He has some freckles on his cheeks, and his face looks like someone who laughs constantly. He is of slim build. And as far as looks go, he can't be considered handsome, but he exudes an aura that attracts others. What's special about him is that...

'He's the same man who was conversing with Fabio when I inadvertently bumped into him!'

"We have completed the mission, but problems occurred in the process," said Irina.

"What happened?" said Fabian.

"After we delivered the letter, 14 people attacked us. And they were stronger than those escorts we were granted!" As usual, Miria spared no effort to slap anyone who displeased her.

It was only then that Fabian looked behind the annoying beauties and turned his gaze on us. His eyes moved quickly to assess our appearance and any possible injuries we might have, but then... His eyes stopped on me, and he started to smile.

Emir: "..."

'This proves my assumptions. The moment I saw that Fabian belongs to the Golden Lion guild, I remembered that guy named Fabio. That day, as I fought with Yair against some enemy soldiers, Fabio looked at me with hatred, as if I had murdered his whole family.

'Clearly, he held some kind of grudge against me, so... How did Fabio manage to know that I'm the Golden Archer?! Hmm… It's pretty obvious that they targeted the three annoying beauties because of me!'

"Everything turned out alright after all, didn't it? You shouldn't ruin your beauty by getting angry at such things. You'll get gray hair and wrinkles."

"I'm only 25 years old!"

"Huh?!"

"Don't be surprised!"

'Hmm…No. Fabian seems to get along well with Miria. Could it be that... He knew that the three annoying beauties would make it out alive, and that's why he sent them?'

Analyzing the situation closely, the skill of those women is above the norm. Especially for their coordination when fighting. And most importantly, they have storage rings and, most likely, antidotes. Even if the enemy possessed poison in their weapons, as long as they took out an antidote from their ring, they would be able to overcome the situation.

Of course, they would get hurt quite badly in the process.

And that in itself can be considered a warning to me, as all of this could have been avoided if the guild had sent stronger escorts with them.

There remains only a single question: whether all the pieces fit into place.

Smiling Fabian said, "For the trouble, I will increase the reward. I hope this will be enough." He handed me a small bag with the money.

"Hmph!" Miria took it, but it seemed to offend her greatly.

Seeing this, Fabian laughed out loud.

From the looks of him, he's a friendly person who will laugh at even the most boring jokes.

"Don't you want to join this campaign? Tomorrow we will gather personnel to go to war against that Red Flag guild. Even though we are overcrowded in terms of members, I can make a vacancy for you."

"Dream on!" Miria got on her horse and urged us to get the hell out of here as fast as possible.

Irina and Zia could only smile at this and say a respectful goodbye to Fabian.

As we rode along, I couldn't help but feel shivers down my back, as if someone wouldn't take their eyes off me. It was only when we rode away from the guild that these chills stopped.

"We'll split the reward with them. Is anyone against it?" With the money in hand, Zia points toward me and Alessia.

Before the four Warriors answered, I decided to speak.

"It's not necessary. We just wanted to help. You guys can split the reward between you."

"!!!"

The three annoying beauties were surprised. If they weren't on horses, they would have taken three steps back and taken a hand towards their mouth to indicate that their surprise was sincere. And without a hint of acting!

Emir: "..."

Emir: "I just want you to answer me... Did you choose this mission of your own free will?"

'If they choose this mission willingly, then all my previous assumptions are nothing more than unnecessary worries.'

"We can't deny that the bounty drew a lot of our attention, but I must say no." Irina shook her head and said, "It was an order from our superiors in the army. We couldn't refuse even if we wanted to."

'I see...'

Originally, I thought they accepted this mission and couldn't cancel it because they didn't have money to pay the punishment, but I was wrong.

My relationship with the three annoying beauties is known to everyone. They are so beautiful that it would be foolish to think that no one saw me talking to them, so... From the beginning, Fabio was targeting me…

'You dare to attempt to harm my acquaintances?! You forced me!'