As Hope continued to run, her exhaustion rose, with beads of sweat pouring down and sending a chill down her spine. She glanced back and saw a couple of stray wolves following after her from afar. Her pupils shrank, and she bit her lip.
Time seemed to have slowed down, pausing momentarily as she used all her effort to think of a way to save herself: Think... think… There must be a way out, or at least an action that would lead them away.
Whilst her thoughts ran through her mind, she took a step forward, and time seemed to have returned to normal. Sweat dripped down her chin and fell on the bloodied ground, mixing with the blood.
A slender ray of moonlight lit up the ground, and the countless wolf corpses became clearer.
This… is it! An idea rushed through her mind, and she immediately ran towards a nearby tree. She climbed up and placed her bag, hanging on a branch several meters up. She climbed down and felt the wolves' eyes locking onto her. After climbing down, she glanced at them and immediately ran off. The wolves ignored her belongings and dashed towards her.
However, her scent vanished. They surveyed their surroundings but found nothing, causing the wolves to leave. Roughly five minutes after they left, a bloodied corpse stood up. This corpse looked like Hope. It was Hope!
She sighed and muttered to herself, "Drenching myself in blood and pretending to be a corpse actually worked… I feel like I shouldn't be surprised."
She shook her head and quickly went to grab her bag and decided to leave, but before she could even leave, she spotted a wolf corpse. This corpse was unlike the others, which caught her attention. She walked over and saw that it was a wolf's severed head and its body lying next to each other. What was odd, however, was that it was a perfect cut!
Hope silently pondered for a few minutes: This shouldn't be the doing of a Hunte; after all, their strength is limited. Even if they slashed multiple times, it would only result in a mess. That means that whoever did this must be precise in both strength and handling. Strange, there's a feeling of familiarity, but why?
She quickly tossed the thought aside and decided to bring it along just to observe it a little longer. She dragged the wolf corpse with her for about an hour. During this time, whenever a wolf or two would pass by, she would fall on the ground and act dead. When the wolves left, she would wait for a short while first before leaving.
She arrived in front of a cabin, her house. She loosened her grip on the wolf, and it fell to the ground. She quickly entered her house and saw a neat, clean home. Her eyes widened slightly, but her expression quickly turned to joy.
Hope went and took a bath, and after a while, came out. She changed clothes and started packing up. There wasn't much to take since, days ago, she had already packed up, and most of her belongings were already at Xiaoshop. She was mainly taking the rest that she didn't manage to take because the siege came earlier than expected.
After a while, she wiped her sweat with the back of her hand and saw her bag plop over. The black cat was sleeping soundly, which made Hope's smile brighter. She went to her bedroom and dragged the mattress to the living room where she would sleep because moving during the night is far riskier than during the day, so she chose to go out in the morning.
She plopped onto the mattress and closed her eyes, and as she slept, her body relaxed.
…
The next day, Vanor learned of Hope's disappearance. He sighed and shook his head, waving his hand and speaking, "Let it be; this is her goal, so let it be. Bring Lady Silk here; she brought Hope here."
The Hunter before him nodded and quickly dashed off, searching for Lady Silk in her quarters, but when he returned, he was alone.
He spoke lightly, "After searching for Lady Silk, I wasn't able to find her. Even after asking around, no one could answer her whereabouts."
Vanor waved his hand, and the Hunter left to handle other matters. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He fell silent as the warm ray of light passed through the curtain behind him and landed softly on his face. Dark circles covered her eyes, and his hair showed signs of receding from all the stress and exhaustion.
He slowly rose to his feet and walked out of his room. Outside, he saw a Hunter and spoke, "Bring Schizel here."
He turned around and was about to return to his seat when he heard the Hunter say, "Schizel had disappeared last night."
His eyes widened, and a sudden urge to bash his head against the wall nearly took over. He clenched his fist and slowly calmed down; however, his actions frightened the Hunter below, so he quickly ran off.
A pity… it truly is… it almost feels like no one wants this victory. If it were normal times, I would have disposed of them already, but the sudden appearance of the Wolf Lord changed everything. Could I even call it sudden? Just because I didn't see it before our first encounter doesn't mean that it never was in Mount Lorebale. Maybe it had been hiding and was waiting for an opportunity to arise. As Vanor's thoughts clashed against one another, his expression slowly returned to normal, and he returned to his seat.
He grabbed his cup filled with coffee and took a sip. While doing so, he noticed a Hunter peek through the door. He shifted his gaze and took a small notebook. He then threw it, and the Hunter caught it.
"Go spread the new tactic developed last night." After he spoke, he withdrew his gaze from the Hunter.
After he finished drinking, his eyelids suddenly felt heavy. He set down his cup, but his eyes were already closed, and a moment later, he was fast asleep.
Time passed by, and as though he had never been asleep, he felt someone shaking his unconscious body. When he woke up, he saw Xiaoxiao, confusing him, but he quickly hid his confusion.
Xiaoxiao stopped shaking him, and he gestured for her to sit down. She found a seat and sat down with a calm expression.
"Why are you here?" He asked calmly, as he tried to review what he knew about her.
As far as I know, Xiaoxiao is a self-taught mechanic who does legitimate work. She may not be the most influential, but it doesn't stop her from having her own circle. That kid, Arbane, was taken in by her and became a guide for newcomers coming down to the market.Did she come here for… After his thoughts flashed through his mind, he managed to get a rough idea of the possible reason why she came.
Xiaoxiao chewed her lip and said, "It's because Hope asked for a favor and because this should cause my reputation to increase by a large margin."
Vanor tilted his head, and Xiaoxiao took out a metallic toy from her bag. The toy had a humanoid shape; however, instead of being made of intricate parts, it was made of small cubes.
"This is…" Vanor observed, finding nothing strange.
"It's a bomb." She spoke calmly.
Vanor was immediately alerted. He stood up and jumped back, entering the Hex Zone as the Body Enhancements strengthened him. He swept his gaze around but found nothing out of the ordinary.
"I'm willing to sell these in batches," Xiaoxiao said plainly.
Vanor sighed, sat back down, and spoke politely, "Apologies, I didn't mean to harm you; I was simply caught off guard, you see. Now that's settled, I'm willing to buy."
"But why didn't you sell these before?" He asked curiously.
Xiaoxiao placed a finger on her lips and said, "The thought never crossed my mind."
Half an hour later, the Hunters heard the news, and suspicions rose in their hearts. A majority of them didn't fully believe her.
"She's selling bombs; why didn't she sell them before? She must have ulterior motives."
However, a few people also supported her, defending her: "Are you stupid? Only by watching the tides can someone opportunistically make the right decision. This is admirable, and she also just blew up Lady Silk a few days ago; how could she be a fraud?"
"That happened?" Several Hunters asked the same question in unison.
After learning about Xiaoxiao's feat, more and more Hunters were on her side.
Arbane waited on the side for Xiaoxiao. When he heard the Hunters talking about the fight a few days ago, he suddenly remembered that he had hugged the wrong person. His face flushed slightly, but he quickly turned around and hid it, even though no one noticed him.
A few minutes later, Xiaoxiao arrived and patted his head, tilting her head and asking, "What's with the look? Did something happen?"
Arbane slowly turned around and looked up at her. Although they weren't blood-related, he saw her as his big, kind, and caring sister. He quickly explained what he heard while Xiaoxiao led the way home.
Once he finished, Xiaoxiao laughed and patted his head even more. "You… sigh, you're still really young. Even if you're smarter than kids around your age, you still fail to see the bigger picture."
She pondered for a second and spoke softly, "Listen carefully since I'll only say it once, ok?"
Arbane nodded, and she started, "This whole thing was planned by Hope. She wanted me to help the Hunters because she couldn't exactly believe that they could defeat the Wolf Lord. That's why she spent a while with us on Xiaoshop–she was telling me the plan."
When he heard this, his eyes suddenly widened. He blinked twice and pinched his cheeks, trying to see if it was a dream or not. But when he felt the pain, he felt a sense of admiration grow inside him.
"Big sister Hope is really capable!" He cheered.
Xiaoxiao quietly shook her head, and Arbane quickly took out a paper bag. He tugged her clothes and handed them to her. When she grabbed it, she looked inside and saw bread. She smiled and took a piece before handing it back.
"Thanks."
Behind them, a figure in a black cloak slowly followed them. It was Sophia, and she wasn't wearing her mask. She was here on behalf of Hope to make sure they returned safely.
A while later, she wore her white mask and returned to the siege. Not even a minute later, she was called by Vanor.
When she entered his room, he gestured for her to sit, which she did.
Vanor asked calmly, "How much do you know?"
"Know…" She pondered over his words for a while.
"Let me rephrase it for you then. How much has Hope, or rather the person behind this farce, planned?" He shifted his gaze towards her, and even though she wore a mask, it seemed as though he could see through it.
A chill suddenly ran down her spine, causing her expression to twist.
He actually deduced the general truth about Mount Lorebale that Lady Xiu warned me about! Sophia thought in shock.