82 Departure

"Even if he were confused, do you think he would admit it? You have known him for a while now; you should know." Han Jin laughed. "He would never allow others to insult his intelligence! Even if he does not understand, he will pretend he does."

"Yes, he will..." Cessacioun also laughed, then fixed his eyes on the man beside them. "You are Reg, aren't you?" he asked, knowing clearly why Han Jin would release a charm to 'induce' him. Their team lacked a thief, which had caused many inconveniences; they had discussed this many times. Conveniently, the appearance of Reg could cover this shortage.

"Yes, I am. Nice to meet you." Reg smiled.

"Nice to meet you too. I am Cessacioun. We are friends now."

Reg was slightly stunned, but he immediately understood. "If you don't mind a burden, then we are friends. I will try my best not to trouble you."

When the greetings had finished, Cessacioun turned his head toward Han Jin and gave Reg a stealthy glance, as if he was asking for Han Jin's opinion about this decision. Sunier had warned them not to recruit people at random; that was why their team was still very stable for now. Though they each had secrets, they had mutual trust. If the new member who joined them was a rotten fish, the whole pot of soup would be destroyed!

Han Jin nodded slowly after some thought. The loyalty shown by Reg's old servant, who had chosen to die in such an unyielding way, was the best proof that both Reg and his father were extraordinary men. Blind loyalty was rare, and most affection in this world was mutual. Taking Han Jin himself as an example, if he had bullied and scolded his servant Steelberg all the time, and enjoyed a good life himself while letting Steelberg suffer, would Steelberg be willing to tolerate all of that and still be so loyal to him?

Since the decision had been affirmed by Han Jin, Cessacioun felt assured. He changed the topic in a natural way, "What shall we do next, Raphael? Beitman is going to fall into a mess soon. Alas... What a chaotic world it is. Why is it so difficult for us to find a peaceful place?"

"We have no ability to change anything, and can only take every step cautiously and go with the flow," Han Jin replied in a slow way.

"Beitman? What happened to Beitman?" Reg was taken aback.

"The Vampire Guards and Dark Elves of Zaganide have already invaded Beitman."

"How is that possible..." Reg wanted to get up and ask more, but that only aggravated his wounds. He let out a stuffy groan from pain.

"Calm down. We can do nothing about this, nor can you." Han Jin forced a smile. "We'd better seek Sunier's opinion tomorrow morning."

"I have no idea either," suddenly came the voice of Sunier. "The Vampire Guards are famous for their speed and flexibility, the same as the Silver Pegasus Corps. They would never face an army in open combat, which means that the troops of Beitman have no way to deal with them."

"What would you do, if you were a Commander of Beitman?" Han Jin asked.

"Me..." She paused, and then moved on, "Have you noticed the tactic adopted by the vampires? They have broken up their whole team into smaller parts. That's why we encountered those vampires just now. If I were the commander, I would employ lots of mercenary teams, no matter how much it cost, to fight the scattered enemies with scattered mercenaries and deplete their forces, and then arrange our regular forces to launch flank attacks. The Vampire Guards will retreat if they find their losses too heavy, but... Beitman will also suffer great losses. We all know how bloodthirsty those vampires are. At least hundreds of small towns and villages will be turned into ruins."

"Are there any other ways?"

"Yes. Seek help from the dragons," Sunier replied. Her expression turned complicated. Inside her eyes was both mockery and hatred. She must have recalled the battle that had led to the overall collapse of the Silver Horse Regiment. "But watching the races of this continent slaughter each other is a great entertainment for the dragons. They don't care about the fate of Beitman at all, if you were to ask me, though they hate the creatures of darkness as much as we do."

"Well. Let's stop talking about this," Han Jin interrupted. "We'd better go to bed now. There is a long way to go tomorrow." This topic had to be stopped, for Reg had become increasingly agitated. He obviously cared about the safety of Beitman very much. If they kept talking about this, he might change his mind and leave them when he got better.

* * *

No more talking for the whole night. The next morning, Moxinke opened his eyes slowly with a yawn. The scene around him startled him.

The others had all woken up and were staring at him with a creepy expression in their eyes.

Moxinke suddenly realized that half of Sylner's body was on top of him, and his hands were holding her waist. Moxinke felt greatly embarrassed. He pushed Slyner away without hesitation.

However, he used too much force and Slyner went flying up for over a meter before she landed back on the ground with a loud thud. She laid there in an awkward posture.

Anyone who had suffered such a violent attack would wake up, no matter how sound asleep they were. Sylner opened her eyes all of a sudden, but was still unmoved. Her face was full of confusion.

Sylner had bit open her lips during the fall. When she felt her mouth was sweet and her lips were painful, she jumped up after turning over, and roared, "Who dared attack me?!"

Half of them pointed to Moxinke. Sylner stepped a pace forward and heavily pulled at Moxinke's ear. "Do you want to die?!" she angrily shouted.

Moxinke put on a long face. He was a reasonable man. If Sylner had done this without reasonable ground, he would by no means tolerate her bad temper, but now it was him who was in the wrong. He wanted to explain, but found that he had no excuse. He was afraid the others would mock him if he admitted his fault and tried to make amends with Sylner. After all, how could a man admit being defeated by a woman?

Han Jin gave a dry cough. "I think we need to buy some tents. It's inconvenient without tents at night."

"Yes, yes." Cessacioun nodded immediately.

"Don't blame Moxinke too much, Sylner. He might have had a nightmare just now and flailed around like a madman. You happened to be sleeping on top of him. He didn't mean to kick you away," Sunier explained in a soft tone.

"She is right... I didn't mean to kick you." Moxinke showed an apologetic smile.

"Coward! Are you still a little boy? Why are you still afraid of nightmare?!" Sylner scoffed at Moxinke for his failure to live up to her expectations.

Han Jin and Cessacioun looked into the eyes of each other speechlessly. The point of Sunier's words did not lie in 'nightmare', but 'you happened to be sleeping on top of him''. Apparently, Slyner had not noticed that at all. Or it might be that... she considered it nothing unusual? Rumor went that Sylner's father had passed away many years ago. Since then, she and Moxinke had always shared their life together. There must have been lots of stories during those years.

Sylner finally let go of Moxinke's ears, but then noticed that the armor before her chest was wet and covered with mud. "Eh, why is it so wet? The dew last night was so heavy!"

Hearing this, none of them could hold in their laughter anymore. Camping out in the wild was hard. It was understandable for her to drool while sleeping, but she should have realized it instead of asking a silly question like this.

Moxinke let out a sigh of helplessness. He could do nothing but lie back down on the ground and play dead.

"What are you laughing at?" Sylner asked angrily while stomping her feet.

"Nothing, nothing." Han Jin stepped out, trying to distract their attention. "Is breakfast ready,Michelle?" he asked.

"Yes. I also brought some bread with me. Breakfast today is simple; we only have these to eat," Michelle replied with a smile.

Hearing the word 'breakfast', Moxinke reluctantly sat up. As a professional who fought against enemies at a close distance, he would never let his belly empty, otherwise, his combat capacity would be greatly weakened.

The food prepared by Michelle was not very much, but it was enough for them to fill their belly. Han Jin no longer relied on food to accumulate energy. His cultivation had been greatly improved during the past winter, and his energy accumulation had reached one hundred Jia. Thus, Michelle's workload was greatly lightened.

Han Jin was still pondering something as he ate. Suddenly, he turned his head toward Reg. "You are from Beitman, so you must be very familiar with it. Where do you think we should go now?"

Little Joseph was feeding Reg the bread. He retracted his hand and stepped aside as Han Jin asked. Reg swallowed down his food in a rush. "The Ninth Town," he replied after some thinking.

"Is it safe there?"

"The Ninth Town is located at the back of the capital. It is relatively safer compared to other places. And I have a friend there. He will give us a place to stay."

"But, considering your status now... Aren't you afraid of getting him into trouble?" Han Jin asked tentatively.

The expression on Reg's face changed. A moment later, he let out a sigh. "You are right. We'd better go to the capital. Though Beitman City is nicknamed as the City of Betrayers and is mocked by people all the time, it's very well defended. It's impossible for the Vampire Guards to invade."

"We just need a quiet place. Beitman City is too big; it will bring us lots of inconveniences." Han Jin smiled. "As long as we avoid public contact with your friend, he will not be involved in your troubles."

"You mean... we are going to the Ninth Town?" Reg asked.

"Yes."

Reg was somewhat puzzled. Since Han Jin had made the decision, why would he still remind him of the trouble?

Han Jin had his own reasons for doing so. It was actually a test for Reg. One couldn't wait until the last moment to see through a person. Otherwise, it would be too late! To know a person well, one could learn a lot from minor details. Reg had immediately changed his mind when he had been reminded that his appearance might bring trouble to his friend. That was enough to prove that he was a decent and righteous man. If he had insisted on going to the Ninth Town by saying something like how powerful and faithful his friend was, Han Jin would undoubtedly consider Reg an untrustworthy person. "Pack our things up! We need to leave now," Han Jin ordered.