Chapter 28: The Twin Sisters
Morning, the air was fresh.
Roskin was quickly walking with two subordinates toward the courtyard that had been arranged for Lampson and his group the day before.
"This time, I have to serve Lord Lampson and the others well. With just one word from Lampson, I might be able to get a promotion, I reckon." Roskin also felt some worry. "Too bad. Lord Lampson and the others seem too cautious. They won't even allow a single servant into that courtyard."
Lost in thought, Roskin arrived at the courtyard gate.
"What's going on? Why isn't the door closed?" Roskin frowned. He knew that Lord Lampson and the other gentlemen had very important matters to attend to. There was absolutely no reason for them to leave the door unclosed.
Stepping into the courtyard, Roskin felt it was eerily quiet.
"My lord." Roskin called out.
But his voice echoed through the courtyard, and no one responded.
"You two search down here. I'll go upstairs and check." Sensing something was wrong, Roskin immediately headed for the second floor of the two-story building. Lampson and the others had been staying in separate rooms on that floor.
Every room on the second floor was open, none of them closed.
Roskin stepped into the room where Lampson had been staying. He frowned as he looked around. The bed was messy, clearly unmade, and an outer robe was hanging by the headboard.
"Something's wrong."
Roskin immediately entered the other rooms. Sure enough, every bed was unmade, and there were bags left on the tables. If Roskin couldn't see the problem by now, he'd have to be brain-dead.
"Lord Lampson didn't even have time to put on his outer robe. The other gentlemen didn't take their bags. Did something important happen that made Lord Lampson and the others rush out?" Roskin frowned.
"My lord!" Shouts of alarm came from below.
Roskin's expression changed, and he immediately rushed to the hallway outside, then leaped over the railing and landed in the courtyard.
"What is it?" Roskin looked at his two subordinates.
"My lord, there's blood here." Both subordinates pointed to the courtyard wall.
Earlier, Sessler had ordered the undead creature to clean up all traces. Almost all evidence, including the blood on the ground, had been removed. But when the Black-Striped Cloud Leopard "Blackie" had crushed the head of that senior steward with its claws, blood and brains had splattered everywhere. The splatter range was too large, and even though the undead creature had cleaned thoroughly, some traces remained.
"There's blood. And the lords are all gone?"
Roskin looked at the eerily quiet courtyard, his heart feeling as heavy as if a boulder were pressing down on it. "There was a fight here. As for the lords, did they chase after someone?"
Roskin knew how astonishingly powerful the six lords had been yesterday. He didn't believe their opponents could have killed them.
Roskin immediately ordered the two men beside him, "You two, leave at once. Head to the provincial capital 'Basil' and report what happened here."
"Yes!"
Before Roskin's two subordinates could even reach the provincial capital "Basil," Linley and his group had already encountered the escort squad on the road.
"It's them?" Linley, Sessler, Bebe, and Blackie were hiding in the weeds beside the road.
Sessler looked at the carriage in the distance and the four knights around it, nodding. "Yes, that's them. The two girls should be inside the carriage."
"Inside the carriage?"
Linley frowned, then looked at Bebe. "Bebe, I suspect there aren't just two girls inside that carriage. There should be others guarding them. You're small, so your task is to quickly dart into the carriage and kill the others."
Sessler also nodded. "This squad has six people, all men. There should indeed be two more men inside the carriage."
"Bebe, did you hear that? Kill the two men inside the carriage." Linley smiled and patted Bebe's head.
Bebe jumped onto Linley's shoulder, stood upright, raised his little head, and squeaked confidently at Linley: "Boss, have I ever let you down?"
Linley smiled affectionately.
"Let's move." Linley sent a soul-transmission.
Bebe immediately turned serious. His small eyes fixed on the carriage in the distance, and then he quietly crept through the weeds, steadily approaching the carriage...
Inside the carriage, the twin sisters with beautiful emerald-green hair had red, swollen eyes. They were staring hatefully at the two men in front of them.
"You bastards." One of the girls, whose eyes were slightly larger, cursed under her breath.
The two men exchanged glances and smiled, completely unfazed.
"Rebecca, don't bother cursing them. Cursing these scum is a waste of energy. We believed in the Radiant Church all these years, praying to the Lord for happiness. Who would have thought they'd be so vicious?" The other girl's eyes were also filled with hatred.
"Sister." Rebecca gripped her sister's hand in pain.
Rebecca and Rina were from one of the 48 duchies of the Chaos Territory. They, like their parents, had believed in the Radiant Lord. But who would have thought that it would be people from the Radiant Church who killed their parents and abducted them?
Their parents were dead. Rebecca and Rina no longer had a home.
And now, their future was even darker, with no hope in sight.
"Father, Mother." Rebecca and Rina's hearts clenched at the thought of their parents. For years, even though the Chaos Territory was engulfed in war, their parents had always protected them.
This time...
"Rina, take your sister and run!" Their father had held onto a rank-7 warrior tightly, and in the final moments of his life, despite being only a rank-5 warrior himself, he had managed to delay the enemy for a good while.
Unfortunately, the Radiant Church's forces were too strong.
"God, save us." Rina cried out in her heart. "If you can save us and give us a chance to take revenge, I'll give anything, even my soul."
Watching their beloved parents die before their eyes, both of them wanted revenge.
But gods are high above. Why would they care about the desires of two ordinary mortals?
"Pfft." A strange sound rang out.
Rina and Rebecca looked up in surprise. They only saw a black shadow flash by. "Pfft." The sound came again, and blood splattered.
Rebecca and Rina stared blankly at the scene.
The heads of the two men who had been guarding them drooped forward. Their necks had been nearly severed, and they were dead beyond any doubt.
"Who is it?" The twin sisters were stunned for a moment, then burst into joy. They knew someone had saved them. They looked around but couldn't see who had done it.
"Squeak, squeak~" A sound came from below.
Rebecca and Rina looked down and saw a very cute little black mouse standing upright, raising its little head smugly, and using its paw to very humanly stroke its few whiskers.
"This mouse?" Rebecca and Rina were puzzled.
Bebe got annoyed. He flashed up and demonstrated by suddenly swinging his little paw. Two black afterimages streaked through the air.
"Could it be him?" Rebecca and Rina began to understand.
The sound of Bebe killing the men was too soft. Combined with the rumbling of the carriage as it traveled, the four knights outside hadn't noticed a thing.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream came from outside.
"Roar~" A terrifying beastly roar rang out.
Rebecca and Rina exchanged glances, then immediately lifted the carriage curtain. The coachman had already fallen, blood flowing onto the carriage.
When Rebecca and Rina looked at the other four knights—
They only saw—
A few eerie purple lights flash. The heads of three warriors who hadn't even had time to strike flew into the air almost simultaneously. Linley, dressed in black warrior gear and carrying the Black Heavy Sword on his back, floated down in front of the carriage.
"Hello. You've been rescued." Linley said with a smile.
Looking at the powerful young man before them, Rebecca and Rina were a bit dazed. In their eyes, those knights had been formidable. But it seemed that in front of this young man, they had no ability to resist at all.
"Rebecca, Rina, hello." An aged voice sounded. Sessler walked out from the weeds beside the road.
When Rebecca and Rina saw Sessler's gaunt, skeleton-like figure and his long white eyebrows, they immediately cheered in surprise: "Grandpa Sessler!"
They had been imprisoned together with Sessler before and knew each other.
"Grandpa Sessler, who is this lord?" Rebecca and Rina looked at Linley with curiosity. Suddenly, they noticed a large black panther approaching. Its cold, dark eyes frightened Rebecca and Rina.
The aura of a peak rank-9 magical beast was still quite terrifying.
"Don't be afraid. Blackie, don't scare them." Linley scolded.
"Woo~" Blackie made a pleading sound at Linley, then immediately lowered his head and moved aside, no longer trying to frighten the twin sisters.
"Rebecca, Rina, this is Lord Linley. His strength is no less than mine." Sessler said with a chuckle.
"Really?" Rebecca and Rina looked at Linley in surprise.
It wasn't that they didn't believe Linley, but when they had been imprisoned with Sessler, the Radiant Church had placed great importance on him. The people escorting him had included a Red Cardinal. Sessler had also boasted to them, saying he could single-handedly destroy a million-strong army, and had only been captured after being surrounded by over a dozen rank-9 experts.
"Grandpa Sessler, it was that cute little mouse who saved us." Rebecca and Rina immediately turned to look at Bebe.
Bebe was standing on the carriage at that moment, grinning at them. Then, with a flicker, he darted onto Linley's shoulder.
"You mean Bebe? He's a magical beast Linley tamed." Sessler introduced with a smile, then looked at Linley. "Linley, let me introduce you. The girl with slightly bigger eyes is the younger sister, Rebecca. The other is the older sister, Rina."
Linley nodded with a smile.
"Sessler, should we send these two girls back, or—?"
In Linley's view, these two girls were of no use to them. After all, even if their souls were pure, purity of soul didn't mean strength.
"Grandpa Sessler, we have nowhere to go." The older sister, Rina, immediately panicked and pleaded. "Grandpa Sessler, please take us with you. I know you're going to kill people from the Radiant Church. We want to avenge our parents too."
"Grandpa Sessler, please." Rebecca also begged.
Sessler had originally planned to take these two girls. He even wanted to turn the twin sisters into necromancers. But he had to get Linley's approval first.
"Linley, let's take them along. Rebecca and Rina can cook too. We can't just eat roasted meat in the valley forever, can we?" Sessler said with a smile.
Rebecca and Rina immediately chimed in: "We can do anything—washing clothes, cooking meals."
Both sisters understood that in this world, without someone to rely on, two pretty girls like them would have a tragic fate. They could see that even Sessler valued Linley's opinion, which meant Linley was another super expert. Following a super expert gave them a better chance at revenge.
Linley glanced at the two sisters. Facing their expectant gazes, he nodded. "Alright."
A glimmer of surprise and joy appeared in Rebecca and Rina's red, swollen eyes.
"Let's go. We're heading back." Linley ordered directly.
Linley's group headed back toward the valley. The twin sisters joined Linley's small team. The common thread among all four of them was their deep hatred for the Radiant Church!
Three chapters updated today. Starting tomorrow, the burst begins! Tomato will release three chapters a day for at least ten consecutive days. Of course, since it's not yet midnight, Tomato might extend the burst for even more days. Whew, it's already over a thousand.