Chapter 16: The Capture of the Ghoul

“Ugh, what a setup! These fully-equipped soldiers are clearly here to capture me,” I thought, eyeing the cavalry in heavy armor riding their mighty steeds, internally rolling my eyes.

Dante might look like a ridiculously strong idiot on the surface, but he’s actually quite the strategist. He purposely made me drain my magic and exhaust myself just to take advantage of the firelight I emitted to show his subordinates where he was.

Now in this situation, the hunters surely wouldn’t come to my aid. The only one on my side, Yulia, was also out of magic like me. Although she didn’t seem as tired, she wouldn’t stir up any trouble either. No, the moment I was surrounded, my escape was pretty much doomed.

What should I do? With such an exaggerated display, they surely don’t plan to execute me on the spot, do they?

“Hey, Vice Commander Feng, what are you doing here? Doesn’t the fortress have someone in charge now?”

But seeing Dante’s silly question made me think I had overestimated him. He really is just a dumbass, huh?

“My subordinate assessed that the situation here was more urgent, so upon receiving your message, I immediately gathered the elite troops,” Vice Commander Feng replied.

“Urgent, my foot! Look, we’re about to head back,” Dante said, casually picking me up off the ground as if I were a rag doll.

“But according to your communication, wasn’t there a fourth-class ghoul named Alice that was discovered?”

“Ah, are you talking about her?” Dante hoisted me toward the cavalry leader like I was a toy.

“All units, remain alert!” Vice Commander Feng shouted as he nervously raised his lance upon seeing me.

The cavalry, clad in shining armor, also readied their weapons, aiming lances and bows at me.

However, Dante completely ignored his subordinates’ actions, signaling for them to lower their weapons while appearing deep in thought.

“Ah, I remember now! Wasn’t the special ghoul management regulation revised a year or two ago?” Dante suddenly seemed to have an epiphany, staring at me and then at the cavalry, foolishly asking.

Yet, the room fell silent—no one answered him.

Dante sighed and said, “Anyway, I’ll take responsibility for escorting this fourth-class ghoul back to the fortress dungeon. Vice Commander Feng, get off the damn horse!”

“Yes, Sir!” Vice Commander Feng immediately dismounted as instructed.

Then Dante finally seemed to figure out the situation: the army had come into the forest to capture me. He took command from his subordinate and began issuing orders.

Dante decided to leave Vice Commander Feng behind, along with his old friend Maern and their hunter allies, to walk back to the fortress. He also assigned a few cavalry to stay behind to help the hunters carry back the bodies of the Red Ghouls and Black Ghouls for further research on this new subspecies.

Then he mounted Vice Commander Feng’s horse and placed me in front of him, indicating that he would lead the cavalry in personally escorting me back.

“Oh, Yulia, come on up, there’s room for you next to Alice,” Dante said, commanding Vice Commander Feng to lift the weak Yulia onto the horse.

“But, having Lady Yulia so close to such a dangerous ghoul…” Vice Commander Feng protested immediately.

“No worries!” Yulia said, climbing up herself and settling between me and Dante as Vice Commander Feng hesitated.

Vice Commander Feng, the other soldiers, and the hunters looked at Yulia in complete disbelief, but she ignored them entirely, hugging me tightly. Once she got steady on the horse, she turned to Dante and said, “Alright, we can head back now.”

“Ah, Vice Commander Feng, you can just catch up with Maern, we’re leaving!”

And so, at Dante’s command, the cavalry pivoted their steeds, leaving Vice Commander Feng in his heavy armor beside the hunters and preparing to gallop back to the fortress.

Dante leaving his subordinate behind must mean he wants Feng to lead the others back with Maern and the hunters, right? Or perhaps he just wants to punish Vice Commander Feng for misunderstanding his intentions and recklessly leading troops into the forest by making him march through the rugged terrain in all that heavy armor.

In the end, I can’t tell if he genuinely wished for the army to come into the forest or not.

Now, faced with Dante’s unexpected yet reasonable handling of the situation, I couldn’t even tell if he was a once-in-a-lifetime genius or just a completely lazy fool.

“Dante, you didn’t possibly plan all of this, did you?” I asked, looking up at him.

But it seemed Dante couldn’t hear my words while riding; his dumb expression seemed to suggest that he was finally going to enjoy a drink and a good sleep back in the warm fortress.

“How could he? He’s just a simple, lazy idiot,” Yulia confidently answered while hugging me.

——————————————————————————–

Author: The exams are over, wishing all students the scores they desire!