Roland enjoyed his drink while he observed the other customers in the tavern.
Most of them were carrying various kinds of weapons, suggesting that they were mercenaries. The weird thing Roland noticed was exactly about them.
Before they entered the tavern, Roland heard that it was noisy and lively from outside, but after the three of them entered, the noise died down.
At first, Roland thought it was because his magic robe was too intimidating. However, he soon realized that, although he might be a threat, most of the mercenaries had focused their eyes on Hawk and Lance.
Although those two were in dirty broken clothes, almost all the mercenaries were highly vigilant, and when they noticed Roland’s magic robe, there was only a sentiment of “we’d not piss off this guy” in their eyes.
The difference was apparent.
“We’d better not piss off this guy” meant that they could fight him when they had no choice.
As for their high vigilance, it was like “I’m no match for this guy. Is he going to jump at me and slap my face?”
The mercenaries were terrified of Hawk and Lance! Roland reached this conclusion. He then remembered that Hawk and Lance got the cottage after a few fights with a gang.
He also remembered what Gru told him in Gray Sand. A while back, two Golden Sons had a clash with a noble and declared that they would not stop until they killed the noble.
Watching the other two players gulp down the meat, Roland asked, “Is the food agreeable?”
Hawk swallowed and nodded. “It’s been a long time since I had such delicious meat. The body in the game and the body in reality are separate. Although I’m tired of meat in reality, the moment I enter the game, my body will keep telling my brain that it wants meat…”
Roland smiled and asked again, “What about the drink?”
“Not bad.” Hawk dedicated himself to the food.
“Did you kill the noble?”
“Have we…” Hawk suddenly raised his head. “You’re tricking me.”
Lance looked at Roland and then refocused on the food.
Roland chuckled and said, “It’s not trickery. I could find out if it was you through investigation anyway. To be honest, I’m rather impressed that you challenged a noble.”
“That noble must die.” Hawk’s eyes suddenly turned sharp.
Roland was curious. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“It’s actually not something we’re proud of.” Hawk put down his steak and heaved a sigh, before he talked about what happened.
As it turned out, Hawk and Lance had been struggling to survive a month ago. Like they said, they starved many times due to their inability to talk to other people.
Later, they managed to hunt outside of the city and keep themselves full.
However, there was not always prey in the woods. So, they hoped to catch some fish in the river.
But they found bodies of children next to the river several days in a row. The children seemed to be beggars.
There were both boys and girls. Their chests were opened, and their hearts were gone.
Roland’s face was pale. He clutched his cup subconsciously.
He’d already guessed out what happened next.
As he speculated, Hawk and Lance waited next to the river. The next morning, they caught the person who disposed of the bodies. Despite their inability to communicate, they managed to interrogate their prisoner, trying to find out why they were killing children.
“It’s because a noble believed that the blood from the hearts of children could keep him young! That’s hilarious.”
Hawk bashed the table heavily, with streaks of blood in his eyes.
His roar echoed in the tavern, and everybody stopped talking.
Roland sighed and did not talk.
“I was exasperated. So, I dragged the prisoner to the noble’s house with the child’s body. Do you know what they said?”
Roland sighed. “Probably that it’s an honor for those children to sacrifice for the noble, right?”
“Hahaha. You are truly smart.” Hawk gnashed his teeth. “The noble was not guilty at all. Instead, he captured and convicted us, claiming that we had assaulted a noble.”
That was beyond Roland’s expectations.
He poured Hawk a cup of wine and asked again, “How did you escape?”
“Did we need to?” Hawk grinned hideously. “I choked Lance in the prison first, before I killed myself by crashing into the wall. After we were resurrected in the Temple of Life, we went straight to the noble’s manor with a stick.”
Roland keenly noticed that the mercenaries nearby looked weird, as if they were horrified.
“At first, we didn’t have much battle experience, and we were surrounded and killed by them every time after we killed one or two soldiers,” said Hawk with delight. “But it’s fine. We would be reborn half an hour later, and we would break into the manor again. After we killed a couple of people, we were chopped into pieces again.”
Some mercenaries were leaving. The tavern was growing quieter and quieter.
Roland tilted his head and said in admiration, “A lot of people must’ve been watching.”
“Probably, but we didn’t pay attention to them.” Hawk continued, “Every time we died, our battle experience would increase a bit. Later, after we were revived, some masked men provided rusted weapons for us. With the equipment, we were able to kill more people before we died. At this moment, the noble got scared, because half of his private troop had been wiped out. He asked his soldiers to capture us and tie us to a tree, stating that he would forgive us as long as we served him for the rest of his life.”
Roland couldn’t help but laugh after he heard that.
“I spat in his face.” Hawk slapped the table and shouted in excitement, “The noble thought that there was nothing we could do when he tied us up! Lance and I bit our tongues, but then we discovered that we couldn’t die that way, so we struggled hard, determined to either break free or die of exhaustion!”
Shoot!
Roland couldn’t help but raise his thumb. He said in admiration, “You’re truly good.”
Hawk accepted Roland’s praise in satisfaction, and Lance seemed more or less embarrassed.
“Anyway, we went straight to the noble’s manor every time we were resurrected.” Hawk suddenly sneered. “Then, some important people came to us asking us to be rational. Some even threatened that we would be forsaken by the gods for intruding on the nobles.”
Then, Hawk suddenly stepped on the table from the chair. He drank up the wine and roared angrily, “I told them that the idiotic noble was dead for sure and nobody, not even the gods, could stop me, and that whoever stood in my way would be killed by me too!”
His aggressive roar echoed throughout the tavern!
All the mercenaries were frozen, too scared to move a muscle.
