Never Thought You'd Be This Kind Of Hero! Chapter 32

Between the n.o.bles

  

The Beastmen and humans—rather, the Dark Swamp Beastmen and the Wilderness City's humans—had some bad blood between them. Neither side liked the other very much. In normal times, they looked down on each other. However, whenever something happened, they had to help each other as the two were bound together; when one falls, the other falls, when one rises, the other rises.

In particular, the current city lord of the Wilderness City was a relatively peaceful person. Normally he would just quietly build up his ma.s.sive wealth without promoting any sort of racial discrimination. To the surrounding beastmen, this was good news. They did not wish for a situation to occur where when adult beastmen go out to hunt, only to find that their children have all been trafficked away when they come back. Furthermore, as long as the Dark Swamp existed, humans would need to trade with the beastmen. This was a true long-term business.

As for the Wilderness City's Lord… his reasons were quite similar.

The Snow Blade Kingdom greatly valued Wilderness City. Although the city was no longer a part of the kingdom, it still paid an annual tribute to the Snow Blade Kingdom. Even now, with frequent wars, a portion of the Snow Blade Kingdom's herbs comes from Wilderness City. In these times, herbs were the soldier's lifelines! Even the lowest grade blood nouris.h.i.+ng gra.s.s was now a rare commodity!

Within the Snow Blade Kingdom were a few people who wanted to a.s.similate Wilderness City back into the kingdom. However, as Wilderness City's Lord was doing a great job, they couldn't find a reason—Wilderness City's Lord also knew that some of the Snow Blade Kingdom's upper echelon harbored sinister motives within their hearts. Naturally, the City Lord was more cautious because of this, and his reputation in the Wilderness City's surroundings was improving.

At least, it did until… the beastman invasion of Wilderness City.

Although the beastman bandits were called a bandit gang, they were not a unified group. The term simply referred any of the beastman powers that gathered and wandered around the cities of other sentient races. Unlike the beastman tribes living around the Dark Swamp, these beastmen had no place to call home. They weren't much different from ordinary mounted bandits, other than having different work times and conduct. Other could also easily take advantage of them.

These beastmen were unafraid of death and possessed a powerful physique.

Although it was currently an era where the various races were intermingling and a semblance of peace existed between the various races, other than the doomed demon race…things were obviously not as they seemed. _(:зゝ∠)_ 

There was mutual aggression between races and spies have become sensitive topics of discussion. Although there was internal strife within the races, they needed to display a united front during critical moments, and thus saw spies as the greatest humiliation.

Early in the morning, Xu Jun drank a bowl of goat milk and gnawed on a hard piece of bread. He missed the aunt who sold steamed buns downstairs in his original home.

He still remembered that aunt's stuffed buns which contained too much dough and filling; those were truly bold and uninhibited buns. One bun, filled with bean thread noodles and meat, cost only three yuan. Back then, Xu Jun had disdained such unrefined, large stuffed buns, but he missed them very much now.

Think about how amazing it had been, being able to head out and buy two large stuffed buns after waking up, and then purchasing a bowl of jellied bean curd with an extra helping of mustard stems and pepper.

Looking at esteemed City Lord of Wilderness City he was, well, eating the same thing, goat milk with bread.  Atop his bread was even a sprinkling of sugar; he was a member of the disgraceful Sweet Party1.

Wilderness City was vastly different from other cities. It possessed a bold and simple atmosphere; even the City Lord's mansion was unusual. In the past two years, Xu Jun had nearly traversed across the entire game world and had been to all of major cities. Ordinarily, city lords would construct their mansion in the wealthy city center. The building would be exquisite and solemn, its s.p.a.ce constrained.

The Wilderness City Lord's Estate was different from the others. Occupying a ma.s.sive area, the mansion treated land as if it were free. The various buildings on the property appeared rough in construction and smelled of gravel. In the morning, the City Lord's wife would walk her dog near the front gate. Within the yard was also a large flock of geese. When Xu Jun had first walked past the yard and saw the great number of geese it held, he almost p.i.s.sed himself. He remembered the fear and humiliation of how, during a trip to the countryside in his childhood, he had been chased around by a mangy dog and a goose. _(:зゝ∠)_

However, raising geese within his yard… the Wilderness City's Lord truly did have a novel taste.

Surprisingly, the Sand Leopard beastmen resonated with this unique style. Kanaman ran up and examined the large white goose which headed the flock and cried out, "Oh my lord, this is a good goose! Very healthy! –I've met the Geese beastmen before, City Lord, and the geese here are exactly like the ones they had raised!"

Wilderness City's Lord — full name, Dika Maines — heartily laughed. "That's right! I bought these from the Geese beastmen, a gaggle of battle geese2!"

Xu Jun warily eyed the dog's leash before looking towards the gaggle of geese that were staring straight at him. He quickly bowed and walked forward, his heart pounding. Geese are creatures that one must never make direct eye contact with. Just a single meeting of eyes would lead to conflict.

Luckily, he managed to safely follow the large crowd from the bedroom to the dining room without being attacked by the battle geese. However, that Kanaman fellow did let out a few malicious guffaws, an abominable move on his part. Xu Jun thought, you little punk, if you had your b.u.t.t whooped by geese, then you too would know the meaning of  true pain. He cursed in his heart, not expecting that "Prince Ryan" was also unable to understand him and would even ask, "It's just a group of geese, yet you're afraid of them?"

Xu Jun snorted, "What do you know… an adult man can't even match up to half of a goose's fighting power…"

The voice within his heart concernedly asked him, "…Are you insane?”

Horse s.h.i.+t! This world is too cold! No one here understands the psychological shadow a gaggle of geese can cast on a small child, Xu Jun lamented.

Fortunately, there was an actual little angel by the name of Daeniste who cared for Xu Jun. After seeing the geese, Daeniste's mood wasn't very good either. he remembered how, back when he was in the orphanage, a flock of geese had pa.s.sed by the front gates. He and Xu Jun, not knowing the difference between life and death, charged in to scare them… lament, men and women, for this story was bound for tragedy.

When Xu Jun and his entourage arrived in the backyard, they discovered that the Wilderness City's Lord had not only raised a gaggle of geese on his property, but that he was also raising two cows, which he often milked. He was quite the self-sufficient person. He had even prepared plans for raising two boxes of honey bees in the near future.

This strange style of living really showed just how much land the Wilderness City had to spare.

City Lord Dika wore a heavy expression throughout the entire meal. After breakfast, he immediately began discussing about his current plight to Xu Jun and the other humans, as well as the beastmen of the Sand Leopard Tribe. "This time's beastman invasion was likely orchestrated by the Kabel family before the Snow Blade Kingdom's n.o.bles united. They have been trying their best to have me replaced."

Xu Jun gave a quick glance at the geese outside. "If someone really did replace you, it would be their misfortune…"

City Lord Dika, "…."

The Sand Leopard Tribe's Kanaman also went straight to the point, "True, I can't even eat meat in the morning here. Who would want this kind of life?"

City Lord Dika flipped a table in his heart and thought, are you guys even f.u.c.king interested in what I have to say!

Why do young people not understand the joys of living a frugal, country life?!

And, wanting to eat meat–eating so much meat in the morning, do you want constipation!

The City Lord rubbed his temple, and continued to discuss the chaotic relations.h.i.+p between the n.o.bles.

There were two kinds of voices in Snow Blade Kingdom's high society. One called for the retrieval of the Wilderness City at any cost–as for the Wilderness City's Lord, they would just give him a generous amount of riches as a severance pay. The second voice felt that the current situation was already too chaotic. Such a move, they argued, could easily lead to further turmoil. Although Wilderness City was small, many of the Snow Blade Kingdom's border cities had  been bought out by their respective city lords in recent times. Therefore, if fighting were to begin, Wilderness City's Lord would not be alone. They had allowed these cities to pay for their independence in the past, and they had also been receiving tribute from these cities for the past few years. Now that these cities had developed, the kingdom wanted to take them back? How would they possibly allow the Snow Blade Kingdom to occupy them; it would be strange if they didn't rebel.

"They were probably getting impatient," the City Lord snorted, "that pack of greedy wolves, all eying the property of Yours Truly. First they find a reason to take most of my forces away, and then they lured beastmen bandits into attacking the city, and hoping for Yours Truly's death…after Wilderness City is breached, they would then play the role of a savior and come to the rescue and subsequently annexing Wilderness City… they really are the disgrace of humanity!" Finis.h.i.+ng his part, City Lord Dika was filled with indignation and slammed his hands onto the table.

It was no wonder why the City Lord was so furious. Originally, internal strife between humans could still be worked out, however, bringing foreign races into the conflict made it impossible. Wasn't that a case of inviting a wolf into your home? Wilderness City did not belong to the Snow Blade Kingdom, but are the civilians of the Wilderness City not people? How many people would the bandits have killed if they really had breached the city? Did those heavy-jowled, pot-bellied n.o.bles even have a trace of a conscience?!

Humanity's traitors! Saboteurs! A group of idiots who can only see the immediate benefits!

Thinking of this, City Lord Dika once again nodded his thanks towards Xu Jun and the others. If it hadn't been for them, Wilderness City would have already been in upheaval.

Xu Jun drew the corners of his mouth into a smile. "City Lord, there's no need for you to thank me so much. However much I have done for you, you can return through remunerations."

City Lord Dika shook his head, "How could such a great debt of grat.i.tude be paid back through monetary means."

Xu Jun suddenly became enlightened, it seemed like he would be getting a lot of rewards this time. ~(≧▽≦)/~ Awesome!

Suddenly, Xu Jun remembered something and asked the City Lord, "You said that human n.o.bles had colluded with the beastman bandits, and that they deliberately abducted the Sand Leopard Tribe's Ti Na, but do you have any evidence to support this?"

With great pain, the City Lord shook his head.

He didn't have any evidence, but has still been making claims that the Ester family had a relation with the Kabel family, and that they perhaps had a hand in the current events. As for why the Kabel family had already escaped, and why the Ester family had not managed to escape, this was because the City Lord had seen that the situation didn't look right, and had them "remain" behind. At that time, he had faced a lot of pressure for this decision, as although the Ester family wasn't as powerful as the Kabel family, marital ties existed between the two. The two families had always been villains that colluded with each other.

If the City Lord couldn't find an excuse to bring them down permanently this time, then it is he who would be doomed in the future.

However, the Ester family had always been conniving and crafty. Where would should he be searching to find their faults?

City Lord Dika saw that young soldier, who had already helped him plenty, split his mouth into smile. With a good-natured laugh, tossed over what appeared to be a high end…recording crystal3?!

The City Lord's hands shook. "Th-th-this…re-recording crystal, th-th-this…"

One recording crystal cost at least tens of thousands of gold coins! An item that can only be chanced upon and not sought! It was something that only a master alchemist could create!

Fu-furthermore, this recording crystal clearly shone with a golden light, it was clearly a high-grade crystal! It's rumored that a single high-grade recording crystal is worth at least a hundred thousand gold coins!

This young warrior actually tossed something like this over to him casually! My G.o.d!

The City Lord could only feel as if he were holding half a year's worth of tax within his hands–yes! Even if it was Wilderness City, a year's worth of tax was only slightly more than two hundred thousand gold coins! AHHHHH!

Xu Jun, however, simply puzzledly looked at City Lord Dika. "Are you alright? h.e.l.lo? Are you perhaps allergic to recording crystals?"

–In this world, some people were indeed allergic to alchemical products. After all, alchemical products did employ magic and not everyone was able to use use them.

Xu Jun was getting anxious, so he rushed over, grabbed City Lord Dika by the shoulders and began to shake him. "Are you ok?! You haven't paid me my compensation yet! So don't die on me!"

City Lord Dika looked towards the recording crystal that had slipped from his grasp, and was falling towards the floor. If that crystal broke, he couldn't afford to replace it! –The poor City Lord forgot how to breathe and died.

"Daeniste, quickly come and save him! –I'm still hoping that the City Lord will be willing to buy the video evidence!"

The author has something to say:

Xu Jun's ability to make money and spend money is one to one *thumbs up*

Demon King Zeze will soon discover just how rich this bank he latched onto really is, even though this bank is still thinking about marrying some girl in White River Town (…)

Translator's Niche:

[1]In reference to this giant internet war that happened where people were debating whether or not jellied bean curd should be salty/spicy or sweet. Those who supported the sweet side were known as the Sweet Party, and Salt Party. There was also a third party that took a neutral stance and promoted negotiation between the two sides. Clearly, we know what side the author is on, lol.⏎

[2]I don't know why, but this description I gave amuses me so much. I imagine the City Lord saying this with an excited expression and I just…XD⏎

[3]Remember this thing? Probably not since I take so much time to upload chapters. Anyways, a little throwback to chapter 13, when Xu Jun took a recording of the traffickers implicating one of the families.⏎