Chapter 121 - The Devil Way
"s.h.i.+t!! Does he really want me to crawl?" Neola couldn"t help but make a painful expression. The crystal arrow in her leg made a horrible wound.
"Come on, Neola... You don"t want me to start killing your bandit friends." Lucien"s voice was like the devil"s call, making everyone tremble in fear.
Most bandits wanted to run away, but after seeing the speed of Lucien, Oya, and Ghilanna, no one had any hopes of escaping alive.
Noela realized she had no choice and started to crawl towards Lucien. Each of her movements caused terrible pain to run through her body.
Lucien heard every m.o.a.n of pain Neola made, and after a few seconds, he couldn"t keep doing anything.
"I"ve got you." Neola heard Lucien"s voice, and before she understood what was happening, he was carrying her over to the other bandits.
Neola appeared to be about 1.7 meters tall. She is thinner than a healthy person should be, showing that living in the forest is not very easy.
She is fully human despite looking like she had horns, but they were only adornments of her wooden mask. Like her, the other bandits also wore leather armors with various decorations like horns and fangs.
Like the other bandits, Noela has a layer of earth-based paint on her body. It looked like war paint or something to help them camouflage themselves in the forest.
Despite her layer of paint, Lucien could still see that she has brown skin, in fact, the darkest skin he had seen so far in this world.
Her skin is darker than Maggie"s light brown skin, and it made her look quite exotic. Lucien read about people with skin like that, but on the other continent, which is separated from this one by the great east sea.
Lucien figured that Neola, as well as the other bandits, were a mixture of races that did not suit society because they suffered prejudice and hara.s.sment, so they hid in the forest and became outlaws.
Of course, he could only a.s.sume things based on the knowledge he got from books, so he would have to find out more by talking to them.
He put her in front of the group, and a woman quickly went to check her wound. The bandit group was terrified and hoped Neola would find a solution for them to survive.
Neola ignored the woman trying to bandage her wound and gazed at Lucien. She had an expression like a beast looking at her attacker. There was anger, fear, anxiety in her eyes.
"What do you want with us? Are you with the Light Empire?"
Lucien smiled at Ghilanna, who made a face at Neola. "Do you think I am with those idiots while this elven beauty accompanies me?"
The racial discrimination of the Light Empire is well known, so Neola couldn"t help believing that Lucien has nothing to do with them.
Still, the power that his small group showed did not look like Bluewind"s people, and also he did not look like someone from the Alliance.
"So, what do you want?" Neola was in a lot of pain, but she still tried her best to protect her people.
Lucien looked at her and the bandits. "My goal is simple. Stop you from attacking the people of Bluewind."
Neola made a confused expression. "Did they hire you? Are you an adventurer? Mercenary?"
"It doesn"t matter who I am or who sent me. What matters is that your people have a problem with me, and now you have problems with the Light Empire"s soldier too."
She looked at the scout. The man had no reason to lie, so the problem with the Light Empire"s soldiers seems much worse than Lucien"s small group.
"So, what"s your idea? You talked about negotiating, so what do you have to offer?" Neola said, and Lucien could see the sweat running down her skin.
Lucien knew that she is scared and worried, but even so, she is maintaining a stable att.i.tude, which made him have a good impression of her.
"Isn"t your life a generous offer? I came here to stop you from attacking Bluewind, and I don"t mind killing you or letting the Light Empire do it for me."
Neola"s neutral expression became stern and then surprised when Lucien continued. "But I can also help you deal with them, thus keeping most of your people alive."
She couldn"t help but respond in a sarcastic tone. "Can you help us defeat the Light Empire"s soldiers? Where is your army?"
Lucien couldn"t blame her for not believing him. "The army is your people. I"m just going to help you balance the battle."
Neola made a face. "You must know that we are just bandits. We are not soldiers, and even with someone strong like you, we still can"t beat Light Empire"s trained soldiers."
"You don"t have to believe me, but at least take me to meet Enzo. If he decides that you guys don"t need my help, then you just try killing me." Lucien smiled at her.
Neola couldn"t help but suspect that something was wrong. Lucien had complete control over her small group, but even though he knew who she is, he is still willing to follow her to her people and lost any advantage he has.
Even if Lucien and his group are powerful, as soon as they reached the fortress, the numerical advantage of her people would be very significant, so Lucien could not keep acting with such arrogance.
"Okay, I"ll take you to meet Enzo, but you can"t kill my people anymore." Neola didn"t think Lucien would attack them as long as he wants to "negotiate."
But when dealing with the devil, he is always in control. Lucien started walking towards her.
Neola instinctively started to crawl backward. Her friend tried to help her to get up while the entire group stepped back too.
"No, no." Lucien wagged his finger in disagreement, and Ghilanna prepared an arrow, making it clear what would happen to the bandits if they didn"t stop.
"It"s okay." Neola gave the order before things got out of hand, and her group stopped. Lucien motioned to the woman, and she moved away from Neola.
Lucien crouched in front of Neola and held her chin. "I like your personality, but don"t force my hand. My patience has limits."
She tried to look away, but Lucien kept his grip on her chin, making her keep looking at him.
"As long as I want to negotiate, you only benefit. When I don"t want to negotiate anymore, you die, by my hands or others."
Lucien could see that Neola was in pain because of the wound on her leg, so he took off her mask, revealing a pretty and young face.
"Y-you… What are you doing???" Being so close to Lucien"s handsome face and under his complete control, Neola couldn"t help but become a frightened little bunny.
"I will heal your leg. Be quiet and just relax." Lucien spoke in a calm tone, but Neola became more and more shocked as she saw his mouth approaching hers.
Lucien held her chin and kissed her little mouth. Although Neola is not ugly, she was all "dirty" with the war paint and also stank a lot.
"d.a.m.n!! This sucks." Lucien can"t help but regret kissing Neola.
It was definitely the worst kiss he had so far and very different from Angela"s sweet and fragrant mouth, which he had been kissing a while ago.
Still, Lucien wasn"t doing it for pleasure. Soon his life mana cleaned the impurities from Neola"s mouth, and the kiss becomes not so disgusting.
Neola was feeling the same thing that any woman would feel when kissing Lucien. Incredible pleasure.
He focused his life mana and demonic energy on healing her leg, and as a side effect, she felt better and better.
Of course, it was a physical pleasure, and as her mind was in chaos with feelings like fear, anger, anxiety, Neola couldn"t really enjoy the wonderful moment.
Lucien pulled the arrow from her leg while holding her chin to keep her from biting him.
Then when she tried to scream, he moved his tongue madly inside her mouth, making the pleasure take the pain away from her…
"Huh?" Then the good feeling of his tongue inside her mouth suddenly ended, leaving Neola confused.
Lucien moved away from her, and Neola quickly looked at her leg. What she saw was her wound closing with extraordinary speed.
"What?? How??? Are you a healer? What kind of healer heals with kisses?!" Neola was impressed with her wound healing and questioned Lucien.
He smiled at her. "Why be my enemy when you can be my ally? Also, how many years ago was your last bath? You stink like a dirty animal."
"IDIOT!! DEVIL!!!" Neola cannot help but be enraged. Not only Lucien stole her first kiss, but also he still insulted her.
Lucien started to laugh, making Neola regret being easily provoked by him. He held his hand out to her. "Come on, get up, or you"ll just stink more."
Neola took Lucien"s hand and stood up while trying to explain her smell. "The beasts in this forest are dangerous, so we have to hide our scent."
"Does that also explain the taste of s.h.i.+t in your mouth?" Lucien provoked once again, causing Neola to lose control.
"YOUUU!!!" She was still holding one of his hands and used the other hand to punch him on the chest.
"Aaah!?" Neola could only make a confused m.o.a.n when her fist hit Lucien"s chest. He looked hard as a rock.
"OH?!" All the bandits exclaimed when they saw Neola punching Lucien. They would have no problem with her punching anyone other than the devil himself.
Some of the bandits tried to run, but their legs faltered. Others had their vision darkened by fear while some had already pa.s.sed out.
Lucien cut off a person"s head just for threatening him, so h.e.l.l would fall on them after Neola punched him.
Neola"s eyes widened when she realized what she had done, and she couldn"t help but think. "What did I do??!?! s.h.i.+t! s.h.i.+t!! s.h.i.+t!!!"
She looked at Lucien, expecting to see an expression of anger, but all she saw was his fantastic seductive smile.
"I think we"ll get along, Neola. In the end, you will be a good servant... But you will have to take bathe! Many bathes!!"
"..." Neola didn"t know what to say.
"..." Neither did a few of the bandits who were still awake.
"..." L.u.s.t and Ghilanna could only roll their eyes.
Lucien was not teasing Neola just for fun. He knew she is one of the bandit"s leaders, according to the interrogation of the bandits caught by Ron"s spies.
His intention in dealing with the bandits is not only to eliminate a problem but also to get the vanguard he needed to retake Portgreen"s crown.
Which soldiers were better to use as disposable troops in a battle? Bluewind"s few loyal royal guards or forest bandits? That was the question Lucien asked himself, and the answer was obvious.
But to get the bandits to follow him and accept the black mark, Lucien needed the loyalty of their leaders.
Lucien still didn"t know how he would deal with Enzo, the male leader, but with Neola, the situation seemed quite simple. The Lucien way.
And the flushed face she is making now is proof that the Lucien way is infallible. "Are we going to the fortress, or do you need more healing?"
That teasing smile from Lucien was starting to drive Neola crazy. She wanted to hit him, bite him, kiss him…
"No... Just… Let"s go, you... You... YOU, IDIOT!!!" Neola turned and started to help her companions to get up to go to the fortress.
L.u.s.t was already used to Lucien"s peculiar way of handling situations, but Ghilanna was still surprised.
"Is that how he negotiates? Does he just push his tongue in women"s mouth, and have them going crazy?"
"It is not just about their bodies; he also enters their minds, leaving them confused by his limitless teasings." L.u.s.t couldn"t help but smile.
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