Chapter 130 - Great Dinner (1/2)
Lucien"s group continued their journey in a strange mood. While Angela, Marie, and Lena thought about many things, Mia and Rose made cute m.o.a.ns under Lucien"s caresses.
After several hours, moving at a slow pace so that the bandits could keep up while walking, the group arrived on the outskirts of the city.
Angela led the group to a large farm, then left the male bandits there under the supervision of some of Ron"s spies who were always around to serve Lucien.
Lucien gave gold to the owner of the farm and told him to hire more servants to treat the group well. The man was a little afraid, but the group was no longer a bandit, but Lucien"s personal army.
He also left Enzo there and sent someone to call a healer to help him. Although Enzo"s wounds were not serious, Lucien wanted to show that they would all be treated well or beaten if they misbehaved.
Then they went to another large farm near the city. The group now only has women and children, so Lucien decided to say a few words to them.
He stood in front of the group and looked at them with a friendly expression. "You have two options:"
"First, you stay here, and you will be treated well. As long as you work hard and behave, you will receive food, money, and basic care, such as education and healing."
"Second, you can become my special troop, trained by me and my women to fight by my side. You will have more money and power than you can imagine, but you will also always be at risk of dying in battle."
"You can also stay here now, and if at any point you decide to follow me, I will still accept you and start training you. But those who follow me now will receive rewards sooner."
The group of women and children looked at Lucien with thoughtful expressions. Some had hopeful looks, remembering of how Ghilanna and L.u.s.t fought alongside him.
The older people in the group, as well as children and their mothers, wanted peace, and staying on the farm working seemed like a great option. They were silently waiting for the others to decide.
The majority of the group consists of single women between eighteen and thirty years. They have dreams of having a better life or live adventures. The idea of following a handsome and powerful leader like Lucien seemed incredible.
While most of the group were considering accepting to follow him, a girl who looked to be about ten approached him.
"Sir, will I be beautiful and strong like the woman in black armor?" Her cute childlike voice made Lucien smile.
A woman tried to approach the girl while scolding her. Her mother was scared that the girl would upset Lucien.
But Lucien did not have a negative reaction; on the contrary, he laughed and picked the girl up. "What"s your name, little princess?"
"Aniya, my name is Aniya, sir." The little girl hugged Lucien"s neck and spoke with a bright smile on her face.
Lucien found her extremely cute and realized that he probably liked children and wished he could have some of his own. "Little Aniya, you are too young to follow me now."
"But I will ask one of my wives to train you, and when you are an a.d.u.l.t, you will be beautiful, strong, and also have a place beside me. Is that okay?"
Aniya"s eyes sparkled as she imagined living great adventures with Lucien. "Do you promise you won"t leave me behind?"
Lucien smiled and patted her head. "Of course not. I will keep your place, but now you have to train, study, and also have fun. When you are an a.d.u.l.t, you will join us."
Aniya kissed Lucien on the cheek while smiling cutely. "So, okay, I"ll behave now and join you later."
Lucien put Aniya on the ground, and she ran to her mother while laughing happily. He sent Astrid a mental message asking her to give the girl some basic training.
It was not right how his father trained him and his sisters, but some moderate training in childhood would be very beneficial for the girl.
Lucien then looked at the group again. "You don"t have to decide it right now and you can stay here until you are sure of what you want."
"Still, I suggest that if you have any desire to become stronger and receive more rewards, follow me now to the next farm as I will soon start the training."
Most women stepped forward, making it clear that they wanted to follow him. Lucien smiled and headed for the other farm with the group.
Neola was happy that Lucien is giving her people options. She has afraid he would force them to his will as a devil, but he didn"t look so diabolical when he treats her people so nicely.
Alden, who was still following Lucien, was increasingly sure that the best thing that happened to his people is to follow Lucien, as it would only benefit them.
Then the group left for the next farm. Lucien also left money with the farm owner and orders for the women to behave until he gave new orders.
Neola thought she would stay with the other women in that group, but before entering the farm, Lucien called her.
"You and Alden are going with me to the castle. I will introduce you to others, and you will pa.s.s my orders directly to your people."
Alden understood what Neola"s role is as a leader of female members of the group, but he is not the leader of the male ones. "Sir, I am very honored with your trust in me, but Enzo should be more useful to you for leading our people."
Lucien really likes Alden"s honest personality. "I"m the only one in charge now. Still, I understand that having trusted people to pa.s.s my orders to others is helpful."
"Enzo doesn"t seem to want to cooperate with me, but you understand what is good for your people, and you also get along with him. Then you will stand beside me and pa.s.s my orders to the others."
Alden understood it was for the best. But he still feared that Enzo would start to make trouble. "What if Enzo doesn"t want to hear me or follow your orders?"
Lucien looked at Alden with a solemn expression. "You are no longer bandits, but my soldiers. Anyone who does not obey my orders or causes problems will have their head removed."
Neola and Alden understood that Lucien is nice to them, but they will have to behave and follow his orders. Lucien is still the devil who would kill them quickly if they cause problems.
Then the group headed for the castle. They were received in the city with applause and praise from the people.
The city is not very big, so everyone easily knew what they were doing. Everyone knew that Queen Angela had created powerful magical creatures to protect the Kingdom.
Rumors about Lucien dealing with the forest bandits also quickly have spread thought the city. Although people do not know much details, they understood that the small villages and farms in the western area would not be attacked as before.
Although Lucien is not a figure who appears much in public, everyone knows that he is Angela"s ally. The people also know that he is the creator of the golem plan, and everyone admires him.
Lucien tried his best to keep a low profile. Even though he was always hooded, the fact that he had a big white tigress by his side linked him to the rumors about the Handsome Devil in Portgreen.
Of course, they couldn"t hide forever. So Lucien would continue trying to keep a low profile, but he would also deal with the problems when they appear.
Currently, the fact that no one knew about Ca.s.sidy being alive, that he captured Olivia and Scarlett keeps them safe from bigger problems.
They arrived at the castle, and Lucien went up to his room with the girls to bathe. He sent Alden and Neola to bathe in the servants" area and also sent someone call for Ron.
The bath with all the girls always took a while. All the girls wanted to wash Lucien, but with their mouths, and ended up staining the water with their love juices.
Then they changed the water and started the bath, just to get the water dirty again. After two hours, it was already night when they went down to the hall.
Aria and Ella liked to cook, so they helped the servants to make dinner while the others gathered in the dining room to waiting for the food while talking.
Lucien, as usual, sat at the head of the table, while Ca.s.sidy sat to one side of him. L.u.s.t was supposed to sit on the other side, but she made sure to sit on his lap.
So the chair on the other side of Lucien was a place disputed by all the girls, but this time Angela sat there, and no one wanted to dispute her claim to the chair.
Angela looked at Ca.s.sidy and saw her smiling, so Angela smiled too.
While they talked about the day, Neola and Alden arrived. They took so long take a bath to make sure they are very clean to meet Lucien.
Lucien stood up and approached them. "Alden, I want to introduce you to Ron when he arrives. Sit down to dine with us."
Alden was very happy with the confidence that Lucien was showing him. Of course, he knew that Lucien would kill him in less than a second if he did anything wrong.
Still, Lucien was taking him into his castle and inviting him to dinner with his family, which is an honor for Alden.
He wanted to be worthy of Lucien"s trust and would do anything to not offend him, starting by not gazing at the beautiful women who are probably all his wives.
Alden bowed to Lucien and sat down at the table. He didn"t know how to act, but soon Jeanne started talking to him, asking about the battle against the Light Empire army.
Lucien gazed at Neola, and she looked very different now. Kara, the maid, got some clean clothes for her as well as for Alden.
Neola has long brown hair, green eyes, and beautiful brown skin. She is undoubtedly an exotic beauty.
She looked a little nervous and didn"t know how to act. She was still angry at Lucien, but the fact that he is treating her and her people so well made him seem less and less unlikable.
Lucien said nothing and just looked at her, making her feel uncomfortable. He told her many times that she stank, and now that she is clean, she thought it would be nice to receive some compliments from him.
He leaned in bringing his face closer to hers, and when she started to have various chaotic thoughts, he brought his mouth close to her ear.
Then he took a deep breath. "Oh… You smell really good now…"
Neola should certainly be happy that he didn"t say she stank. But in fact, she was more nervous about his compliment.
"I... I just... You... It... I don"t…" She was embarra.s.sed and didn"t know how to act. Being so close to Lucien reminded her of the kiss they had.
Lucien smiled, seeing her blush. He patted her on the head. "Don"t worry. It"s not like I"m going to eat you."
"YET!" Several female voices, looking upset, said together.
##################
Read advanced chapters (currently up to 20) and have a better release rate on my p!atreon: pa treon.com/lamenthief