“Before that, I’ll twist off your head.” George growled, not intending to back off one bit. Yet as he said that, his eyes flickered. It wasn’t that he was cowardly but rather he was afraid of implicating his wife.
The smallfry balked at his rebuttal and immediately shifted the topic back to the culprits, not at all willing to spend anymore time on the man.
“My words are still the same, hand over the culprits or allow us to enter the village to search for them!”
“Enter the village? Dream on!” George aimed his arrow at the smallfry as he said that, emphasizing his unyielding stance.
“Dawson promised us that as long as we paid our tribute on time, we would not get raided. Are you trying to renege on the agreement?”
“This time’s different. The boss’s wolves were killed by someone, and we need to find that person,” countered the smallfry in an angry tone. In the face of George’s uncooperative attitude, the smallfry became increasingly agitated as he shouted: “At this rate, anyone who has offended the Wolf’s Fang will be able to take sanctuary within your village! Do you take us for fools? HUH?!”
“I know that Dawson’s formidable and neither do I object to you guys searching for the killers but I won’t allow you to enter the village.” George shook his head and replied in an even tone, choosing a more reconciliatory stance in the face of the smallfry’s bullying tactics.
And yet, the smallfry ignored his goodwill and continued with his aggressive tone: “So you’re set on defying us to the end huh?!”
“If the people you’re looking for are really in the village, I’ll find them for you, but I won’t allow you to step into the village.”
George flatly rejected him once more, adamantly refusing to allow the bandits passage no matter how much he threatened them. Truth be told, George’s stubbornness was only natural. After all, they were dealing with bandits here. The village hadn’t missed a tribute payment to date so there should be no reason for these bandits to trouble the villagers. Yet, wasn’t it because they had no principles to speak of the reason they were known as bandits?
It would be ok if they kept their hands to themselves after entering…but what if…they took a liking to someone’s property or perhaps some unfortunate girl? What were they to do then? Endure it?
With the conversation going nowhere despite his best efforts, the smallfry finally had enough. Rather than bear the humiliation of his failure, he decided to double down and put the final nail in the village’s coffin.
“In the end, you just want to shelter those criminals, don’t you? From the way I see it, those criminals might even be the villagers themselves!”
“I said so already, I just came back from a hunting trip so I don’t know anything about some wolf killers or whatnot. If the culprits are truly in our village, I’ll ask them to leave but there’s no way I’m letting you all into the village!”
“You dare to defy the Wolf’s Fang Bandit Troupe?! You’re a dead man George!”
“We’ll see about that!”
Just as the two men were about to clash, the leader of the bandit contingent stopped the smallfry with a raise of hand.
“George,” he said as he peered at the burly man. “I see you as a man worthy of respect, more than anything, I know of your forthright character. If you say you don’t know, then it must really be so.”
“Yet we aren’t lying about our wolves being killed either. Not only that, the wolves who were present then told us that the culprits had visited your village. I understand that you just got back and naturally don’t know of this matter. In that case, you should ask the villagers right now. The last thing we want is to destroy our current relationship.”
“Third Chief…”
“Shut up,” snapped the crew cut sporting, muscular man known as the Third Chief, silencing the smallfry who was unwilling to cease his taunting. Knowing not to push his luck, the smallfry astutely stood aside. Clearly, this man who held a grudge against George didn’t have much influence within the troupe.
With that, a temporary agreement had been reached between the two parties. During this time he took the opportunity to question one of the young hunters who had just rushed to the scene.
“Kevin, did any outsiders visit our village yesterday?”
“Mhm.” The young hunter known as Kevin nodded his head before turning to the three of us standing at the village entrance.
“We did have three visitors last night, they were attended to by the village chief.” His long, blue hair bobbed up and down as he gave the older hunter an affirmative nod after which he began explaining the situation to him.
“They’re wandering mages who weren’t aware of the Wolf’s Fang and their wolves. The wolves had surrounded them, so they had no choice but to kill them in self-defense. When the village chief mentioned that the bandits would come and seek revenge, the three of them promised to stay behind and take responsibility for this.”
“Hmph…” George glared furiously at the smallfry, to be exact, his dissatisfaction which had reached its limits by now, was directed at the troupe as a whole.
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