I reached Gallagher Town by myself, riding a horse to the entrance. Pulling on the reins, I coaxed my horse to a stop before jumping off.
"Halt! Who are you?"
To my lack of surprise, the guards at the gates for Gallagher Town were dark-skinned hunters dressed in very little clothing. Fetishes and totems hung from necklaces and bands made of fur or hair, fangs, claws and other beast parts hanging from them.
Pushing my glasses up, I smiled.
"I'm Klein, an old friend of your tribe leader. Tell her I've come for a visit."
"Liar! Our lady has no old friends like you!"
"Kill him!"
"All liars and trespassers must die!"
"…seriously?" I tried not to roll my eyes. "I haven't even done anything. Can't you find the truth out before…?"
"We have the authority to execute anyone suspicious on sight! And you're suspicious!"
Before I could protest, they were firing arrows at me. What the bloody fuck…?
Shaking my head, I immediately deflected their arrows with an ice shield.
"How dare you defend yourself? You should just obediently accept your punishment!"
"All forces, attack!"
The two guards immediately called for reinforcements, and from out of nowhere, dozens of hunters rushed over, brandishing everything from bows and arrows to spears and machetes. More projectiles soared toward me, harmlessly bouncing off the snowflake shield that I had summoned to protect myself.
Shaking my head again, I bit down an exasperated retort and focused on attacking back. Hundreds of icicles materialized above me before raining down on the hunters, impaling them and killing many of them outright.
"How dare you fight back?! You should just let us kill you!"
Was there a problem with their brains? Were they deluded? Who the hell would just stand around and let them kill him?
Well, they were all cut from the same cloth as Yvonne. I had the feeling they weren't real people. Just caricatures who came to life only to serve as villains and cannon fodder.
If that was the case, then I shouldn't hold back from treating them as such.
Stepping forward, I crushed a section of the flimsy gate with a titanic iceberg. A few hunters and huntresses shrieked, their voices cut short when they were squashed by the massive block of ice. More continued pelting me, but even though I was barely able to defend myself, I was unable to take all of them out with my icicles.
There were too many of them.
Now that my element of surprise was gone, the hunters had responded accordingly, relying on their incredible speed and reflexes to dodge the icicles. And my iceberg spell wasn't something I could spam in such short order. I would need a bit more time and mana to cast the next one…
That was why I had brought a platoon of vampires along. Normally I would even the odds by unleashing them on the hunters, but I didn't want to show my hand yet. Eleanor and I had foreseen this and planned accordingly, and I wasn't about to ruin it with my impatience.
All I needed to do for now was survive and wait.
"Enough!"
As I expected, Yvonne wasn't going to leave this fuss unchecked. Having heard the commotion, she stepped out of her palace to find out what was going on. If the battle had ended in a few seconds, she wouldn't have bothered – as lazy as she was, she would just leave everything to her subordinates and tribesmen.
But now, almost her whole tribe had been mobilized to deal with a single intruder. Not to mention, she couldn't not have heard an entire section of her town's gate being crushed by a titanic iceberg. She might be lazy, but she wasn't stupid.
"What's going on? Who are you? How dare you cause such a commotion in my town?!"
"Oh? You don't remember me?" I dismissed my snowflake shield and pushed my glasses up to stare at her. "Also, I wasn't the one who caused the commotion. Your tribesmen were the ones who attacked me first for no reason. I told them I was here to visit you, but they refused to believe me and attacked me without confirming anything with you."
Yvonne turned extremely pale when she recognized me. She stumbled back, her hands flying to her face.
"You…! How are you here?"
"Like I said, I'm here to pay you a visit. Don't be so cold. We were in the same party before, weren't we?"
I then turned to glare at the surviving tribesmen, who were looking confused over the sudden turn of events. Raising my hand, I waved it dramatically.
"See? I was telling the truth. I told you to confirm the facts with your lady first, but no, you decided to execute me on the spot. Abusing your authority because your tribe leader happens to be the governess of the southern provinces?"
There was an uneasy silence, with the tribesmen exchanging guilty glances. But they looked to their leader, awaiting instructions.
Yvonne glared at me coldly, her eyes darting toward my legs in particular.
"You…you can't be real," she said. "I saw Herman cut off your legs. Yet…you still have them?"
"Maybe you saw wrong." I shrugged.
"No!" Yvonne snarled. "That can't be! We all saw it that day! You…you're supposed to be dead! How did you survive? How did you get your legs back? Did someone use healing magic on you? One of the priests from the other Hero parties? Did they find you and save you? But they didn't tell us anything about you…"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied flatly. "Nothing you're saying makes any sense."
"Stop pretending!" Yvonne yelled. "You remember it clearly, don't you? That's why you're here! For revenge!"
"Revenge?" I cocked my head to the side. "Revenge for what?"
"You…!" she spluttered. "You're just pretending! You know we betrayed you! That we cut of your legs and left you for dead! That's the only reason why you're here! To take revenge!"
"Ah, I guess that did happen." I pretended to think about it, a finger on my chin. I glanced at her fellow tribesmen. None of them seem perturbed at their leader's confession. If anything, they couldn't care less. Either they already knew about it or this was their culture.
Survival of the fitness. Ruthlessness. Betraying each other in order to climb to the top.
Given what they did earlier by trying to kill me for no reason, they were the types who thought that anyone could do anything they wanted as long as they had the strength.
All the more I couldn't let the whole tribe live.
"Okay. Let's say I'm here for revenge." I spread my hands out. "Then why are you stupid enough to appear before me?"
I had several icicles floating in the air, remnants of my spell that I was using to mow down the hunters and huntresses. I didn't bother firing them because I knew it was pointless. Even the ordinary tribesmen were capable of effortlessly evading my icicles. There was no way Yvonne wouldn't be able to dodge them.
Having fought beside her, I knew how skilled she was. Attacking her now wouldn't be a good idea. Not only would she just escape, she would retreat back to her palace, which was quite a fortress filled with traps and hidden pathways.
Before arriving at Gallagher Town, Eleanor and I carried out our investigations and found out that Yvonne had designed the fortress to maximize the abilities of her hunters. Trying to siege it head-on would be suicide.
No, I had to lure her out of her fortress. Out of her town. And I knew a place that would be great for that.
So for now I resisted the temptation to fire upon her.
"Because you can't beat me." Yvonne had an ugly smile. She snapped her fingers and more of her hunters emerged, all of them pointing their arrows and spears at me. Her intention was clear. She could kill me anytime she wanted.
Or so she thought, but she couldn't. I wouldn't be able to defeat all of her hunters and huntresses by myself, but I could easily escape without a single scratch. However, it was to my benefit to let her continue believing that. Nothing was easier to take advantage of than an enemy who underestimated you.
"Then why am I here if I can't beat you?"
Yvonne laughed. "Because you're stupid enough to overestimate yourself and deluded yourself into thinking you can take me and my tribe on by yourself."
…seriously. I wondered who the stupid one here really was.
"So why haven't you shot me down already?" I asked, pretending to eye the arrows cautiously. Well, I was being careful normally, but I decided to put on a show of wariness, to play up to Yvonne's arrogance.
"Now, now…you took the trouble to visit me, after all." Yvonne raised her hands. "It'll be boring if I just kill you like this. On account of our old friendship, I'll give you a chance."
I knew it. Just as I expected. She was playing right into my hands.
"What chance?" I asked anyway, still putting on the impression of uncertainty.
"Let's settle this by a hunter's trial." Yvonne paused for a moment. "Hmm, I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's like a little game. You know, sort of what we did when we were in the same party, when hunting for food. But different."
"How is it different?" I had indeed heard of it, but I couldn't let Yvonne know that.
"There's a forest a couple of miles away from my town."
Yvonne lazily pointed toward a vague direction, but I knew exactly which forest she was talking about. My entourage had passed by the forest on the way here, after all.
"I'll let you hide in the forest. An hour later, I'll move in. I'll be the hunter while you are the…"
"Prey?" I asked. Yvonne smirked.
"Come now, let's not be so…hard on yourself. Prey is such a weak word. It makes you sound a little pathetic and helpless."
"Target then. Or game."
"If you say so. Anyway, I'll try to hunt you in the forest. If you successfully avoid me for over twenty-four hours, then it's your win. You're free to go. However, if you're unable to escape within that timeframe, then…obviously, your life is forfeit. I'm hunting you, after all."
"That sounds cool and all," I said. "But why should I go along with your nonsense?"
"Because if you don't, I'll kill you right here."
"Go ahead and try it," I challenged her. The atmosphere around me froze as my mana crackled ferociously. A few of her hunters retreated further into the damaged gate. "Let's see how many of you will die before you finally take me down."
I still had to put up an act. If I agreed too easily, Yvonne might suspect something.
"You killed my tribesmen and damaged my town," Yvonne said, trying to appeal to my sense of guilt. "Of course you deserve to be punished."
"Your tribesmen attacked me first," I retorted. "I was merely responding in self-defense."
"Self-defense isn't allowed in my province," Yvonne replied with a sneer. "My tribesmen are allowed to kill whoever they want. You have no rights."
"What? That makes no sense!"
"I'm the ruler of the southern provinces. I make the rules." Yvonne scoffed. "It was your bad luck to come here."
She was utterly deluded.
"Since I'm going to die either way, I might as well take as many of you down with me instead of going along with this farce."
"How about this?" Yvonne didn't want to lose the opportunity to have her fun, just as I suspected, so she compromised a little. "If you win and survive the hunt, then I will give some of my territory to you. It's not a bad deal, right? Not only will you have a chance to survive, you actually get something out of it."
Yvonne knew me well enough to understand that I wouldn't go along with such things unless I received some sort of benefit from it. Honestly, I wasn't interested in territory and the like, but I had her right where I wanted.
So I pretended to consider for a few seconds before finally nodding.
"All right, I'll go along with that for now. Make sure you keep your word."
"Oh, trust me. I will." Yvonne said mockingly. "When have you ever known me to go back on my word?"
All the time, you bitch. All the freaking time.