The next day, at dawn.
Austin yawned and struggled to get up from the floor of Kelly's house, and the other drunk, too, opened his sleepy eyes, stretched his waist and crawled up, with a series of crackling sounds, and he slept without taking off his armor. As for Irina, the only one in the house who didn't drink and slept on the bed in the bedroom, when she heard them get up, she quickly lifted the quilt and jumped out of bed, and ran out barefoot before she had time to put on her shoes.
"Brother Austin, are you going out now?" Irene hugged Austin's arm, her eyes showing reluctance and worry, from their conversation last night, the girl already knew how much trouble her sister was in, and also knew who the enemy of the two men who promised to help her find her sister would eventually face, that was Count Hanirey, for a girl who had never even been out of Oni City, Lord Earl was undoubtedly as great as a god.
Austin saw the girl's concern, touched her head, squatted down, so that his eyes could meet the girl's pure ice blue beautiful pupils, and comforted in the gentlest tone: "Irenora, don't worry, my brother is now a powerful special mage, and he will definitely be able to defeat those bad guys and rescue Kelly." Do you remember our agreement? My brother is going to buy a big house in the future, so that you and Kelly can both move in and live happily together. "
"Of course I remember, but... But—" Irena stopped talking.
"But the enemy is the Count of Oni," Austin helped her.
"Yes," the girl whispered.
"Hehe, the brave man wants to save the princess, but he doesn't have to kill the dragon, my little Nana, wait for our good news at home. Austen smiled mysteriously, rubbed her hair, said no more, and began to pack up the things she needed to get out of town.
In fact, he didn't have much to bring, except for a few pieces of bread and bacon in his pocket, and filled his skin bag with water, and then he was gone, he had neither a sword nor armor, and of course he couldn't use these metal equipment that would interfere with spell casting.
On the other side, who was already fully armed, he looked at his simple outfit, thought about it, took off his bag, rummaged through it, and finally took out a small dagger and handed it over: "Here, take this for self-defense." "
Austin didn't give in, and took it happily, he did need some defensive weapons to deal with the battle after the spell ran out, and the dagger or short crossbow was undoubtedly the first choice for spellcasters, because they were not heavy, small in size, and did not use much metal, so they did not interfere much with spellcasting.
Needless to say, Velote tilted his head towards the door when he saw him put the dagger away close to him, realizing that it was time for him to go. Austin finally hugged Erina again, telling her not to go out as she had last time, and then followed Velot and pushed the door out...
The area of Oni City's rule encompasses a radius of more than fifty miles, with nearly a hundred villages scattered around it, such a large area, of course, Austin and Velot can't search one by one, unless they have a few hundred people, and the two of them rely more on luck.
"I think we'd better go around the nearby villages, maybe we can get some clues about the 'robbers'. After a futile morning, Austin leaned against a large tree, drank a sip and suggested to Velot.
In his opinion, such an aimless search method is not advisable, unless Lady Motella is in good interest to lift the corners of her skirt on them, otherwise it is difficult to run into those damned 'robbers' who are going to attack the girls while walking on the road like the Holy Warrior did two days ago.
Besides, with so many girls being taken away in a row, no matter how slow the residents outside the city are, they should have a certain degree of vigilance, at least until the limelight passes, and they will not be willing to let their daughters venture out. And if the 'robbers' who target the girls can't find a lone girl in the wilderness, where are they going?
Velot also took out the water bladder and drank some water, and after seriously considering Austin's proposal, he nodded and replied: "Okay, let's rest for a few minutes before we go, there is a village not far ahead, let's go there later." "
But fate can be seen by mortals, when Austen and Velot have dismissed the idea of relying solely on luck, it was not long before a rapid and dense sound of horses' hooves came from a distance, and the two people who were resting immediately stood up from the grass alertly, and looked in the direction from which the sound came.
"Cavalry?"
Because of the large puff of smoke and dust, Austen couldn't see it very clearly, but judging by the intensity of the horses' hooves, it would take almost 10 cavalrymen to have this momentum.
"Not necessarily. The paladin looked solemn, then pulled Austin up and quickly walked around to the bushes behind the uncle, carefully covering it up before continuing to say his guess: "It could also be the group of 'robbers'." "
"So much?" Austin was taken aback by his statement.
"Don't forget, they could have been regular cavalrymen. Shh
By this time, the cavalry had been getting closer and closer, and Velot quickly silenced himself, and held his breath, not daring to make another sound. It wasn't until the group roared past that he and Austin dared to come out and quietly observe them.
"Now I dare say that they are definitely the cavalry of Oni City!"
Although the men who rode by did not wear standard armor or carry the banner of the Haniri family, Austin recognized the horses they were riding. These horses are characteristic, with brown coats but a patch of white stray hair on their backs. That's because they are the offspring of a cross between a white warhorse of Yenir blood, specially introduced by Count Haniri from the northern kingdom of Herrim, and a cross between the native brown pony. They are the exclusive mounts of the Oni City cavalry.
"Yes. Austin, let's go, follow them and see what they're going to do. "
So the two of them followed the horseshoe prints on the ground, and they both had a hunch in their hearts that what the 'robbers' were going to do was probably to attack the village in front of them!
When they arrived near the village, as they expected, tragedy had happened, and the village was already full of chickens and dogs, and the cries of women and children, the screams of men after resisting and being injured, and the shouts of the 'robbers', and the whole village was completely in chaos.
"What should we do? Vilot, we can't get on?"
Austin has already counted, there are exactly 10 people on the opposite side, all of them are good cavalry with formal training, and looking at their extremely skillful appearance in fighting immediately, I am afraid that they must be the elite cavalry of one out of ten miles in Oni City, and they may even reach the level of professionals, can they deal with themselves and Velote?
"Then you don't need to say, come on!" the paladin roared, drew his sharp sword, and rushed forward without fear.
Austin didn't have time to think about it, so he hurried to keep up and concentrated, ready to release spells to support him at any time.
The 'robbers' were also very vigilant, and they found Austin and Velot almost immediately, and they also saw that they were both professionals and were not easy to deal with, but their reaction was very strange, and they actually grabbed a few young girls who had been tied up, and rode their horses from the other side without hesitation to run out of the village, instead of integrating to fight, they had a huge numerical advantage.
Although I don't understand why they retreated in a cowardly fight, how could Austin and Velot just let them go? Without being reminded by the paladin, Austin had already raised his palm, condensed a large cloud of green acid, and aimed at the back of the 'bandit' who fell behind...