Everyone turned their attention towards the voice. They noticed a seventeen-year-old girl not far away from the street walking towards them. She was draped in a noble's dress with white gloves. Her short, brown hair fell upon her shoulders. From afar, she resembled a young mistress from a noble family.
Unfortunately, her dress did not accentuate her body line. It could be said that the girl's body was too big for her dress. The dress wrapped tightly around her swollen body which made her looked ridiculous. The most eye-catching part was her fat chin, which wobbled with every step she made.
Beside her was the young man from before. His forehead was covered in sweat as he whispered frantically to her. As for the other two guards, they lowered their heads helplessly as they followed behind the girl and the young man. There was a bright handprint on their faces. "So, which b*stard dared to covet my carriage?" The girl yelled as she walked towards them.
She panted as she shouted, but she did not wait for a reply and stared directly at the coachman.
"You are not allowed to take these people away! Do you hear me!? This is an order!"
"How can you do this!"
Listening to her outrageous command, Lize couldn't hold it in any longer.
"We've already rented this carriage, how can you…"
"Shut up. Who do you think you are! You dare to speak to me with that tone!?"
The oversized girl was mad and interrupted Lize. Then, she lifted her hand and pointed to the three of them.
"Just you wait! You guys dare to provoke my family, watch and see how I…"
The girl hadn't finished when Rhode suddenly lifted up his arm and snapped his fingers.
"….!!"
There was a sudden silence. The girl's mouth no longer made any sound. She widened her eyes and gripped her neck tightly. The expression on her face turned to horror when she realized she couldn't speak.
On Rhode's shoulder, the Spirit Bird stared at her and emitted a magic light.
"Young miss! Are you okay! Young miss!!"
"...!!!"
The man frantically dashed over after noticing the girl was choking. However, when he got closer, he crashed into a transparent wall and fell to the ground.
"…!! …!!"
The girl's body began to tremble. Her limbs spasmed awkwardly, her mouth began to enlarge disproportionately, and her eyes seemed as if it would pop out any moment.
"… M-Mr. Rhode?"
Lize felt somewhat uneasy. Although she did not know what exactly happened, she could guess that this should be related to Rhode.
In fact, Rhode did not do anything at all. Since the Spirit Bird was a wind elemental spirit, it could somehow manipulate the air around it. The only thing Rhode did was seal the air around her. If his opponent was an adventurer, it might be quite tricky to pull this off, but using it on an ordinary person without any power was simple.
"…!!!"
Rhode finally signaled the Spirit Bird to stop when the girl almost lost her consciousness.
"Poof!"
The next moment, the girl fell to the ground. She slumped to the ground like a broken puppet, her face was devoid of blood, and she panted non-stop. The expression on her face was of fear and confusion.
"Young miss! Young miss! Are you okay!"
The man got up quickly and rushed to her side. In his heart, he was exhilarated because he made the right choice to not argue with Rhode. If he did something like this to him, he wouldn't even know how he died!
"Cough… cough…" The girl coughed violently.
When she was finally able to catch her breath, she raised her head with difficulty and pointed at Rhode.
"You, what are you doing! Ben, Kill him! Quickly kill him! Qui…"
Unfortunately, she could not finish her sentence. Because at this time, the Spirit Bird that was resting on Rhode's shoulder locked her in its sights again. The girl's face immediately paled, and at the same time, she started rolling on the ground, seemingly unable to speak a word.
"P-Please! Please let her go, Sir! Miss Helen is young and ignorant, please forgive her…"
"I prefer my peace and tranquility."
Rhode only replied one sentence before returning to the carriage. Lize felt sorry for the young girl on the ground. After hesitating for a moment, she followed Rhode to the carriage. Only Matt revealed a gleeful expression, and he leisurely strolled to the carriage while humming.
With a worried expression, Lize glanced at the suffering girl and asked Rhode. "Mr. Rhode, is it alright to leave her like this?"
She wasn't offended by the rude girl at all. After all, it had already been a long time since she'd joined the mercenary life. Throughout her journey, she'd seen many kinds of people. Some people looked down on others, and some people found pleasure in harassing others. In the beginning, she also grew mad when she faced these people, but after becoming a veteran after many years, she learned how to control her emotions.
"I heard that they came from the Deep Stone City. Wouldn't it be troublesome if we provoked these nobles?"
"You're wrong, Miss Lize."
Matt grunted and disagreed.
"Do you know who is Mr. Rhode? Third-rate nobles like them are not even worthy in his eyes. Moreover, that vulgar woman lacked basic courtesy. We can just simply ignore them."
"Hold up."
Rhode gazed at the sky outside the window.
"We will move off at the appointed time. If they do not arrive on time, then it will have nothing to do with me. Since I have already agreed, I will not take back my words."
Matt did not say anything anymore when he heard Rhode's decision. He just merely sat by the side and grumbled to himself. It seemed that his hatred towards them was quite deep.
In a few minutes, someone opened the carriage door. It was the girl from before. Her face was still as pale as snow. She kept glancing at Rhode who was sitting on the chair with lingering fear as she constantly bit her lips. Clearly, she did not want to sit in an enclosed area with her aggressor, especially when her guard's captain, Ben sternly reminded her not to offend that man. He emphasized that Rhode was able to kill all of them without much effort. When she heard that, her heart nearly jumped out. In her eyes, Rhode was a devil, and she wanted to run far, far away as fast as possible…
But when she remembered that her father was arriving in three days, she could only yield. Since this small town had no extra carriage, it would take at least two days to reach Deep Stone City on foot. If she missed this carriage, her family would discover that she snuck out to play and she would be in deep trouble with her father. While Helen was thinking of this, she couldn't help but be reminded of her father's words, who left an overwhelming fear in her heart. Thus, she could only resign to her fate and ride the carriage.
This young miss was too spoiled. She never encountered any kind of hardships like this before. Whenever she intended to voice her thoughts, her mouth would open slightly, but she would close it immediately as she was too afraid to lose face. In the end, she gave up and sat gloomily in the carriage. It was embarrassing, but she had no choice. The expression on her face right now might even cause people to pity her if they didn't know what happened!
However, Matt secretly glanced at her and snickered in his heart. Merchants and nobles were not people of the same path. Even though both sides were cooperating, but they still secretly looked down on one another. Nobles believed that merchants were money faced while merchants thought that nobles were snobs. Now that this foolish noble appeared before him, he could finally vent his frustrations on her mentally. Of course, he would rather be vocal about his thoughts, but since Rhode was beside him, he could not mock her and drive her out of the carriage.
"Hello, My name is Lize Noir. May I ask what's your name?"
Lize thought that the atmosphere in the carriage was becoming awkward, so she attempted to break the ice. In her eyes, compared to other nobles, this fat young miss slightly better.
"… M-My name is Helen Keller." Her voice was almost as loud as a squeak.
She secretly glanced at Rhode in fear of his 'black magic.' Not once in her life was she subjected to such torture. She honestly thought that she was going to die, and not only once, but twice…
Did I hear wrong?
"Helen Keller?"
Lize was surprised for a moment when she heard this name. She paused briefly, and suddenly she recalled something important.
"… Keller? Do you belong to that Keller family who owns the Nalander Mine?"
"Yes, yes! Do you know us?"
Helen immediately became excited when she found out that someone recognized her family. She wanted to say more, but once she was aware of Rhode's presence again, she quickly lowered her voice.
"Yes. Our mercenary group is located in the Deep Stone City. We had heard about the famous Keller family before. I remembered that your family began its ascent with ore mining, and finally flourished into one of the famous big families in the Deep Stone City within mere decades."
"Of course! My Dad is amazing."
A woman's mood changes as fast as the weather. Once the topic shifted to her father, Helen immediately chatted endlessly with Lize. The constraints and tension from before disappeared completely. Although she still faced a slight apprehension due to Rhode's presence, it was still a lot better compared to before. Previously, it was as if she was trafficking illegal goods.
Of course, Rhode and Matt weren't interested in the topics they discussed. But they were still slightly surprised.
It wasn't because of the story; rather, they were surprised that Lize could actually manage to chat with Helen.
Even if chatting seemed easy and anyone could do it, in fact, conversation in itself had its own techniques. Firstly, the topic must catch the other's interest. Secondly, the other must speak out of their own accord. Thirdly, the conversation must continue to flow. These three things were not easy. Rhode had met plenty of women, even if the woman was as beautiful as a goddess, but if the moment they opened their mouth and it turns people off, in the end, having a pretty face would be useless. If both parties had different interests, there would be nothing to talk about.
In this world, there were plenty of mercenaries that could hold a conversation with nobles. But no matter what, nobles would still display their overbearing attitude. This was because most of the things that the mercenaries experienced were things that nobles never experienced before. An example would be a boss of a company speaking with his staff about a discounted product for their customers. The truth was, the employees simply do not care! It wasn't as if they would get the discounted products anyway.
The gap between them was too large. A topic that is interesting to mercenaries will not necessarily be exciting to nobles.
But now, Lize could actually converse with Helen freely about the daily life of nobles. As a mercenary, this can be said to be something new and exciting to Lize. In her life, she would never have the chance to participate in those noblewomen activities such as dancing, afternoon tea, and other things of etiquette.
They can even discuss about the 'Rose Tea'…
Rhode creased his brows. Was Lize's identity not simple?
Most of the angels from Dragon Soul Continent belong to the upper class, and half-angels wasn't too far from it.
But if she was someone of the upper class, how could she become a mercenary? Strange…
As he mused to himself, he observed Lize who was beside him. At this moment, he suddenly had the urge to find out the truth.