Chapter 125: Hero
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Excuse me, who are you looking for?" A few mercenaries dressed as swordsmen stopped Anfey. Two mages nervously stared at Anfey behind the mercenaries. The air seemed tensed.
"I am here for Hotchbini. Could you let her know I am here?" Anfey asked, smiling.
"I am sorry. Ms. Hotchbini, is not in White Mountain City right now. Can you come by some other time?" a swordsman answered politely.
"Sorry." Anfey hesitated for a second. "Can you take a message for me? I am the commander of Alibaba mercenary group. Something happened on my way to White Mountain City, and I saved a group of female slaves. I personally have so much sympathy towards them. I hope I can find them a safe place."
Those swordsmen looked at each other and felt Anfey was ridiculous. If this had happened in previous times, they would immediately have accepted this group of female slaves and sold them for money after Anfey left. They would make a profit by doing so. However, this was not a good time, since Glory mercenary group had suffered a big loss. Anthony still had not shown up. After receiving the order to withdraw, Tiger of Tawau mercenaries had been worried all day long. They did not dare to sleep, not to mention accepting female slaves.
"I am sorry. We cannot help you," a swordsman said slowly.
"I have found a place for the female slaves. Only there are a few elves, and I do not know where I can send them to. I heard Ms. Hotchbini had saved a lot of elves. I am bringing them here in hopes that Ms. Hotchbini could take care of them." Anfey waved.
Christian lifted up the wagon curtain, and a few elves ducked out of the wagon. Looking at the sign for Tiger of Tawau mercenary group, they looked excited. Ms. Hotchbini had claimed that Tiger of Tawau mercenary group would be a home for homeless elves. Once elves stepped through the gate of the Tiger of Tawau mercenary group, they would receive the protection of Tiger of Tawau. Anyone hurting elves would be seen as picking a fight with Tiger of Tawau mercenary group.
The swordsmen were shocked for a second, bowed to Anfey, and said, "Thank you so much."
"You are welcome. It’s our honor." Without knowing when it had happened, Anfey had become a hero. He even talked like a hero.
"Please take this." A intermediate swordsman passed something to Anfey. "No matter when you need help, you can take it to Tiger of Tawau mercenary group. We would never turn you down after this."
"This is…" Anfey took that item. It was a small badge. It was green in the front with a flying elf with wings open. In the back it was white silver with the name of Tiger of Tawau mercenary group.
"Sir, right now is not a good time, so we are not going to invite you to come in, in case anything happens to you," the intermediate swordsman said, smiling. "It is our honor to have you visit us at this sensitive time. You know, we have not had guests for a while."
"I am from Blackwater City. I know what has happened," Anfey said. "I am just sending these poor elves home. I think Master Anthony would not blame me for sending just a few elves home."
The intermediate swordsman saw Anfey was neither arrogant nor too humble about himself. He was sentimental. He smiled and said, "Is your mercenary group called Alibaba mercenary group? Under your leadership, I believe you will make a good name for the Alibaba mercenary group in the not-too-distant future."
"Thank you for your compliments. I am not going to forget you. Goodbye." Anfey smiled.
"Bye." The intermediate swordsman gave Anfey a long look before he waved at the mercenaries to close the gate.
Before Anfey got back to his own wagon, the door of Tiger of Tawau of mercenary group had already closed. Compared with other places, White Mountain City looked like a ghost town. The stores on the streets were closed. There were no pedestrians on the street either. Obviously, they were afraid they would get dragged into bad situations.
"No wonder you are a student of Master Saul. You have money. If it were me, I would sell those elves." Black Eleven gave a fake smile.
"They would not sell for much." Anfey looked at the little badge in his hand with a smile. "We broke the ice in the relationship with Tiger of Tawau mercenary group. If anything happens later, we can look to them for help."
Black Eleven was so speechless that he could only heave a sigh. Glory and Tiger of Tawau mercenary groups had become enemies, with Anfey planning everything behind the scenes. Now he tried to get connected with Tiger of Tawau mercenary group. It just felt weird. Black Eleven’s memory was not bad. He still remembered that Anfey had planned to use the secret of Yolanthe’s fake death to get connected with Anthony after the war started and the secrets about the war had lost their value. He was setting them up one moment and wanting to be friends with them the next. Black Eleven saw the grey shadow on Anfey. They were so much alike.
"Do you have any safe places?" Anfey asked with a smile.
"Yes, we can go to my hotel," Black Eleven said.
"A hotel again? Can we find somewhere else?" Anfey asked.
"Is there any other place would not send out an alarm when a group of people came in? The hotel is the only safe place. It fits your identity the best," Black Eleven said.
"Don’t tell me all of your hotels are the same," Anfey said.
"They are similar. Not only are my hotels all similar, all the mid-level hotels in Blackwater City and White Mountain City are all similar," Black Eleven said.
"Boring." Anfey shook his head. Anfey had been nervous since he had stirred things up in Blackwater City. After being so stressed, he needed to relax a little bit. Alternating his status of being stressed and relaxed was a way to keep him going.
"It is a boring world anyway. If you are a travelling poet looking for inspiration, I could find you a nice place, but you are just a mercenary," Black Eleven said.
"Never mind, never mind. I can stay anywhere," Anfey said bitterly.
Maybe Black Eleven was against Anfey on purpose, because the Tuna Hotel they stayed in was even smaller than the one in Blackwater City. Tuna Hotel was a two-story building. Anfey and his mercenary group took the whole upper floor, while seven or eight female slaves stayed in one room downstairs. The female slaves did not complain about their room being too small. They were happy enough, since they were no longer treated as sex slaves. In addition, Anfey had promised them they could go back to their hometowns. They had no position to complain. The hotel was small but those women were happy to clean up their room. They not only cleaned the first floor, but did an even better job cleaning the upper floor. The outside of the hotel still looked like before, but inside was super tidy and clean.
Anfey had asked Christian to take the captives to report to the mercenary union about being attacked. Christian also needed to handle some paperwork. Anfey just spread himself on the bed, enjoying his free time. Two girls kneeled on the floor to clean it. They looked up to peek at Anfey once in awhile and then looked down with a shy smile. They would not understand Anfey with the knowledge they had. They only knew Anfey saved them and killed all the bad guys in justice. Anfey had been very nice to them for the past few days. He never asked them to do anything. They did cleaning on their own.
In their view, Anfey was a hero. He possessed the qualities of humility, honesty, sympathy, bravery, justice, honor and many other positive traits. Anfey never used his authority to order them to do anything. It showed he was humble. Anfey did not bully them or sell them for money. He gave them freedom. It was honesty and sympathy. They heard that Anfey was a paladin. When his legion was attacked by the gang, he was on the frontier. It was heroic and self-sacrificing. Anfey was not greedy about elves’ beauty and sent them back to Tiger of Tawau mercenary group. They could prove Anfey was a man with many good qualities with the many helpful and courageous things Anfey did. In general, those girls thought Anfey was a perfect guy. More important, he was still single.
It was fortunate those female slaves did not connect with Suzanna and Niya well, otherwise Niya and Suzanna would faint if they told Suzanna and Niya what they thought about Anfey.
This nice atmosphere in Anfey’s room was ruined the moment Black Eleven stepped in. He called out, "Anfey."
Anfey spang up from the bed. Seeing Black Eleven’s serious face, Anfey realized something had happened. He stood up and walked out of his room. When he passed the two girls on the way, Anfey said in low voice, "Everyone must be tired after walking the whole day. You girls can go to rest. You can continue your cleaning tomorrow."
"Yes, master." The two girls answer quietly, but they scrubbed the floor even harder. They looked like they were in competition to see who could make the floor cleaner. They felt happy inside after they heard what Anfey said to them.
This Tuna Hotel had a large backyard. Through the backyard was an access to a blacksmith shop. The blacksmiths were engaged in their work. No one even looked up to notice Anfey and Black Eleven. When they walked out of the store, there was a street and a fabric store on the other side of the street. Black Eleven walked in front of Anfey into the fabric store.
"Are they all your people?" Anfey asked in surprise.