"Teresa? How is it? How does it feel to be out adventuring?" Laine kept his hands busy as he initiated the conversation.
"Not bad, traveling isn’t as difficult as I imagined." The woman nodded, her thick black hair cascading like a waterfall, shimmering with a faint glow.
"Oh~ really?" Laine smiled dismissively.
"Alright, alright, Laine, I know you take care of me, can’t I thank you for it?" Teresa knew exactly what the man was laughing about, she pouted: "You know? Besides you, I’ve never been this close to any man, even sharing a cabin at night."
"Yes, yes~ and should I feel supremely honored? As your bodyguard?" Laine squinted at the female sorcerer. Ever since he met her, Teresa had always been cold and aloof in public. Seeing her pout like a little girl was indeed quite an honor.
"As a teammate... You’ve been in a battle?" The female sorcerer quickly noticed the snow and mud on Laine’s chain armor.
"Yes, encountered mountain bandits and mutated creatures." Laine recounted his earlier experiences to the female sorcerer, including the mountain bandits and the silver wild boar, but omitted the details about White Wolf War God Yurik.
As they talked, the pot of corn, vegetable, and ham chowder was done. Laine ladled it into bowls and handed one to the woman.
"That’s really strange, you let those bandits go, neither destroying them nor helping them, just casually giving them some bread?" The female sorcerer took the wooden bowl, her face curious: "Their lives were in your hands, yet you didn’t change their situation, which is unlike you."
"What could I have done? Generously helping them is something the Merciful Goddess Church and the Moon Church would do. Kill them? They are, after all, people of the Nord Kingdom, our compatriots. I, as a knight of the Nord Kingdom, killing a few heinous criminals is one thing, but killing them all is excessive unless absolutely necessary." Laine shook his head: "It’s actually simple, this place cannot support so many farmers, the presence of nobility limits the number of people the area can sustain, and this limit will decrease over time."
"Unwilling to spend your own money to help others, nor wanting to kill indiscriminately, that truly matches your style." The female sorcerer nodded. Laine respected the most basic moral bottom line, embodying the Eight Virtues of Chivalry, hating evil, and promoting justice.
But compared to some pedantic paladins or priests serving the Merciful Goddess, Laine was also a crafty individual, never acting without benefit, and always negotiating for his own gain.
Summed up in the words of his mother, Aurora: "Laine’s trait is tolerance within the rules, goodness on the edge."
He was very young, with great strength, humorous and knowledgeable, a good companion on the journey. After spending time with him, Teresa found that the young knights and nobles she knew in the Nord Royal Capital Frost City were all worthless.
"What about that mutated boar?" The female sorcerer was more interested in how Laine handled matters than those bandits who turned to crime out of desperation. To her, these people were inferior, expendable. Once she knew Laine’s thoughts, the topic was over.
"It’s just a powerful mutated creature, the same as a griffin, scorpion-tailed lion, and horned eagle beast." Laine turned the iron skewer, the roasting rabbit in the fireplace fire continuously rotating, animal fat dripping into the logs, sparking, with the aroma of the roasted meat gradually spread.
About a thousand years ago, the Chaos Evil God descended on the Northern Wasteland, gradually corrupting it. Decades later, the first Chaos Chosen "Unifier" Moka emerged, rallying an army of over 500,000 and opened the Chaos Gate. This little-known defense war of the Imperial people, though hidden in the river of history, far exceeded all wars in Imperial History in scale and severity, even surpassing modern inventions of powerful firearms.
Moka’s army, with successive victories, fueled an increase in Chaos Energy. The breath of the God of Darkness, coming from the north, bathed the entire Old World, gradually transforming the Prime Material World into the Chaos Realm. Updates are released by novel★fire.net
The founding Emperor of the Empire, Charlemagne, over 500 years old at that time, also gathered all the Imperial Army, the dwarves, and even deities descended to form an Alliance Army, heading north to confront the enemy, embarking on the fifty-fourth and also last great expedition of his life.
In that fierce battle, Charlemagne’s greatest knight, Roland, sacrificed his life to open a path to Moka’s position. Charlemagne and Moka engaged in an epic duel. In a day and night of bloody battle, Moka several times drove Charlemagne to the brink, but in the end, Charlemagne seized the chance, successfully beheading Moka for all to see, leading to the collapse of the Chaos Army.
Although the Chaos Army retreated, the influence brought by the Wind of Chaos deeply impacted every aspect of the Prime Material World, giving birth to many mutated creatures. Among the most famous are griffins, these half-lion half-eagle creatures, ferocious scorpion-tailed lions, and half-deer half-bird horned eagle beasts.
"Chaos’s corrosion brings corruption and degeneration, but it also gives rise to powerful magic and creatures." Laine nodded: "Have you seen a dark elf?"
"I’ve seen them in the library, but haven’t had contact." The female sorcerer nodded. She liked hearing Laine talk about the unwritten rules and knowledge of the Continent, which gained her much.
"Among the dark elves, there are specific beast tamers who tame these mutated beasts for battle, hehe... dark elf beast tamers are mostly female, wielding whips, sometimes not only for combat and taming beasts..."
"Laine!!!" Teresa’s voice rose.
"Alright, hehe, I’m saying, actually humans are the same, like the Empire’s elite Griffin Knight Order, or Duke Lunst of Brittania riding a large horned eagle beast, as for scorpion-tailed lions... Well, many parts of a scorpion-tailed lion can sell for a good price." The Kingdom Knight sliced the roasted rabbit with a small knife, smiling: "That mutated wild boar is called a silver porcupine in the records of Imperial scholars, has long-range attack capabilities, very tough hide, with a weakness at its soft underbelly, just a bit strange."
"A bit strange?" The female sorcerer nibbled on the roasted rabbit meat, Laine’s culinary skills were indeed excellent, as the rabbit meat was crispy on the outside and tender inside, delicious and chewy with the mix of spices.
"Hmm, a bit strange, logically, in such cold weather, wild boars wouldn’t appear in the northern regions like Nord, even if they did, this time of year, wild boars wandering in the woods is really strange, even if it’s mutated, its former animal instincts should remain. Under these conditions, wild boars mostly seek warm lairs for shelter, only active in the afternoon, willingly appearing at night is quite unusual." Laine stroked his chin, keenly sensing something was amiss.
"Maybe it’s just a coincidence? Shortage of food or something?" Teresa didn’t take it seriously, the room getting warmer under the effort of the fireplace, the female sorcerer released the blanket, revealing her swan-like slender white neck, adorned with a pearl necklace, her noble and elegant temperament fully evident before Laine, the woman lazily leaned against the bedding, looking relaxed: "Anyway, if you hold it off, my spell can send it to meet the Death God."
"But I’m not at ease, Teresa, do you really understand Belte? Or rather, do you truly understand what a Demon Hunter is?"