“Ley, what do you think of that Miss Jenne? She’s quite something, isn’t she?” Lowndes said with a quiet chortle.
“She is quite something.” Linley nodded in praise.
Next to them, Luther walked over. “She isn’t just ‘something’. In all these years I’ve been roaming about, I’ve seen countless beautiful women. But Miss Jenne…heh heh…she’s absolutely tops. Ley, are you interested in Miss Jenne?”
Linley blinked in shock.
Lowndes also glanced at Linley with a wink that all men understood. “Ley, it’s quite normal for powerful people to have beauties with them. If you don’t seize the opportunity, after you leave the caravan, you won’t have another chance.”
“You two…” Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Alice had long ago caused Linley to seal off his heart with respect to romantic love. And right now, Linley wasn’t yet at the stage where he was ravenous and would just go chasing after every beautiful girl he saw.
“Miss Jenne and her little brother just came out.” Luther suddenly said in a soft voice.
Linley turned to look. Indeed, Miss Jenne and her younger brother Keane were headed towards a campfire, which was currently manned by her elderly servant.
That young noble, Keane, couldn’t help but turn to look at the Blackcloud Panther again.
The Blackcloud Panther immediately revealed its gleaming, cold fangs. Keane was so terrified that he tightly clutched his sister’s hands. Miss Jenne, as though sensing something, turned to look in Linley’s direction as well.
Nodding somewhat apologetically at Linley, Miss Jenne led her little brother to sit next to the campfire.
….
“Big sis, that magical beast is so handsome!” Keane’s eyes were as bright as gems and filled with longing. “It’ll be great if one day, I too have a powerful magical beast.”
The old servant chuckled. “Young master Keane, taming a magical beast is no easy feat. To tame a powerful magical beast, you must totally subdue it, and to subdue it, you must defeat it head on. From what I know, the weakest type of panther-type magical beasts are all of the seventh rank. That Lord Ley is a truly powerful combatant.”
“The weakest is a magical beast of the seventh rank?” Keane sucked in a cold breath. “Grandpa Lambert, is it as powerful as you, Grandpa Lambert [Lan’bo’te]?”
In Keane’s mind, the person he worshipped the most in the world was his Grandpa Lambert.
When him and his sister were in the Holy Union, they had no one to rely on at all. The entire time, it was Grandpa Lambert who had protected them. If it wasn’t for Grandpa Lambert, those nobles in the town they lived in would’ve sent people long ago to seize his sister. He had personally seen Grandpa Lambert shatter a noble’s guard’s shield with one punch, then easily defeat ten guards.
“Me? I just have a bit of ability. He could kill me in one blow with ease.” Lambert chuckled, rubbing Keane’s head. “Young master Keane, when we arrive in the O’Brien Empire, you must be careful. There are many experts in this world. I’m only able to protect you in places like those small towns. But when we reach the big cities…”
“It’s fine! This time, we’re going to assume the position of city governor, right?” Keane arrogantly raised his little head up high. “When I’m the city governor, who will I fear?”
Looking at Keane, Jenne couldn’t help but also affectionately pat Keane on his little head. “Keane, in the future, you will be a majestic city governor.”
“Of course.” Keane was very confident.
………
Slowly, most people in the caravan began to drift off to sleep. Only a few mercenaries remained awake in a defensive perimeter around the caravan. Linley was seated cross-legged on the ground, the adamantine heavy sword placed on his lap as always.
Linley didn’t know how the ancestors of his clan had trained in the third level of using the heavy sword, the ‘impose’ level. But Linley’s training method was to allow his soul to become one with the great earth and one with the boundless wind.
The earth possessed a wondrous throbbing pulse of its own.
That unique pulse had its own unique rhythm, which Linley submerged himself into. As for the boundless wind which filled all the skies, it had a deep, intimate connection with space, which was also an important part of being able to understand the essence of the ‘impose’ level.
Submerged within nature…understanding nature…
In this state, Linley didn’t notice the passage of time at all. By the second half of the night, when the vast majority of the caravan was asleep, only a few hired mercenaries maintained their watchful vigilance.
“Rasp, rasp.”
Deep night. The cold wind was blowing, and it rustled against the tips of Linley’s hair. Linley’s closed eyes suddenly opened, and then he sheathed the adamantine heavy sword onto his back.
“Get up.” Linley patted Lowndes and Luther twice each.
Lowndes and Luther were both mercenaries who lived by the edges of their weapons. They slept very lightly. Immediately, they woke up. Lowndes and Luther quickly saw that it was still midnight.
“Ley, it’s late at night. Why aren’t you sleeping?” Lowndes was a bit unhappy, but he didn’t dare to complain.
“Bandits are coming.” Linley said casually.
“Oh.”
Luther’s eyes were drifting closed again, but then suddenly they snapped open. Staring at Linley in shock, he said, “Ley, what’d you say? Bandits are coming?”
“A group of roughly a hundred or so bandits are approaching us from approximately three hundred meters in front. They’re slowly making their way here.” Linley continued.
Just then, Linley had been communing with the throbbing pulse of the earth and the flows of the wind.
Linley could clearly feel those hundred or so feet coming from hundreds of meters away. Naturally, under normal conditions, Linley wouldn’t have been able to detect them so early. But after having become one with nature, he naturally was far more sensitive.