Chapter 56 - The Act of Letting Go to Capture

Gripping the waterskin tightly, in the next moment, Gro realized, for some unknown reason, the wild boar’s eyes suddenly turned red. It seemed provoked and charged at him with even greater speed.The sorrow in Gro’s heart about being killed by a wild boar immediately turned to despair.

Damn it, was he really going to be killed by a… killed… killed… Huh?

What the hell!

Just at that moment, just as Gro fell into despair, his eyes bulged. He saw the wild boar charging at him bulging its eyes even bigger, staring straight past him like it had seen something unbelievable.

A figure appeared silently, quietly watching the wild boar.

Richard!

The wild boar recognized him, feeling a chill run through its body.

With Richard’s appearance, could Pandora be far behind?

Of course not!

In the blink of an eye, the wild boar saw Pandora appear beside Richard, her face cold as she looked at it.

At this moment, the wild boar truly felt a chill.

How… how could this be?

Staring at Pandora with wide eyes, then at the waterskin in Prince Gro’s embrace, it surveyed the aggressive crowd gathering around and pondered the trail of water that had lured it here.

This, this, this!

An inexplicable thought slammed into its mind like a train, a terrifying conjecture spreading quickly like ripples on a lake.

Caught off guard and horrified, the wild boar couldn’t help but think of a “truth” that could explain everything it saw—was this… was this law enforcement by entrapment?

Was it deliberately lured out with water mixed with honey, only to be brutally beaten?

Although the wild boar didn’t know the term “entrapment,” it felt the same.

This! How shameless!

The wild boar internally shouted, making a split-second decision as its four short legs came to a sudden halt.

Under the force of inertia, its legs dug into the ground, plowing four deep furrows. To Gro’s shock and bewilderment, the wild boar slid several meters to a stop in front of him. Its long snout almost touched Gro’s face, a puff of white breath coming out, its stinky odor almost making Gro faint.

But the wild boar didn’t care about that; it was vital to escape.

One could survive a day without water, but being caught by Pandora might truly mean death.

“Hngh, hngh!”

With a few more puffs of white breath, the wild boar licked Gro’s waterskin reluctantly, then turned tail and ran. It burst through a gap in the encirclement, crazily dashing away, and in the blink of an eye, it vanished into the vast forest.

Everyone initially froze in collective astonishment at the wild boar’s bizarre behavior, then quickly rallied around to protect Prince Gro.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

“Your Highness, are you injured?”

“Your Highness, should we leave the forest to see the physician?”

“Your Highness…”

After a round of concerned inquiries and making sure Prince Gro was temporarily unharmed, everyone finally eased their worries. The next moment, however, they collectively turned to Richard and Pandora, eyes full of suspicion, and shouted out.

“Who are you?”

“What do you want?”

“Why did you appear in the forest?”

Although Richard and Pandora had, in a sense, scared away the wild boar and saved Prince Gro’s life, who knew what the real situation was?

Richard looked at the crowd’s reaction and couldn’t help but sigh; little did he expect that merely walking down the mountain would lead to this.

Prince? Nobles? Hunting?

Well, alright then.

Richard had pretty much guessed how things would unfold from here.

As part of the group hunting with the Prince, they had almost let the Prince get hurt, which was clearly a grave mistake. To avoid responsibility, the best choice was to point the finger at him, an unrelated party. It didn’t matter what the real situation was; they would capture and interrogate him first.

Come to think of it, when he was a prince himself, he had also encountered this kind of situation several times. Back in the day, his Personal Guard Captain, Edward, was quite relentless when it came to capturing people.

In summary, the situation now resembled a typical scene from an entertaining novel: a group of “villains” biting the hand that fed them, spouting madness, drawing ire, only to be taught a lesson in manners by his magic in the end.

But such matters were truly boring and a waste of time.

Richard frowned lightly as he thought this, and the next moment, he had already decided to deal with it at the source.

To resolve it at the source meant not to prove his innocence, but to … display sufficient power.

Faced with the crowd’s accusations, Richard didn’t respond. His lips parted slightly, and with a flick of his hand, a gentle blueish flame appeared in his palm.

Everyone’s eyes instantly widened, and their shouts caught in their throats as the forcefulness of their demeanor suddenly dissipated, their bodies atop the horses seeming to shrink in stature.

It had to be said, the “Phosphorus Candle,” a Zero-Circle Illumination Spell, although utterly non-aggressive, was better at intimidating others than any other offensive spells.

With a lift of his hand, the Phosphorus Fire in his palm flew into the air, expanding as it went, and eventually detonated into a fireball a meter in diameter, causing the bodies of the onlookers to shudder in unison.

The way they looked at Richard had completely changed from before; in addition to caution, there was now a touch more tension and fear.

In a calm voice, Richard spoke, “As you can see, I am a wizard living in the forest, merely passing by. If you wish to do something to me, don’t hesitate, of course, I won’t either. But if you don’t want to do anything, then clear the way and let me leave. How does that sound?”

After Richard had finished speaking, the crowd exchanged glances, and the next moment, they unanimously stepped aside to let him pass. Richard nodded with a smile and proceeded forward with Pandora.

Just as they were about to leave, Prince Gro, protected amongst the crowd, revealed a trace of an unusual gleam in his eyes and suddenly spoke up.

“Wait a moment!”

“Hm?” Richard stopped and looked towards Gro.

“Ah, that is…” Under Richard’s gaze, Gro was visibly nervous, his demeanor unavoidably becoming more respectful, “That is… Master Wizard…”

“Yes?”

“Ah…” Gro grew even more nervous, and after a deep breath, he said, “Master Wizard, you just saved my life, and I want to thank you… how about…”

“No time,” Richard answered bluntly.

The curt reply left Gro frozen, “This…”

Night fell.

Prince Roger’s hunting party had set up camp in a clearing in the forest.

In the largest tent at the camp’s center, a private dinner was underway, with participants including Prince Gro, Richard, and Pandora—Richard ultimately agreed to Gro’s invitation from earlier in the day.

In fact, Richard had planned to interact with Gro from the beginning for two main reasons.

One was to gather some information about the surroundings through him. The other was to get in touch with him and gain some iron to carry out his tunneling plans.

Refusing initially during the day was simply a probe and a way to assume a position of superiority, to have a favorable standing in the “negotiation.”

Simply put, it was to capture by letting go first.