Chapter 96 - I am the Squirrel

Cole saw Zack’s angry expression and was not afraid; he thought Zack would have a hard time even standing up for the rest of his life. Given the injuries Zack had sustained and the methods of the Mercenary Team’s captain, Mura, the most likely outcome of this situation was that Zack would be ruthlessly abandoned by the Mercenary Team.Of course, saying “abandoned” would be too unfeeling. The method would probably be as follows: considering Zack’s severe injuries and his inability to walk, as well as his difficulty in facing the dangers the Mercenary Team would encounter later, Mura would leave Zack at the inn to recuperate and hand the innkeeper a large sum of money.

This sum of money mainly comprised the rewards Zack had accumulated for completing missions lately, which were in Mura’s hands, possibly amounting to one or two Gold Coins. There was also a small portion from the contributions collected by his teammates for Zack, maybe a silver coin or perhaps a dozen copper coins. Of course, Cole wouldn’t contribute a single coin.

After handing the money to the innkeeper, the three-man Mercenary Team would leave, and Zack’s life and belongings would completely depend on the innkeeper.

If the innkeeper was kind, he would deliver food and drink to Zack every day, arrange for the staff to take care of him, and even go so far as to hire a physician to treat Zack. Thus, as long as Zack’s Life Force was strong enough, it was very possible that he would recover his health before the money ran out. If he was lucky enough to regain all his strength, he could smoothly rejoin his original team or join another. Of course, retiring from the mercenary life and returning home to become a Farmer was also an option.

If the innkeeper was greedy, the situation would be different. For example, dumping Zack in a cellar, ignoring him, and watching him die a slow death would mean pocketing a good amount of money. If the innkeeper was particularly impatient, he might even add something extra to help Zack along to his death.

However, under normal circumstances, the innkeeper would fall somewhere between good and bad—he would take care of Zack, but not diligently. Whether Zack lived or died would completely depend on his health and luck.

For this reason, no one in the Mercenary Team would feel any psychological barriers, because, after all, everything was beyond their control; the innkeeper, Zack’s body, and luck were in charge of it all.

Therefore, in Cole’s view, since Zack had sustained such severe injuries, there was a high likelihood that he would never see him again. So he could speak his mind without any fear.

Looking at Zack, Cole said, “Zack, no matter how you glare at me, saying you have no brains means you have no brains. If you hadn’t come out earlier, if you weren’t prepared to kill someone with a dagger, you wouldn’t be in this situation. Maybe the Noble kid would have been too lazy to bother with us and just given us the money. After all, it looked like that youngster wasn’t short of cash.

To fall back ten thousand steps, even if that youngster had attacked, without your constant sneak attacks, we wouldn’t have ended up this badly, maybe we wouldn’t have been hit at all. Let me tell you, your current pathetic state is entirely deserved, entirely your own doing.”

Zack glared at Cole, his gaze as if he wanted to devour Cole.

But Cole continued as if he hadn’t seen Zack’s look, “Zack, let me tell you, Danis made a very correct decision not to choose you. Because being with you, she would have been dragged down by your stupidity sooner or later. I say, when you do things, do you really not think about the consequences? Just knowing how to fight and kill, what’s the use? You think you’re a Noble, that you have an entire family behind you to clean up your mess…”

“Woo… roar… woo…”

Meanwhile, in Richard’s room.

Richard walked back to his room, closed the door, looked at the completed scroll on the table, and slowly read, trying to reconnect with his previous line of thought: “…Ring… conjecture… Storage Space… failure… testing… Mana… response… verification… retesting… final hypothesis… plan…”

At this time, Pandora, who had been sitting in the corner, snapped out of her daze, sniffed, and looked at Richard as if remembering something, and asked, “Did you… just go out?”

“Uh,” Richard’s eyes continued to rest on the Papyrus Scroll as he replied absently, “Yes.”

“Why?” Pandora asked.

Richard answered, “Nothing special, just that there were two… no, three squirrels outside making a racket, so I gave them a little lesson and chased them away.”

“Squirrels!” Pandora’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Since leaving the forest, she had never seen a squirrel. She quickly headed for the door and ran outside.

Richard glanced at her but didn’t mind, because as far as he was concerned, except for a true Wizard, there weren’t many people in this world who could harm Pandora.

Considering just their combat abilities, he was no match for Pandora, though a real fight would be a different story altogether. In any case, Richard felt quite secure about Pandora’s safety. As he saw her leave, he didn’t think much of it and refocused his attention on the scroll.

On the other side, in Danis’s room.

Cole continued to rudely berate Zack, his words leaving Zack gasping for breath, wanting to jump off the bed and fight to the death with Cole.

Danis couldn’t hold back her irritation and looked at Cole, saying, “You’re going too far, Cole! No matter what, Zack was injured because of you and me. How can you talk to him like that? Don’t you feel any guilt?”

“What do I have to feel guilty about? It’s all his own stupidity. If he weren’t so stupid, he wouldn’t have caused all this trouble. If he weren’t so stupid, he wouldn’t have fallen for you…”

Danis’s eyebrows shot up, and she said icily, “Shut up, and get out!”

“Fine, I’ll go! I’m sick of being around such an idiot anyway. I’m going back to my room.” Cole said, turning to leave. Despite some pain, he moved quite smoothly.

Ignoring Danis’s murderous look, Cole walked out the door, only to raise an eyebrow the next moment, as he saw something unexpected.

A pink and tender little girl, about seven or eight years old, dressed in a purple outfit, stood in the corridor, looking around as if searching for something.

Isn’t that… the little maid of that noble kid?

Cole thought to himself, unable to suppress the evil thoughts arising within him.

That noble brat dared to let his little maid wander? Perfect, he’d just take advantage of the situation. That noble brat had hit him before, so he could easily take out his frustration on this little maid.

If the noble kid was weak, kidnapping the little maid could definitely extort a hefty ransom. If the noble kid was tough and didn’t care about the little maid, then killing her would serve as a satisfying vengeance.

Yes, that’s it!

This is what true cleverness is!

All that crap the noble kid said before was bullshit; he was not stupid at all.

Thinking this, Cole stepped toward the little maid in his sight.

The little maid looked up at him curiously and frowned, asking, “Have you… have you seen a squirrel?”

“Are you looking for a squirrel?” Cole was taken aback, then a sinister smile crept across his face, “Little sister, you know, I am a squirrel.”

“Hmm, then where is your tail?” Pandora asked seriously.

Still cautious?

A flash in Cole’s eyes, and he felt a surge of murderous intent.

“Don’t worry, I’ll show it to you right now.” Cole whispered, his hand already reaching for his waist; the next moment, he drew a dagger and swung vehemently.

“Die!”