Chapter 97 - Iron Ring

The dagger swung downward fiercely, and Cole could clearly feel his heart pounding rapidly in his chest, his body uncontrollably heating up, the muscles of his wounded area contracting from the pain, but it did not affect his attack.Swing down, swing down!

Cole watched the dagger get increasingly closer to the little maid’s body, his throat involuntarily growing dry. Although he had killed people before, killed many in fact, he had never laid hands on a child so small.

But now, it didn’t matter.

Cole’s dagger fell, and he saw it pierce the little maid’s body, seeing the look of surprise flicker across her eyes.

Cry, scream, and then die!

Cole thought somewhat crazily, already preparing to hear the little maid’s shrill scream, but the next moment, his vision darkened, and he felt as if the whole world had suddenly turned upside down.

Later, Cole would reflect very seriously that this might have been the last sensation he felt in his intact state.

The world upended, and Cole felt his entire body begin to spin, followed by dizziness.

After a seemingly long time, the dizziness subsided, and Cole realized that he hadn’t heard the anticipated scream. Instead, there were faint, pain-filled moans sounding close by.

Huh?

Dazed, Cole realized the moans were coming from his own throat, and then he found even more to be puzzled about.

Why was he lying on the ground? Why did his entire body hurt so much? Why could he barely move? Why…

While he was perplexed, Cole saw the little maid furrow her brow as she approached him, saying, “Scared!”

Scared of what?

He was the one who had been scared, for heaven’s sake.

Cole couldn’t help but think, then felt the world flip over once again. He heard the sound of something heavy falling and felt his body being smashed against the ground repeatedly, like a broken ragdoll.

“Thud! Thud! Thud!”

This! This! This!

“Ah! Ah! Ah!”

Inside Danis’s room.

Danis applied the ointment to Zack with an expressionless face. Zack’s lips quivered, as if he wanted to say something. Leaning in, Danis could hear him.

“Do you… do you really not like me at all, not even a little, not even after all I’ve done for you, not even now that I’ve become like this?”

Danis paused slightly in her application of the ointment, then turned to look at Zack. She stared at him for a long time and said with a touch of self-mockery, “Zack, do you think people like us really have the privilege to like someone? What difference would it make whether I like you or not? There is no difference.

You should know very well, I don’t want to continue living the life of a mercenary. I want change, so I must marry into nobility. Besides that, I don’t care about likes or grievances.”

Zack’s gaze dimmed rapidly.

Danis exhaled, “Don’t think too much about it. I’ll try my best to persuade Uncle Mura not to abandon you. Even if we leave you behind, we’ll find someone reliable to take care of you. Forget about what happened before. That… noble young man is someone we cannot afford to provoke. I don’t know why he is so strong, but he might be one of those legendary knights with special bloodlines. We should stay away from him.”

Zack did not respond, and Danis was about to say more when suddenly the sound of knocking came from outside the door, making her pause in surprise.

A moment later, the door to the room was opened from the outside, and Cole crawled in covered in blood, looking even worse than Zack.

Danis couldn’t help but be startled before realizing something, and asked, “Did you provoke that noble young master again?”

“I… gurgle… no,” Cole spat blood and shook his head. On his honor, how could he dare provoke that noble young master again?

But… what he provoked was that noble young master’s little maid. If that counted, would it be considered provoking the young master too?

At that thought, Cole nodded again.

Seeing this, Danis couldn’t help but sigh. She looked at Zack on the bed and then at Cole on the floor and suddenly felt that what the noble young master said before was very true; his companions did indeed seem very stupid…

In Richard’s room.

Pandora walked back with a frown.

Richard, who was busy at the desk, looked up at Pandora and asked casually, “How did it go? Did you find the squirrel?”

“Ah—” Pandora hesitated for a moment, tried hard to recall the person she had just encountered, and then compared it with the squirrel she had seen during the Beast Tide in the forest, finally saying, “I found one, but it was a very strange, very ugly, and very unimpressive squirrel, so I chased it away again.”

“Hmm?”

“Hmm.”

“Um…”

Pandora sat on the smooth wooden plank and began to daydream again, wondering why a squirrel was different from another squirrel; could it be because the squirrels in the forest hadn’t grown up? When the young squirrels grew up and became big squirrels, would they look like the one she had seen before? But…

Richard didn’t pay much attention to this, as he had finally reclaimed the train of thought that had been lost due to the previous disruption by the Mercenary Team. His gaze settled on the Papyrus Scroll, and Richard recited a few terms with a slightly solemn expression: “Black Iron Ring… Magic Rune… decryption attempts…”

Taking a deep breath, Richard reached into his chest and pulled out a black Iron Ring.

This Iron Ring was indeed the one he had found on the body of the Mysterious Wizard, whom he had killed with great effort in the forest and then worked hard to dig out from the mountainside.

The reasons for digging out the wizard were manifold. One was to truly confirm his death, since dead men tell no tales. The second was to take the wizard’s head as a tribute to Gregory, allowing Pandora to release some emotions. The third reason was to study the things the wizard might have been carrying.

According to logic, a powerful wizard would naturally carry items commensurate with his strength, possibly including scrolls with First or Second Circle Magic records, Magic Tools, or peculiar Magic Materials.

However, after searching through the Mysterious Wizard’s dilapidated body several times, Richard only found an unremarkable Black Iron Ring on his body.

What was the use of this Iron Ring?

Was it merely decorative, or was it used to signify status?

Richard was skeptical about that.

Even a very powerful wizard would still have mundane needs and cannot live without food or drink, thus they would always carry some sort of currency that’s easily liquidated. That’s why he took with him a number of small, high-value gemstones when he left the Blue Lion Kingdom. Was the Mysterious Wizard so bereft of possessions that wherever he went, he planned to rob and dine-and-dash?

Even if that were true, shouldn’t he have carried some Magic Tools, Recovery Potions? Could it be the Mysterious Wizard was extremely confident, believing his power could crush everything, and he would never suffer any injuries?

If that were indeed the case, Richard felt, then the wizard truly deserved his death.

But thinking more rationally, Richard still thought there might be something off about the Iron Ring on the wizard’s finger.

Just like in many novels from Earth that he had read, could this Iron Ring be a kind of Space Ring, a Space Item?