Chapter 23: Shepherd Boy Tactics
Eight days after Darim's death was made public.
A huge and luxurious carriage was moving slowly along the Suluntu official road.
The Suluntu Official Road leads directly from the mining city to Azanaar, the capital of the Heyang Kingdom. It is a smooth and flat dirt road, ten meters wide. There are things that look like lamp holders on both sides of the road, holding large crystal blocks. If I am not mistaken, they should be used for night lighting - it is a bit like the suburban highways in the original world.
Every two or three sanmars (= kilometers), you can see a small rest stop similar to a post station near the official road. There are several rows of small hotels, open-air awnings with tables and chairs for people to rest, and some simple snacks and drinks are provided - of course, the prices are slightly higher than in the town.
At this time, in a small post station more than 300 sanmars away from the capital, the huge and luxurious carriage slowly pulled over and stopped in front of everyone in the post station.
This luxurious carriage had twelve extremely sturdy black horses tied up in a staggered arrangement in front. The carriage was made of expensive white crystal tea wood and was very large. It was estimated that the area was almost the size of a small house. Not to mention two beds, even if some coffee tables and cabinets and a kitchen were placed inside, it would be no problem.
The wheels are very large, and the outside is covered with a colloid that looks like rubber to reduce friction. The entire car is also equipped with a wonderful shock-proof device that mixes wood and iron. The four corners of the car are decorated with two sets of huge spiritual crystals for heating and cooling to regulate the internal temperature. Except that it is powered by horses and is not as fast as a sports car, the comfort seems to be no less than that of the RV in the original world.
People looked at the carriage and immediately started whispering to each other: This must be the carriage of the royal family or some high-ranking official, right?
Of course, they were not wrong. The owner of the carriage was the third prince of this country, Rui Zi Shiyi Heyang.
Accompanying him were Beichen, Xiangying, and the twin hook claws - Heihuo and Sujie.
At this time, they were on their way to the capital──In the end, Beichen still continued to be her bodyguard and escorted (?) Rui back to the capital.
The capital has the most comprehensive library in the country. I should be able to borrow some of the protected books with Rui's authority and perhaps find more useful information. And maybe I could even run into Gu Yinyue and his group there—though it's still a long way from our six-month appointment.
The hunt for Darim wasn't complete, but since his death had been publicized, Rui had no reason to remain in Limbell for long. The hunt went underground, entrusted to Rui's trusted associates—the Blue Knights. Of course, this alone wasn't enough to reassure him. After a brief exchange between Rui and Yaye, Yaye, for the first time, agreed to temporarily lead the Blue Knights in the suppression operation, remaining in Limbell.
Rui and Yaye didn't say anything else. He just mentioned the "interesting thing" he was going to do. After hearing that, Yaye actually laughed out loud for a few seconds and readily agreed to Rui's request.
──In fact, it is difficult to convince the people to let Zhanqi lead an army according to common sense, but because Vampire Scythe Yaye is a fallen dark species that is not under human control, and is also a celebrity who has lived for hundreds of years, Rui is still very relieved to hand over the Blue Knights to him.
Not long after they separated, Beichen felt that the sarcastic laughter was gone from her side, and she seemed really uncomfortable with it. In response to her words, Xiang Ying smiled and said that Yaye would be very happy to know that she said that. However, Heihuo and Sujie laughed at her for having become a complete M.
Beichen's lingering feelings weren't entirely without reason. Before leaving, Yaye had left her a set of resonance crystals. These were magical crystals, held in pairs, each held by a different person. Even if the two people were far apart, if one crystal shattered, the other, further away, would also shatter. As they shattered, each person could sense the other's location. Yaye had given her a complete set of these crystals, each in different colors, for emergency communication.
White represents good news, blue represents bad news, red represents life-threatening, and yellow represents non-emergency contact - Yaye forced her to memorize this within ten seconds, then directly stuffed the string of spirit crystals into her arms, and without even saying goodbye, he disappeared in a flash.
Although he was still so arrogant and cocky, he really cared about her - Beichen touched the resonating spirit crystal with Yaye's body temperature and smiled with a little emotion.
If only I could find a way to stay.
"Stop touching it, or this spirit crystal will peel off."
In the carriage, Hei Huo, who was sitting opposite, unhappily kicked Bei Chen's calf with the tip of his shoe and rolled his eyes. Su Jie, who was sitting on the side, also snorted with a bad face:
"Why are you acting like a resentful woman holding onto her husband's token of love after he left for war? Even if you ignore me and Su Jie, aren't you worried that idiot Changjian will get upset?"
"Ah? Jealous?" Beichen twitched his lips and looked at Xiangying with a guilty look on his face. "Uh, Xiangying, does my doing this make you feel uncomfortable? After all, Yaye isn't my contracted weapon, yet I accepted his gift—even though it was just a communication tool."
"No... How could that be? It's the master's freedom to accept gifts from whomever he chooses. How could I possibly feel frustrated and regret my foolish behavior of not buying a gift for the master even though I've known him for so long just because he stared at it for too long?"
...I guess you're still jealous. ——Beichen's double claws twitched his lips.
"Okay, okay,"
Hei Huo and Su Jie pulled Bei Chen and Xiang Ying up from the comfortable and soft bench.
"Didn't you hear your sponsor, Lord Rui, calling us to get off the bus? Let's get some fresh air."
"Alas—"
Beichen glanced at the wig and helmet on the coffee table.
Let’s talk about what happened after the carriage stopped.
After the carriage stopped, in front of everyone's sight, the two coachmen on the left and right of the driving (?) area of the carriage got off, one to tie up the horses and the other to fetch water (apparently for the horses to drink). Then, the door of the carriage opened, and a small folding wooden ladder was lowered from inside. A young man with beige-gray hair, dressed simply but using extremely expensive fabrics, walked down.
──The third prince Rui.
Rui got off the car and smiled politely and casually at everyone looking at them. Then he took a deep breath, stretched his limbs, and called out to the carriage:
"Yash? Yash? Get off the car and take a rest."
Yaxiu was the pseudonym Rui gave Beichen. For some reason, after leaving Linbel, Rui prepared an exquisite helmet covering the upper half of Beichen's face, with a long light blonde wig, and gave her a new identity - Yaxiu, a rising spirit warrior born in a remote town.
In short, I don’t want Beichen to interact with the outside world in his true appearance.
After thinking about it, Beichen felt that concealing his true identity and appearance would indeed help him survive in this world. At least it would make it much easier for him to escape in the future, so he agreed.
But even though we agreed, adaptation is still a problem.
For example, Rui called her new name, but she didn't react in the car at all that it was herself who was being called. Finally, she got out of the car after being reminded by Heihuo and Sujie.
Then, people saw that one minute after the young man got off the bus, another person jumped out.
The first one is the warrior Xiang Ying, who is wearing a simple and clean white dress, has long golden hair that reaches his shoulders, and has light gray eyes.
Next are the twins, Black Disaster and Su Jie, who have identical evil, unbridled and wild faces but very different styles.
The last one was a petite girl, dressed in light and exquisite high-quality combat attire. Her waist-length light golden hair sparkled in the sunlight, and she wore a beautiful semi-enclosed armor with wing shapes on her head. Only her pointed chin and beautiful lips could be seen.
This person is naturally Beichen in disguise.
Perhaps being half-covered does indeed give people a great sense of mystery. After Beichen got off the car, almost everyone's eyes were focused on her, giving her goose bumps all over her body.
"So,"
Heihuo lowered his head and whispered teasingly in Beichen's ear.
"Clothes make the man, little loach. You look quite eye-catching after dressing up."
"You mean I look better with my face covered, Black Plague..."
Beichen said this a little weakly, but Heihuo just chuckled and patted the back of his head.
She looked pretty good without covering up, although most of the time they were together, she was just a dirty little girl who didn't know how to dress up and had no time to put on makeup.
——Of course, Black Plague would never say such words.
On the other side, Rui Yi, Xiang Ying and Su Jie had already walked into the small awning of the inn, found a large round table in the corner and sat down, facing the maid and giving her some instructions.
Beichen and Heihuo walked over and sat down. They chatted for a few words. Seeing that Rui didn't seem to be doing anything to attract attention, those who were looking at them probably felt bored after a while and gradually stopped looking.
Soon, drinks and snacks arrived.
"Master, this is your milk tea."
Xiang Ying hurriedly picked up the milk tea and walked to Beichen. It seemed that Beichen had been resentful for a long time last time because he had no appetite for milk tea because he was reading a book about the Red Moon Witch.
──The task of treating the host to milk tea must be completed well! Thinking of this, Xiang Ying blew a few breaths into the teacup with a smile.
"Well, the temperature is just right now, not too hot or too cold. Please, Master."
Faced with Xiang Ying's meticulous care, even Beichen, who faced him every day, blushed, while Heihuo and Sujie on the side exaggeratedly trembled.
"Hey, hey, do you have to be so cheesy...why don't you just pick her boogers too?"
"Yes, yes. How about cleaning her nail polish as well?"
Xiang Ying's face immediately turned stern.
"Brother Black Famine, Brother Su Jie, please don't describe the Master like that! The Master doesn't have that kind of thing! Please call it an invader in the nose and a demon on the fingernails!"
What the hell is that thing?! Why are you describing something so dirty and tiny as if it were a monster?
──Beichen and Gemini complained in their hearts at the same time.
Rui took a sip of coffee and watched them fooling around with a smile. Then, at the appropriate moment, he tapped the table to interrupt their conversation:
"Shh. Here comes the fun stuff."
Beichen and the others were stunned for a moment, then fell silent.
At this time, a voice came from the direction where the other travelers were sitting, which was not restrained and was even a bit deliberately raised.
"Hey, hey, have you heard? A woman calling herself the Red Moon Priestess has appeared in the Principality of Diruta!"
As soon as these words came out, Beichen almost spit out the half-drunk milk tea.
Rui on the opposite side smiled and shook his head at her. She then swallowed the milk tea with great difficulty and patted her chest a few times.
——What on earth is going on? She had to listen to the after-dinner gossip.
"What?! The Red Moon Priestess? The Mother of Disasters who destroyed the world? Is that confirmed?!"
"Prove it? How can she prove it? She said she could see the red moon above her head, but none of us could see it. How could she prove she could see it?"
"That's right, then did she display any divine powers or anything?"
"No, she just keeps insisting she can see the red moon and spouting some weird annihilationist rhetoric like a charlatan. To me, she's more of a useless, ambitious figure trying to trick a few believers into establishing a new religion than a shrine maiden."
"Hahaha," the person at the next table couldn't help but interrupt after hearing this, "Maybe she's just a little girl with delusions from reading too many fantasy novels."
"Ah, you're the kind of delusional person who fantasizes about having divine power to control the fate of the world, right? There are more and more young people like this lately who don't think about making progress. Instead of practicing the techniques of using weapons, they pin their hopes on imaginary things."
"It's just grandstanding."
"Don't say that about me. I just want to be famous. Everyone wants to attract attention, right? Hahahaha, please forgive my youth!"
"Well, this is a good topic for hype—"
The discussion became increasingly noisy, and it was no longer possible to distinguish the voices in detail. Beichen had no choice but to turn his head back and look at Rui with a complicated expression.
"…You did this?"
She asked, lowering her voice so that no one else could hear.
But Ruy was more cautious than she was.
"Let's talk about it in the carriage."
He drank the coffee in the cup in one gulp, left the small dining table first and got into the carriage.
Beichen was no longer in the mood to drink milk tea (Xiang Ying glanced at Rui's back with resentment for this), and he hastily packed up the food in front of him and got on the carriage with the three warriors.
After the carriage began to shake and then moved forward steadily, Rui finally spoke under Beichen's urging gaze.
"Yes, that's the fun thing I wanted to show you."
“…It’s really you!”
Beichen let out a soft cry.
"But why...?"
"First, to prove Lord Yaye's point, it's not that easy to become the world's public enemy. --You heard it just now, right? People are indeed afraid of the Red Moon Priestess, but they always hold the view that her appearance is unrealistic. Without any proof, given the complexity of human beings, will they so easily believe in her existence?"
“…”
Beichen was silent.
She suddenly remembered the situations that often occurred in large discussion communities in her original world.
If someone started a discussion thread titled "I am from the future" and wrote in the content a prediction of the year the world would end, it would definitely attract a lot of attention, but it would definitely not cause panic.
So, what will people’s response be?
"Please show me the model and batch code of your time machine. Thank you. I am an inspector from the time machine manufacturer. We suspect you are using an illegally sold time machine."
"Oh, then please help me predict next month's Mark Six lottery, please. If you succeed, how about giving you half?"
"The mental hospital's exercise time is over, go back quickly."
"clown."
"Are you crazy about being famous? How pitiful."
...There are bound to be responses like these. But are there really people who actually worry about whether that future person is real? One in a million is pretty good, I guess.
Ah... I see. In this respect, the two worlds are the same.
Humans are indeed creatures easily led by panic, but first, there must be a proven panic. After so many years of living and developing, humans will not easily believe anything too bizarre.
Even if Beichen jumped out and shouted to everyone, "I am the Red Moon Priestess," everyone would still sneer at her as a delusional person who was seeking attention.
Indeed, even she herself had no way to prove that she could see the red moon.
Seeing Beichen's suddenly enlightened expression, Rui's smile became brighter and more cunning.
"Secondly, it's an experiment to see what kind of commotion would ensue around the world if rumors of the Red Moon Miko surfaced. What would people's attitudes be? What percentage would believe it versus what percentage would disbelieve it? It seems unlikely many people would believe it right now. I think if I were an outsider, upon hearing this kind of news, the most I'd do is send an informant to investigate further."
"Ruyi, you mean... after this time, we can be prepared for when our identities are really exposed?"
"That's right."
“…”
Beichen was silent.
"Next, this is also our advance attack. Why should we be so nervous and wait for the truth to be exposed? Since this matter will eventually be transparent, why not make it transparent in the most advantageous way first? Look, now the Red Moon Priestess has appeared, but her location is in the Principality of Diruta, which has nothing to do with you, so what do you still need to worry about?"
"...No wonder you said it would take seven days. Did you send people to the Principality of Diruta?"
"Yes, hurry up."
Beichen didn't know how to respond: "...So, is there anything else? What are your considerations?"
"Finally, this is a long-term battle. In a few months, rumors of the appearance of the Crimson Moon Priestess will resurface in other countries. A year later, a new Crimson Moon Priestess will appear in yet another place. After a few such incidents, how many people in the world do you think will still take such rumors seriously? Even if proof truly emerges that you are a Priestess, I think many people will still dismiss it as a meaningless rumor and wave it aside, right?"
The shepherd boy.
This well-known story suddenly appeared in Beichen's mind.
Because people always lie and report that the wolf is coming, when the wolf really comes, no one will come out to take care of it.
Even if this wolf is the Red Moon Priestess who has the potential to destroy the world...?
It is indeed an interesting thing. Only someone like Rui, the scary smiling tiger who took a year to bring down a corrupt official, can do this kind of fighting of the shepherd boy.
Too bold, too unbridled, too crazy.
But I have to say, maybe it really is effective.
But──
"Why... would you do this for me?"
Beichen looked at Rui's eyes attentively and asked with a focused mind.
Unfortunately, his eyes could not reveal his inner thoughts.
Beichen knew that she and Rui had been traveling together for nearly half a month, and they had a bond and affection for each other, but was it really worth it for Rui to do something that would cause the whole world to commotion for her?
Just to let her live peacefully in this world?
Rui looked back at her just as seriously.
"You are the first person in this world who is willing to save me unconditionally."
"Huh...? But I almost turned you down, didn't I? And I took your money."
"Yes, you have the cowardly and selfish side that most people have, but in the end you couldn't bear to abandon me when I was about to die. Even when I said something ridiculous like I wanted to eat venison and drink dew, you still didn't regret it."
"Well... well, it's not good to let a life be lost like this. If it's within my power—"
"What's more," Rui smiled, "money is not a 'condition' for me."
“…”
"Didn't I tell you this when you fought the Disaster Emperor to cure my Moon Poison and were injured? I will never forget this kindness. Now, I'm just repaying your kindness."
"But I'm just completing your commission as a member of the Spiritual Martial Division..."
"Yes. You are a Spirit Martial Master. So, when I saw you using your body as a shield to protect Black Disaster and Su Jie, I had some strange thoughts in my mind."
"...Strange idea?"
"If you can continue to fight with such bravery and determination, as well as gentleness and kindness, then I can abandon my position as a prince and support you as a comrade, without any other purpose."
As Rui said this, he put his hand on Beichen's head again. This had almost become his habitual action.
"You are probably my first real friend. So, even if you are the real Red Moon Priestess, I hope you can stay. As a prince, like any other royal family member, I have the blood of the hope of changing the world flowing in my body. I am not afraid of change—"
"So, if you were to lead the new era, it might be a wonderful world. I want to see it with my own eyes."
"……I……"
Beichen was completely shocked by Rui's words and didn't know what to say.
"I received your kindness, Rui, and I'm very happy, really."
She smiled and let the big hand above her head gently shake her head.
"But... you know I'm stubborn. Even if you've said all that, it won't eliminate the danger I could pose. I still don't want to put you in harm's way. However, what you said makes sense. I need to digest it and make the final decision. If necessary, I will fight. I won't run away forever."
"That's good."
Rui narrowed his eyes in amusement.
"How about it, are you very touched?"
"Hmm... hehe."
"If you're touched, can I not pay half of the reward?"
“…”
Actually, Rui, you are short of funds recently, right?
"How about when we get to the capital, I'll transfer the contract rights of those two traitors, Hei Huo and Su Jie, to you? They're both top-grade Ye Yue Clan. When they reach the Double Wings level, their combat power is on par with that of an ordinary Five-String Ye Yue Clan."
The prince, who was short of budget, spared no effort to sell his illicit weapons, but Hei Huo and Su Jie were not angry at all. Instead, they showed intriguing expressions.
──That expression that seems to be a little happy but tries hard to pretend to be nonchalant.
Beichen was a little surprised by this proposal, but he was not too opposed to it. After all, he had known Heihuo Sujie for a while, and they had gradually become very compatible partners in the later period. The relationship between the two and Xiang Ying was also very good.
But she was still a little hesitant - she hadn't decided whether to stay in this world yet, so wouldn't it be a bit irresponsible to add more contract weapons out of thin air?
"Master, I suggest you accept this offer. If you want to participate in the Lingwu Division Fighting Tournament, you can't do it without preparing various types of weapons to deal with the enemy's attacks. A single fighting style won't survive in such a competition. After all, I'm only good at short- and medium-range attacks. Close-range, lethal surprise attacks are much stronger than me. Brother Hei Huo and Brother Su Jie are much stronger than me."
"I see..."
Although he was still thinking of not participating in the competition and just looking for Xiaxue to end the matter, Beichen still nodded to Rui.
Forget it, even if it's only three months, it would be good to spend more time with the friends here.
The expression on Heihuo Sujie's face relaxed, and just as he was about to come up and say something like "Please take care of me", the carriage suddenly shook.
Rui's expression changed. How could the royal carriage stop so easily?
"Blue Carter, what's wrong?!"
"Your Highness, there's a carriage coming head-on... It appears to be the carriage of His Highness, the Second Prince, Redis."
“…”
The entire carriage suddenly became quiet, and the warm atmosphere was wiped out.
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