Chapter 98: Ruse

Grym and Hayla were sitting on a chair, facing each other. Naked. Their mouths had been taped so they could not talk. From behind Hayla stood Khrom while behind Grym stood Kadyn and behind Kadyn stood Dion. The most shocking thing was that Grym and Hayla were slapping each other — and each slap would make a "Puh!" sound and due to being their mouths closed their moans sounded as if someone was having a heated sex.

As Patriarch Irabel entered the tent he saw his two children sitting naked on chairs and slapping each other like stupid. He was stunned briefly but then his anger flared. Grym and Hayla eyed him with teary eyes and red faces and snorted with misery and injustice. This wasn't supposed to happen. This was too humiliating and unbearable.

"I'll kill you!" Patriarch Irable roared when he saw the humiliated situation of the boy and the girl.

"Bang!"

However, before he could take a step forwards and release his anger on the group something hit him from behind. The surroundings started to turn black as he felt the hit over his head. He tried to turn back and see the culprit that attacked him. He saw Hot Rod standing with a large hammer in his hands with an eerie smile on his face. Then he crumbled on the ground. Unconscious.

"Mmmm!"

"Mmmmhhhh!"

The duo saw their father's condition and tried to scream but only those strange voices left their mouths. Khrom and Dion chuckled when they heard them. They felt no sympathy — if they weren't vigilant it would be them in this condition. Screaming and moaning and begging for mercy. Mercy? That was a joke.

"That was satisfying." Khrom broke the silence.

Hayla covered her smooth white boobs with both of her hands in shame and fury and continued to sob. Though she could hide most of them, one could easily see those perfect melons, pink nipples, white skin and whatnot. Her slim, smooth waist was enough to burn any man from inside while her perky butt would drive people insane. 

Though Kadyn felt nothing looking at her. Since when did I have such marvellous control over myself? He thought. 

Kadyn looked at Hayla and snorted. "Don't try to act like an innocent and clueless maiden—that you are not—you are a vicious woman with a disgusting mindset. And we all know that, so cut it out." Then he went on. "And don't think that we are interested in those sagging jugs and your wet pussy. If you think that, then you've got too high of an opinion about yourself. After all, anyone can tell that you are as loose as the broken condom."

Hayla's body stiffened and then she tried to scream at Kadyn that she, of course, failed. Everyone else also had weird expression. Kadyn ignored their strange gazes and eyed Hot Rod. "Kill Patriarch Irabel." Then he looked at Grym and Hayla again

The duo immediately stopped struggling and a hopeful look appeared on their faces when Kadyn didn't include their names in his kill list. Kadyn felt even more disgusted — they didn't give a damn about their father's life. They wanted to save just their asses. "These two are even more disgusting than Patriarch Irabel. First, destroy their Elemental Pools." The naked brother and sister duo's eyes widened in horror as soon as his words left the mouth and started to struggle.

Kadyn ignored them and continued. "Cut their tongues and hang them with their dead father. Then burn some of their carriages. Make it look like it was a bandit attack. I'm sick of people playing tricks on me. I'm not going to show mercy anymore." The more Kadyn spoke the paler the duo became. Any hope that had appeared on their faces had vanished. Only despair, sorrow, and unwillingness remained.

The night was destined to be a nightmare for some people. Khrom, Hot Rod, and Dion took the charge and attacked in the middle of the night in disguise as bandits. Killing most of the people of Patriarch Irabel's caravan. Letting only a few escape. And that was intentional. After all, they needed them to tell others stories about this bandit attack — Or people would become suspicious if only his people remained unscathed.

Under the eerie light of the crescent moon, the tents burned and blood dripped in puddles. Screams and moans of misery reverberated the entire night, making the eve look spookier. 

Kadyn made Khrom and Dion attack a few of his people to make the ruse more authentic. But when they were about to be slaughtered he arrived and saved them. Khrom and Dio — who was in disguise — escaped. They had played all night like this. Kadyn even made Hot Rod injure him over the shoulder to make the incident look even more believable. 

While Hot Rod made Kadyn injured him severely, but not enough to threaten their lives. They had all kinds of healing potions. Though they would lose most of the effect on Rank 1 magus. All in all, it was better than nothing. Furthermore, Rank Magus had a recovering speed far superior to Elementary Mage, so Kadyn didn't worry about Hot Rod.

While all this was happening Elora and Zelie were sleeping in Kadyn's tent. They had been drugged and Kadyn didn't give them antidotes as he did to others. So they slept the entire night without realising what was happening around them.

"This is horrible!" Zelie looked at the burning tents and the disgusting smell of blood with a pale face. She had never thought that something like this would happen while they were sleeping without a care. 

Then she glanced at the faraway tree and saw three figures hanging by their necks, dead. She felt a chill through her spine but then a satisfied look appeared on her face. It was better that those disgusting people died. Though she felt a little guilt inside for thinking that way after all some of them might be innocent people. She turned towards Kadyn and asked. "Why Hayla and Grym are naked?"

Kadyn glanced in the distance and grinned. "Why do you think they are naked? Were they doing something…" he trailed off in between. Zelie turned red at his crude reply and glared at him furiously.

Kadyn ignored her daggered gaze and turned towards carriage drivers and said in a serious tone. "Get ready. We can't stay here any longer. Bandits may bring even stronger force. Arghhh!" He held his shoulder and groaned in pain. Khrom hurriedly held him and passed him a healing potion. Kadyn winked at him. A perfect act.

On the other hand, Elora looked more steady. She glanced at Kadyn and frowned. She had already seen quite a few loopholes in their story. However, she kept her mouth shut. She could tell that Patriarch Irabel had no good intentions towards their people. It was the only matter of time they would turn on them. She would ask Kadyn what had happened when they were alone. 

Zelie eyed the Irabel family's few carriages that were intact and asked. "Are we going to leave them here just like that?"

"What do you suggest then?" Kadyn asked. "We are struggling to carry our people and carriage. How do we take the Irabel family's carriage as well? Won't later people say that it was us who killed these people out of greed? Furthermore, I am too lazy to care about the valuables inside." He indeed didn't put that in his eyes.

Zelie opened her mouth a few times to something but could not find any word. He was correct—if they took the Irabel family's carriages with them, people would start making all kinds of stories later. However, she still felt a pity leaving that behind.

"Whoosh!"

Just as they were talking about a figure dashed through the woods and landed in front of the group. His face and body were dripping with sweat even in such cool weather — not so cool though — he looked around at the burned carriages and scattered corpses with wide eyes. Then his gaze fell upon the ground and he said with a panicked voice. "Are you alright?" he wasn't asking everyone but a particular figure among the group.

Zelie stared at the man with a surprised and bewildered look and asked. "What are you doing here, father?"

Barret walked towards her and said with a panicky voice. "Don't worry about it. Just tell me if you are hurt." He looked at Kadyn's shoulder that was covered in blood and Hot Rod who stood not far away with a pale face, clothes tattered, hair messy; his body covered in tens of wounds.

Zelie walked up to him and squeezed his father's hand tightly and said. "I'm alright. It is just Kadyn and Mister Hot Rod who got injured."

Only then Barret sighed in relief. He looked at the hanging bodies and asked Kadyn. "What's going on here?"

Kadyn smiled and replied with an evil smile. "Oh, it's nothing. Bandits attacked our caravan. They captured us unprepared so we couldn't fight anymore. Hayla and Grym were in that condition from the start." 

He pointed at their naked bodies. "When they got captured they tried to fight back. However, it only annoyed the bandit leader even further. He immediately hung the duo with their father. When they were about to do the same to us. You arrived and saved us." 

He looked towards the carriage drivers and said. "What do you think? Isn't that exactly what happened?"

One of the carriage drivers was pretty smart. He took no time and hurriedly said, "Yes, Sir. I can bear witness to the entire process." Then others also followed. Now Kadyn had Barret with him he didn't need to be that cautious. Matter settled.