Bab 8: Chapter 8: A Mercenary's Promise
It felt a bit strange to take the first puff after so long without smoking, and Field almost choked. Thankfully, he managed to hold it in and took a deep breath while the dust filled the air, seizing the opportunity.
Seeing the stunned expressions of Geov and the others, Field was quite satisfied. Then, he flicked the heavy hammer in his hand, flinging off the blood from it, leaving not a single drop.
He walked over to Qiqi, with his massive figure casting a shadow over her in the sunlight.
"Can you still stand up?" Field asked.
Qiqi quickly came to her senses and struggled to get up, but she failed several times in a row, clearly not lightly injured. In addition to the injuries on her arms, the last fall also sprained her ankle, causing her to gasp in pain.
But the little cat-eared girl remained tough, refusing to cry out loud, biting her lip as tears streamed down her face, whether from pain or grievance, no one could tell.
Field looked at her and could understand her feelings. He had seen what Geov had done just now, and he understood that sacrificing Qiqi to save the entire caravan, especially considering Geov had a daughter, was a reasonable choice.
But there were things unrelated to right or wrong that still made people uncomfortable.
"Alright, little kitty, let me handle it." Taking a puff of his cigarette, Field tossed it away and crushed it underfoot. Then, with one hand, he roughly scooped up the petite cat-eared girl.
His actions were a bit rough, causing Qiqi to curl up in pain, but she didn't say a word, just looked at Field's profile with big watery eyes.
"Don't mind me being dirty," Field said, looking at her and smiling.
"I won't, meow..." Qiqi quickly lowered her head, muttering.
Her small face seemed to blush slightly.
Then Field carried the small cat-eared girl in one arm and the heavy hammer in the other, returning to the midst of the caravan.
Seeing everyone still staring blankly at him, he raised his chin slightly. "Stop standing around, clean up the battlefield."
"Oh... okay!" Warren Water was the first to react, looking at Field with a gaze filled with complexity and awe.
"Dead... completely dead." Martina looked at the bloody mess in the pit where the Lycan had been and commented.
Only then did Warren Water run over relievedly and pry out the Lycan's corpse.
Well... it was indeed pried out. The Lycan's head that had directly contacted the ground was flattened, red and white stuck together. One could imagine the power of Field's final blow.
"Being smashed like this, can it still be sold?" Field muttered.
"Well..." Martina swallowed her saliva, shook her head, and said, "Not sure..."
"Never mind, just find a sack and put it in." Field waved his hand.
"And, uh, that guy, Geov?"
"It's Geov..."
"Alright, Geov, could you please hurry up and repair the carriage? The mission won't wait." Field said.
Upon hearing this, Geov opened his mouth, but the words at the tip of his tongue were swallowed back down. Not only because of Field's strength, but also because he could tell that Field didn't seem to... think much of him after what he had just done.
He had nothing to say, so he could only suppress the helplessness in his heart and silently start repairing the carriage.
There were spare wheels and planks in the carriage, making it easy to repair the simple carriage. It was fixed in less than half an hour, but some of the cargo had indeed been damaged.
Martina counted them and said, "Thirty bottles were broken."
Field smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, used too much force."
Martina smiled bitterly but didn't say anything, quietly organizing the wooden boxes containing potions.
It was just a matter of deducting some money, nothing compared to Field killing the Lycan and saving their lives. The caravan soon set off again, but the atmosphere was a bit awkward.
"Well, it's not a big deal. In three or five days, you'll be able to run and jump again," Martina said with a smile after bandaging Qiqi and giving her another healing potion.
But Qiqi just nodded, turned her head silently, not looking at her, and instead snuggled back into Field's arms.
Seeing this, Martina's smile became somewhat stiff. In the end, she could only sigh and jump onto the roof of the carriage to continue keeping watch, not wanting to disturb Qiqi.
Everyone knew that Qiqi must be feeling sad, especially since they had just abandoned her. So now she only wanted to be close to Field and not to them. They could all understand, and they also felt guilty, even though they had wanted to save her at the time, the fact was they didn't. There was no arguing with that.
It could be anticipated that after this mission, the team would probably need to recruit new scouts.
"How do you feel?" Field leaned against the carriage, a stalk of sweetgrass in his mouth, and asked Qiqi.
Although cigarettes were good, he reckoned the beast-kin with sensitive noses wouldn't like them, so he didn't smoke.
"Much better, not hurting as much meow..." Qiqi murmured softly, leaning against Field.
Field cleaned up a bit and changed into a clean vest. With Qiqi leaning against him, listening to his strong heartbeat coming from his solid chest, her frantic and panicked heart also calmed down quite a bit.
"I wasn't talking about your injury," Field said.
Qiqi looked up at him, then lowered her head again, her emotions seeming a bit low.
"I... I don't know..."
It was clear that the little cat-eared girl was really upset, not even saying her usual catchphrase.
"After this mission, do you still want to stay in the escort team?" Field asked again.
Qiqi remained silent for a long time before saying, "I don't want to anymore..."
"Then where do you want to go?" Field asked.
"I don't know... but I just don't want to stay here anymore..." Qiqi said.
"Maybe I'll go back home... I don't want to, but I kinda miss home..."
Field nodded. People who were emotionally hurt mostly thought about going home, because for most people, home was a haven, both physically and mentally. It was clear that Qiqi was really sad.
So Field decided to cheer her up.
"It would be a pity to go back home. You came out at such a young age because you wanted to make something of yourself, right?" Field said.
Qiqi looked up at him.
When she left home, that was indeed what she had thought, but now she felt like going back home might be better. At least her family wouldn't abandon her...
"But if you don't go back home, I don't know where else to go. Other places are dangerous. I might be caught and sold by the Cerse Trading Company..." Qiqi said, shrinking her neck.
Perhaps shifting the focus away from the future conversation, her usual catchphrase returned.
"Well, in that case, why not come with me?" Field smiled.
At this moment, he felt like he was being a bit of a shady character trying to entice Qiqi... No, he wasn't a shady character. He was only sixteen, how could he be considered a shady character?
"As you know, I'm a mercenary, and excellent mercenaries need their own team."
"So, I plan to build a team."
"If you join now, when the team develops into a guild in the future, you'll be one of the elders~"
At these words, Qiqi's fluffy tail began to wag, showing that she was somewhat interested. The emotions of the little cat-eared girl were really easy to gauge.
"Well, will you leave me behind?" Qiqi looked at Field, her eyes full of hope.
At this moment, she was like a child longing for security.
And what Field had to do was to provide her with ample security.
"Little kitty, let me teach you a lesson," he said in a slow voice.
"Some things are more important than life."
"In the mercenary business, especially."
"Money, fame, reputation, these are all more important than life."
"In my hometown, I don't know how many people shouted that they wanted to become living legends and died because of it."
"After all, what we do is a job that doesn't care much about life. If we care too much about our lives, we won't be able to become mercenaries."
"And among these things that are more important than life, there is one thing that is the most important."
"That is comradeship."
"This world is cruel and fucked up, and because of that, the preciousness of comradeship can be manifested."
"I don't care about my own life, but true comrades will put your life first. They will use their bodies to block fatal attacks for you."
"And you, must also be willing to do the same for your comrades."
"Because only in this way can a group of people who don't care about their lives come together and survive in this fucked up world!"
"Only then can we make a name for ourselves, make money, gain status, gain fame, and have those things that are more important than life!"
Field's words made the silent Geov and others slightly dazed.
They weren't mercenaries, but living in this world, they had also tried to apply this principle.
Yeah, when faced with danger, the first thing that came to mind was sacrificing their teammates to save themselves and others. This was quite reasonable, but if everyone in the team thought the same way, what cohesion would the team have left?
Who wanted to be sacrificed?
The clash of ideas would instantly cause the team to fall apart.
Field's voice continued.
"Little kitty, I can't promise you anything else."
"But there's one thing I can promise you with my hand on my heart."
"If you're my comrade, I will never let you die in front of me!"
"This is the only promise I can proudly make to you!"
Listening to Field's words, Qiqi got really excited, her blood boiling. So she struggled to sit up, propped up by Field's chest, her little face blushing.
"I, I want to join meow!"
Hadiah
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