Chapter 283: Southern Hero |
"Someone came to the rescue?" Bai Mu stood outside the church, looking at the corpses inside.
There were about forty to fifty corpses. Due to the low temperature, those corpses showed no signs of rotting yet. Such intact corpses were truly rare. Yesterday, what he encountered were all corpse fragments, not even the main torso could be found. But the corpses in the church all had their bodies visible; a small portion were still intact and could be used as materials for 'Corpse Raising' or 'upgrading population'.
If they were corpses exposed in the wasteland with no one to tend to them, he probably would have just gone straight up to act as a corpse driver. But the corpses here had obviously been collected and placed by someone.
In the corner of the church wall, he saw traces of a bonfire. Extinguished charcoal and a used iron rack were placed there. Someone had been active here, but not many, because the bonfire was only a very small cluster, and beside the ash there was only a small wooden stool and a small water canteen.
Judging from the act of placing the corpses, it should be someone from the good alignment. Could it be that squad of knights he stumbled upon yesterday? But that squad of knights should have had over a dozen people.
Just as Bai Mu was considering whether to go in and take a look, suddenly, he heard a voice speaking from behind him.
It was a language he had never heard before—a man's voice, low and calm.
Bai Mu turned his head in alarm. He hadn't noticed at all when this person had appeared. Not only him, but even the Witch, upon hearing that voice, suddenly jumped as if her hair stood on end and bared her fangs at the figure.
Who was it?
Why didn't he notice him?
A series of questions popped into Bai Mu's mind. Whether before entering the village or after entering the village, he had maintained a state of highly concentrated mental focus.
He couldn't understand how this person had appeared at such a close distance to him. When he turned around to look, the person was even less than five meters away from him, separated by only four or five steps.
It was a man who looked to be around thirty years old, with Western facial features, a brown cloak, and a small curly mustache. He had a sword equipped on both his left and right waist.
He stood quietly there, with footprints he had walked on still in the snow. He looked at the Witch, frowned slightly, and repeated what he had just said.
Bai Mu couldn't understand what he was saying, but very sensibly raised his hands and said a few words in his hometown language casually: "I have no intention of intruding", "I just happened to wander in".
Bai Mu knew the other party couldn't understand what he was saying. The reason he did this was to express that he had no malicious intent, and in fact, he hadn't done anything destructive here.
Bai Mu didn't want to get into a conflict or dispute with this person. He was sure this was a human. If this was the kind of monster that fed on humans he met yesterday, there was absolutely no need to use this kind of questioning to attract his attention.
And if he wanted to use a disguise to win human sympathy and make people drop their guard, using this kind of warrior-like outfit was definitely the wrong strategy.
Coupled with the neatly placed corpses in the church and that small bonfire, Bai Mu basically concluded that he was the person who collected and placed the villagers' corpses.
Moreover, from any angle, this was an extremely difficult man to provoke.
There were several pieces of evidence to prove this point. First was the way he appeared.
He clearly left footprints, but whether it was Bai Mu or the acutely perceptive Witch, neither had noticed him before he spoke. If he had the intention to kill, Bai Mu would probably only feel it the moment he drew his sword; it was even more likely that if he wanted to kill him, Bai Mu wouldn't even realize it was him by the time he died.
Secondly, his clothes were tidy, and he even had time to groom his small mustache and hair. This was enough to show that he remained calm and composed while in a place piled with dead people.
Finally, he was acting alone, and one person was able to accomplish all of the above, including arranging the villagers' corpses. Just moving those frozen-stiff corpses out was an energy-consuming task, yet he didn't give off any feeling of being 'dirty, messy, and poor'.
Various signs indicated that this man was very strong—at least strong enough to easily kill the kind of monster from yesterday.
Although the other party spoke out in advance, exposing himself, at such a close distance, Bai Mu had a chance to try a sneak attack with a handgun that people from another world had never seen, going for a headshot. But even if it succeeded, there would be no benefit to himself.
Killing him would only yield a corpse he couldn't take away. And if a sneak attack with a gun didn't kill him, Bai Mu didn't have much confidence in winning a head-on fight. It would be a huge loss to be killed by him. This was only his second day entering this world, and he hadn't even completed a single predetermined goal.
After Bai Mu raised his hands and said a few words in his hometown language, he could feel the man's expression soften a bit. One of his hands was originally resting on the sword at his waist, ready to draw it at any time, but he relaxed a little, though his eyes were still fixed on the Witch.
He probably noticed that the Witch was a zombie transformed from a dead person, and the Witch still maintained an aggressive posture towards him, as if scared by him.
So Bai Mu spoke out to pacify the Witch, asking her to come to his side. He stroked the Witch's hair, making her quiet down. During this time, Bai Mu heard the man say a few more words.
Unlike just now, after he finished a certain sentence, suddenly, a ringing and echoing sound came into Bai Mu's ears, like putting a conch shell to his ear.
This state lasted for several seconds. It was just a sound in his ears. The next moment, he could suddenly understand what the man was saying.
"I just used a magic that makes languages understandable. Sir from a foreign land, you should be able to understand what I'm saying now, right?"
"I am the Southern Hero. The lady next to you seems to be of a completely different race from the Demon Race. This is my first time seeing it. But since you can keep her restrained, I will temporarily consider her harmless."
"I don't want to get into a conflict with someone of the same race. It would be best if we could get along amicably. Therefore, I hope we can both understand each other a bit."
Magic, Hero.
From these few paragraphs of the man, a lot of information was revealed. This made Bai Mu even more determined not to conflict with him. Being able to use magic, and even calling himself a hero... He didn't think guys who only fought slimes could be called heroes in this kind of cruel world.
"Lord Hero, I just happened to see this village and wanted to come in and see if there was any food. I have no intention of disturbing you," Bai Mu said. "If you wish me to leave, I'll go right away."
"Is that so," the Southern Hero paused for a moment. "It looks like it too. But for the time being, it seems I can't let you leave. In fact, what happened today exceeded my expectations."
"I have a question I want to ask you, sir. Have you encountered a Demon Race that disguises itself as a little human girl? Her magic is to use Mana to create matter, and her weapon is a sword. She is a very cunning and deceptive Demon Race. I found and killed all the companions acting with her, but she alone didn't appear at the predetermined location."
"And my encountering you at the church entrance today shouldn't be something that would happen in the predetermined events either. So... sir, I hope you can answer my question seriously. This is a matter that might concern thousands of lives. Did you, or did you not, encounter that Demon Race?"
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