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Join the ServerThe biting wind howled, striking Gern and sending an intense chill through her.
A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead as she wondered if her disguise had been compromised.
Yet, in the very next moment, a woman’s voice, laced with an icy edge, reached her ears.
“Quade, what exactly were you doing out there?”
The voice resonated with palpable anger, yet beneath it, Gern detected a complex mix of other emotions.
From the woman’s words, it was clear she hadn’t seen through Gern’s disguise. A wave of relief washed over Gern; as long as she wasn’t exposed, she would be fine.
Recalling her previous interactions with Quade, Gern feigned indifference, speaking without turning her head.
“What? Do I need your permission to go out now?”
The tone, the attitude—it was precisely Quade’s usual demeanor.
After hearing Gern’s reply, the woman’s gaze flickered to the two figures trailing behind Gern, before settling on the small, unassuming Serpentwoman.
A surge of fury instantly ignited within her, so profound that Gern’s antics almost made her laugh.
“Heh, Quade, I suppose you were out chasing women again, weren’t you?”
“Don’t think I’m oblivious to your sordid affairs, just because you always use recruiting soldiers as an excuse.”
“Huh?”
“What… what are you talking about? This time, I wasn’t properly going to catch… no, to conscript soldiers.”
Gern was utterly bewildered, yet she maintained a facade of guilt on her face.
“Hmph.”
Faced with Gern’s flimsy excuses, the woman remained entirely unconvinced, her fingers tightening their grip on Gern’s shoulder.
‘Hmm… come to think of it, Quade’s shoulders seem a bit thinner. Could it be he’s been indulging too much lately?’
As these thoughts crossed her mind, the woman’s expression darkened, and her voice grew several degrees colder.
“Young Master Quade, how about this? I could transform you into a girl. That way, you wouldn’t have to marry someone you dislike.”
“This would help you, and you would never be able to pursue other women again. What do you think of my suggestion?”
Gern’s mouth twitched. ‘So, this woman is a yandere too!’
She found herself curious about what would happen if she were to reveal her true form right in front of the woman.
‘Hmm…’
‘It would probably go something like this:’
“Hey, sister, I think your suggestion is absolutely wonderful, so I won’t be needing your help. I’ll transform for you right now.”
The mental image was simply too bizarre, truly difficult to comprehend.
‘On another note, what would happen if she found out that the person she loved had been killed by me?’
Yanderes were notoriously difficult creatures to deal with. ‘Well… perhaps they could be considered creatures. After all, some yanderes, when they truly went mad, ceased to be human.’
Just then, far away at the entrance to the Beastman tribe, a golden-furred creature couldn’t help but sneeze, rubbing its small nose.
“Who’s talking about me? Could it be Little Luoya?”
For no apparent reason, a chill rose from the depths of Gern’s heart.
Gern felt her entire being—her entire serpentine form—was on the verge of turning into a block of ice.
It seemed she had to escape this place quickly. The mere thought of it brought a slight headache to Gern.
If only she could use the Silver Dragon Girl’s power in her current form.
At least then she would have the strength to resist, rather than being so utterly passive as she was now.
However, these were mere fantasies. For now, she needed to focus on how to break free from her current predicament.
After a moment of thought, Gern’s gaze fell upon the hypnotized Serpentman squad leader, and she spoke.
“Sister, all of this was his idea. It has nothing to do with me.”
As she spoke, Gern pointed a finger at the Serpentman squad leader, who remained in a hypnotic trance beside them.
‘There’s no choice. I’ll have to sacrifice a pawn to save the king, and live for as long as I can.’
The woman cast a suspicious glance at the Serpentman squad leader, her eyes narrowing slightly.
She sensed something amiss. She had some recollection of this squad leader, who usually kept close to Quade.
His current state was clearly not his usual demeanor, and the ‘Quade’ before her also gave her a very strange feeling.
Earlier, upon seeing a young girl trailing behind Gern, her mind had been so consumed by rage that she hadn’t noticed many of the smaller details.
Only now did the woman realize that Gern was accompanied by only these two individuals. Given Quade’s personality, he would never have gone out with just two escorts.
Pondering these discrepancies, she temporarily suppressed the anger in her heart and questioned him in a grave tone.
“Quade, what happened to you all? Did something occur?”
“Hmph.”
Gern secretly let out a sigh of relief. Since the woman had changed the subject, it meant she was likely preparing to let him off the hook.
Gern had long since prepared a plausible explanation for this, and she delivered it with feigned tears and a choked voice.
“We were planning to recruit soldiers from the surrounding villages, but we never expected to be ambushed by bandits halfway there.”
“Those soldiers sacrificed themselves to cover my retreat, allowing me to escape back here.”
Upon hearing this, the woman’s brow furrowed even deeper. However, cloaked in the darkness of night, her subtle facial expressions remained completely imperceptible.
“Oh? Is that truly the case?”
“Mhm, mhm.”
As Gern met the gaze of those greyish-silver vertical pupils, a ripple of panic unexpectedly stirred within her.
At Gern’s affirmation, a faint smile played on the woman’s lips, and she narrowed her eyes slightly before speaking.
“The bandits around Quade wouldn’t possess such combat prowess, would they? You are a Fourth-Tier Knight. Could it be that there’s a knight stronger than Fourth-Tier among those bandits?”
The moment these words left her lips, Gern’s heart sank. She had completely forgotten about the combat strength discrepancy.
She still clung to a sliver of hope, but the woman’s subsequent words sent her heart plummeting to rock bottom.
“To my knowledge, the strongest bandit group in this region only has a peak combat strength of a Second-Tier Knight.”
“So tell me, how could a Fourth-Tier Knight be beaten to such a state by a Second-Tier opponent?”
Gern’s eyes narrowed slightly. Since her disguise was already exposed, she saw no point in continuing the charade.
While she might not be able to defeat this woman, escaping from her grasp was certainly within her capabilities.
“Tell me! What exactly did you do?! How many women did you go looking for this time?! Were those soldiers taken by you to pay off your debts?!”
“Huh?”
Gern felt her brain short-circuiting. Something about this felt entirely off.
She had believed her cover was blown, and the woman’s expression had indeed been murderous. Yet, to her surprise, the conversation had taken an unexpected turn, combining familiar words about Quade into an utterly foreign accusation.
What did ‘how many women did you look for’ mean? And ‘taking soldiers to pay off debts’?
Were the Serpentmen truly this… extravagant in their dealings?
A sudden wave of regret washed over her for disguising herself as Quade. Perhaps it was better to simply flee; this ‘intelligence’ was clearly not worth pursuing.
****
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, Jinho's Story is a must-read. Click here to start!
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