Target: Sally

Chapter 43 · Target Sally

"What should we do?"

The villagers watched Kenny's departing back, then turned toward Oster one after another, their faces filled with conflict and fear. Although Kenny had said he would handle the matter, none of the villagers present believed him.

Kenny had indeed been an adventurer once, but he was old now. Besides, those adventurers clearly looked dangerous. They did not want to lose their lives over that monster, Sally.

"For now, let's trust the Village Chief. If he still hasn't found a solution by the day after tomorrow, we'll have no choice but to tell those adventurers where Sally is."

Oster looked at the villagers around him. After hesitating for several seconds, he chose to trust Kenny for the time being. If the matter was not resolved as Kenny had said by the day after tomorrow, Oster could only choose to apologize to Sally.

After hearing Oster's words, the villagers exchanged glances and nodded, agreeing to his suggestion.

Meanwhile, inside a wooden house in the center of the village, Lester sat at a table, wolfing down the dried meat he had brought with him. As for the food delivered by the villagers, he did not even spare it a glance. The other adventurers beside him were the same.

"Captain, why don't we just grab a few villagers and interrogate them? They clearly know where that monster Sally is."

At that moment, the red-haired Gene suddenly stood and challenged Lester. He had been secretly observing the villagers' expressions all along. It was obvious that they knew where that little monster Sally was, and Gene did not believe his captain was unaware of it.

"Gene, what difference does it make?"

Lester raised his head slightly. A gloomy smile hung on his long, narrow face, while a centipede-like scar made him look like a vicious ghost.

"Captain, are you saying we should just attack them?"

The other adventurers turned toward Lester upon hearing his words. Excited, bloodthirsty smiles spread across their faces, and their bodies began to stir restlessly.

"Not yet. Gene, you and Gison go scout out the situation in this village. While you're at it, see whether the target is here. If she isn't, don't kill the villagers yet. If she is, I shouldn't need to explain further, right?"

Lester had already decided on the way to the village that no one in it could be left alive. The reward for this mission was simply too tempting, and their employer had also demanded that no unrelated person discover anything.

To complete the employer's mission, they could only make these villagers disappear.

"Yes. Then we'll be off."

As he said this, Gene subconsciously licked the corner of his mouth. They had done similar things many times over the years. Every time, they blamed everything afterward on monsters. More often than not, they did not even need to do that, because no one cared when an ordinary village disappeared.

"Heh!"

Watching the two leave, Lester took a photograph from his pocket. It showed Sally being taken away by Grandma Oran back then. Their current commission had come from a great noble in one of the kingdoms of the Western Nations, who wanted them to secretly capture Sally and deliver her to a designated location.

As for how that great noble had learned of Sally, or what use he had for capturing her, Lester did not care in the slightest. Whether the noble was a pervert who liked monsters, planned to use Sally for some experiment, or intended to raise her as a slave had nothing to do with him.

If that great noble had not specifically sought out Lester's team and offered an exorbitant reward, they would have long since forgotten about that half-human, half-ghost monster, Sally.

At the same time, inside Village Chief Kenny's home, the shadows in the room began to twist incessantly. A slime the size of a thumb slowly emerged from them. Kenny watched Lu Minghao appear without the slightest surprise and instead directly handed over what he was holding.

"Is this the letter those adventurers sent you?"

Lu Minghao looked at the letter covered in writing, which also came with a photograph. The photograph showed a man and woman holding a child, their faces filled with blissful smiles. The child in their arms was Sally, who had only recently been born.

"Yes. A villager who had just returned from outside suddenly gave me this letter from the Adventurer's Guild a day ago. It said that Sally's father Chris's former teammates wanted to come meet Sally. They also wanted to personally return something to Sally that Chris and his wife had once left with their team for safekeeping."

Kenny nodded and told Lu Minghao what was written in the letter. He had sensed something was wrong as soon as he received it yesterday. As for Sally's father Chris's former teammates, Kenny had learned about everything they had done from Grandma Oran.

It could be said that they were the culprits behind Sally's utterly desperate life since childhood. Yet now they claimed they wanted to meet Sally and return the things her parents had left behind.

Kenny understood that there had to be some kind of conspiracy. Out of guilt, he had originally planned to secretly meet Sally tonight and tell her to flee immediately, to escape somewhere those adventurers could not find her.

But Kenny had not expected those adventurers to arrive at the village so quickly, nor had he expected them to make no effort to conceal their malice.

"I understand. You don't need to concern yourself with what happens next. Also, don't forget what I told you before."

Lu Minghao swallowed the photograph and letter in front of him in one gulp. Then he raised his head, said this to Kenny, and slowly sank into the shadows.

"Thank you, sir, for saving all of us."

Kenny hurriedly bowed deeply and sincerely thanked Lu Minghao as he watched him leave. He knew that if not for Lu Minghao, those adventurers would slaughter everyone in the village even if they found Sally. That was the instinct of Kenny, a former adventurer.

From the very beginning, Kenny had clearly sensed the thick killing intent surrounding those adventurers. That was why he had pretended to be extremely cowardly earlier: to buy time and fight for a chance to survive.

"You don't need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, thank yourself."

Lu Minghao's body, which had already sunk into the shadows, paused. He raised his head and said this to Kenny before disappearing completely. He had heard the villagers' earlier conversation clearly. If they had not chosen to trust Kenny for the time being and refrained from informing those adventurers—

Then, when they decided to tell those adventurers where Sally was, the entire village would have been shrouded in purple poisonous fog, and everything would have been corroded away.

"Sally, I'm taking you to meet a few people."

In another place, outside the shabby little wooden hut, Lu Minghao suddenly turned his head and looked at Sally, who was watching him with concern. Ever since Lu Minghao had suddenly stopped moving just now, Sally had grown increasingly worried. Even the fragrant roasted meat she had enjoyed earlier no longer interested her.

"Minghao, where are we going?"

Seeing that Lu Minghao had awakened, Sally hurriedly hugged him. Her tender little face was filled with curiosity as she asked the question.

"To meet a few people you know, Sally."