Chapter 166: The Welcoming Party, And Setting Out For The Hunt

They had finally arrived.

How did he know that?

Well, not only did he have eyes, but there was a giant fucking spear sticking out of the ground that narrowly missed his car.

These bastards are not very welcoming… Rael grumbled as he turned to Zafira and shook her awake.

“Mmmm~ Are we there yet?” Zafira asked, stretching her hands out with a yawn.

She noticed the sight ahead and nodded, unsurprised.

“Those are the barbarians for you.” She giggled. “Are we at their camp yet?”

Rael shook his head, taking a glance at the rearview mirror.

They were, in fact, nowhere near any of their villages. If anything, Rael doubted he had fully entered the Ogarak territory at all.

There were just a couple dozen jagged mountains scattered around, and a fair number of trees, masking the presence of the hidden barbarians.

The upside of this whole thing? This had to be the welcoming party.

After all, he had already informed Nyzzara he would be arriving shortly.

Therefore, Rael nodded at Zafira, undid her seatbelt, and both of them swiftly stepped outside the car.

He stored the car inside his inventory and then glanced around.

Finally, the barbarians showed themselves.

Five of them walked out at once. Each one had colossal weapons on their backs, and it wasn’t hard to tell they were all pretty strong.

But when they arrived in front of Rael, they did a surprising bow.

“We’ve been expecting you, Rael Sutekh,” the barbarian in the middle spoke.

He had a weird three-green-dot tattoo on his forehead, and Rael couldn’t exactly remember what it symbolized.

Sure, there were ranks, and the more marks someone had, the higher their rank.

But I forgot the limit… I know a red mark is the chieftain though, at least, Rael thought as he nodded at the barbarians.

“Sup. Do we start off with the hunt right away? Or are you going to treat us to some lunch first?” Rael asked.

The three-dotted barbarian chuckled. “I’m sure you already know the answer to that, Rael Sutekh.”

“I guess I do…” Rael trailed off and turned to the puzzled Zafira. “We’re going to start the hunt right away. They’re going to put a blindfold over our eyes and lead us to an isolated cave, if I recall. From there, we’ll have to kill all the monsters inside.”

Zafira sighed and tied her hair in a bun before suddenly grabbing Rael’s hand and interlacing her fingers with his.

“Let’s stick together, okay?”

“Obviously.” Rael chuckled and returned the gesture.

The barbarians watched the scene with amused expressions, and after everything settled down, they approached and placed blindfolds over both of their eyes.

“This is your final chance to go back or change partner. Do you still wish to proceed?” the three-dotted barbarian asked.

“Yeah, the sooner we can get this done, the better,” Rael replied.

Just as they were about to begin going somewhere, Zafira spoke up.

“Why do the five of you hold weapons? Is it to intimidate people?”

Rael raised a brow, alert. He’s lying…? Well shit.

“Hmm…? We’re hunters,” a barbarian replied. “We use those weapons to hunt, woman.”

“Zafira,” she corrected. “Also, you’re not fighters. You don’t even have a single callus on your hands.”

A moment of silence followed, but they kept walking.

Noticing that, Zafira halted, causing Rael to stop as well.

“Who are you?” she asked, her tone laced with suspicion.

Rael’s brows furrowed as he he swiftly ripped his blindfold off.

The moment he did, he saw Zafira sidestep one of the giant weapons and then summon a sword of her own.

Before Rael could even follow up and help her, she slashed her blade horizontally, and in the next moment, sheathed it.

There wasn’t a single sound. He didn’t even hear her blade cut through flesh.

However, he soon noticed thin lines appearing on each of the barbarians’ necks. Blood began trickling down slowly, but with each passing moment, the blood loss increased until eventually, he saw their heads slowly slide off their necks and fall to the ground.

They had expressions of shock, and rightfully so. Even Rael was shocked at Zafira’s technique.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered. “I should’ve realized sooner.”

Rael’s brows twitched. “If you’re sorry, then I’m an idiot. I should’ve realized something was off about them from the start.”

“There was only one thing off about them, Rael. It was the lack of calluses.” Zafira shook her head. “They were just part of another barbarian tribe. There’s a lot of them here, and most of them have their own ways of doing things. It just so happened that Nyzzara had a spy among her ranks who informed the others.”

“But you noticed,” Rael pointed out. “Calluses? Seriously?”

A smirk appeared on Zafira’s face as she shrugged. “Told you I was a royal knight. I didn’t become one by being lazy.”

“Right…” Rael trailed off, admiring her figure for a moment and then glancing to the side.

He felt some strong people approach, and this time there weren’t just five.

Tens, if not hundreds, approached, and at the forefront was Nyzzara, who was riding a direwolf.

The moment she noticed him, she approached with a smile on her face.

But as she arrived, she finally noticed the corpses on the ground. “Hmm…? Did these guys come to greet you?”

“Something like that. Can’t say they had the best of intentions though,” Rael remarked.

“I can see that…” Nyzzara trailed off as she jumped off the direwolf and walked up to Zafira.

She tried to seem as imposing as possible, but Zafira didn’t even bat an eye.

“So you’re the Queen Zafira Sutekh I’ve heard about…” Nyzzara said, her grin widening. “You sure you don’t want me to take over?”

Zafira furrowed her brows as she covered her nose. “…You stink.”

Oof.

Nyzzara’s expression cracked in an instant, and her smile disappeared, replaced by a frown.

“I see… I guess you’re a feisty one, aren’t you?”

“Naturally.” Zafira nodded.

“Fine… both of you, follow me,” Nyzzara said as she turned around and jumped back onto her direwolf.

Then, she glanced into both of their eyes before flashing a small, almost unnoticeable smirk.

“I’ll give you two a challenge you’ll never forget…”

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