The Ambush and the Unexpected Revelation

[…3, 2, 1, switch successful.]

It was said that people invariably lost track of time while waiting for a loading bar to complete. Iordera was no exception; simply switching her vision modes back and forth had consumed twenty seconds. With additional observation time, an entire minute had slipped by unnoticed.

–One minute later, Iordera noticed the carriage was already nearing the bottom of the slope.

‘What a remarkably swift carriage!’

At this juncture, choosing an ambush location was clearly out of the question, yet, fortunately, her teammates had no intention of adhering to her plan.

With a thunderous roar, The Brute leaped from the hillside, his fists raised high.

Skinny Monkey let out a strange cry as well, brandishing his finely crafted steel axe and plunging down alongside him.

Though neither understood the principle of two iron balls falling simultaneously, they grasped the folly of ‘carving a mark on the boat to find the sword’ (TL Note: A Chinese idiom referring to a foolish act of sticking to an outdated method or being inflexible). Thus, they did not wait for the carriage to reach them before leaping, but instead aimed for an intercept.

Alas, their timing was too ambitious; the carriage had yet to arrive, and they found themselves blocking its path.

*Boom! Thud!*

Two figures landed heavily, startling the horse into rearing its hooves high before it executed an abrupt turn, bolting from the road and plunging directly into the nearby thicket.

“Don’t run, stand still, you hear me!”

“Where do you think you’re going, dog-headed fiend!”

The Brute and Skinny Monkey grabbed their weapons and gave chase.

While chasing a carriage on foot might seem foolish, its speed was severely hampered within the dense undergrowth, moving far slower than it would on the open road, allowing them to barely keep pace.

The thicket alternately dense and sparse, the carriage vanished briefly, then burst forth from the foliage, galloping furiously into the distance.

Witnessing this, The Black-robed Figure also leaped down, her sword in hand, carving a graceful silhouette through the air.

The night was too dark; Iordera could discern only a few strands of golden hair.

‘So, the third teammate was a young woman.’

However, at this moment, the identity of “young woman” or “little sister” held no significance, for Iordera had finally realized that she had truly become the dead weight of the team.

‘Truly, I’ve been merely observing the entire team battle!’

Iordera hastily rose, approaching the edge of the high slope, intending to test the ground’s hardness with her own body. After all, as an alchemical creation, a fall would likely pose no significant issue.

Yet, before she could leap, a faint rustling emanated from the thicket.

‘Strange, hadn’t the carriage already fled?’

Closing her eyes, she silently counted to ten, and her vision switched once more.

At the furthest reach of her vision, the carriage, about to escape detection range, registered an energy fluctuation of only level 5. Within the thicket, however, was a presence of level 38.

Moreover, it was rapidly galloping towards the road!

Iordera swiftly switched back to her normal vision, a wave of confusion washing over her. ‘If he abandoned the carriage and ran on his own, he wouldn’t escape on two legs either.’

‘It’s utterly foolish; he might as well have stayed in the carriage and fought.’

But as she opened her eyes, she realized it was indeed the same carriage emerging from the thicket, now back on the main road.

Iordera had no time to ponder how it had managed this feat, for the carriage had already accelerated significantly. On the open road, it was unimpeded, and pursuing it on foot would be utterly impossible.

‘There’s no time to waste; I’ll take a shot.’

Charging and tumbling down the back of the hill, Iordera sprinted a few vigorous steps towards the perpendicular intersection of the road and the mountain’s rear, then abruptly halted, her cheeks puffing out.

A deep breath, an abrupt stop, precise positioning, a careful aim, and then—

“ROAR!!!!”

A searing, high-pressure blast of air ripped across the ground, striking precisely the ropes connecting the horse to the carriage.

“Yes! A hit!” Iordera exclaimed, pumping her small fist in triumph.

‘That was undeniably a divine shot, the kind born of pure serendipity.’

The unburdened horse galloped away in a panic, while the carriage rolled forward for a short distance due to inertia, ultimately crashing headlong into the roadside.

Iordera strolled forward unhurriedly, watching as the occupant struggled to crawl out.

It was a canine-headed person, their entire head resembling that of an animal. Yet, it was not a dog’s head, but more akin to some species of jackal.

“Dogget,” a pair of fair, slender legs blocked the carriage’s front, “you are under arrest.”

Dogget, having sustained only minor superficial injuries, slowly crawled out, his head bowed to the ground as he whimpered, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, please don’t kill me.”

“I won’t kill you; my sole responsibility is to hand you over to the authorities,” Iordera stated casually. “How they decide your fate is their concern.”

Dogget grew even more frantic, trembling uncontrollably as he lay prostrate. “They won’t let me go!”

Iordera chuckled upon hearing this. “If you’ve committed wrongdoing, you naturally must pay the price.”

“You don’t understand, it’s not what you think,” Dogget insisted urgently.

“Oh, so you haven’t done anything wrong then?”

Confronted by Iordera’s skepticism, Dogget stammered for a moment. “Yes, I… I have done some things…”

“Well, there you have it then,” Iordera declared, sealing his fate. “If you’ve erred, you must admit it.”

Dogget hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth. “I was merely a scapegoat, acting under someone else’s orders. There’s a much larger power at play… I have proof!”

He fumbled for something in his robes, and Iordera, seeing this, approached, curious to examine his alleged evidence.

To her surprise, the next second, Dogget produced a flintlock pistol inlaid with crystals.

‘Damn it!’

The crystals gleamed, and the pistol, drawing abundant magical energy from them, unleashed a considerable blast.

Iordera took the shot head-on, feeling as though her stomach had been violently punched, sending her flying several meters backward.

Dogget seized the opportunity to scramble to his feet, hurrying to make his escape, but he had barely taken a few steps before a searing white starburst caught up to him, piercing through his calf.

“Ahhh!!”

His calf severed by the starburst, Dogget collapsed to his knees, screaming in agony. Meanwhile, The Black-robed Figure, having removed their hood, immediately rushed to Iordera’s side, anxiously checking on her.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

Sophia’s heart was heavy, filled with self-reproach, when she suddenly saw Iordera spring to her feet with a fluid, carp-like motion.

“I’m fine, but he’s not! Oh, wait,” Iordera suddenly realized something was amiss. “It’s you, C Language (TL Note: A common programming language, here used as a humorous nickname for Sophia due to her serious, logical demeanor)… *cough, cough*, I mean, it’s you, young lady.”

‘What a coincidence, it’s you again.’

Sophia bit her lip, a faint blush spreading across her beautiful face.

In order to conceal her identity as a “poor country girl,” she had been forced to secretly work at night, only to be discovered by someone she knew from the academy.

Given the circumstances, Sophia, too, desperately wanted to utter, “Why is it always you?”

However, this was hardly the time for reminiscing. Iordera glanced down at herself; other than her clothes sustaining heavy damage around her midriff, turning into a makeshift crop top, she seemed fine.

[Sustained moderate impact damage, distributed across the body surface; critical battle damage threshold not yet reached.]

The control panel displayed the details of her injury. Fortunately, the flintlock pistol’s power was mediocre.

Nevertheless, it was enough to infuriate Iordera. She had expected Dogget to produce some form of evidence, only to be ambushed instead.

Upon reflection, it made sense: if Dogget truly possessed leverage, why would he resort to sneaking away in the dead of night?

At that moment, The Brute and Skinny Monkey also rushed over.

“That son of a b*tch, he’s a mental mage, casting illusions to deceive us.”

“Hey, don’t say that, he might actually be a ‘son of a b*tch’ (TL Note: A colloquial, somewhat vulgar Chinese exclamation), being a canine-headed person and all!”

Both men gasped for breath, feeling a slight embarrassment in front of their two female teammates.

It was fortunate that the two women had stepped forward; otherwise, the mission would have been an instant failure, rendering their entire night’s efforts fruitless.