The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 323 – The Negly Hideout

And so Femm and I followed the gang back to their hideout.

Then the chief said,

「Weird stuff’s been happening ever since those words were scrawled over the door...」

「...yeah.」

「What is it? Bill, you look sick.」

「No. I’m fine.」

Bill looked quite scared though.

This was going quite well. We could knock these guys out with one shot.

Once they got to the entrance, the chief said to Bill, 「Bill, go home.」

「But...」

「You look sick, so you’re not going to scare anyone like that.」

「Okay...I see...sorry.」

「All of you. Head home.」

「Okay.」

All of the fallen thugs walked to their respective homes, as it was obvious that no one wet and cold could scare anyone else.

『What now?』

『Follow Bill.』

『Sure.』

Bill walked along, his eyes darting to and fro. He looked very scared.

He went straight home.

And after a few minutes inside his house, 「WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH」

He screamed and ran straight out the door.

『Seems he found the bear head.』

『Seems so.』

He ran out, found the kids waiting outside, and said, 「DID SOMEONE GO INSIDE MY HOUSE?!」

「Oww! Stop!」

「ANSWER ME!」

「We saw a wolf go inside!」

「....WHAT!?」

He dropped the kids instantly, and backed away.

Then he started walking towards the hideout.

『Is he going back to the hideout?』

『Probably to sleep. His bed’s dirty.』

And so he made his way back to the hideout.

『So what now? You think we should check on Cruz?』

『Yeah, Let’s go.』

As soon as we turned to go, a bunch of thugs came running up the road.

There were about 10. Those were the thugs that went to the hunting shack.

They ran up and into the hideout, scratched and bruised.

『Looks like they met up with some problems.』

『Kind of makes you wonder.』

So I crept in close and listened to the conversation inside with magic, 「Did you get the house back!?」

「ARE YOU KIDDING?! IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!」

「You had 10 guys, and you can’t get back a little house?!」

「THERE’S A MONSTER THERE!」

「A monster?」

「A MONSTER WITH A LION’S FACE! AND a...cow...」

「They’re really strong!」

They kept talking about how strong and scary Cruz and Moofy were.

The chief definitely thought they were lying. He yelled at them.

『Everyone but the chief doesn’t know how scary we really are.』

I bet the chief was going to threaten someone else to get his thugs in good spirits agian.

『We got to warn these thugs.』

『How?』

『I’ll show you.』

I released my perception blocking magic and walked right in the door.

Femm came with me.

「Hey! Who are you!」

A thug screamed, but I ignored him. I opened another door and walked in.

「Hey! You bastard!」

He grabbed me from behind, and I grabbed his arm and twisted it.

The thugs all gathered in front of me. I decided to ignore them and keep walking.

They came at me, but I easily knocked them back with a magic barrier.

Almost as if they were hit by a wrecking ball.

A few came from behind, who I threw down.

Some came with knives and swords, and again, the magic barrier knocked them away.

They kept getting in front of me, and in the very back was a very old thug.

He glared at Femm and I.

「Who the hell are you?!」

「Boss! We’re sorry, we couldn’t stop him!」

The thugs screamed.

Seems like this was THE boss.

I blew away the last 10 thugs with magic barriers.

Then I sat down near the old man.

I kicked the table over to make myself look a little tougher.

Then I saw Bill behind him, cowering and pale.

「Are you ready to stop messing around and listen to me?」

「I won’t let you escape...」

I just ignored him.

『Femm. Back to normal size.』

『Sure.』

Femm suddenly grew and all the thugs screamed.

「Whaa? Who are you!?」

He was the boss, after all. He was scared, but tried to act tough.

「I heard that you were going to threaten my friend Toril Tolf.」

I could see Bill hiding behind the boss. He turned away after seeing us.

「It’s a transaction. No threats.」

「I see. I have transactions with him as well. And I wanted to know about a chief you have in the old Demon Lord’s area as well.」

「Why would you...」

The old man said, lurching forward and putting his fist on the edge of the fallen table.

So I quickly grabbed a knife from a fallen thug and slabbed in through the old man’s palm.

「Gwaaaaahhhh!」

「I couldn’t hear you. What was that?」

But he still acted tough.

He glared at me, with his hand still stabbed to the table.

「You bastards are...」

I grabbed the knife, pulled it out, and at the same time, used gravity to toss the table into the ceiling.

The pieces of it fell all around.

「I couldn’t hear you. Could you repeat what you were going to say?」

「You....」

The chief tried to grab my shoulder, but instantly Femm bit him and flung him into the wall.

I grabbed the old man and flung him into the ground.

「My ears are bad. Tell me your answer.」

I said very slowly and deliberately. Then I picked up the knife again.

「W...wait!」

The boss said to Bill, 「Hey, bring it here!」

「Y...you want me to?」

「Don’t worry about it. Just bring it!」

I thought it would be a secret weapon or something.

But what Bill brought was a bunch of documents.

「These are the papers about everything we know.」

「Good to hear at least you understand things, old man.」

「Let me go. Don’t pester us any more.」

「I can’t promise that. I have to introduce myself to whomever is chief at the old Demon Lord’s after all.」

「...then don’t pester us in the capital.」

「As long as nothing involves you in this...」

「...I see. Then fine.」

「And we’ll keep that shack outside of town.」

「Do whatever.」

We were done. But as I left, I made sure.

「Listen, if you break your word or bother the Tolfs, we’re going to be back, again and again.」

「...okay.」

「The wolf watches always.」

I said, as Femm and I left the Negly hideout.