And so, the party was set with me, Ancarin, George, Dioh and Kevin; Regine will guard the carriage while we’re gone.
Under the leadership of George, we reached the first destination along our trip of aid-seeking. It was the village closest to the Plateau Original Village. Its founder was a person called Iroi, so the village was called Iroi Village. Apparently, Ivan, who the bandits killed was the son of Iroi.
By the time we arrived and saw the son of Ivan, Io, three hours had already past. Io was a man roughly thirty years of age, and like George, was clad in tattered leather armor. Above that was a bushy beard that seemed to occupy the majority of his face.
His blonde hair was slightly curly and had an oily sheen to it that made it look drab; it must’ve been a while since he washed his hair. Even more likely given the fact that we found him in his courtyard binging on wine.
If I had to describe him in a word, it would be ‘drowning’. He drowned himself in alcohol, bottle by bottle without any rest.
They was a saying that wine could drown away all your sorrows, but like stopping a stream with a blade, all it did was speed up the flow around the blade. In a sense, worries and vexations are like a waterfall, no matter how you try to stop it, it just kept rushing downwards. Not only that, it was able to continue to bother you 24 hours a day; who told you to stay right next to the waterfall?!
(Author: You can understand this sentence as being if your heart is calm, you’ll keep your cool. If you are troubled by a matter, the best solution at times is just to let it go and let time heal your wounds.
Even though people say that time was a quack that can heal a hundred illnesses, the fact of the matter was that it did heal your wounds. Originally, I didn’t want to put this paragraph in but after giving it some thought, I decided to do so anyway to counsel everyone.
Who doesn’t have troubles in life? It’s just that as time passes, these wounds gradually become fainter. So alcoholism isn’t the solution. In life, one should be looking forward, being vexed for a moment is more than enough, let it go otherwise the consequences will be dire.
TL: Originally, I didn’t want to put in this paragraph because it’s extra work for me. I still think so.)
According to the other villagers, Io had been stuck in this rut for some time now; ever since his father was murdered by the bandits. Every day he wore an expression that said the world was ending while he drowned himself in wine. Over time, he turned from an outgoing adult that seemed to radiate sunshine, to the worthless drunkard before us right now.
Roughly a month ago, Io’s wife took their daughter and left him to return to her parents’ home. She had attempted multiple times to convince him to stop drinking, but instead of listening he doubled down on the drinking. Finally, she couldn’t take it and decided to leave with their daughter in tow. Her parents’ home was in one of the villages we planned on visiting later.
Speaking of which, I’m beginning to wonder if he had a habit of beating his wife when he’s drunk…
Just looking at his features, he was a pretty handsome man. Unfortunately this was all ruined by his wretched behavior and aura.
“Stop drinking.” With a furious look on his face, George marched towards the man ignoring Kevin who tried to hinder him and snatched away the bottle in his hands.
Having been separated from the wine bottle, he spat out the mouthful of wine in his mouth without caring about his image right at George.
George seemed to have predicted this would happen and already had his Fighter’s Aura ready to disperse the wine. There was even a portion of the wine that got reflected back onto the drunkard, drenching his face and hair in the wine he spat out…
Putting aside the matter of having his drinking interrupted, this man actually drenched his face in wine, George must be really looking for a fight!
Io abruptly stood up and without saying a word, punched out at George. With his Fighter’s Aura coursing through his fist, it was a fast and ruthless punch that threatened injury should it land.
However, George didn’t back down from this challenge. With his aura wrapped around his right palm, he caught the incoming fist. At the same time, he stepped into man’s strike zone with a twist of his body and in one fluid motion, crouched down and threw the drunkard over his shoulders and onto the ground!
“…we…weren’t we here to ask for help?” Ancarin muttered to herself as she adorably shrunk inwards from the impact. “Is this really alright?”
“It’s fine, you’ll get used to it.” Dioh shrugged as he continued watching the show with glee. On the other hand, Kevin tried to stop the two men but was blocked by Dioh who was still enjoying the fight from the sidelines.
With a turn of his body, he placed the bottle back onto the table and for some unknown reason, walked back up to the fallen man and rained a volley of kicks and punches right onto his face…
Haven’t you heard the saying, “when you hit a person, don’t hit his face”? How evil can you get!
Even though Io was still in his drunken state, he at least knew to block the blows with his hands; which prevented him from becoming a punching bag. After taking a couple of kicks to his shoulders, his drunken stupor had mostly been knocked out of him. Taking advantage of the moment George used to recover between kicks, he latched onto George’s right calf and tugged downwards. With his left leg, he hooked onto the other leg George used for balance.
Perhaps he deliberately went easy on the drunkard or perhaps he simply didn’t expect Io to pull such a shameless move, either way, with his balance disrupted his body was no longer able to maintain its upright posture and swiftly fell backwards.
With George’s unexpected fall, it was time for Io to counterattack. With a leap similar to an injured beast, he straddled the fallen man and began furiously slapping George. Thankfully, he still had some sense in him and didn’t bite George.
However, it didn’t take long for George to find a window of opportunity given his better physique and his lucid state. Yet with his drunken stupor and anger aiding him, Io was a lot stronger than usual and so the pair became locked in a stalemate with the two men tumbling around on the ground…the kind of tumble you did on the bed…
Both of you can’t be the top in the relationship you know…someone has to be the bottom in the end.
After an exciting scuffle, the match ended with George successfully pinning Io to the ground. Yet even with his face pressed against the ground, he refused to yield the top position. Try as he might however, there was no escaping George’s grip. And so Io turned into a gentleman, that’s right a gentleman. Gentleman use their mouths and not their fists; before George could react to his move, he bit down on George’s right shoulder.
Without batting an eye, George ignored the bite and viciously pounded his fist into the man. The heavy blow caused the man with a jaw strength rivalling that of a wolf’s to loosen his bite and ultimately succumb to George’s furious pounding…that’s right, his furious pounding.
About that…they naturally weren’t doing it in front of us, it’s just their fighting ended up looking like up nighttime tumble from our perspective.
Several blows and a bloodied mouth later, Io realized that this was a lost cause. Thus, he gave up on resisting and threw his arms to the side as if he was being crucified. With a twist of his head, he turned his cheek towards the man and gave him a look that said “hit me I dare you, kill me if you have the balls!”
Seeing his defiant attitude, George gave a cold harrumph and got off the man’s belly. After straightening his back, he extended his right arm to the fallen man.
This time his drunkenness had been thoroughly expelled. With a sullen face, he grabbed the man’s arm and pulled himself up. As he did so, his eyes fell onto the conspicuous bite marks on George’s forearm. Memories of their fight began to stream into his head; especially that of his frenzied bite.
So this drunkard knew how to feel shame after all. At least he’s a lot more obedient now.
In actuality, the only reason he was able to leave those marks on George was because he let him do so. Three-star warriors weren’t just potatoes you could find on the street after all. If you dared to bite them, a simple activation of their aura layer was more than enough to shatter your teeth. It was because Io realized this fact that he blushed red in shame.
The two men stared at each other for a few seconds before Io turned around and sat back down at the table, pushing the wine bottle to George without saying a word. George slowly took his seat as well and downed the bottle without caring if Io’s spit was on it.
Judging by their behavior, these two were acquainted with each other after all. I guess this wasn’t surprising given the proximity of their villages; not to mention that both of their villages were once the same some years back. For all we know, both families had some relationship that crossed the boundaries of space and time.
Given that they were calm enough to drink together, it’s probably time for serious business. After that exciting tumble, we were left a little wanting by that abrupt end. However just as we were about to take our seats, George dropped another bombshell on us.
“So I heard your wife ran away with another man.”
“…” A pair of furious eyes that were red from murderous intent bored holes into the insensitive man. Io opened his mouth releasing the acrid smell of alcohol into half the courtyard as he said: “Your wife’s the one that ran away with another man!”
“My wife’s still at home.” George stared right back at the raging man and very clearly said: “I made sure three hours ago.”
“…….she went back to her parents’ home.” What was originally an insult ended up leading into a proper conversation as he lost all desire to bicker after hearing George’s serious answer.
Feeling depressed once more, he reached for the wine bottle and downed it only to find that it had already been emptied by George. All he got from the bottle was a taste of George’s saliva. The unfortunate potato swivelled his head around in search for an unopened wine bottle, but to his dismay, found that there were none.
There were technically several wine bottles lying not too far from him, however, they had all been opened and he had no idea if there was any wine left within them. Even so, he tried his luck with one bottle and gave it a thorough shaking. It was empty.
In a fit of drunken rage, he smashed the bottle onto ground, littering it with a carpet of glass shards.
“You should visit her parents’ home soon. If you leave this matter hanging for too long, she might just come to her senses one day and marry another man.”
“What do you mean come to her senses and marry another man? It’s marrying another man because she couldn’t come to her senses! Are you f*cking messing with me or something! Go ahead, tell me what’s wrong with marrying me?”
His angry retort drifted through the air like a gentle breeze, passing through the magnanimous George without any effect. “Let’s talk about you first, exactly what happened to you this past year? How did you end up in this state?” George rebutted in a calm voice.
“…”
Io’s silence elicited a sigh from George. Even though he wasn’t there to witness it himself, he had naturally heard about his father’s tragic death at the bandit’s hands thanks to their proximity. That sordid affair took place roughly six months ago.
Seeing as his friend’s mood was basically at its lowest right now, he chose not to continue rubbing salt into his wounds and instead revealed the purpose of his visit: “I killed Doran.”
“The third chief of the Wolf’s Fang? That Doran?” Io immediately asked. Having been on the receiving end of their care, Io was exceptionally sensitive to the name “Wolf’s Fang”. Hearing George say that, he immediately perked up and pressed him for answers: “Did you really kill him? When did that happen?”
“This morning.”
George briefly recounted our encounter with the Wolf’s Fang in the morning after which Io slapped his thigh and said: “Good! That bast*rd got what he deserved!”
“There’s no point cheering about that…we’re in big trouble now thanks to his death. Dawson will definitely come looking for us with an army at his back. Against his thousand subordinates, our village won’t stand a chance…”
“So you wish for my aid?”
“That’s right.” George looked at Io in the eyes and said in an earnest voice: “I know you have a grudge with them and that’s why I came to you for help. Besides, these bandits have been acting more and more arrogant lately. If we don’t use this opportunity to wipe them out, the consequences will be dire. Once we get wiped out, you three won’t be able to stand against Dawson. At that time, you’ll all be his next targets.”
