The horses got closer to the village, their neighs already loud enough for almost everyone in the village to hear.
William and a few guards stood at the inner side of the gate, where they were sure they would be safe. One wrong move from the unexpected guest, and the electrified gates would do their thing.
Soon after, the horses stopped, hooves hitting the ground in an uneven manner.
"Of all the things I could have expected, a fence as huge as this? Haha, you people sure do make me feel special," Olsen said, a smile on his face while trying to control his horse.
None of the villagers gave a response; they knew better than to fall for anything an outsider said.
Just giving the wrong reply could most definitely lead to a fight. That is not something a small village like Sikone is willing to risk.
After a brief moment reading the surroundings, Olsen leaped down from his horse, and so did Orlando.
One had short orange hair and a barely 6 ft body, and the other was more than 6 ft, with long, raggy black hair dancing behind him.
Approaching the gate, they both stood there for a while.
"Are you not going to let us in?" asked Olsen, a look of deceit on his face as he stared at William.
"My lord has not given me permission to let you in. Do forgive me, but he will be joining us soon."
"Has not given you permission... Haha..." Olsen laughed while looking around, his men laughing along at how stupid they thought William was.
To them, this village was nothing but a simple obstacle that they could crush any given time they wanted. How dare they try to speak for themselves?
"Orlando, break it down."
William's eyes widened after hearing that.
And while he was surprised, he didn't want to stop them. The electricity of the fence spread toward the main gate as well; all Olsen needed to do was make a single contact, no matter how small it was.
Given he had already received an order, Orlando gave his spear to one of his own, and then walked forward, getting ready to rip the gates off their hinges.
Just as he was about to make contact—
Psizzzzz!
He felt the bit of spark connect to his finger.
It wasn't for long, and yet, his flesh had been ripped off a bit.
Pulling his hand back to take a look, he noticed the blood had completely dried up, despite more trying to pass through the hard surface.
"Uhh? Why did you stop?" asked Olsen, tilting his entire body to the side to understand what Orlando was looking at while standing still.
Before any response could be given...
"William, let them in!"
William turned around, and he could see Jared heading toward his position, with two other people following behind him.
As ordered, William opened the gate for Olsen and his people to walk past the gates, without their horses, of course.
Both Olsen and Orlando were taken to a part of the village where meetings were normally held by the former chief.
It wasn't all that big, but it had a huge canopy made from leaves and tree branches, and also logs for sitting down to communicate with one another.
Olsen sat down on one, and had two guards standing behind, including Orlando.
Jared did the same, but Lucy was the only one behind him.
And while everything seemed normal from the get-go, Jared couldn't help but wonder what could possibly be in the huge boxes one of Olsen's guards had been dragging along with him.
'I have never met this man before in my life. So far, all I have heard have been rumors about his doings. I thought he'd look scarier. In any case, I should check...'
[You are using the god of information blessing.]
[Character profile.
Name: Olsen Yaihha
Occupation: Leader of Ragoon.
Special ability: Incite, close combat, damage multiplier, defense controller.
Current emotions: Excitement and greed.]
'Damage multiplier has to be some kind of cheat code.'
[The god of trade wishes to know your next move.]
[The god of trade has made a donation of 300sp.]
Jared sighed.
It was then Olsen decided to speak.
"Am I supposed to take it as you are the son of the former chief who led this place?"
To which Jared replied almost instantly...
"You are right, I am the current head of the village."
"... interesting." Olsen smiled to himself for a while, then he pointed at the center of where the two of them were sitting, "Is this how you treat your guests also? No drinks, no food."
A smile almost slipped from Jared's lips, but he quickly found himself again.
"Pardon the ignorance, but we can barely feed ourselves, not to speak of strangers. But I do have something that you might like very much."
"Oh? And what might that be?"
"Give me a sec, I'll be right back."
Jared stood up from the chair and walked away, leaving Lucy there to watch over them, while William stood at a somewhat far distance.
[The gods are confused as to what your plan is here.]
It wasn't just them; even Lucy was confused.
She couldn't help but throw disgusted glares at them, each one more than enough for them to know she didn't like them one bit.
Jared found himself behind a tree, and then, he opened his system.
[Trade system has been opened.]
[What would you like to trade?]
[Current Sp: 3000sp.]
Jared immediately began to scroll through the list of items on the market.
Back in his world, he knew the one thing that made almost every negotiation go well for the other party was when the person involved was drunk as hell, unable to make any logical decisions.
It was 50/50, but in this case, Jared knew how to play his card well.
[A bottle of alcohol (80sp): A drink for people to take on different occasions; too much and you could risk getting drunk.]
"Bingo."
The grin Jared had been trying to hide finally showed on his face.