Chapter 80 | The Seventh Witch

Since the bandit group incident, the caravan's journey had become surprisingly smooth.

It took only about three days to reach their destination—Dupor, the capital of Count Leicester's county.

At the checkpoint to enter the city, Chandler and the other caravan leaders took the initiative to approach the guards at the city gates and reported the defeat of the bandit group.

“What? You're saying you wiped out a bandit group and even captured a bunch of prisoners?!”

“That is correct, Sir Knight. If you look at the back of the caravan, those locked up back there are indeed them.”

The guard looked in the direction Chandler pointed and saw several people locked inside hastily constructed cage carts, their hands and feet securely bound with ropes.

“Alright, wait here! Don't enter the city yet. I'll go inform the officer right away!”

With that, the guard hurried off to deliver the message, while the remaining guards stayed behind to watch the city gates.

Quite a few guards looked at Chandler and the others with envy, and one of them remarked, “You folks are incredibly lucky. Defeating a bandit group like that means you'll definitely be getting a hefty bounty!”

“Oh, not at all! This trading trip nearly cost us our entire investment. As for the bounty, we'll be thanking the heavens if it just covers our losses this time!”

Though Chandler pleaded poverty, he couldn't suppress the smirk that kept twitching at the corner of his lips.

“Exactly, exactly, just breaking even would be enough!”

“Yeah, there really wasn't much profit in this run...”

The other caravan leaders followed Chandler's lead, putting on their own poor acts. This left the guards utterly speechless. In their hearts, they cursed them as greedy merchants, cheap and stingy, unwilling to even share enough for a single drink.

In the Empire, wiping out a bandit group was actually quite lucrative.

First of all, there was a massive bounty for defeating the bandit group as a whole. On top of that, there was an individual bounty for each bandit captured, and if the bandits were brought in alive, the bounty per head would be significantly higher.

This was because once captured alive, bandits would typically be enslaved and sent to the most dangerous places to perform hard labor. It was essentially a way for them to generate secondary value, making live captives far more valuable than corpses. This was why Chandler and the others had gone to the trouble of escorting the captured bandits all the way to Dupor.

On top of that, if they were lucky enough that a certain bandit happened to have a specific bounty on their head, that extra reward would naturally go to them as well. Adding it all up, the payout was bound to be staggering.

Before long, a few officials arrived at the city gates accompanied by dozens of guards.

They carefully verified the identities of the bandits, confirming that they indeed belonged to the group active in that specific region. Then, they verified the headcount. With that, the official inspection was complete.

As for any individual bounties that might exist, Chandler and the others would have to look into those themselves and claim them later. The hand-off was completed quickly.

The guards stepped forward to take custody of the prisoner carts. However, since the shield-horned beasts pulling them belonged to the caravan, they still had to wait for the authorities to send their own beasts of burden. After receiving the officially stamped documents and confirming that everything was in order, Chandler and the others happily gathered everyone together.

“Everyone, on behalf of all the merchants here, I, Chandler, would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your assistance on this journey. Once we enter the city, please don't rush off. Once we collect the bounty for the bandit group, we will distribute it to everyone based on your contributions!”

Everyone who had participated in the battle against the bandits smiled with satisfaction upon hearing this. After leaving their base of operations' address for everyone, Chandler and the others drove their carriages into the city, while the rest of the passengers and adventurers dispersed.

“Alec, we made a fortune this time! Let's grab some drinks tonight!”

“Sure, count me in!”

After smiling and replying to the invitations from other adventurer parties, Alec walked over to Shulim.

“Shulim, here's what I promised you earlier. It's all here, feel free to count it.”

Alec handed Shulim the escort reward he had just received from Chandler.

Shulim weighed the coin pouch in her hand, then looked up at Alec.

“Mr. Alec, since you gave me all the money, are you planning to let someone else treat you to drinks tonight?”

“Pfft, hahaha!”

“Haha!”

“...”

Shulim's question instantly caused the rest of the Hunting Fangs to burst into laughter.

Ange laughed heartily as she slapped Alec's shoulder.

“Alec, if you beg me right now, I might just buy you a drink!”

York seized the opportunity to chime in as well.

“Yeah, exactly. If Alec begs me with total sincerity, I might consider lending you some money, interest-free.”

“Y-you guys...”

Alec's face flushed a deep red. He wanted nothing more than to give his traitorous teammates a good thrashing on the spot. But in the end, he held back.

With a slightly twitching smile, he said to Shulim, “Look, Shulim, I'm not the kind of adventurer who only takes on quests when I'm completely broke. You don't have to worry about me. Despite how I look, I still have quite a bit of savings—”

“Pfft, ahahaha... He says he has quite a bit of savings! Hahaha...”

Shulim: “...”

“...An...ge...”

“Ah, sorry, sorry! I just thought of something funny, so I couldn't help myself! Hehe!”

Alec: “...”

“...Cough, cough! Shulim, don't listen to her nonsense. As an adult, it would be pathetic if I ended up being worried about by a kid!”

“Hmm...”

Shulim pondered for a moment, then nodded.

“Well, alright, Mr. Alec.”

Seeing Shulim put the coin pouch away, a smile returned to Alec's face.

But in the next moment, his brow furrowed as he spoke seriously, “Shulim, if I remember correctly, you're headed to the Manacos Magic Academy to study, right?”

“Yes, that's correct,” Shulim replied.

“Make way, make way!”

The guards escorting the bandits marched past, prompting Shulim and the others to quickly step to the side of the road.

Alec continued, “The Manacos Magic Academy is located in the Royal Capital, which means you still have more than half of your journey left. But our quest ends here, which means... we won't be able to accompany you any further.”

“You'll be on your own. You must be very careful on the road.”

Shulim lightly raised the wand in her hand.

“Don't worry, Mr. Alec, I'll be fine.”

Hearing this, Alec couldn't help but chuckle.

“I completely forgot. You're actually far stronger than you look. Even if you do run into trouble, it'll probably be the other party who ends up regretting it.”