Musou Knight: Crow of Cinders-Chapter 8: More Guests

Chapter 8 - More Guests

I leaned forward slightly.

"LOWER YOUR WEAPONS!"

A voice boomed from Studium’s shack. Studium and a knight exited the house and glared at the crowd.

The men looked back and lowered their weapons. One of the guys clicked his tongue. I didn’t know what his problem was, but he needed to go back to bootcamp because of his manner.

The knight lifted her visor. Underneath the massive steel helmet, a stunning female knight with shining golden eyes looked straight into my eyes.

I recognized her. Among the playable game characters, Lenitia Constantia, the princess knight and eldest daughter of the Constantia family, was the sole character with luminous golden eyes. Her musou attack was a dual sword forward sweep, followed by a horizontal slash that dealt AOE damage to a huge crowd. Her ultimate musou guaranteed to down every mob within a hundred-meter range instantly.

Her game story involved the conflict between the Invidia and the Avaritia. Lenitia had been sent to marry the King of Avaritia, Choi Fraus, and establish an alliance between the Avaritia Kingdom and the Constantia family, but she would rebel and join forces with the Invidia in a few months.

But that was none of my business. I had no intention of getting involved in the game story or having a romance with any in-game heroine character. I just wanted to survive and spawn food infinitely. Maybe I would open a restaurant.

Standing face-to-face, Lenitia’s height surpassed mine. This depressed me. The game developers had revealed that Lenitia was 170 cm tall, and I was slightly shorter than her.

F my life. I wondered what my body’s bone age was.

Still, she had an otherworldly beautiful face and bust size. She was so pretty that it looked fake and unrealistic, like K-Pop stars who had gone through a hundred plastic surgeries. As soon as I thought of silicone dolls in adult stores, I sobered up like I had drunk the first coffee in the morning.

I stared back at Lenitia. Although I knew her, I asked anyway.

"Who are you people?"

Lenitia removed her helmet, revealing her real beauty underneath. Her blond, silky hair was pulled back in a bun. Looking at her, she reminded me of a certain female character in a gacha game series.

"I’m Lenitia Constantia. I’m very sorry for the sudden intrusion, but we were just asking for directions."

In short, she had gotten lost, but I had suspicions

In her side story, Lenitia was portrait as a cautious and person. She rarely made a blunder in her stories, except for the first story arc where she was betrayed by her uncle and being ambushed by a Zoli Diripio’s army.

This part of the story was not mentioned in the game. I had no idea what she was doing here, pretending to be innocent.

I wouldn’t fall for it.

"Where are you heading?" I asked.

"We’re heading to Avaritia. I just asked the elder. Is it west of here?"

"Southwest. If you see the aftermath of a battlefield, you know you’re heading in the right direction."

"Aftermath of a battle?"

"Invidia and Avaritia are at war," I warned her without hesitation. Not that it would change anything.

"I see. The elder said something similar. Thank you kindly."

"No problem. Don’t get lost."

She smiled. "I won’t!"

Lenitia put on her helmet and walked back to her people. She got on a horse and headed north. Her men followed her without any hesitation.

That was the wrong direction, but that was none of my business.

I turned to look at Studium. He smirked and shushed me.

"Leave her be."

"..."

Yeah, whatever happened, happened.

After the guests left, I handed the bucket of clay to Studium.

"Did they rob you?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Heh! Like I have something to rob. If I had any, we already broke them yesterday."

"True."

Studium walked to the back of his shack. He gestured with his finger, signaling me to come, so I accompanied him to the back of his house.

Behind his house was a square pit with a large metal plank covering it. White smoke still came out of the pit.

I had seen this in a few documentary videos before. This was a primitive kiln for firing ceramics.

Studium pointed at the primitive kiln and warned me.

"Never touch this without my permission."

"I know. This is your kiln, right?"

"So, you know..."

Studium smirked and nodded in approval. His thick hands grabbed the handle of the plate, and he pulled it aside, revealing the warm ceramics inside the pit.

The fire had been doused, but the coals and the firewood were still hot. I doubted I could touch these with my bare hands, yet Studium picked them up as if everything were at a normal temperature.

He chose a completed white vase without any decoration and put it in front of me.

"I made this while you’re away. Do the usual." He ordered.

I shrugged. For the sake of safety, I grabbed a long piece of firewood and smacked it. A turkey and a bottle of wine came out three seconds later.

Cow-Cow and the gang got noisy once again, even though their bellies were still round. These gluttons...

"No food for you, birbs."

Cow-Cow shrieked at me. As he was too heavy to fly, he jumped up and down like an angry chicken. Amused, I teased them.

"How about you lose some weight and come back with something to exchange for food? For starters, some gold coins or something valuable?"

Cow-Cow and the crows gave me a meaningful look. They all scoffed in unison and waddled away like ducks. Studium and I couldn’t help but laugh at the crowd.

"Very cute pets you have there." Studium laughed at me.

"I can’t help it. They just follow me without my consent."

"Probably because they know about your skills."

"For sure."

We proceeded to share lunch. After that, Studium instructed me on washing the river fat, preparing the clay, and the remaining steps involved in ceramic ware production. The lesson continued until nightfall.

.

The next day, I expected to repeat the routine. I was planning to leave early in the morning to fetch Studium some clay while he was busy making new pottery for me to break.

As soon as I was leaving my new hut, I froze on the spot. Multiple shadowy silhouettes in the woods were moving, and they did not belong to Studium. That old coot had drunk too much last night, and he was out for the count, snoring in his shack.

I had a bad feeling about this. I retreated into my hut and put on my gear. After grabbing my iron spear, I peeked outside.

They were still there. I could tell that they were also observing me.

What did they want? My virgin butthole ain’t cheap!

"CAAAA!!"

I heard the sound of crows. I looked around, hoping to see Cow-Cow nearby.

He wasn’t here. Was he still on the treasure-hunting quest?

"Hey, I’ve caught another fat bird!"

A voice came from one of the silhouettes. I now had an idea of their reason for being here.

It was my fault for overfeeding them. I mean, someone might have mistaken them for chickens.

Mistaking them for chickens?

Well, crap.

"Hey! You idiot!" I shouted at the mysterious people.

The silhouettes froze in their tracks. They turned around and glared at me.