Record of a Thousand Lives-Chapter 79

Rwekarn was known as ‘Watcher’. It was a nickname hehadreceivedafter becomingknown for living off his ability to observe and read people.Reading peoplewasnot a useful skill for petty thieves and pickpockets, but itwasa very useful one for someone who stole the ‘person’themself.

‘I easily obtained an A-grade item. I guess coming to the desert was worthwhile,’Rwekarn thought as he looked at the elves he had managed to catch.

The elves were blindfolded, gagged, and sotightly bound that they could not even squirm.

Rwekarn and his party had infiltrated the elf village by posing as adventurers. He thought,‘I never thoughtsomething so obviouswouldwork.’

The kind but ignorant elves had welcomed them with open arms,butRwekarn’spartyhadsecretly spiked the elves’ food with sleeping drugs. The elves had immediatelyfallenasleep aftereatingand slept through the day, andRwekarn’spartyhadboundthem upwhile they were sleeping.

‘I heard the desert elves innatelyknow magic frombirth, but it’s fine since I gaggedthem toprevent them from casting any spells,’Rwekarn thought.

One of Rwekarn’s lackeys came up to him and asked, “Boss, can’t we choose just one of these bitches to use as our plaything?”

The elves started to cry through their gagsfrom fear. Most of them justthrew hostile glares at their captors, but some of the female elves could not hold back from crying.

“You fool, have you ever heard of a merchantwholays his hands on his merchandise?” Rwekarnshot back.

“That’s why I’m saying we’ll just use one. You can have first dibs, boss,” the lackey said.

Rwekarn grimaced and glared at the lackey, saying, “Stop talking nonsense and go secure our escape route. We’ll transport the elves by carriage.”

“Why? It’s notas ifanything’s going to change if we take one elf…” the lackey said, sounding disappointed.

“I said go secure our escape route,” Rwekarnrepeatedfirmly.

“…Alright, boss,” the lackey said. He turned around,discontent visible on his face.

‘I don’t want to make more enemies by touching a girl who could be someoneimportant,’Rwekarn thought.

Rwekarn had his own principles and he stoodby them. He stood firmly by his principle not to touch any of the ‘goods’ he kidnappeduntil theywerebrought to the market and sold. Thatwas one of the reasons why hehad beenable to survive for such a long time as aslave trader.

He motioned the elves to stand up witha finger; a good forty elves had been captured by his party.

‘It’s retirement as soon as I finish this transaction,’Rwekarn thought.He was tired of living as a villain. It had started as a way to make ends meet andhadturned into a lucrative business, but there was not a day that passed without himburyinghis guilty conscience.

“Boss!”The lackeywho hadjustgoneout to secure their escape route suddenly came back in ahurry.

“What happened?” Rwekarn asked.

“Someone’s headed this way!” the lackeyreported.

“How many are there?” Rwekarn asked.

“That’s…He’s alone!” the lackey replied.

Rwekarn immediately smacked the lackey on thehead and berated him.“Then just go and kill him already! What are you causing a ruckus for?!”

“T-that’s…It’s not easy to kill him!” the lackey replied.

“What are you talking about?” Rwekarn furrowed his brow andexitedthe tent with his sword in hand.

A man was slowly and leisurely walking toward the village;he could affordto relaxbecause he was able to easily cut down any arrows that flew toward him.

“Tri-Shot!” a lackey shouted, firingthree consecutive arrows at the man.The arrows flew in a straight line toward the man, but the man easily avoided two of themand blocked the third one that was aimed at his thigh.

The lackeywho had been firing the arrowsgrumbled from exhaustion, “Damn it, I’m out of arrows now.”

“He must be very skilled if he’smanaged to avoid the arrowsshotfrom an elven bow,” Rwekarnremarked.

“ShouldI go and bring more arrows?” the lackey asked.

“No,never mind. The elven arrows are all money,” Rwekarn said, strokinghis beard.

Then, another lackey spoke up and asked, “ShouldI go and dispose of him myself?”

“Arthur, we’re already shorthanded dealing with the elves. I don’t want to lose more men,” Rwekarn said.

“I can deal with him,” another lackey said.

Rwekarnscoffed and asked, “What was your name again?”

“It’s Hekel, boss,” the lackey named Hekel replied.

“Alright, Hekel. Do you think you’re a knight or something? We’re just a group of slave and organ traffickers. I can tell at a glance that you’d lose to that guy, so quit it,” Rwekarnretorted.Hekel seemed tobegreatly offended,but he chose to remain silent and stay in his place.

“What brings you here?” Rwekarn asked the man.

“I cameto negotiate,” Kang Yoon-Soo said in a low voice.

“What do you propose?” Rwekarn asked.

“I have business with the elves. Let them go,” Kang Yoon-Soo answered.

“And what will I get in return?” Rwekarn asked.

“Nothing,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Rwekarn and his party blinked a few times. Rwekarn asked just in case hehadheardthe manwrongly, “What did you say just now?”

“Nothing in return,” Kang Yoon-Soo said once again.

“What kind of a negotiation is that?” Rwekarn asked.He andhis eight lackeys all seemed dumbfounded byKang Yoon-Soo’s brazen words.

However, he suddenly raised his brow and muttered, “Wait…That guy…?”

“What is it boss?” the lackeys asked.

“There havebeen some rumors flying around these days,” Rwekarn said as he stared at Kang Yoon-Soo. Hecontinued, “The CrossedSwords Bandits and the Fake Carriage Bandits. They’rewell-knowncriminalson the continent, but didn’tpeople saytheygot donein bysomeone?”

“I don’t know, boss,” the lackey answered.

“They say there wasan expressionless guy who didn’t bat an eye as he swept across those bandits. The peoplecallhim the ‘Bandit Nemesis’ because they think any criminalswhocross paths with himwon’tmake it out in one piece. It’s quite a famous story in this industry,” Rwekarn said.

“Then are you saying…That guy is the Bandit Nemesis?” the lackey asked.

“I have a feeling…” Rwekarn replied.

“Then that meanswe’ll be pummeled andbedone in bythat one guy…?” the lackey asked again.

Hekel laughed as if the whole thing sounded absurd to him. He remarked,“Boss, do you think such a notorious guy wouldbe here in this harsh desert? Also, where in the continent wouldyou find a madmanwhowould clashhead-onagainsta band of bandits alone? It sounds likethe kind ofcheap story those drunks at the pub wouldpeddlefor a drink.”

Rwekarn lived off of his instinct alone. He was certain that the man in front of him was not an ordinary man, basedonhis courage to walkoveralone. His instincts were telling him to avoid fighting the man at allcosts.

“Bringone elfover here,”hesaid.

“Do you finally plan to have some fun, boss? Hehehe…!” Hekel replied.

Rwekarn kicked Hekel as soon asthe other manfinished laughingsleazily.Hekel seemed disgruntled by the fact that hehad beenkicked, and he rubbed his chin as hedragged a female elf to Rwekarn.

The elfwas blindfolded, but anyone could see she was a beauty.Rwekarn brought a blade to her neck and said, “You must be acquainted with them if you’re trying to save them. Stand back at once if you don’t want this woman to die!”

Kang Yoon-Soo did not reply. Instead, he pulled out a dagger from his sleeve as if hehad been waiting for the situation to occur, and threw it.

Rwekarn jumped back as he tried to avoid the dagger, but the daggerhadnot been aimed at him in the first place. The daggerKang Yoon-Soo had thrownnarrowly missed the female elfand only grazed pasther mouth;the gagcoveringher mouth fell as soon as the daggerflew past it.

“Damn it!” Rwekarn shouted as he stuffed his fingers inside the elf’s mouth.However, the elf bit his fingers hard and ran away from him.

“Extinguish,asa candlebeforea storm!” the elf shouted.

Rwekarn and his gang tensed as soon as the elf finished casting her spell, but nothing happened. Hekel mocked the elf.“Haha! Were you in a rush? You seem to have made a mistake casting your spell!”

Suddenly, numerous voices rang out from the tent.

“May shining light burn the bodiesof these evildoers.”

“O light that shines brighter than the stars, please punish these vile creatures.”

“I call forth the sands of the earth to crush them!”

The tent where the elveshad beenkept captive flew away.Rwekarn and his gang were thrown up intothe air as well. They did not grow wings all of a sudden; rather,they just flew up into the air.

A combined magic attackmade up offire, ice, and sand hit them hard, breaking a few of the kidnappers’ ribs.

“Kuheok!”Rwekarn gasped, spinninga few times inmidairbefore landingface-firston the desert sand.He managed to pull his head out of the sand, and he shook his head to come back to hissenses.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo was standing in front of him with his sword drawn. He said, “Hand over everything you have.”

“…The rumors were true. Please spare me! Take this if you want…!” Rwekarn pleaded as he pulled out a black marble from his chest pocket.

Suddenly, however, hethrew the black marble onto the ground, anda cloud of thick black smokecovered the area.

“Run! Run as fast as you can!”heshouted.Heran as fast as he could while struggling with his broken ribs, and his lackeys did the same as they ran for their lives.

Kang Yoon-Soo did not chase after them, and just stood there as he watched them escape.

“It’s a cave!”

“Let’s hide in there!”

The kidnappers entered the cave andbreatheda sigh of relief as they thoughtthey hadmanaged to escape from danger.

However…

Whatlay in waitfor them was sixtyclub-wieldingFire Trollswho hadsuddenly appeared from the darkness of the cave.

“Those guys! They ran away the same wayasthat dwarf I caught! Thinking about it is making me mad!”

“We have to teach these kidnappers a lesson!”

“Our elven friends almost got sold off because of them!”

The Fire Trolls were cold and harsh, unlike their usual warm and gentle personalities.

Henrick approached Kang Yoon-Soo and patted him ontheshoulder as heremarked, “This happened last time with the carriage as well…You don’tseem to get along with bandits.”

“I know, right?” Kang Yoon-Soo responded.

***

“Thank you for saving us,” the elf village chief said, grabbingboth of Kang Yoon-Soo’s hands.He looked like a man in histhirtiesdespite his title as the village chief, but of course,hewas likelymuch older than he looked.

“But didn’t you get captured too easily? Aren’t you elves?” Henrick asked.Shaneth nudged his side with her elbow.Henrick groaned before he looked at the village chief and smiledawkwardly.

“We now live in a world where showing kindness is a sin. However, we donot regret what we did. Our beliefs are strong enough not to crumble just because of the evil those men did to us,” the village chief said.

A small elf girl came and nudged Kang Yoon-Soo’s knee. She placed a crown made of flowers on his head when he bent down to the girl’s height.She said,“Here, take this.”

“Thank you,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.The girl blushed and hid behind her mother when she heard Kang Yoon-Soo’s low voice.

Shaneth was surprised when she saw theflower crown. She asked, “Oh my, how did you manage to make a flower crown in the desert?”

“We are working on restoring the desert into a forest,” the village chief respondedproudly. He added, “This is a flower bred to be able to grow in the desert. We call it a desert flower. There arenotmanyof them yet, but we are slowly increasing their numbers.”

“To think that the desertcouldbe restoredinto a forest. Is that even possible?” Shaneth asked.

“They say that the vast Desert of Death was once a lush forestin ancienttimes. I believenothing isimpossible,” the village chief said.

The Fire Trollsin the back suddenlyfakedcoughsas if they were asking for attention as well.The village chief laughed and said, “Oh my, I seemed to have forgotten to ask you. What brings you to our village?”

“We’re out of water! Do you mind giving us some?!” the Fire Trolls asked.

“Of course;you are our saviors, after all. We willprovide foryou abundantly,” the village chief said, easily agreeingto their request.

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly added, “That’s not all.”

“What else is there that we can help you with? Just tell us anything you need,” the village chief said.

“We have to mobilize all of the Fire Trolls and elveswholivein the Desert of Death,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The village chief was surprised; so were the others surrounding them.The village chief asked,“And whyis that so?”

“There’s an enemy we have to ambush,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The elves’ expression immediately changedwhen they heardtheword ‘ambush’, and a few of them seemed to be on their guard.The village chief saidcoldly, “We do not enjoy partaking in wars.”

“You have to this time,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Andwhat if we refuse?” the village chief asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo answered fromexperience.“The continent will be destroyed.”