Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 144 - 8 Heading West_1

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"Hey, pervert." The next morning, Catherine drove the carriage, carrying the other three to the meeting place at the city gate, only to see Dora waiting alone under the city gate. Lina, still at some distance, shouted, "Why are you alone?"

"Who’s the pervert?" Dora flicked her whip, which coiled around the carriage shaft, and with a forwards swing, she leaped the five or six meters to land next to the cab, sitting down beside Catherine: "I’m not a pervert, I just have a fervent pursuit of beauty."

"Ha ha ha, exactly, a fervent pervert." Lina laughed generously, leaning over to tap on Dora’s shoulder: "My name is Lina, nice to meet you."

"Didn’t we meet yesterday?" Dora asked in confusion.

Lina laughed carelessly: "That doesn’t stop us from meeting again today, haha."

Dora blinked in doubt, prodding Catherine: "Is she okay?"

"Compared to you, she’s normal." Catherine elbowed Dora to one side: "Where’s your team? Why are you alone?"

"Didn’t I mention it yesterday?" Dora hesitated for a moment, recalling: "It seems like I didn’t. They all set out from different villages, because the distances varied, so our meeting point isn’t in Karatomir, but in Spindle Village."

"Where?" Catherine asked in surprise.

"Spindle Village." Dora didn’t understand Catherine’s surprise: "Is there a problem?"

"Nothing." Catherine shook her head: "I’m just surprised, our initial plan was also to enter the forest from Spindle Village."

"What’s so surprising about that." Dora explained while gesturing: "Spindle Village is the closest to the heart of the forest among the villages near Karatomir. Most of the teams that want to venture deep into the forest make their final preparations in Spindle Village, so it’s quite regular."

Catherine nodded, then gave Dora a sidelong glance and asked: "As the team leader, why aren’t you riding fast on a horse to join them? Why are you taking a carriage with us? If you’re not careful, you’re going to be irresponsible. You should ride on horseback ahead."

"I don’t want to." Dora hugged the carriage shaft tightly, while resisting Catherine’s attempts to push her off, she struggled and said: "With me not there, they can relax for a few days, I’m doing this for their good. Don’t push anymore, hey, watch the road, we’re going to hit a tree."

"You clingy guy." Catherine sighed in annoyance: "I warn you, even if you want to accompany us, you must promise not to try any tricks or tease any of us, otherwise, I’ll kick you off the carriage."

"I promise, but..." Dora propped up her foot on the carriage, gently stroking her thigh covered in black stockings: "However, if someone tries to sneak an attack on me, it won’t be my responsibility, hehe."

"Pannis!!!!!" Catherine didn’t turn around, yet she could visualize Pannis hunched over at the back of the carriage, drooling while staring at her legs: "Lina, slug him."

"Hey, hey, I didn’t do anything, my drooling is because I just remembered I haven’t had breakfast today." The rear of the carriage immediately erupted into commotion, filled with Lina’s hearty laughter and Pannis’s frantic defense.

"You two, disturbed my thoughts! At the most critical moment, at the most critical moment!" Suddenly, Vivian’s shriek, along with an explosion, a fireball the size of a bucket mouth flew diagonally upwards, exploding into a massive cloud of fire in the sky.

"Senior sister, your life... is really colorful." Dora speechlessly looked at the dissipating fire cloud in the sky, and dryly said: "Very... lively."

Catherine glared at Dora and lifted her leg in pretense: "Speak nonsense again, and I’ll kick you off."

"Wait a minute, senior sister." Dora stood up, glanced back: "Did we take the wrong road?"

"No." Catherine eyed the map beside her: "The map shows to follow the road heading west, cross a small piece of the outer forest, travel some more, and we’ll reach Spindle Village. It only takes two and a half days this way, which is more than a day faster than the other route. Why do you think there’s a problem, is there a dangerous magic beast in this small piece of forest?" freewebnσvel.cѳm

"There’s no magical beast." Dora sat back reluctantly, after struggling for a while, she finally said: "There’s a major problem with this route, there are three villages and one city along the way."

"Hmm? The map doesn’t mark them." Catherine took another look at the map, sure enough it wasn’t marked: "Besides, having villages along the way sounds good, we don’t have to camp in the wild at night."

"The problem lies in these unmarked places." Dora explained: "These are places that have been abandoned for many years, the longest being that city, its ruins have a history of hundreds of years, and even the most recently abandoned village is over a hundred years old."

"How were they abandoned?" Lina leaned over to ask.

"Some were ruined by war." Dora said: "The others were all destroyed by magical beast invasions."

"I still don’t understand." Catherine asked confusedly, "Even if there are abandoned villages and cities, what’s the problem? Why can’t we go?"

"It’s not that we can’t go." Dora mumbled reluctantly, "It’s just, just, there are ghosts over there."

"Ah? Hahaha." Catherine was taken aback and then started to laugh inexplicably, "Dear junior, it’s been years, tell me you’re still afraid of ghosts like before, screaming at ghost stories, hahaha."

"What’s so funny?" Dora’s face turned red as she retorted discontentedly, "And besides, this is not a ghost story, there really are ghosts there. Of course, they don’t appear all the time, but every once in a while, travelers report encountering a large amount of ghosts. As a result, very few people choose this path unless it’s urgent."

"It’s just ghosts, they can’t hurt people." Lina added from behind, "They’re not wraiths or banshees, there’s nothing to be afraid of."

"Even if they can’t hurt people, they are still ghosts." Even though it was daytime, but thinking about it made Dora feels like goosebumps, she rubbed her arms unconsciously, "The thought of it makes my skin crawl."

"Wait." Catherine suddenly interrupted Dora, looking intently at her, "When did this rumor start?"

"I don’t know, it’s been many years now." said Dora, "It’s been passed down from generation to generation."

"Have you ever considered," Catherine pointed to the west, "that someone could use this rumor to hide in those abandoned cities and villages?"

"Are you means a gang of thieves?" Dora exclaimed, stood up and exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.

"Correct, I think it’s possible." Catherine said earnestly, "If it were me, I would be more than willing to use this rumor to hide myself. This way, even if I were occasionally seen by one or two people, they would mistake me for a ghost and ignore it."

"Let me think, let me think." Dora started pacing up and down in place on the side of the chariot until Catherine knocked her on the thigh with her sword, "Sit down, watch out you might fall."

"Their relationship is so good." Pannis said "quietly" to Lina from the rear carriage, "They care for each other, oh, it’s making me tear up."

"Well said, keep going." Lina patted Pannis on the shoulder, "I believe as long as you persist, you’ll soon be beaten to death by big sister."

"Both of you shut up." Catherine yelled back before continuing, "Especially that abandoned city, even if it’s only as big as Karatomir, it would be easy to hide over a thousand people."

"But, the intelligence says they hide in the forest." Dora was obviously not keen on going to the haunted city, "the nameless remains are located outside the forest."

"But you also said, those captives were only peripheral members." Catherine said, "Perhaps the gang of thieves deceived them as well."

"That is also very possible." Dora took out the map, and drew a few circles along the route, "These four spots are the location of those ruins. The biggest circle is the abandoned city, the other three are villages. Here, keep the map safe, you guys can go ahead and scout."

"What about you?" Catherine asked surprisedly, "What are you going to do?"

"Hehe, hehe." Dora said with a dry laugh, "After a careful consideration, as the captain of a mercenary group, it’s not proper for me to leave my teammates behind, so I think I’ll just go back and ride the horse first."

"Don’t even think about it." Catherine grabbed Dora’s belt, "You’re not going anywhere."

"Don’t pull me." Dora grimaced, still clutching the pole of the carriage, "Help! Kidnap! Murder!"

"Roar." While two knights were fighting, the other three were enjoying the show when a low growl came from the right side of the road. Three black figures jumped out of the increasingly dense shrubs and rushed towards the carriage at a high speed. One targeted the two horses pulling the carriage, the second one dashed towards the struggling Dora, and the last one sprinted towards the stunned Vivian in the carriage.

"It’s wolves, be careful." Dora’s right hand flicked, the black whip drew a semicircle in the air. It twisted and trembled in the air, advancing outward in a semi-circular shape, covering all the positions on the right side of the carriage. The three wolves were hit by the whip, screaming in pain as they were cut in half at the waist.

"Ow~~~~" Another wolf howl came out from the bush. The bush kept shaking, and a large black wolf, over the height of an average person, jumped out of the bush from various heights, aiming only at Dora who remained standing.

"Hmph." Dora snorted, the whip flailed in the air, forming several black circles that covered the space around her. Any black wolf that touched the circle would be bloody and thrown away, while the circle continued to circle around Dora as if it was not obstructed at all.

Just as one wolf after another was repelled, a shadow silently rushed out, staying close to the ground. It dashed rapidly towards the running horses and bit down on one of their hind legs.

Whips are mid-range weapons and are difficult to handle enemies in close proximity, but Dora was not flustered at all. With a flick of her wrist, the supple whip contracted section by section, quickly turning straight and hard, transforming into a black elongated one-handed sword along the handle of the whip. With a thrust forward, the black wolf could only watch in despair as the horse’s leg was getting further away, waiting for death to come.

Withdrawing the one-handed sword, Dora took a deep breath. When she turned around, she saw the largest head wolf, only much larger than the other wolves, had silently jumped to the side of the carriage, with its front paws almost touching Vivian’s shoulders.