The Extra's Return

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A loud noise came from outside the tent.

The sound was similar to the sound of metal striking each other.

The sound succeeded in making my eyes open wide.

I woke up from my sleep and uncovered the tent entrance cloth to head outside.

Once I was outside, I could see where the noise was coming from.

It turned out that the loud noise was coming from some poor soldiers slamming their swords against the trays they were carrying.

They were walking around the tents in the slave district to wake up the slaves.

"Hurry up and get up! How long are you going to sleep!"

Many of them were shouting.

I saw them walking around until I noticed that some poor soldiers suddenly entered a slave tent.

Soon, they were seen grabbing the slaves by the neck and dragging them out of the tent.

Not long after, the poor soldiers were spanking, punching, and beating up the slaves.

"Hehe, be our stretching aid! Don't make sad faces! Show us your happy faces!"

Their faces looked like they were having morning entertainment. Smiles broke out on their faces.

Of course, they hit the body, not the face. And the ones being beaten were low-quality slaves.

It's strange, isn't it. There were some slaves left. And among them was me.

When the poor soldiers saw me, they ignored me.

They clicked their tongues and turned to ignore me.

'Even in this world, appearance is still a very important factor.'

"Hoam!"

I yawned and stretched my body. My muscles felt very hard because my current body had not really adapted to the place where I had slept last night.

Especially coupled with my difficulty in sleeping last night.

Even though my eyes had managed to open, they were actually still heavy to open.

I found it very difficult to sleep last night. I ended up opening my eyes longer than closing them.

Whenever I tried to sleep, I always overthought what Ragnar had said.

Coming from behind, Ragnar came out from inside the tent. He had taken off the bandages on his body because I didn't see him wearing bandages like a mummy anymore.

Although it had only been one night, the torn skin on his body had completely healed.

Only the addition of thin wound marks on his body was evidence that he had been injured.

So was the wound on his face.

The thin scratches managed to camouflage well with the wrinkles on his face.

As I stared at him, he suddenly patted my back and acted like an old man. "What are you looking at, kid?"

"Can you say once again the name of the person you had been serving? Who made you willingly not want to leave here before finding her?"

Suddenly, I felt a strong push on my back.

He pushed my back hard as if he wanted to plunge me to the ground.

But, I managed to resist the pushing force he triggered with my legs. So I didn't end up tumbling to the ground.

Maybe he was too annoyed with the same question I asked him again and again.

Last night, every time I had trouble falling asleep, I would wake him up and ask him the same question.

Apart from the fact that last night he wanted to tear down the tent while glaring and gnashing his teeth in anger, he still gave the same answer.

'Am I remembering wrong? Isn't Reine Rosewood cooped up inside the Nest of Darkness?'

"So, how can you be sure that she is still inside this Nest of Slavery? Isn't there a possibility that she has already been moved to another place?"

"Do you really not know? Or are you just pretending not to know? If you were Callie's friend, then you would know that beastmen have a special skill where they are able to make other people their masters, right?"

As he said, every one of the beastmen race did have a special skill.

There are several benefits that the master can have when there is a beastmen willing to serve.

Aside from absolute loyalty, the beastmen who became servants could detect the master's presence subtly.

"Looking at your expression, I guess you must have known. Then you also know that I can guess where she is, right?! ...Although not accurately."

The round ear on top of his head twitched slightly.

He originally spoke with confidence. However, I could feel the bitterness at the end of his sentence.

Judging from the frown on his face, he clearly didn't want to talk about Reine Rosewood anymore.

He walked over my shoulder.

However, I stopped him unintentionally with a word, "Then, who is being confined in the Nest of Darkness?"

I only muttered under my breath. But I'm sure he heard my mutterings.

Turning my body, I stared at his back. Apparently, he had stopped walking. His body seemed to have been paralyzed.

Was it because of my muttering?

His head suddenly turned 90 degrees backward.

The way he turned his head to look at me was similar to the movement of a rusting machine.

I met his gaze.

To my surprise, he was actually shedding tears.

It wasn't much, but I could see beads of tears coming out of his eyelids.

His nose also suddenly turned red, along with his face turning red with anger. He knitted his eyebrows together as he said,

"H-How...-"

"...."

He looked confused at first.

But his next response left me dumbfounded.

Without waiting for a reply from me, he suddenly attacked me.

This time not only his head, but his body also spun towards me.

Before spinning, he raised his right leg as if he wanted to take a kick to the goalkeeper's goal.

He wanted to attack me using his right foot. A kick in the air. He wanted to kick me diagonally. The part he was after was my head.

It turned out he wasn't joking.

He was serious about attacking me.

Seeing that what he was aiming for was my head, there was no mistaking if I said he was trying to kill me. Moreover, his movements were very fast. Fast enough to call his kick a kick that exceeds the kick speed of the best player on earth.

My head would be like a ball flying into the clouds if I stayed still without fighting back.

I retreated backwards to avoid his attack.

"Ou, shit!"

Turns out I wasn't lucky enough.

I was indeed able to avoid his kick because I retreated backwards. I had also managed to get out of range of his leg attacks.

But I forgot something.

It turned out that he had a leg cuff on his right leg. On the chain connecting the leg cuff, there was a large round iron ball. And it was that ball that was flying toward my head.

I wouldn't have time to dodge the iron ball's attack. So, I protected my head using my left hand.

Smack!

The big iron ball hit my left hand very hard.

Luckily, I was able to use Mana even in a situation where my leg also had a leg cuff that obstructed the flow of Mana.

So I could minimize the damage to my body.

If I were to take his iron ball attack head-on, my body would be destroyed because my current body is not strong enough. The muscles in my body were still too flabby to withstand the huge iron ball that was attacking.

At least, in the best scenario, my left hand would've been broken.

However, since this was in a crowded place, I didn't use Mana prominently. I only strengthened my left hand. As such, the impact on my body was still very harsh.

My right leg, which was tasked with balancing my body so that I wouldn't fall, had failed to do its job. My right leg lost its balance. It sent my body flying.

My body fell to the ground.

Indeed, the beastmen race's physique was very strong. Especially a veteran from the bear tribe like him.

I was sure he only attacked me using his brute strength. Not full strength. But, his attack was already very heavy.

Lying on the ground, I looked up at him.

"Arrgghh!"

He screamed like crazy and was ready to attack me again.

He also had the eyes of a madman.

Above his head, I could see a puff of smoke due to his chaotic thoughts.

It was just my imagination, but I could imagine that there was thick smoke coming out of his nose and mouth as well.

'What's wrong with him?'

While wondering, I rose to my feet and prepared to receive his attack.

Luckily, when he wanted to attack me again, there were already many poor soldiers who took notice and started trying to deal with his madness.

They all rushed to stop him using the various weapons they had.

Without hesitation, they placed spears and swords around Ragnar's body.

With spearheads and swords, or spearheads and swords surrounding his body, he was automatically injured when he tried to advance on me.

His skin was automatically dripping with blood as it began to be torn by the spearheads.

Luckily, his consciousness returned not long after, before he was injured further.

As his features of madness faded, his eyes stared in confusion at his surroundings for a few seconds. However, he immediately lowered his face.

And he was apparently crying.

"Sniff"