Hearing these words, Liz’s face changed.
After staring blankly for a moment she supported her skirt hem with her arm, turned, and left.
The several sword-bearing guards beside her also followed close behind and left, leaving the remaining several women a little at a loss.
Seeing this scene, a smile could not help hanging at the corners of Yuche’s mouth.
He lifted his chin toward Liz’s departing back.
That look was truly punch-worthy to the extreme.
In the afternoon Yuche rode his white horse, carrying a small bag of gold coins and some dry rations, and left the bandit camp of Sunlight Valley.
He did not even take his beloved bow, only a dagger—precisely that crude wooden-handled dagger that had once been thrust into the old butcher’s chest.
Not long after he left the camp a youth rode up in pursuit.
He was called Roge Molanfuxido, the youngest member in the camp.
Yuche saw him come alone, his eyes red and swollen, carrying no supplies on his body, and could not bear to drive him off, letting him follow himself for the time being.
After this irresponsible leader left, the bandit camp also became extremely lively.
In the following days they gradually divided into three factions—one part decided to stay here, another part decided to go join a bandit gang in the west, and a minority of a dozen or so people divided a small amount of treasure and went down the mountain in twos and threes, preparing from then on to live a little more steadily.
Those women attracted by Yuche likewise had their own decisions.
Noble ladies like Liz finally decided to return to their families, which made the guards who had gone back and forth many times advising without result finally let out a breath.
The remaining infatuated ones or those with hostage-complex tendencies each sought their own way out.
Some had taken a liking to those young men under Yuche and now finally could reveal their feelings, following them to stay in camp or go down the mountain to make a living.
The remaining some followed the convoy of Liz and the others along the way out of Sunlight Valley, to seek relatives or fend for themselves.
Overall, the process of the bandits dividing gangs and dividing wealth this time did not have too great a conflict.
Perhaps on one hand it was the merit of Yuche’s years of restraint and suppression, and on the other it was because the ladies and guards were watching from the side—they subconsciously felt that before outsiders they at least had to look a little like people.
The marching gorge in the eyes of ordinary people and most merchants was almost equivalent to a dead road.
If not, then at least it was one of extremely great risk.
When Yuche and they first came here they also felt it deeply.
In those days quite a few in the bandit group were missing arms and broken legs from attacks by beasts in the fog.
But to nobles and some interest groups this road again had a meaning belonging uniquely to it.
With mages and knights of superb combat power sitting in formation, this road’s gains could far exceed the risks.
These people when going out easily numbered over a hundred horses, their momentum vast and mighty.
Whoever saw them would keep far away, let alone those beasts of Sunlight Valley that bullied the weak and feared the strong.
When they smoothly passed through here and reached the destination, they would pretend to mention casually that they had set out from such-and-such a time and place to come here, yet not say they had passed Sunlight Valley.
But if someone with insight slightly calculated the time: oh, this fast, they certainly took the marching gorge.
Thus after a burst of exclamations and praise from others’ mouths, the arrivals also achieved the purpose of showing off their might.
Toward these people Yuche would not lightly provoke them, but at the same time if he had the chance he would not fail to fish a little benefit—these people’s teams usually dragged very long, their advancing speed slow.
From far away one could smell the rumor.
Yuche could use this stretch of time to have his confederates set roadblocks on some narrow stretches, or make traces as if beasts had fought, blocking the main road.
After finishing all this he could appear alone before the convoy, dressed like a relic seeker or archaeologist, pretend a chance encounter and strike up conversation with the arrivals, then in a very natural way navigate and lead the way for them.
He had read many books.
His speech and manner were indeed uncommon, yet that handsome appearance of his was more persuasive than language.
He could succeed almost every time, and could even in a short time win the appreciation of some nobles interested in relics and be invited into the carriage for a good talk.
Liz that year had fallen for him at first sight precisely because of this.
Liz Heringi was a princess of the Kaer Kingdom on the eastern coast, the seventh child of Gori IV.
At the time her elder brother Jevin, who was very interested in archaeology, invited the “chance-met” archaeologist onto the carriage to discuss learning.
She sat beside her elder brother, covering her mouth with a fan, her eyes from time to time secretly glancing at him.
Yet this handsome youth seemed completely unaware.
The two men talked very happily.
When about to leave, Jevin said he wanted to give him some property to thank him, yet he firmly refused, which made Jevin very awkward.
In the end Jevin gave him a white-gem ring from his finger and told him that if he needed help later he could rely on this object to go to Kaer and seek him.
At this the swindler-scholar left satisfied, having swindled away a treasure of no small value, and also a young girl’s heart.
After Yuche left, Liz, while her elder brother was not paying attention, slipped to the rear of the convoy in the name of chatting with a maid, changed into a rather inconspicuous gray riding outfit, and vanished into the heavy fog.
She had no understanding of Sunlight Valley at all and quickly became lost among the fog-bound mountain ridges.
Because she was too frightened she began to shout for people.
What she shouted at the time was “Scholar sir,” then without regard for image she even shouted “Help.”
She shouted for a while and in the end was discovered by bandits patrolling the mountain and brought back to camp.
When in the bandit nest she saw Yuche wearing a beast-hide coat, she learned Yuche’s true identity.
Yet she was neither angry nor afraid.
She instead more firmly decided Yuche was the person fated for her.
At that time she was crazily infatuated with a novel called Greenwood Walls.
Yuche’s image then overlapped with the male lead in the novel, an “elegant and charming swindler.”
Jevin only discovered his little sister missing after going to the nearest city, so he immediately sent people to search.
In the end the person was found yet unwilling to return.
After ensuring his little sister’s safety, Jevin could only return first.
Liz lived in the bandit camp for a full three years.
The reasons were not only a young girl’s will to pursue happiness, but also some unclear reasons inside the Heringi royal house.
Liz was not the first young girl captured by Yuche, yet was the one of highest status.
She was not averse to those other pursuers who were likewise in a competitive relationship, and could even get along very well with them.
But this could not show how noble her character was.
Except in the aspect of romance she was not a person of simple thoughts.
She knew she was prettier than others, of higher status than others, knew more than others.
She always looked at those competitors with the posture of a superior and a victor.
Precisely because of this her words were mild with command in them, her gaze embracing with pity in it—she had an absolute advantage.
And that day, when Liz saw Yuche, soaked through and unconscious, carried back, she cried a bout.
Yuche’s high fever would not recede.
She disregarded everyone’s dissuasion and personally applied cold compresses to lower his temperature, watching by his side day and night.
When he woke, Liz was also the happiest one.
Later, when Yuche said he would leave the camp, Liz full of expectation proposed to follow him, yet did not expect he would dare say such hurtful words before everyone.
At that time Liz suddenly felt everything was dull and flavorless.
In these three years, no matter what she did it was futile, a meaningless thing.
So she turned and left.
In her heart she was neither angry nor felt sadness, only felt a little irony.
She saw Yuche’s burning gaze when he spoke of the one he was infatuated with, and thought: Could it be the curse of love has finally left me and transferred onto this heartless man?
Liz suddenly remembered an old saying of Kaer—effort does not necessarily receive return, but doing evil will certainly meet retribution.