Chapter 101: Misunderstanding
"Ah..." Anfey screamed. He clumsily reached out his hand, trying to grab the opponent’s whip, but failed. Luckily, he moved his head to the side at the critical moment, which helped him avoid the hit on his head, but he got whipped hard on his shoulder.
With a painful scream, Anfey fell from the horse. Fortunately, he grabbed the opponent’s legs while he was falling. He just hung there by hugging her legs. That woman’s horse riding skills were not great, and she almost got pulled off the horse by Anfey. She got mad and pushed Anfey’s head with one hand as she whipped at Anfey’s back with the other.
Anfey was hurt, and he loosened his grip on her legs. He slid down from her thighs to the lower legs and then continued to slid down. Finally he fell on his back on the ground with a boot in his hands.
People around them laughed quietly. They did not think Anfey was a dangerous person so far. They just felt it was ridiculous that a magic apprentice dared to harass women on the streets. It seemed that morals were degenerating day by day. Many of them had done things like this before, but they picked the right person to harass. Anfey was just asking for trouble himself.
The woman sensed that her foot was cool. She looked down, finding her boot in Anfey’s arms. She felt shamed and mad. She suddenly pulled the reins, and the horse raised up his fore legs into the air. The horse’s forelegs were falling on Anfey. The woman wanted to kill Anfey.
Anfey rolled to the side and barely dodged the horse’s stomp. He stood up clumsily, still holding the boot in front of his chest. It seemed the boot could protect him. He looked extremely panicked, which made others laugh even louder.
"Bastard. F*ck off," a mercenary yelled, rushing over. Tiger of Tawau mercenary group had sent three hundred mercenaries to welcome the princess. He was one of them. He yelled at Anfey but it sounded like he was helping Anfey. Anfey and he were both mercenaries, and he understood it was not easy to be a mercenary. In addition, if the bodyguards of the princess killed a mercenary in the public for whatever reason, it would stir up the mercenary groups. He had to stop her.
The woman was so mad that she would not let Anfey get away easily. She pulled the sword out backhanded. The other mercenary, who worried about their huge difference in position, did not dare to stop her.
Anfey was shocked. He turned around and started to run. He yelled, "Suzanna, help me."
Suzanna, who had been waiting for a while, finally saw Anfey’s signal. She urged the horse on and rushed to Anfey. She jumped off the horse without paying any attention to the watchers. She held Anfey still, with white lights radiating around her. Her big eyes showed her coldness and desire to kill that woman. She quietly stared at the woman.
The woman could not help pulling the reins to stop the horse. She nervously looked at Suzanna. In Anfey’s previous world, to know the ability of the opponents, they had to fight: the professionals could tell their opponents’ abilities from the first few moves. In the magic world, it was more direct. They did not have to fight. They could tell from the combat power around Suzanna that she was a powerful person. That woman did not dare to fight with her.
Black Eleven stood behind Anfey and Suzanna, concerned. Anfey and Suzanna kept secret what they had discussed from Black Eleven. Black Eleven thought these two were looking for opportunities to pick a fight. He was worried and mad at the same time. Young people are so naïve. They liked to rush into things. Not mentioning the slim chance to kill the princess during the day, even if they were sure that they could kill the princess in a split second, how could they tell which wagon the princess was in? This business caravan and Snow Fox mercenary group were his people. He had tried very hard to disguise them. Even if Anfey could have killed the princess, his intelligence network would have been seriously destroyed. It would not be a good trade-off.
Seeing a senior swordswoman on the battlefield, the princess’s bodyguards became nervous. The sound of horse’s footsteps came from a distance. Two swordsmen were fast approaching them on horseback. They radiated combat powers around them. Obviously they had been put on alert. Judging from the combat power radiating from them, they were just as good as Suzanna.
The guy in black had said that there were four senior swordsmen. These should be two of them. They rushed onto the battlefield and saw the woman and Suzanna standing facing each other. They felt the situation was quite strange, since they should already have started to fight if Anfey and Suzanna were killers. It seemed that the two parties were confronting each other over something. The king had asked to them to strictly follow the discipline in the army and avoid confrontation whenever possible. They trusted their soldiers and believed they must have not have picked the fight. If Anfey and Suzanna started it, it did not seem to make sense either, since a senior swordswoman could not fight with a few thousand mercenaries, especially with some senior swordsmen among them.
The mercenary who yelled at Anfey before saw the two senior swordsmen coming. He hurried over to the horse, whispering to them and nodding at Anfey. It looked like he was explaining what had happened. After he finished, the two swordsmen did not know whether they should laugh or cry.
Anfey saw Suzanna had already come to his side. He had straightened his back and rolled his sleeves as he talked quietly with Suzanna. People could tell this loser was telling on his wife.
Suzanna frowned and finally lost her patience. She grabbed Anfey’s ear, which Anfey secretly liked.
"It hurts, it hurts. Let it go. It hurts," Anfey had his head tilted and screamed in pain.
Those two senior swordsmen could not help guffawing. This world had become strange to them. Some people in power, who had strong combat power or lots of money, harassed women, but they had never seen anyone harassing a woman whose wife was a senior swordswoman. This was ridiculous. They thought Anfey deserved to be disciplined by his woman.
The princess’s bodyguards also tried not to laugh out loud. The tension on the battlefield started to loosen up.
"Madam," one of the two senior swordsmen called out.
"First of all, I have to apologize for my husband’s rudeness," Suzanna interrupted and said coldly, "but you have already punished him. You guys need stop now."
"I think this is a misunderstanding." The senior swordsman turned around and gave a scolding look to the woman who caused all these troubles. Then the woman finally put the sword she still held back into the sheath. The senior swordsman said, "I also would like to apologize to you for our rudeness." His experience as a senior swordsman were so extensive that regular people were not comparable. He felt Anfey and Suzanna did not look like wife and husband, more like a couple who were still dating. Since Suzanna had already referred to Anfey as her husband, he had to call her "Mrs." instead of "madam."
When Suzanna heard the word "Mrs.", she blushed and gave Anfey a dirty look. As Anfey had talked to her about this plan, she was against it and asked to call him "brother" instead. Anfey insisted that she call him husband. She agreed in the end. Thinking about what had happened between them, she blushed even more. The blush and the dirty look she gave Anfey made them look like a couple.
The senior swordsman had been watching Suzanna. Seeing the blush and the dirty look, he was even more sure that they were just a couple still dating. He turned to look at Anfey. Anfey’s terrific acting skills would not allow him to see anything from it. The hatred in Anfey’s eyes seemed to prove how stupid and shallow he was. That senior swordsman watched for a while and thought, "How could such a beautiful girl like such a loser?"
"Mrs., I am Ganbi of Central Swordsmen Battalion in Shansa Empire. May I know your name?" the senior swordsman asked politely. Senior swordsmen were not formidable, since there were about a hundred or more senior swordsmen in each country. However, such a young senior swordswoman was rare, which could mean Suzanna could develop into a new top powerful woman. He could do such a good thing for the Shansa Empire if he could build a good relationship with Suzanna and get her work for them. Based on this logic, he talked with respect and courtesy to Suzanna, who he guessed by her age could only be his niece.
"Huh, sorry, I cannot tell you know," Suzanna apologetically responded.
"No problem. No problem." The senior swordsman smiled gently as he glanced at wagons the Snow Fox mercenary had protected. He looked at Anfey and found the wagons of Snow Fox mercenary were going in the opposite direction of theirs. The idea of going together and building a relationship on the way was not going to happen. Anfey looked like a loser, but one lucky enough to find a good woman. He was not interested in talking to Anfey.
"If there is nothing else, we are about to leave," Suzanna said slowly.
"I hope we can meet in the future." The senior swordsman was cool. He walked his horse the other way.
Suzanna and Anfey returned to Snow Fox mercenary group. Snow Fox mercenary group took orders from Black Eleven, but Black Eleven did not tell them the real reason for this mission. Luckily, they did not know, otherwise they would misunderstand that Anfey was ready to kill the princess. They would have not acted as calmly as Black Eleven. If they sold them out to their opponents, it would ruin the whole plan.
Seeing Anfey joining the mercenary group, the mercenaries in Snow Fox mercenary group looked at Anfey with a sort of disdain. In this world, people judged each other based on their powers, at least among men. Anfey had acted like a such loser.
"Anfey." Black Eleven walked up to him. He whispered and complained to Anfey, "What did you just do? You freaked me out. I thought you had gone crazy and wanted to kill them right here."
"No, I only left some marks on them." Anfey looked at the whip mark on his shoulder. That woman used her full force. If he was not good, he would have died under the horse.
"Marks?" Black Eleven was shocked by Anfey’s talk.
"If they reach Blackwater City in three days, we can find them no matter where they will be," Anfey said.
"Are you worried that they will not live in Blackwater City?" Black Eleven asked.
"Yeah, it is always better to be prepared for different situations," Anfey agreed.