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Ruler Vol 6 Chapter 41

Author: Anit666

Editor: Weasalopes

【3^rd person’s POV】

After a rather uneventful day, the night dawned on the denizens of this half the world.

The bright full moon was working in its full capacity today to spread its light on the lowly trifles living below.

This night, in fact, was so bright that even shady figures who liked to work in the dark of the night had decided to stay in the shadows.

However, on this bright night, a hooded figure covertly jumped over a fence and dashed into the bushes across it.

After making sure that no one had heard, seen or even felt her, she quietly made her way out of the bushes and headed towards her destination.

Of course, for someone who had just gone through such great pains to escape unseen from her holding place, she chose the paths less travelled by, namely, the dangerous forest.

As the name implied, this forest was quite dangerous for normal travellers as ferocious monsters roamed about, but this woman was confident in her strength and the unimaginable power of her watcher.

She was nervous, however, though not for her safety, but what lay at her destination. But she decided to continue moving nonetheless.

Too much was at stake here; everything could be lost if she messed this up. She had to get to her destination on time.

Some time passed as the woman continued to make her way unabated. Some foolish monsters tried to hinder her, but she made swift work of them with her sword.

However, just as she had started to relax a bit, the bushes to her left rustled slightly.

But there was nary a gust of wind blowing, and she was trained in moving without disturbing the area around her. She couldn’t feel any type of presence in those bushes either.

So why had the bushes rustled?

After going over these inconsistencies, the woman stopped in her tracks to investigate and prepare.

As if waiting for this exact moment, a dart aiming for her head came flying out the bushes with incredible speed.

The woman, Sherry, slightly tilted her head to avoid it and turned around, only to see the dart get lodged in a tree behind her.

The dart didn’t seem to have a homing function, thankfully.

“Who is it?” Sherry asked aloud calmly.

“We do not mean you any harm, lady,” an unknown man came out of the trees on her left.

‘I didn’t notice any presence,’ Sherry made a mental note that the enemy was capable.

“And yet you fired a poisonous dart at me,” Sherry’s eyes narrowed. “You’re giving me mixed signals here.”

Was this supposed to be a toxic relationship?

“We knew you could have easily dodged it.”

“And what if I had not been able to?”

Had these strange, mysterious guys thought about that? No, they had only thought about themselves.

Fucking assholes.

“Then we would have known that we chose the wrong person,” the man smiled as his gaze went to the dart lodged into the tree behind Sherry. “But we didn’t.”

“Chosen for what?” Sherry’s eyebrows rose in annoyance. “And choose your next words wisely.”

As if already running late wasn’t enough, these assholes also had to appear out of nowhere and annoy her.

This better be worth stopping her, or she would kill them.

Well, not kill; she wasn’t a barbarian like Sam and the others. She would just break a few of their bones and extract information out of them.

Or maybe she would leave information gathering for later because she still needed to be on time.

“We have word that one of the Demon Commanders is preparing to attack this city, and his army is hidden somewhere within these forests.”

‘Wait, seriously?’ Sherry was taken aback.

She really didn’t expect this man to say something worth her time.

‘But wait, wasn’t the current Demon King acting under Sam’s orders? Why would one of his Commanders station an army here to invade this city?’

Something seemed fishy.

“I see,” Sherry clapped while mentally preparing herself for a battle. “Then please bring this information to Lady Elizabeth’s mansion tomorrow. There, all of us Heroes can work together to resolve this in a way that benefits us all.”

“But would they believe us?” The man seemed apprehensive.

“They should with appropriate proof.”

‘Of course, whether they’ll reach the mansion tomorrow or not would depend on Sam.’

If it turned out this army was another one of his 10,000 IQ moves, she would basically be fucking it up by asking this man to come to the mansion tomorrow.

That’s why she planned to tell Sam about him and let him deal with this man as necessary.

Essentially, if this man was right, she would let a good man- who wanted nothing but to protect this city- die a dog’s death because he happened to interfere with Sam’s plan.

Seems like Sherry too, in a way, was a fucking psychopath.

As expected from Sam’s close friend.

“That’s exactly why we need you,” the man replied. “We can show you where the army is. Once you confirm their presence for yourself, you can vouch for us tomorrow.”

‘Huh, that kinda makes sense?’

Ah, yes, of course. One should always follow seedy looking men into the forest. Surely, nothing could go wrong.

Sherry too had become drunk on her power. If this was the state of the most mentally stable Hero, then the future of this world was quite bleak.

“Okay… but how did you know I was going to be here?”

Her mission today was supposed to be a top-class secret, so how did they know where and when to find her? It wasn’t adding up in her maths.

“We didn’t,” the man replied. “We simply saw you travelling through the forest and approached you to tell you about the Demon Commander and his army.”

‘That’s too much of a coincidence,’ Sherry thought.

“And how do I know you’re not lying to me?” She asked another sensible question.

“I’ll present my head to you if our words turn out to be false.”

“If you were willingly lying to me, why would you hand over your head when your lies are revealed? That doesn’t really make sense to me.”

And another sensible question. Sherry was on fire.

“Someone as strong as you could easily have our head if you so desired. Whether we are lying or not doesn’t matter.”

Well, that was kind of a fair point.

“I see… you know what? One of my friends is waiting for me ahead. Why don’t we get him, then check out this demon army? It would be foolish to go alone, no?” Sherry made a reasonable proposition.

Depending on how they responded to her suggestion, she would either have their heads or be on her way.

“Hmm…” The man rubbed his chin in contemplation. “How long would it take to get your friend?”

“About an hour, I’d say.”

“Then by all means, please go ahead,” the man replied with a smile. “An extra Hero would only guarantee our safety in case something went wrong. We’ll be waiting for you here.”

“Oh, sure,” Sherry dropped her guard slightly; at the very least, these guys didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives, like kidnapping her.

“Please return as soon as you can,” the man said to her worryingly. “We do not know when that army will act, so the sooner you can confirm its existence and report to your friends, the better.”

A fair point.

“Don’t worry,” Sherry said as she turned around to continue on her way. “I will be back soon.”

“We shall be waiting for you,” the man replied.

However, as soon as Sherry took the next step, her instincts screamed at her to turn around.

And Sherry, who had long since learned to trust her gut when in unfamiliar territory, turned around at the speed of light with her sword drawn.

Clang came the sound of metal clashing against metal.

“…I didn’t expect you to be able to react to that,” the man’s eyes widened as his smile disappeared.

Sherry smirked, “I’m a Hero, you know-”

However, her words were interrupted by the widening of her eyes.

She slowly turned her head around, only to see that the dart embedded in the tree was missing.

Why, it was in her back.

“Just not good enough yet, it would seem,” the man replied as he caught her falling body.

“Wha…” Sherry felt her eyes go heavy.

“Do not worry, it’s only a paralytic poison,” the man said as her vision went hazy and the sounds started drowning out.

And before her descent in darkness, she heard the words, “We were not allowed to hurt you, after all. That right is reserved for someone else.”