It was already nighttime when I heard Jake call me, "Hey, boss, I found another poison plant, though it's a Manamancer plant rank 3."
By now, they had already started treating me like their superior, Jake and Damian calling me "boss" and "captain" no matter how many times I told them to call me by my name. They just laughed. And the worst are the elf girls, who call me "chief." I simply hardly reply to them when they call me that, but they still kept calling me that. Only Aria and Julia call me by my name.
And as for Julia, I can tell she's the one who takes all this seriously. Not like the others don't take things seriously—I can say for a fact she has seen the dark side of human life. I still didn't see them as someone I could be close with. I only see them as tools, and I am not going to get myself attached to anything. I still stay up in the trees. By now, I can clearly move without waiting for anyone to move. I can somehow tell if something is blocking my way, to know if I should jump or not. So I got used to it to the extent that Jake even commented at some point that people will never believe I was blind with the way I was moving. Anyway, I didn't mind that.
After turning to him to take the plant, I smelled something burning. Then I asked, "Did any of you light up any fire or burn anything?" And they all replied no.
Then I looked ahead before saying, "It seems people are ahead of us. I can smell something burning. So either we encounter a magic beast with fire element, or we've got people."
They all nodded. I wondered if these people considered that I was blind. Then I said, "You know this is the part where you have to answer, right?"
Then Jake made a nervous laugh before saying, "Boss, like I said, we sometimes forget you are blind, so it's not really our fault. But we hear you loud and clear."
I didn't make any expression on my face. I simply said, "Let's go. We will get there. It's like a five-minute walk from here. Besides, you will give me a full assessment of them there, Aria."
Then she said, "OK." Then we moved.
After walking for a while, we could hear laughter, with someone saying, "I couldn't finish that beast. Thanks, big brother, for having my back."
Then I heard someone replying, "No problem. We just have to hide here for a while. Once we're done, I already have a place marked where we can move to and rob noble carriages."
Then I could hear more laughter. I turned to Aria, saying, "They are probably bandits. They won't let us go. You will be the leader of our group because you are the strongest. And you can just say we got attacked by bandits who chased us all the way to the forest, and we got chased by a magical beast after that, making us lost. So ask if they could show us the way."
Then I moved my head up and down her body like I could see them, then I said, "Even if it means seducing them or using your body. I can tell they are stronger. They are not like you all. From the mana surging from their direction, one of them is a Spellweaver 6th stage, while the rest are either 5th or 4th stage, with the last one being at rank 2. I will try to come up with something in the meantime. Got it?"
Everyone had grim expressions on. Unlike magical beasts they'd killed, these were humans with intelligence, so any tactics they might pull by working together might not even work. Then she gritted her teeth. "Understood."
Then I moved forward. I told them while whispering, "Let's stop here. I want to see how attentive they are to their surroundings."
And sure enough, we heard a shout, "Who's there?"
Then I told Aria, "Go." Then we all came out, with Aria leading us.
There were about five of them—two women, three men. The one who appeared to be the leader, a Spellweaver 6th stage, was the one who called us out. Then there was the woman beside him who was at the 5th stage, the two men being 4th rank, and the last woman being 2nd rank.
Then the leader asked, "Who are you?" He was already drawing his weapon because he could tell this woman was at the 5th rank and a strong one.
Aria answered, "Oh, thank goodness! We've been running for days! I was on my way to the city with these kids when we were attacked by bandits! They took all our belongings! We are all stranded! When we got into the forest, we were chased by magical beasts! We had to keep running! We only rest after some time, then we keep running!"
I was just hoping they would accept this lie, because there were flaws in it. First was, if they asked for the city name and it didn't align with the one ahead, they would be able to tell we were lying. That's why I asked Aria to seduce the leader. I told her to tear the front of her clothes a bit to make her boobs show a bit.
Then as for all the spatial pouches, I told the twins to open a hole in a tree and have everything thrown in there. We could always come for it by nighttime. So that's why we looked like we didn't have anything, to make it more believable.
The leader looked at all of us, then he said, "Who is he? Is he a slave of yours?"
Well, he probably meant me because I still had the chain collar on my neck, my legs, and hands, and was wearing ragged clothes with cloth tied over my head.
Then Aria replied, "Yes, he's a slave. My uncle asked me to buy one. I didn't have enough money for that, but he's blind."
The leader looked at me. I could feel his scent getting closer. I could tell he was coming my way. Then I started trembling, shaking like I was too scared. I started looking around like a startled animal. When he got to me, pulling off the clothes I used to cover my face, then looking into my eyes, seeing the different colored irises... Just by looking at the eyes, you can tell, because they don't move around. You can tell the cells are dead.
Then he looked at my hair. Then I could feel another set of footsteps, probably the leader's partner, touching my hair while muttering, "So soft."
Then she asked with a frown, "What hair medicine do you use?"
I started shaking while saying, "I-I n-never u-u-use a-any h-h-hair m-medicine. M-my o-o-other o-owner n-never c-c-cut m-my h-hair. Th-this w-was h-how i-it's b-been f-for a-as l-long a-as I-I r-remember."
I said it like I was way too intimidated to stand there. With the way they were standing in front of me, it was believable, because I was a mortal. They might even believe I was past the stage of my awakening, so it was understandable.
Then I heard the last woman saying, "Big sister, don't torment that boy! Look at the way he is shaking! He will probably die from fright!"
Then she turned to Aria while asking, "Is it OK if I look after him?"
Aria looked at me, then looked at the leader, biting her lips in a slight manner so his partner didn't notice, looking at his crotch area before looking at his eyes while saying, "Sure, as long as he helps us out of this forest."
It seems he caught on to what she meant with all the signals. Then he laughed, "Hahaha! Sure, sure! You can stay here with us! Once it's morning, we can help you get to the city ahead of us. We might be bandits, but we don't rob the poor, only those stupid and good-for-nothing nobles! So you're good, right, honey?"
He turned to look at his partner, who replied, "They are fine. You guys should wash yourselves as soon as you get to the city. You reek of this forest itself! And the kids can use that... Ask one of those guys over there to hand you a tent to sleep in."
After pointing to one of the two guys behind her, she turned around.
While Aria winked at the bandit, his eyes widened. He nodded, then turned around and left. I was about to follow Aria and the kids when I heard a shout from the side saying, "Little brother, come and stay with big sister!"
Then I turned to Aria while shaking. Then she said, "Go and do everything she says."