Half Dragon Girl And Elf
Chapter 11's

The Meadow Forest is a vast forest area around the Free Market City and the source of most of its prosperity. Of course, the forest gave the city a lot of wood, but it was also full of priceless medicinal plants, all kinds of monsters, and even, supposedly, ancient ruins. However, despite its wealth, Free Market City was the only large settlement in the region. In addition, there are only small towns and villages. After all, the Meadow Forest was dangerous.

Known as the Sleeping Set*n Forest, its depths are full of powerful monsters like griffins and manticores, and there are rumors that the legendary ancient set*n sleeps somewhere within the forest. It was full of dark and wild places that humans did not dare to approach.

There is a cave in this forest— results of wind and rain erosion over the years—which is filled with a strange aroma. The aroma of leftovers and fresh ingredients. Aroma sweat. Blood scent. Even the smell of women. The ground was flat, and the area was surrounded by traps. At first glance it is clear that it is inhabited by intelligent creatures. Any kind of improvement has been done by human hands to create a more comfortable living environment.

Of course, the cave is still a cave. There is a limit to how comfortable it is. Still, the earth element magic used to set up this place was at least quite impressive.

Two men were sitting at a simple table, in a chair made of trees. There was a bottle of high quality wine on the table in front of them — the only valuables in the place were — as well as the cups they had been drinking.

“Gwa ha ha ha ha ha!” one of the men laughed. “Other successful hunts, all thanks to our Mr Dulan! I know the Ice Queen woman has no chance against a legendary mercenary like you. Now, by the way, I know it will lower the price, but I don't mind letting you do what you want with him if you want! She may be cold, but shit if she's not pretty.”

The one who threw the fawning offer to the legendary Dulan was none other than Aizen, the leader of the largest bandit group in the region, Black Fang. As the one who led a group of over a hundred bandits, he himself was certainly a formidable fighter.

Aizen was once a knight to a noble family that had now collapsed. After that, he had witnessed battles for many years as a mercenary, and now he became the head of the bandit organization. He was the strongest crew so far—an experienced soldier who was familiar with the battlefield. But compared to the man in front of him, he was probably the same as the other bandits.

Dulan is a legend. He was sent here by one of Black Fang's contacts in Free Market City to offer his services as a swordsman.

“Hah!” Dulan spit. "Not interested. But an incredible fight..”.

Dulan was not interested in women or wine. That actually caused a little trouble for Aizen. Since Dulan was the only bandit stronger than him, Aizen found himself very interested in making her happy.

Remembering Dulan's fight with the Ice Queen alone had made Aizen creep. The Rose of Ice was a group consisting of three B rank adventurers and one A rank adventurer, yet Dulan faced them alone. In a split second, he had defeated their scout, a beastman, and slashed at their soldiers with a backward swing. Both of them were at least as powerful as Aizen, but they had not even lasted a second against Dulan. Aizen thought he was stupid for insisting on fighting alone, but seeing him fight made his reasoning clear. Anyone who tried to help would definitely get in the way.

The Ice Queen had attacked with her magic, but Dulan countered with techniques Aizen had never seen before, making the party's cleric fly because he was slow in protecting himself. Left to face Dulan alone, the Ice Queen had dodged her deadly greatsword and retaliated with her rapier. For a moment, it seemed like they were evenly matched, but in the end, the Ice Queen was no match for Dulan at close range. He had given him a number of light injuries with his swift sword attack, but not enough to slow him down. The Ice Queen's face wrinkled with gloomy determination, but Dulan grinned happily. He seems to be having fun.

Desperate, the Ice Queen threw her two rapiers at herone metal and another made of ice—and jumped back, trying to cast a spell to reverse the fight as she made some distance between them. But Dulan had used a technique to chase him down quickly and slashed at him before he could finish his casting.

That was really terrible. The superhuman fight.

“With a face like her, I'm sure the woman will sell it at a good price. I'll give you a lot of pieces, of course, Mr. Dulan.” Aizen watched Dulan carefully to see any changes to her expression, but Dulan seemed completely uninterested. He still grinned wide at himself given the fight.

“Well, I'm leaving,” said Dulan suddenly. “Contact me if you need anything.” And just like that, he left.

Now alone, Aizen clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Not interested in liquor, women, or even money.” murmured. “Sounds like that ibl*s on the battlefield for you. No matter on anything other than fighting.”

Aizen would do anything to curry favor with Dulan. With Dulan by his side, even Free Market City had to take him seriously. It could be his ticket to advance to a higher world. Aizen had no intention of spending his entire life as a bandit; he was convinced that a reasonable person should be able to accomplish something more.

“Maybe if I want to make her happy, all I need is something she can fight.” Aizen mused. Just then, he heard one of his subordinates call out to him.

"Boss!" said the man as he hurriedly entered through the cloth covering the passageway towards the room. "Boss! There's a problem!”

"What's that?!" aizen. Come outside! The anger in his voice made the man tremble in fear.

“A-me...” the man stuttered. “One of our patrols hasn't made it back!” "Who?" ask Aizen.

“Gheer and his men.”

Aizen makes sure his men patrol in groups of at least three people. Given the laymen who were the largest part of his army, he considered that the group was the smallest group he could hope to actually return to him with information. One person in each group had a duty as messenger and had to flee in case of battle and immediately return to the base. After all, accurate intelligence was a matter of life or death on the battlefield. That's why he sent so many scouts.

“None of them made it back?”

“None..” the man confirmed.

The most likely possibility was that they were all caught up in the monster attack, but the part of the forest they were in was relatively tame. There shouldn't be any monsters out there strong enough to kill *h all men. Betrayal also seems unlikely, as Aizen is generous with giving gifts to subordinates who do as they are told. As long as they keep their heads down, they can enjoy food, drinks, and sometimes women. They had no reason to betray him.

Perhaps they had been captured by adventurers. That may be the case, but their group is not one that is likely to seek danger. It was hard to imagine none of them had managed to escape. More importantly, it was less likely that they would be attacked by adventurers when the Rose of Ice was working in the area. The adventurers would assume that if they handled the case, the bandits would be finished in no time.

“Anneh...” said. "good. I'll put my subordinates there. You can retreat.”

"Yes sir!"

Nothing is more important than information in terms of survival. Aizen is not the type of person who ignores something that could signal danger. “Hebrai,” said. “Gladd. You guys heard that? The group you are looking for goes north. Do it!”

Hebrai and Gladd have been friends with Aizen since he became a mercenary. They are bona fide battlefield scouts, adept at many techniques that allow them to hide their presence or sense traps or other dangers. They're not like those fools. They were Aizen's trusted subordinates.

“Yes, I heard it,” Hebrai said.

“Cih,” says Gladd. “But I was just about to have fun with the woman we caught!”

"Let go!" aizen. “They will get more money if they are still virgins! Moreover, that Ice Queen was a monster even without a weapon. I'll kill you myself if you take off the magic key!”

“Cih!” Pleased repeat. “You better prepare some ladies for us after this is done, boss.”

“When we get money, you can use it to buy prostitution*r or something.”

“Hah! All right, I get it. Then come back in a minute.”

Aizen. He no longer had any reason to worry—he trusted his men to overcome the problem. This was something he had learned over the years as a soldier.

But in this case, everything will not end just like that. Aizen would not know what mistake he had made, but the reality was quite simple. He fought the wrong girl. That'sthat's all.

* * *