The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 146 Business Without Capital
Three figures on horseback crashed into the wall of fire, unable to escape. When they emerged, they had turned into three enormous fireballs, falling from their horses and letting out painful cries.

Holding onto the carriage, Molly looked at the three robbers rolling on the ground behind her, her forehead covered in sweat from tension.

Her hand holding the staff trembled uncontrollably, but there was little fear in her eyes, only the excitement of killing three bandits with a single move.

"Eric! I've taken down the robbers behind me!"

Molly turned around and saw Eric leaping from one horse to another; two of the five bandits were already gone.

The bandit he was charging at couldn't even block his leaping sword strike and was cut off from his horse.

The remaining two robbers quickly grabbed the reins and turned away from the carriage, while the other tried to escape, but Eric had already set his sights on him. He kicked off his horse and jumped towards him.

"Ah!"

At the critical moment, the robber let out a shout that was both fearful and courageous, and raised his knife to meet his leaping slash.

Ding!
As the blades clashed, before he could even feel grateful that he had blocked the attack, the person in front of him suddenly vanished.

The next instant, a sword pierced through from behind, its tip emerging directly above his heart.

Eric drew his sword, kicked the defenseless bandit off his horse, sat back on the horse, grabbed the reins, spun around sharply, and chased after the carriage that had already run some distance away.

As for the remaining bandit, he had already been knocked off his horse by Molly's precise fireball and was rolling on the ground.

As they caught up with the carriage and passed by the carriage, Elise leaned out and said, "We took this same road when we came here, so why didn't we encounter so many bandits?"

"After all, riding a horse is too agile. These bandits are too lazy to chase. Didn't you notice that they were chasing only carriages?"

Eric continued to accelerate, and when he reached the front, he jumped back onto his carriage.

"Did you see that? I took down three... no, four!" Molly exclaimed excitedly.

“I see.” Eric pulled on the reins. “I hereby appoint you as the stern defense commander, specifically responsible for keeping an eye on the situation behind.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying…” Molly pouted and glanced behind her again. “This should calm things down for a while now.”

“It’s like the people in front know what’s going on behind them. What’s coming will still come.” Eric said, then shook his head. “Damn it, we’ve been fooled. Whether the carriage is made old or not makes no difference. We wasted our money.”

Molly asked him how much it cost to buy the carriage and have it aged, and Eric gave her a number, which immediately made her feel melancholy.

"You need capital to go anywhere..."

Capital refers to the money used for business, profit, interest, gambling, etc., and is pronounced with emphasis.

“There are also businesses that require no investment,” Eric said.

"What is it?" Molly leaned closer.

"Look." He gestured forward with his chin.

Molly looked ahead and saw several more bandits on horseback waiting for business a hundred or two meters away.

"..."

She glared at Eric, and before they could get close, she raised her hands above her head, conjuring a huge fireball.

As the carriage passed by the bandits, they did not come any closer, but instead pointed and whispered at Molly.

“I heard them say you’re sick,” Eric said.

Molly pushed with both hands, and the fireball rose into the sky, dissipating in mid-air.

“It works well, though. Use this method when you encounter bandits next time.” Eric looked ahead. “But remember to push the fireballs a little higher, they get a bit hot.”

"You're so long-winded."

Molly didn't want to talk to him, but after a while, she took the initiative to start a conversation with him.

"Can we find a place to stay before dark?"

"We have to find it, even if we can't find it." Eric took a breath. "Otherwise, given the conditions on this road, spending the night in the wild is no different from waiting to die."

Molly helped him up by the shoulder and looked into the distance. "But we can't see any towns in the distance."

Eric squinted at the sun in the sky. "No rush. It's only a little past three o'clock now. There's still a long time before it gets dark."

The carriage continued on its way. Molly, restless and restless, would sit for a while and then stand up. When she encountered bandits, she would raise a fireball and wait, which was quite effective in deterring them.

However, as she stopped doing so, fewer and fewer bandits came to harass her.

They probably felt that since they had been robbed countless times along the way, even a rabbit will bite when cornered.

As the sunset painted the sky with brilliant colors and the setting sun could barely hold back its descent, Eric spotted the town not far ahead.

"I have a place to stay tonight."

Upon arriving in the town, we found a large number of people stopping there, with carriages almost blocking the road.

The good news is that they quickly found a hotel with guards;
The bad news was that the hotel had been fully booked an hour earlier.

The news that wasn't so good or so bad was that there were spaces to park carriages in the inn's courtyard, and they could pay for one person's accommodation to park their carriage there and spend the night in it.

"Huh? You charge one person just to park a carriage? That's so expensive, and it doesn't even include horse feed?"

While Molly was still questioning the price, Eric had already paid for a spot and horse feeding service, and then quickly drove in.

After parking the carriage in the courtyard, he hung the sign given to him by the innkeeper around the necks of the two horses, and the innkeepers would feed them hay when they saw it.

He turned around, and Elise was looking at him through the small window.

Eric leaned closer and peered into the carriage. "Sleeping three people shouldn't be a problem."

Space isn't an issue; the potential problem might be who sleeps on the floor—there are cushions on both sides of the carriage, making it much more comfortable to lie down.

“There might be a hotel available,” Molly said.

“If you can find it, we’ll come over.” Eric dismounted, and before he even left the courtyard, he saw two more carriages rushing in.

Compared to fully booked hotels, it's much easier to find taverns with available seats. After all, people can make do with dry food while traveling, but if they compromise on accommodation and safety, they might not have the chance to wake up the next day.

The three of them found a tavern and ordered some food.

The local people were so wicked that Eric didn't even want the mead, which almost never makes you drunk, for fear of affecting his reaction speed if he encountered danger at night.

"Do you guys always eat this well?" Molly asked, head down, as she devoured her food.

“If we can afford it, we’ll eat something good. If not, we can eat black bread and dry biscuits,” Eric said, glancing at the nearly finished leg of meat in front of her. “Would you like another serving?”

“That’s enough.” Molly licked her lips. “If I eat too well, I won’t be able to eat the black bread.”

Eric didn't say anything and continued eating his portion.

As Elise was eating, someone suddenly came over and greeted her, "Aran, I've seen you before."

Elise looked up at the other person, her eyes filled with wariness and confusion. After a moment, she confirmed, "I've never seen you before."

The man looked at her, then at Eric and Molly beside her. “I have seen you before. There were several of you Aranians together at the border of Arsha.”

"..."

Elise was certain the other person had made a mistake, but she quickly guessed who he had met earlier.

“You’ve mistaken me for someone else. I just came from Lutia.”

The man scratched his head. "The one with the silver hair is an Aran. He looks a lot like you."

Eric looked at the other person. "She's my companion, and she hasn't been to the place you mentioned."

"All right……"

The man walked away quickly.

Molly glanced at him and Elise, then continued eating.

“He must have seen the group Luca brought earlier,” Elise whispered.

Eric responded, "Are there still any Aranians lurking around here?"

She shook her head, indicating that she wasn't quite sure. "When Luca was arrested at the Arsha border, many Arameans were also arrested, and quite a few died. After Luca went north, some people followed him to Lutia, while others returned to their stronghold at the glacial lake. I don't know if anyone stayed here."

Eric nodded without asking any further questions.

By the time the three finished eating and left the tavern, it was already completely dark.

Why are there so many horse-drawn carriages parked on the road?

Molly was surprised, and Eric realized that although she had killed people, she hadn't really gone out much. "She was afraid to travel at night and there were no hotels to stay in, so she could only stay overnight in this small town, which was relatively safer."

As she walked and looked around, she suddenly said when she was almost back at the inn, "Then we've spent money but can only sleep in the carriage. Isn't that a waste of money?"

Eric told her to find any carriage parked outside and ask them if that was what they thought.

Molly looked around, found the nearest carriage, and patted the carriage twice.

The curtain at the back of the car was suddenly flung open, and two knives were instantly pressed against Molly's neck. The person inside glared at her fiercely: "What are you doing!"

Molly's mouth was agape; she was completely terrified. After a long while, she managed to utter a few words.

"Uuuuuuuuuu——"

Depend on……

Eric hadn't expected the people in the carriage to be so nervous, so he quickly went over to apologize, pulled Molly behind him, and explained to them.

The people in the car were silent for a moment, then sighed: "Hotels have guards, so robbers who come at night don't dare to go in. There are no guards outside, it's that simple." Eric turned to look at Molly, "Do you understand?"

"Uuuuuuuuuu——"

"..."

Eric apologized to the people in the carriage again, then took Molly's hand and returned to the inn's courtyard.

Two tall, muscular orc warriors stood on either side of the courtyard gate, wielding enormous greatswords. These were weapons that only they could wield relatively easily, and their swings were enough to scare away most bandits.

Back in the carriage, Molly whimpered and lay down on the cushion.

Elise glanced at Eric.

"..."

He realized what was happening and, too lazy to argue, let her lie down. He naturally left the other cushion for Elise, and he slept on the wooden floor in the middle.

Eric took a cushion from the bag on the horse's back, laid it in the middle, and sat in front of the carriage, not planning to sleep yet.

Another difference between the hotel courtyard and the outside is that there is lighting inside, although it is not very bright, but it is enough for the guards at the gate to spot most people trying to sneak in.

Eric leaned against the carriage, sometimes looking at the sky, sometimes looking towards the entrance of the yard, killing time and waiting for sleep to come to him.

The night was not yet deep, and the crescent moon had already climbed into the sky.

"Hiring those orcs as guards must not be cheap."

Eric turned his head and glanced at Molly, who climbed up and sat in the spot she had been sitting in during the day.

"You can go and ask."

"You're trying to hurt me again." She nudged him with her shoulder.

Eric laughed, "You were terrified, weren't you?"

"I thought I was going to die." Molly leaned against the carriage in the same position as him. "It's so dangerous outside."

“It seems your teacher has protected you very well,” Eric said, looking away from her.

Molly responded, "I wonder where he went."

Eric suddenly remembered something. "Did you leave him a note when you went out this time?"

“I left it at my place,” Molly said, “but I might go back first.”

"Did he really not tell you at all where he's going? Surely he has a direction, right?" Eric asked again.

"All I can tell you is that he headed north when he left on the day he left."

Saying it means not saying it.

Eric rolled his eyes but didn't ask any further questions.

The two were silent for a while when suddenly a series of rapid hoofbeats sounded outside.

"The robbers are here."

Eric sat up straight, and the two orcs at the entrance of the inn courtyard immediately shouldered their greatswords and stood ready for battle.

Accompanying the chaotic sound of horses' hooves were continuous screams and roars.

After a while, Eric saw a group of people rushing past from outside the courtyard.

"...Is it over?" Molly had been on edge for a while, listening intently to the sounds.

“This wave is over.” Eric guessed that these bandits would definitely not only come once. The deeper the night, the more likely they were to come back to plunder when people were tired and sleepy and let their guard down.

He was once again glad that he had arrived early enough to at least secure a spot in the courtyard.

Suddenly, he heard a very soft breathing sound. He quickly turned his head and saw Elise peering at them through the small window of the carriage.

"...You're scarier than those bandits."

"I just wanted to check what was going on outside." Her gaze shifted from the two women to the courtyard gate, and she asked, "How's it going? Is it safe enough in here?"

“It seems much safer than outside,” Eric said. “Those robbers didn’t even glance at us as they passed by the door.”

“The guards weren’t planning on stopping them either,” Elise added.

He raised an eyebrow. "That's the tacit understanding between us. Everyone does their own thing and doesn't bother each other. That's how things go in the long run."

She slowly exhaled, and whether intentionally or not, the breath tickled his ear. "What a dangerous place..."

Eric casually picked at his ear. "Sleep soundly. At least it's safe here for now."

"Mmm," she replied, then looked at him. "When are you going to sleep?"

Eric glanced at the sky. "I'm not sleepy yet. Let's talk when the moon is overhead."

Elise said no more and lay down again.

Molly then spoke, her voice low, "I feel that your relationship isn't that simple."

Eric didn't look at her. "How so?"

“It seems like you have something on her, but it also seems like she’s doing it willingly,” Molly said, expressing her intuition.

Eric grinned. "There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"What leverage?" she asked, leaning closer.

He glanced at him sideways. "What?"

"curious."

"We're not that close yet."

The female monk pouted, "How formal... Haven't we been through life and death together?"

“You were almost killed, I’m perfectly safe.” Eric looked at her. “Have you thought about how you’re going to repay me for saving your life?”

Molly looked up. "You want to sleep with me?"

"..."

Eric rolled his eyes. "No."

"Then what else can you expect from me? You'd rather have my life than my money... Besides, you're so rich, you probably wouldn't even look at me for that. Although I've never considered men before, I could accept it if it were you."

Eric rolled his eyes so hard they almost reached the moon. "Just pretend I didn't say anything."

After sitting for a while, Molly went back to her carriage and lay down.

Eric didn't actually stay until the moon was high in the sky. Feeling a bit sleepy, he returned to the carriage and lay down on the floor in the middle.

The short sword was on his left, and the Aran steel sword was on his right, just in case of any unexpected events. Listening to the faint breathing sounds on both sides, Eric closed his eyes.

The night here was not quiet; on the contrary, because vision was limited in the darkness, all kinds of sounds became clearer. He soon realized that the two people next to him were still awake.

If it were just Elise, he figured he would have struck up a conversation with her, but with Molly there too, he felt a strange awkwardness about talking to her at a time like this, so he closed his eyes and continued trying to fall asleep.

At one point, the sound of rapid hoofbeats rang out again outside.

The robbers launched their second raid of the night.

In the darkness, the three opened their eyes one after another, listening to the various sounds that followed. The chaos lasted for quite a while before gradually subsiding.

"The robbers are gone," Eric said, noticing his voice was low and hoarse.

The people on both sides responded and then turned over.

"They probably won't come back. Go to sleep, we have to travel tomorrow." Eric closed his eyes and turned over to face right.

After a while, the three of them calmed down, and a hand fell down, almost touching him.

Their breaths collided, creating a faint echo that only they could hear.

The faint fragrance from her hands wafted into his nose with the rebound of her breath. Eric opened his eyes, glanced at her briefly, then quickly closed them again and lay back down.

After a while, she withdrew her hand.

The people in the carriage gradually fell asleep, and the bandits who had robbed under the cover of night did not return. The tranquility inside and outside lasted until dawn.

Molly, who fell asleep first, was also the first to wake up the next morning because of the sound of the carriage leaving.

When she opened her eyes and saw the unfamiliar roof of the carriage, she was stunned for a moment.
Turning her head, she saw the serene and beautiful Aran woman lying beside her, and she paused for a second time;
When she shifted her gaze again and saw the third sword standing vigorously between the two swords on the floor, she remained stunned for even longer.

After staring at it for a while, she touched her staff, slowly stretched it out, and rubbed the tip against it a few times.

The person on the floor shuddered.

She quickly put away her staff, turned her head, closed her eyes, and continued to pretend to be asleep.

The person on the floor woke up quickly; the rustling sound was from him suddenly getting up.

"..."

She heard him mutter a curse under his breath, and then he got off the carriage.

Molly opened her eyes again, looking at the two remaining swords on the floor, recalling the curses he had just blurted out.

Change your pants?
(End of this chapter)