That bard is such a charmer!

Chapter 153 An Encounter with a Harpist

Richard didn't think his performance was anything extraordinary.

After all, the opponents were just a bunch of gangsters hiding in the most dilapidated part of the capital. They couldn't possibly be more difficult to deal with than a vampire count. If I, now covered in special effects, couldn't speedrun them out, it would seem strange.

But Amélie, standing next to her, was still wide-eyed in shock.

The maid knew the poet was powerful, but she hadn't expected him to be this powerful. As a result, she and Grace didn't get many opportunities to make a move and spent the whole time playing a supporting role.

More importantly, comparing Richard's previous battle with the female vampire, she discovered that in just over a month, Richard had become much stronger!

Back in the Gulf, Richard had to rely on Isabella to take on the main force, but now, this guy is only slightly weaker than His Highness!

This is an absolutely insane rate of progress!

Damn, she was starting to wonder if Richard was some kind of chosen one of the gods.

"With these people eliminated, no one in this area can threaten us for the time being. We can go back to the dungeon in peace—and solve that big problem."

Richard clapped his hands, bringing Amelie back to her senses.

After quickly cleaning up the battlefield, they turned and went to the cell block located in the basement of the building, which they had just passed by, to confront the "big problem" Richard had mentioned.

The problem isn't that something happened to old Gary.

On the contrary, they immediately saw the old poet upon arriving; although he was somewhat tired, he was not seriously injured.

The problem is, the old poet wasn't the only one in the dungeon.

There were also about thirty children.

According to Old Gary, these children were kidnapped by the Beast Claw Gang from Rat Street and small towns near the capital, and were to be properly tamed and sold to certain big shots with peculiar tastes.

Amélie commented, "Well, this is what I was talking about, the kind of shady business that involves the nobility."

Looking at the children whose eyes were either numb or fearful, he felt for a moment that he hadn't been ruthless enough.

However, there's no point in further exposing the gangsters' crimes.

The question now is how to deal with these children.

There were far too many of them, and many of them were hungry and injured. It would take a lot of effort just to get them out of the gang's hideout.

Once it's taken out, where should it be sent?

Should we hand it over to the church, or ask Isabella to help us find someone?

If you accidentally create some kind of hellish joke, it will be hard to keep up.

As Richard pondered, he caught a glimpse of a mark carved with a knife in the corner of the dungeon wall, consisting of a bow and arrow and a wolf's head.

Oh ho! Isabella told him about this sign before!

If I remember correctly, it was used by the Harpists' Alliance to mark action targets.

It looks like it was just carved not long ago.

"Who's there!"

Suddenly, Amelie and Richard both sensed something amiss behind them. Amelie gave a low shout, raised her dagger, and aimed at the shadows near the dungeon entrance.

The next second, two people with their lower faces covered by black cloth sprang out of the shadows, also drawing their bows and aiming at Richard and his two companions.

Just as they were about to take action—

"Everyone, calm down!"

Richard patted Amélie on the shoulder, then took two steps forward and tentatively took out his harpist badge from his dimensional bag.

In the dimly lit dungeon, the small badge glowed with a bluish-green light.

Upon seeing this, the two masked men immediately lowered their bows and arrows.

The taller of the two men reached into his robes and pulled out a badge that was also shining brightly.

Richard smiled and nodded.

The test was successful; they're one of our own!

I never expected that my first encounter with my fellow harpist since arriving in the Empire would be here; in a way, it was a pleasant surprise.

He immediately struck up a conversation with the other person.

After some conversation, I learned that the other party's name was — Oh, well, as relatively weak harpists, they did not intend to reveal their names, only referring to themselves as Iron Horse and Bronze Horse.

The two men, who frequented the area around the capital, had noticed the Beast Claw Gang's child trafficking activities about two weeks ago.

However, due to insufficient strength, they could not take immediate action and could only observe and gather intelligence in secret.

Until today, they heard something was wrong here, so they sneaked in to investigate.

Then I met Richard —

"Brothers, you guys are over the top! You've completely annihilated this den of demons!"

The shorter bronze horse recalled the battlefields he had seen along the way and couldn't help but repeatedly praise Richard and his two companions.

Iron Horse is relatively more stable —

Not at all. Seeing this scene, he couldn't remain calm at all and also started praising Richard: "It's a great honor to walk alongside you on the path of justice!"

"You flatter me, you flatter me."

Richard quickly offered a few words of modesty and then discussed the children's issues with the two of them.

Because they were locals and had been investigating for half a month, Tongma and Tiema knew where most of the children's homes were.

They had previously rescued several children by raiding a gang's transport convoy, thus establishing a route to send the children home.

Hearing this, Richard felt relieved and entrusted the children to the two men.

Afterwards, he and his two female companions helped lead the children out of the gang's hideout and took them to a small chapel built by ascetics nearby.

At this point, everyone parted ways.

Richard and the others took old Gary back to the tavern they had visited before.

"Wow, it's only been less than two hours!"

Seeing the four people return looking so fresh and radiant, the tavern owner couldn't stop smiling.

When he heard that they had actually taken down the Beast Claw Gang's headquarters, he couldn't control his jaw. He looked like he could cosplay a roast suckling pig if he put an apple in his mouth.

"Hmph, of course! Don't you know who I am?"

Seeing the boss's expression, Amelie put her hands on her hips.

However, after her initial arrogance, she still instructed her boss, "We've been very careful on this journey, and we didn't leave any survivors with the Beast Claw Gang, so you know what you're supposed to do, right?"

The tavern owner immediately raised his hand: "Understood, understood. If Luke the Black Hand sends someone to ask me afterwards, I'll say I know nothing! Hey, I was planning to say that even if you hadn't emphasized it, since I don't want to get involved."

"But then again, you guys did it so decisively, I doubt even Luke would dare to investigate. Even if he found out you're the princess's person, he wouldn't dare do anything—"

Amélie shrugged: "Your Highness has had enough trouble already, let's try to reduce it as much as possible."

the other side.

Richard and Grace helped old Gary into the bedroom behind the bar—his former residence.

Given that the elderly person was not in good condition, they decided to let them sleep for a few hours and ask them questions when it was light.

Soon, the time came.

Richard woke up old Gary, politely declined his long speech of gratitude, and immediately began humming the tune from the ghost.

Fortunately, the poet's efforts tonight were not in vain.

After listening for only ten seconds or so, old Gary slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I know this tune all too well!"