In the vast grassland where there is no edge visible to the naked eye, it is not easy to get out of a straight line. No matter how much you concentrate and move forward cautiously, it is inevitable that you will deviate from the original direction after a certain distance. With no other references around, Alex had to take out the locator in her pocket from time to time to adjust her direction.

The wind around her made waves on the tips of the grass, and Alex tightened her collar and quickened her pace once more.

Her goal is to catch up with Ciel as quickly as possible, and considering the high agility created by Ciel's level and class, even if she unconsciously slows down her pace, she is a little faster than Alex's average speed. So from the beginning of the girl, she continued to increase her pace, and by this time, Alex's travel speed had almost reached the critical point of "sprinting" and "running".

It's been an hour since the departure from the town, and although she still has plenty of energy, Alex has begun to feel mentally sleepy due to the visual exhaustion caused by the monotonous scenery around her.

Pausing to pull out the "locator" again, the shape of which was rather vague and completely disconnected from the edge of the boundaries of the law, Alex calibrated the direction of progress for the fourth time.

It's only been 20 minutes since the last comparison, and there is no significant shift in direction. But it's still quite a short distance from the location of Hill shown above.

"Ah~" The girl sighed slightly in a lazy voice: "If only I could borrow that bear to travel." ”

- It seems that she misses the feeling of being on the back of "Torotaro" in the first place.

At this time, Alex inadvertently raised her eyes, and her eyes caught a vision in front of her.

It's cooking smoke.

A blank white streak swayed in the wind not far ahead, rising several meters into the air before being blown away by the surging currents. With half a year of experience spent in the grasslands while searching for the Kiss of Death's Residence, Alex immediately recognized that it was cooking smoke.

- Eighty percent of them are passing merchants, and they may be able to find out where Hill has passed.

Thinking of this, Alex pulsated again and walked towards the smoke in front of her.

※

The composition of the people of the Northern Plains is that five out of ten people will be outcasts, and one out of every three will be bandits.

- This is a widely circulated saying on the continent of Trensa. Of course, folk rumors have always been willing to add fuel to the vinegar, and the real situation is not necessarily exaggerated like this, but it is not necessarily groundless, and this statement is not entirely nonsense.

Since the dissolution of the Three-City Confederation on the Northern Plains more than 300 years ago, the northern kingdom, which has existed on the continent of Trenza since recorded history, has effectively existed in name only. Needless to say, even if it exists "in name", it is only limited to the claims of three independent city-states. The dominant external name for the region is the "Northern Plains" in terms of geography, and the name "Northern Union-City-State" is now only found in textbooks and papers by scholars. As for the three city-states that are now independent of the northern plains, they claim to have inherited orthodoxy and call themselves the "northern city-states".

The cause and details of the dissolution of the Three Cities Confederation are difficult to explain for a while, but it is well known that after the dissolution, the three independent city-states lost control of the land. Natural disasters that befell this land for "some reason" led to a large-scale reduction in food production, coupled with years of strife and conflict between the three cities. The unmanaged, unsustainable inhabitants either chose to leave their homeland to find a way to survive in Nome and Ayers, or simply left the grass to intercept the caravans and transports passing through the land, causing great trouble for the caravans traveling between the two places.

In addition to these people, of course, there are also people who still stick to this land. They may be conceptual traditions, or they may have a nostalgia for the countryside, but in short, they are like stubborn stones half buried deep in the soil. It's fine if it's the citizens of the city-state and the villages around the city-state, but those small towns that are sandwiched between the gaps between the three city-states have become a dark hotbed that no one cares about.

To the north of the edge of the Lallo grassland, the village called "Pulip Village" is one of them.

Right now, the agitated villagers are heading towards the village with Hill in tow. There was no expression on his face, and Ciel, who was at the mercy of the surrounding villagers like a puppet, was surrounded in the middle of the crowd.

"Little Brother Eight or Six, the front is where the bandits live, you must clean them up for us!"

The old man who was holding Hill's arm in such excitement was the current village chief of Pulip Village.

As you can tell from the old man's address to Hill, this is not the first time Hill has been to this place. The last time Hill was here was a year ago, when one of the village's prodigals gathered a group of thugs and ruffians to execute the village chief, turning the village into a paradise under his rule. At that time, it was Hill who was sent out by Kiss of Death to solve the problem.

Because of the proximity of Pulip Village to the grassland, it is often harassed by bandits on weekdays, and Hill's unconcealed plan of action means that the villagers here are already quite familiar with this teenager who calls himself "Kiss of Death No. 10086".

Hill arrived here less than an hour ago, and the village of Pripp was right in his path. When the villagers at the entrance of the village saw him, they immediately rushed up to him excitedly while calling out to their companions, and told him that the village was occupied by several exiled bandits.

"Little brother, you came really fast this time! We only secretly sent out the letter last night. ”

"I didn't receive the letter, I just happened to be passing by." Hill replied softly.

"It doesn't matter if you receive the letter or not, anyway, little brother, we can rest assured when you come!" An uncle next to him said loudly.

A series of echoes followed.

"How many people are there?"

Ignoring the commotion around him, Hill looked at the village chief who was pinching his wrist without expression.

"There are a few people...... We don't know for sure, they say they have more than twenty people, but judging by the amount of food they want, I estimate that it is thirteen or fourteen at most. ”

"No, see it with your own eyes?"

"Little brother, don't you know, if they invade from the front, the boys in our village will have enough for them to drink. The point is that they only sneaked in the night before......"

"yes, yes! They broke into Old Hank's house and took possession of it and didn't come out! ”

Nodding, the village chief clasped Ciel's hand and continued.

"As soon as I opened the door yesterday morning, I saw blood and corpses in the door of Old Hank. Not only old Hank, but his son and daughter-in-law were also killed by the brutes. Speaking of this, his white beard shook excitedly a few times, and the hand that pinched Hill's wrist became stronger: "Even if there are a lot of them, I plan to let people rush in." But the question is...... Old Hank's grandson is still inside! ”

"yes, yes, the group took little Hank hostage inside and threatened us with food and drink. After a while, we started to beat the child, deliberately making the child cry to us. ”

"It's not just little Hank, the group asked us to send women in last night. If it weren't for the village chief's tough attitude, maybe they would have been really frightened, and at that time, Little Hank's aunt couldn't help but grit her teeth and go in! ”

The excited voices of the villagers came and went, and Hill nodded slightly.

"In other words, they're all villains."

"Isn't it? There is not a good thing in the people, there is a voice in it that I am familiar with, I only remembered it yesterday at home, I have helped him before. ”

"What!? Isn't that what he brought people in!? ”

"That's not necessarily, the location of our village is not a secret."

"Then you shouldn't have pitied him in the first place, that bastard would have starved to death sooner!"

While the villagers were talking to each other, they finally came to a courtyard. The gate on the courtyard wall was tightly closed, and there were some eye-catching blood stains standing on it.

"Little Brother Eighty-Six, this is it." The village chief shook Hill's hand violently as he spoke: "You must save little Hank, there is only one seedling left in their house!" ”

"Rest assured."

Hill nodded expressionlessly, and walked to the front of the courtyard door with his hands drawn.

The red wooden door has a bar in the middle, apparently bolted from the back.

Even if Hill walked to the door without concealing his footsteps, there was no sound from inside, it seemed that the robbers were emboldened because they held hostages, and they didn't even arrange for anyone to stand guard at the door.

Choosing not to knock on the door, Hill drew his knife into the middle of the crack in the door.

A crisp sound sounded, and then the door parted naturally inward, as if it had been just hidden.

It wasn't until one of the latches of the mahogany, neatly divided into two sections, hit the ground and made a sound that the robbers in the courtyard looked this way.

Seeing the scene at the door, and the figure standing upright in the middle of the gate, these bandits showed shocked expressions......