Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 69

Revenge of the Sausage

Connie and Martell listened to Akula telling stories about her tribe and her journey to Calendia over ale and sausages. At times when she looked to become more animated, she quickly winded down, making the flow of the stories slightly awkward for the listeners.

But Connie and Martell were curious about her journey from a different country and did not mind the occasional hiccups.

Just when another story was about to reach its climax, the three heard loud footsteps outside the inn. The innkeeper disappeared the moment he heard the noise.

“Those are the women, Gastone!!” a man holding a broken nose shouted, pointing at Connie and her friends. Seven men came from outside brandishing weapons and surrounded the three.

“So, I heard you’re the one who hurt my little brother here, huh?” A burly man holding a mace swaggered forward. “Now, what makes you think you can make trouble in Big Gastone’s turf, eh?”

“Haah…I wonder what we are paying the Knights for,” Connie said nonchalantly. “To let people like these free to disturb honest citizen’s life.”

“Some of them got a cut to look the other way, Mistress.”

Akul looked coldly at the burly man and said. “It’s me you want. Leave them out of it!”

“No can do, horsefucker, you’re gonna tell us where that bitch with the gold or I’ll crush you like this table!!” Gastone swung the large mace and brought it down on a table, crushing it into little pieces. “Though, now that I look at you, you three look nice! We’ll have fun with you then sell you off to the highest bidder!!”

The man laughed while scratching his stomach, expecting them to cry in fear. However, there was no sign of fear from any of them. Which befuddled him.

“I don’t like it when people disturb a nice meal. Especially not while I am enjoying a good conversation with a new friend,” Connie said while ripping off a piece of bread. Seemingly unconcerned with the amount of weapon being pointed at them. Akula’s eyes softened at the word “friend”. “And you ruined the sausages with the dust you made with that wifebeater of yours.”

“Take care of them, Martell.”

“As you wish, Mistress,” the beastfolk boy answered in response. A smile appeared on his flawless face. He was getting better with his control over his skill and was quite eager to try it again. Those people in the Steelheart’s Mansion lack proper hostility and would not even serve as training.

These ones though…would be great moving targets.

“Just…broken body parts, please. No deaths yet. Not here,” The girl said calmly. It was not that she had any qualms about killing these lowlifes. But Akula was a so-called impure race and would be persecuted if caught killing a human. Even if it was one of these types of trash.

However, just as Martell was about to initiate his move, the female Centaur stopped him.

“Don’t worry your little head, little one,” Akula said as she rose from her seat. The wooden seat retained its shape, albeit with slight lasting damage. “I will take care of this, Connie. It was my fault for getting you involved in this.”

“Is that so? I am looking forward to a good show, then,” she paused a bit before continuing with an advice. “Just…leave them as close to death as you can. This is foreign soil for you. The less trouble there is, the better,” she continued. “We’ll treat it as some stupid thieves trying to murder a Noble. I’ll handle the aftermath.”

“A Nobl - ?” one of the quick thinking attacker reacted to the word. By the time he realized his mistake, His face had already met a wall without even managing to finish his words.

Gastone and the rest of the men surrounding them were so stunned that only when Gastone cried out in anger did they react.

“Khikhi. I’ll do as you say! HOOOHAAA!! Come at me, you little Tsoug!”

At the same time while Akula was manhandling the thugs, four tanned men and one man with fair skin dressed like regular townspeople were heading over to the inn while being led by a young boy with a bald patch on his head.

“Are you sure this is the way, kid?”

“Of course, sir,” the dirty looking boy in rags said out loud. “You dun get many Centaurs here. We though she was easy pickins’. Horses are dumb, my brother said. So she shoulda be easy pickins.”

“I don’t care about why you stole something from that Centaur. I just want to know where she took our Hero to!”

“Ssh! You are making too much noise, Kasheem!!” the fair-skinned man said.

“And you really shouldn’t be here, Klein.”

The fair-skinned man pulled the hood covering his curly brown hair down to hide his famous almond-shaped face. “Shh. Right now, I’m not Klein, the Commander of the White Lions. I’m Georg, a man helping a longtime friend missing his filly.”

“W-wha -! She’s not my filly!!” the stern looking man with eagle-like eyes and sharp eyebrows denied the accusation with exaggerated coughs.

“Could have fooled me. With the way you kept talking about her even while we’re having a drink for the first time in many years, I’d think you’d have tied the knot by now.”

“I-I can’t. She’s someone Prince Abbas is interested in.”

“Hush!” the thuggish looking man accompanying them stopped and raised his arm. “There is a commotion up front.”

Akula took out a thick polearm from the Item Ring on her right thumb and used it to block Gastone’s downward swing. The impact caused a dull ring which made Martell’s fur stand.

Akula dodged the next attack while blocking an incoming slice from his underling. She brought the other end of the pole around and hit him so hard, his teeth flew out.

While this was happening, Connie was still having her meal. An axe was flung towards Akula by an axe-wielder. It missed her and headed straight at Connie. Connie did not even blink as she titled her head away while pouring the leftover ale in Akula’s mug into hers.

“Take the boy!”

Seeing a weak looking boy, one of the men did not miss this chance and tried to grab him. Out of his expectation, the boy bit his arm and ripped a mouthful of meat and skin out.

“Peh! Peh! Yuck! Your flesh tasted like rat’s piss!”

“AAGH! You bit my arm, you fucking shit!” The man was holding onto his bleeding arm. Still could not believe that he just got a chunk of skin and flesh ripped out by a weak looking beastfolk boy.

“Haha, rat’s piss,” Connie was getting slightly drunk from the amount of ale she had been drinking.

“Mistress! Please stop drinking and help me!” Martell said while plunging a fork he had been using into the man’s leg, disabling him.

“AAAAGH!!”

Connie was enjoying the chaos happening around her. Martell was starting to become more resourceful with his weapons and Akula dominated her enemies with sheer strength. This was getting to be a good show.

A man trying to sneak attack Akula was hit by her hind legs and landed right by Connie’s plate. When the man realized that one of the women was next to him, he stabbed at her with his knife.

Without looking at the knife, Connie twisted the man’s arm, relieved it from his possession and stabbed the sharp weapon next to his left ear. The sound of metal hitting wood was so clear that he felt as if it had pierced through his head.

“Tell me, have you ever been stabbed with a sausage?” Connie asked him with disinterested voice.

The man shook his head uncertainly.

“Then this is going to uncover a whole new vista for you.”

Connie took hold of a piece of boiled sausage, infused it with Yin Energy and stabbed it into the man’s eye. He screamed in pain as the sausage crushed his eyeball and he fell onto the floor reeling in pain.

“What the hell?!”

“The bitch crushed Tonk’s eye with a sausage!!” Gastone yelled out in surprise.

One of the men rushed forward and leaped off the table, intending to catch Connie unaware. Connie could hear him coming and turned around. A bench had launched itself against his ribs, slamming him against the wall.

“Good control, Martell.”

The beastfolk boy smiled at her praise as he jumped onto the edge of a bench, the end of which hit a man between his legs. He howled in pain and fell over unconscious.

Gastone, seeing that all of his people inside had been beaten, put his fingers into his mouth and whistled. More men wielding various weapons came pouring in.

“I can’t hold back with this many people,” Akula said to herself.

“I’m joining in, Akula,” she said as she grabbed her unfinished mug of ale and swayed her way forward. “They destroyed some perfectly good sausages.”

“Great!” she replied with a smile. Although the attackers were weak, they were persistent and were rushing over without care. Adding to that, she had trouble moving around in such a cramped environment. She left broken furniture everywhere she trod.

Akula glanced at the writhing man with a sausage lodged inside his eyesocket.

“C-connie. Did you really do that?”

“Yes. And the sausages will have their revenge,” Connie said with a smirk.

“Are you…drunk?” the veiled Centaur asked, seeing her holding a half-eaten sausage in one hand and a mug filled with ale in the other.

“I am! Isn’t it great?!”

Using her limber body, Connie weaved her way through every swings and attack, all while finishing her drink.

She kicked the edge of a table and cornered three men standing on the other side. Seeing this, Akula also kicked another table, crushing them in-between the large tables.

Connie jumped onto the very same table and evaded a desperate low swipe at her legs, finished her ale, and stepped over the man’s face with her boots. She used his face as a launching pad to jump over and hammered Gastone on the side of his head, who did not expect such a ridiculous attack.The mug broke from the impact, leaving her with only the handle.

“What a shoddy mug,” she commented as she threw the leftover handle over her shoulder.

“You bitch!!” Connie swayed out of the way as the mace swung heavily down, breaking the floor. Akula who saw this did not miss the chance and brought her pole down on his head hard.

THUNK!

The mace fell from his hand as he began to lose focus.

“What a strong head. Once more!” Akula raised her polearm with the full intention of bringing him to his knees but saw that it was no longer needed as the burly man fell forward with a loud thud.

Seeing their leader defeated, the rest of the men panicked and were now pushing over each other trying to get away from the crazy people inside.

“How are you doing there, everyone?! Having fun?!” Akula said as she stamped down with her polearm.

“M-move over! We gotta scatter!”

“No can do! The guys in front of us are pushing back!!!”

The thugs suddenly spilled over into the inn like barrels off an overburdened wagon, pushed by the people behind them.

Trained looking men with sharper postures than normal men came in, including a well-built man with an almond-shaped face.

The man whistled seeing the condition of the inn. “Whoa, looks like I missed something fun!”

“Where is the girl you brought with you, Centaur?!” one of the new men ordered.

“You guys never give up, do you?!” Sensing the hostility directed at her, Akula gritted the teeth hidden behind her veil and surged forward with the polearm in a thrusting motion.

“Kasheem!”

The man named Kasheem pulled a curved sword and deflected the attack.

“Looks like we’ll have to force you to reveal her location!”