### Chapter 141
After a moment of thought, it dawned on me—oh, it’s him, the guy I once hit with a rock!
What was his name again? How did he end up here…
With one hand clutching my bag and the other adjusting my skirt, I glanced around before making my way over.
In front of me, the drunken soldier was still taking cheap shots at the young man’s face, his slaps more insulting than painful. The soldier was laughing and repeatedly demanding an apology, while the young man shot him a fiery glare as if he were about to blow up.
The nameless boy was followed by a little boy who was crying loudly, looking quite pitiful. I crouched down beside him, ruffled his hair, and pulled a sweet biscuit from my bag, handing it to him. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, here’s something tasty.”
The little boy stared at me blankly.
The surrounding youths and soldiers also stared, one soldier puzzled, asking, “Hey, who are you?”
I ignored him and continued to smile at the boy, pressing the biscuit into his hands. His tears dried up, and he sniffled, instinctively shoving the biscuit into his mouth. “Sister…”
“Is it yummy?”
“Y-Yeah, it’s… it’s good…”
“Hehe.”
I gave his head another pat. His hair was so soft, similar to Aili’s touch—very comforting.
“You, you are…”
“Hey! Little girl, I’m talking to you!”
Two voices rang out almost simultaneously, and someone bumped into me from the side, shoving a finger at my shoulder. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing? Can’t you see our soldier here is having a bad night? Get lost, this isn’t your business. Go find your mother!”
I stumbled slightly from the push, the biscuits in my bag rattling. I quickly covered the bag’s opening and stood up, my gaze skimming over the fully dazed face of the familiar young man, tilting my head slightly, my eyes locking onto the knight who pushed me, my brow furrowing.
“You’re a Republic soldier?”
“……”
In an instant, the Republic soldier’s eyes widened almost to the point of popping out, staring at me, his mouth agape but speechless.
“You guys are drunk.”
The overwhelming stench of alcohol wafting from them was nauseating, and I couldn’t help but raise a hand to cover my nose. My eyes scanned the area, seeing that the soldier was still tugging at the young man’s hair, my eyebrows knitting tighter. “Causing a drunken ruckus and flaunting power here…”
“What the hell! By the gods, Sag, look at this little girl…”
“F*ck…”
“Your mother’s…”
Gasps of astonishment erupted around me as several soldiers looked my way, their eyes glazing over. Their already flushed faces turned a deep crimson. The two young men leaning close to me stood frozen in shock; it seemed they had completely forgotten their earlier displeasure.
When I caught their gazes, the soldier quickly released the young man’s hair, gave him a light pat on the head, and put his arm around the young man’s shoulder, feigning friendliness. “Just fooling around, fooling around… Haha, so, Miss, do you know these little brats? Did you come with them?”
“Let go!”
The young man being hugged struggled fiercely to break free, stepping back, but the soldier wasn’t fazed; he even asked with feigned concern, “Are you okay? Sorry, I was just joking, joking…”
Seeing the tension ease, I turned back to the still-dazed… oh right, his name was Ryan.
I told Ryan, “You guys should go.”
“Wait, wait a minute!”
A burly soldier stepped in front of me, a ghastly grin plastered across his face. “Don’t be in such a hurry to leave, Miss… Sorry, that was just a little misunderstanding, yeah, misunderstanding. These lads bumped into us, ah! Young men have fiery tempers, my brothers here are hot-headed too, we barely exchanged words before things got out of hand, not right, not right…”
As he spoke, he signaled to the others. “Sag, Jim! Go apologize to the young men, let’s be friends, be friends… Miss, are you from Stag Town? How old are you this year?”
“Who wants you to apologize! You’re just looking for trouble! Ugh! A bunch of drunkards!”
“Ryan, stop talking…”
“They hit Virgil!”
“Sorry, sorry, we did have a bit to drink… how about this, the show is about to start, the town square is packed, you don’t need to shove in there. I can get you a nice spot over here with drinks!”
The soldiers blocked Ryan and the others, preventing their escape, and began sweet-talking the youths into joining them for some drinks. Meanwhile, someone in the crowd waved their hands, shouting, “Stop staring! Get lost, get lost…”
“Don’t go with them, don’t go with them!”
“Little sister, don’t be scared. The Knight will be here soon…”
A voice from the crowd called out, quickly met with a soldier’s shout, “What are you yelling about? What’s it to you if the Knight comes? We are the Republic’s soldiers, heroes helping disaster victims, on good terms with the Knight! Besides, we haven’t killed anyone or burned anything, you’re acting as if the Knight is going to drag us away…”
“Get the hell out of here, scram, scram!”
“Drunkards…”
Amid the chaos and noise, my annoyance grew, my brow furrowing deeper as I couldn’t help but touch the Pope Knight badge hidden in my shirt, squeezing then releasing it, taking a deep breath while glaring at the grinning drunkard. “Republic soldiers, it’s people like you…”
“Miss, we’re not ordinary soldiers, we’re disaster relief heroes! Want to hear about our brave deeds? Come on, come on, join us and your friends for the show, you’ll see everything clearly!”
“Stay away from her!”
The young man named Ryan stepped forward, blocking my view from the soldier. “You’re just supply runners; look at you—reeking of booze and meat! Who knows how much food you’ve secretly consumed meant for disaster areas? The southern front is under attack, the demons are here, and even our villagers are at the front lines! Who here dares to even take a look? You just bully people here, pathetic heroes!”
“Ryan, don’t say that…”
The red-haired youth beside him tried to calm him down, tugging on Ryan’s sleeve, likely bewildered by the sudden confidence that empowered him to argue with these old soldier thugs. The red-haired guy’s face turned pale, hands trembling in fear as he sneaked a glance at me, relaxing only slightly before averting his gaze again.
He spoke to the soldiers, “Big brother, I’m sorry, you go drink, we won’t join you. Let us go… don’t make things hard for the girl; we don’t know her, we don’t know her…”
The red-haired youth added, turning back to me, “You, you go first…”
“Get lost!”
The soldier suddenly howled, his expression darkening, reaching out to shove the red-haired guy, who stumbled backward. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on Ryan’s face, speaking each word slowly, “Kid, watch your mouth, you dare to say anything? Come on, tell me your name… you live in Stag Town, right?”
“Stop! Listen to me…”
Annoyed, annoyed, annoyed…
If this continued, someone might notice us…
I felt my patience wearing thin, watching as the situation threatened to escalate. With a big threat looming, I understood I couldn’t reveal myself just yet or expose the Pope Knight’s identity. Everything had to be low-key, so suppressing my frustration, I stepped forward to try to convince them to stop arguing, but neither Ryan nor the soldier cared to listen.
“What do you care what I’m called? What do you care where I live? You’re clearly a soldier from Silgaya; you want to play dirty and get back at me? Go ahead! Right here, right now! You think I wouldn’t dare?! Do you know who she is—”
Just as things were getting heated, Ryan pointed at me. “Do you know who she is? Say it and you’ll be scared to d*ath! She’s—”
“Ryan!”
I was furious, glaring at him and raising my voice.
I somewhat regretted coming out…
Maybe sensing my anger, Ryan was momentarily stunned. But the next second, the soldier who had fully pissed off couldn’t hold back, grabbing Ryan by his collar and raising his fist to smash it into his face. “d*mn it, talking back to me—”
“Stop!”
“Ahhh!”
Once emotions took over, it all went out the window. Ryan got hit squarely in the face, grunting in pain, but that didn’t stop him; he angrily swung back, though he was no match for a soldier, especially not one in armor. Even inebriated, he had no chance of budging the soldier. The soldier ducked to avoid the punch, bending down to tackle Ryan’s chest and slammed him towards the ground.
“Your mother…”
Ryan struggled hard, flailing his arms as he was about to hit the ground when I acted swiftly, reaching out my left hand and grabbing the soldier’s shoulder guard, pulling him back. But in the chaos, the paper bag I was holding tumbled over, biscuits scattering everywhere.
“……”
In that moment, I realized what had happened.
And my composure cracked. I lifted my foot and kicked the soldier right in the side.
Thud—
The sound of the heavy hit echoed as the soldier left the ground, his body twisting as he flew four or five meters, crashing into another soldier, the two of them rolling on the ground for several circles.
“……”
The scene fell silent for a brief second.
Then chaos erupted in the crowd.
“Opal!”
“Wh-What did you do…?”
Everything happened so suddenly that everyone, including the youths, was left speechless. The soldier’s companions looked shocked, first furious, then unnerved and confused. The soldier who had been kicked groaned on the ground, while the surrounding crowd was in an uproar. A couple of youths quickly ran to Ryan’s side, bewildered and frightened, looking at me as if they couldn’t comprehend what had just gone down.
So annoying…
I glanced at the crumbled biscuits on the ground, a few pieces already trampled into dust, definitely not edible anymore.
…I’d make them pay for those.
With that thought in mind, I walked over to the three soldiers still standing.
“Miss, this, this was you—”
“Shut up.”
“You dare to lay hands on supply soldiers—”
One soldier pointed at me, trying to scold me, but I grabbed his finger, twisting it painfully until he let out a muffled groan, his expression contorted, and just like that, he knelt before me.
“Ah! Ah, AHHH—”
