The Grand Duelist

"There's something strange..."

Joseph uttered as he swept his gaze around the area.

After several days of hiking, both Alice and Joseph finally managed to return to the surface.

They found a small hamlet near the borders of the Forbidden Region and the two of them decided to temporarily stay in that village. The several days of continuous hiking made them look like beggars.

Since both of them wanted to take a bath, they decided unanimously that they must stay in this small village first before hiring a carriage that would take them to the Capital City of the Kingdom of Nether, Reinhardt.

But why would they go to the Capital City, Reinhardt instead of going to the safe house of the Legendary Blacksmith, Krid?

Well, that was because they had already visited the safe house.

When they arrived there, not only they found no one within the area, but there were also traces that Ezreal and Krid both left in a hurry...

Both Alice and Joseph didn't know where the two had gone, but they had an idea about where they had gone.

It should be the Capital City, Reinhardt...

As for the reason why they went to Reinhardt?

Alice and Joseph still didn't know about that, but since they left in a hurry.

It must be something critical and important.

But you might be asking...

If the matters that made Ezreal and Krid leave in such a hurry was of critical importance.

Why were both Alice and Joseph acting so laidback instead of rushing to Reinhardt? Well, it was because while they were on the way to this hamlet, they realized that there was something strange.

The entire hamlet was wrapped in an oppressive air of uncertainty and gloominess.

The hawkers whose smiles were frequently wide so that they could attract customers now had somber looks on their faces.

The soldiers that guarded the village wore grim expressions as if they were preparing for something.

Joseph and Alice crudely disguised themselves with scarves and hats as they entered a nearby bar and asked the bartender some questions after ordering their drinks.

"Any news recently?" Joseph flicked over a silver coin which made the bartender smile.

"Everything is still the same, sir..." The bartender spoke as he proceeded on making drinks, "Ever since those nobles simultaneously abandoned the Kingdom for the Empire of Truedawn, everything is going downhill. Prices are rising sharply due to unscrupulous merchants taking advantage of this chaos for their own profits, sigh..."

The bartender passed the drinks to the two as he heaved a sigh.

"What did you say?"

"The nobles of the Kingdom of Nether abandoned the Kingdom for the Empire of Truedawn?"

The bartender was astonished by what he had heard.

Everyone should've heard about those traitorous nobles now, yet why does he look like he doesn't really know about what happened to the Kingdom of Nether?

But the bartender possessed sharp eyes that made him maintain his job for two decades.

He saw the dirty clothes underneath the crude disguises of his customers and he couldn't help but chuckle.

Although he didn't say anything about it as he continued, "Yes, that is true. The nobles of the Kingdom of Nether really did abandon the Kingdom for the Empire of Truedawn..."

"What they did was really despicable since when they left, not only they brought all their wealth with them, they even brought with them, several tonnes of wheat and other staple crops that they harvested from their lands..."

"This caused massive shortages which ultimately became a famine that is currently ravaging the Kingdom..."

"What the fuck..." Joseph blurted a curse.

Alice also looked disturbed.

The nobles of the Kingdom of Nether really did such a despicable move, but Alice couldn't help but think that the disappearance of the nobles was also connected to the disappearance of her grandfather and Joseph's friend.

She wanted to ask a question to the bartender, but Joseph was even faster than her as he said.

"What about His Majesty? Where is he? Did he not do anything about it, or did he also leave the Kingdom for the Empire?" Joseph asked.

The bartender shook his head and lifted a bitter smile, "The King had already abandoned us. Right now, the Kingdom of Nether is a lawless place. That is why right now, you can see that there are a lot of refugees in this village..."

"The women, children, and elderly are evacuating from Reinhardt to the countryside since they are afraid of what will happen in Reinhardt. But their actions are a mere stopgap. Most of the food right now in this village came from Reinhardt. So, now that there are almost no merchants supplying the village. We will inevitably run out of food..."

"The two of you seem to be tourists. On account of you giving me this silver coin, I will give you a piece of advice. Do not go to Reinhardt for now, that place is a shithole. Both of you better go to the Kingdom of Burning Heaven or Absolute Frost..."

The bartender didn't pay attention to the two anymore as he went his way and entertained other guests of the bar.

But Joseph and Alice didn't really care about the fact that he left them.

They were still shocked by what they had heard.

"It seems like we can't stay here any longer..." Joseph broke the silence and whispered.

Alice nodded her head and said, "Yeah... We will continue our journey today, but we must find a place to take a bath first..."

"Oh, a bath? That sounds good, personally. I don't really mind though, but we must take that bath as fast as possible."

"Mhm..." Alice replied with a nod.

Joseph saw that she was somewhat disturbed about something and he couldn't help but speak.

"Say, Alice. Do you wanna take a bath together?"

"What are you talking about?" Alice glared at him.

"Finally, you're back..." Joseph smiled.

"I'm back?"

"Nothing, I just thought that you being like that is better than you being all sad and depressed about something."

"Mhm? You know what, Joseph? Sometimes, what you are saying doesn't really make sense." Alice retorted.

"Then, do you want me to say it directly?" Joseph gave a sly smile.

Alice frowned upon seeing his cheeky smile but she still nodded her head and said, "Okay, go on. Say it, but be advised that if you are going to tease me again, I'm going to smack you."

"Hahaha..." Joseph chuckled, "I just want to say that no matter what facade you are using whenever you are talking to me, you will still b beautiful as always."

Joseph pinched her cheek, prompting Alice to subconsciously lean backward and she almost fell onto the ground since the chair she was sitting on didn't have a backrest.

"Oh, watch out!" Joseph stretched his hand out and caught her before she started falling onto the ground, "Damn, that was dangerous. Be careful, all right?" He clicked his tongue and commented, but he was astonished to find that Alice was staring at him with a crimson blush on her cheeks.

"What? Something like this is enough to make your heartbeat fast?"

"Tssk, I see you've been reading a lot of romance novels, eh?"

Joseph teased and he received a smack in return.

"Dang, that hurts..."

"Then, you should really learn your lesson." Alice rolled her eyes.

"Well, you know that I am quite dull when it comes to that, right? But if you really want me to learn my lesson..." Joseph moved his head closer to her ears as he said, "How about you teach me a lesson?"

"Personally, that is..." He then blew into her already crimson ears as Alice felt a shiver down her spine which made her subconsciously smack Joseph on his face.

[You suffered 15,236 damage!]

Fuck... That was quite a strong smack...

Joseph fell onto the ground and he elicited the laughter of the other customers since they thought that he had been turned down by the woman that he was wooing.

"Kid, you shouldn't have come to this place wearing such a crude disguise! Why are you even wearing something like that in the first place? Could it be that you are that ugly? You have to disguise yourself so you can snag some girls?"

"Hahaha!"

The customers laughed out loud.

"Shut up..."

But the customers didn't expect that the woman whom they thought that Joseph was wooing would be the one that would retort to them in anger. Shouldn't it be Joseph that should be angry with them instead of this woman? Why were the roles suddenly switched?

The customers became angry.

They were only trying to help her, yet why was she angry at them? What an ungrateful woman!

One of them couldn't help but speak up, "Hey, young miss. Why are you angry at us instead of him? We are here to help you ostracize that guy, we are not your enemies."

"That is exactly the reason why I am angry!" Alice retorted, but she looked like she didn't want to explain so Joseph stood up, wrapped his arm around her, and swept his gaze at the customers.

"That is right! She is angry at you bastards because she is angry for my sake! How dare you try to make her man a laughing-stock?"

"What you guys did is the same as basically digging your own graves!"

Joseph loudly mocked the customers, but he felt another sharp pain on his waist when he reached the end of his sentence.

"Damn! That hurts, what is wrong with you, Alice?" Joseph glared at Alice.

But Alice wasn't intimidated. She glared at him and said, "Who's my man?"

Joseph stared at her in confusion, "Isn't that me?"

Alice clicked her tongue, "Your face really is the thickest part of your body..."

Joseph chuckled, "How else could I achieve what I have right now without having a thick face?"

Alice's lips twitched, "Shameless." She commented. 

Seeing that Alice wasn't saying anything anymore...

Joseph felt somewhat proud that he made her speechless that he couldn't help but brag some more. The more he bragged about being with Alice, the more embarrassed she became until she couldn't take it anymore.

In the end, she walked out of the bar by herself while Joseph was still talking with the other customers regarding their tastes with women and some techniques to bring their panties down.

After a few minutes of talking with the customers.

Joseph finally awakened from his reverie and he realized that Alice was long gone beside him.

He excused himself from the bar and went outside. There, he found Alice standing near the road beside the establishment where the bar was.

Even though he couldn't see her expression due to her disguise.

For Joseph who knew a lot about her, it was easy for him to guess what she was feeling right now.

"Hey, are you okay?" Joseph asked.

Alice stared at him but she didn't reply.

"We still haven't eaten anything since morning. How about we go out and find something to eat? Let's ask about what are the specialty dishes in this place."

Alice's expression brightened when she heard him mention food.

Joseph couldn't help but inwardly snicker, This girl is really such a glutton. But oh well, anything that can be solved with food shall be solved with food. He scratched his head and the two of them walked towards the central square of the village where hawkers were often found.

Since there were a lot of refugees in this place from the City of Reinhardt. The small village that should only have about five hundred people now had several thousands of people. The place was so crowded that Joseph had to squeeze his way through the crowd.

"Alice?" Joseph cried out when he realized that Alice had disappeared behind him.

"I'm here!" He heard a familiar voice nearby and he found Alice just several meters behind him.

Joseph squeezed his way through the crowd and when he arrived beside her. He held her hand and protected her from the touch of others as they squeezed their way out of the crowd once again.

Goddamned it, why are there so many people in here?

Even though Joseph knew the answer to this question.

He still couldn't help but feel irritated.

But you really couldn't blame Joseph for getting angry.

After all, if you were forced to squeeze your way out of a crowd of people that had probably not taken a shower for several weeks...

It could be considered a miracle if you managed to remain calm all the way.

Even Alice who normally had no problems with disgusting things due to her upbringing had a disturbed look on her face.

If not for the scarf that served like a mask that somewhat filtered the smell lingering in the air. Alice would probably choose to kill herself than to squeeze her way through this smelly crowd.

"Wheeew... Finally... We're out. After this, we should probably take a bath or at least, clean ourselves up." Joseph looked as pale as a sheet of paper.

Alice also looked the same although her expression cleared up when she saw the stalls selling food.

The two ate for several minutes...

Afterwards, they stared at the crowd with bitter smiles on their faces.

"Just how will we go back now that we're stuck here?" Joseph bitterly smiled.

Alice also had a frown on her face, but then she suddenly had an idea.

A blush spread on her cheeks as she discussed this idea with Joseph.

If not for the fact that they had to leave this place as soon as possible before sunset.

She wouldn't have proposed such an absurd idea.

"Hooo..." Joseph stared teasingly at Alice, "You really are such a bold woman, my dear Alice."

"Cough!" Alice choked in her own saliva as she glared at Joseph, "if you tease me one more time, then I will have the roles reversed!"

She gave an ultimatum that terrified Joseph into submission.

"A-All right... I won't tease you anymore... Just don't reverse the roles."

Alice sweetly smiled seeing the obedient Joseph.

"Good... Now, let's prepare what we need." 

The crowd made out of several hundreds of people cramped in a tight space was indeed a scene that could be described as cramped as sardines.

Furthermore, most of them only moved in one direction, so the minority that wanted to move towards the central square of the village had no choice but to give up and follow the crowd instead. 

"Fucking hell, stop pushing!"

"Sorry, sorry... I just want to get to that street."

"Fine, but don't do it next time. Since that place is nearby, you can go cut in line. Come here in front of me!

The rowdy crowd never stopped moving, but the sheer number of people within the crowd made it look like they were perpetually stuck in traffic made out of humans instead of cars.

If one looked at such a crowd from the outside, one could easily judge that it was incredibly difficult for someone to squeeze his way out of such a crowd.

That common-sense stood tall until it was shattered by a scream.

"MAKE WAY! MAKE WAY! MY WIFE'S ABOUT TO GIVE BIRTH!"

"I need to get to a mid-wife now!"

An ear-piercing scream rang out and everyone found a desperate young man carrying his wife that was already bleeding down below. The young man rushed at the crowd and the women within the crowd subconsciously made way for the two of them out of empathy.

As women themselves, they knew how much of an emergency giving birth was and they knew that it must not be delayed, so all of them stepped aside.

The children followed the movements of their mothers and the dumbfounded men remained standing there, rooted until they were scolded by their wives.

"Make way, you dumbo! Someone's wife is about to give birth, giving birth is an emergency of utmost importance. It must not be delayed else the mother could die along with the baby!" 

The women scolded their husbands and a miraculous scene, reminiscent of how Moses carved a path in the middle of the Red Sea happened.

But instead of Moses, the one who made such a miraculous scene was Joseph.

Goddamned it, this is too easy...

Joseph inwardly snickered, but his face displayed a facade of desperation as he ran straight through the crowd while carrying his wife that was already about to give birth.

"Hey! That's not the direction of the birthing center!"

A woman cried out.

Joseph's figure visibly trembled, but he didn't stop his movements.

Instead, he ran even faster than before.

"Those two..."

The people in the crowd finally realized what happened. 

But then bitter smiles escaped on their lips as they simultaneously uttered.

"Was there really a need to go so far?"

They couldn't understand the thought process of the two.

But then another desperate voice rang out.

"Ah, shit! Make way! My wife's about to give birth!"

"Shut the fuck up, you don't even have a wife!" Someone retorted.

"What? How can you say that I don't have a wife?" The man angrily replied.

"You're a frequent customer of that brothel right there! How could you possibly have a wife when you are visiting a brothel every night? You think that we're in the Kingdom of Burning Heaven or something?"

"Oh, right... I forgot..." The man dejectedly sighed...