The guards cleaned up the messy ambush site, with a portion of them remaining on high alert. The goblin scouting party possessed high Intelligence; they had prioritized destroying the wheels of the cargo-transporting carriages, leaving the merchant caravan unable to leave with their goods.
They had to either stay and fight a bloody battle, risking an attack from the main goblin force while they packed up the goods, or abandon the cargo and flee.
In stark contrast to the guards’ tension, Herbie righted an elegant antique table among the scattered goods. She invited Blaze to sit down before leisurely brewing a pot of floral tea.
"Oh my, that really gave me a fright. I always thought the rumors about the Black Beast Knight regaining his sanity were just that—rumors."
Herbie pushed a cup of tea toward Blaze, but he didn’t drink it, casually sliding it over to the chicken beside him. The chicken stepped its claws into the teacup, letting out a long, contented sigh.
"Hmm... it seems the madness hasn’t completely lifted."
Herbie stared at Blaze’s helmet, her golden eyes sparkling through thick eyelashes. Blaze felt his skin crawl under her gaze; he had the distinct feeling of being dissected and studied from the inside out.
"You all should be fine now. I’ll be taking my leave."
"Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. Hermes’ Travel Hat hasn’t even rewarded you for your righteous intervention yet." Herbie’s eyes darted around before she smiled and pointed at the corpse of the Fast-Walking Ostrich.
"How about this?"
Not far away, a guard couldn’t help but look back at his employer. Even Nomadic Tribes living in remote regions knew how noble the Blessed were. To think she was actually using a corpse to convince one to stay!
But to the guard’s astonishment, Blaze actually stopped.
Blaze noted what kind of person he was dealing with.
Even after being ambushed by goblins and suffering casualties, she remained perfectly calm—callous, even. The moment Blaze appeared, she began analyzing his every move as if studying him under a microscope. She even singled out his subtle glance toward the Fast-Walking Ostrich, isolating the microscopic detail to use as a bargaining chip.
If he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, which left Herbie to assume her analysis was merely speculation, she would probably have him completely wrapped around her finger by now.
Therefore, Blaze decided to seize back the initiative.
"There’s no need. You have a Blessed companion—and an incredibly rare [Singer] at that. If this [Singer] had stepped in, you could have easily dealt with this horde of goblins yourselves."
Although Blaze lowered his voice, the surrounding guards had been keeping a close eye on him as a Blessed, so they heard his every word loud and clear.
"Perhaps my intervention was entirely uncalled for."
Herbie’s expression froze. She knew the surrounding guards harbored feelings of dissatisfaction and were merely suppressing them. But Blaze’s words were like waving a lit match over a powder keg, threatening to detonate the situation at any moment.
"No, no, no! Please, sit, sit, sit! You absolutely must accept this Fast-Walking Ostrich corpse!" Herbie pushed the antique chair next to Blaze with a fawning smile. The moment their faces were inches apart, she lowered her voice so that only the two of them could hear.
"I want to make a deal with you."
"Alright."
Blaze didn’t return to the table that exuded the relaxing aroma of floral tea. Instead, he walked over to the corpse of the Fast-Walking Ostrich and began dissecting it with a battered goblin dagger.
Only creatures defeated by the Blessed would turn to dust; those killed through ordinary means remained as corpses. Someone had once joked that the Blessed couldn’t survive alone in the wild because every plant and animal they defeated would disintegrate into dust—unless they happened to drop food-type items.
However, if one had the [Chef] Profession, the corpses would be preserved.
"GAG—" Herbie clamped a hand over her mouth and took a step back. Her golden eyes didn’t dare glance in Blaze’s direction.
This was Blaze’s goal. Herbie’s terrifying observation skills and sharp mind were practically on the level of a Skill. The only way to engage in a fair negotiation was to drag her down to his level.
But even this wasn’t quite enough. Blaze muttered, "[Translation]."
[Skill Level has increased.]
[Translation F-E]
The soul of the Fast-Walking Ostrich was standing next to its own corpse. Because it hadn’t died at the hands of a Blessed, its soul had become a wandering soul.
The language of the dead was the exact opposite of the living. [Translation F] allowed for one layer of translation, enabling Blaze to understand the language of a wandering soul, though this was restricted to Human languages. The fact that he could converse with the chicken was purely because the chicken knew Human language.
Now at [Translation E], he could perform a two-layer translation: first translating the language of the dead into the language of the living, and then translating that into a language he could understand.
"DAMN IT! Just my rotten luck! What’s with all this secret transport and secret identity crap? Because they couldn’t hire a Blessed as a guard, I got stabbed to death by a goblin! I was only one day away from getting my perfect attendance bonus this month!
"That woman in the carriage can’t even do her own job right. Utterly useless. No wonder she was chased out.
"And she still wants to perform at the theater looking like that?"
The Fast-Walking Ostrich’s soul grumbled profanities for a while before vanishing without any lingering regrets. A bird’s brain was surprisingly simple.
"Actually, there’s been some internal power struggle recently within the Running Branch of Hermes’ Travel Hat," Herbie said. "As an Advanced partner who is just one of the Ordinary People, I became the target of their collective attacks, leaving me without enough funds to hire Foreigners.
"I originally thought highly trained soldiers would be enough to handle things for a while. I never expected us to be ambushed by goblins—and a rare horde of goblins at that—resulting in our casualties."
Herbie wiped non-existent tears from the corners of her eyes as she recounted their tragic ordeal.
But Blaze was completely absorbed in dissecting the corpse, showing no reaction whatsoever.
"You... you’ve just been dissecting that corpse this whole time. You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said, have you?"
"Because you haven’t spoken a single word of truth."
Foreigners would willingly accept commissions even for cheap herbs as payment. Especially with Herbie’s status as an Advanced partner of Hermes’ Travel Hat, the moment she asked, Foreigners would scramble to take the job. Even if they failed to get the commission, they would cling to her like leeches.
Judging from the Fast-Walking Ostrich’s words, this embarrassing predicament of only being able to hire Ordinary People as guards was likely related to the person inside the carriage.
[Fast-Walking Ostrich Leg Bone *2 / Fast-Walking Ostrich Spine *1 / Fast-Walking Ostrich Claw *2]
Blaze stood up after placing these bones into his inventory. Herbie’s face was completely devoid of emotion, her golden eyes resembling those of a cold-blooded snake. This was likely the true face of Herbie Hermes, the Advanced partner of the Running Branch of Hermes’ Travel Hat.
"Someone put a bounty on her head."
"Then you should have definitely hired Foreigners. They are numerous and powerful."
"The ones who put the bounty on Audrey are the Foreigners."