Chapter 289 – Cannot Delay Any Longer

They were overwhelmed at first, especially Erin, who was trying her best to shield Orun. Still, they soon understood the bunnies only had goodwill toward them. They, too, ended up relaxing, which helped ease the tension. A few minutes later, they were chatting together, sharing stories about the village.

Kuini also came to check her potential housemates, finding them interesting. When the initial excitement died down, we toured the village, showing the children the fields, the orchards, and finally my house.

We spent some more time there, sharing a meal with the first bunny who invited us. Eventually, they were satisfied, maybe even a bit tired, and asked to go back to Geola. I drove on the return trip while they whispered in the carriage. Midway through the trip, Erin cleared her throat.

“We want to live in the village.”

“Is that so? I’m glad you liked it.”

“The bunnies… they’re different from what I expected.”

“I hope you three can get some good friends there and live peacefully. You shouldn't relax too much, though. Don’t forget your current job is to learn as much as you can, and rank up sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah. I’ve had enough of being weak.”

I nodded, and this was decided. Just like Kuini, they wouldn’t move immediately. I first spoke with Mrs. Itfan, who didn’t agree to teach them outside of Geola. Instead, one of the idle women in the village accepted to teach them everything she knew. She initially didn’t want to be paid but agreed when I insisted. She certainly couldn’t do that for free, especially since it was such a huge help for me.

Now that everything related to the house was clear, it was time to start thinking about the future. My current income was stable and allowed me to invest in another project. I just needed to choose which one.

But first, there was another critical matter I had tried to avoid as much as possible, but couldn’t delay any longer.

It was time to deal with Selva.

Selva was a problem for many reasons. First, I didn’t know how related she was to Wico’s poisoning attempt. Was she aware of her master’s true identity and objectives? It was hard to tell. Who knows, maybe even the way she behaved was just an act I didn’t manage to see through, just like I couldn’t figure out Wico had bad intentions toward my person. Maybe she was even a smart and calculating woman. Imagining Selva like that was surreal, but I couldn’t trust my people-reading skills anymore after the previous fiasco.

The other issue was that I was, in a large part, responsible for Wico’s death. Here again, it was hard to predict how she would react, even if she were unrelated to her master’s dark side.

No matter what, this wasn’t something I could continue to ignore anymore. It was better to take care of it once and for all, lest our potential next reunion might end up catastrophically.

I first prepared myself mentally. If Selva truly were my enemy, I should be ready for anything. In the worst case, I would need to kill her since only a fool would leave a revengeful enemy alone.

When I felt ready, I teleported to Ekidos. It didn’t take me too long to find her. She usually hung out with the same brawlers every day, switching spots whenever the military police found them.

Today was the same. She was fighting another rank 2, except she was an elephant, a large species. Every hit she received felt like it hurt quite a bit, with the opponent using the weight difference to her advantage as much as possible. She was also getting a few strikes in, but those felt like they didn’t damage the elephant that much.

Ranks 1 and 2 were still low enough that someone’s physique played a major role in fights. Starting from rank 3, that edge mostly disappeared, the amount of sel used in attacks and defense overpowering such notions and becoming the main factor. For example, a rank 3 sorcerer bunny would almost certainly crush that very rank 2 elephant in front of my eyes. Of course, ranks weren’t absolute, and above-rank victories weren’t unheard of, if extremely rare. In normal circumstances, it was almost impossible to do so.

Today’s match was a bad one for Selva. Progressively, her opponent dominated the exchanges, no matter what she tried. Her final last-ditch effort with a rare feint ended up being useless, and she took a nice hit to the chin, concluding the fight on the spot. The victorious elephant took the bet money before leaving, the cheering crowd following her. Selva was left in the dust, alone and breathless.

I walked up to her cautiously. I urged my senses to analyze all and any of her reactions, to try to find any detail I would have normally missed in her attitude.

“Bad day, huh, Selva?”

She looked at me, surprised initially, and upset then.

“Tila? Why did it take you so long to show up?”

“Were you waiting for me?”

“As if. Tsk, you just had to come today out of all days.”

“It’s not like you can win every time.”

“Just you wait. One day, I’ll defeat that elephant neatly.”

“Not your first fight against her?”

“I’ve fought almost all the rank 2 sorcerers interested in street fights in the city by now.”

“Makes sense.”

I couldn’t feel anything strange. Her scowling face was the same as usual, as was her competitive spirit. Either she still didn’t know about Wico, or she was an incredible actress.

“Let me patch you up.”

I approached closer, monitoring her every move. She didn’t do much, just waiting on the ground like she always did. I took out my usual balm and applied it to her wounds while she let me do it without protesting. I stood up again when I was done, putting the pot of cream away.

“How are you feeling?”

“Horny. Let’s have sex.”

Read 30 more chapters here: https://subscribestar.adult/dictatelion or here: https://www.patreon.com/Dictatelion