Taming the Protagonist

Volume 3

Chapter 20 : Hitana Had a Big Brain

Hitana, with both hands in her pockets, returned to the lower-city streets controlled by Varied Snake.

Even though she had already dealt with that remaining nonsensical butcher, she did not show any relaxed expression.

“There were still a lot of things to do...”

The girl frowned and muttered, “I had to warn the other gangs, and I also had to find some people who could temporarily manage things... ugh ugh ugh ugh, if only Anselm and Lina were still by my side.”

At the thought of this, she slapped her cheeks hard again, scolding herself angrily:

“Thinking all day about having Anselm and Lina help—what a useless thing!”

Growing up was sometimes a long process, and sometimes it was something that happened in an instant.

Following Anselm's side, Hitana had learned meticulousness and caution.

She knew that some things were not something she could solve—rebuilding after violence and destruction, about which she knew nothing at all.

That kind of behavior from before—blowing up the source of the problem and then not caring about anything, patting her butt and leaving—was absolutely unacceptable.

If the culprit could act tyrannically, that meant he had powerful rule locally. His death meant both the temporary end of oppression, and also unavoidable chaos.

On this trip, what Hitana dealt with were usually local snakes of the underworld; she rarely took down even the city lord along with them.

Because she knew the consequences brought by chaos, and she knew even more that she was not good at handling these things at all.

Those self-righteous lessons—she had already had enough of them in Chishuang Territory.

If the city lord or the boss of the largest force was still barely acceptable, Hitana would generally give the other party a lesson they would never forget and warn him that she could come back at any time; and if the other party was a complete piece of trash, then even if it might cause even greater chaos afterward, Hitana would still wipe this guy out.

“Among so many people, there would always be someone suitable.”

Hitana did not have any ability to see into people’s hearts, but the intuition blessed by Head of Wind let her sniff out with extreme sensitivity whether the other party was sincere or false...

Although she did not dare guarantee it would work one hundred percent, she had never made a mistake when it came to simply distinguishing good and evil.

Every time she finished handling something, she would spend a lot of effort looking locally for an agent who could manage things in place of the culprit and to find someone kind-hearted and capable... was really, really hard.

But Hitana did not mind spending more mind and energy to find such a person.

Being more tired was better than, not long after she left, someone starting to act recklessly again.

Thinking this, Hitana lightly leaped, jumping onto the passageway on the next level that connected two main roads.

Amid the passersby’s cries of surprise, she talked to herself, “First I’ll see what reaction the guy above has.”

Right now, she also did not know who the person above those scum like Black Crocodile was.

Although she could think with her knees and know it was definitely not anything good, Hitana also did not plan to rashly kill her way to the city lord’s manor.

Because Strife Fortress was larger than any territorial city she had passed through, Hitana naturally adopted a more conservative measure this time. She would decide how to respond based on the other party’s next reaction.

Although she was still somewhat ferocious and reckless, compared to the stupid girl from before who made people’s blood pressure explode, the current Hitana Lansmarlos had already grown far, far too much.

In this area, Cliff managed things fairly well... Ask him if he knew the people over in the territories controlled by Black Crocodile and Butcher, and first try to see if she could find a suitable candidate.

Then eat something, run another trip to those two areas, beat up all those third-rate cats and dogs over there first, stabilize the order a bit... She did not know what reaction that guy above would make either.

He’d better not refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit.

Hitana greeted the passersby casually while also arranging the next plan with a headache and irritability—how she wanted to blow up all the bad seeds with one punch and then not have to care about anything, but there was neither Anselm nor Marina by her side, so even if she did not want to care, she still had to care.

Otherwise, the difference between her and those bad seeds would only be that she was not bad, and the harm brought to the civilians in the end would be just as severe.

Mm... Did she also have to spare time to warn those two Revolutionary Army guys?

No, they knew she had made such a big commotion; maybe they would come find her directly.

When the time came, she would beat them up again first to vent her anger.

Thinking that before long she could have handy sandbags again—and they were also the stupid and bad Revolutionary Army she had long been thinking about—Hitana’s mood instantly improved quite a bit.

Passing through the not-clean chaotic streets, Hitana missed the time she spent with Anselm, and also began thinking... Why could this world have such an absurd disparity?

Not to mention the Imperial Capital, not to mention Hydra’s Domain; even just the scenery of the upper city was worlds apart from here.

Why couldn’t everyone live under the sun? Why did it have to be that some people barely survived in the gutters?

Hitana could not understand it, just like before she also could not understand no matter what, why those guys who were already filthy rich still had to squeeze away the little grain left in people’s homes.

But what was different now from before was that even though she still had not found the answer, she already had the ability to make a change.

The wolf who had personally experienced that suffering for a full sixteen years looked back. The weary faces of the sparse pedestrians coming and going on the street entered her dark red eyes.

“At the very least, I had to let them live like human beings.”

The girl murmured softly, her steps becoming even more firm as she stepped into Varied Snake’s former stronghold that had originally controlled this place.

She treated this stronghold as a free inn, settling quite a few wanderers here, and also arranging a batch of people with some ability who currently revered her as their leader.

Hitana had no intention of being a leader at all.

She felt that in this world only Anselm was worthy to be a leader.

At first, when she met such people, she would refuse, but later she still acquiesced.

Because she discovered that what these people needed was not a true commander in the strict sense, but only a psychological pillar they could entrust their trust to.

And now, Hitana felt more and more the weight of that trust and need.

She would even think from time to time... merely bearing the trust of just this small group already made her feel very tired, so Anselm, who bore the trust and following of the entire Hydra’s Domain, and even broader lands, more people—what kind of heavy burden did he shoulder?

Anselm... was really amazing.

After leaving that boy’s side, the most frequent sigh Hitana made was this.

“Big Sis Fenrir, you’re back?”

The people inside the stronghold revealed expressions of boundless surprise and joy. “Then Black Crocodile is...?”

“Oh, already dealt with. I also killed that butcher next door while I was at it.”

Hitana pulled down her hood, scratching the hair at the back of her head that had grown a bit, like that string of fine wolf fur on a wolf’s neck. “There’s a lot to do next... Oh right, help me find Cliff and have him come to where I’m staying to look for me—ah, I’m starving, I’m starving, I’ll go to the kitchen to find something to eat first.”

The girl waved her hand, leaving behind the completely stunned young man, and strode into this mansion that looked excessively luxurious in the lower city.

“If I kept eating this stuff all the time, it wasn’t really a solution... I had to think of a way to get some money.”

The money she looted from the hands of evildoers, Hitana would all distribute to the local civilians, not keeping a single bit for herself.

The travel and food money in her hands basically came from helping others do work and taking commissions to earn money; she had long been used to it.

“Go to the upper city to take some commissions... but if I’m not here, they’ll be scared, right, and some guys will start acting up again, what should I do—”

Hitana, walking through the corridor, suddenly stopped.

She seemed to have completely not heard the greetings from the lower-city residents and her current “subordinates.” Her eyes stared straight ahead not far away, at several people discussing something.

To be precise, it was the most conspicuous among them: a black-haired young man with a dangerous and sinister aura.

“This guy.”

Hitana casually grabbed a follower passing by, her voice a bit hoarse as she said, “Who was he? How did you let him in?”

“...Him? Ah, he’s an adventurer from the upper city.”

The person grabbed by Hitana answered immediately. “He said he took a commission... to find a missing person. He thought it might be related to the Varied Snake bastard's human trafficking, so he found his way to us.”

Seeing that Hitana’s expression seemed off, this young man’s expression also gradually worsened. He said carefully, “Big Sis Fenrir, he... he has a problem?”

“No, but...”

Hitana stared fixedly at that black-haired young man, her eyes filled with shock and confusion.

She could not see through him... even Head of Wind had no way to probe even a trace of this person.

Since leaving Anselm, this was the first time Hitana had encountered an existence like this.

And by rights, encountering such an opponent, she should have been extremely excited, blood boiling.

But, this resistance and chill in her heart... What exactly was going on?

She did not want to fight him? Or she felt that she was not his opponent?

Hitana felt it was absurd. If the number of people she could not probe was extremely small, then a powerhouse that could not make her feel battle intent was something that simply had never appeared.

Even the Emperor could ignite fierce battle intent in her... how could this guy who looked inexplicably familiar make her have not even the slightest desire to fight?

Was this some special ability?

After hesitating again and again, Hitana still walked up, full of vigilance as she closed the distance with that black-haired young man.

“Hey, you.”

The girl stopped at a position about three meters away from him.

She unconsciously clenched her fist, her body tense. “Who are you, and what are you here for?”

That black-haired young man tilted his head slightly, letting his gaze fall on Hitana.

“You’re the one who replaced Varied Snake... Miss Fenrir?”

He spoke in a calm tone.

That casual, unconcerned manner seemed like he did not take Hitana too seriously.

With this near-provocative attitude, ordinarily Hitana would have already been preparing to greet him, but this time, for some reason, her presence was forcibly suppressed. Holding back a breath, she said, “It’s me, so you—”

“I’m here to find someone, fifteen years old, brown hair, one meter sixty-one, a birthmark on the neck, very distinctive. Do you have someone like that here?”

The black-haired young man rudely interrupted Hitana’s words, as if he was not here to ask for help at all.

Hitana’s anger also immediately rose, instantly overwhelming that indescribable strange emotion.

She snorted coldly, “You first honestly call me Big Sis, bow, then use honorifics and repeat what you just said. Then I’ll consider whether to answer your question.”

Hearing this, the black-haired young man only slightly raised his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth twitching subtly.

Then he did not pay any attention to Hitana at all, directly walking toward her.

Even though he did not deliberately produce any sense of oppression, Hitana still felt more and more tense.

Veins already bulged on the back of her hand, ready at any time to smash a fist into his face.

But... that mysterious black-haired young man did nothing.

At the moment Hitana was so taut that in the next second she would blow the entire mansion down, he simply, calmly and casually, brushed past her shoulder.

“...”

Miss Wolf blinked.

With dense beads of sweat on her forehead, her expression was somewhat blank.

So... nothing happened?

What was he here for?

Was he really just here to find missing people?

Why? He was such an amazing guy—how could he be so bored to look for a missing person?

No, with such an amazing guy, how could he even fail to find a missing person?

Hitana subconsciously turned her head to look, only to discover that behind that black-haired young man, there was also a thin, ordinary adventurer following him.

Hitana could see through this person at a glance—completely an ordinary person, just that there seemed to be some special disguise on him.

Ridiculous... even his lackey was an ordinary person?

Hitana stared at him suspiciously for a long time.

When the black-haired young man’s figure was about to disappear, she suddenly spoke:

“Are you really here to find a missing person?”

Seeing that the other party did not answer and kept walking, Hitana, while growing more irritated, still shouted loudly, “Repeat the features, I’ll help you look!”

“No need.” The black-haired young man said leisurely. “It’s not here.”

As he said that, his figure disappeared around the corner.

“...Are you sick!”

The corner of Hitana’s eye twitched.

“You ran over here for no reason to find someone. You couldn’t find them so you told people to help you find them. When someone was willing to help you find them, you said the person wasn’t here... This guy really deserved a beating!”

Miss Wolf thought she would be furious, but after only a small bit of annoyed complaining in her heart, she had no other emotion.

Noticing this... she felt more and more strange.

That guy was definitely not simple, definitely had big problems!

“Totoque, what did you just talk about with him? Did he say anything about himself?”

Hitana asked the people who had just been talking with that black-haired young man.

“He... he didn’t say anything, Big Sis Fenrir.”

The person who was asked answered honestly.

“He just said he was here to find someone...”

“And then you just listened? What if this guy is dangerous?” Hitana felt her temples throbbing.

“Very dangerous... then we also can’t do anything about it.”

But these civilians looked like it did not matter much.

They spread their hands.

“We couldn’t stop him anyway. We could only do whatever we were doing.”

This honest answer that sounded like giving up but also had nothing wrong with it left Hitana speechless for a moment.

The attitude West Kingdom civilians had toward transcendent beings, in Hitana’s view, was also quite strange—they were extremely in awe of transcendent beings, but it was like... like they were not that in awe either.

Hitana did not know how to describe it with words.

“Ah, Big Sis Fenrir, if you’re really talking about identity... I do have a clue.”

One person who had also been chatting with the black-haired young man just now said so.

“Recently in the lower city there’s been a rumor that there’s an adventurer who specializes in taking civilians’ commissions at the [Executioner]. His efficiency is very high, and he only takes the compensation he deserves, never extorts, and he hasn’t done anything else out of line.”

Hitana froze. “Is there even such a good person?”

She had once had positive fantasies about the adventurer group, those stories about righteous heroes, but once she set out on her journey, Miss Hitana realized... adventurers were a bunch of bastards.

Different from those purely evil bastard bad seeds, they were sometimes good and sometimes bad. Anyway, they didn’t match the word “good person” at all.

She did not believe that among adventurers there could be such a person.

“We don’t believe it either, so we only treated it as a rumor... but now, it seems like it’s kind of true—right, this adventurer claimed to be Faust.”

“Faust?”

The crowd in the corridor burst into an uproar. “Is it that devil that crawled out of the abyss fissure?”

“I heard it was the lingering soul of an ancient dynasty general!”

“No! It’s the spirit of a cursed alchemical tool!”

While they bickered noisily about Faust’s stories, our smart Miss Hitana slowly tightened her brows.

Faust... Faust.

Why did this name sound so familiar?

She seemed to have heard it somewhere—

The next instant, the girl’s pupils abruptly shrank to the extreme.

Immediately after came a “bang,” the corridor window was directly smashed open, and Hitana’s figure also disappeared from the corridor.

Under the puzzled and shocked gazes of the people resting in the courtyard, Hitana anxiously looked around, sniffing nonstop.

The power of Head of Wind spread close to everything, but she could not catch even the slightest trace of aura.

And as time kept passing, the shock, surprise, panic, anxiety... on her face gradually turned into calm.

“As expected, I couldn’t find it...”

The girl released her taut nerves. Both regretful and relieved, she let out a breath, then plopped down on the ground.

“...Anselm.”

She subconsciously held her index and middle fingers that wore two rings, stomping her foot in happiness and annoyance.

“You doing this—what were you going to have her do!”

***

“You doing this—what are you planning to have her do?”

Miss Mingfuluo, sitting on Anselm’s shoulder, took a sip of miniature coffee and looked up at Anselm.

“And that disguise of yours... it simply had no meaning at all. Even now I still haven’t figured it out—why did you insist on the identity of Faust?”

“You made it sound like the whole world knew Faust was Anselm Hydra.”

Anselm could not help laughing. “Hit might not be able to remember that I was Faust, right?”

“Hmph, looking at that expression of hers where she completely couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get tough in front of you.”

Miss Mingfuluo snorted with a chuckle.

“Even without the reminder of the Faust identity, she’ll realize who you are before long.”

“Then can you get tough in front of me, Aluo?”

“I wasn’t tough enough? Do you have some special kink, Anselm?” Miss Mingfuluo looked at Anselm coldly.

“Just stepping on you twice wasn’t enough—do I have to upgrade to splashing coffee all over your face?”

As she said that, she shook the cup in her hand.

With that tiny, delicate look, making this kind of threat was extremely cute.

“Tough wasn’t ferocious, Aluo.”

Anselm shook his head. “No one liked ferocious girls.”

“As for mood, I never do things you don’t like.” Miss Mingfuluo said without thinking. “If I do it, that means you like it.”

“You were too arrogant.”

“So what, you didn’t like it?”

Anselm could not help bursting into cheerful laughter, while Miss Mingfuluo lightly pinched Anselm’s cheek.

“Stop laughing. You pulled me out to look for something to do, and you still had the face to laugh.”

“If you stayed in the inn any longer you’d start molding, Aluo.”

The young Hydra looked at the lower city’s crisscrossing streets, standing in place, still smiling lightly.

“Coming out to move around was better, wasn’t it?”

“Moving around in a place where you can’t even see the sun? You’re too good to me, dear little brat Anselm.”

Although she said that, Miss Mingfuluo still helped Anselm start looking for someone—the publisher of this commission.

This was a small matter that Anselm could do with a wave of his hand, so he indeed counted as deliberately finding Miss Mingfuluo something to do.

“There were so many laborers living here. You want me... huh?”

Miss Mingfuluo’s words paused.

Seeing something, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Not to mention when laborers get off work. After they get off work, they shouldn’t all be this panicked, right?”

“Then that meant something happened that made them panic.” Anselm’s smile could not be stopped. “Mm... who would do this kind of thing?”

“...”

Miss Mingfuluo lifted her head. She had already sensed that a team composed of transcendent beings was coming from the upper city to this dark lower city.

She rubbed her forehead and answered in a flat, monotone voice with no fluctuations:

“Yeah, who on earth did it? I really can’t think of it at all.”