Chapter 18 : Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Yulian
"Sir, do we really have to keep taking these small country roads? If we took the main road, we could reach the capital in three days." Kaff, who was driving the carriage, asked Lin Qi inside.
"Stick to the small roads. A few extra days won't matter. The main road isn't fit for human travel..." Lin Qi had a deep-seated fear of the main road from his carriage.
How did I die in my past life again?
"Alright."
Just as they were passing by a small village called Harmonious Village, a group of bandits surrounded them.
"Hand over your money if you don't want to die!" The big man leading the group shouted at Kaff.
"That's right. We just want money. We don't want to kill anyone."
"Hand over the cash."
Lin Qi opened the carriage curtain and glanced at the crowd surrounding them. They were a group of poorly dressed ordinary people.
"Sigh. They're pitiful enough. Give them some money and send them on their way." Lin Qi sighed and said to Kaff.
These people were clearly villagers who had been forced into this because they couldn't pay their high taxes.
Hearing Lin Qi's words, Kaff pulled a bag of silver coins from his pocket and tossed it to the leading man.
"Take the money and get lost."
The leading man opened the bag, took a look inside, and seemed ready to back off.
Then a voice suddenly came from the crowd: "They definitely have more money. Hand it all over."
"Yeah, that's right."
"Who are you trying to fool with silver coins? Give us gold coins!"
Hearing these words, Kaff silently put down the reins and stepped down from the carriage.
Lin Qi sighed. If they wanted to die, there was nothing he could do about it.
"Kill them."
"Understood, sir."
Just as Kaff was about to teach these greedy villagers a lesson they would never forget, the sound of a flute came from nearby.
"That kid again?"
"Damn, he's not dead?"
The crowd grew restless.
Then a man wearing a blue suit with a feather in his hat and holding a flute walked toward the carriage while playing.
"Sorry, you two outsiders. The villagers have caused you trouble. Would you do me the favor of letting them go?" The man lowered the flute from his lips and gave a noble bow to the carriage.
Lin Qi recognized this man.
More precisely, he recognized him from his past life. He was a villain boss in the game.
Yulian. Sacred Pathway: Brilliant Sequence: Sequence 8: Bard.
Yulian was originally the child of an ordinary family in Harmonious Village. Because he loved music from a young age, he had joined the Hall of All Arts, which was far from the village.
When he returned after completing his studies, he found that the village had changed drastically. The newly arrived Baron Madi had tripled the original taxes.
Baron Madi, a lecherous glutton, made a demand. Families that couldn't pay the taxes had to send their daughters to Madi's manor as maids. Families without daughters had to send their sons to work as laborers for Baron Madi.
By the time Yulian returned to the village, his only sister had been sent by his parents to Baron Madi's manor. To rescue her, he had stormed the manor alone.
Baron Madi wasn't a complete fool. Seeing that Yulian was a Transcendent, he released Yulian's sister and waived the taxes for Yulian's family.
But because of the preferential treatment Yulian's family received, strange rumors began spreading in the village. Some said Yulian's sister had been let go only because Baron Madi had grown tired of her. Others said Yulian had offered himself to Baron Madi. Others said Yulian's family had become Baron Madi's lackeys...
This remote, isolated mountain village had turned its jealousy toward this honest, simple family. They didn't dare to resist Baron Madi, but they dared to direct all their malice at the family that had lived alongside them for generations.
They didn't understand why Baron Madi treated Yulian's family so favorably. They had never seen a Transcendent before. All they knew was that since they weren't getting the same treatment, it must be Yulian's family's fault.
In the end, Yulian's sister couldn't bear the humiliation to her reputation and took her own life. The villagers interpreted this as a guilty conscience. Finally, Yulian's parents also died under the pressure of the rumors.
The last rational thread in Yulian's mind snapped. Using his Sequence 8 Bard abilities, he killed everyone in Madi Manor, including the children the villagers had sent there. Then he took control of all the villagers, turning the entire Harmonious Village into a ghost village.
In the end, he was killed as a boss by the players in version 1.0.
It seemed that at this point in time, Yulian had just returned home not long ago.
"Yulian, mind your own business. Your family doesn't have to pay taxes, but the rest of us do."
"Hmph, his sister is so good-looking. Who knows how she seduced Lord Madi. That's why Lord Madi waived their taxes."
"Hmph. They don't pay taxes themselves, and now they're interfering with us paying ours."
Hearing this, Lin Qi grew curious.
"Don't you hate Baron Madi?" Lin Qi asked as he stepped down from the carriage.
"Of course we hate him."
"How could we not hate him?"
Lin Qi heard the villagers' answers and asked, "Then why don't you kill him?"
"Wh-what?"
"He's a noble!"
Lin Qi was even more confused. "But I'm a noble too. How did you dare to rob me?"
As soon as the villagers heard Lin Qi say he was a noble, they all fell to their knees.
"Sir... we didn't know you were a noble..."
"Sir, we really can't afford the taxes anymore."
The leading man immediately knelt down, held the bag of silver coins above his head, and handed it back to Lin Qi. "Why didn't you say so earlier, my lord?"
Lin Qi was a bit helpless. They mistook me for an easygoing merchant?
Normally, a carriage was either a noble traveling or a merchant caravan with goods.
When they had first surrounded the carriage, Lin Qi immediately gave them a bag of silver coins. That made them mistakenly think he was just a passing merchant who didn't want trouble.
In their experience, nobles were always shouting insults and valued money more than their own lives. What kind of noble acted like Lin Qi?
"Why aren't you kneeling? Aren't you from the same village? You don't seem afraid of nobles." Lin Qi looked at Yulian.
"You flatter me, my lord." Yulian took off his hat and said to Lin Qi.
"Are you planning to stay cooped up in this village?"
Even if Lin Qi hadn't asked, Yulian had already been thinking about taking his family away. The rumors in the village had been getting more and more outrageous lately. His sister often locked herself in her room, and he didn't know what she was doing. Yulian wanted to take his family away from here and start fresh somewhere else.
"My manor is short on servants. Would you consider it?" Lin Qi saw that Yulian didn't answer and continued.
"What would you have me do?" Yulian asked cautiously.
He could sense it. This man was probably a Sequence 8, and the man driving the carriage was even deeper—unfathomable.
He had only intervened to save these people's lives out of a sense of village solidarity.
He hadn't expected that the man who stepped down from the carriage seemed to have taken an interest in his abilities.
"Just do what I tell you to. We're heading to the capital." Lin Qi knew that this man still needed a push.
"I need some time to think it over."
"Alright. Then help me with something first."
"What is it?"
"I heard the noble around here is named Madi?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Nothing. You're afraid to do anything to a noble, but I'm not. After all, I'm a noble too."
***
Madi Manor.
"Wh-what are you doing? I'm warning you, I'm a noble!" A bald man in noble attire sat sprawled on the ground, scrambling backward and shouting at the man in front of him.
"I know, I know. I'm a noble too. Baron Madi, Isaris Roland sends his regards." Lin Qi gave a perfect noble bow to Baron Madi.
Even though the man before him looked like a polite gentleman, Baron Madi had just watched his two Sequence 9 guards get crushed into bloody cakes by some unknown ability. He knew this man was a monster.
"We're... we're both nobles. Why are you doing this?"
Hearing this, Lin Qi thought of the nobles he had encountered since coming to this world.
His doting uncle Alden, the innocent and bright Elaine, the greedy and jealous Klingel Moer.
Lin Qi knew everything had two sides. But eighty percent of the nobles in this world were scum.
His reason for killing Baron Madi wasn't entirely for Yulian or the villagers of Harmonious Village. It was more because of the education he had received in his past life—in that peaceful, equal society—which made him unable to stand by and watch this kind of oppression.
When you carry a sharp blade, the urge to kill arises on its own.
The system of this world was twisted. Lin Qi was still too weak. He couldn't change the system all at once. But within his power, he could still take out some of the trash.
Baron Madi's head left his neck before Yulian's eyes. The noble that the villagers feared and hated had died at this man's hands.
As easily as killing a chicken.
Yulian had the same Transcendent power as this man. So why couldn't he do it himself?
Why had he never once entertained the thought of killing the person who was destroying this village?
He wanted to understand the difference between them.
"My lord, I will take my family and follow you."
"A wise choice."