Not long after leaving the village, Alina rented a carriage. Now she and Lamia sat inside, chatting.

What, why didn’t they just fly? As if! The journey is the most important part of an adventure!

“Lamia, based on your experience, how strong do you think the people out there are?”

Alina asked. Honestly, the village chief’s words had scared her. If the average strength out there really was as high as he’d said, then she’d be better off keeping a low profile.

“Me? I was sealed away not long after I was born. How would I know? But I think there really are a lot of powerful people in this world. Back then, I just happened to steal a gem, and it brought that terrifying guy down on me. And think about it: even a random village like yours has so many capable people. How many must a whole country have?”

Lamia shook her foggy head. She hadn’t been in touch with the outside world for who knew how many years, so all she could do was guess.

Asking Lamia now was like asking a blind person for directions.

“You have a point.”

Alina rested her chin in her hand, looking troubled. She and Lamia, perched on the table, fell silent.

At first, she’d thought the two of them—a human and a dragon—could head out and sweep all before them. Now it seemed they’d better keep their heads down.

“By the way, where are we now?”

Lamia perked up and looked at Alina curiously. Di Village stood on the border of the Humans’ territory, and after traveling for so long, she had no idea where they’d ended up.

“Let me check.”

As she spoke, Alina opened the map.

“Judging by the surroundings, we should be in the Shengbo Defense Line region. The map also says there’s frequent fighting here, and robberies happen from time to time, so we should be careful…”

“Whoa!”

Alina hadn’t finished speaking when the carriage suddenly slammed to a stop.

Lamia was fine—she simply floated into the air. Alina, on the other hand, slammed headfirst into the table. It hurt like hell.

“Ow! That really hurt. What’s going on outside?”

Alina rubbed her head and put on her silver mask. While traveling, she was determined to keep a low profile.

At the same time, Lamia darted straight into Alina’s backpack. The monsters in Di Village had scared her half to death. Who knew what kind of people might show up out here?

“Everyone in the carriage, get out! This is a robbery!”

Alina hadn’t even gotten out yet, but she could already hear the rough voice outside. No doubt about it—the man had to be a hulking brute.

“Keep an eye on the driver. I’ll go see who’s riding in this carriage.”

As soon as he finished speaking, heavy footsteps approached the carriage. Then a burly man with a full beard, somewhere in his thirties, appeared in front of Alina.

The burly man reached the carriage and lifted the curtain. Then he froze. There was a girl sitting inside—and she was wearing a mask.

Could she be one of us? Who wore a mask in a carriage for no reason?

“Ahem.”

Before the burly man could react, Alina coughed twice and climbed out of the carriage herself.

Only after she got out did Alina see what was happening.

In short, the sun was blazing overhead, the road ran beneath the trees, and a band of robbers had stopped them.

There were quite a few of them—around thirty or forty. The driver was crouching with his hands over his head, but he didn’t look scared at all. Apparently, this sort of thing happened to him all the time.

That made sense. The driver didn’t have much money, and if the robbers wanted to stay in business, they needed drivers to keep bringing them customers. The two sides had a strange kind of symbiotic relationship.

Still, for robbers, these guys were way too unprofessional. They were dressed in black and wearing masks in broad daylight. That was a spectacularly stupid move.

Honestly, Alina really wanted to laugh. But out of respect for their profession, she forced herself to hold it in.

“Little girl, don’t be afraid. We only want your money. Leave it with us, and we’ll let you go.”

Maybe Alina’s cute, slight build made the robbers feel a little sorry for her. Their leader even tried to reassure her, putting on a stiff smile. He would’ve been better off not smiling: it pulled up the scar on his face and made him look terrifying.

“You know, you guys are pretty amateurish.”

To the robbers’ surprise, the slight girl in front of them didn’t look nervous at all. If anything, she seemed completely calm.

To stick to her principle of keeping a low profile, Alina decided not to solve the problem with force. She planted her hands on her hips and stood there, bossing everyone around so imperiously that the robbers started to feel uneasy.

“Could she be one of us?”

“Could she be someone important?”

A giant question mark appeared over every robber’s head.

“May I ask what you’re suggesting?”

Seeing how calm Alina was, even the leader wasn’t sure what to make of her. He asked cautiously.

After all, a robber’s most important skill was knowing who they were dealing with. Pick a fight with someone you shouldn’t, and you were done for.

“Tch. Just look at what you’re wearing! Come on, man—it’s broad daylight, and you’re dressed in black. You trying to make yourselves stand out?”

“And what kind of lineup is this for a robbery? Do you have anyone keeping watch? Who’s in charge of backup? Who’s going to alert your hideout? You’re all bunched up together like this. If they’ve got an ambush waiting behind them, one attack and you’re all finished!”

“And when you block the road, you actually yell ‘This is a robbery’? That’s so lame. I’ll teach you a better line. Come on, repeat after me.”

Alina’s cute voice rang out, full of exasperation, as though she just couldn’t bear to see them so hopeless. Maybe her presence was just that outrageous, or maybe it was something else, but the whole band of robbers was cowed in no time.

“Come on, learn this with me: ‘I planted this tree, I opened this road. If you want to pass this way, pay the toll!’”

“I planted this tree, I opened this road. If you want to pass this way, pay the toll!”

Alina said a line, and the robbers repeated it after her. Some of them even realized they’d come here to rob people, so how had they ended up as her students? But everyone around them was getting so into the lesson…

Whatever. They tossed their brains aside and joined in the fun.

And so, a bizarre scene unfolded: a crowd of burly men respectfully gathered around a little girl, listening to her lecture.

…

“You’re leaving already? Stay for dinner!”

“Miss, you’re welcome to visit our village again!”

“After hearing what you had to say, it feels like all the work we did before was for nothing!”

Somehow, the gang had hit it off with Alina. When she was about to leave, their eyes were brimming with tears. They all felt like they’d met far too late.

“Keep at it! You’ve got to keep learning. I believe you can become the next up-and-coming bandit gang in this area!”

Sitting in the carriage with her mask on, Alina raised her tiny fist at them, urging them to study hard and improve every day!

“We won’t let you down!”

The leader, Kyle, even promised her that.

“All right, stop seeing me off. I’m leaving. You should hurry up and get ready for your next job.”

With that, Alina lowered the curtain and signaled the driver to get moving. He’d been dazed ever since this whole thing started, but at last her words seemed to get through to him. He mechanically urged the carriage onward.

“Goodbye!”

Even after the carriage had traveled some distance, they could still hear the farewells behind them.

“You know, you’re way too good at making friends with people.”

Lamia poked her head out of the backpack, looking baffled. She’d never seen anyone get robbed and turn it into a lesson on how to rob people.

“Tch. You’re just too narrow-minded.”

Alina rolled her eyes at Lamia and ignored her.

Just then, a shout came from far behind the carriage. Even from a hundred yards away, Alina could hear every word clearly.

“Boss! Boss! We’ve got trouble! Look—the signal smoke! It’s coming from the village!”

At that, Alina hurriedly looked outside. Sure enough, a column of black smoke was rising into the sky in the distance.

“Damn it, those dark races are back! Brothers, grab your weapons! We’re heading back at full speed!”

Kyle roared, then led the others rushing in a great mass toward the smoke.

“Should we go take a look, too?”

Alina watched them hurry off, lost in thought.