In the hinterlands in the middle of Lavish Division, a little boy riding on a white Sand Rhino suddenly showed up inside a small oasis town.
The boy looked like he was about the age of 10, but he was extremely mischievous. Within three days, he had traveled among a dozen such towns. And each time he went into one, people would direct hostile yelling at him, which only seemed to entertain the boy.
He always had a small whip in hand and used it to whip the creature under him. Bothered by the whip, his rhino would simply ram into every house it saw and turned it into ruins.
However, he didn’t get to do his usual game inside this town named “Horse Hooves”.
As soon as the rhino bumped into the walls of a stone castle, a young man descended from the sky and pinched the boy’s ear.
“Aw aw aw…” the boy moaned in pain.
“Loki! Didn’t the professor told us NOT to bother mortals?” the young man said with a plain expression.
“I didn’t! It was Alby who did it!” The boy named “Loki” protested with tears around his eyes.
“Alby is your familiar, and you shall answer for its crime.”
Next, the man dragged Loki by his ear and led him around the town to apologize to the local residents. He had been amending all the damage caused by Loki these days, and he decided he’d never let Loki slip from his view again.
Loki simply cried at the top of his lungs while pretending to be an innocent kid.
In the end, the residents of Horse Hooves chose to forgive him. However, they still expected compensation for the broken buildings.
“Aw sh*t! The Sand Pirates are here!” someone suddenly screamed.
The small towns that scattered around the desert weren’t ruled by any governments; as such, it allowed the existence of bandit groups. Upon hearing the terrible message, all people grew fearful.
Fearful, but not yet desperate. The Sand Pirates only wanted money, not their lives.
But their expressions darkened further when another folk declared that it was “Baba Ali Clan” who just showed up. This was a very infamous bandit group that had already burned several towns to ashes.
People either ran or hid. Someone even chose to escape into the unforgiving desert.
A gentle-looking woman saw Loki and the young man standing in the open without moving and quickly called, “Stranger, quickly, come to my basement!”
“There’s no need,” the young man replied.
The woman sighed and returned to her own hiding spot when she saw the bandits drew near.
The young man simply took Loki into hiding by vanishing into thin air.
Again, Baba Ali Clan lived up to their name by killing everyone they could catch and taking everything they got their hands on. It was only a minute, and there were already a dozen corpses lying on the ground.
Loki watched the ongoing slaughter with a curious expression. “Brother Hermes, aren’t we going to help them?”
Loki knew that Hermes had been repairing the broken buildings he left behind, so he believed that Hermes would save the mortals again.
However, Hermes shook his head. “Again, do not bother the lives of mortals.”
Loki rolled his eyes.
He loved doing mischief, but he would never maim people without a reason.
Loki watched silently as countless lives perished in front of his eyes. He finally couldn’t take it anymore when he saw several bandits dragging the kind woman from her basement and prepared to execute her.
“Go, Alby! Kill these bandits. All of them!”
Hermes gave him a side-glance but didn’t do anything.
Alby howled and instantly wiped out the Sand Pirates after using several simple cantrips—Sandstorm and Sand Trap.
When Horse Hooves Town regained its peace, albeit relatively, Loki showed his form in front of the people proudly while expecting words of praise. Yet the residents only gave him more fearful looks as if they just saw a demon. Several people began tossing lit torches at him. Even the “kind woman” from earlier stepped back in terror.
Loki felt his heart aching. How could Brother Hermes earn respect by repairing buildings, while he only received foul treatment after saving so many lives?
“The hearts of humans are difficult to fathom. Let’s move,” Hermes said as he dragged Loki by his hand. “Professor had arrived at Floating Mech City, and your naivety caused us to fall behind. We can’t afford to miss our timing.”
“Yes, brother…” Loki pouted and nodded in sadness.