They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World

Chapter 232: I’m Home!

I slowly pushed myself off the log, standing up to my full height.

Beside me, Mira was already on her feet, instinctively shifting into a combat stance despite the thick bandages wrapping her forearms.

"Who the hell are you all?" Yenna demanded, remaining seated but narrowing her eyes.

The air around her instantly grew heavy, the temperature dropping a fraction as mana gathered at her fingertips.

Behind me, Tessa carefully backed away from the campfire, drawing her hunting knife with a sharp metallic shing.

Scarlet didn’t bother with weapons. She dropped into a low, predatory crouch, a feral, vibrating growl tearing from her throat as her emerald eyes locked onto the intruders.

The leader of the masked figures stepped forward into the flickering firelight.

He didn’t seem intimidated by the hostility. In fact, he looked almost bored.

Without a word, he reached into his sleek leather breastplate and pulled out two rolled-up parchment posters.

With a flick of his wrist, he unrolled them, holding them up for Mira and Yenna to see.

I caught a glimpse of the parchment from the corner of my eye.

One was a remarkably accurate sketch of a boy with blond hair and blue eyes, that was obviously me.

The other was a drawing of a fox-kin girl with vibrant red hair and green eyes, which was Scarlet.

"These two are runaways," the leader stated, his voice a cold, professional monotone.

He looked past me, addressing the two veterans directly.

"We’ve been tracking them for a week. Hand them over, and we’ll leave you in peace. Resist, and you’ll be in severe trouble."

I gritted my teeth, my hand gripping Oathstorm’s hilt so tightly my leather gloves creaked.

Do I need to kill them here? I thought, my mind instantly calculating the trajectories.

I could decapitate three of them before they even registered I had moved.

But what about Mira and Yenna? They had just quit the being adventurers to avoid these kind of thing.

Dragging them into a fight with these hunters wasn’t fair.

"Who sent you?" Mira asked, her voice completely devoid of fear.

The leader lowered the posters, his chin lifting arrogantly.

"Duke Glimor. He—"

But he didn’t get to finish the sentence.

FWOOSH!

A roaring, superheated sphere of orange fire violently violently materialized from Yenna’s hand and hurled straight at the leader’s face.

The man’s eyes widened behind his mask.

He violently swatted the fireball away with the reinforced bracer of his gauntlet, the flames splashing harmlessly against the dirt, but the sheer heat singed his cloak.

He narrowed his eyes, drawing his broadsword.

Yenna didn’t even blink. She gracefully stood up, conjuring three more fireballs that hovered menacingly around her shoulders like miniature suns.

"Like I care," Yenna stated, her aristocratic voice dripping with absolute, unfiltered disdain.

She flicked her wrist, hurling the other three fireballs directly at the mercenaries on the right flank.

Mira threw her head back and flashed a massive, unhinged grin.

"Now that’s more like it!"

I let out a breathless, genuine chuckle, the tension bleeding out of my shoulders.

"And here I was worried about you two getting dragged into my mess."

"Kill them!" the leader roared.

The clearing instantly erupted into total chaos.

"Get under the carriage!" I barked at the terrified driver, who didn’t need to be told twice.

He dove beneath the wooden floorboards just as two mercenaries lunged at us.

I didn’t even need to use my debugger class.

With my newly evolved B-Rank stats, the mercenaries moved like they were wading through molasses.

I blurred forward, ducking under a horizontal slash from the first mercenary.

Then drew Oathstorm in a reverse grip, slamming the heavy pommel directly into his sternum.

The physical force cracked his breastplate, launching him backward into a tree.

"Mine!" Scarlet shrieked.

The feral fox-kin launched herself completely over the campfire, a blur of red hair and deadly intent.

She collided with the mercenary who had tried to flank Tessa.

With no beast miasma slowing her down, Scarlet was a force of untethered violence.

Her obsidian claws shredded his leather armor like wet paper, and she pinned him to the dirt, rendering him completely unconscious with a brutal strike to the temple.

On the other side of the fire, a mercenary charged Mira, clearly thinking the bandaged archer was a helpless target.

And... he was dead wrong.

Mira couldn’t hold a bow, but her footwork was flawless.

She sidestepped his thrust with casual ease, using his own momentum against him.

Then pivoted sharply, driving a devastating roundhouse kick directly into the back of his knee.

As he buckled, Tessa darted in from the side, slamming the hilt of her hunting knife hard into the back of his neck. He dropped like a stone.

"Arrogant trash!" the leader snarled, charging directly at Yenna through the smoke.

Yenna didn’t retreat. She raised her hand, her eyes flashing.

A geyser of superheated flame erupted from the dirt directly beneath the leader’s feet.

He cried out, forced to abandon his charge and dive frantically to the side to avoid being incinerated.

He rolled to his feet, panting, his cloak smoking.

But before he could even raise his sword, I was already standing right in front of him.

His eyes blew wide. He swung his blade in a desperate, panicked arc.

CLANG!

I parried his broadsword with Oathstorm, black lightning violently violently snapping along my steel edge.

The dark electricity shot up his blade, instantly frying the nerves in his arm.

He dropped his weapon with a sharp yelp of pain.

Before he could recover, I drove my boot squarely into his chest.

He flew backward, crashing through the campfire setup and skidding across the dirt until he hit the wheel of the carriage.

He groaned, completely incapacitated.

The fight had lasted less than a minute.

The clearing fell silent, save for the crackling of the fire and the groans of the six battered bounty hunters scattered across the dirt.

I flicked my sword, sliding Oathstorm back into its pitch-black scabbard with a sharp click. I looked around the camp. Scarlet was dusting off her hands.

Tessa was checking on the driver. Mira was grinning triumphantly, and Yenna simply brushed a speck of ash off her pristine cloak.

They hadn’t just protected me; they had completely dismantled Duke Glimor’s tracking squad without breaking a sweat.

Not that I am against it... Now I just need to take care so he don’t retort.

******

The rhythmic, steady clatter of wooden wheels over the dirt road was a welcome change from the chaos of the night before.

I sat by the window of the carriage, watching the dense canopy of the Thornforest gradually begin to thin out as the morning sun filtered through the leaves.

Last night, I had finally come clean to Mira and Yenna.

Explained everything around the campfire. I told them about Scarlet, how she had broken out of the Duke a few months ago, and how we had ended up crossing paths.

Because she had been seen traveling with me, the Duke’s hounds had naturally assumed we were a package deal and started hunting us both.

I explained how we had barely escaped to Thornhaven, immediately enrolling in the guild to secure their official protection.

The Duke’s men attacking us out here meant they were getting desperate enough to operate dangerously outside their legal jurisdiction.

To their credit, Mira and Yenna hadn’t batted an eye.

In fact, knowing we were actively pissing off an arrogant Duke only seemed to endear us to Yenna even more.

"Whoa there," the driver called out from the front.

The carriage rolled to a gentle, creaking halt.

I pushed the heavy wooden door open and hopped down onto the soft, grassy earth, taking a deep breath of the crisp air.

Then turned around, helping the others step down from the cabin.

And we’re back in Oakmere.

And it was exactly as we had left it to be.

Well, not that I expected it to change though.

Mira stepped out of the carriage, taking a deep breath and carefully stretching her bandaged arms above her head.

She looked around the quiet, sun-drenched settlement, a genuinely relaxed smile spreading across her face.

"You know," Mira hummed, nudging Yenna’s shoulder gently, "this really isn’t a bad place at all. I could definitely get used to this."

Yenna stepped down beside her, gracefully adjusting the folds of her traveling cloak.

She took in the absolute absence of grand estates and political posturing, offering a satisfied, approving nod.

"It is pleasantly quiet. A very welcome change of pace."

Tessa stepped right past us.

She stopped, looking down the winding path that led toward the center of the village.

And her eyes lit up with pure, unadulterated joy, and a massive, radiant grin broke across her face.

She didn’t even bother grabbing her satchel and just took off down the dirt path in a dead sprint.

"Grandpa!"

She shouted at the top of her lungs, her bright voice echoing freely across the peaceful village.

"I’m home!"