Chapter 198 - Returning

All the ladies in the room immediately turned their attention to Leyvi. Of course, some of them stared at him with displeased eyes.

This guy is that female city lord's husband? Hmph! He must have tricked her! Many of them exchanged subtle glances, as though silently agreeing with this thought.

"Why do I have to tell you, Fairy Maiden June?" Leyvi scratched his head. He wasn't sure why it was necessary to tell her something like that.

"Of course, you have to tell me. It means that you have a higher status than me, so I have to be respectful to you," she replied.

"Is that how it works, Anda?" Leyvi turned to Anda and asked.

Anda shrugged. She wasn't aware of it either.

Senior Sister June shook her head and said, "All of you are ignorant of many things, huh."

"Hahaha! I'm just a country bumpkin. How am I supposed to know about all these complex things?" Leyvi laughed it off.

"Never mind then. We can talk later. Sorry for the interruption. Sister Anda, you can continue," she said. June didn't want to disturb the recruitment process any longer.

Anda nodded and started thinking. "Um...where was I again? Ah yes. Even though my husband here is the landowner of that area, he won't interfere at all with the governance and will leave everything to City Lord Layla. That means you will be working solely for her, not anyone else."

"Can I see the contract details?" Chloe asked.

"Sure." Anda handed over the contract that Layla had prepared to Chloe.

Chloe read the details carefully to detect any suspicious clauses, but the more she read, the wider her eyes became. Her heart began to race, a mixture of disbelief and suspicion.

Impossible! This contract is too good to be true! There must be some kind of catch somewhere. I don't believe it! Where is it? Where's the trap?

Chloe's eyes became more and more strained as she went over the details.

After a while, Chloe put down the contract and asked, "Who decided on the details in here?"

"Of course, the city lord herself. How is it? Are you tempted?" Anda smiled.

"The offers are too good to be true. Three months per working shift, with three months paid time off for our cultivation. The pay is three times higher than the standard corresponding to our cultivation levels. Free accommodation. Yearly free alchemy product supplies. These are not simple products. All of these...where do you even get the money for everything here?" Chloe voiced her doubts.

Anda didn't blame her. It was understandable for them to think this way. The offer was way too good to be true.

Nala stepped forward. "Vice leader Chloe, everything listed in the contract is true. They will definitely not trick you. I wanted to share my blessings; that's why I recommended you guys when they wanted to hire people."

"Nala, I just want to be cautious. You know I don't want these girls to suffer again. Leader entrusted the matter of their safety to me before she left," Chloe said.

"I know. That's why I'm doing this. I will never harm them. Vice leader Chloe, you asked where she got all the money, right?" Nala smiled.

Chloe nodded. She was interested in knowing.

"Hehehe. She could afford all of these because she is none other than the Champion of the recent Alchemy Competition, the ultimate dark horse, Alchemist Panda!" Nala made a motion with her hands to introduce Anda. Her tone was filled with pride, as though this accomplishment was her own.

"What? She is that Alchemist Panda?" The revelation shocked them.

Even June and her junior sisters were taken aback by this. They had been traveling together for a few weeks, but didn't know about her identity at all. As a Soul Formation expert, June could easily discern that Anda was an alchemist. But she didn't expect that Anda was the Alchemist Panda.

They all looked at Anda's birthmark on her face and immediately understood why she was given the name. It was a small detail that suddenly made so much sense to them.

Anda smiled wryly. It's over. She could never escape from this title anymore.

Chloe stared at Anda blankly and then read the list of alchemy products on the contract again. No wonder she could easily provide all of these. Chloe started to feel like the job opportunity was a real deal.

"Hehe. Are you guys convinced now? If you still don't believe it, I can show you more." Nala made a hand motion and a lot of alchemy products appeared on a table. The sudden appearance of the items drew everyone's attention like moths to a flame. "These are all the alchemy products that I received. I already consumed some of them."

Cultivation products, medical products, cosmetic products, and others. The mercenary ladies gulped. These were expensive alchemy products that they could hardly obtain here. With their current job's salary, it would be hard to buy any of those.

Chloe closed her eyes for a while, and after thinking things through properly, she opened her eyes and replied, "I am almost fully convinced, but I want to see the city lord herself first before we sign the contract."

Anda smiled. "That's not a problem. Then you ladies should start packing. We will depart for Bara City in a week. If you aren't satisfied and reject the offer in the end, I will cover the cost of sending you back here."

"No need. We were already planning to move away from this city for a while now. We have been saving money to start a new life somewhere else. This place sucks. Are you going to use the airship service to send us there?" Chloe asked. Whether they accepted the offer or not later, they wanted to use this opportunity as a free ride. It wasn't often that such a convenient chance came their way.

Anda felt surprised. She didn't expect that they had planned to move away. It seemed like they couldn't stand this place anymore.

"We have our own airship. No need to use the airship service. It's enough to accommodate fifty people. Or do you also have family members you want to bring along?" Anda asked.

Chloe was amazed again. They were actually rich enough to own an airship.

Half of the mercenary ladies shook their heads, indicating that they didn't have any family members to bring, but the other half nodded. After that, they counted how many family members they would bring along in total—over forty family members.

"Hmm...it seems like we might need to use the airship service. Don't worry about it. I will cover the cost," Anda reassured them. She could just cram them all together in their airship, but the journey wasn't short. She didn't want them to feel uncomfortable.

"Oh my, oh my. Sister Anda, you don't have to do that. They can ride my airship. I'm going to Bara City as well," Senior Sister June chimed in and offered.

"Really? Thank you very much, Fairy Maiden June. Your help is appreciated," Anda said happily. She was happy not because of her help but because the big fish was hooked. Now she could slowly reel it in.

Chloe looked at June curiously. From the beginning, she was the only person she couldn't see through, since she restrained her aura perfectly. Furthermore, she also possessed an airship, indicating that she was rich enough to have one. Her identity must be no less shocking than Alchemist Panda.

June smiled and said, "No big deal. I'm just accompanying our future sect master back, and I want to see Bara City as well."

"Who is your sect master? Fairy Maiden June, stop pushing responsibilities onto me. Oh, this meat is good. Yum yum," Leyvi protested for a few seconds and resumed eating a type of meat he hadn't tried yet.

Senior Sister June smiled mysteriously and didn't respond.

"Alright everyone, since the negotiation has concluded, please enjoy the food here. Fill your stomachs until you can't walk," Anda invited, although they had been eating for some time.

The next day, Leyvi's group departed from Mercenary City again, going to the next hunting ground to act as bait. Senior Sister June wanted to use the remaining time there to exterminate more pests.

A week later, Leyvi and the group returned again to Mercenary City. During those seven days, Senior Sister June eradicated four more mercenary groups that preyed on women. In total, they had eliminated fifteen such mercenary groups.

They were aware that there must be more groups like that in other hunting grounds, but the time to return had arrived. They could only hope that the disappearance of fifteen groups would make it safer for women mercenaries, even if it was just a little.

By this point, Leyvi became more and more disappointed by how many people were engaging in heinous activities outside the city. The moment people weren't bound by some restrictions, they started acting like animals.

Are humans inherently good or bad? Anda once said to him that humans are inherently bad. He didn't believe it at that time. But slowly, his opinion began to change as he saw more of the world.

He had seen more bad people than good people so far. During the whole hunting trip here, he met hundreds of evil men and, on the other hand, only one good person. The good person was the coral harvester who warned them about the woman-preying mercenaries, Cora.

Leyvi wished there were more people like Cora.

And so, after nearly two months, Leyvi and the group were finally on their way back to Bara City. They came with an airship carrying only five people, but they traveled back with two airships carrying nearly a hundred people.

Anda felt happy. They completed all their agendas this time, and they hooked a big fish. Now she had to think of a way to send this big fish onto her husband's bed.