Chapter 508: He Simply Won't Be Attracted by Beauty

“Lord!” Caitlin lifted her head slightly, tilting it up at the perfect angle she had found earlier to gaze at the young nobleman on his warhorse.

She knew very well how to flaunt her assets. The moment she saw the man on horseback, she couldn’t help but feel her heart stir.

Even if this was a honey trap, getting closer to this ascendant noble lord—or better yet, making him fall at her feet and become her “trophy”—would be a source of immense pride.

Leech stared into her eyes, which flickered with fear, grievance, terror, expectation, worship, admiration, affection…

The frightening part was that Leech could somehow read them all. He didn’t understand how a person’s gaze could contain so many emotions and convey them to him so clearly.

‘I must be getting narcissistic again.’ Leech mentally sounded an alarm for himself. His men were still around; getting caught being narcissistic would be social suicide.

Caitlin realized that despite using her most advanced techniques, the handsome young man on horseback remained completely unmoved!

She didn’t know what had gone wrong. She could only quickly move on to the next step, her voice cracking as if on the verge of tears. “My teammates and I came down here looking for valuables, but we never expected to disturb that pack of Giants. They’re all dead… they died saving me.”

“Lord, I beg you, please save me. I’m willing to repay you~” She was practically spelling it out. She even bent over deliberately, as if intending to show Leech just how healthy the “rabbits” she was raising were.

When you save a life, if the person is beautiful, they’ll offer their body in return.

If they’re unattractive? Sorry, they’ll repay you in the next life by being your beast of burden.

Leech clearly belonged to the former category. Ever since he’d started down the irreversible path of a hero saving damsels in distress, he had yet to meet one unwilling to offer herself to him.

The two musketeer Cavalrymen at his side glanced at Leech. They knew their Lord was charming. Rumor had it that from Porcupine Castle to Iron Wall Castle, from the Bonta market to Mama City, the maids would argue and even come to blows over who got to clean the Lord’s bedchamber.

Later, the rumors escalated: the line of women who adored their Lord was so long that, hand in hand, they could stretch from the Porcupine Territory to the desert and back again three times!

He shook off the narcissistic fantasy. Reason still held firm command. ‘In this terrifying, desolate underground world, I just happen to run into an exquisite woman throwing herself at me, wanting nothing but me… Oh, by the Four Gods’ swimming trunks, the odds of that are about the same as transmigrating.’

“You provoked them?” Leech frowned.

Objectively speaking, her looks were top-tier. While she didn’t reach the flawless, sculpted-face perfection of an elven girl like Bai Lu, she was on par with mainstream Lu Leiyi beauties like Red Rose, Water Hyacinth, and Charming. Furthermore, she exuded a seductive allure. The vast expanses of her snow-white skin and those “rabbits” that always seemed ready to leap out were enough to make a man’s mouth go dry.

Only Charming, Becky Simon, could truly compete with her.

Leech had always been wary of that woman, because some people don’t let you look for free.

What’s free is often the most expensive.

“Y-Yes,” she said, her face twisted in a perfectly pitiful expression, as if filled with self-reproach. “We were so careless… and I’ve paid the price for it. Thank goodness! Thank goodness you came, Lord!”

‘Price?’

Leech glanced at her clothes, torn just so, and her pretty face, which wasn’t even smudged with a speck of dirt.

‘Does she really think this Baron has never seen those ridiculous, melodramatic soap operas where they just strike poses? No matter the hardship, the makeup can’t be smudged. No matter the danger, the hair can’t be messed up.’

If this were Earth, he’d be looking for hidden cameras by now, wondering if this was some kind of street prank.

“Lord~” Tears welled in her eyes as she moved closer, seemingly assuming that her story had earned Leech’s sympathy and approval, giving her tacit permission to approach.

BANG! BANG!

The Knights guarding Leech’s side opened fire without hesitation.

Caitlin’s eyes widened in astonishment. She collapsed to the ground as blood flowed out, pooling beneath her.

The light in her eyes faded rapidly, preserving only a vacant expression as they rolled up into her head.

“I told you you’d die if you came any closer.” Leech shook his head, not looking at the woman who had just breathed her last in a pool of blood. He did find it a shame, though. There probably weren’t many top-tier beauties of her caliber in the entire Lu Leiyi Continent. A pity she wouldn’t listen. She thought being beautiful gave her special privileges.

A lord known as ‘the Poet,’ Morgan Black Rod, once said: “Being beautiful can give you an advantage over others of your class, but it does not grant you privilege. Privilege belongs only to the privileged class.”

At least, he probably said that. In any case, Leech attributed any famous quote he couldn’t place to Morgan.

It was obvious she was deliberately trying to lure him. In such a dangerous situation, her makeup was still perfect. Besides, the Giants hadn’t been chasing her from the start. She had suddenly darted out from the side, forcing her way in to create the illusion of being pursued. The truth was, the Giants couldn’t have cared less about her.

As for what the real conspiracy was, Leech wasn’t particularly concerned.

Dog-eat-dog had become the unspoken rule of the Rift Cave. Her trying to use a honey trap to get close to him and then stab him in the back—wasn’t that perfectly normal behavior? Leech didn’t even consider turning her into a Corpse Ghost. It would cost gold and time, and if she wasn’t a Transcendent, doing so would be a waste of money and a waste of time.

His standards had risen; he no longer had any interest in ordinary corpses.

If she hadn’t been deliberately courting death by trying to get closer, Leech wouldn’t have even thought of killing her. He hadn’t reached the point where he felt he had to kill and scatter the ashes of anyone who schemed against him or argued with him. He just liked to state the rules upfront. As long as the other party followed the rules and didn’t take that extra step forward, everything was negotiable.

One thing Leech’s Soldiers could do decisively was obey their Lord’s commands. Little Joel, who had been demoted over a woman’s beauty, had long served as a cautionary tale for the Soldiers.

Although Little Joel had later managed to make a name for himself again through his own efforts, his path to becoming a Knight would certainly be much more convoluted than that of Radish, who was a squire.

In the distance, the Giants finally collapsed under the mobile fusillade of the musketeer Cavalry, each one shot to pieces until not a single patch of intact skin remained.

The bodies made a huge noise as they fell, hitting the ground with a thunderous RUMBLE.

“Continue forward,” Leech said, not sparing the bodies on the ground another glance.

He had yet to complete his main objective. He had thought this area was deep enough, but then a woman had suddenly popped out. He needed to go deeper, to find a safer, more secluded spot to avoid being discovered by others.

A good while after they had left, the sound of footsteps approached, eventually stopping in front of the woman’s corpse. But not a single figure could be seen.

A voice materialized from thin air. “Caitlin is dead.”

Another voice remarked with a sigh, “As expected of the Conqueror of Flames, the Lord of Bloodsand. I told you before, he’s completely unmoved by beauty! He’s utterly merciless.”

Someone else sighed. “Ai, what a waste. She should have been displaying her charms in the Northern Territory, not dying here in obscurity.”

Of course, there was also someone who spat disdainfully—it sounded like a woman’s voice. “That bitch only knew those two damn tricks: rip her clothes and sell her body for help. I really thought all men in this world were blind and only liked that type. I didn’t expect Baron Porcupine to be completely different. I’m starting to like him, HAHAHA!”

“…”

Silence.

A final voice spoke up. “Let’s go out and report the situation to Ed. Let him figure it out himself.”

“What about Baron Porcupine?”

“If you want to make a move on him, go yourself.”

“Then let’s leave the headache to Ed.”

More footsteps, and then the voices faded into the distance.

All that remained was the woman’s corpse soaking in its own blood and the massive bodies of the Giants in the distance.

The bodies lay scattered about, emitting a thick, metallic stench of blood, abandoned here forever.