Chapter 336: A Suspicious Village

"Jenna, don’t you think this place is far too weird?" Yohan lay on his back, staring at the straw ceiling.

"I mean, think about it. Why else would they stop the women from leaving? Doesn’t that automatically count as kidnapping?" He sat up and stared at her

"Not unless they’re being held against their will. And did any of those women look like they were being held against their will?" Jenna didn’t move from beside him. She was curled up beneath the handwoven sheets they had been given.

They were sleeping on a wooden platform covered with a soft wool cushion.

"They have traditions and beliefs different from ours, so of course they’re going to seem weird to you." she added weakly.

"I know, but why are there far more women? As a man, that’s very concerning. You might be able to close your eyes and sleep, but I can’t."

A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.

"Yohan, just go to sleep. Please..." Jenna raised her face to look at him. She looked exhausted and was already half asleep.

"Okay," he replied, not wanting to disturb her any further.

She rested her head and quickly fell asleep, leaving Yohan sitting there alone.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t let the thought go. Eventually, he decided to go out for a stroll. Maybe even go back and sleep in the car.

He couldn’t feel safe behind the wooden fence surrounding the village, making it difficult to close his eyes.

’In this world, there’s only one person capable of protecting me, and that person is myself.’

It didn’t matter if Jenna and Izumi were ready to trust these people. The fact that they were mystical technique masters meant Yohan couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

By now, it was one-thirty in the morning. There was no signal on his phone and the sounds of owls and wolves echoed through the night, while frogs and crickets filled the darkness with their incessant calls.

Other than the sounds of nature, the entire village was completely silent.

Yohan took a quick look around. At first, there was no sign of life.

Then he heard footsteps approaching.

He quickly hid behind the hut.

"I thought I heard something..."

"You sure?"

From their voices, Yohan could tell there were two people, both male.

’I made sure to be quiet, so what could they have possibly heard? My heartbeat?’

He had used tricks like this before, but this time felt different.

’Each of these huts has a person inside. That’s like a dozen heartbeats in a single area. It would be difficult to distinguish one from the others.’

The two men looked around for a moment.

"Are you sure you heard something?" one of them asked.

"Yeah. You haven’t trained enough to get senses like this." The man sounded proud of his abilities.

"But maybe it was some ground mice..." he shrugged, "You got some smoke?"

"Nah, I left mine back at the storehouse," the other replied with a grunt. "I still don’t understand why we have to stand guard at this guy’s door."

"Have you forgotten we’re sending out the product today?" the first guy answered. "It’s just a unfortunate that he had to show up today."

"More like suspicious, if you ask me. I say we should just get rid of him."

"What if he’s actually a cop?" The first guy snickered. "We’ll be even more fucked."

Yohan hadn’t moved an inch from his hiding spot, so he heard everything the two men said.

He could only conclude that these guys really were involved in some kind of criminal scheme.

He wasn’t too shocked. This place already had some relationship with Hatoru, and that alone was enough to make him suspicious of them.

Now that he had confirmed his hunch, he was even more eager to get out of this place.

’First, I have to get past these two without raising an alarm.’

He picked up a stone and tossed it toward the other side.

The two men immediately went quiet before their footsteps headed in that direction.

Once they were far enough away, Yohan sprinted behind another hut.

But before he could take another step, he bumped into the point of a sharp steel spear.

"I knew I heard something." The guard grinned widely.

The other man approached from behind, also pointing his spear at Yohan.

"Get back in your fucking hut," he ordered.

"And what if I refuse?" Yohan asked, already preparing himself for a confrontation.

"Then..."

Before he could finish, Yohan grabbed the spear and pulled him forward.

The man reacted instinctively and threw a punch, but Yohan dodged and tripped his right foot. It was planted in front and carrying most of his weight, so the man lost his balance and fell hard.

"You asshole!"

The other guard charged, his spear piercing through the air.

Yohan moved his head from side to side, dodging every attack.

The guard was surprised by how quickly Yohan could move. He gritted his teeth and put all his strength into driving the spear forward, but Yohan knocked him out with a jab before his arm could fully extend.

Yohan wasted no time finishing off the other one.

A clean kick to the chin was enough to knock him unconscious.

He had gambled on the fact that they couldn’t possibly be as strong as the man at the gate.

Luckily, he’d won.

Another fortunate thing was that neither of them had anything that looked like it could alert the others. Maybe it was because they didn’t want to panic the women.

But once Yohan noticed that, he knew exactly what he had to do.

’They were fast. Faster than any normal human being.’

That much was undeniable.

’And they had a special sense that made it difficult to sneak around.’

Even moving as carefully as possible wouldn’t be enough.

He could only assume that if these two were this skilled, then the man at the gate was even more dangerous.

In the end, fighting him was probably the only way out.

Yohan sighed.

"I guess this is just one of those nights."