Cannon Fodder To Villainess

🏮61. Resolve

While everyone's back was facing Amber, she shot more needles into the ground as quickly as possible. The bubble around her stayed intact, but warped whenever it was punctured. Amber was trying to smoothly shoot her needles through the bubble so that it wouldn't pop, but her high level of agitation was making that difficult. These people were mostly morons and she refused to put her life in their hands. Needle after needle she carefully pierced through the bubble, until she was surrounded by another wall of protection. She twisted the needles into the ground, facing up, and only marginally under the surface. No one noticed what she had done. Although she was quite fast, someone would have likely noticed she was shooting out so many needles normally.

"It's so juicy and crunchy. Come...come," said the voice from behind the bushes.

Amber watched as a strange haze settled over the travelers eyes and several more people walked towards the bushes. As one took a step forward, two more behind him took a step forward, and then four more took a step forward. Like gears in a mechanical clock, they moved in perfect step. They walked through the crowd, not bothering to weave, or avoid anyone. They just stepped, knocking people out of the way, with the same unflinching, and steady pace.

"Yesss come," the voice whispered with an excited hiss.

Amber watched as each of those seven people walked forward through the crowd. The one in front, moved towards the bushes without anyone trying to stop him. As soon as he stepped around the bushes and out of sight, there was a loud popping noise; like a water-balloon busting.

Right after he walked through, the two directly behind him also walked around the bushes. Again, there were two more loud popping sounds. A dark pool started to form just below the leaves of those bushes. The pool slowly spread out towards the travelers until it touched the shoes of the one standing closest. He stepped away from the puddle, leaving an imprint on the fallen leaves. In the dim light that filtered in through the trees, the stain on the leaves looked dark maroon; almost black.

Amber frowned while looking at the dark maroon puddle. It looked like the juice of poisonous berries mixed with ink. It smelled like red wine that had been forgotten outside in the hot sun for a day. It smelled rancid, but tangy. It was then that Amber remembered that as much as these people resembled the humans from her previous life, they were not humans. Although that puddle didn't seem like blood, it definitely was.

The man who stepped back leaned down and brushed the tips of his fingers into the puddle. Standing up straight again, he lifted his dirty fingers to his nose, and took a deep sniff. His eyes bulged. Then he leaned over and retched while he desperately rubbed his hand off on the grass.

A man with the same outfit as everyone else, but with a small metal in the shape of an iris, boldly walked forward with a frown on his face. He, too, keeled down beside the other man and looked at the puddle.

Amber looked towards the front of the hunting party, wondering why the Duke hadn't shown up. She saw that the majority of the hunting party had continued to march without stopping and had left this small group of travelers behind. There were no more than thirty who'd paused long enough to get separated from the larger group of one hundred travelers. Although that seemed like a large group of people, it was quite minuscule compared to the size of a normal group sent out by the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager and her close subordinates were definitely trying to keep the real purpose of this particular goal as quiet as possible. Not even the Duke knew all of the hidden objectives behind the Empress Dowager's orders. He only knew how to obey all of her orders without question. Over time he had become an excellent pawn for her to control. She was quite a clever woman to have secured her place of power in a patriarchal society. Long had the emperor been trying to shake her power in Verglas, but she would not be budged. With every feeble attempt the Ice Emperor tried, she made it a point to secure her power more strongly. Until the Ice Emperor felt his every attempt to rule, strangled. Empress Dowager Belladonna was indeed a formidable opponent.