Chapter Eleven: First Meeting with Martin —— Gaining a Favor

Watching Shirley stand there alone, sulking, Rod smiled wryly. Running into such a little witch was truly his bad luck—how could he have met someone like her!
Seeing Shirley’s slightly red eyes, pouted lips, and face still flushed from earlier events, she looked rather endearing. Rod sighed and asked again, “You really won’t leave?”
“I won’t leave! Hmph, if you want to go, go ahead. It’s not like I can’t stay here alone. Just leave us to fend for ourselves. If we run into those monsters again, it’ll just be my bad luck! You don’t need to feel guilty—after all, that’s who you are. You probably won’t feel anything anyway. Go back to your beauty. She’s alone in the woods. Aren’t you worried something might happen to her?” Shirley said stubbornly, pouting at Rod before turning her back on him and ignoring him.
Seeing her attitude, Rod didn’t know what to do. With a wry smile and another sigh, he thought it would never end. She made it sound like he was some kind of devil, making him feel guilty. Why did he feel like he really owed her so much?
After hesitating for a moment, a thoughtful smile appeared on Rod’s lips as he looked at Shirley, who was still facing away. “You really won’t leave? Since you won’t, fine! I’ll go find that woman first. You go out by yourself. Be careful out there!” With that, he turned to leave, though his full attention remained on Shirley, waiting to see how she would react.
As expected, sensing that he truly intended to leave, Shirley panicked. She quickly turned to Rod, who was about to leave, and threw herself at him, gripping his hand tightly. “You jerk! Heartless! You want to abandon me and go after someone else! Hmph, you’ll only be happy when I die, right? You want me to be bullied by those people so you can be happy! Others are human, but I’m not!” She pulled Rod back and threw herself into his arms, fully embracing her witchish side and starting to fight and squabble.

Standing still, allowing Shirley’s small fists to hit him and her to pull and complain, Rod could only force a wry smile. He had completely given in to this girl—this was truly the first time he’d met someone like her. Yet something about her words felt off; they seemed rather ambiguous. Thankfully, Rod was quite simple-minded; otherwise, he wouldn’t know where to think.

“Are you done? If so, let’s go!” After waiting for a while and sensing that Shirley had gradually stopped moving and become quiet, Rod suppressed his laughter and asked.

“Hmph, you always pick on me. I remember this, Brado—we’re not done yet!” It seemed Rod’s words made Shirley realize what had just happened. Her face turned red as she quickly wiped away the tears on her face and complained.

Smiling slightly, knowing that things had finally settled down and the storm had passed, Rod let out a sigh of relief. Then, following his memory, he led Shirley toward the woman’s location.

Soon, they returned to the spot. The woman he had saved earlier was sitting there, curled up against a large tree behind her, looking wary and pitiful.

It was then that Rod took a closer look at her appearance: fair skin, delicate features, long hair that cascaded down like a waterfall behind her—she was quite pretty, even beautiful. It was hard to understand how someone like her could have been targeted by that man and brought here. It seemed modern women still lacked self-protection awareness.

Upon seeing Rod and Shirley arrive, she was initially stunned, then flashed a slight smile before quickly getting up and walking over.

“Are you okay?” Rod asked concerningly as he looked at her.

“Mm, I’m fine. I really have to thank you today. Otherwise, that monster would have…” As she spoke, she couldn’t continue and started sobbing. Her pitiful appearance was heart-wrenching.

Rod felt a chill run down his spine. He hated seeing women cry in front of him. He didn’t know what to do when they cried—he didn’t know how to comfort them either. With a sigh, he said, “Alright, if you’re fine, go back. Be more careful in the future—don’t trust strangers easily! It’s always better to be cautious!”

By now, Shirley had already approached the woman and started comforting her, not realizing that she had been crying just moments ago.

Yet, it’s true—women always have the most things to talk about. With Shirley’s arrival, the woman gradually calmed down and stopped listening to what they were saying. Rod led the way ahead, uninterested in joining in their conversations among women.

Soon, they reached the edge of the forest. Rod didn’t ask why the woman had been captured by that beast; he wasn’t very interested. After all, others’ pain was just that—pain. She had just been soothed by Shirley, and bringing up the topic again would only reopen old wounds. So Rod decided not to ask, as it wouldn’t help him find that person anyway.

“Annie, why did it take you so long? Where were you?” As soon as they stepped out of the forest, they heard an anxious call in the distance, followed by a man rushing toward them.

Turning around, Rod saw a man in his late twenties or early thirties, with a robust build and tanned skin. He carried a long sword on his back—clearly a warrior, dressed in typical warrior attire. It was also evident he was a mercenary or adventurer, with a strong air of an adventurer about him.

It was from this man that Rod finally learned the name of the woman he had saved: Annie. A nice name!

“Martin…” Upon seeing this man, Annie, who was standing beside Rod and Shirley,’s eyes reddened. The faint smile on her face vanished instantly, her eyes turning red as tears welled up and she began to sob.

“Annie, what’s wrong? Damn it, who are you? Annie, tell me—did they hurt you? I’ll chop that guy in pieces!” Seeing Annie cry, the man rushed over, panicked, and after fumbling around, turned his attention to Rod, shouting loudly.

“No…” Annie quickly grabbed Martin, who was about to attack Rod, and hugged him tightly. “It wasn’t them. They saved me. Uuuu… If not for them, you wouldn’t have seen me today. Just now…” She hugged the man tightly as she explained, but her sobs replaced her words. She couldn’t speak of what had happened, as Rod surely understood how much such an experience could hurt a woman—it wasn’t something that could be recovered from in a short time.

“What happened? Please tell me, stop crying, really…” Seeing Anne start crying again, the man tried to comfort her anxiously with a troubled expression. Her flustered state made Shirley laugh, who also began to watch the three of them innocently.

After some effort, Anne was finally calmed down. “Can you tell me what happened?” The man asked Rod in a low voice, casting a questioning look at him once Anne was settled.

Rod then recounted everything that had happened that day to the man named Martin. Shirley kept adding fuel to the fire from the side. Combined with Anne’s pitiful expression and tearful appearance, Martin became furious even before hearing the whole story.

“Damn you, bastard! Where is he? I’m going to kill him!” Drawing his shiny long sword, the man shouted. “He escaped! We can’t catch him!” With a helpless sigh, he thought, If we could catch him, would we need you at all?

“Brother, thanks for helping us this time. My name is Martin. Anne and I owe you a favor. If you need anything in the future, come to me. I’ll do anything to help! I won’t go into too much detail about the debt—I’ll remember it. If you’re still alive after this beast attack, come to Red Rock City. You can easily find me there!” After hearing Rod’s words, the man sighed and hugged Anne, then said firmly to Rod, ready to face any danger.

Smiling slightly, Rod nodded in agreement. Of course, he wouldn’t take it to heart—it was just a small favor. There was no need to ask for anything in return. Otherwise, he might actually ask the other party to go through hardships.

After some casual chatting and expressions of gratitude, Martin left with Anne, who was still emotionally unstable, heading back to their residence. Rod and Shirley were left alone again. Watching Martin go, Rod’s gaze took on a strange look. What an unusual man—seemingly rough and crude, yet actually a near-saint-level powerhouse. He had already sensed his strength earlier; it was at least at the late imperial level. Reaching such a level at this age was considered quite impressive talent.

Of course, Rod never imagined that one day this man would indeed keep his promise to Rod and provide him with a huge helping hand.

“What? Not going back yet?” Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Rod looked at Shirley and said jokingly. This little girl still seemed angry at him, pouting and acting indifferent.

“Hmph, none of your business. Stop acting fake here!” Shirley stamped her foot and glared at Rod disdainfully. This action once again drew a sigh and a wry smile from Rod. He really didn’t know how to get along with this guy!
“Alright then, stay here by yourself. I’m going back first. Be careful!” With that, Rod turned to leave. There were still things to attend to. Just coming out here had wasted half a day. He needed to go back and check if those guys had rested well. There were still many things to handle during this period, and training was of course the top priority.