Chapter 148: Embrace It?

Chapter 148: Chapter 148: Embrace It?

Chapter 148: Embrace It?

She had no idea how much the treasures were worth, but considering the miserable conditions she had lived in before being kidnapped, she couldn’t understand how anyone could look at such a haul and consider it insignificant, much less complain that the people who owned it had wasted their time.

Osborne, on the other hand, didn’t find their reactions particularly strange, since he knew that both women had originally belonged to a noble household, with Vanessa being the young miss of the McClain family and Hana serving as one of her closest aides before their circumstances had changed.

It wouldn’t be a lie to say that both women had witnessed their household’s wealth at least once, and after spending so much time around people who possessed considerable money and influence, it was only natural that their standards would be different from those of ordinary people.

Not to mention the amount of taxes the McClains must have collected from their citizens over the years, which meant that the wealth these women remembered from their former household would have been far greater than anything a group of traffickers could gather through their activities.

Of course there was a possibility that they’d left most of their valuables in the bank, after all, the bearded man Osborne had fought showed considerably martial prowess.

Osborne said nothing, instead walking towards each mound of valuables before storing everything inside his sub-space, causing the treasures to disappear one after another until nothing remained where they had been gathered.

He then did the same with the human corpses scattered throughout the encampment, along with the bodies of the demonic beasts that had been killed during the battle, storing them away so that he could decide what to do with them later without leaving anything behind that might attract unwanted attention.

Afterwards, he approached Vanessa and gestured for her to come closer, lowering his voice as he began whispering something into her ear while making sure that Sasha, who was still standing nearby, couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Sasha watched them both with curiosity, wondering what kind of conversation required such secrecy when they were surrounded by nothing but corpses and piles of belongings, although she quickly stopped herself from trying to listen when she realised that doing so might attract their attention.

For a moment, Vanessa’s eyes lit up with an eager yet eerie crimson hue, causing a shiver to run down Sasha’s spine as she noticed the sudden change in the woman’s expression, which had gone from mild displeasure to something that looked almost like excitement.

"Really, my lord?" Vanessa asked Osborne with an excited look, seemingly unable to believe that she had heard him correctly, while her crimson eyes continued to shine with an unsettling brightness that made Sasha instinctively take another step away from her.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" Osborne asked, giving Vanessa an impatient look as he wondered why she was making such a fuss over something he had already permitted.

"Forgive me, my lord," Vanessa quickly apologised, lowering her head as she tried to calm herself down, although the excitement she felt still lingered around the edges of her expression despite her efforts to appear more composed.

She quickly walked over to Hana before relaying the news, speaking in a low voice that Sasha couldn’t quite make out, and the moment Hana understood what Osborne had allowed them to do, her eyes widened in surprise before she turned to look at him, the initial shock on her face quickly giving way to genuine gratitude.

---

"What exactly did you tell them?" Sasha, curious, walked up to Osborne and asked.

"It’s nothing important," Osborne simply said before walking towards one of the shelters within the encampment.

With the gazes of the cold-looking lightning wolves shifting towards her, Sasha quickly followed after him like a scared little mouse, unwilling to remain alone with the strange creatures that seemed to obey the armoured man without question.

"Pardon me asking, but are they your aides by chance?"

"Could you be a nobleman?"

"No, I’m nothing like that." Osborne paused before letting out a breath and saying, to him, he was no longer a member of nobility, after all, he’d long since left that life behind.

"Then why do they call you Lord?" Sasha asked.

"Because I am their lord," Osborne said calmly.

’But you just said you’re not a noble...’

Sasha couldn’t help thinking that the man’s answer was strange, considering that the women and even the terrifying beasts treated him with such respect, which was something she had only seen among noble households, where servants were expected to obey their masters and address them with the proper titles.

’Perhaps he’s from a wealthy household then?’ She thought to herself, finding the explanation more reasonable as she considered the way he carried himself and the fact that he had been able to defeat an entire encampment of traffickers without needing anyone’s assistance.

Of course, there was one position that also went perfectly with such a title, but Sasha was afraid of even considering the possibility, especially since the man had gone out of his way to save her despite having nothing to gain from doing so.

If they were his slaves.

Sasha had heard stories about wealthy nobles who bought slaves and trained them to serve as their personal guards, maids, or even playthings, and although she had never been close enough to such people to know how much of those stories were true, she couldn’t help wondering whether the two women and the lightning wolves belonged to that category.

However, the more she thought about it, the less sense it made, because if Osborne truly was the sort of person who treated others as nothing more than possessions, why would he risk his life to save a complete stranger like her?

’There’s no way he’s that type of person,’ Sasha refused to believe it, deciding that she would rather wait until she knew more about him before making any judgments.

Osborne, on the other hand, wondered whether his decision was the right one, especially considering what he had discussed with Vanessa before leaving the encampment.