Chapter 21: Finishing Up Matters

Unfortunately, Luke wasn’t sure what could be done about it.

It wasn’t as if he was doing it on purpose. The monsters just instinctively fled from him without him having to do anything. If he could turn off whatever it was, he would.

As soon as he thought of that, he wondered if the evil god could do something about it.

The evil god bluntly said, “I have no control over that. It’s just their natural instinct. They know it’s best to stay away from me. Even without me here, they wouldn’t dare to mess with you for fear of crossing me.”

For a brief moment, Luke felt sorry for the monsters.

Those feelings quickly disappeared as the remains of the monsters were burned to ashes. He stared at the ashes before turning his attention to the monster hunters.

Even though he didn’t want to leave them like this, he wasn’t equipped to handle this. He was running on a tight schedule, and he didn’t know who to contact or how. This had to be left to the professionals.

Luke silently promised to get in touch with someone to handle their remains.

Just to be sure he got all the monsters, he checked the surrounding area without finding any signs of other monsters.

Knowing that time was ticking, he was hesitant to stick around and find that the driver drove off once he returned. On the other hand, he couldn’t just rush things and run off without inspecting the area thoroughly.

What if he had missed a monster?

Then the townspeople would be left to fend for themselves against the monster.

With that in mind, he chose to take a gamble and asked the evil god, “Can you tell if there are any more monsters nearby?”

“Are you really asking me so you can kill them?” the evil god asked with an amused tone.

It didn’t go over his head how absurd it was to ask the creator of monsters to help him locate them so he could destroy them, but this was the best solution.

“What if I lie? Can you truly trust me?” the evil god asked.

That was a fair point.

“Fine. I’ll keep looking myself. I should have known that you wouldn’t know anything despite being a god,” Luke said, only to be struck by a sharp pain that sent him stumbling.

“Mind your words. Just because you’re my warrior doesn’t mean you can wag your tongue like a dog,” the evil god said coldly.

The pain abruptly subsided, leaving him gasping for pain.

“And for your information you are in luck. There are no more in the vicinity,” the evil god said as a parting shot.

Once Luke recovered, he headed back the way he came and soon met up with the townsperson who had been crouching behind the door of the building they had chosen.

At first, they had thought he was a monster and screamed the moment the door swung open.

When they realized it was just him, they became flustered and mumbled, “Sorry.”

He waved it off and said, “It’s fine. All the monsters have been dealt with.”

The townsperson stared up at him with wide eyes as their jaw dropped.

Luke paid no mind to their reaction and said, “Let’s hurry back before the driver thinks we took too long.”

They snapped out of their daze and asked, “You really killed all the monsters?”

“I dealt with fifteen of them. There were a few more that had been killed by the previous demon hunters, so I believe that’s all of them,” Luke said without looking back.

If he had, he would have seen the awe on their face.

“You’re incredible,” the townsperson said.

He could have admitted that it was thanks to luck that things were resolved so fast, but he chose to remain silent. They didn’t need to know all the details. The more they knew, the more suspicious they would become.

When the driver saw them return, they said, “Oh, I was about to leave without you.”

“It’s done,” Luke said, opening the door.

“Hold it. Where’s the rest of my payment?” the driver said, turning his whole body around to face Luke.

“You haven’t driven us back,” Luke pointed out.

“I’m not stupid, you know. All the money’s here. If I drive you back first, who knows when I’ll get paid,” the driver said, refusing to budge.

Luke turned to the townsperson who looked troubled by the current situation.

“I can’t just go around looking through people’s stuff for money. Can’t you just take us back first and we’ll figure out the payment?” the townsperson said.

“Nope. Taking this detour cost me quite a bit of fuel. I’m not going anywhere,” the driver said, crossing their arms.

He should have known something would come up. Things just couldn’t be easy.

Luke scratched at his head, wondering how to resolve the issue, when a thought struck him, and he asked the townsperson, “Is there a fueling station here?”

Some towns didn’t have a fueling station despite how far technology progressed. Hence why wagons were still a common mode of transportation. If they didn’t have one, then his idea wouldn’t work out.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The townsperson nodded and said, “We have one. You should be able to refuel.”

He nodded and said to the driver, “Hear that? You can refuel your car as many times as you want for free while you drive the townspeople back and forth. Then they’ll pay you for your services.”

“Wait. You can’t do that,” the townsperson protested.

“Do you have a better idea?” Luke asked.

While they were right about him having no right to make decisions for the townspeople, they didn’t exactly have many options.

Walking back on foot would take a while for them, and he didn’t know how long they had been waiting by the fork for help. They could be at the end of their ropes for all he knew. Though it would take many trips back and forth, it would be much faster than walking.

“You also have mechanics, right?” he asked.

The townsperson hesitantly nodded.

“Then they can repair the car if anything happens so you don’t have to worry about the car breaking down, leaving any of you stranded. Think about the others. You should think about them,” Luke pressed.

His words seemed to move them as the townsperson’s expression shifted.

The driver huffed and said, “With an offer like that, how can I possibly refuse? Let’s get moving.”

With that, the driver started the engine.