(MC POV)
As much fun as the entire vacation had been, we could not stay here forever despite Guiying insisting that it was fine to do so.
Having too relaxed of a mood would not help my disciples' training so it would be best that we return before they get too used to it.
Thus, with the start of the next day, we bid a tearful farewell to Guiying and the villa staff, the Queen needing to stay for a bit longer to bring in her uncle and his goons.
In case you were wondering, both Brendan and I had already reverted back to our original bodies this morning.
What? You thought it was a permanent gender swap for us? Not gonna happen anytime soon, despite how much fun the girls were having with my new body.
It was a rather long drive back to Heaven Sect with Elaria and Odriana at the wheel. They did teach the others how to use the vehicles and I proved to be quite a natural with it too, even being arguably better than Elaria and Odriana with it.
My little sister got really excited by that fact and kept insisting that it was a sign that my memories were returning, though a few of the girls said it might just be because that it's me.
I had thought it might be just a smooth ride home with the two jeeps but trouble seemed to find me at every corner.
True, we could have just teleported back home without the drive, but that would ruin the novelty of travelling you know? And besides, the girls seem to enjoy the road trip and Cai Hong really liked being in the jeep. No way am I taking away that joy from them.
While making our way through a forest path, a fallen log was blocking the way with who appears to be a woodcutter standing in front of it, looking rather anxious.
Elaria stopped the car a short distance away, the lumberjack jumping up in surprise when he heard us approach him.
"Let me handle this, Onii-sama!" Elaria said chirpily as she got off the car, leaving the engine running.
She skipped towards the man merrily, "What seems to be the problem, my good sir?"
The lumberjack managed to pry his eyes away from the jeeps we were riding on to look back at my sister, "Well… Err… There's a bit of a predicament here travellers… I might've made a wee bit mistake and caused this tree here to fall on the road, now I'm just--"
There was a loud bang that reverberated through the air that surprised even me.
The woodcutter let out a howl of pain before collapsing on to the ground, his hands clutching at his bleeding thigh.
I leapt out of the car and so did the others, all of us slipping into combat stances and trying to figure out where the sound came from.
I quickly realised that the sound had came from a small object in Elaria's hands, white smoke drifting out at the end of the barrel.
She lifted the small pistol in her hands and fired again, this time shooting the man through his other leg.
The man screamed and rolled around the ground in pain, both of his legs now sporting bullet holes.
She repositioned it towards his torso and that was when I leapt forward, pulling her hand away just as she pulled the trigger, the bullet impacting the ground harmlessly.
"What is wrong with you?!" I yelled.
"ARRGGHH!! My legs!!" The lumberjack screamed.
"Eh? But this guy was interfering with our journey. It's natural to get rid of these obstacles right?"
What?
What the hell happened to her? Was she always like this? No, no, no. This is way worse than I thought it to be, she's already so far gone!
To make matters worse, she seemed genuinely confused that I stopped her and thought she did nothing wrong!
"You don't just shoot random people on sight for small inconveniences! What the hell, Elaria?!"
"ARRGGHHH! I'm… I'm bleeding out!"
She tilted her head at me, "Eh? Then… What should I do, Onii-sama? If I don't disable him first, that would give us one more enemy to fight when his friends showed up, right?"
I sighed, "Even so, resorting to violence from the start is bad. What will you do if my disciples learn such a bad habit? With such great power means they have a big responsibility to keep it in check, you know?"
The man continued rolling around, "It hurts! The pain! Ahhhh!!"
"Ehee~ Onii-sama, you always worry too much! What's the point of all that power if you don't use it and let such kinds of people walk all over you?"
"I would rather not have my disciples feared for what they have done to gain that respect."
"Hmmm? Was Onii-sama not the one who taught me that before one can be respected, they needed to be feared first?"
I want to go back and slap my past self for saying that, even if I don't remember doing so.
"Help! Arrrgghhh! Help me! Please!"
I crossed my arms, "You can gain respect without the need for fear, and respect gained through fear is the lowest form of it."
Elaria pouted at me, "But in a world where people only respect the strong, that's the only kind of respect you can get from these kinds of people, Onii-sama."
"Please! Ahhhh!! My… My legs! Ahhh!!"
Ugh, my little sister is indeed a really sharp girl. The fact of the matter was that I knew all of this of course, since I have walked this path myself.
But it was truly a very lonely path and one where I believe would lead to my cute girls destroying the world. If they had that much disregard for life and felt that they didn't need anyone else, then the world is doomed.
This is why I have been trying to be as passive as possible so my disciples would not turn out that way and from what I can see, it's working pretty well so far.
"AHH! My legs!"
Holy crap this guy really is noisy as hell. I shut off his screams with a silence inscription before turning my attention back to Elaria.
"What I want to say is that even if this is true, it is not the kind of life I would want all of you to have. Let me bear the burden for it."
Elaria stared at me for a good moment before muttering almost inaudibly, "Onii-sama… You truly are too kind for this world…"
I thought she would continue arguing with me but instead, she just shrugged and tucked her pistol away in a hidden holster underneath her dress, the holster itself strapped to her thigh.
"Well… What would you do about that guy's friends in this situation, Onii-sama?"
As if on cue, armed men who had been hiding in the bushes appeared with their weapons unsheathed.
"Well, they're highwaymen, I was going to just offer them money to leave us alone. We got enough of it anyway," I pointed out, sighing. "But because of you shooting their friend… It's a bit complicated now…"
Despite saying that, I was still impressed that Elaria knew that the 'lumberjack' was not who he claimed to be. I'm assuming these were part of Guiying's uncle's bandit group that was supposed to block off the road to the villa.
A total of ten men came up to us, two more hanging back with drawn bows pointed at us.
I turned to face the one that most looked like their leader, which meant I was looking at the beefiest and hairiest man in the group.
I raised my hands to show compliance, "Ok guys. Sorry about your friend there. Could you just let us pass? I can heal him up for you and we can just get out of each others' hair, yes?"
He scoffed at me, "Nice try lad, what do you think this is? A play? I was planning on just robbing ya of ya money and letting ya go, but now I think I want ya to let us have a go with your beauts too."
"You do know I am Master Lin right?"
He scrunched up his eyebrows, "Never heard of ya. Don't much care which daddy's boy you are too, so any last words before we gut you?"
I thought he might be reasoned with seeing how they actually politely waited for both Elaria and I to finish our conversation before appearing. Guess I was expecting too much from these kinds of people.
I turned back to face my disciples, "You guys sit tight, I'll be right back after talking to them."
With that said, I lifted my hand to snap my fingers, teleporting those men and myself to an empty plain.
All of them were understandably confused at the sudden shift in environment, their heads swivelling around comically.
"Right, I'm actually not in the mood to talk now so… At least make it entertaining for me, ok?" I sighed, summoning my sword into my hand.
Can't make this too fast or my disciples might think I didn't talk to them at all too.
