"The priest of the Evergreen Church is excellent. You two who know the Investigation Knights can try your luck," the steward of the City Lord's mansion said.
The steward was old, skinny, tall, and slightly stooped, like a stick that would fall at any moment.
The Temple of Life's churches were known as the Evergreen Church. According to Teest, the priest charged quite a lot for healing. Considering they were currently affluent, it seemed like a good idea.
"You don't know. It's our first time getting so much money. If we were to seek healing, Teest would have to return half of the gold wheels to the Temple. He's reluctant to do so, claiming as long as he can eat and drink, it's not a big deal," Nol explained pitifully.
Right now, he had to play the role of a commoner who cherished life but valued his savings even more.
"Good sir, can we stay here for the night? Just one night! We'll cover the carpet cleaning fee. Please let my friend rest a bit. As you can see, the sun is setting… I'll take him away tomorrow morning…"
Unable to withstand Nol's persistent pleading, the steward asked for the City Lord's permission and assigned them a vacant servant's room. The room was fine, but it was miles away from the main house.
[The City Lord sure is cautious,] Teest said telepathically while biting a spoon with his mouth—the wounded was half lying on the bed with bandages wrapped around his head and splints on his limbs, relying on a certain Lich to feed him.
Seeing how Teest was nonchalant about his injuries, Nol almost wished he could stab him with the spoon. Angrily, he pulled back the spoon, scooping up mashed potatoes, refusing to speak.
[Mage? Mr. Mage?] Teest mentally harassed him. [Why are you upset? This method works. During our last encounter with the Lich, we collaborated well, didn't we?]
[Nonsense,] Nol retorted, staring at the mashed potatoes. [Back then, we were desperate. This is different.]
Without "pain protection", that fall must have hurt like hell. Before, Nol just thought Teest was indifferent to NPCs, but he didn't expect him to be so hard on himself too.
They were somewhat friends, and seeing a friend hurt himself like that would upset anyone.
Teest blinked a few times. [I thought you'd praise me. This method is the most convenient.]
Frustrated, Nol almost snapped the spoon. This kid's thought process was seriously flawed.
Forget it. He couldn't remain mad forever. They were, after all, half-friends. Maybe Teest never saw him as a comrade in the first place. After all, he was still an NPC to him, so his performance shouldn't be too extreme.
After feeding Teest mashed potatoes, Nol began eating a table full of dishes in front of him: braised beef ribs, fried rabbit legs, roasted pigeon, pork sausages, and more.
To show respect to the City Lord, Nol voluntarily paid for dinner. After all, he was a "naive townsman", so taking a little extra wouldn't seem out of place. The food at the City Lord's mansion was good, which was a great help to him.
Teest looked at the sumptuous meal not far away, and his smile gradually stiffened. "…Honey, are you doing this on purpose?"
"I'll leave your portion. You can eat it when you recover tonight," Nol said. "Think of this as me turning my anger into appetite."
He couldn't tell him he was drawing cards.
Ordinary animals had low combat power. The experience they provided was negligible, but they had unique skills.
Nol took a bite of beef and instantly got a disgusting skill called [Ruminate]. He immediately took a bite of the roasted pigeon.
[Flight: Allows the user to fly, but the user must have wings.]
Nol coldly discarded it. He didn't touch the pigeon anymore and decided to leave it for Teest.
[Infinite Teeth], [Hair Hardening], [Scavenging], [Stomp], [Rapid Reproduction]… After numerous tries, Nol got only three usable skills.
[Load-Bearing: Increase carrying capacity to 500kg.]
[Listening: Significantly enhances hearing.]
[Smelling: Greatly enhances the sense of smell.]
In Teest's astonished eyes, Nol pushed away his plate and let out a painful burp. "Alright, it's time for healing."
...
"Clack! Clack!"
Two ceramic teeth shot out, shattering the plums on the wooden stake. In the dark, the plum pulp looked like rotten fat.
Witch Lynn was dressed casually, which didn't fit her exquisite doll-like image. Not to mention, she was currently holding two strange guns—
The structure of these weird guns resembled revolvers.
The head of a fist-sized doll replaced the rotating bullet chamber. The doll's face was covered with a bird-beak-like metal mask, and the end of the "beak" revealed a black muzzle.
The trigger was a bright red ceramic tongue. Every time the witch pulled the trigger, the doll's eyeballs would roll several times.
"32 rounds each time. The reloading time is a bit long…" Lynn murmured, placing both guns back into their holsters.
Apart from the two guns, there was a row of plump doll arms, as long as a palm, hanging from her belt, with the middle finger replaced by a grenade pin.
Next to the "hand" grenade, a glass candy jar was filled with fake eyes. Once smashed on the ground, they would emit black poisonous smoke, causing people to tear up and break out in red rashes.
She was fully armed.
"Are they okay?" A girl's voice came from the shadows. "I mean those two… um, your compatriots?"
Witch Lynn smiled. "I don't know."
"Shouldn't we give them more information? What if they're discovered by the Eternal Church?"
"No. The identity that the mage claimed is quite significant, and I need to gauge him. I consulted him, and he agreed."
Cautious investigation, bold action, or simply giving up—actions revealed a person's true nature.
The Witch gazed at the shattered stars in the sky, reaching for the bridge of her nose, as if habitually adjusting her glasses.
"If the mage isn't lying, their intel is significant. They won't target the City Lord right away."
...
"Let's go and target the City Lord," Nol declared.
If this were the main storyline he was familiar with from "Tahe", he might pretend to be a sage and win over the elite like those popular transmigration stories. Unfortunately, 200 years had passed. In the vast Whitebird City, he only recognized the buildings, so he preferred a straightforward approach.
"Wait, let me finish these first." Teest chewed on the juicy beef ribs. "Mashed potatoes don't fill me up. Meat is more useful."
"I remember someone not liking to eat outside food. Now you seem to enjoy it?"
"I have no choice, honey. Who made you test every dish for poison?"
"A Lich can't taste poison." Nol clutched "The Complete Recipe Book" as he responded grimly.
Teest suddenly choked, slowly turning his head to look at him with an expression like a wild animal that had just bitten into a plastic model.
"…Never mind, it's not poisoned. I took it from the public serving platter." Nol sighed.
After a full meal and neutralizing their breath, they activated the invisibility magic and headed straight to the main house. Their original room was left with only two bulging blankets fitted with twigs.
Lord Swain was still in his office. Unlike last time, he was alone.
A silver tray held cold deer stew, accompanied by finger oranges with flesh as red as blood. The accompanying wine remained untouched. Time passed as the City Lord worked tirelessly on documents. Teest's head drooped with drowsiness, while Nol, leveraging his undead advantage, watched intently.
Late at night, the Lord suddenly stood up, flipped his hand, and with a soft click, the office door locked automatically.
[Ah, here we go.] Teest perked up. [Don't tell me there's a secret passage behind the bookshelf. That's so cliché.]
Lord Swain stopped in front of the bookshelf, whispered something, and the entrance to a secret passage slowly appeared. The moment the City Lord stepped in, the entrance disappeared like a shadow.
Teest: "..."
Nol: "..."
What's wrong with clichés? A bookshelf secret passage is the romance of Western fantasy RPGs, equivalent to cliffside caves in Eastern tales.
The two approached the bookshelf. Nol looked around cautiously and whispered—
"My love is as eternal as the snow on the peaks."
Teest: "…?!"
Moments after Nol finished speaking, the secret passage appeared again. He pulled the somewhat stunned Teest and darted inside.
[Two hundred years ago, the Lord of that time used this passage for secret rendezvous,] Nol explained preemptively before Teest could ask. [I just found out that I've been dead for two hundred years. That's all.]
[How did you know about the lord's affair?] Teest questioned weirdly.
Nol smiled, fabricating on the spot. [Everyone loves gossip. A friend of mine helped construct this passage.]
He also knew that the City Lord at that time had six children, with both him and his wife having one illegitimate child each. Only four were their actual descendants.
Whitebird City didn't have a main storyline. Sidequests were all about these household affairs. This password was supposed to be cracked by the Players and was the initial password for the system.
The originally ordinary secret passage had been made incredibly cold and eerie by the current City Lord, losing all hints of intimacy. The skeleton hound led the way, with the two people following closely behind. Eventually, the two humans and the dog stopped at a corner. The maze-like scene was all too familiar. For a moment, Nol felt as though he had returned to the sewer from not long ago.
Even the things waiting at the destination were almost the same as before.
In the dim space, there stood a black candle. It was as thick as an adult's wrist and about ten centimeters tall. Its wick burned with a blue flame, and the wax droplets dripped around like fingers.
Its light was dimmer than a vagrant's candle, but it was enough to illuminate this small space.
'There's something strange about this candle,' Nol thought, taking a deep sniff. There was no scent of burning in the air, nor any tiny cracking noises from the wick. The flame seemed like a shadow that didn't belong to this world, even more ethereal than a will-o'-wisp.
"Death is our honey. May everything be eternal…"
In the cold, dark glow, Lord Swain was kneeling, praying devoutly. He was tall and muscular, and as he knelt, his robe tightened across his back. Nol almost thought he was about to lose some HP.
After Lord Swain finished his prayer, the blue flame of the candle suddenly shot up to a height of one meter. The flame split in the middle, revealing a dark void, shaped like a giant vertical eye.
"May everything be eternal." An old and raspy male voice came from the darkness. "This time you're alone?"
"After the arrival of the Investigation Knights, I paused all our meetings," Lord Swain replied while still kneeling, making a circle on his chest. "I've enhanced the detection of presences around here. I assure you, I am the only living being nearby."
Nol: "..."
He indeed wasn't counted as a living being. The skill of eliminating one's breath was a specialty of Teest, a valuable ability. As for the rest…
The skeleton hound lay at Nol's feet, vigorously wagging its bony tail.
Well, no wonder the City Lord didn't detect any living beings.
"How are things progressing?" The voice continued to inquire.
Lord Swain finally stood up. "The Temple of Life has dispatched the Investigation Knights of the Fifth Brigade," he said. "It's a bit tricky, but they won't find anything."
"The Fifth Brigade… That young man, Eugene Malloy." There was a note of caution in the voice. "Looks like you've drawn a bad card. Be even more careful."
Lord Swain frowned. The corners of his mouth bent down as he took a deep breath. "With all due respect, if the Demon Lord hadn't killed Young Kurt in front of me, and Maggie happened to witness it, I wouldn't need to deal with the Investigation Knights at all. Do you know how troublesome it was to deal with Margaret? She's my heir."
His tone was as if he were complaining about a mold stain that couldn't be removed from the wall.
"Those Demons naturally act on their whims. They are messengers of God, and this is a test God has given you. Once this storm passes, you'll surely rise again. Once our plan succeeds, Whitebird City will become one of our most important bases."
There was a pause. "Are you sure everything is foolproof?"
Nol wished he could pull the owner of the voice out—Can you please elaborate on that "once our plan succeeds"? Show some trust in your colleagues!
However, after hearing the next sentence, his urgency dissipated.
"I've fabricated the scene of Kurt's death, and the Investigation Knights were none the wiser. His parents are also preparing to move. No one will link the death of a restaurant apprentice to Maggie's disappearance. She had 'disappeared' days before his 'unfortunate death'."
"Tell me your plan regarding Margaret Swain."
Nol instinctively held his breath.
"In a few days, I will have her body discovered. It will be a heartbreaking accident. The unstable daughter of the City Lord ran into the forest alone and was unfortunately killed by a wild beast. Rest assured, I've already prepared the scene of her death."
As the candlelight flickered, heavy shadows danced on the City Lord's face.
"I made sure she was dead with my own eyes."
The author has something to say:
Teest: This guy knows the monster's weakness; he must be a formidable character.
Teest: How does this guy even know the gossip from two hundred years ago… Hard to say…
Nol: Just a passerby mage who wants to return to his hometown ε-(°ω° ; )
…It's true, I really want to go back home.
————————————
[Load-Bearing] comes from the stewed beef ribs. [Listening] comes from the fried rabbit legs. [Smelling] comes from a crispy bacon slice.
Pigs actually have a very strong sense of smell.√
Kinky Thoughts:
In fact, pigs do. They used to be used to sniff out truffles, but unfortunately, they also eat them. Nowadays, most places use trained dogs instead.