Theia’s chest heaved with anger. She pointed at the items in Elvia’s hands and hissed in a frantic, low voice.
“I can’t believe it! You! You actually want to do the same thing as those lecherous rich playboys!”
“You want to… you want to use such a dirty method… on Lin Gui!”
“You even want to get pregnant with his child?! You… you shameless lioness!”
She was truly furious!
Just a little more! If she had been just a little slower, this woman would have beaten her to it!
Along the way, she hadn’t noticed this princess having those kinds of thoughts about Lin Gui at all!
She had hidden them far too well!
Elvia had been caught red-handed, but after her initial panic, she quickly regained her composure.
She watched Theia’s angry and anxious expression—she looked exactly like a child whose favorite toy was about to be snatched away.
Elvia’s eyes darted around. Instead of making excuses, she began to counter-persuade, preparing to drag the other girl down with her.
“Shhh—keep it down!” She pulled Theia aside and lowered her voice, her words sounding like the whisper of a devil.
“Theia, you like Lin Gui, don’t you?”
Theia’s face flushed, and she stiffened her neck. “That’s… that’s none of your business!”
“I don’t have high hopes for your romance at all,” Elvia said, striking at her heart ruthlessly.
“Once we reach Avalon and Lin Gui finishes the commission, do you think he’ll stay for you? He won’t.”
“His goal is to deliver letters and reach the very end. Avalon is just one stop on his journey.”
Theia’s eyes dimmed. This was exactly the fear buried deep in her heart.
Elvia struck while the iron was hot.
“It’s true that you like him, but what about Lin Gui? Can you guarantee that he likes you too?”
“What if you muster the courage to confess, only for him to reject you? How will you face each other then?”
“Could you still walk side by side like you do now? How awkward would that be?”
“So, while this rare opportunity exists, finish the job and seal the relationship!”
“Right now is your chance to take him!” Elvia continued her manipulation.
“Once we leave the Royal Capital, the world is vast. Your chances of finding another opportunity to charm this highly alert guy will be practically zero!”
Elvia looked directly into Theia’s eyes, every word piercing through.
Each sentence accurately struck Theia’s most sensitive and fearful points.
Her uncertainty about the future, her speculation about Lin Gui’s feelings…
Her fear that they couldn’t even remain friends after a rejection…
“But… but… but…” Theia was wavering violently.
Reason told her this was wrong.
But her emotions and fears drove her to grasp at this dangerous straw.
“But… this isn’t right. What about Lin Gui’s wishes?”
Elvia retorted.
“Wishes? Do you think any man would refuse the two of us throwing ourselves at him?”
“You and I—while I won’t say we’re the most beautiful in history—we’re absolute gems, aren’t we?”
“He’s a guy from a wandering background getting the better end of the deal. It’s the blessing of a lifetime for him!”
Theia opened her mouth, finding herself unable to argue.
From a male perspective… it seemed… indeed impossible to refuse?
Seeing Theia’s eyes flickering with intense struggle, clearly shaken, Elvia threw out her final winning card.
She shook the paper packet in her hand and said in a low tone.
“I can let you be his first woman.”
“You go first.”
Theia’s face turned scarlet in an instant, but her gaze suddenly became solemn, as if she had made a firm decision.
She snatched the aphrodisiac powder and the blowpipe from Elvia’s hands, her tone carrying a determination to go all in.
“Fine! It’s a deal! Give me some of those fertility pills too!”
“I’ll be the one to do the blowing!”
“I’m very familiar with Lin Gui’s sensory habits and breathing rhythm.”
“I can blow it in when he’s at his most relaxed and his guard is lowest. I guarantee he won’t see it coming!”
Holding the blowpipe and inserting it into the door gap, Theia hesitated for a moment.
Thinking she was wavering again, Elvia simply said, “Oh, if you have a psychological burden, let me do it.”
“No, that’s not it, I just…”
The tips of Theia’s ears were deep red. She fidgeted before finally saying to Elvia,
“Then… that… if both of us really become Lin Gui’s women…”
“Then we’ll be a family. So… when the time comes, don’t forget to call me Big Sister Theia.”
“…”
Elvia was speechless.
Inside the room.
Lin Gui, who had no idea his two teammates were “targeting” him, was still sound asleep.
He slept very deeply, his breathing steady.
It was as if all his exhaustion was finally exploding at this moment.
However, if a highly perceptive expert were here, they would notice something.
Even in deep sleep, a very thin, almost invisible ripple of magic remained active around Lin Gui’s body.
This was an insane alert instinct he had forged through countless near-death crises on the road to the Magic City years ago.
In the wilderness, any slight lapse in concentration could mean a dead end.
He had once been startled awake from his dreams just before being bitten by a poisonous insect emerging from the ground.
He had also rolled away from an incoming cold arrow in a seemingly safe ruin just a second before it hit him.
This crisis intuition, which was almost a sixth sense, had long ago merged into his very marrow.
It was a survival charm more reliable than any warning spell.
At this moment, that sharp intuition was triggered once again.
In his groggy state, Lin Gui didn’t feel a direct, imminent physical danger to himself.
However, he could clearly “perceive” a sharp, scrutinizing killing intent sweeping and lingering in the corridor outside the room.
He kept his eyes closed and his body relaxed.
He didn’t make any unnecessary movements, and he didn't even change his breathing frequency.
He was waiting—waiting for the moment the killing intent paused or showed a clear intention to attack.
Now!
At the instant the killing intent seemed to confirm its target and paused slightly, Lin Gui moved!
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night instantly covered his entire body.
He sprang soundlessly from the soft bed.
He landed accurately in the darkest corner of the room.
Almost as he landed, the oak staff leaning in the corner flew into his hand as if pulled by an invisible hand.
Lin Gui leaned his back against the wall, holding the staff horizontally before him.
Those eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep, were now as sharp as a hawk’s.
He stared intensely at the door and window, searching for the source of danger.
The expected attack of a broken door or window did not come.
Instead, a faint, pink mist carrying a strange, cloying sweetness was drifting in from under the door gap in thin wisps, appearing exceptionally bizarre.
Lin Gui looked bewildered.
The killing intent was clearly coming from outside the window.
But what the hell was this nonsensical mist?
Could it be some new type of composite attack? Release smoke first, then perform a physical assassination?
It seemed the person outside the door had noticed the unusual movement inside the room.
The pink mist stopped for a moment.
Then, the door was carefully and extremely slowly pushed open just a crack.
A head with pointed ears and a long blowpipe in its mouth peeked in quietly.
Emerald eyes filled with guilty tension scanned toward the bed with confusion.
Is that Theia?
While Lin Gui was in a daze.
Click.
A faint sound of a window latch being flicked rang out from outside the window.
Immediately after, the window was pushed open soundlessly, leaving a gap.
A lithe figure, entirely shrouded in a dark stealth suit with a veil covering their face, hopped in deftly and quickly, landing without a sound.
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
Theia, who had just stuck her head in, and the masked assassin, who had just steadied themselves.
The two of them made direct eye contact across the room.
Theia still had the blowpipe in her mouth, her eyes blinking.
A flash of clear bewilderment also appeared in the assassin’s exposed eyes.
The atmosphere became instantly quiet, carrying a hint of indescribable embarrassment.
Theia froze for two seconds before suddenly reacting like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, violently retracting her head.
The next second.
Bang!
The door was kicked open violently by a foot in a leather boot!
Theia dashed into the room, smoothly discarding the blowpipe in a single motion.
With her other hand, she drew the Azure Echo longbow from her back.
She had already nocked an arrow, drawing the bowstring to its limit in an instant!
The arrowhead pointed straight at the masked assassin as she shouted with all her might:
“ASSASSIN!!”
Before her voice had even died down, the humming bowstring was released.
The arrow carried a piercing whistle as it shot straight toward the opponent’s face!
The masked assassin reacted just as quickly.
The moment Theia kicked the door, they had already crouched and rolled.
With a thud, the arrow embedded itself deep into the window frame behind them, its fletching vibrating violently.
The assassin’s figure vanished.
“…”
Elvia had just followed Theia to the doorway.
Still clutching that packet of aphrodisiac powder, she was utterly stunned by everything that had just happened in the blink of an eye.
What the hell?
What the actual hell?
I was just making up some nonsense to Lin Gui about assassins coming to the door so it would be easier to lock the window and drug him!
What kind of assassin from the Lower District could possibly evade the layers of Defense Force patrols and sneak into the most central hotel of the Upper District?!
Did I actually predict the future?!
Rate on N.U.
