The little mage named Lia had agreed so readily that Hao Ren was caught off guard. He had prepared plenty of arguments, but none of them came in handy now. All he could do was look at her in disbelief. "You don't want to learn a little more?"
"What else is there to learn? Wait until you admit you're undocumented?" Lia said, bouncing the staff in her hand. "Besides, judging from your reaction, I'm even more inclined to believe you really are down-and-out adventurers. Though I am a little curious—why are there still children in adventuring parties these days?"
As she spoke, her gaze fell on Elizabeth. The little demon girl was feeling rather uncomfortable as she fiddled with the pointed wizard's hat on her head. It was there to hide her little horns, since Hao Ren's group had not discovered that freely roaming demon races existed in this world. At Lia's words, she immediately raised her head and bared her teeth threateningly. "You're the child! How much bigger than me can you possibly be with that build?"
"The little girl has quite the temper," Lia said, widening her eyes in surprise before smiling smugly. "Don't let appearances fool you. I'm a complete adult. All right, this isn't a good place to chat. Why don't you come sit in my mage tower? If we're going to introduce ourselves, shouldn't we do it beside a warm fireplace?"
The female mage, who looked somewhat reckless, had just invited a group of strangers who had suddenly appeared before her to rest in her mage tower. This was not a sign that she lacked vigilance; it was precisely a cautious move. A mage's power increased geometrically within their own mage tower, and the tower itself was equipped with numerous automatically operated defensive systems. Thus,