If I Say I Won't Help, I Won't Help

"You still want to go to the book signing?"

Elvily thought the man must be crazy. He'd killed an entire team and dozens of Smell Crows, and instead of finding somewhere to hide, he wanted to show himself in public?

"He won't guess I'll be there," Sean said.

Or rather, Quill wouldn't guess he had the nerve to go.

"Get this straight. It's not about whether he'll guess or not." Elvily's tone turned stern as she warned Sean. "Old Sigel City is right next to Holkodo, less than a hundred kilometers away. The moment you show your face, they can surround you and your book signing within two hours."

"I know you have a few tricks up your sleeve, but Quill isn't an idiot."

Even she could guess that Sean was the one who'd wiped out the Black Berry Rainforest hunting team. Quill could certainly guess it too.

Attending the book signing and going to the Black Berry Rainforest amounted to the same thing: walking right into a trap. Sean might have been trying the same trick again, but Quill had already been burned once. This time, he'd definitely bring more people.

If twenty men couldn't handle you, what about fifty? A hundred?

The Floris Family was the greatest power in West Lakel State, bar none. They had money to spare, so they were never short on manpower.

"A hundred..." Sean mused, then asked the girl, "Could you take them?"

"I could, but you couldn't... Wait." Elvily suddenly caught on. "Are you trying to use me?"

Had he just invited her to the book signing because he wanted her help dealing with Quill?

Sean looked innocent. "I wasn't thinking anything like that."

Elvily gave him a meaningful look. "You'd better not be."

At the end of the day, she and Sean weren't close enough for her to keep bailing him out.

Helping him came with risks.

Plenty of wizards who called one another brothers and sisters in the Void Arts Space wouldn't necessarily help when trouble came. One careless move could drag them into danger, and no one would risk their life on a whim.

"Really?" Sean tilted his head. "Then why did you save me back then?"

"Quit trying to act cute." Elvily gave a soft snort. "Couldn't I just have been in a good mood that day?"

"Sure, sure." Sean smiled. "So you're in a bad mood today?"

Actually, she wasn't. Though Elvily had told Sean to stop acting cute, it had put her in a better mood. Still, she didn't agree to help. She didn't hide the reason from him, either. "I have something to do on the first of next month. I won't have time to go to your book signing."

Sean knew she had something to do, since he'd heard the latter part of the Dawn Meeting. Still, he pretended to be curious and asked, "What is it?"

Iris seemed to have come down with a sudden illness. "Ahem, ahem!"

Sean: "..."

Elvily: "..."

That cough was pretty unnecessary.

She knew what she could say and what she couldn't.

Elvily shot Iris a sidelong glance, then said to Sean, "Don't ask about things you shouldn't."

Sean: "Oh."

Then he added, "Does it have something to do with Floris Hospital?"

Elvily: "?"

Iris: "?"

As soon as Sean finished speaking, both women's eyes sharpened. One was a girl, the other a mature beauty, but their expressions were uncannily alike. They both looked like black widows—fiercer than the wolves they'd encountered in the Black Berry Rainforest these past few days. Sean was startled.

"What's with you two?"

"What do you think?"

"Did I guess right?"

"I suggest you come clean."

Elvily narrowed her eyes, a faint murderous glint in her beautiful doe eyes. "I don't want to get rough with you, Sean."

Get rough?

Sean thought to himself that the Void Arts Space was his territory, so it remained to be seen who'd get rough with whom. But aloud, he protested, "You said yourself that you only happened to rescue me from the hospital last time. So you must've had business there. You even disguised yourself as the Vice Dean, so you were probably investigating the place, right? Isn't that an easy guess?"

It did sound plausible.

Elvily studied Sean for a while, as if checking whether he was lying. Her expression slowly softened.

Iris gave him a faintly amused smile. "Mr. Sean, sometimes it isn't a good thing for a man to be too clever."

"Conina said the same thing." Sean didn't even blush. "I'll take that as a compliment."

The name sounded unfamiliar to Iris. "Conina?"

Sean explained, "A woman who lives next door."

"Are you close?"

"Fairly."

Sean returned to the earlier topic. "Anyway, if I guessed right, it'd be a good thing for you."

Just as the girl had said, Quill had taken a hit this time. Next time, he'd definitely want to hit Sean with something bigger.

His book signing was on the first, and Elvily and the others were also planning to move against the hospital that day. If Quill didn't know what was going on and wanted to kill Sean, he'd most likely pull people from the hospital. The police might come too, which would improve the chances of the attack on the hospital succeeding.

"It'd also make it more likely you'll get killed," Elvily said.

Sean smiled calmly. "What if I have more than one trick up my sleeve?"

Elvily hadn't expected that she and the others were part of the reason he was taking this risk. She knew it wasn't the main reason behind Sean's decision, but they'd only just met. The fact that he'd even considered this much surprised her.

She looked at Sean and reminded him again, "I really won't help you this time."

She truly couldn't make it to the book signing.

"No worries. I'll save you a copy. It's free." Sean turned to Iris and asked, "Do you want one?"

"Sure." Iris joked, "But I hope you'll hand it to me yourself, rather than me receiving it when we attend your funeral."

Sean smiled. "Don't worry. I'll be bothering you two often from now on."

"You two?" Iris glanced at Elvily with an amused smile. "You mean her, don't you?"

Sean neither confirmed nor denied it. Grinning, he waved to the two women. "I'm off. See you another time."

With that, he logged off on the spot without staying another second.

Iris was taken aback. She hadn't expected Sean to leave just like that. She couldn't help laughing. "That guy... He's actually kind of interesting."

She turned to the girl beside her and asked, "What should we do?"

"Not help." Elvily had no idea where Sean got his confidence, but this time, if she said she wouldn't help, she wouldn't help.

"I mean the operation," Iris said. "Should we change the date?"

The Vice Dean of Floris Hospital would be away for three to five days, so they had some flexibility. They didn't necessarily have to act on the first.

Elvily fell silent for a moment, then shook her head. "No. We'll stick to the first."

"Seems like you trust him," Iris said.

"Isn't he trying to help us lure them away? He's so eager to show off..." Elvily looked at the spot where Sean had disappeared, folded her arms, and lifted her chin. "Then let's see what he can really do."

If he wanted to be her friend, being handsome wasn't enough.

Iris laughed. "He's a first-rank Newborn wizard. How much could he possibly do?"

"He can't beat Quill."

"I know."

Elvily said, "So find someone to keep an eye on him. Don't let him actually get himself killed."

Iris: "?"

Weren't you just saying you wouldn't help?