After saying goodbye to his companions in Dragon Fang Squad, He Xi wondered how Fivik planned to contact him, as she had promised before leaving.
He had assumed the little fairy named Nimo would come deliver a message.
But as soon as he returned to the area near Scarlet Waterfall Alley, a clear, slightly impatient voice rang out in his mind. "Come to the shop."
Inside The Goblin's Head That Jumps.
He Xi was staring blankly at the hideously ugly head on the counter.
Its skin was a sickly dark green, covered in pits and pockmarks, like a rotten potato.
It looked like the head of an old woman, with wrinkles deep enough to trap flies and a repulsive growth dangling from its lower-right jaw.
Judging by its skull, it did belong to a humanoid, but its appearance... was a little too wildly unconventional.
"Well, what do you think? Satisfied?" Fivik's voice came from the back room. Then her short figure darted out. "This is the staff head I promised you. I was thinking that if I couldn't find anything suitable, I'd pick something from my stock for you to make do with. But I got lucky and ran into a kindhearted adventurer. She even invited me over to her house!"
The speech He Xi had prepared—an attempt to politely ask her to take him on as an apprentice—stalled at once.
Though the halfling mage was simply fulfilling her promise, casually taking the life of some adventurer she'd never met seemed a little too... demonic.
He ventured, "Did this lady... offend you somehow?"
"Offend me? No." Fivik looked as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "She just warmly invited me over to her house for a cup of tea. I couldn't be bothered, so I killed