After trying each of the newly acquired keywords and confirming that none of them produced any response, Hsiu returned to Castel.
The moment his consciousness gathered within his body and he barely managed to open his eyes, he found Nini's face right in front of him, her golden eyes locked in a wide-eyed stare with his.
"...What are you doing?"
"Whoa! Boss, I thought you were completely dead!" Nini jerked her head back and dramatically patted her chest with all three hands. "Your condition was so weird. You clearly had no heartbeat or breathing, but there wasn't the slightest trace of deathly aura from your body. You looked just like..." She narrowed her eyes as if inspecting an object. "A shell."
Castel stored Lina's discarded shell, as well as one seized from the Pirate King.
Nini had taken part in the research, so she knew that state better than anyone. What Hsiu had looked like just now was practically identical.
At that moment, Nini folded all six arms across her chest, wearing an expression that said, "I've got your secret now." "Boss, you're actually a [Named One], right? Stop pretending!"
"No. I'm one level above a [Named One]."
"???"
Nini was somewhat baffled. Was that a joke? Looking at Hsiu's smiling face, her instincts told her it was not that simple.
"Boss, did you just meet Little Gwen?"
Hsiu nodded. "Not just her. I saw Lina too."
Nini remained fairly composed upon hearing Lina's name, but Ash, in the corner of the room, stiffened his tail.
"Hurry up and tell me what happened!" Nini excitedly slapped the floor with the tip of her tail. "Which of the three of you is [Father]? This plot is more explosive than my novels! Don't tell me it'll turn out that Lina and Little