I'm Done Putting Up with This

To be honest, being so enthusiastically tackled by a young girl had left Lanlos, an elven disgrace with a Charisma of 8, feeling a little smug.

What? You think it was dangerous?

Come on, she was holding that knife right out in the open. How could he possibly overlook it?

The girl was panting from all that exertion, her warm, steady breaths brushing against his face and making his skin tingle. Realizing how provocative their current position was, Lanlos couldn't help running his mouth.

"Little miss, if you want to play horsey, big brother would be happy to teach you. No need to force a man into it."

Her breath caught. Only then did the girl realize that one hand was pressed against his chest while she straddled his stomach. She held a dagger in her other hand, but she had accidentally twisted her wrist while trying to break free of the ropes. The blade wouldn't stop trembling, and even her breathing had grown ragged.

If anyone happened to pass by right now, it would look like she was forcing this guy to do something indecent!

"Bastard! I'll kill you!"

Her hatred for the mage reached its peak. The girl cried out in anguish, her voice breaking, and thrust the blade down, ignoring her reluctance to harm one of her own kind.

But the instant she exerted herself, an immovable resistance suddenly caught her elbow. When she finally managed to tear herself away from her chaotic emotions long enough to look, she saw that the rope above had somehow extended to her elbow and was once again wrapped tightly around her.

At last realizing he had been provoking her on purpose, the girl quickly gathered her wits and raised her other hand to grab the blade and cut herself free. But she was still a moment too late.

A finger suddenly tapped her forehead. She felt a rush of warmth flow into her, and then her vision seemed to flip upside down. Her head spun, and her body went limp as she collapsed.

Holding the girl's boneless body and breathing in the faint floral scent at her hair, Lanlos felt his thoughts wandering. But he didn't do anything improper to the girl, who had been put under a Sleep Spell.

His past life had taught him a great deal. He had once been cynical, fallen into depravity, and lost his way. But what had ultimately allowed him to preserve his dignity in the face of fate wasn't desire.

He simply held her by the shoulders, leaned her against the tree trunk, and used Animate Rope to bind her round and round...

Respect was one thing, but a spellcaster's most important quality was caution.

By the time Vereesa groggily opened her eyes, the sun was already high in the sky.

The girl was dazed for a moment. Then her eyes widened, and she tried to sit up, only to discover that she had been tied up once again.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," Lanlos said from nearby. He opened his eyes at the same time she woke, ending his meditation. "Unless you want to suffer."

"What did you do to me?!" Remembering all the perverted impressions this guy had left in her mind, Vereesa cried out almost instinctively.

But Lanlos didn't like the sound of that at all. "What, did you want me to do something to you?"

Lanlos had always thought the Keystone's assessment of his Charisma was wrong. Low Charisma was supposed to mean a lack of presence, not that everyone hated you and blamed you for everything. But then again, this body had already "died" once and been ravaged by Fel. Its affinity for both magic and the elements was exceptionally low, so perhaps it made sense that its Charisma was below average.

Meanwhile, after confirming that there were no signs of assault, Vereesa relaxed a little. In particular, the bandage around her right wrist left her momentarily stunned.

"It's just a sprain and some swelling. Nothing serious, but it'll hurt if you move it around." Lanlos rolled his sore neck and stood up. "Now, tell me who you are and why you attacked me twice."

The girl raised her head and met his gaze, then silently turned away. "What are you talking about? Attacked you twice? I don't understand."

With the Keystone's help, Lanlos's senses had long since changed. He hadn't used it to check her physical stats, but he'd already memorized her petite figure and curves. He'd recognized her almost at once as the same person who had ambushed him that night.

Besides, he had proof.

"Here, you left this behind last time." Lanlos took out a folded piece of cloth and pulled from it a silvery strand of hair that gleamed in the sunlight. "Anything else you'd like to explain?"

"Pervert!" To his surprise, the girl suddenly flew into a rage at the sight of the hair. "You twisted, shameless scoundrel! You lowlife!"

Lanlos was taken aback. Then he saw the girl's cheeks flush and her eyes grow moist, and suddenly he understood.

Well, keeping a strand of someone's hair so carefully preserved did seem a little inappropriate, especially when that someone was a young woman...

"Ahem." Even Lanlos, thick-skinned as he was, blushed. But he quickly acted as if nothing had happened and turned stern. "Enough talk. Answer my question, or don't blame me for what happens next!"

Having lived two lives, slain demons, and slaughtered Trolls, Lanlos now radiated a faint, fierce pressure like blazing fire.

The girl paled. At last, she realized she had fallen into the hands of the villain Sarell had marked as her target.

"I came to get the Windrunner Blade back, you thieving bastard!" The girl clenched her teeth, suppressing the fear rising instinctively in her heart. She lifted her chin and stared defiantly into the mage's eyes.

The Windrunner Blade?

Lanlos was surprised. At first, he'd wondered whether the Golden Branch Village incident and "Lanlos's" return from the dead had drawn the attention of the Farstriders or someone else. But after two clumsy, reckless ambushes, he'd abandoned that theory. He never would have guessed the reason was a knife.

"Did Lirath send you?" Considering that her first attack had indeed happened the night he got the Windrunner Blade, Lanlos didn't have much reason to doubt her. Still, even he didn't believe the question.

"I'm Lirath's sister, Vereesa." Seeing that the mage wasn't suspicious, the girl secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least Sarell's assignment hadn't been exposed.

"Vereesa?!" Lanlos exclaimed almost instinctively, staring at the pretty girl in disbelief.

It had to be said: although she was still young, she did look somewhat like Alleria, and her hair was silver, just as he remembered. But he still couldn't reconcile the future leader of the remnants of the High Elves with the girl standing before him.

Vereesa Windrunner, the youngest of the Windrunner sisters. After the Scourge invaded Quel'Thalas, Kael'thas destroyed the corrupted Sunwell, gathered his fellow elves who were suffering from magic addiction, and founded the Blood Elves. They then joined the Demon Hunter Illidan.

But some High Elves, with Vereesa among them, believed that using demonic magic to sate their addiction was a disgraceful surrender to depravity. They also refused to serve an Illidan who wielded demonic power, despite him being a Night Elf. In the end, Vereesa led this group of High Elves away from Quel'Thalas and founded the Silver Covenant.

Whether they were right or wrong was beside the point. The fact that she became the Silver Covenant's leader spoke volumes about her charisma and strength.

None of that seemed to have anything to do with the girl in front of him.

Seeing the way Lanlos had shouted her name, as if he already knew her, Vereesa furrowed her brows. "You know me?"

"No." Lanlos shook his head naturally. "But I know your sister. She mentioned you."

"My sister?"

Perhaps worried Vereesa might discover too much and expose the purpose of her assignment to keep watch on him, Sarell hadn't told her that Alleria was the one who had commissioned it. So Vereesa didn't know what had happened in Golden Branch Village.

"Alleria Windrunner." Lanlos nodded, letting himself take a proper look at the girl's face. A hint of amusement tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You do look a bit like her, but aside from your appearance, the two of you are nothing alike."

The remark grated on Vereesa. She clenched her teeth as if she wanted to bite him to death. But beneath her anger, something else bothered her more. "Why did my sister mention me? What did you two talk about?"

She really didn't know about Golden Branch Village.

Seeing that her confusion seemed genuine, Lanlos relaxed a little. After hesitating, he suddenly gave her a strange smile. "She said you were a stingy little sister."

Vereesa froze, then kicked her legs furiously despite her injury. "No way! You lying scoundrel!"

True or not, who would hear something like that and repeat it to the person it was about? He was obviously making it up!

I'm not making it up.

Watching the girl grow so furious she looked ready to explode, Lanlos grinned from ear to ear. He wasn't talking about the same person, but they were both little sisters, so what difference did it make?

"I didn't believe it at first either," Lanlos said with "righteous indignation." Then he let out a long sigh. "But now I see she was right."

"Look at you. First you tried to hit me with Sap, then you sneaked around behind me to stab me. All over one little knife?" Lanlos pulled the Windrunner Blade from his waist and tapped its blade indignantly. "I never said I wouldn't give it back. Why are you being so petty?"

Vereesa was briefly at a loss for words. When she'd heard that the Windrunner Blade had fallen into the hands of this villain who needed to be watched, she'd immediately started planning to take it back. Hearing him put it that way, had she acted rashly and misunderstood him?

No!

Spotting a flaw in his words and actions, Vereesa immediately shot back, "Then why have you kept the Windrunner Blade all these days? I think you never intended to return it at all!"

That hit the mark. These past few days, he'd been racking his brains over the difficulties of mastering second-circle spells and had indeed forgotten about Lirath. As for the boy, he was probably too embarrassed to come find him after Vereesa had taken matters into her own hands.

"You shameless thief, you lying cheat! You'd better pray you never fall into my hands. If you do, I'll make you regret it!"

Lanlos had just started to feel a little guilty, but then the girl launched into a torrent of abuse, and his mood soured at once.

Respect went both ways. Though he had once loved this world deeply, a game was a game and reality was reality. Whoever she was, her utter lack of respect in both word and deed displeased him.

If Lanlos had taken a moment to put himself in Vereesa's shoes, though, he might have understood why she was so bitter. After all, she was a young woman he'd groped in the chest and tied up like a captive. Expecting her to be nice to him? As if.

"You're absolutely right." Lanlos calmly slid the blade back into its sheath and gave the girl a beaming smile as he raised a thumbs-up. "If I'm just a thief in your eyes, then I'd better keep the blade."