Kru Town 04: Take a Guess?

Even while shopping, she had kept busy. With her limited vocabulary, she chatted with people for a while and let slip that she had run away from home to seek adventure. She was determined to make something of herself and show her family what she could do. She played the part of a melodramatic teenager to perfection.

One gaze, however, stood out from the rest.

"Someone's been following you," San San warned Ye Chuqi. "Besides Ed. That person is even stronger than Ed. Ed hasn't noticed him, but he's already spotted Ed—and he hasn't backed off."

Ye Chuqi patted her burning cheeks. The wine she had sneaked was stronger than she had expected, and her face was flushed with drink. Her mind was perfectly clear, though; alcohol just went straight to her face.

"Could someone else think I make good bait and be following me to see if I lead them to whoever's behind this?"

"It's possible, but..." San San huffed. "This one definitely isn't a good person."

"Hm?"

"I don't like him!"

"Pfft..."

It sounded willful, but Ye Chuqi knew San San. If San San said something like that, the man really was no good. San San had a keen sense for such things, sometimes almost like a mirror that revealed demons. But San San rarely spoke so bluntly. Humans were complicated; they could not be judged by a simple like or dislike.

San San felt no goodwill toward this follower at all—only pure dislike. That meant the man gave San San a sense of pure "malice."

"I understand." Ye Chuqi swayed her head. In no time, she looked as though the wine had overwhelmed her, and she slumped over the windowsill, drifting off to sleep.

She had made herself look like this. Whoever was hiding in the shadows had better come through!

The moment Ed saw Ye Chuqi fall asleep on the windowsill, his heart lurched. Unease swept over him, and he rushed out without a second thought.

He was still too slow. The instant he moved, someone else rushed toward Ye Chuqi even faster, tossing something at him along the way. His vision went black, and he lost all awareness of the world around him.

Fuck! A dark cage!

Ye Chuqi had not expected Ed to be dealt with so quickly, either. But the man seemed to know who Ed was and had spared his life. In the blink of an eye, he appeared before her, his fingers brushing lightly over her soft, warm golden hair as if checking whether it was real.

His hoarse voice held excitement he could barely conceal. "You think they can protect you?"

Ye Chuqi: ???

Chapter 14: Kru Town 04: Take a Guess?

At the time, Ye Chuqi did not know what a dark cage was. In an instant, she lost all awareness of the world around her, leaving only darkness.

"San San?"

"I'm here."

The darkness had deceived her sight and hearing, but it could not sever her connection with San San. Ye Chuqi relaxed at once.

San San laughed. "You feel safe with me here, don't you?"

Ye Chuqi laughed too. "Of course I do."

"You can't count on someone like Ed at all. Or Red Beard!"

"Hahahaha."

Ye Chuqi could not help laughing. Red Beard had only wanted to trust her. Ed, on the other hand, had probably had it worse: the man's strength had completely outclassed his.

Who could have imagined that a case involving a few missing girls in a remote town would draw someone so powerful?

"Let's not rush. We'll cast a long line to catch a big fish. San San, keep an eye on what's happening outside, and tell me if you notice anything."

"Okay." San San paused. "You could take a nap."

"I'm not that drunk," Ye Chuqi said.

She could hold her liquor fairly well.

She was also curious where the man would take her.

Ed was awakened by his companions. When he came to, he found himself lying in the inn's little courtyard, his clothes damp with dew. The sky was still dark, with only a few scattered stars twinkling above and a hazy light lying over the courtyard.

Ed clenched his teeth. "It was a dark cage. A high-level one, too. That's why it trapped me instantly, without giving me the strength to struggle." His face darkened further. "The other person's a thief, and stronger than I am. I didn't sense him at all before he struck. He must have taken Yezi."

Ye Chuqi had waded into this muddy water to help them. If anything happened to her, he would blame himself for the rest of his life!

"Why are you here?" If everyone had followed, they would have risked exposing themselves, so Ed had been the only one tailing Ye Chuqi. The others had spread out across the town, ready to help if needed.

Xiya and Chris stood before him, and Chris was the one who had freed him from the dark cage. A dark cage was Dark Magic, a spell only a rare Dark Element Archmage could cast. If their enemy was merely a thief, he could only have used a dark cage scroll—and those were far from cheap.

Most archmages lacked physical strength. They could not possibly have moved fast enough to get close and subdue Ed, so the man had most likely used a dark cage.

Chris had also found traces of a dark cage on the windowsill of Ye Chuqi's room. She must have been trapped in one before she was taken away, without a chance to struggle.

Xiya examined Ed and found no other injuries. Only then did she rise, her face pale.

Even Chris could not easily undo a high-level dark cage. But their enemy had used a scroll, weakening the spell, and enough time had passed for its power to fade further. That was the only reason Chris had barely managed to break it. Otherwise, they would have had to leave Ed there until the sun rose the next day and slowly dissolved the cage's power.

"I don't know how Yezi managed it, but she left us a message. Someone watching from the shadows saw it and realized you were in trouble. Once the captain learned Yezi had been taken, he led some people after her."

"A message?" Ed looked up at Chris, puzzled.