A bounty on An Kai!

Along the way.

Sally Bukelin occasionally brought up amusing stories from Buklin Capital, hoping to leave a deeper impression on An Kai.

She thought highly of An Kai's talent as a mage. Keeping him by her side as a subordinate would be quite useful.

From Sally Bukelin's perspective, her plan was working splendidly.

After all, An Kai always responded enthusiastically to whatever she said.

As they spent more time together, Sally Bukelin also formed a rough idea of An Kai's personality.

Greedy, lecherous, ignorant, and overbearing.

Having summed up An Kai's character, Sally Bukelin grew even more confident in her plan to bring him under her command.

Flaws were nothing to fear. A lack of flaws was the real problem. The more weaknesses someone had, the easier they were to control.

She just had to use the right approach!

Walking one behind the other, the two drew ever closer to Chaos City.

An Kai's enthusiastic responses had not been for nothing, either.

At the very least, he had confirmed that Sally Bukelin really had lost her mana.

She had been drugged, and restoring it would be extremely difficult.

Only a mage on her master's level might be able to restore it successfully.

With that, An Kai could finally relax.

He no longer had to worry about Sally Bukelin suddenly unleashing the power of a Third-Tier Mage and threatening him.

The closer they came to Chaos City, the broader An Kai's smile grew.

The same was true of Sally Bukelin.

At that moment, she felt that a new path had opened up after a dead end. So what if the [Typhon Giant] had been killed?

She had gained a new, highly talented subordinate and was about to reach a safe haven in the Desert-Chaos City!

After more than two hundred days on the run, Sally Bukelin walked through the Desert, her anxious heart slowly settling.

What if An Kai was putting on an act and deceiving her?

The thought had never crossed Sally Bukelin's mind.

There was only one reason: her absolute confidence in her beauty!

To the barbarians of the Desert, every smile and every delicate expression of hers was an utterly overwhelming weapon!

That confidence came from being acknowledged as one of the three great beauties of the Bukelin Duchy!

Two days later.

Chaos City appeared before them.

"Warrior Hanks, thank you for all your efforts!"

A smile lit up Sally Bukelin's face as she thanked An Kai from the bottom of her heart.

An Kai returned her smile...

As for the "Warrior Hanks" Sally Bukelin spoke of, that was a name An Kai had volunteered himself...

When traveling away from home, it always paid to have a few extra identities ready...

He led Sally Bukelin a little farther, then An Kai stopped when they were still five hundred meters from Chaos City.

"Princess, please wait here a moment. I'll go ahead and check for danger!"

Sally Bukelin nodded. She approved of An Kai's caution.

But... if he was going to check for danger, why was he casting Fireball?

Three fireballs abruptly appeared in An Kai's hands. With an apologetic smile, he positioned them around Sally Bukelin!

With Sally Bukelin's current strength, forcing her way through the fireballs would only reduce her to ashes...

Only after finishing all this did An Kai head toward Chaos City.

He had done it to keep Sally Bukelin from escaping.

His prize was practically in his hands. He could not let it slip away now!

Surrounded by fireballs in the scorching Desert heat.

Sally Bukelin felt as though she were inside a volcano, with searing heat relentlessly roasting her.

Sweat dripped from her in an endless stream.

"A barbarian is a barbarian. Even the way he protects someone is so savage!"

An Kai disguised himself, which really just meant covering his face with strips of cloth.

He had come to see whether Hanks was running his stall.

If Hanks was there, it would mean the threat from the Evergreen Gang had passed.

Outside the familiar walls of Chaos City, there was not a single stallholder.

Perhaps the increasingly hot weather had driven Hanks's fellow vendors to find other work.

After looking around, An Kai headed toward the gate. From about fifty meters away, he spotted several newly posted bounty notices on the city wall...

He hurried over to the wall...

The first was a bounty on him and Hanks, offering one hundred gold coins!

Comparing that with the fifty gold coins Hanks had split with him, even an idiot could have figured out that An Kai knew Hanks must have received other benefits as well.

Muttering about the old miser, An Kai took down the notice. If the chance arose, perhaps he could trade Hanks in for the fifty-gold-coin bounty...

Then An Kai looked at the second notice...

Three seconds later...

An Kai's brow furrowed deeply!

He hurriedly tore down the notice!

"That old bastard really has shown up!"

As luck would have it, the second bounty also concerned him!

[Seeking a missing student of the Mage Association-An Kai!]

[Bounty details: (An Kai's appearance). Anyone who finds this student of our Mage Association will receive 1,000 gold coins. Anyone who provides a lead will receive 200 gold coins!]

[An Kai is the most gifted student in our association. As its president, I am heartbroken by his disappearance! If he is alive, I must see him. If he is dead, I must see his body!]

[Posted by: eastern border of the Bukelin Duchy-Nameless Town-Mage Association-Third-Tier Mage and president-Dong Lin!]

An Kai clenched the bounty notice in his hand.

He did not know how long it had been hanging there or how many people knew about it.

Much less when that old bastard Dong Lin had advanced from a second-tier mage to a Third-Tier Mage!

All he knew was that he was worth a fortune now!

Enough to drive hordes of people in Chaos City into a frenzy!

Could this bounty actually catch An Kai?

Dong Lin himself knew it would be difficult.

He had done this to tell An Kai one thing...

"I'm here! You'd better hide well!"

It was a display of Dong Lin's immense confidence in his own strength.

And indeed, An Kai did not believe he could fight Dong Lin, a Third-Tier Mage, as he was now.

The bounty had also thrown An Kai's plans into disarray.

For now, he could not enter Chaos City.

With a thousand gold coins on his head, walking through Chaos City would be far too dangerous!

Even if he covered himself from head to toe, someone might have special means of identifying him...

Compared with exchanging Sally Bukelin for resources, keeping himself alive was unquestionably more important.

An Kai decided that how to make the exchange would require careful planning.

At the very least, he could not do it now.

Putting both bounty notices into his Storage Ring, An Kai headed back toward Sally Bukelin.

He ran up to Sally Bukelin and waved away the fireballs. Before she could complain, An Kai spoke first:

"Your Highness, we need to move. I found evidence of your brothers' involvement in the bounty notices at the gate!"

"There's a very good chance people are lying in ambush there, waiting for you to appear so they can catch us all in one sweep!"

As he delivered the news, An Kai drew on his own feelings about Dong Lin's bounty on him...

Sally Bukelin pondered for a few seconds, then nodded firmly. "Warrior Hanks, I'll follow your lead!"

"Rest assured, Your Highness. I'll keep you safe!"

After thumping his chest and giving his assurance, An Kai led Sally Bukelin toward the Oasis near Chaos City...

If all else fails, I'll just kill her!

Meanwhile, inside Chaos City, Will-Bukelin had just accepted a bounty mission to collect [Desert Crocodile] hides...

Thanks to Shuming 13733 for the monthly vote. Thank you for your support.

P.S. A friendly reminder: this book absolutely does not feature a simp.