Ronava closed her eyes again. The taste of medicine still lingered on her lips, leaving her strangely unsettled.
That trace of energy...
It was unmistakably the aura of death. Faint as it was, it had truly come from Lin En, and she had caught it even though it vanished in an instant.
Ronava knew that power all too well. After all, it was something she had wielded for a thousand years.
"Who is he...? Why does he have the Authority of Death? Could he be the new Ruler of Death chosen by Phanes? But why save me? I can't sense even a trace of elemental power from him now."
She murmured to herself, looking down at her gravely wounded body. It would probably take a long time for her to recover fully.
Early the next morning, Lin En had just woken up after making do with a night on the grass outside the door when the system panel popped up again.
"Task: Obtain one sincere smile from Ronava within one hour."
"One hour? Make her smile? I'd love to see her smile sincerely, but this is harder than making me fight Heavenly Principles one-on-one! She's such a workaholic, who knows how many times she's smiled in thousands of years? And it has to be sincere. Is there really anything that can make her smile?"
He glanced back at the tightly shut wooden door.
Ronava now needed him to serve her medicine in a "special way" just to get her to drink it. Getting her to smile would be harder than climbing to heaven.
Forget it. I might as well try. What if she does smile?
Lin En took a deep breath, rubbed his face, and forced an expression that wasn't quite so unpleasant before pushing the door open and walking in.
Ronava was still propped up against the head of the bed. Her gaze fell on him the moment he entered, staring fixedly at her, like a knife piercing him.
"Back to die?"
"Um... are you hungry? I could get you something to eat?"
Lin En looked at Ronava with a smile uglier than a grimace.
"No."
"Then... are you thirsty? I boiled some water."
"No."
"Then..."
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
Ronava cut him off, a trace of wariness entering her eyes. After all, Lin En had taken her first kiss last night, and she couldn't be sure he wouldn't do anything else that crossed the line.
Her stare made Lin En's scalp prickle. He steeled himself, pulled over a low stool, and sat down a short distance from her bed.
"I want to make you smile."
Ronava thought she had misheard him.
"What?"
"Smile."
Lin En spoke earnestly.
"You've been wearing a cold expression ever since you woke up, and your wounds are healing slowly. Being in a good mood helps you recover. Really, that's... that's what everyone back home says."
Ronava was silent for two seconds, then let out a mocking laugh. The system panel showed no reaction whatsoever.
"You're sitting here just to make me smile?"
Ronava's voice was full of contempt.
"You think you can?"
"I do."
Lin En pressed on, his mind racing.
"How about... I tell you a joke?"
Ronava said nothing. She simply watched him as though he were a monkey making a fool of himself.
Lin En cleared his throat and began telling the joke he knew best.
"When it was time to pick luoluo berries, Xiaoming wanted to ask Xiaohong to come along. But Xiaohong didn't want to go, and she was too embarrassed to say no. She thought it over and over, and in the end, she thought it over and went."
Ronava remained expressionless, driving Lin En to despair.
"How are you keeping a straight face?!"
He went on to tell two more jokes, each met with deeper silence and a colder stare.
Ronava even closed her eyes, as though she couldn't be bothered to look at him anymore.
"Enough."
She finally spoke, her voice plainly impatient.
"Your jokes are just like you: noisy and boring."
Those words wounded Lin En's tender heart. She really wasn't a normal person, though she hadn't been one to begin with.
He stared at Ronava's pale yet astonishingly beautiful face, and a dangerous thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Ronava."
"..."
"Has anyone... ever told you how beautiful you are?"
Hearing that, Ronava opened her eyes and looked at him. A flicker of doubt and confusion passed through her golden eyes.
Lin En also thought he saw the corner of her mouth twitch ever so slightly. The countdown was still running, but did she actually like that? He had a chance!
"Are you flirting with me?"
"No, I'm just stating a fact."
Lin En quickly waved his hands. He needed to strike while the iron was hot.
"Look, even though you're a little pale right now, your features are already beautiful. Once you've recovered, you'll definitely look even better than you do now."
Ronava's chest rose and fell slightly.
Lin En also noticed that the knuckles of the hand clutching the corner of her blanket had turned white. Clearly, she was fighting the urge to throw him out.
But she couldn't move. Her power hadn't recovered, and this bastard had chosen her weakest moment to say such embarrassing things.
More absurdly still, those simple words of praise had gently touched a long-sealed corner deep within her heart.
For thousands of years, no one had dared speak to her like that.
Aside from those two slackers, hardly anyone usually dared chat with her. Mortals were all afraid of her and scarcely ever said anything nice about her. As a result, she didn't want to talk much either and became aloof.
She lowered her head, and the corners of her mouth curved almost imperceptibly.
The curve was so slight it was barely visible, and it vanished in an instant, carrying a trace of bitterness and self-mockery.
"Task complete."
The system panel lit up, and Lin En felt a stronger surge of power flow into his body: a second wisp of the Authority of the Shade of Death.
Ronava raised her eyes and met his excited gaze.
"What are you looking at?"
"Did you just smile?"
"No."
For an instant, Lin En met Ronava's eyes, then quickly looked away, his heart pounding.
"All right, I'll go get your medicine."
He practically ran out the door. Behind him, Ronava watched his flustered retreat in silence for a long time.
Even she found that momentary softening just now unfamiliar.
"Happiness?"
She murmured the word.
"You think you can give me that? A... little thief who stole my authority?"
But the killing intent in her voice had faded somewhat.
Outside the window, Lin En was squatting by the door, brewing medicine. He fed wood into the fire as he considered his next move.
He had two wisps of authority now. A few more, and he might really become the Ruler of Death.
The system's next task hadn't appeared yet, giving him a rare moment of peace.
He didn't know that Ronava was staring at her palm inside the house, where an extremely fine silver-gray thread was slowly gathering.
The thread was too weak to be of much use in battle, but it was enough for her to sense the Authority of Death once more.
"Lin En..."
She whispered his name, her voice so low that only she could hear it.
"What secrets are you hiding? Why has my Authority of Death appeared in you? And it's only been a day, yet your authority has actually grown a little stronger."
"Phanes! I worked for you for thousands of years, yet my authority was reclaimed and I was reduced to this state just for killing a few insignificant humans. I swear I'll..."