A Little Gift

When Julian and Aikali followed Li Lin downstairs, they were surprised to find a squad of fully armed Dark Elf standing before them. At the very front stood the city's de facto Dark Elf ruler. The priestess looked at Li Lin with a serious and somewhat solemn expression; her usual flippancy was gone. This was a good thing; it seemed Li Lin's warning had been effective enough.

"Take good care of these two for me."

As he spoke, he gestured behind him.

"Understood, sir."

The female priest nodded slightly, then made a gesture, and soon several well-trained Dark Elf stepped forward. The two of them felt a blur before their eyes and were surrounded by these Dark Elf.

"Until I give the orders, your responsibility is to take good care of them... Getting them to Maya shouldn't be a problem, right? I have a lot of faith in your abilities, that's why I've come to you. I hope you won't let me down."

"... Of course not, sir."

I hope so too.

Li Lin stroked Angela's long silver hair beside him.

"If anything happens to them, anything... you understand, I won't let you off so easily. Maya is indeed my ally. But frankly, I can kill any Dark Elf without her consent. Therefore, I expect you to do exactly as I say; those underhanded tricks won't get you anywhere."

"... This, this is natural, great Arcane Mage."

Upon hearing this, the pastor's expression turned serious, and she lowered her head. Her expression was extremely tense, clearly indicating that Li Lin's threat had had the desired effect.

"Master, what do you mean by this?"

Hearing Li Lin's words, Julian had no choice but to speak up, as he had no idea what the mage was thinking.

"Nothing."

In response to the man's question, Li Lin simply shrugged.

"I'm just letting these Dark Elf take you in and look after you for a while. Trust me, once you get used to it, you'll find life in the Underdark quite pleasant."

I don't want to stay here!

As soon as Li Lin finished speaking, Ailika screamed. She disliked the dark underground and even more so these Dark Elf. The thought of being trapped in an even more terrifying state of imprisonment made the little girl unable to contain her fear any longer, and she screamed.

"I want to go home, I want to go back to the ground, I just want to... Waaah...!!"

"Aikali!"

Julian quickly covered her mouth to stop the girl from continuing. He knew very well that he had no chance of bargaining at this point.

"Take them away, and don't let anyone see them. Don't let anyone see them."

The Dark Elf swiftly followed Li Lin's orders and took Julian and Aikali away; their fates were now in Li Lin's hands. Next, they needed to return and deliver the promised item to the prince, thus completing the mission. However, Angela clearly had a different opinion on how to deliver it.

"Although it's called a transaction, he is, after all, a descendant of an accomplice in the destruction of your country. For you, Master, to personally hand over the prey is far too much of a favor to him. A person like him shouldn't even be entitled to any of your goodwill."

Li Lin didn't care whether her reasons were reasonable or not. As long as the little one gave a reason, it meant she wanted to do something that would make her happy and cheerful.

However, it must be said that her reasoning suited Li Lin's tastes perfectly. After all, he was Arcane Mage, and his deal with that guy was merely a matter of utilization; there was no need to place him on an equal footing with him. There were things that Li Lin couldn't do, and Angela might be able to do as well. So, after a moment's thought, he quickly nodded and agreed with Angela's statement.

"Then, you are my familiar, so I'll leave the work to you."

The prince slowly awoke.

Perhaps out of a slight sense of respect for his status, Li Lin moved a cargo wagon aside and invited the prince to rest. This treatment was extremely impolite for a prince, but he had no time to dwell on it. He was exhausted after such a long journey. After all, he was a prince, not a true wanderer or adventurer; he didn't have that much stamina. The reason he had managed to keep up earlier wasn't so much due to abundant physical strength, but rather because people often unleash tremendous potential when faced with mortal danger—especially when that danger is omnipresent and could arise at any moment.

In short, Li Lin has no intention of killing the prince right now, which immediately relaxed his tense nerves. Soon, all the fatigue from the past few days came rushing back. Therefore, after getting into the carriage, he leaned against the cargo and drifted off to sleep, not even noticing when Li Lin and Angela left the caravan.

Of course, we don't know when they'll be back.

He opened his eyes, shook his head; he had slept for too long, and was even feeling a little groggy.

Um?

The prince stared in surprise at the beautiful, lovely girl's face before him. How strange, he felt he'd seen that face somewhere before... Was he dreaming again? Thinking this, the prince turned over, intending to go back to sleep, but he quickly saw another face and immediately woke up in fright. This isn't... this isn't... how could they be here?

Thinking of this, the prince hurriedly got up, but when he looked intently at his side again, he couldn't help but let out a scream.

"Ya--! Ya--! Ya--!!"

Accompanied by the high-pitched screams of panic that even the horses cried out in an instant, the prince leaped up. He used so much force that he almost soared into the air, but unfortunately, he was not a mage and did not have the support of Levitate. The poor prince only stayed in the air for a moment before falling back down. But this time, by sheer coincidence, he landed right on the heads of those two people.

"Crack." A crisp sound of bone breaking rang out. The prince, as if bitten in the buttocks, screamed wildly and fell off the carriage. He didn't even care about the dust on the ground, desperately rolling and crawling forward. Only when he saw Angela looking at him with a smug and arrogant smile did he slowly regain his composure and stop his frantic movements. This caused a burst of laughter from those around him. Whether it was the mercenaries, the sisters, or even Kalin and Nia, they all laughed at the prince's crazy actions. If you really wanted to describe it, this should have been a terrifying scene. But the prince's overly intense and exaggerated reaction only added a strange comedic effect.

"What's wrong, you useless prince? It's just two heads, are you that scared?"

Under Angela's clearly disdainful and mocking gaze, the prince couldn't utter a single word. His face turned pale and then red as he stood up, trembling as he looked back at the head that was rolling around on the carriage, deformed from being sat on. He didn't know what to say.

"How."

Angela raised her eyebrows, a sign that she was about to make her move.

"This is a gift from your master. Don't you intend to accept it with gratitude?"

The gift... The prince quickly understood the origin of the two heads. His heart sank, but at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, since the mage had killed them, he was now on the same side as Kudel.

"I, of course I accept it with gratitude, beautiful Miss Angela."

Although still shaken by what had just happened, the prince could only suppress his displeasure and respond respectfully to Angela to prevent her from taking any dangerous actions—especially considering that Li Lin wasn't by her side at the moment, which might have made things even more dangerous.

"Very good. You should know how to be grateful for what you receive. It seems you are quite a good prince."

One wonders if the prince would be so angry he'd die if he heard that. But Angela didn't care. She nodded, ignoring the poor prince who was forcing a smile that looked better than a cry, and skipped back to their own carriage—a luxurious and comfortable place, and completely deserted.

"Well done."

Seeing the little guy return to the carriage, even Li Lin couldn't help but smile and say something. He had never expected that Angela would use such an interesting method to send those two heads away. Now it seemed that things had been very successful—and Angela's "fragile" self-esteem had not been damaged.

"Now that things are settled, we won't go into City of Ten Thousand Stones."

He took a deep breath and turned to the others.

"City of Ten Thousand Stones is full of spies from outside. Making things too complicated won't do us any good."

"So you're planning to just go out? That's not a good idea, Li Lin."

Nia frowned slightly, her beautiful face appearing somewhat heavy.

"What happened to us at the entrance to the Black Road might happen again at its Black Road."

"That looks interesting! Why don't we just launch an attack, Nia?"

Kalin didn't seem too worried about it; as long as it was fun, that was enough for her. Nia glared at her, wanting to say something in rebuttal, but quickly gave up. As for Angela, she defiantly climbed into Li Lin's arms and gave a cold snort.

"No, we don't need to fight our way out. You might be disappointed this time, Kalin."

Li Lin shook his head, then turned to look out the car window, a smile appearing on his face.

"This time, I'm going to have them greet us as we leave."