Intent and Indifference

Taking the ornament Li Lin handed him, the young man carefully examined its design, turning it over to inspect it before nodding.

"That's right. This is indeed a work of art from the Magic Empire."

With that, he looked up and casually set the little ornament on the table.

"Then, esteemed sir, would you be willing to part with it?"

"Are you planning to add it to your collection?"

Li Lin asked calmly.

"That's right."

The man nodded.

"As you can probably tell, I'm very fond of the history and art of the Magic Empire, so I've been collecting these precious treasures. If you're willing, I can offer you a good price for this ornament-how about a hundred gold coins?"

"All right."

Unexpectedly, Li Lin readily nodded in agreement. Seeing how quickly he agreed, the young man said nothing more and gently rang a bell. A guard soon came in and brought Li Lin a bag of gold coins. Li Lin had nothing more to say either and simply turned and left.

"That man was lying."

Angela spoke as soon as they stepped out of the mayor's house.

"He isn't interested in the Magic Empire at all. He doesn't have the slightest interest in it."

"That's right."

Li Lin weighed the heavy bag in his hand and nodded in agreement. Although the young man had acted very enthusiastic and respectful, his tone and manner had shown none of the attitude one would expect from a collector or enthusiast. He had seemed very impatient with the whole matter, even somewhat disgusted. Someone who was genuinely interested would surely have asked Li Lin where he came from, or where he had found the ornament. But the man had acted as though he were merely going through the motions, rather than pursuing an interest. Once Li Lin noticed this, he lost heart and couldn't be bothered to talk to him any longer. As for the magic barrier, perhaps it was merely something an ancestor had left to his descendants. That would explain it well enough.

Li Lin remained silent, and Angela said nothing either. She had warned Li Lin long ago that the greater his expectations, the greater his disappointment. But...

"Master, you don't need to be so disappointed."

Angela embraced one of Li Lin's arms and spoke softly.

"I've encountered something like this before. It was a long time ago. A male vampire once confessed his feelings to me and hoped to become my guardian. I accepted his invitation, and we set off together to travel to human cities. During that time, I treated him as an older brother, and he treated me as a younger sister. Our true identities were discovered several times, and we were hunted down, but each time we narrowly escaped with our lives. Unfortunately, we eventually went our separate ways. Two hundred years later, I succeeded in advancing to a higher rank and excitedly went looking for my former companion. But not only did he fail to admire my progress, he even tried to imprison me and drain my blood to increase his strength... A friendship forged through life and death had been worn away over two hundred years until not even a trace remained... Perhaps the Vampire Species really does need to be exterminated by humans dozens of times before we learn to unite."

"Good girl."

Li Lin smiled bitterly and stroked Angela's head. He naturally understood that she had said all that to comfort him.

"I understand what you mean. It's just that, since we came all this way... Never mind. Let's get some rest, then continue with what we need to do."

"Master, why are you so determined to find your weapons?"

Seeing that she had successfully changed the subject, Angela immediately followed up with a question.

"Of course, it's for our own sake."

Li Lin walked toward the inn as he explained to Angela.

"Whether or not I help those gods, the God of Justice won't let me go. Only Arcane Mages can use the Great Book of Law, so for as long as I'm alive, I'm a threat to him. Even if I announced that I was retiring to the mountains to spend the rest of my days farming at home, trouble would probably still come knocking. When that happens, I can't count on getting my hands on another pair of Divine Chosen sisters to play a game of sisters killing each other. The God of Justice is indeed very powerful now, but I've lost a great deal of my power. Although I drove him out of the Material Plane this time, and he won't make another move for three to five months, he'll come back down to cause us trouble once he recovers. If I don't have a weapon in my hands then, I'm afraid all I'll be able to do is take you and run for our lives..."

"But, Master."

Angela frowned deeply as she listened to Li Lin's analysis, but in the end she promptly pointed out a flaw in what he had said.

"A weapon is a weapon because that's all it is. Without the strength to match it, there's no way to use it. But since it's unlikely that you can defeat the God of Justice with your current power, will you really be able to beat him after finding your weapons? I remember you once told me that you don't like relying on outside power."

"You don't need to worry about that. They're weapons, but they're 'not just' weapons. Besides... I wouldn't exactly be borrowing outside power."

Li Lin didn't explain it to Angela in too much detail, and seeing that his mood had improved, she didn't press him further. But she also knew that things couldn't go on like this.

Unfortunately, those sisters were progressing too slowly.

At the thought, Angela couldn't help complaining. Humans were terribly poor learners. Fina wasn't her responsibility, so there was no need to mention her, but Angela had patiently taught Mina by hand—or rather, beaten her—and her progress still wasn't obvious enough. They adapted to blood very well, but they weren't very accepting of it. At this rate, heaven knew when they would be able to complete their coming-of-age ceremony. If she had known this would happen, she wouldn't have gone to the trouble of turning them in the first place.

"Should I find a few prostitutes to cheer Master up? No, no, those worn-out whores have all been used. How could I let Master have them? Finding a virgin wouldn't be hard, but this damned place is so poor and remote, I probably won't find any pretty women here..."

Angela muttered to herself, trying to think of every possibility, but she had no particularly good ideas. Fortunately, she didn't need to come up with a solution herself.

"Master!"

Just as Li Lin returned to his room and was preparing to rest, Angela suddenly pushed the door open. Behind her, the two sisters stood there, looking confused and uneasy.

"I'm going out for a stroll. I'll be back in a little while!"

"Hm? Again?"

Hearing Angela, Li Lin was taken aback. Hadn't he just gone shopping with her? Or was it really only fun for girls to go shopping with other girls?

"Go ahead. Don't cause any trouble."

"Of course. Please don't worry, I'll be sure to come back with a full load."

With those puzzling words, Angela left the room with the two sisters. Li Lin stood there in a daze for a while, then shook his head. It seemed that even if he lived another thousand years, he still wouldn't be able to understand how the minds of creatures called women worked.

Since he couldn't understand it, there was no point thinking about it. Li Lin promptly put the thought aside and began preparing new spells. He casually waved his hand, and soon an invisible barrier unfolded around him, cutting off all energy and detection. Then his gaze grew deep and cold. As a low incantation sounded, magical power began to gather and pulse between Li Lin's fingers, awaiting its master's command.

What spells should I prepare?

Li Lin searched through his memories. With his current abilities, he could only prepare one peak-level spell of the highest tier, and he could only choose between Undeath Returns to Death and For My Use Alone. The former was the highest-level undead spell, capable of forcibly destroying all undead over a wide area, regardless of level. The latter was an absolute mind-control spell. Anyone struck by it would obey the caster's orders forever, and it could neither be dispelled nor broken. It was also contagious. In fact, the mage who had invented it had been a textbook pervert. He wasn't much to look at, and girls didn't like him because of it. After spending roughly a hundred and fifty years as a virgin, watching the high-level mages around him enjoy the company of beautiful women while he remained alone, the mage finally couldn't bear the loneliness and invented this spell. From then on, he began a frantic campaign to pick up girls. First, he would get hold of a girl and cast the spell on her. Once she was completely under his control, he would have her find her close female friends and spread it to them. After her friends became his loyal slaves too, he would order the girl and her friends to go out together... The affair grew and grew until, in the end, every woman in an entire city had become his slave. Because the spell was so discreet, they all lived just like ordinary people until the caster gave them an order, with no difference at all. So although every man in the city had been cuckolded, most of them didn't know it. Then one of the women gave birth to a child—and her husband happened to be unable to have children. The affair came to light and alerted the Arcane Mages, who hurried to the city and killed the pitiful yet hateful mage in one stroke. The spell he had invented naturally fell into the Arcane Mages' hands.

Of course, once the caster died, the spell naturally vanished. As for the city's persistently high divorce rate over the following ten years, that was no concern of the Arcane Mages.

For now, there seemed to be no need to prepare either spell. Li Lin wasn't some pitiful, fat, ugly shut-in whom no woman had taken pity on and accepted for a hundred and fifty years. As for the undead spell... it killed too indiscriminately. It might catch Angela and the others in it too, and that would be trouble. He would have to settle for the next best thing.

At this thought, Li Lin felt somewhat restless. Of the spells he had left, not many were for direct attacks. Although direct attacks didn't suit Li Lin's nature, since he preferred to infiltrate from the shadows, much as an assassin instinctively preferred hidden attacks to a head-on duel, a mage still needed to prepare direct offensive spells.

There was no need to think much about mind spells. As for necromancy...

At that thought, Li Lin moved his fingers slightly. Magic runes lit up once more and began arranging themselves across his body.

I'll prepare this one.

At that moment, Li Lin was concentrating on preparing his spell, completely unaware of what Angela was doing outside.

"No good."

Watching yet another girl walk past, Angela muttered to herself and frowned in dissatisfaction.

"No good?"

Fina asked in confusion.

"Miss Angela, what's no good?"

By the rules of the Vampire Species, they should have called Angela their master. But Angela had said there was only one master and had asked the two of them to address her respectfully instead. So the sisters did just that; it was more comfortable than calling her master, at any rate.

"Poor quality."

Angela stared at the retreating figure and complained under her breath.

"Her face is passable, but her waist is too thick and her legs look like radishes. She's not worth looking at!"

"Uh... what exactly are you doing?"

The sisters couldn't understand why Angela had dragged them out onto the street to look at women. Was she going to drink blood again?

"Master is in a bad mood today."

Angela answered casually.

"So I want to find him a few virgins to play with. It might help take his mind off things."

"...What did you say?!"

The sisters nearly jumped in fright at Angela's answer.

"Why would you do that?"

"Why?"

Angela gave Mina a somewhat surprised look.

"As Master's familiar, shouldn't I help him with his troubles? Besides, this town is so desolate and remote. What else is there to do for fun besides playing with women?"

"But what you're doing is a crime..."

"What, and drinking blood isn't a crime? Both involve bleeding, so what's the difference? It's just that one bleeds above and the other below."

"But, Miss Angela..."

Fina protested timidly.

"Those girls are all still young. You'll hurt them if you do that."

"What harm could there be? It's their honor to receive Master's favor. They should be kneeling down and thanking him in tears."

"But, but they might not even like Master."

"What does that matter? Every woman in this world belongs to Master. Except for the ones he doesn't want, they all have a duty to serve him."

"What kind of logic is that..."

"Enough nonsense."

Angela glared at the sisters irritably.

"If you two weren't so useless, still unable to advance in rank and complete your coming-of-age ceremony even now, why would I have to come out onto the streets looking for women? If you want to blame anyone, blame yourselves for being too useless!"

"..."

Now, neither protests nor objections would do any good.

Just as the sisters were left speechless, Angela suddenly wrinkled her little nose and sniffed gently.

"I smell a virgin, and she seems to be a beauty too."

As she spoke, her eyes lit up with excitement and she looked toward a side street, where a woman in a cloak was walking slowly deeper into the alley.