All night long, Andrew had been tossing and turning. When he looked in the mirror in the morning, the first thing he noticed was two black eye circles staring back at him.
It must be said, that secret technique is really something—it even brought out the black circles. He couldn’t tell whether he should feel happy or depressed about it.
"Never mind, I was already ugly. Two more black circles just make me uglier."
"I offended the White Bone Holy Light Court due to a misjudgment, and regretting that now would serve no purpose. That much, I can understand. But why on earth am I stirring up trouble with a gold dragon now?"
"Can green dragons and elves be together?"
"Goodness, I’m already beginning to entertain questions ..."
Andrew felt somewhat lost.
No, "lost" didn’t quite capture it—it was more like conflicted. Very conflicted and entangled. He couldn’t even figure out his own intentions anymore, something that had never occurred once in the past two hundred years of his existence.
"Listen, Andrew, this is a dead-end road. You’ll gain nothing from it, and there’s a high chance you’ll lose your life. Why pursue something so fruitless? This isn’t your style. What you should do is go to Christina’s room immediately, meet her, admit you’re a bastard, confess everything, and then quietly slip away. Or maybe phrase it more gently, to avoid provoking her anger. On your way out, it’d be wise to find that gold dragon and offer a sincere apology. Yes, that would be the most satisfactory conclusion."
Standing before the mirror, Andrew silently psycheed himself up, widening his eyes.
"Alright, let’s do this!"
With one shout, he turned urgently and flung open the room door. The moment he did, he saw Christina standing outside the door.
BANG—the door slammed shut again.
Behind the door, Andrew took deep breaths desperately.
Outside the door, Christina’s smiling expression slowly faded. She blinked blankly, staring at the door.
After a long while, Andrew finally reopened the door and forced a smile as he asked, "Why are you standing at my door?"
"I was waiting for you."
"Why didn’t you knock?"
"Because you were still sleeping..."
"Can’t you knock even if I’m sleeping?"
"I’d disturb you that way." Christina blinked her eyes and studied Andrew carefully, then softly said, "Did you not sleep well last night? Your eyes are so dark. Why not sleep a little longer? We don’t have much to do anyway."
Andrew no longer knew how to continue the conversation, especially when facing Christina, who looked pitiful yet gentle at the same time. He could only stand frozen in place.
He had to admit—being a scoundrel was far more challenging than being a liar.
Gritting his teeth, Andrew put on a cold expression and said, "No free time? We’ve got a lot to do."
"Doesn’t yesterday’s incident need cleaning up?"
Even though it was already mid-January, winter in Linlopes was far from over. The streets were littered with piles of snow, cornered by individuals sweeping it away, and sparsely populated by a few passersby.
A group of children played snowball fights on an empty patch of land by the edge.
With Christina in tow, Andrew left the overnight inn. On the road, he cautiously widened his eyes, observing his surroundings attentively.
What was he looking for? Obviously, he was searching for the gold dragon from yesterday.
And wouldn’t you know, he actually found it. Turning his head sharply at a crossroads, he caught sight of Andrejewitsch standing at the far end of the street.
Still clad in that white robe, hood donned, Andrejewitsch gazed from afar at Andrew and Christina, unmoving and unflinching.
"He won’t make a move here, right? There are so many people around. He shouldn’t act recklessly, should he?" Andrew asked.
Christina shook her head nervously, "I don’t know."
"He probably won’t make a move. If he’d wanted to, he would’ve chased us down yesterday—we wouldn’t have escaped. Now, he surely wouldn’t just stand there staring; he would’ve acted already."
Turning away, Andrew picked up his pace slightly.
Andrejewitsch remained standing there, silently watching them vanish from sight.
At the adventurer guild, Bi’an the Sixth placed a set of documents in front of Andrew and Christina, then took a seat on the sofa across from them.
"I received bad news early this morning. Miss Christina, you destroyed the employer’s house during your mission, didn’t you?"
"That was an accident," Andrew hurriedly defended.
Before Andrew could even finish speaking, Bi’an the Sixth raised a hand to stop him.
Taking a harsh drag of his cigarette, Bi’an the Sixth asked expressionlessly, "Your name is Conrad, isn’t it?"
"Yes, sir," Andrew replied.
"You’re an apprentice member of the Blood Elf and Dragon Mercenary Group?"
"I suggest you refrain from expressing any remarks until you become a formal member. Until then, keep your mouth shut. Especially when I’m speaking to your leader."
Andrew’s lips twitched slightly, but he could only muster up an awkward smile and say, "As you wish, sir."
Bi’an the Sixth turned to Christina and continued, "Miss Christina, do you have anything you’d like to explain?"
"It was an accident," Christina quickly defended.
"The total payment for this mission was only 200 gold coins. Even including the adventurer hall fees, it amounts to just over 300 gold coins. Yet this morning, I received a bill for over 2,000 gold coins. The house isn’t much of an issue—it can be repaired for 100 gold coins. But you burned the plants in the yard. Those were the truly valuable items." Taking another harsh drag, then slowly exhaling smoke, Bi’an the Sixth stared at Christina and said, "Was this an accident? Perhaps it was. But within accidents, there are always some predictable elements. In the past, you often caused such ’accidents,’ only for them to stop when you got acquainted with Mr. Duru. For a time, I thought these ’accidents’ would never happen again. This time... I hear Mr. Duru is away on a long trip, correct? Quite the coincidence, a terrible situation arises once again."