“Honestly, what the hell are we supposed to do next!!?”
Eze clutched his head, groaning in waves of frustration.
Weilian smiled softly, leaning in with a hint of schadenfreude as she said,
“What do you mean ‘what to do’? At least the engagement is officially called off. The goal was achieved, wasn’t it?”
“Calling off the engagement is worse than not calling it off at all, aaaaaah!!!”
Breaking off the engagement wasn’t the real goal.
What mattered more was using the cancellation as a pretext to lay their relationship bare and sever ties completely, making Heidi stop bothering him for good.
And what happened?
Heidi turned it around, trying to use the engagement as bait to reel him back in.
From Eze’s perspective, it was a joke.
But as long as Heidi was serious, she would keep acting on it and even escalate things.
The days ahead were going to be torturous.
Seeing Eze slowly starting to doubt his own sanity, Weilian stopped teasing him and leaned forward, bending down to comfort him by gently stroking his hair.
“Alright, alright, don’t be so down. Just make things clear next time, isn’t that enough?”
Eze gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
“How do I make it clear? I was already clear today, but she always manages to fool herself with her own logic. Whatever I say after that, won’t it all end the same?”
It’s not scary if lies don’t fool anyone.
What’s scary is telling the truth and the other side refusing to believe it.
Even worse is telling the truth, the other side clearly believes it, but somehow convinces themselves not to.
That’s an absolute defense.
Eze’s thoughts were slowly twisting, and dangerous ideas began to form.
He looked up, blankly staring at Weilian, his voice numb and low as he said,
“What if… we just get rid of her?”
People are the root of all problems.
When you can’t solve the problem, the next best thing is to solve the person.
“Sounds good, leave it to me!”
At those words, Weilian suddenly perked up, raising her hand and pinching a ball of black mist in her palm.
“When? Now? If it’s now, I can have it done within five minutes. How do you want her to die? Curse? Burn? Freeze? Slice her up? Or maybe summon some monsters and have her swallowed whole?”
“…No, never mind. Just kidding.”
No matter what, it wasn’t that extreme yet.
Weilian grumbled as she dispersed the black mist in her palm.
After a moment of thought, she shrugged and suddenly wrapped her arms around Eze’s neck, gently pinching his cheeks.
“Alright, alright, stop thinking about all that nonsense. We’ll deal with things when the time comes. Besides, I’m here, right? Next time she shows up, just leave it to me.”
For the past three days, Weilian had been avoiding any encounters with Heidi.
Because she didn’t want her presence to influence Eze’s judgment or decisions.
Even their conversation at the previous ball — not a single word of it was shared with Eze.
But now, the situation had changed.
Since Eze’s words didn’t work, she would speak for him.
And if her words didn’t work either, she wouldn’t mind getting a little violent.
Eze glanced at Weilian, nodded silently, and stood up, reaching to close the door.
Then—
“Finally caught you, little bastard!!!”
“Do you know where this is?! This is the Nobles’ District, not some place you can just sneak into!”
“What are you skulking around for? Come here and explain yourself!”
A ruckus came from outside the courtyard wall.
Eze frowned and looked over.
Several fully armed Town Guards were dragging a small figure past the entrance of the Weilian Residence.
Eze called out to them.
“What’s going on?”
The lead guard was the same one who slapped the Adventurer in the mansion before, so he knew Eze and that he was now a friend of Xian.
He didn’t dare slack off and stopped immediately, replying respectfully,
“Lord Ein, the Viscount has ordered us to increase patrols to ensure your safety. We just caught a mixed-blood skulking in the Nobles’ District and were about to bring her in for questioning.”
“Mixed-blood?”
Eze looked at the small figure in their grip.
A girl around twelve years old, dressed plainly in simple cloth, with beautiful black hair and an adorable face.
Her red pupils and the faintly visible horns in her hair made her look familiar.
The moment her eyes met Eze’s, she quickly looked away, clearly afraid to make eye contact.
“Uh…”
Isn’t this the little girl he saw on his very first day in Tafia, at that restaurant!?
Why was she here?
Eze didn’t have time to ponder and said to the lead guard,
“I know this child. There’s no problem. Can you release her?”
“Of course. Since Lord Ein said so—”
The lead guard turned to his subordinates and waved them off.
They immediately loosened their grip on the girl.
“Anything else, Lord Ein?”
“No, thank you. Appreciate your patrol.”
“You flatter us. It’s our duty. Thank you for your concern. We’ll be on our way.”
After saluting, the lead guard and his men continued their patrol along the street.
The girl they released collapsed to the ground.
Her snow-white wrists were marked red from the rough handling of the burly guards.
“Tsk—”
Eze grimaced at the sight but couldn’t say anything.
In the aftermath of the Demon-Human War, the attitude toward mixed-bloods was just like this.
The guards had already been polite.
If a mixed-blood child wandered into the Nobles’ District in other cities, they might be beaten to death in the street without anyone caring.
He bent down, reaching out a hand to the girl.
“How are you? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Ah, no, thank you, big brother…”
The girl let Eze pull her up, dusted herself off, and rubbed the sore parts on her wrists, looking a bit uneasy and flustered.
“Well… I was… I was saved by big brother again. Thank you so much!!”
“That’s nothing. But why are you here? And if you recognize me, why didn’t you ask for help when you saw me?”
She hadn’t screamed or struggled when she was caught, and even avoided his gaze just now.
If Eze hadn’t been standing at the door and hadn’t been extra cautious, she would be in serious danger.
Faced with these questions, the girl looked a bit embarrassed.
“Well… I came here to find you.”
“To find me?”
She nodded firmly.
“Yes. I wanted to thank you in person for what happened before. But instead of thanking me, I ended up being saved by you again. I… am really sorry!!”
“I didn’t do anything—”
Eze scratched his face in confusion and turned his head to see Weilian leaning against the doorframe, staring at him with a mischievous smile.
Looking around, surrounded by mansions of the rich and noble, talking here was definitely too conspicuous.
“Anyway… why don’t you come inside and sit for a bit?”
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