“Lord Aoki?”
Not only was it impossible to tell the wood spirit’s gender by appearance, but his voice was just as ambiguous.
That androgynous tone made Aoki want to frown, but he could only pretend to be a vegetable.
However, the wood spirit was not ready to give up. He circled the jade bed several times, inspecting and re-inspecting, never abandoning the idea that Lord Aoki was definitely awake.
But the wood spirit understood one truth: you can never wake someone pretending to be asleep, so calling out with words was useless.
Having decided, the wood spirit smacked his own forehead and went for it—he reached into Aoki’s ribs.
“Tickle tickle!”
“Pfft!”
This time, Aoki really couldn’t hold it. He had ticklish spots.
Should he praise the wood spirit’s cleverness?
How did he even think to grab his ticklish spots?
Aoki opened his eyes, forced a smile mixed with anger, pushed the wood spirit away, and shouted, “Go away.”
The wood spirit, perhaps trying his luck or preparing for Aoki to be awake, was still startled by the sudden reaction, stepping back two paces and staring wide-eyed at Aoki.
This was also the first time in several months that Aoki took a good look at this wood spirit.
Short in stature, probably still in his adolescent phase, dressed quite nicely—but thinking about it, since he was taking care of him, he certainly wasn’t from an ordinary family.
“Wow! The hero’s advisor is awake! Aoki is awake!”
The wood spirit howled loudly and immediately dashed toward the treehouse door, but Aoki wouldn’t let him run off and make a scene.
He leapt off the bed, collided with the wood spirit from behind, sat on his back, reached down, and grabbed his neck with his arm.
“Shut your mouth! Or I’ll strangle you right here!”
His grip tightened, and the wood spirit was silenced.
“Gah! Lord Aoki, please let go!”
The wood spirit gagged and pounded the ground with his hands.
Thankfully, the magic barrier at the door made it hard to see inside from outside, and whether the noise carried out, Aoki wasn’t sure.
But he absolutely would not let news of his awakening get out today.
Even if it meant dealing with this wood spirit permanently.
“Don’t scream, understood?”
“I understand.”
“Then I’ll loosen a bit?”
“Ah.”
Aoki relaxed his grip slightly, and the wood spirit immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, “Help! Ahhhhh!!!”
Seeing this, Aoki’s heart hardened, and he slapped the wood spirit hard on the forehead, glaring fiercely: “You think I won’t?”
His arm tightened again. He saw the wood spirit’s face turn from red to purple and seemed to be running out of breath, so he eased up a little.
“I won’t do it anymore. I won’t shout.”
The wood spirit weakly begged for mercy. Aoki flipped him over so he could breathe better, then sat on his stomach.
“L-Lord Aoki… why are you doing this?”
Looking up at Aoki sitting on him, the wood spirit guarded his neck, afraid of another strangling.
“Hmm…”
Aoki stroked his chin, scrutinizing the wood spirit up and down before saying suddenly, “You always help Uncle Geda next door fix his lawn. You like to eat sweet cakes for breakfast…”
Under the wood spirit’s horrified gaze, Aoki recited everything he had overheard from the wood spirit’s mouth during his limited moments of semi-consciousness over the past few months.
“Then, your name is… ‘green flower,’ Cuihua, right?”
Having said this, Aoki shrugged and muttered, “That’s really a terrible name.”
“Eh? Why? How do you know so much? Could it be that your coma was fake?”
Cuihua was suddenly terrified. He even forgot his honorifics, thinking that maybe Aoki had been wanting to strangle him for a long time!
“Ah, the vegetable state was real, but things are complicated.
Anyway… hmm, I don’t have much time. Now let’s play a quick Q&A game.”
With that, Aoki removed Cuihua’s hands and grabbed his throat again.
Feeling the burning heat of Aoki’s hand squeezing his neck, Cuihua panicked, but fortunately, Aoki didn’t apply pressure this time.
“Quick? Quick Q&A?”
Aoki spoke quickly: “How long ago did I come here?”
Cuihua paused for a moment, then answered, “E-Er, seven, seven months!”
“That long… What’s the current situation with the Demon Lord and the continent’s powers?”
“No major moves, just each secretly contending. Drunk Uncle Geda said a storm is brewing!”
“What is Saintess Yue Lan doing?”
“I heard she’s about to start selecting heroes!”
“Selecting heroes…”
Hearing this, Aoki’s heart jumped.
If Saintess Yue Lan was choosing heroes, the continent was in trouble.
Even the hero elder sister, Yue Qi, was done in by Yue Lan.
Now Yue Lan selecting heroes was basically putting people on an open assassination list.
He had to stop Yue Lan… but how?
Calm down and think carefully.
Aoki adjusted his breathing and showed his left wrist to Cuihua, asking, “How often does Yue Lan come? Do you know what she injected into me?”
For the first question, Cuihua answered honestly.
For the second, Aoki didn’t think Cuihua knew the answer at all.
Unexpectedly, Cuihua said:
“Uh, it seems to be a hallucinogenic drug.”
“You know?”
Aoki was shocked.
“Uh, I just heard Saintess yelling here a few months ago, apologizing over and over…”
Cuihua recalled hiding in the shadows, overhearing some things, and then the saintess charging out of the treehouse on all fours like a mad dog.
Luckily, he ran fast, or else…
That was really terrifying!
“Hallucinogenic drug?”
Hearing this, Aoki suddenly narrowed his eyes.
A terrifying thought arose.
Could it be… the so-called system that descended was just a hallucination?
But then why did he recover his body using “Qi Resolution”?
Could it be… the spirit sanctuary was healing him?
“Lord Aoki, are you done asking?”
Cuihua asked quietly.
“Tch.”
Aoki rubbed his temples. He could feel himself about to lapse back into a vegetable state, so he needed to…
His gaze landed on Cuihua’s chest.
Seeing the stunned expression, he thought, just as expected.
“So, your secret is that you’re afraid Yue Lan will find out this, huh… Heh. If you go around saying I’m awake, I’ll tell Saintess Yue Lan that you did improper things while I was unconscious.”
With that, Aoki rolled his eyes and collapsed onto Cuihua.
“Eh?”
Cuihua was stunned for a long moment.
After pushing Aoki off, he suddenly realized that his plain, unbothered clothing on his chest was soaked through, revealing the floral-patterned bra underneath!
This was it!
His secret as a woman was exposed!
Originally, Saintess Yue Lan had required a male caretaker for Aoki, but he was only after the church’s salary and insurance benefits—and his family had pulled strings to get him this civil servant position!
If Yue Lan found out, he would be dead!
That saintess was a madwoman!