Chapter 191: Rendezvous

Zi Jiu was the first companion Yun Ruoxi and Kaos found after meeting up in Giant Stone City.

Their meeting wasn’t nearly as full of surprises as Giant Stone City had been.

They didn’t encounter any other War Camp trainees, nor did they run into a Yellow Elf launching an assault.

All in all, things went quite smoothly.

However, because Zi Jiu adjusted her mimicry form to have slightly yellowish skin, so she didn’t look quite so green overall, Genbeier couldn’t help but mutter a few words:

How come the young lady has a female knight as her companion, and a commoner at that, and they’re even on such good terms.

But in fact, this made him glimpse his own possible future.

If even this female knight (Zi Jiu) could get along with the young lady so closely, maybe, one day in the future, his relationship with the young lady might become a little closer too.

He didn’t dare to hope to become the young lady’s partner; he simply wished that sometimes she might joke with him as a friend, and that would be enough.

After all, she was a noble lady!

When Zi Jiu learned from Yun Ruoxi that Genbeier considered her just another subordinate of Yun Ruoxi, she found it both amusing and exasperating.

She didn’t bother to argue with a native, and simply accepted it by default.

After all, she couldn’t change her mimicry form in front of Genbeier anyway.

Of course, expelling Genbeier on the spot would have been a good idea.

But firstly, Yun Ruoxi herself was a little reluctant. She said she had promised Genbeier a different future, and if she kicked him out now, wouldn’t that destroy him?

Secondly, Genbeier was truly useful.

In the most literal sense of the word.

He accepted Yun Ruoxi’s orders unconditionally.

If Yun Ruoxi didn’t explain, he wouldn’t proactively ask why—he would simply and honestly carry them out.

And his abilities were absurdly strong.

On this land, there was almost nothing he didn’t know or couldn’t do.

Even Yun Ruoxi was a little surprised—this random person she’d found really did turn out to be quite the capable right-hand man.

And so, just like that—

After finding Zi Jiu, Yun Ruoxi and the others continued on their way, searching for their next companion.

Along the road, they chatted and laughed, occasionally running into some problems, but they managed to solve them all with ease.

***

By the end of Episode 10, they had found Anvil and Yun Che as well.

Then, in the inn of a certain city.

After sending Genbeier away, everyone held their breath and looked at Yun Ruoxi.

They still hadn’t found Lin Zhen and Aili, but the map now showed only one red dot left.

This meant that of the two, there was a high chance that one had already been eliminated, and most likely,

It was Aili.

After all, Lin Zhen wasn’t just stronger, but also more level-headed.

They simply couldn’t believe Lin Zhen would be eliminated before Aili.

“If it really is Aili… what do we do?”

Yun Ruoxi gripped the edge of the table tightly, the corners of her eyes reddening, her face wearing an expression of confused, sorrowful loss.

The very last shot of Episode 10 froze on this moment, before cutting straight into the ending.

“Darn Lin Zhen! He made Xiao Xi cry!”

“Tell us more about making her cry.”

“What can you do? When the Goblins crawled out of the cave, Xiao Xi and the others just happened to be on the road, then ran into a fight, and they didn’t have time to check their watches.”

“That was a peak dramatic miss right there.”

“Goblins? You’re amazing. Even inviting Hakigao home wouldn’t help.”

“666, those Goblins really cracked me up.”

“If Lin Zhen is the Goblin, then what is Xiao Xi?”

“Goblinslayer!”

“Akizuki Marina.”

“Episode 11! The penultimate episode!”

“Sigh, just thinking that in two weeks there’ll be no more 《Starfall》, I feel like ants are crawling all over me right now.”

“Same here.”

“Didn’t they say there’d be a movie version? Why is there still no news?”

“Look at the episode length!”

“One hour??? What’s going on?”

“One episode stronger than three?”

“Don’t tell me the production team got too excited, realized the story couldn’t fit, and just went wild with the time limit.”

“Come on, with so many studios co-producing, how could they make such a rookie mistake?”

“Then why not split Episode 11 into three episodes, why force it to twelve?”

Amidst the barrage of comments, the anime entered the plot, picking up right where the last episode’s final scene left off.

“Even if it really is Aili, even if she truly was eliminated, it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s in danger.”

Zi Jiu held Yun Ruoxi’s hand, gently comforting her in a low voice.

But even she didn’t believe what she was saying.

Because she already vaguely sensed the real reason Lin Zhen’s actions in this exam were so abnormal.

If her guess was right, Aili being eliminated might be the worst possible outcome.

“But if she gets eliminated now… Aili won’t be able to become an official member of the Saints’ Hand Society!”

Yun Ruoxi cried out, her voice trembling, her right hand gradually tightening, gripping Zi Jiu’s hand in return.

Zi Jiu was briefly startled, looking up at the young girl, but she couldn’t see a trace of any other emotion in those eyes—

There was only regret and frustration.

This is… what?

Her train of thought suddenly snapped, like a string of beads breaking apart.

She seemed to sense that something bad was happening.

But she couldn’t quite string the scattered beads back together just yet, nor piece together the fragments of her scattered thoughts.

She lowered her head in deep thought. Just as she was about to finish piecing things together and uncover what was wrong, Genbeier suddenly burst into the room.

“Young miss, young masters, I’ve brought your food back!”

Plop!

The sudden interruption shattered her thoughts instantly, like kicking apart a jigsaw puzzle that was missing just one final piece.

Zi Jiu took a deep breath and looked at Yun Ruoxi, who, due to Genbeier’s arrival, had forced a smile onto her face, and decided to temporarily set aside her thoughts.

Maybe it wasn’t that important; she could think it through later.

The most urgent thing now was still to take care of Yun Ruoxi.

She knew she had always felt a little jealous of Yun Ruoxi, who was growing closer to Lin Zhen.

But no matter what, she was older than Yun Ruoxi, and when Lin Zhen wasn’t around, she had to take care of her.

“Let’s eat first. The food will get cold soon, and that wouldn’t be good!”

With that, Zi Jiu took a separate portion of food from a lunchbox woven from tree leaves and vines, and handed it to Genbeier.

“Xiao Jiu almost realized that Lao Xi was about to become a landmine girl.”

“Lao Xi’s eyes just now seemed really off.”

“They even gave her a close-up, who wouldn’t notice something was wrong?”

Genbeier accepted the food, thanked them, and left the room, sitting alone on the bench outside the door to eat.

Meanwhile, Yun Ruoxi and the others opened their own lunchboxes.

It wasn’t that they deliberately didn’t let Genbeier sit at the table.

It was just that he refused to do so.

He considered himself a knight, and couldn’t sit at the table with his masters. He needed to stand by and protect them.

No matter how much they tried to persuade him, it was the same, so Yun Ruoxi and the others simply let him be.

“Oh, finally there’s something meaty in today’s meal. The vegetables here are delicious and nutritious, and eating them doesn’t leave you drained, but every day is just too much to take!”

Anvil exclaimed happily, picking up a paper-thin slice of meat with his chopsticks, greedily inhaling the aroma.

Ever since landing, they’d already spent almost a whole week on the planet Samira-21.

During this time, they had been satisfied with nearly everything.