When the Second Rank knight didn’t throw the pendant into the Mist but into the pond instead, Truth figured out her next move in the blink of an eye.
To make the cat willingly work for her in the Mist, Truth had “gone to great lengths…”
Well, actually, she just thought it would be fun.
Originally, she had planned to suddenly appear as the Hidden Venerable when Wilona rushed into the Mist to look for the pendant, giving the cat a close-up scare.
But unfortunately, the pendant was thrown into the pond, so now she had to make her entrance as the River God instead. What a pity—no style at all.
Still, Wilona was startled. Her fur stood on end.
“Y-you… what are you?!” Wilona stepped back in a fluster, her twin daggers still enchanted, keeping a wary eye on Truth’s misty form.
“Is what I am really that important?” Truth’s voice was low and raspy, dripping with amusement and an air of mystery.
After confirming that the mist-formed monster showed no hostility, Wilona’s flattened ears slowly perked back up.
She then turned her gaze to the three pendants floating in the mist monster’s hand.
So that’s how many pendants had fallen into this pond?
Wait… this scene felt oddly familiar.
No way. Was that bedtime story actually real?
Wilona remembered the story of the woodcutter whose ax fell into the water.
The river god gave him a gold ax, a silver ax, and his original ax to choose from.
Her situation now was almost the same—the mist monster was offering her a gold pendant, a silver pendant, and her original pendant.
But there was one problem. Her original pendant was silver…
So which silver one was actually hers?!
“Um… are you the River God…?” Wilona asked cautiously.
‘Oh? So this world actually has that story?’ Truth paused for a moment, then replied:
“Call me whatever you like. So, little cat, which one did you drop?”
“The silver one!”
‘So this guy is the River God. Then it’s simple,’ Wilona thought. ‘As long as I insist on choosing my original pendant, the River God will definitely give me all three!’
But Truth wasn’t about to let her have her way.
“But I have two silver pendants here. Which of these two is yours?”
“Huh?!” Wilona was taken aback. She had to pick one out of two?
“The one that just fell into the pond! I want the one that just fell in!” Wilona shouted anxiously.
“But I only just got here. I don’t know which one fell in first…”
‘Just got here… so he’s not the River God after all? Then why all this nonsense?!’
Wilona felt like hitting someone, but this guy looked way too deep to mess with. For now, she’d try to communicate.
“It’s the space pendant with about ten cubic meters of storage space. Ten cubic meters!”
“But each of these three pendants has ten cubic meters of storage space…”
“All of them?! Then, then…”
“Are you picking or not? If not, I’m leaving. This is your only chance.” With that, Truth’s misty form began to fade, and Wilona panicked.
“I’ll pick! I’ll pick! Uh, I’ll take… the one on the far right!”
Wilona randomly pointed at one of the silver pendants.
A fifty percent chance, plus her innate intuition and the Beast God’s blessing of luck… she didn’t believe…
“Oh my, looks like a certain little cat is a bit greedy.” Truth gave Wilona a meaningful glance.
But just as she was about to reveal which pendant was actually Wilona’s, Wilona quickly backtracked.
“No, no! I misspoke. I actually meant the middle one!”
‘So this River God does know which pendant is mine?! Then why pretend not to? Was she testing me? But I really don’t know which silver one is mine…’
Thankfully, she reminded me in time.
“Are you sure?”
“Definitely!”
“You can’t change your mind anymore.”
“Won’t change my mind!”
“Hmph.” Truth let out a sinister chuckle, then snapped her fingers in front of Wilona.
In an instant, the red pendant and the middle silver pendant vanished, leaving only the silver one on the far right.
“You greedy little cat. At first you wanted your original pendant back, but then you changed your mind and eyed another one. Am I right?”
“Pity. If you’d been honest, I would have given you all three.”
“You… you’re messing with me!” Wilona stomped her feet in frustration. This guy was pretending to be the River God and even tricked her!
“Where am I messing with you? I was just testing if you’re greedy.”
“Just now when I picked the right one, you said I was greedy, and then—”
“No, I said ‘a certain little cat’ was greedy. That wasn’t you.”
“You?!?!”
Wilona finally saw through this mist monster. It never intended to give the pendant back at all! Fine then…
In front of the mist monster, Wilona pulled out a small bone flute with a stern face.
“You’re done for!”
With that, she blew into the bone flute without hesitation. To get Truth’s gift back from the mist monster, she decided to summon the Beast God himself!
A long, melodious sound pierced through the surrounding mist. It was quite pleasant to the ears. Then…
Nothing.
Nothing happened after the flute blew. Wilona panicked, tried blowing a few more times, then stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
“Why won’t the Beast God answer my call?!”
Because the summoning signal was suppressed by Truth’s entire Mist. Hah, try to call for backup? No way!
“Oh dear. Not only are you greedy, but you don’t even respect your elder. I was about to feel sorry for you and give the pendant back, but instead you try to get revenge on me…”
Truth looked disappointed and began to fade away.
“No, I didn’t! I, I, I just wanted to play a cheerful tune to lighten the mood! Listen!” Wilona immediately started playing a soft northern melody, trying to win Truth back.
It was supposed to be soft, but it sounded frantic and utterly ridiculous.
“Oh?” Truth was amused. She didn’t expect the little cat to be so adaptable. She continued to tease.
“Then what did you mean by ‘you’re done for’ just now?”
“That… that was just the name of the melody I was about to play! The one I’m playing now is called ‘You’re Done For’!”