“Yeah, it’s only been a few days, but I’ve missed you so much. I wonder if my dear wife would be willing to grace me with her company?”
As he spoke, His reached out his hand and gave a slight bow, making an inviting gesture.
“I suppose that’s fine, but I need to stop by the camp first…”
“No problem, I’ll come with you.”
“Mm, okay.” Ai Lin patted her horse’s neck. “Want to ride?”
“To be honest, I’m not really fond of horses, but if it’s with you…”
“Alright, cut the sweet talk. Get on.”
Ai Lin mounted the horse first, then kindly reached her hand down to His.
His placed his hand in Ai Lin’s and swung himself up in one smooth motion as she gave a gentle pull, letting him settle easily onto the horse’s back.
“You can hold onto me.”
“Oh? Then I won’t be polite.”
With that, His wrapped his arms lightly around Ai Lin’s waist.
“Don’t get any ideas. I just don’t want you falling off.”
“I know, I know. My wife is the most considerate of all.”
“I told you to stop with the sweet talk…”
Ai Lin lightly swatted His’s hand around her waist, but a smile crept onto her lips despite herself.
The two rode the horse together and returned to the Kingdom Knights’ camp.
The moment they entered the camp, His could feel countless soldiers’ eyes locking onto him all at once.
“Uh… Vice Captain, is this really okay?”
Ai Lin, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind at all. She even laughed and said, “Setting aside the fact that you’re my fiancé, His, do you believe me when I say that the moment they find out you’re His Blackstone—the one who supplies us with Gray Weapons—they’ll swarm you?”
“Huh? Why would they swarm me?”
“Silly, of course it’s to thank you. What, did you think they were going to surround you and beat you up?”
Arriving at the familiar captain’s tent, Ai Lin gently patted His’s hand. “Alright, time to let go.”
“Sigh, I really wish I could hold on a little longer…”
“Sweet talk again.”
The two dismounted, lifted the tent flap, and stepped inside.
“Oh, if it isn’t my good brother His! Come, sit, sit.”
Inside the tent, Leonard spotted His and greeted him with the same warm enthusiasm as always.
“You know what, brother His? This time the Demon Race came all the way to the Border to pick a fight, but they never once dared to actually come out and battle us. Looks like your Gray Weapons left them with a pretty deep psychological scar!”
“You flatter me, Captain. The real credit goes to our soldiers for being reliable.”
“Come on, you don’t need to pull that with me.”
Leonard waved his hand and picked up the wineskin on the table, taking a swig.
“I heard the Church of Light was sniffing around the Gray Weapons not too long ago? How’d that go? Did they give you any trouble?”
“It was fine, nothing that really affected me. They just forced me to sign some Sacred Contract with them.”
His smiled.
“By the way, Captain, according to the terms of the Sacred Contract, the Church of Light should have sent people to reinforce you on the Frontline. Did they show up?”
“Hah! Don’t even mention it!”
Leonard slammed the wineskin onto the table.
“The sorry bunch they sent over? If a real fight broke out, we’d have to spend more energy protecting them than anything else. They might as well not have come at all.”
Hearing that the Feng Aotian who dominated the Original Game was now being described this way, His found himself at a loss for words.
“Is… is that so…”
Looking at it now, maybe the person I’ve affected the most is actually Sijina…
“Exactly! If you ask me, brother His, you shouldn’t have gotten tangled up in some Sacred Contract with the Church in the first place. I think the King himself got fooled by the Church. How about you and I find some time to go talk to His Majesty about this?”
“Well… I’m afraid His Majesty might not agree, right?”
“Pfft, don’t let his age fool you. The King still sees the bigger picture clearly. As long as we report the facts honestly, I’m sure he’ll make a fair judgment.”
“Then… it’s whenever you have time, Captain.”
“Good! It’s settled!”
Leonard downed another gulp of wine.
“Speaking of which, the two of you coming to see me together—you’re not here to squeeze some money out of me, are you? Ai Lin, you’re starting to take his side over your own captain now!”
“Huh?”
Ai Lin blinked, not understanding what Leonard meant.
“Sigh, brother His, to be honest with you, the Knights are a bit short on funds right now.”
Leonard let out a long sigh.
“We’d actually saved up some money and were planning to pay you soon, but then we got deployed again… and that savings became this campaign’s expenses…”
“It’s… it’s fine, Captain. There’s no rush on the money. I didn’t come here to collect a debt…”
His kept a smile on his face and comforted Leonard with a few words, but in his heart, he was cursing Lilith and her Demon King father several hundred times over.
“Captain, actually, I came here to request some leave.”
Ai Lin spoke up as well, making her request.
Those godforsaken father-daughter bastards. Making me miss out on my money again.
“Leave? Oh~.”
Leonard looked at the two people in front of him and narrowed his eyes.
“No wonder brother His made a special trip all the way to the Royal Capital. He wanted to free up some time, huh? Hahaha.”
Leonard laughed heartily and took another swig.
“No problem, I approve! You two go enjoy yourselves.”
“Hehe, thanks, Captain.”
His replied with a smile.
“Don’t just wander around the Royal Capital, though. There are plenty of interesting towns nearby. You can go a bit farther out. Don’t worry—if anything comes up, I’ll send someone to find you.”
Leonard turned to Ai Lin and said.
“Yes, Captain.”
As they walked out of the camp, His was still grieving over his gold coins, while Ai Lin had already taken his arm.
“His, what do you want to do? Wander around the Royal Capital, or go to one of the nearby towns like the Captain suggested?”
“You’ve been in the Royal Capital for years. You must be tired of it by now.”
His turned his head to look at Ai Lin. “How about we find a town to visit instead?”
“Mm, I’ll follow your lead.”
At this moment, there wasn’t a trace of the Sword Maiden of the Kingdom in Ai Lin. She looked just like an obedient little wife.
“Then I need to buy something first.”
“?”
A little while later…
Ai Lin looked at the book in His’s hand and couldn’t help but laugh.
“You made a special trip to the bookstore just to buy this?”
“?”
“Yeah, I’m not too familiar with the surrounding areas, so I figured I should consult it.”
His flipped through the book quickly, trying to find a suitable date spot.
“If I remember correctly, I think this book was already around when I was a kid? It hasn’t been updated in all these years.”
“Huh? Seriously?”
His responded, but his hands kept flipping through the pages.
Then, His stopped on one page and handed the book to Ai Lin.
“Found one. Let’s go check this place out!”
“Kurd Town?”
Ai Lin took the book and looked at the location, asking with some confusion, “What’s interesting about that place?”
“To be honest, when it comes to scenery, there’s really not much to see. But it’s the domain of the Kurd Family.”
“The Kurd Family?”
Ai Lin thought for a moment, then it clicked. “You mean that family that made their fortune through alchemy?”
“Yeah, I heard they have quite a few alchemical potions they’ve never sold on the market. I was planning to pay them a visit and see if I could dig up any rare finds.”
“So your first outing with your fiancée is to go treasure hunting?”
“Well, the scenery around the Royal Capital is all more or less the same. Going to the Kurds might even turn up something useful for you, right?”
Seeing the look of anticipation on His’s face, Ai Lin nodded willingly.
“I’m fine with anything. Like I said before, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Awesome!”
Off they went.
“By the way, you said you wanted to visit the Kurd Family. Are you close with them?”
“Huh? Not at all.”
“And you’d just go visit them without knowing them at all?”
His didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. “The head of the Kurd Family is a Count. At the very least, he’ll have to show some respect for my father’s sake.”
“Well, it’s fine. Don’t judge me by appearances—I’m still a Duke’s Son, more or less.”
“Hey hey, that kind of talk actually sounds a bit like the rumors about you.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t cause them any trouble. Besides, I’ve got my dear wife here to keep an eye on me.”
“Enough sweet talk. And I mean it—if they don’t want to part with their unsold alchemical potions, you’d better not throw your weight around.”
“I won’t, I won’t. I swear. If I ever throw my weight around, may my dear wife strike me down with a single swing of her sword.”
“Don’t talk nonsense…”
Ai Lin gave His’s shoulder a light punch.
“Speaking of which… shouldn’t we move things forward with our marriage?”
“Huh?”
His was taken aback by Ai Lin’s question.
“What do you mean by moving forward?”
“I’m still just your fiancée, you know… and yet you call me wife all day long. I figure you’re not going to change that, so why not just…”
As she spoke, a blush quickly spread across Ai Lin’s face.
“This… well…”
“What? Don’t tell me you don’t want to?”
“No, it’s not that. I just think it’s necessary to discuss it with my family first, you know? After all, it was also my father’s wish.”
Sensing a hint of coldness in Ai Lin’s tone, His quickly waved his hands. “No, no, that came out wrong. That’s not what I meant about your feelings.”
“Mm… you have a point. When we get back, I should ask my father about his thoughts too.”
Seeing Ai Lin nod, His breathed a sigh of relief inside.
A few hours later, the carriage stopped at the town gate of Kurd Town.
“So? Should we head straight to the Kurd Family estate now?”
“No rush. We’re already here, so let’s take a stroll around the town first.”
With that, His took Ai Lin’s hand and led her into the town.
Kurd Town was about the same size as Yihanfa Town, where His had previously visited with Ni Wei.
However, compared to Yihanfa Town, Kurd Town wasn’t quite as prosperous.
Since the Kurd Family had risen through alchemy, most of the merchants in town also made their living selling alchemical potions—it was essentially the local pillar industry.
“His, do you feel like something’s off?”
After walking around the streets for a while, Ai Lin spoke up first.
“Hmm? You noticed it too?”
His replied, “There are very few women in this town, especially young girls. It’s already past dinnertime. Normally, at this hour, the residents should be coming out for a stroll or something. But all we can see on this street are men.”
“Yeah, and the few women we do see are all older.”
Ai Lin stroked her chin. “Could something have happened in this town recently?”
“Looks like the only option is to go check out the Kurd family first.”
They walked for quite a while before finally arriving at the Kurd family’s front door.
His identified himself and Ai Lin to the two guards standing at the entrance, and one of them quickly ran into the estate.
A short while later, a young man dressed in housekeeper attire came out.
“Young Master Blackstone, Vice Captain, greetings.”
The housekeeper placed his hand over his chest and gave a deep bow to the two of them.
“I am the housekeeper of the Kurd family, named Sian. Please, follow me.”
“Oh, their housekeeper is actually a handsome guy?”
Ai Lin whispered into His’s ear.
Sian walked ahead, seemingly completely unaware of their conversation.
“Mm, that is quite rare.”
“The Old Master heard that Young Master Blackstone and the Sword Maiden of the Kingdom were visiting in person, and since we failed to greet you at the door, he decided to personally cook for you as a show of sincerity. For now, I’ll have to escort you to the estate myself. Please forgive us.”
“No worries. This visit was rather sudden on our part.”
His waved his hand. “But doesn’t the Kurd family have a chef? Why would the lord cook personally?”
“I don’t mind telling you this, Young Master Blackstone—our Kurd family is no longer what it once was.”
Sian gave a helpless smile.
“The young people in our domain don’t want to learn the art of alchemy anymore. They’ve all gone to the Royal Capital to find work. Our family business has taken quite a hit because of it. Right now, the entire estate is just the Old Master’s family and me.”
“Is that so?”
His looked around. “So you’re the one doing all the work around the estate now?”
“Yes, I handle all the work here by myself. However, the Old Master is quite understanding. Most of the time, I’m only responsible for taking care of things inside the estate. As for the plants outside, the Old Master said I don’t need to worry about them for now, so my workload isn’t as heavy as you might imagine.”
Sian led the two into the estate’s reception hall. Before long, an elderly man walked in warmly. Behind him followed a woman and a pair of young men and women.
Although the old man’s hair had gone gray, he still kept it styled in a fashionable slicked-back look. His complexion was rosy and he seemed full of energy.
“Welcome, welcome! Your visit brings great honor to the Kurd household! If there is anything lacking in our hospitality, please do forgive us.”
The old man’s voice was booming and full of vigor.