“You… what do you want!”
Lili Ya gripped her staff, feeling flustered. Her hands itched with the subconscious urge to offer the staff and beg for mercy on her knees, but when she thought of the party crystal emblem on her adventurer panel, a strong sense of responsibility welled up in her.
Before, when she was alone, it didn’t matter, but now she was the captain, and every action represented her party.
So! She did care!
“Oh, you teamed up with some random adventurer and became a captain, and now you think you’re hot stuff? Dare to talk to us like that? Lili Ya, have you forgotten what kind of person you are?”
The thief leader, with a scarred face, glared arrogantly at Lili Ya.
“Get him! Restore the boss’s honor! I don’t know why the boss went easy, but let’s fight first!”
A group of seven or eight thieves didn’t even look at Lili Ya; they directly surrounded Li Si in the middle.
Li Si flexed her wrists. Street brawls like this were common in the safe zone. He Zi, as one of the next-generation Shadow Assassins of the Twelve Heroines Group, naturally had many followers, and thus some spontaneous small groups had formed that worshipped her.
At times like this, there was no need to worry about anything else. Just fight.
As long as she didn’t kill anyone, it was fine.
Li Si couldn’t be bothered to waste words; she directly threw a punch. The scarface was still rambling, trying to build up atmosphere, hoping to gain more presence for He Zi, but before he could finish his sentence, he took a punch to the face.
Li Si’s fist was small and precise; it looked light as a little steamed bun, but when it hit the face, it instantly sent the head snapping back.
“Oops, critical hit. Sorry about that, my new clothes have a bit too much agility.”
Li Si turned and kicked a thief who was standing with his legs apart, apologizing again, “Sorry, another critical hit.”
The thief clutched his groin, and before he could react, he heard a series of thuds as the others fell around him.
The surrounding adventurers, who had been ready to watch Lili Ya and her new teammate make fools of themselves, instantly froze. The taunts that were about to leave their mouths got stuck in their throats, replaced by awe-filled exclamations driven by survival instinct.
“Whoa~ A beautiful girl… warrior!”
“So strong! How does Lili Ya know her…”
Li Si swept the crowd with a cold glare. The onlookers instinctively praised and sighed, “Whoa~ As expected of Lili Ya, she’s great at making friends…”
“Yeah… yeah… Lili Ya, we’re your friends… We’ll be going now…”
“Right, right… we’re friends, Lili Ya. Let’s party up for an adventure sometime…”
Lili Ya hugged her staff and suddenly remembered. She pointed at those claiming to be friends and nodded frantically, “Right, right! You were the ones who chased me before! You said I caused you to fail against the Lich Snake! You smashed my stall! That’s why I went into the forest to gather herbs!”
“Huh?”
Li Si tilted her head and looked at those adventurers trying to ingratiate themselves in the chaos, casually rotating her wrist.
With a cry of alarm, those adventurers quickly fled and said their goodbyes.
This scared off everyone else, including the thieves who had been critted on the ground. They scrambled to their feet and ran, so panicked that they didn’t even dare to greet their self-proclaimed assassin boss.
He Zi had gradually calmed down, but she was still very displeased. She leaned against the alley entrance and carefully scrutinized Lili Ya from head to toe.
Even though she had changed into top-tier beginner gear, no matter how she looked at it, Lili Ya was just an ordinary, even somewhat timid, pure newbie.
He Zi really couldn’t understand why Li Si would party with such a weakling.
She sneered in frustration, “Even when she’s by your side, she doesn’t dare to fight back. And you say someone like that is stronger than us? It took us a month to go from level 1 to 15, and you haven’t even leveled up in three months. What is she relying on to become stronger than us?”
Li Si smiled. Rely on what? On her, of course.
But she couldn’t be bothered to answer such an obvious question. Instead, she wanted to annoy He Zi in her current state.
“She’s weak? Then let me ask you: has she died hundreds of times? Have you? Has she jumped off a cliff? Have you? Has she been crushed by a dragon cart? Have you?”
The sudden triple questions stunned He Zi on the spot. Her thin lips trembled with anger.
In her memory, Li Si was never like this. She always had an armored face, quiet and reserved in both temperament and personality. But since this morning when she saw Li Si with Lili Ya, she seemed to have changed into a different person, so lively and animated, so vibrant and moving.
He Zi stared hard at Lili Ya. She couldn’t help but suspect that this weak and pathetic loser of an adventurer had done something to Li Si.
“Lili Ya, you seem really uncomfortable with being the captain. Let’s relax today. Come on, let’s go to Amusement Street~”
Li Si deliberately took Lili Ya’s hand affectionately and walked away without even glancing at He Zi.
He Zi clenched her fists, watching Li Si’s back, and couldn’t help gritting her teeth. Her mood was gloomy, with only one question.
‘Why isn’t she like this when she’s with us?’
‘Li Si has never even been to Amusement Street with us.’
He Zi really wanted to call out to Li Si and ask clearly, but the next second, she silently closed her mouth, forcing her emotions to calm down, and let Li Si turn the street corner.
When the surroundings were completely quiet and the street returned to its normal flow of people, He Zi turned to look into the depths of the alley. A holy light teleportation unfolded, and a tall figure stepped out from the light.
Merlin, the Imperial Archmage with white hair flowing over her shoulders, calmly looked at the cat beastman walking toward her.
“You deliberately concealed your presence. You noticed I was following you long ago. No wonder I lost track of you earlier.”
Merlin pondered, noticing the lingering battle aura in the alley, and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“What else would a thief do? Fight, of course.”
“With whom?”
“A cute, beautiful girl.”
He Zi cast a cold sidelong glance. Merlin’s rigid, interrogative tone was really annoying, as if she was questioning a criminal.
Maintaining the last bit of aristocratic etiquette, she jumped onto the alley wall and said her farewell, “I have things to do. Goodbye.”
Merlin silently watched He Zi leave. When He Zi’s figure disappeared, a few points of holy light slowly drifted from her fingertips, chasing a certain trajectory and floating away gracefully.
She stared at the trajectory, hoping to find some familiar light and shadow, but there was none. There was no cold-toned emotional radiance of Li Si; the light trajectory held no trace of Li Si.
Ever since she sent a message to Li Si last night saying she would go find her, the light guidance that had been buried in Li Si’s body was discovered and removed, sealing off all possibility of finding her.
“Is it so… that you’re unwilling to accept me…”
Merlin lowered her eyes, then slowly raised her face, revealing an intoxicated smile completely devoid of coldness.
“The more it’s like this, the more I want to possess you. You can only be mine. I must obtain you, everything——”
…
“Ah-choo!”
“Ah-choo!”
“Ah-choo!”
Li Si shivered and sneezed three times. It felt like someone was cursing her in the unseen world, a feeling similar to the omen of a female lead about to hit a stroke of luck in a cheesy Korean drama from her past life.
Li Si warily looked left and right. Seeing no one, she relaxed a little.
“Um… Li Si, are we really going to celebrate in this place…”
Lili Ya hugged her staff, looked at the pink sign in front, and swallowed.
“Bunny… Bunny Girl… Tavern…”