Book 5: Chapter 49: Hastily Keeping An Appointment
On the night of the next day, I purposefully made another fishing rod which I planned on giving Shiloh as a present.
But how I would slip out on the day of the appointment with her was the problem I was facing.
The reason lies in the two closely following me.
While I was sitting in my usual office area, I had Aleya sitting on my left with 【Roaming Dragon】 unsheathed in advance and emitting chilliness as she tightly grasped it in her hands. In Felita’s hand was that emo magic staff【Rock-n-Roll Skull】as she leaned on me, her shoulder pressed against mine, and constantly surveyed the surroundings. Though, this movement of hers served no purpose except for whipped her white hair onto my neck.
Bai Huang had already begun a citywide search for the assassin. She took Heji with her as she promised, thus leaving Aleya and Felita under great pressure.
“Felita.”
I called out her name.
In response, Felita instantly tightened her grip on the magic staff. Sparks flashed from the top of the magic staff as she vigilantly asked:
“Wh-where? Where’s the assassin?”
I exasperatedly replied:
“It’s nothing. I just wanted to call your name.”
Felita patted her ample, trembling chest and nervously said:
“D-don’t scare me like that……the talismans haven’t responded, it should be fine.”
As a matter of fact, my entire room is currently filled with trigger-type talismans drawn by Felita. She stayed up late last night to draw up an excessive amount of talismans which were used today to fill up the entire room. Using her own words, having such a room filled with talismans pasted all over made her feel relieved to some extent, though she knew that these things were probably useless against the assassin.
I knew very well that Shiloh wouldn’t be coming here to assassinate me today because she’s waiting outside the city for me.
But the problem is that there’s no way for me to tell them about this.
I had already hidden the fishing rod outside my City Lord’s mansion in advance, so all I needed to do was slip out. But doing so seems to have already become nothing more than an extravagant hope. Seeing that it was already starting to become late, I attempted to struggle:
“Uuhh, I’ll be going out for a bit.”
As I spoke, I tried getting up, but Aleya and Felita had already stood up one step ahead of me. Aleya held the sword and asked:
“Young master……if you could tolerate Aleya asking, where do you plan on going?”
I rolled my eyes and answered:
“To the restroom.”
The two had no intentions to sit back down at all. I scratched my head and, in fear that they hadn’t heard me the first time, repeated:
“I am! Going! To the! Restroom!”
Aleya pulled out a wooden bucket from behind her.
I placed the wooden bucket back behind her and said:
“There’s no need to go that far!”
Felita whispered:
“Then, in my……”
I stamped my feet and raged:
“Fine! Isn’t it just going to the restroom!? I don’t believe that the assassin will hide in the toilet and act out against me; I’ll go use it then come back!”
As a result, Aleya ended up blocking the doorway to the restroom while Felita was blocking the window in the restroom. This left me in a situation where I wouldn’t be able to escape even if I suddenly grew wings. And this wasn’t even the worst of it; every 10 seconds, Aleya would ask:
“Young master, are you still there?”
To which I would reply while standing in the restroom pondering about my life:
“Here.”
Followed with Felita asking:
“Are you okay? Has the assassin come?”
I then answered:
“I’m fine, no assassin.”
After that, we returned to the room and sat back down.
The three of us became a clumped up ball again.
Once we had sat for a while, I raised my hand and suggested:
“I want to go on a tour around.”
The two of them immediately stood back up.
Just like two threshold guardians following me with one on the left and one on the right. 1
I truly am serving a prison sentence.
“First, I must certainly thank the two of you for doing your utmost to protect my security. But to be honest, I’m a little hot……”
The duo moved back a little bit upon hearing my words.
About two centimeters.
What use is that!! Do you want me to perform magic? Disappearing technique? Or a ‘here one second, gone the next’ trick?
The main point is that if I were to disappear unexpectedly, it would only cause Aleya and Felita to become agitated as if on fire and then make the entire West-Resisting City become more chaotic.
After catching a bit of wind from the outside, it was already about noon. The appointment time I had made with Shiloh was in mid-morning, but two to three hours had already passed by that time. I was aware that the more anxious I appeared, the easier it would be for Aleya and Felita to sense something, so I waited until midday so that I could make an excuse to go to the kitchen and make some food.
Aleya and Felita naturally stood by the doorway to protect me from the unexpected.
I made a few simple dishes, then boiled a pot of soup and casually added in a dash of【stock】.
It was my self-concocted【Dream Powder】which was colorless, had a special fragrance, and harmless. The effect of the thing was to make it easier for the user to sleep, especially under circumstances where the user isn’t on guard. I originally made it for my own use, to prevent something like insomnia in the dead of the night from happening, but I was forced to use it now as desperate times call for desperate measures.
I’m sorry, Aleya, Felita.
After serving the meal, Aleya said that we should take turns eating so as to guard against being sneak attacked while eating. This was in line with my intentions. Aleya ate lunch first and after she finished, she was still on guard as the medicine’s efficacy wouldn’t kick in so quickly. But when Felita was preparing to eat, Aleya began softly yawning.
I feigned concern as I asked:
“Aleya, feeling sleepy?’
There was a hint of doubt in her eyes, but she still replied:
“Yes, young master. But don’t worry, I don’t need to rest yet.”
I hastily responded:
“Mm……but you don’t look like you’re in a very good state. If that assassin comes, are you sure you’ll be able to fend her off?”
Aleya went silent.
I glanced at the still-eating Felita and smiled:
“How about this, let’s make Felita stand guard for you for a little while. You should nap for a little while so that you can recharge your energy. I’ll call for you if anything happens.”
Aleya began hesitating as her grip on the sword starting loosening.
I lightly said:
“Aleya, what you need to do is protect me, not ‘ship out an appearance of protecting me’, right?”
A tremble wracked Aleya’s body. She whispered in reply:
“Understood, young master.”
With those words said, she anxiously looked over at Felita.
Felita promised:
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on master. If that assassin comes, the talismans will respond and besides, isn’t Aleya extremely sensitive to killing intent? You’ll definitely wake up in any case.”
Aleya lied down on the bed without feeling much at ease, but when the sleepiness hit, she instantly went to the land of dreams as soon as she relaxed a little.
All that’s left in Felita.
Even though Felita appeared to be well-coordinated, she hadn’t gone to sleep last night and spent it drawing those talismans. With the downing of one bowl of soup, she was still glancing at the surroundings vigilantly at first, but with the passing of time, her speed of doing so kept becoming slower and slower. After nodding several times, she finally fell asleep leaning on my shoulder.
When she was fast asleep and her sparkling saliva was dripping onto my shoulder, I gently picked up her body, placed her on the bed, and helped her cover up with the quilt.
Finally settled.
With the duo asleep, West-Resisting City’s outside sentinels was nothing more than an empty arrangement in my opinion. But I never expected that I would one day need to be like a thief so that I could go out of my own house. First, I climbed onto the roof, then carefully bypassed the patrol, and finally flipped myself over the perimeter wall and secretly ran off.
Even though the outside sentinels weren’t able to find me, they were more than enough to protect my City Lord’s mansion from harm.
Feeling the fishing rod and bucket, I made haste to rush out of the city.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menshen