Who told you I am an NPC

Chapter : 15

"That's about it."

Yan Yunqing sat upright in front of Lilian and Cornelia, watching the two devour bread ravenously.

He had secretly taken this bread from the bakery just now, but he had left a few silver coins under the counter in the shop, which should be far more than the value of these few loaves of bread.

"Several noble masters died at the auction house.

The royal family has already ordered a lockdown of the entire capital. Reinforcements were sent to the city walls last night, and patrols are running nonstop."

Yan Yunqing felt fortunate, "It's a good thing we didn't rush out rashly last night, or we would have really been caught."

Although they had nothing to do with that 'Blood Mist', they were indeed undocumented residents in this capital.

Cornelia was fine; she was a half-breed mermaid.

Apart from being a bit more beautiful, she looked no different from an ordinary human.

But Yan Yunqing and Lilian were a different story.

Lilian could hide due to her small size, but Yan Yunqing's pair of cat ears last night were incredibly conspicuous.

The capital of Bartovita was quite far from the beastman territory.

Very few beastmen appeared here.

Basically, all the beastmen in the city were slaves who had been sold here.

Slaves did not have the right to leave the city at will.

They would probably be arrested by soldiers who noticed something was wrong as soon as they got close to the city gates.

"However, I found out that today is the monthly time for the disciples of the Leonard family to go out of the city for training.

They will probably finish gathering in the afternoon.

We can hide in their supply carriages and go out with their team."

"The city guards only restrict the entry and exit of commoners and slaves.

They won't have overly strict requirements for the nobles."

Yan Yunqing said, "After I use my skill, both Lilian and I will be very small, making it easy to hide. The only problem is Cornelia……"

Cornelia didn't have a transformation skill. It would be very difficult for such a large mermaid to hide in someone's supply carriage without being discovered.

Cornelia, who was nibbling on the bread, paused.

She lowered her eyes to hide the emotion within them.

She slowly chewed the dry bread in her mouth a couple of times, seemingly thinking about something.

The dark corner fell silent for a moment.

Yan Yunqing wanted to tell Cornelia not to worry, that they would definitely think of a way.

But Cornelia, as if having made a decision, suddenly spoke up, "You guys go. You don't have to take me out of the city with you."

Yan Yunqing: "Are you worried you can't hide?

It's okay, Lilian and I can both help you. Lilian even knows a concealment spell, you……"

Cornelia interrupted Yan Yunqing's voice, "No, it's that I want to stay."

"Eh?" Yan Yunqing repeated, "Stay?"

"Didn't I say it before?"

Cornelia paused, then curved her eyes at Yan Yunqing and smiled, "I'm here to find my sister. I was trying to find a way into the city before."

"Although the process was a bit tortuous, thankfully…… I am indeed in the city now. My goal has been achieved."

"I think…… I won't go out with you guys.

I want to stay in the city to inquire about my sister's news…… I'm sorry."

Yan Yunqing showed a look of confusion, "No, eh? But didn't we discuss it before?

Your sister, with her great strength, has disappeared without a trace. What's the use of you staying behind alone?"

Cornelia said with a hint of apology, "I'm sorry…… I know you've been trying to take us all away, but I have a reason I have to stay."

"I've also seriously considered the possibility you mentioned before.

I have already used a secret clan method to inform the elders of the current situation.

I believe that after they see my message, they will come looking for me soon."

A hint of determination appeared in Cornelia's eyes, "I won't leave the city.

I want to stay and inquire about my sister's news first.

This way, when the elders arrive, we might be able to find my sister more quickly."

Yan Yunqing was silent for a while.

It seemed he really had no reason to persuade Cornelia to leave with them.

After all, Cornelia's initial goal was to enter the capital and find her sister.

Lilian had been silent all along.

She held the piece of bread she had broken off and flew to Yan Yunqing's shoulder to sit down.

"Is that so……" Yan Yunqing nodded, "I understand."

He and Lilian definitely had to leave this place.

It was impossible to stay and accompany Cornelia in finding her sister.

Yan Yunqing took out a small bag of gold coins from his backpack and stuffed it all into Cornelia's hand.

"This is for you.

You'll definitely need money to live in the city. With this, you won't have to worry too much about money and can focus on finding your sister."

Yan Yunqing had a lot of gold coins in his backpack.

Taking out some for Cornelia was no big deal. He would just consider it the last thing he could do for her.

"I wish you an early reunion with your sister."

Cornelia held the bag of gold coins and was silent for a long time. Finally, she said to Yan Yunqing sincerely, "Thank you."

"I will definitely—"

"Find my sister."

***

"You just let her stay like that?"

Lilian sat on the back of Yan Yunqing, who had turned into a little cat-car, hiding most of her body in his curly fur, holding onto the bow-tie collar around his neck to secure herself.

"I thought you would try hard to persuade Cornelia to come out with us, at least wait until this period is over before letting her come back to find her sister."

"Why would you think that?"

Yan Yunqing leaped high onto the wall, scanned his surroundings, and after finding the right path, buried his head and hurried on.

"I haven't known her for long.

If Cornelia wants to stay and find her sister, how could I possibly stop her?"

"After all, you did spend a dragon scale to save Cornelia, right?"

Lilian was bounced high for a moment as Yan Yunqing moved, then fell back down, "Will you regret it?

According to Cornelia, maybe she would have thought it was better to be bought by that prince? That way, it would be easier to find out about her sister."

"You saw it too, right?

Cornelia looks like she'd do anything as long as she can find her sister."

"In that case, wouldn't you be the bad guy who stopped her from finding her sister?

How does it feel to be thankless?"

Lilian's words were sharp, even grating to Yan Yunqing's ears.

Yan Yunqing's steps paused for a moment before he continued running nonchalantly. "Perhaps…… but I don't feel any regret or that it was thankless."

"Have you forgotten?

The reason I saved Cornelia in the first place wasn't just because I wanted to save her, but also because we were looking for a chance to escape."

"That dragon scale was just a tool to create chaos, not the price I paid to save Cornelia."

Yan Yunqing's voice was very calm, "Buying Cornelia was just because she was the best choice at the time.

The price was high enough for me to take out the dragon scale.

Of course, I don't deny that part of the reason was that Cornelia had helped me once before."

If he had bid on something else, the price would have been too low, and it would have been strange for him to take out a dragon scale.

Would a young noble master need to take out such an expensive dragon scale as payment for an ordinary item?

It wouldn't be good to get caught up by suspicious people.

Those merchants were all shrewd.

But if the item he took out was worth less than the dragon scale, it wouldn't be handed over to someone of important status present, and it would be difficult for him to succeed in creating a chance to escape.

The appearance of 'Blood Mist' was just an unexpected accident in Yan Yunqing's plan.

If not for this accident, by using that dragon scale to injure the prince or the higher-ups of the auction house, he and Lilian could still have smoothly escaped using that moment of chaos.

Because Cornelia had helped Yan Yunqing once, and Yan Yunqing had keenly discovered that saving Cornelia could more perfectly achieve his goal, Yan Yunqing chose Cornelia.

This didn't mean he regarded the saved Cornelia as his possession and made any decisions for her.

Doing things against others' will under the banner of 'it's for your own good' was what Yan Yunqing detested the most.

"To put it bluntly, Cornelia and I just met briefly and walked a short journey together."

Yan Yunqing showed a rare side of indifference, which stunned Lilian for a long time.

"……You're right." Lilian thought for a while, then patted Yan-cat-cat's head with emotion, "You really are a philosophical cat-cat."

Yan Yunqing was angry, "I told you not to call me little cat. Be careful or I'll shake you off!"

Lilian: "But aren't you a little kitty right now?"

Yan Yunqing: ……

"Anyway, you can't!" Yan Yunqing muttered, "Little cat, little cat, I'm a grown man.

How can I be called little cat every day?"

"Got it, got it, cat-cat car!" Lilian patted Yan-cat-cat's head again.

Yan Yunqing got angry, stopped in his tracks, and shook his head forcefully, trying to shake Lilian, who was clinging to his head, off.

"You're getting agitated, you're getting agitated!"

Yan Yunqing got even angrier.

A cat and an elf secretly slipped into the Leonard mansion.

This family was also considered wealthy, a minor marquis, but the kind with a title but no fiefdom.

Today was the day for their family's disciples to go out for their monthly training.

A supply convoy would be prepared, so Yan Yunqing and Lilian could take the opportunity to hide in it and leave the city together.

After busying themselves for a long time, Yan Yunqing and Lilian finally squeezed into a carriage filled with spare weapons and found a corner that was not easily spotted to hide in.

Lying down on the spot, Yan Yunqing took out the last small blue bottle from his backpack and drank it.

Roleplaying an ordinary little cat with no special abilities didn't consume too much magic power, but since Yan Yunqing had been using this skill for a long time, the magic power he recovered was simply not enough to cover the consumption.

He was constantly paying attention to the changes in his magic power, and when it was about to bottom out, he would drink a small blue bottle.

Now that the last small blue bottle was used up, fortunately, this convoy was about to depart. As long as they got out of the city gates, it would be fine.

Yan Yunqing opened his game panel.

He had originally wanted to organize his game backpack again to see if there was anything useful, but he found a red dot on his friends panel.

He clicked on it and saw the information of Lilian and Cornelia appear in the NPC friends column.

『Cornelia Lv.60』

Race: Half-breed Mermaid

Talent Skill: Wrath of the Sea God

Favorability: Friendly

……

『Lilian Lv.45』

Race: Elf

Talent Skill: Lord of the Forest

Favorability: Friendly

……

Yan Yunqing exhaled without a trace, resting his front paws under his chin, and glanced at the elf lying on her back beside him, carelessly leaning against his tail with her belly up.

A large part of the reason he had directly given up on persuading Cornelia to leave with them was because of this.

『Lv.60』

Yan Yunqing hadn't forgotten that last night, in the dark, he had seen the seemingly weak Cornelia, who had been saved by him and was being bought and sold by humans at will, with the words 'Lv.60' above her head.

In that instant, shock and doubt flooded his mind.

Yan Yunqing himself was just a pitiful Lv.1 bug.

He didn't have much of a concept of the current levels, but he remembered the level above the head of the 'Blood Mist' member he had seen when he escaped the auction house.

『Lv.34』

Although he didn't know the levels of the other 'Blood Mist' members, they probably wouldn't be much higher than that.

The people who could come to attack the auction house must at least be relatively powerful, right?

Then Lilian, who was higher level than that masked man, and Cornelia, who was nearly twice as high……

Were they really captured by the auction house due to a moment of carelessness?

Were they really as weak as they claimed to be?

The entire escape process was actually relying on him, a Lv.1 newbie……

It was true that Yan Yunqing was about to become a pure and innocent university student, but that didn't mean he was stupid.

Even if he hadn't noticed at first, he could now sense that something was wrong.

It felt like he had been played?

Yan Yunqing buried his head in his paws and sighed once again.

Life is not easy, the kitty sighs.