Chapter 230: Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Rest Day
Perhaps that fat cat is still hiding under the car, curled up like a ball and trembling.
What if a beastman with a keen sense of smell passes by and pulls the orange cat out from under the car?
What should I do then?
Just thinking about Lianxi becoming a roasted cat on the campfire makes me anxious. After that, she would have to wash her own vegetables, cut her own meat, and wash all the pots and pans by herself.
Jima pounded her thigh and stood up suddenly.
No, Lianxi absolutely cannot die.
She grabbed her “branch axe gun,” took it with her, and stepped outside, feeling the cool morning breeze hit her face.
Jima calmed down in an instant.
It’s so dangerous outside; the Mother of All Beasts is only a few kilometers away from this wall.
I really don’t know what I did to offend her; every time she targets me, threatening my life. She has a pair of wings of mine in her possession, which she uses as a medium for her curses.
While Jima hesitated, she also felt that her body was quite dirty and her skin was sticky.
“Maybe I should take a shower first and discuss a rescue plan with George afterwards.”
Jima thought to herself, turned her head, closed the door, opened the entrance to the Dream Palace, and comfortably took a shower. Along the way, she checked her physical condition in her personal system.
She had recovered quite well. The wing membranes, being consumable, were easy for a succubus to regenerate.
The only thing left was the “curse side effect” debuff; a few days of rest would suffice.
Her magic power was at only forty-six percent.
After her shower, Jima had a hearty meal, relaxed in the hot water pool with her eyes closed, and wrote a post-war summary, completely forgetting about a certain cat.
Two hours later, after enjoying her time, Jima, dressed in clean clothes and carrying a bamboo basket containing leftover breakfast, walked out the door.
Jima’s room was in a two-story building with red tiles, encircling a yard. Outside was messy, and inside, tired knights were sleeping, with some lying in the corridors.
People like Jima, who could live alone in a room, were already well treated.
Seeing several familiar faces lying on the ground fast asleep, Jima flapped her wings and flew down from the second floor.
As soon as she landed, a maid ran over, lifting her skirt and lowering her voice to say, “Lady Jima, are you alright? I am the servant responsible for your care.”
Jima pointed to the knights behind her and asked, “Why are there so many knights here? This city shouldn’t be lacking rooms.”
“Lord George is worried about a surprise attack from the enemy, so he made everyone sleep together.”
“And where is George?”
“He told me to inform you that he is patrolling outside the city now,” the maid said. “He also mentioned that if you need to find him, you can wait for him at the south city gate tower.”
“Alright, you can go now.”
“Yes.”
Just as Jima exited the yard, she saw the muddy road outside and turned back: “Wait, there’s one more thing, find me a horse for transportation.”
“Yes, Lady Jima.”
After Jima got the horse, she ran toward the south city gate. Not seeing George on the city tower, she decided to stroll through the city instead.
Quinas City can roughly be divided into two parts: one part is the Quinas Castle situated halfway up the mountain, and the other part is the unruly growth surrounding Quinas City.
The latter’s area is several times larger than Quinas Castle.
Mortals seek the protection of knights and settle outside the knight’s castle, gradually evolving into one of the largest cities in the Duchy of Kasong due to its favorable geographical environment.
In this perilous world, for a city to grow and thrive, it must rely on the protection of extraordinary powers. Cities that naturally develop in transportation hubs invariably fall victim to various disasters.
Even with extraordinary power for protection, safety is not guaranteed.
Now, almost everyone in Quinas City believes the city is destined to fall to the beastmen, becoming an unremarkable ruin in this land.
Those fleeing soldiers who made it back to the city before Jima, with terrified voices, described the bloody and terrifying beastmen to anxious listeners.
They spoke of many cyclopes, taller than the city walls and more numerous than the great trees in the forest. When they threw stones at the army, the stones would obscure the sun, crushing countless knights like bugs underfoot.
Even the dogs on the streets know that Duke Kasong is dead.
Since leaving Quinas City last time to participate in the expedition, there were fewer makeshift shelters on the streets, but the despair on people’s faces has only grown.
The church was overcrowded, people simply knelt outside the church, praying to the statue of the lake goddess for her divine grace to save the city.
The streets were less crowded, and those capable of fleeing had long left the city, risking ambushes on the road.
But for more people, they could only stay in the city, praying for the knights to save it.
Jima used her charm and divination abilities to gather information. She also received a rather absurd piece of intelligence.
There is an underground cult that believes in the Four Dark Gods, secretly recruiting people.
One of the recruiters enthusiastically introduced her to Jima, saying that she seemed destined to join, and as long as she joined the cult, she only had to lie down in bed and close her eyes; when the beastmen entered the city, she would escape her fate of becoming food.
Jima smiled, wielded her “branch axe gun,” and gave him a chop, killing him on the spot.
By noon, Jima finally saw a weary George.
The knight’s sword of Duke Kasong was missing from his waist, and he was holding an orange cat that was scratching at his armor.
“Your cat.”
“Little Li!”
“Meow meow!”
Lianxi, unable to contain her excitement, leaped from George’s arms, transformed back into human form, and tearfully approached Jima.
Jima set down the bamboo basket and tightly hugged Lianxi, saying, “Little Li, I thought you had become the beastmen’s breakfast. I was so worried!”
Touched by Jima’s concern and embrace, Lianxi couldn’t help but let tears fall from her eyes.
Jima released her hold and looked at George, asking, “Have you eaten?”
“I have,” George replied, his Milan full plate armor dented and dirty.
“You should find a servant to clean up; by the way, where’s the goat-horned boy?”
George shook his head, “He might have gotten lost.”
Jima felt a bit happy inside: “Then he’s probably dead.”
By noon, no one had returned to the city gate for almost an hour, so the gate closed.
George said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have let him stay by my side; it completely harmed him.”
“By your standards, if you don’t want to harm him, first you have to cut off his goat horns, give him some money, and take him to a place that values money more. The Empire is out of the question, their witch-hunting actions are rampant; it’s best to run to the southern free city-states. Plus, you need a reliable acquaintance to serve as the goat-horned boy’s guardian.”
Jima said, “Otherwise, even I would suspect if you two are related by blood.”
“Thanks for your guidance.”
“You’re welcome; it would be even better if you could pay for the guidance.” Jima casually remarked, picking up the bamboo basket and handing it to Lianxi, asking, “I brought you some food.”
Lianxi took the cold food, her eyes red from emotion, saying, “Master, I… I…”
Jima patted her shoulder: “Remember to wash all the pots and pans in the Dream Palace when you take your noon nap.”
“Understood, Master.”
Jima went to comfort George:
“Every situation has its ups and downs; at least now you can enjoy my servant service, and I’ll help you clean and oil that armor properly.”
“No need; today you should rest well,” George said. “There’s a meeting tomorrow, and everyone will discuss the current paths forward.”
A cool female voice chimed in: “What identity will you talk from?”
Jima turned her head to see the coldly elegant Eve Frostleaf, dressed in clean white clothes, her face and neck freshly washed, her skin snow-white.
The only thing that didn’t match her icy demeanor was one of her hands, which was tightly clamped with a wooden board against her chest.
Eve Frostleaf stopped in front of George, her emerald-green eyes reflecting the emptiness of George’s waist, and asked:
“Holy warrior accompanying the army? A messenger from the hall? Or a well-fighting knight?”
“No one can ignore my words.”
“I just hope that no one uses your escape last night against you.”
George shook his head, thinking Eve Frostleaf was overthinking: “Things are better than expected; we brought back over six hundred people, mostly knights.”
The gray mist treated both sides fairly.
Eve Frostleaf remained expressionless: “What about the sword at your waist?”
“I returned it to the Duke of Kasong’s wife,” George said. “She fainted from crying.”
Eve Frostleaf nodded.
Finally, this silver-haired elf said to Jima, “Jima, there’s something.”
Instantly, Jima gathered her posture, ready.
They gathered in a less crowded area on the city wall, and Jima activated the “Secret Tranquility Barrier.”
She said, “Pay attention to the rumors.”
“About George?”
Eve Frostleaf nodded.
“Good.”
The entire city was enveloped in an uneasy atmosphere throughout the day.
Outside the city walls, thousands upon thousands of beastmen were gathering. According to Jima’s report, the Mother of All Beasts was also present, looking as healed as ever.
Additionally, there were several cyclopes.
The arrival of the cyclopes unsettled many. They regretted not leaving the city sooner.
Although there were not yet enough beastmen outside to surround the human city, the city gate was tightly closed, and no one took the opportunity to organize the knights to strike while the beastmen were still establishing themselves.
By the afternoon.
A survivor arrived at the city gate, claiming to be George’s servant.
George came over to confirm, only to find that it was the goat-horned boy who had narrowly escaped, quickly calling for people to drop their baskets and pull the goat-horned boy up onto the city wall.
He seemed terrified; when George asked him what happened, the boy’s pale face stuttered out words.
Nighttime.
In the Dream Palace.
Jima was in a great mood, sipping freshly squeezed strawberry juice, her gaze scanning up and down Eve Frostleaf’s long silver legs.
Eve Frostleaf had just finished her shower, her face flushed, her damp silver hair sticking to her collarbone. Her hand had begun to heal, finally free of the wooden board.
Jima invited Eve Frostleaf to her Dream Palace under the guise of discussing a post-war summary.
Eve Frostleaf picked up a piece of cardboard, writing:
“So, the key issue is that the Mother of All Beasts has accurately grasped our movements, right?”
Jima added: “And the long-distance teleportation, that was quite sudden.”
Eve Frostleaf wrote in Elvish: “How could it have tracked our movements?”
Jima shrugged: “Isn’t that self-evident? Her divination is better than mine; I’ve been at a disadvantage in several duels, and we’ve been chased relentlessly.”
“Dueling and divination are unrelated.” Eve Frostleaf wrote: “Don’t forget that the Mother of All Beasts was far away before, making it hard to get firsthand information.”
“A small issue.”
In Jima’s view, this was not a big deal. There were countless reasonable explanations, and that’s why it would be a waste of time to get tangled up in the matter.
Eve Frostleaf wrote a lot more, making Jima think she must have a talent for transcription.
