Stray

Jesse Dylan sighed for the thousandth time, and loudly on purpose.

Taking into account the different preferences of different races for food, in order to prevent the appearance of food that smelled too strong or look too frightening, the affiliated library attached to the Mercenary Guild headquarters clearly stipulated that visitor weren’t allowed to bring food.

In the same way, noise was also forbidden, and Mr. Dylan, who didn’t like reading, had lost his two favorite hobbies at once.

Jesse laid sadly on the smooth and clean wooden table, his blond hair dripping all over the table, and his whole body exuded a breath of being bored to death.

The afternoon sun was nice, shining its brilliance on the blond hair. As Jesse’s breathing fluctuated, the dizzying platinum halo kept sliding on his hair.

Adrian Cross changed his angle in silence to prevent the dazzling brilliance from shining into his eyes. He turned his body slightly to the side by the window and continued reading the thick ancient book in his hand. The knight commander borrowed a lot of books, as if he planned to stay here until the library closed.

Books of different sizes were neatly stacked together, like a fortress of doom in Jesse’s eyes.

“Darling, haven’t you found it yet?” Jesse desperately picked up a book on the top pile called “The Encyclopedia of the Northern Zone Wraiths” and flipped through it.

“No.” Adrian faced him sideways and replied calmly, without raising his head. “This is where I ‘want to spend a lot of time and don’t have a chance to go when I’m working’, Mr. Dylan.”

“Okay, please continue. You read while I watch.” Jesse put his elbow on the table and supported his head with one hand.

Adrian shook his head gently and continued to flip the pages of the book gently. The warm sunlight wrapped around his body through the window, and the temperature was just right. The room was very quiet, only the sound of cloth rubbing and flipping paper. He could hear the wind outside the window and the breathing of another person beside him.

Time became sticky and slow, and instead of feeling bored, he enjoyed the atmosphere immensely.

The former Knight of Judgment knew in his heart that if none of the scholars he had come into contact with had answers, he wouldn’t find any valuable clues on his own, but if there was still lingering persistence in his heart, he could only think of this.

A small question that hadn’t dissipated from the bottom of his heart for many years.

It may be that he was influenced by his teammates who loved to toss and turn indiscriminately, and he subconsciously made such a useless and absurd decision. Relying on a vague impression in his memory many years ago, he went to the largest library in the world to look for a needle in a haystack. No matter how one looked at it, this was a meaningless and inefficient idea.

But at this moment, he felt inexplicably relaxed about it.

“If you are really so bored, maybe I can ask you to divine something for me?” Hearing that the breathing around him became long, Adrian asked in a low voice.

“What?” Jesse quickly wiped the saliva from his mouth, pretending that he wasn’t asleep. “What do you want me to divine?”

“Which book will have the answer that I want.” Adrian glanced at the monster that resembled a giant bear on the last page before he gently closed the old book in his hand.

“No.” Jesse curled his lips. “If you get the answer, most likely you’ll just go back to the inn and wait— Don’t get me wrong Adri, I really like the way you look when you’re shirtless, drenched in sweat, but I like you better when you’re illuminated by the sun more clearly.”

Adrian raised his eyebrows.

“After all, it’s rare to see you take the initiative to do something… Of course, if you choose to give up now, we can go for a drink together, and then—” Jesse touched his lower lip ambiguously.

But Adrian didn’t take him seriously.

Teasing failed to divert his attention from a certain fact— Jesse Dylan uncharacteristically refused his request without leaving a margin for error, which was rare. This request wasn’t difficult, so did Dylan “really didn’t want to do it” or simply “couldn’t do it”?

[The “diviner” cannot actively intervene in his own calculations, otherwise, the things he intervenes in will always become unknown— Then he could only guess intuitively.]

Dylan once said that, combined with the other party’s inexplicable interest in him…

How interesting.

Adrian retracted his gaze, picked up the “Encyclopedia of the Northern Zone Wraiths”, and began to be serious. Unsurprisingly, this book wouldn’t contain information of the beast he was looking for either.

The behemoth in memory had soft snow-white fur, and its appearance was between a fox and a wolf. To this day, he no longer remembered the shape of the weird long horns on the top of the animal’s head, only that it was amazingly big.

It was like a beautiful creature that only appears in religious legends.

As time passed, Adrian began to be unable to remember what it looked like, or even whether the memory was reality or a hallucination, but he remembered those eyes— beautiful ice blue eyes, like…

A weight leaned on his shoulder. Jesse, who didn’t respond to him, had fallen asleep again after some time had passed. Only this time, Mr. Dylan deliberately leaned his head over on Adrian’s left shoulder.

The soft blond hair slid over the beautiful face, scattered on the black monk’s uniform, like molten gold.

He was about to move to the right and coldly let this guy lean into empty air and wake himself up— but Adrian hesitated for a moment and in the end didn’t move.

Perhaps the sun was too good, he couldn’t help but reach out and gently tuck that annoying blond hair behind Jesse’s ear, letting the heavy head stop on his shoulder. The knight commander turned his gaze back to the book and continued to read the contents of the page quietly.

It was just that his movements have lightened by a little bit.

At this moment, the other two members of Tumbleweed were in a much tighter situation.

In order to not attract Telaranea’s attention, Oliver had to leave his Lord Pope in the corner of the most unobtrusive stable of the inn and repeated the request “please don’t use magic” to the horse at least a hundred times.

He wasn’t sure if the ever-proud Pope would listen to him, but right now, they had more to worry about than the thing in front of them.

“Well… Maybe I should say ‘long time no see’, to the both of you.”

With flamboyant red hair and exquisite round-rimmed glasses, the gray-green eyes behind the lenses were completely different from Oliver’s emerald color. The badge made of white tin glistened on the leather armor and a wolf head insignia was finely engraved on it.

Oliver took a deep inhale. They recognized this insignia and this person.

One of the surveillance personnel during the Black Chapter’s test who was an old acquaintance of Ann; a member of the “Steel Wolf Mercenary Group” which Fenrir Troy belonged to.

“Thorne.” The handsome young red-haired mercenary pushed up his glasses, smiled, and introduced himself. “The name of this body.”

The two looked at him in disbelief.

“Now let’s put aside the emotion of reunion and talk about business.” Telaranea clapped his hands, unfazed by the two men’s complicated expression. “I’m glad you’re willing to satisfy my curiosity, but I have to say, Mr. Ramon— The information you give is really pitiful.”

“Oh,” Oliver said dryly.

“But I am indeed full of interest in Flint Lopez’s discovery. It is good information. Speaking of this, now that we have decided to be as honest as possible in this transaction— I believe both of you know the basic information of the Butcher Shop.”

Waiting for this sentence, Nemo rolled his eyes inwardly. The Sage of the Abyss will never stop his temptations.

“Yes,” the great Demon King quickly divulged the information he had obtained from the parrot. “The Butcher Shop is not a centralized organization. It’s a scattered referral system. If the rumors are true, the top manager is the legendary Aurorae. Geniuses and mages in need will find these referrers through various channels and obtain demon information from them.”

“After the two sides reach an agreement, the superior demon will rush to the designated place on the surface of the Abyss, attach its flesh to the bodies of intermediate or subordinate demons, and then the caster will summon these demons.” Oliver tried his best to hold back the unfathomable expression as he added casually.

The gray parrot on Nemo’s shoulder sneered in a low voice.

“That is so.” Telaranea glanced at the parrot and touched his chin. “Listening to your description, your father wasn’t a demon warlock, so what he wanted in the first place may have been other services— Such as using knowledge and intelligence in exchange for recovered demon flesh or a specific abyssal spell.”

“For example, ‘domination’ of a superior demon,” Oliver closed his eyes and whispered.

The Sage of the Abyss nodded. “The guest information that summons the superior demon will be registered and shared among all introducers in the Butcher Shop. Unfortunately for you both, I’m afraid that only the introducers themselves know the contents of such a sub-level transaction… The knowledge that comes from the exchange is not compulsorily shared, which is one of the sweet things of being an introducer.”

“But you can get the information.” Nemo stared at the gray-green eyes behind the lenses.

“Of course,” Telaranea’s voice was full of deservedness. “According to Mr. Ramon’s information— Our Flint may have made two transactions with the Butcher Shop introducer, and that introducer is probably a member of the Gatekeepers. The transaction time was 23 years ago, and the location was in the capital of Alban. These clues are enough to narrow the scope.”

Oliver frowned. “Two?”

He thought there was only one deal— From Medes’ statement, Flint Lopez only repaired his arm with demon flesh.

“Yes, two.” Telaranea took two steps forward, stretched out one hand to Oliver, and was pushed away by Nemo silently halfway. “…Well, I just want to say that a pure human alone cannot save the life of a newborn under the erosion of the Trent Plague. Ah, the premise is that you did not specifically lie to me with false information.”

“O dear great hero Flint.”

Telaranea let out a low chuckle deep from his throat.

“He devoted all his energy on channeling his power into the baby that he must have been unable to think about anything else, and human hatchlings don’t come to life that easy. I’m guessing his first trip to the Alban capital was to trade with the Butcher Shop for tips on curbing the curse and saving his energy.”

“Unfortunately, after being reported by Mr. Medes, he lost his right arm, so he didn’t stop. Our Flint simply made a second transaction— A demon’s right arm, a little abyssal spell, undoubtedly, to make it so you’ll grow up more smoothly, Mr. Ramon.”

“How smart,” Nemo interrupted coldly, pulling the topic back.

“Yes, yes.” The red-haired mercenary took off his glasses and wiped the lenses leisurely. “I really know a Butcher Shop introducer who was in charge of the capital of Alban twenty-three years ago and was also a Gatekeeper, but I haven’t heard from him for a long time. As far as I know, he has never submitted any valuable knowledge or intelligence.”

A shudder rolled over Nemo’s back, and he finally realized that the answer might come faster than he thought.

He retracted this idea after a long time.

Three people and one bird were standing in front of a dilapidated three-story wooden house deep in the vast Border Forest. According to the residents of this area, the “strange-tempered resident” had been missing for a long time, but no one would care about an old man who lived alone and didn’t appear very often. Besides, no one had any business coming deep into the depths of this dangerous forest, so no one knew whether the poor old man had moved away a long time ago or became dinner to the monsters of the forest.

Night had already fallen, and there was no light in the overgrown wooden house in front of him. The night wind passed through the crevices of the planks, making a crying sound. The interior of the long-damaged window was pitch black, and even the outline of the furniture could not be seen.

There was no aura of life in it.

Oliver and Nemo glanced at each other with difficulty.

This was obviously not normal, even if it was really uninhabited, at least there would be reactions from insects, ants, spiders, or mice in the abandoned house, but that darkness was wrapped in true dead silence, complete desolation.

The two members of Tumbleweed swallowed, took a step back, and said almost at the same time, “After you, Mr. Telaranea.”

The superior demon glanced at the two of them with a rather unexpected look, then shook his head, neatly pushed down the decayed wooden door, and entered the room.

Oliver and Nemo stood in silence outside the house. They didn’t even have to make a special effort to sense it as the creaking wooden floor indicated Telaranea’s location for them at all times.

The first floor, the second floor, and then the highest, the attic.

“I found him.” The Sage of the Abyss opened the narrow window, stretched out a hand, and made a gesture. “Come on up the two of you.”

The voice of that demon was full of pure joy.

“…This is really the most interesting corpse I have ever seen.”

The author has something to say:

Ollie: This is an oracle, an oracle! …I’m sorry, I beg you, don’t dress like a boss anymore.

Horse: (Continues to wear the mold)

——

Parrot: You just use my information and pretend you don’t understand! …And only gave me a bag of biscuits!!!

Nemo: (Take out another bag)

Parrot: It smells so good.