novelhk Page 268
Page 268
She sighed softly. She had originally planned to buy some souvenirs for Latis on her way through the Tendrils Village, since she had taken a shortcut in a hurry last time. However, she hadn't expected the Tendrils Village to become a bit chaotic.
"Let's go check out what's going on with those people hoarding the materials..."
Artemis glanced in the direction of the bluebird and was surprised to find it circling aimlessly in the air, clearly having lost track of the robbers.
"Huh? Although the Bluebird is just an ordinary wild beast, its flying speed is still quite fast. How did we lose it so quickly...? It seems there's some magical element involved."
She pondered for a moment, and the suspicious clue she had just encountered was thus cut short. Although it was an unsuccessful start, it was not a big deal. As long as she knew that there were indeed traces of ritual magic materials in the Tendrils, she could come back and conduct a targeted investigation after finishing her investigation in the Dragonhorn Lord's capital city.
"Don't dwell on this too much. These things that happened along the way are just minor details. The most important thing is still about my brother..."
Artemis glanced at the spacious wooden house, shook her head, and was about to continue on her way when suddenly her gaze froze as she stared at the figure sneaking out of the side door of the house, her mouth agape in surprise.
……
……
"As expected of me, I'm still as good at taking advantage of troubled situations."
Yashutia held a piece of wood that looked like a spinning wheel, nodded with satisfaction, and stuffed it into the large pocket sewn onto her lower back.
At this moment, she was wearing a hooded coat that resembled Artemis's style. It was a replica because she had fully utilized her initiative as an alchemist, not only attaching sleeves with sprayers for spraying sedative tea to the cuffs, but also setting up an antidote spray around the hood.
Meanwhile, the gloves are also spider gloves that allow you to climb walls at any time, and the coat has many inner pockets sewn inside, from which you can take out a high-concentration drug similar to a firecracker at any time. There is also a belt around the waist that has the function of short-distance spatial teleportation.
Most importantly, she crafted a retractable sword box for herself before setting off. Although the added magical effects were not ideal—as a sword, it only had the effects of "adding a minty flavor" and "releasing an ice magic wave every five swings"—she still felt that as a sword genius, she should trust the sword in her hand, so she fastened the retractable sword box to her thigh.
The only drawback of this outfit is that because Yashutia can't open dimensional rifts, the entire back of the coat has been modified into a hollow storage bag. However, she didn't expect that sometimes the contents would be too heavy, causing the entire coat to pull backward...
That's why her slightly curly black hair peeks out from under the hood.
"Prepare an extra set of materials for practicing necromancy for my elder brother. This power is something that damn magic network can't provide... Hmph, I, Yashutia Kurosawa, am far, far, far more ...
A hand suddenly patted Yashutia's shoulder, startling her. She quickly turned to look at the woman who had inexplicably stopped her.
"Who are you? What's going on?"
Yashutia's fingers fastened the switch for the Sleeping Tea in her sleeve, and she hunched her back warily, ready to use her magic to activate her belt and teleport at any moment.
"This woman has an unpleasant plant-like smell, just like that wretched sprite!"
As a lich with exceptional sensitivity to soul energy, Yashutia instantly sensed the woman's unique aura. A hint of disdain flashed across her face as she quickly and irritably said:
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."
The woman didn't speak, but stared with cold eyes, reached out, and flicked Yashutia's forehead hard with her finger.
"Ouch!" Yashutia screamed, clutching her head and taking a few steps back, muttering under her breath:
"Damn it, who are you? Not only do you smell like that stinky elf, but you also flicked my forehead just like him. How disgusting!"
"...Stink sprite?"
Artemis narrowed her eyes, showing no anger whatsoever, but the situation gave her an urge to tease Yashutia. So, a slight smile played on her lips, and after a moment's thought, she asked in a hoarse voice:
"The elves you're talking about, are they those creatures with pointed ears, who know plant magic, and are very beautiful?"
"Yes, yes!"
Yashutia nodded repeatedly, then suddenly realized something and hurriedly said:
"No, no, she does have pointed ears and knows plant magic, but her looks are just average. Well, she's a little better looking than average, but she's still far inferior to me!"
"What an idiot..."
Artemis kept her face tightly shut and asked seriously:
"I've heard that elves are all kind-hearted, so why are you calling them 'stinky elves'?"
"As for why..." A flicker of wariness crossed Yashutia's mind; she had a feeling that revealing the reason would bring about some deadly disaster. But she paused, and finally said angrily:
"It's all because that stinky elf disguised herself as a boy to get close to the person I like, which ruined my plan and almost let her steal my chicken! Ugh! Oh, and afterwards I got a good scolding, was punished with hard labor and had my forehead flicked a hundred times, so much so that my head still feels pointy..."
The half-elf was immediately delighted. What Yashutia was referring to was the incident where she had secretly enchanted the lute, almost resulting in her being executed on the spot by Latis, who was under a spell. It was this incident that made Yashutia aware of her gender, causing her initial general dislike for half-elves to turn into a vague feeling of displeasure towards the main wife.
Although Atelius was terrified that this would affect her relationship with Latis, fortunately, Latis didn't mind it in the end, and she didn't give Yashutia any real punishment.
"I didn't expect Miss Kurosawa to be so upset about me almost 'stealing a chicken.' It seems she's quite possessive of her older brother."
Artemis thought about it and didn't mind too much. After all, she had been in Lundia for a few weeks and had seen Yashutia working hard to earn money to support her family. She also felt that her brother's team really needed such an energetic support staff member, so she hoped that she would stay in her own mage territory.
"However, even a foolish alchemist shouldn't resort to underhanded tricks, you know? If she has any needs, she should just discuss them with me. These things aren't worth troubling my elder brother..."
The half-elf sighed inwardly, glanced at Yashutia who was still muttering to herself, shook her head with amusement, and decided to find out why she was there as soon as possible, so she stopped teasing her.
"You mean elves have pointed ears... are these the kind of ears?"
She winked at the stunned Yashutia, then slightly pulled back her hood, revealing her elven ears.
“…Hmm…ah?” Yashutia opened her mouth, her expression blank as she murmured, “Right…right?”
"Plant magic, is that how it works?"
Artemis suppressed a laugh, took Yashutia's hand, and gently patted it, leaving a small black rose in her palm.
“Yes, yes…” Yashutia stared at the rose in her hand, her mind blank for a few seconds, then gasped, her voice trembling as she said:
"No, not good..."
"As for looks... well, they're just average-looking."
The half-elf touched her face, canceling the disguise and revealing her gentle and beautiful countenance. Looking at the mentally unstable Yashutia, she chuckled and said:
"Miss Kurosawa, it's not good to talk bad about me outside, is it? We're all family, so come home and complain about me later."
Chapter 273 Elf Side Quest 3: The Auto-Pickup Technique
“Big Sister, I was wrong, I was really wrong. I’ll go back and set up a memorial tablet for you, the God of Gold Coins, right? That’s safe! I’ll use a thousand gold whites to cast a golden statue of you when I get back…”
The half-elf's ears twitched as he heard Yashutia's incessant chatter. He glanced back at her, sighed helplessly, grabbed the curtain of Yashutia's tent, and turned back to say:
"Alright, alright, I was just passing by on a mission and happened to run into you. I thought you'd been out for a while and I was worried about your safety, so I came to find you. I didn't come here to cause you any trouble."
"Ah? Oh, oh... I see."
Yashutia opened her mouth, scratched her head awkwardly, and looked at Arterifus's seemingly genuine expression, becoming speechless for a moment.
"Anyway, I'm pretty safe here..." She sat down dejectedly at the small wooden table in the corner of the tent, obediently poured a cup of tea for the half-elf, and said:
"I was originally collecting materials at the magic market in Lundia, but I accidentally found out the whereabouts of some rare materials, so I followed some black market merchants all the way here... I will go back after I have collected all the materials I prepared for my elder brother!"
"Materials prepared for my elder brother? I see."
Artemis walked forward with a smile, patted her clothes, knelt down opposite the small wooden table, picked up her teacup, took a sip, nodded, and said:
“Miss Kurosawa, my mission this time is actually related to a ritual magic incident that occurred in Dragon Horn Territory. Have you heard any unusual news in this area?”
"To say it's unusual... well, I'm not familiar with Norard, so I don't know exactly what the original situation here was like..."
Yashutia thought for a moment and said:
"Elf... uh, boss, speaking of materials for ritual magic, I have indeed come across some rather strange things..."
……
According to Yashutia, when she mingled in the local merchant circles, she often saw people dressed in particularly luxurious clothes. With the lich's keen senses, she could smell the scent of money and power on those people, which made her very curious. Although she lacked knowledge about the nobles of the Kingdom of Norard, based on her experience with the United Nations of Yanium, nobles generally would not appear in such low-class occasions.
So she guessed that there might be some shady deals near the Tendrils, which would require the nobles themselves to intervene in order to proceed... Of course, this was just a guess, and these things were not very important to Yashutia. She just wanted to collect ritual materials for a necromancy spell with the function of substitution for Latis.
However, she still learned some strange stories. For example, ever since Herod City truly fell more than a year ago, there have been secret trading meetings held here from time to time. It is said that the meetings are for magical potions and magical items that are not circulated among the people.
The sesame oil secretly stored in the Dawn and Dusk Wood is just one aspect of the Magic Market. Due to the recent death of the Dragon Horn Lord, many refugees from the Dragon Horn Territory have suddenly appeared here, and they all seem to have complicated backgrounds.
Yashutia once casually asked the refugees what they wanted to do after making money through business, and to her surprise, they said something like "I'll be a refugee for the rest of my life," which was quite outrageous.
The cabin where she had secretly asked Sarilang to fish in troubled waters belonged to a refugee organization from Dragon Horn Territory. Because of their strange nature and murderous aura, they were not very popular in this place.
Fortunately, the people here are well-traveled and have seen a lot. So what if they have strange personalities? As long as they have enough money, they can say something like, "Oh, no, without your money, Watashi."
The raiders who were lost by Ateliers' Bluebird were also said to have come from Dragonhorn. It seems that the raiders wanted to switch between several forces, but when they found that the forces were colluding with each other, they gave up and started raiding in this way.
Although it's unknown what kind of magic the looters intended to perform with the ritual materials, in any case, the vagrants who could understand and access the ritual materials were not exactly clean individuals.
There are other rumors as well, such as griffins in heat abducting adult men for training, monster disturbances causing caravan disasters, and warriors leaving barren lands in their wake as they travel around the world...
During the short few days that Yashutia stayed, the only thing that made her feel uneasy did not come from these strange organizations, but from a few powerless refugees from Dragonhorn Territory.
They were discussing how "if they passed a certain test, they could join the Black Hat organization."
……
"Why is it another black hat?"
Arterifus frowned, feeling as if a clear thread had suddenly appeared in this tangled mess, only to pull it back into the previous knot... She exchanged a puzzled look with Yashutia and couldn't help but mutter:
Why are they running around everywhere?
“How would I know…” Yashutia scratched her head sheepishly. As the former partner of the Black Hat Squad, she subconsciously felt guilty when she mentioned this. Even though the half-elf’s eyes were gentle, she felt as if they were piercing her.
"No, no!" She quickly raised her hands and slapped her face to clear her head, muttering fiercely to herself:
"It was just a transaction. I originally intended to use violence to fight violence. I've never claimed to be a good person! I..."
Halfway through her speech, Yashutia suddenly noticed that the half-elf was starting to frown slightly, as if he had some doubts about his condition. A sense of frustration at not being understood well welled up in her heart, and she couldn't help but cross her arms and lower her eyes.
"What's the problem with that! I'm just going down this path to the bitter end! I'm already a lich, how can I be a good person? Waaah, I can help my brother with the dirty work, but you guys have to trust me!"
She bit her lip and said:
“I… I’ll explain… When I was working with the Black Hat team, I heard that they actually have different teams in different regions, and the people in those teams are all from the corresponding regions. They rarely do things like ocean salvage, so…”
despair.
Suddenly, a hand rested on her head. Yashutia froze, instinctively looking up at the half-elf stroking her head. The half-elf, leaning forward with one hand on the small wooden table, wore a reassuring smile and whispered:
"Don't worry too much about Black Hat, Miss Kurosawa. You are part of the Herod Mage's territory and also Big Brother's family. We can discuss things like this when we get home... Even if I can't figure out Black Hat's intentions, the invincible Big Brother Latis will find the root of the problem."
"……Eh?"
As Yashutia felt the slender hand rubbing her head, the explanation she was about to utter caught in her throat. She stood there for a few seconds, until the half-elf sat back down, before stammering out:
"I thought you were going to say something like, 'If I dare to do anything to my brother, kill me' or something like that..."
That was before.
Recalling how fiercely she had threatened others, Ateliers felt a pang of shame. She shook her head and said: