Taming the Protagonist

Volume 3

Chapter 22 : Hitana Had Big Skills

“Truly... ridiculous.”

Mingfuluo, standing at the end of the tunnel, had a gloomy expression.

In her purple eyes a cold light of fury.

She was now at the very end of the lower city’s drainage outlet.

The countless rotten, stinking bones in the tunnel made it hard for her to suppress the anger in her heart.

Even Mingfuluo in her most obsessive state, when she placed other people’s lives on the scales to weigh, would still waver when choosing to sacrifice others, so naturally she could not remain indifferent to the scene before her eyes.

Or rather, in the eyes of someone like her who valued value extremely, this kind of trampling of life was absolutely intolerable.

“There wasn’t anyone here either. It seemed his son had already been sold out.”

After a few minutes, with the remaining anger gradually dissipating, Mingfuluo said in a low voice: “It was unknown whether it was a blessing in misfortune, or the beginning of a tragedy.”

Yesterday, Anselm doubled back to Varied Snake’s former territory, and quickly found several other dens where slaves were trained.

Inside were still quite a few people who were already on their last breath, kidnapped by various means.

After rescuing these people, Anselm and Mingfuluo still did not find any clues about the target.

They only learned from these poor people where Varied Snake “handled” unqualified slaves. So today, they found this place.

Anselm snapped his fingers, and a blazing fireball incinerated the bones.

Compared to Mingfuluo, he looked even calmer—so calm it was as if he had never had even the slightest emotional wavering.

“It was a pity Varied Snake was already dead.” Anselm shook his head.

“That way, there were far fewer direct clues... Arlo, you should have a way to track him through something connected to the target, right?”

Back then, in order to trace the truth behind Erlin’s death, Mingfuluo surely had not spared effort on this.

But the woman shook her head: “The essence of that kind of tracking was tracing Ether... it couldn’t work on ordinary people. If there were a part of his flesh and blood it might be worth trying, but with just a simple object, the connection wasn’t strong enough.”

Anselm did not show any expression of finding it troublesome either, and instead said quite calmly: “Then we’ll start from the entire process of Varied Snake selling people—investigate everyone who handled it. Hitana would at most only execute the chief culprit; she most likely didn’t have the spare strength to hunt down the rest of the participants.”

In the stench-filled sewer, unhurried footsteps echoed.

Three beautiful men and women who should not have appeared here walked upstream against the filthy water, preparing to leave this intricate drainage system.

Anselm turned his head to gaze at the underground waterway, and suddenly said:

“Ganlei, tell me, why would Strife Fortress build such a sewer?”

They had clearly been discussing the commission not long ago; Anselm’s sudden question caught Marina somewhat off guard.

After being stunned for several seconds, she hurriedly began to think.

The lower city’s building terrain made all discharged sewage gather at the very bottom of this “mine pit,” and not just sewage—handled this way, a large amount of daily garbage should also be dumped directly beneath the lower city, and... there had been no isolation treatment at all.

If so, wasn’t the entire lower city built atop a massive garbage heap!

This inconceivably absurd living environment made even the well-traveled Marina’s scalp go numb.

Even in Chishuang Territory, the slums’ conditions might not have been this... absurd.

Absurd...

As Marina thought this, that question that had appeared countless times again surfaced in her mind.

Why were so many ordinary people still willing to accept transcendent beings’ rule?

Was it that they could not afford the cost of relocation?

Or... was their real life perhaps not as bad as she inferred?

If so, then the fundamental reason their lives were not that bad was—

In that instant, Marina’s consciousness was pierced through.

Some time ago, especially the shock Mibaita’s matter brought her, and the “answer” in Anselm’s words, made her understand many things in that moment.

“The Emperor satisfied his desire for power through controlling the Empire.”

Marina’s voice was somewhat dazed: “Transcendent beings... were the same.”

It was just that the territory under the Emperor's rule was so vast.

What they could do, wanted to do, could satisfy themselves with—was far, far too much.

But a transcendent being who only controlled a single territorial city could not be satisfied so easily.

Through bestowing grace, they gained gratitude from mortals suffering hardship, satisfying that empty, boring self once—and if hardship was not enough...

Then they created hardship.

The girl tugged at the corner of her mouth, and a mocking smile appeared on her slightly pale face.

“I suppose that Mr. Mibaita before, probably ‘purified’ the lower city many times, right?”

The turbid, rotten stench could not touch transcendent beings in the slightest, but how could mortals endure it? What was more, built atop dead water completely gathered from sewage and garbage, this environment was no longer a matter of smell—it was simply a breeding ground for germs.

But the lower city did not have an extremely distinct rotten stench; clearly... the adventurer lords above likely bestowed quite a few blessings, purifying the lower city’s environment—how many similar things had they done?

Marina could even imagine the scene of the lower city residents raising both arms and cheering fanatically when those adventurers did something that was negligible to them, yet while they were thanking the adventurer lords’ greatness and kindness, had they ever thought... if these people truly wanted to treat them well, from the very beginning they would not have thrown them into this sunless deep pit like livestock?

Had they ever thought that the entire lower city was not built for them to live in, but only... only a toy to satisfy their sick desires?

Or was it... that they thought the transcendent beings dumping garbage out and feeding it to them like alms to stray dogs was already immense mercy?

On Marina’s face as a fellow mortal, there appeared sorrow and bleakness that were hard to hide.

Why was it like this?

In Anselm’s Hydra’s Domain, such a scene had never appeared.

Civilians could live well; it simply would not—

Marina’s thoughts suddenly halted.

A terrifying thought that was uncontrollable and impossible to erase rose in her mind.

How many of Hydra’s Domain’s transcendent beings truly cared about civilians, and how many were... simply obeying Mr. Anselm’s orders?

And while maintaining the surface prosperity, in the dark, what were they doing?

In a muddled daze, Marina followed Anselm out of the sewer, but when she raised her head, she still could not see sunlight.

“Where to start next?” Mingfuluo, who did not notice Marina’s abnormality... or rather, whose attention was not on her at all, asked.

“You said you wanted to find other people connected to Varied Snake, but that wouldn’t be easy either, right?”

“Not that easy, and not that hard.”

Anselm smiled: “It had been a whole day already. Our Miss Fenrir, no matter what, should have already reached an agreement with the upper city by now.”

Mingfuluo’s eye twitched: “You were going to find her for help?”

“Why not?” The adventurer Faust asked back rather astonished. “It was me asking her for help, not me going to help her.”

Mingfuluo was momentarily speechless. In the end she could only snort coldly:

“What legendary adventurer Faust... even finding a child required such a big fuss, and in the end you still had to rely on women.”

“Oh? If Arlo said that.”

Anselm raised his eyebrows with a bright smile: “Then you go back first. You won’t be needed here. I alone—oh, counting Ganlei too—we two can try.”

“...”

Mingfuluo stared straight at Anselm, not saying a word, but the meaning was obvious.

—Try leaving me behind.

The young Hydra could not help laughing.

That awkward temperament of his close friend that simply could not be changed made that bit of chill no one could notice in his heart disperse slightly.

When seeing those remains, what had the young Hydra been thinking?

No one knew.

In fact, even Anselm himself was not very clear.

Because Faust had already seen enough of such things, and Faust did not care.

“Let’s go, let’s go meet Strife Fortress lower city’s new king.”

Anselm leisurely patted Mingfuluo’s shoulder, and said teasingly:

“Go meet that famed Miss Fenrir.”

At the same time, he turned his head to look at Marina, and said in a joking tone: “Long time no see—don’t lose your composure too much, Ganlei. That would make our Miss Fenrir unable to control herself.”

“...Please rest assured, Mr. Faust.”

Marina bowed slightly, her voice light and steady: “I won’t cause you any trouble at all.”

The chaos of transcendent beings, the lowliness of mortals... Marina walked along a road that seemed as if Anselm had laid it out for her, little by little seeing the world’s distortions and deformities.

In fact, Marina had already glimpsed one or two of them long ago, but during the time she followed Anselm, she had almost always been interacting and communicating with big figures.

Over time, she had already forgotten that absurdity that made her tremble.

The young mortal girl did not know how to face this world, and did not know why Anselm showed it to her so nakedly.

Was this a trial specially aimed at her?

Or... was it just a test that was, for Hydra followers, nothing special at all?

Marina knew nothing of this, and she also had no energy to think about these now.

Because a greater trial was already before her eyes.

“So... you needed my help?”

“The facts are right in front of us.”

“But how would Mr. Anselm take his anger out on people? Even if Miss Hitana was stuck in the mire, that was her choice. You were overthinking it, Ms. Rhine.”

“This wasn’t a matter of whether he took his anger out or not, Marina. You were a smart person; you should be able to understand.”

Understand—of course Marina could understand. Yesterday, when Anselm said that sentence that sounded like flirting with Mingfuluo, spoken entirely casually and unintentionally—“If helping, it wouldn’t be me helping”—the girl had already keenly sensed a certain possibility.

But were you going to do it, Marina?

You, who least wanted to rely on your younger sister, least wanted to receive any special treatment because of the influence she brought... were you going to use her as a springboard, to obtain the transformation you yearned for?

“If you could settle this problem, and afterward continue cooperating with me... I could make you become a transcendent being.”

“Not an opportunity, not a possibility, but definitively let you achieve transcendence, and it would not limit your possibilities. It was just that for this... you would have to pay no small price.”

Rhine’s words seemed to still echo in her ears. Marina remained silent, gazing at Anselm’s back.

So close, and yet so far.

What was she chasing after...

Mr. Anselm, what did you think I needed to chase after?

***

Miss Fenrir slumped in front of the desk, her expression scattered, her eyes unfocused.

Starving, she now really wanted to bury her head into the cafeteria pot and eat her fill, but reality did not allow it.

What was this revision of the administrative regulations of the Second District?

The Third District reported market chaos?

What market?

Where was it chaotic?

Detailed adjustment application regarding floor zoning?

I wasn’t building houses, why was it asking me!

Huh? Who was I? Why was I doing these things? Why was it that once these words were put together I couldn’t understand any of it? What should I do ahhh!!!

Hitana, who wanted to roar at the top of her lungs, in the end only tugged hard at her own hair, and slumped onto the desktop in dejection, not moving at all.

“I missed Anselm so much... it would be great if the sky could drop an Anselm down.”

The girl grumbled, aggrieved and desperate.

She had no room to refuse the proposals from Strife Fortress’s upper city.

Those crazed people threatened her with the entire lower city residents, and Hitana could only compromise.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought of killing her way to the city lord’s manor at the fastest speed and wiping out all relevant people, but her previous worries still lingered in her heart.

In Chishuang Territory, the girl had seen too many tragedies caused by her own recklessness.

That made her now more steady, and more... unable to let go and gamble it all.

—Just as the Garden executors doing cleanup for her had thought, Hitana Lansmarlos accepted no death that should not have appeared.

In addition, the other party’s conditions were actually not excessive; rather, in some sense, they were quite reasonable, so Hitana naturally agreed.

But in less than a day, she discovered that reasonable and suitable had never been the same thing.

Indeed, compared to letting those adventurers whose background she could not yet make out take over this lower city, she was clearly someone who could not do bad things, but the problem was... could she really manage this place well?

“Cliff, Cliff, come help a bit!”

Hitana shouted loudly.

Before long, an elderly man with a graying beard and hair pushed the door and entered.

From the open doorway, it could be seen he was sitting in the room next to Hitana’s.

“Miss Fenrir, what is it again?”

From the old man’s helpless expression and that “again,” it wasn’t hard to see this had happened quite a few times today.

“Just... just this.”

Hitana grabbed the document on the desk, pointing at the words on it with her finger: “This zoning something something... oh sorry, I held it upside down. Anyway it’s this thing, what did it mean?”

The old man looked at the document Hitana had hurriedly flipped over, fell silent for a moment, then said:

“Now it’s upside down, Miss Fenrir.”

“Ah, ah? Oh... hahahaha, well, I didn’t notice.”

Hitana dry-laughed and flipped the document back again. “Then could you teach me how to handle this thing?”

“...”

This kindly-faced old man stroked his beard for a long time. In the end, he sighed deeply and said:

“Miss Fenrir, you really weren’t suited to do this kind of thing.”

“I knew that too!” The moment Cliff said that, the girl grumbled in extreme depression. “But before a suitable person was found, someone had to do it, right?”

Hearing that, hesitation appeared on Cliff’s face again.

After about four or five seconds, he said very tactfully: “But according to your requirements, wanting to find a suitable candidate, in a short while I’m afraid...”

What were Hitana’s requirements for someone to manage lower city affairs?

Kind, had read many books, very smart, capable, wholeheartedly considered civilians, preferably a transcendent being...

Wanting to find such a person in the lower city?

Not to mention in a short while—this was simply impossible to find!

“Uh...” Hitana scratched her chin. “Then, then I loosen the conditions?”

Cliff let out a breath: “That would be better. Actually there are quite a few—”

“Remove the part about being a transcendent being, and, um... lower the capability requirement a bit. That was fine, right?”

Hitana crossed her arms, saying very unwillingly.

Before, when she helped certain small places and dealt with local bullies, she used this kind of standard.

Because the place was small and there was nothing complicated, Hitana did not consider capability and such.

The most important thing was being upright enough and kind enough. Everything else could be discussed later.

But Strife Fortress’s lower city was so big, and in addition she had so many questions that made her head swell—Hitana immediately added hard requirements on capability.

Miss Wolf was proud of her concrete analysis for concrete circumstances!

But her words made Cliff, whose expression had just improved a little, fall silent again.

“...Cliff?”

Hitana looked at the old man before her, asking in confusion: “Was there a problem?”

Cliff was silent for a long time. Then he slowly said: “Miss Fenrir, first of all, this old man was very glad... that in this world, there was still someone like you.”

“Hehehehe... it wasn’t that much, not that much.”

Hitana wasn’t someone who could take praise.

The moment she heard praise, she started wagging an invisible tail proudly.

“But.”

The old man’s tone grew heavier, and his eyes were full of seriousness. “You doing this, won’t work.”

“...Huh?”

“If you needed to find someone who could help you manage the lower city, then you couldn’t treat whether they were upright as an absolute indicator.”

Hitana froze for two seconds, then said in shock, “That should be the most basic indicator, right? If the people I picked didn’t even think about doing things for the civilians, then why would I find them?”

“Not upright didn’t mean they wouldn’t do things for civilians...”

“But sooner or later they would!”

Hitana interrupted Cliff: “I knew what you meant, Cliff. You wanted to tell me that good people didn’t mean they could do things well, right?”

Cliff’s expression relaxed a little: “You knew then—”

“But good people could learn how to do things well.”

Once it involved what she insisted on, Hitana became very decisive, even sharp.

Facing an elderly old man, her tone and expression looked somewhat... not allowing refusal.

The young wolf stared dead at the old man, saying word by word: “But would bad people learn how to be a good person?”

Her persistence—Cliff saw it all. The old man sighed inwardly, knowing it was impossible for him to persuade this girl with a heart like blazing fire.

At the same time, Hitana had no intention of stopping.

Her gaze was cold, and her words unconsciously carried a few traces of killing intent.

“What was more, people like that usually had stains on them. I didn’t catch them all and punish them all only because I didn’t have time! Let them manage the lower city... not a chance!”

Cliff lowered his head slightly and sighed soundlessly.

He could only answer, “I understood, Miss Fenrir. I would follow your requirements and have people recruit candidates again.”

“That’s right!” Hitana immediately brightened up. “Oh and also, about this thing...”

After giving Hitana some suggestions, the old man walking out of the office could still faintly hear the frustrated cries coming from inside.

Cliff’s mood, therefore, was extremely complicated.

He wasn’t originally from Strife Fortress’s lower city. He was only a wandering doctor temporarily residing here.

If it came to talent for management, Cliff actually didn’t have much either. He had simply experienced enough and seen enough, so he could more or less make some relatively correct choices, but that was all.

Yet that Miss Fenrir had without hesitation entrusted him with heavy responsibility.

It made Cliff not know what to say.

He had wandered for so many years, and had never thought he would actually encounter such a... such a naive transcendent being.

Naive, yet at the same time she had power that made one look up.

This power made her naivety not seem too naive.

...Me working so hard to help Miss Fenrir, that counted as somewhat naive too.

Cliff smiled soundlessly.

Just as he was about to return to the office and continue doing something for the lower city, from the end of the corridor, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came.

“This... Miss Fenrir's big sis was right here.”

Cliff’s expression froze slightly as he looked toward the corridor’s end.

He saw a young man he knew, leading a very extraordinary-looking adventurer very diligently.

Just meeting that cold, stern gaze, Cliff could conclude that this adventurer lord was absolutely not an ordinary person.

When this adventurer brushed past him, and the next step would be to directly push the door and enter Fenrir’s office, Cliff originally wanted to say something, at least to make him maintain the most basic courtesy toward Fenrir, but in the end he could not say anything.

He could only watch as the adventurer and his follower pushed the door and entered together.

There also was no sound from within the room.

“...Zabus, how could you bring someone in so casually?”

The old man could only scold the young man leading the way: “Miss Fenrir was at least the manager of the lower city now. How could you let her lose face like this?”

“Uh... ah? That was nothing, right? Big sis Fenrir didn’t care about that.”

The young man scratched his head, not particularly caring about Cliff’s words, and his face quickly showed an excited look: “Forget that, I’m telling you, Grandpa Cliff, just now that adventurer, he might be the legendary...”

At the same time, inside the office.

“Cliff? What is it again?”

Hitana, working hard with her head down, five fingers clenching the pen, didn’t even raise her head: “Anything else? I’m going to settle this planning thing next, I definitely can do it!”

“It looked like Miss Fenrir was a pretty hardworking person.”

“Of course. If I didn’t work hard, who would—”

Hearing this, Hitana subconsciously lifted her head proudly, but at the instant she met that smiling-but-not-smiling gaze, the pride on her face instantly froze.

Pa.

The pen she held in her palm like a dagger fell to the ground.

Anselm quietly watched the girl... Her face, compared to before she set out, had lost far too much of that pampered pinkness and moistness.

Although still fair and soft, whether in appearance changes or the spirit between her brows, there was more of a wildness that could not be dissolved.

It was just that her stiff look now was a bit too funny.

“An—”

She almost sprang several meters high on the spot.

If the office ceiling weren’t high enough, she might have slammed her head into the ceiling.

And it was only that, while she happily shouted out that syllable, Anselm coughed lightly, not heavy nor light.

That cough made Miss Wolf, who was cheering and wanting to pounce toward Anselm and hang onto him like a koala, stiffen again.

The girl whose whole body overflowed with strength and wild beauty looked at him pitifully, her mouth slightly pouting, looking a bit wronged, a bit sad.

But only for a short while, she broke away from that emotion.

Just looking at Anselm, the lonely heart of the lone wolf received immense satisfaction and comfort.

“Ahem... ahem.”

She lifted her chin slightly and coughed once: “I am, I am Fenrir. Who are you, what are you looking for me for?”

As she said that, her hands were clasped behind her back.

Her body swayed lightly and cheerfully, and one foot was still drawing circles on the spot.

No matter what, she couldn’t put on a dignified look.

“My name was Faust.” Anselm replied with a smile.

“There was a small matter that needed Miss Fenrir’s help.”

“...”

His concise words seemed to contain some earth-shattering secret, a sentence of world truth, and made Hitana stand there, as if thinking about the meaning of life.

After about half a minute, she asked again cautiously: “...Help?”

“Mhm.”

“Looking for me?”

“Mhm.”

“Looking for me... to help?”

Anselm forced down his laughter and, without impatience, nodded again and again, for a moment not even maintaining Faust’s persona properly.

“Looking for me to help!!!”

Miss Fenrir’s voice instantly rose by who knew how many degrees, almost too loud for even the soundproofing domain Anselm casually set after entering to block.

She excitedly clenched both fists, her eyes shining so brightly it seemed like they could emit light.

“I didn’t hear wrong, right, An... Fu, Faust you were looking for me to help, right!”

Anselm nodded slightly: “I would give the corresponding reward. Don’t worry about that.”

“It’s not about the reward! No, I mean... I’m not saying that, um, I, I definitely won’t help you for free! Yes! Because... because I don’t know you! So I definitely won’t help you for free!”

The incoherent girl gestured wildly: “What I mean is, ah, um, you want me to help you... I’ll definitely help you... it’s not definitely helping you! It’s just, um, you first, you first...”

With her brain already somewhat overloaded, Miss Wolf blurted out:

“You first beg me!”

“...”

Anselm tilted his head slightly.

Mingfuluo, who had never shown herself before Hitana, had her consciousness frozen.

Even Marina slightly opened her mouth.

“You want me...” A smile gradually appeared on the black-haired young man’s face. “Beg you?”

Hitana was also dumbfounded.

She first covered her mouth hard, seeming to want to instinctively deny what she just said, but in this subtle silence, Miss Wolf turned her eyes, and gradually lowered her hand.

“...Hmph! I just want you to beg me first, so what!”

She put her hands on her hips and lifted her chin: “I’m the manager of this lower city now! The only manager! Whatever you have, I can settle it with one sentence!”

After saying that, she even added another sentence: “I’m the manager, you know!”

“Can anything be settled?” Anselm asked back.

At these words, Hitana instinctively glanced at that pile of documents and couldn’t help shivering.

She said in a small voice, rather guilty: “N-not necessarily anything can be settled, but anyway... I’m very impressed!”

The corner of Faust’s mouth twitched slightly: “So, you insisted I beg you first, right?”

Hitana hesitated for a short while, then, as if afraid of missing an opportunity she would never encounter again in her life, lifted her head and hmphed:

“Yes! You have to beg me, and... and you have to change your face!”

“...”

These words even made Anselm, who had been holding back laughter, pause.

He only heard the girl mumble again: “I don’t want you to beg me with someone else’s face. This face isn’t good-looking at all! Just... just change back! Change back!”

As she spoke, she even unconsciously carried a bit of a coquettish trailing tone.

So, a certain Miss Scholar who had been silent all along, got angry.

“Enough!”

Gray particles condensed into the petite woman’s figure.

She stood by Anselm’s side, her expression cold: “So big, and you still liked to act cutesy like this. Aren’t you ashamed!”

“Y-you!”

Hitana was shocked: “Shorty! How could you be with An... how could you be with him!”

She looked at Mingfuluo, then at Anselm; looked at Anselm, then at Mingfuluo. In an instant she also became extremely furious: “Shameless! You ran off secretly!”

“Were you crazy? Was it me forcing you to go out alone?”

Mingfuluo’s brows shot up; she looked very angry.

Hitana, whose brain was gradually coming out of overload, realized her mistake, but still could not help talking back: “I... I thought you were the type who squatted in a corner reading and never came out! You weren’t as book-loving as I imagined!”

“Heh.” Miss Scholar sneered.

“I also thought you were just a stupid dog without any scheming. I didn’t expect you could even change ways to act spoiled. This is the new skill you learned? Staring into the mirror every day thinking how to Anselm—”

“Ahem.”

On the battlefield where the smell of gunpowder was escalating, the young Hydra coughed lightly: “Although I don’t know what the two of you are talking about, there is no Mr. Anselm here.”

“...”

The tall, graceful wild girl and the petite, lovely mature scholar exchanged a glance, then both looked away at the same time, both expressions displeased.

“Alright then, do I still need to beg you, Miss Fenrir?” Anselm asked with a smile.

“...No need.”

Hitana said sullenly: “With irrelevant people present, it’s not fun.”

Mingfuluo glared, immediately wanting to clash with her, but still held back, thinking she wouldn’t bother with this stupid dog.

“I’m looking for a missing boy... Miss Fenrir should know about this. Because the clues in every aspect are really limited, I need you to provide some help, to find the others originally connected to Varied Snake, other people in the human trafficking link.”

The moment she heard that Anselm’s request for help was this, Hitana immediately agreed without thinking:

“Looking for a missing child... of course that’s no problem!”

“Very good, then my reward is—”

“I don’t want a reward!”

The girl shook her head: “This time it really isn’t because of An... because of you. For something like looking for a missing child, how could I take a reward?”

She looked at the young man before her, whose face was unfamiliar, yet whose inside made her feel incomparably familiar and at ease.

Her gaze grew gentler and gentler.

Anselm... really was the best!

Although she didn’t know why Anselm came here, just what he was doing now made Hitana feel happiness a hundred and twenty thousand times over.

Even in a foreign place, using another identity, Anselm was still thinking about helping others!

Anselm looked at Hitana for a while, then smiled and shook his head.

“Reward is necessary. That is the rule.”

“It’s not, I—”

“You needed this reward, Miss Fenrir.”

Anselm’s voice gently cut her off: “Because you, who just took office as manager, right now probably... were very short on manpower, weren’t you?”

“I—”

Hitana instinctively wanted to put on a show, but seeing the scattered documents on the desk, she immediately wilted.

She lowered her head, swaying her body awkwardly: “Indeed, indeed a bit, um... short on people.”

“Then, this is just right. You lend me a hand, and I also provide you with the help you need most.”

Faust smiled: “This is a reasonable deal. Isn’t that right...”

“Ganlei?”

Under Hitana’s somewhat blank stare, behind Anselm, that frail adventurer who had not participated in the cheerful interaction just now at all, as if utterly out of place among these three, stepped forward, removed the beret soft hat on her head, and as Hitana’s mouth gradually opened into an O, bowed slightly.

“According to Mr. Faust’s intention, I will temporarily help you handle some matters.”

The girl raised her head, in her eyes neither sorrow nor joy:

“My name is Ma Ganlei, Ma Ganlei Brandt. Just call me Ma Ganlei, Miss Fenrir.”