Stray

Early the next morning, Ann calmly knocked on the door of her companion’s room with an apple in her hand. When she entered the apple in her mouth almost fell to the ground.

“You guys… Haven’t been well?” She looked with concern at Oliver’s baggy eyes. Adrian looked a little better, but the air around him was almost reduce to zero degrees. Nemo face was not haggard at all, but rather he had a murderous aura, which was rarely seen on Mr. Light who was usually indifferent to the world.

Oliver took a deep breath. His expression shook twice, as if he had forcibly suppressed a few swearing words. Nemo uncharacteristically showed a smile that could be called cold.

“Someone snored all night.” Nemo’s smile showed gritted teeth. “All night, I thought a mountain pig was singing somewhere.”

Ann didn’t intend to hide the joy on her face for the rest of her life. She glanced into the room carefully. Jesse was still lying sideways on one of the beds. His long blond hair slightly curled and white pillows scattered everywhere like molten metal. The sun hit his beautiful face just right, bringing out some purity. It’s a pity that after being tossed all night, no one was moved by such an image.

“We can suffocate him with a pillow right now,” Ann whispered with hope.

“Don’t talk about me as if my eyes are still closed. I’m already awake—” Jesse yelled. “You’re so humorous, lovely lady.”

“Let’s go,” Nemo whispered. “Since we’re not in a hurry this time, we have time to take a nap, right Ollie?”

“Of course.” Oliver rubbed his temples fiercely. “We have to buy some tents first, and… Uh…”

“If you mean the ones you use on the road, I already bought them early in the morning.” Ann said with a lisp as she kept chewing her apple. “I also bought a fuller goat; with four people we have a lot of things. Nemo can’t keep carrying everything on his back. If we no longer need it, we can always sell it, so we won’t lose too much money and if we’re in a critical situation we can always eat it.” She licked her lips. “It tastes pretty good.”

Nemo imagined a picture of them marching forward with a goat and stopped talking.

“I know it maybe be different form the image that you’re thinking of,” Ann threw the apple’s pit into the trashcan that was in the room, “…but a horse is really expensive.”

“We also need weapons,” Oliver said faintly. “Nemo and I…”

“Yes, I found a good shop. You can choose it yourself,” Ann spoke very fast. “I took some cash from my Black Chapter account, so everything is in order. We can set off after we make our purchases.”

She kept glancing at Jesse as she said this; the latter was slowly getting dressed. She didn’t know when the blood stains on his light blue coat was erased by him, but there wasn’t blood or even a wrinkle on his clothes. He arranged his outfit meticulously, then tied up his long hair with a ribbon, dressing as if he was going to attend a royal banquet.

“Where are you going?” he asked with a smile. “Don’t be nervous. I’m just asking. After all, I have my own task—”

“Vincent Town, a very remote place,” Oliver replied impassively. “Let’s say goodbye, Dy—”

“Amazing! This really was meant to be! I also happen to be going to Vincent Town!”

“What exactly do you want?” Adrian asked coldly. “Stop playing tricks.”

Jesse raised an eyebrow before bringing up the contract parchment and threw it directly in front of the four of them.

“The remains of a Grace Bluebird?” Ann took two steps back in disgust. “You’ll pay the price sooner or later.”

“I’ve been told this for many years. It seems that retribution isn’t as fast as me.” Jesse stuck a finger in his ear and dug it out. “You see, I’m not lying to you. The race of the Grace Bluebirds is on the edge of Vincent Towns.”

“Let’s go.” Oliver pulled aside the parchment roll, as if he had made up his mind to ignore the uninvited guest. “We still have weapons to buy.”

“What happened to the remains of Grace Bluebirds?” Making sure that Jesse wasn’t near, Nemo couldn’t help whispering. He had never read anything about them in a book.

“There are few records now. After all, they’re almost extinct,” Ann sighed. “It’s a kind of bird monster about the size of a human. Their bones make good materials for weapons, and their feather and flesh are suitable ingredients for spellcasting. If the mission is to be believed, and that annoying person is not lying, there is indeed a group near Vincent Town.”

“…Is it okay to do such a task?”

“There are not many people who would dare attack them now as their magic are pretty extreme. For example, if they find that they are about to be killed, they will desperately give themselves a ‘funeral’. Their whole body would turn into ashes, leaving nothing behind, including bones. My previous team took on a similar mission in another country. Don’t ask. I don’t want to go into details.”

Nemo hurriedly closed his already opened mouth.

“In short, if you want to get their corpse, you must either betray their trust and shoot from behind, or dig in their holy land. Either way, it can still be done,” she didn’t lower her voice when she said this. Nemo believed that Jesse Dylan would be able to hear it, but the beautiful blond young man still had a bright smile on his face as he hummed a minor tune happily while following them. 

There were no exciting discoveries in the process of buying their weapons. Adrian picked a bow and gave Oliver the silver sword.

“I’m no longer qualified to call myself a knight,” Adrian said seriously as he mounted the quiver behind his back. “This sword is more suitable for you. It can last longer than these ordinary goods.”

Nemo was gearing up for a while but resulted in getting nothing. The store obviously didn’t consider the needs of a demon warlock. The three men came into the shop empty handed and ended up buying only a very ordinary metal bow and a bunch of arrows. Even with the deterrence of the black badge, the shop owner’s eyes almost rolled to the back of his head and his actions were both sad and angry when he was giving them change.

With their weapons ready, Ann began to pile bags of various sizes onto the fuller goat, which was about half a person tall. It had a long neck and was as big as little pony. It ruminated slowly, looking at them one by one crossed-eyed. The gray parrot flew happily and stood still between its curly horns and puffed out its chest.

Nemo poked the goat’s moist noise curiously and was immediately spat on. He straightened his waist in silence and wiped his face carefully with his sleeves under the loud ridicule of the gray parrot.

“Done.” On the other side, Oliver and Adrian were holding the luggage, while Ann tied the last belt around it and tightened it. “With a few small teleports, it should take us about a week to walk there. Nemo, don’t poke it. It’s our companion for the time being.”

Jesse looked at them with a smile dozens of steps away. He was casually carrying a cloth bag, but he didn’t bring any large luggage.

“We should be able to pass through the forest at noon.” Ann ignored him and pointed to the hills not far away. “Then we’ll take a break. Oliver don’t sleep on the goat. You’re too heavy.”

It was boring moving forward in silence. At first their feet stepped on stone bricks but the pebbled pavement was soon replaced by dirt. After a while, the dirt road was gone, leaving only crooked grass and thorny vines. The sun hung high in the center of the sky. It was so hot that everything in their field of vision had a harsh white light. Insects buzzed amidst the grass and the uneven touch against their soles made everyone feel uncomfortable. Nemo’s feet felt sour as he walked. The hot air burned his will, so he had to distract himself by looking around.

Jesse Dylan walked leisurely in the hot sun, haunting behind them.

The female warrior and the knight have expansive combat experience, while Nemo had monster-like physical strength. It stood out that Oliver was the weakest member of the team, and it could be seen that he cared deeply about it. Nemo watched Oliver staggered forward, and decided he needed to be vigilant so that their captain wouldn’t fall flat on his face.

Ann and Adrian were keenly aware of this as well. As soon as they entered the woods, Ann announced to break in advance. Oliver didn’t push himself harder any longer. He sat down on the soft rotten leaves and quickly fell asleep against a tree trunk. Adrian chose another area with shade, sat crossed legged and began to take a nap as well.

“I hope I don’t get the chance to experience Mr. Dylan’s snoring.” Ann huffed and sat down by the shade near a tree. “This is the first time I’ve seen Oliver so listless.”

“Bless you,” Nemo said dully as he pulled on the leaves and grass with his hands. The weather was too hot that his drowsiness had burnt out. “…But I feel terrible. Look, he’s coming again.”

“How did he do it?” Ann murmured. “Did he rise to the level of a sea scorpion by being this shameless?”

“Don’t say that,” Jesse leaned forward and sat down not far from them. “I just want to casually chat. It’s boring to travel alone.”

Ann and Nemo turned their heads slowly showing lifeless eyes.

“How about in order to express my apologies, I can share a little interesting knowledge with Mr. Light.” The blond young man tucked his bangs behind his ears revealing not a single drop of sweat on his face. “After all, I have always acted alone before, and I haven’t paid much attention to this. Miss Savage, you should understand… Oh, I didn’t mean to accuse you of snoring.”

“What knowledge?” Nemo snapped his fingers and made up his mind that if this man opened his mouth again and said something vulgar, he wouldn’t mind using violence to threaten him.

“I accidentally overheard your conversation yesterday,” Jesse accentuated the word “accidentally”. “It seems that you have never successfully casted a spell before being corrupted by the demon?”

“Yes,” Nemo replied dryly.

“I have some experience ont his issue.” Jesse beamed. “You see, there must be a lot of people telling you how to mediate or devoutly recite mantras religiously— a bunch of naïve fools! The essence of magic is trading. It’s nothing more than a creature with insufficient power asking for a trade from a more powerful being. Of course, this is just a boring atheist’s theory.” He pulled out a grotesque purple fruit from the cloth bag and threw it to Nemo.

“Would you like her fruit?” He threw another one to Ann who caught it with a sullen face.

“…I already have one.”

“Exactly.”

Jesse leaned generously close to Nemo’s side; so close that his lips almost pressed to Nemo’s ears. He opened his mouth at a volume that only Nemo could hear, and his voice was full of laughter.

“If you ask others for what you already have in your hands, who will respond to you? If you ask me, you’re just being misled. That power is originally yours. You should have found out by now, right? Your spells don’t need incantations.”

Nemo’s face frozen. The light of the Abyssal magic slowly emerged, and the edges of the dark shadow exuded dark purple halos. They danced hideously as they were about to cover Jesse’s face. “You’re too close.”

“You are indeed a powerful caster before you were corrupted.” Jesse smiled as usual. He was close enough that Nemo could tell that there was no smile in those beautiful blue eyes. “Please don’t doubt this.”

The author has something to say：

Jesse: Tentatively on the verge of Nemo’s outburst.jpg

Nemo’s rage value +10

Ann’s rage value +5

Adrian’s rage value +5

Oliver’s rage value +50

……

Grey parrot favorability +5

Kinky Thoughts:

I know we all have our guesses but lets keep them to ourselves until its fully revealed to avoid potential spoilers, or you can join my discord server to discuss the novel (or others I’ve translated).