Stray

Caleb Village was in turmoil.

No one knew why flowers had suddenly appeared, but it was beautiful. The vines took root at the center of the witch’s residence and covered the shrub walls around the village, spreading out around the sand of the village within a single breath. Like miniature fireworks, countless flowers exploded under the golden light of dawn.

A flower had been reborn that was once lost in history.

However, the female innkeeper who named her inn after it did not look at them at all. She quietly stayed by her best friend’s side. The witch’s residence experienced a boon of visitors that kept pouring in that it made the Black Chapters reconsider their options on places to rest. Nemo had an armful of fruits and vegetables. Before he had the chance to set them down, a teleportation spell was stuffed into his fingers.

Ann took a deep breath and made a painful expression before she ignited the teleportation parchment.

When they came back to their senses, they had already returned to the room at the inn. Nemo stood on the bed with a serious expression and a bag full of small potatoes in his arms.

“Ann,” Nemo opened his mouth dryly as he jumped awkwardly off the bed, leaving behind two dirty footprints on the sheets. “Don’t do that so suddenly next time, alright?”

Now he had to wash these sheets before they check out.

“Sorry.” The female warrior shrugged. “But it’s always good to keep a low profile. We don’t have time to delay.”

Lisa bowed to them hurriedly and stood up firmly. The innkeeper carefully picked up her sleeping friend and quickly rushed out of the Black Chapters’ room. In the next moment, only five people were left in the large spacious room that didn’t seem to be as crowded as before.

Adrian was expressionless. He leaned back quietly in the corner of the room, as if he was lost in thought. Debby and Oliver were still standing in the same place with their eyes focused on the bag of potatoes Nemo was holding and at the same time turned to look at Nemo’s face.

Nemo slowly hugged the unlucky bag tightly and looked back suspiciously.

“Don’t worry, Nemo. I didn’t expose all your embarrassing secrets to your boyfriend,” Debby said briskly. “Although I would definitely do it if I had plenty of time; we just talked amicably for a bit, right Oliver?” She patted Oliver on the shoulder a little reluctantly, putting in all her strength.

“…Right.” Oliver’s expression showed a bit of helplessness. It took a lot of effort for him to suppress the urge to look at the ceiling.

Nemo was about to put the bag on the wooden table when his hands trembled uncontrollably a few times causing a few small potatoes to roll out. It’s over. He thought numbly and he accidently squeezed a small potato turning it into mashed potatoes.

The female warrior sighed and turned over the spell book that seemed to have traces of being gnawed on by a goat and dropped it on the floor. The former knight commander raised his head very slowly and there were traces of disbelief in his eyes.

“I still shocked, Oliver,” Ann picked up the spell book as she said in a heavy emotional tone. “Obviously, with such an innocent face, I’d move quite quickly. They all said that I was ‘crazy’ before, but compared to you… How can I put this…? I’m as harmless as a twelve-year-old incense maker.”

“You got together.” Rather than a question, Adrian said it with affirmation.

“Yes, although it was less than a few hours ago,” Nemo’s face stiffened as he were prepared to face the storm. “We won’t do anything excessive in public. I promise.”

“I have witnessed history!” Ann excitedly jabbed Adrian with her elbow.

Adrian took a deep breath and turned towards the corner of the wall hiding his face from everyone.

“…Sorry, I didn’t know you hadn’t made it public yet.” Debby shrank her neck. “Uh…I’ll go back to the team to report first. Nemo, don’t leave quietly while I’m away.”

She quickly slipped out of the room and considerately closed the door.

As Debby left, the air in the room suddenly became thick. Adrian’s back was straight, but he was still resolutely facing the corner. Ann’s gaze swept back and forth between the two of them and her expression became more meaningful.

“Where’s Dylan?” Oliver took the lead in bravely breaking the silence. “Didn’t you bring him here with you?”

“Oh, him. He can always find us by himself. I almost suspect he had set a hidden tracking array on us,” Ann said indifferently. “Compared to this, you two in the end…”

“Where’s Bagelmaurus?” Nemo had a bad feeling about what she was going to say next, and quickly interrupted Ann. “Is it with Dylan?”

But the gray parrot wasn’t by his side when Jesse Dylan brought those flowers back to life. Since knowing Nemo’s identity, Bagelmaurus had never acted alone, although it would subconsciously interject from time to time. After thinking about it for a moment, Nemo couldn’t help but frown slightly.

“Who knows. It’ll run back by itself in due time. It’s quite similar to Dylan in that regards. This isn’t the first time it disappeared.” Ann raised her brows. “My dear Mr. Light, why are you trying to skirt around the issue? I just want to know what happened between the two of you—”

The door suddenly slammed opened causing the blood vessels in Ann’s forehead to pop.

“You just left me behind like that!” the blond young man complained loudly. “That’s too cruel! I’m also a reserve teammate— Huh? What’s wrong with this atmosphere?”

“Nothing,” Nemo immediately said. He quickly turned his face away, trying to hide the nervousness in his eyes. He didn’t know if Jesse Dylan knew he had found out who was behind the awakening of the seeds, and he wasn’t good at hiding these things. It was a bit odd. Even if Nemo didn’t know how he did it, he could clearly perceive that Jesse wasn’t a “threat” to him in the face of Bagelmaurus or even Oliver.

When he looked at Jesse, it felt as if he was exploring a piece of air. He couldn’t feel anything. Bagelmaurus seemed to have mentioned something similar before. Perhaps the other party was using some means to hide his strength, or Nemo wasn’t strong enough to see through him. This made his thoughts uncertain.

Jesse didn’t seem to care about Nemo’s reaction. He glanced at the knight commander who was still facing the wall, tied up his blond hair neatly, and threw it behind his shoulders, accentuating every single movement with grievance. “Now can we leave? Do you really want to have a loving bonfire with Horizon?”

“Bagelmaurus didn’t come with you?” Ann spoke the words that was in Nemo’s thoughts.

Jesse instantly showed a painful expression.

“…What’s with that face? Did it run into Lopez?” Ann made a gesture of cutting across her neck. “Then it can only be said that its luck was poor. Are there any traces left?”

“No,” Jesse said sadly. “It flew away.”

“What?” Nemo finally turned his face.

“Literally, it just flew away.” The blond young man’s expression was melancholic. “I tried to persuade it to talk to you, but alas, it… escaped very decisively. Mr. Light, I don’t think you’re the type who’ll abuse birds, right?”

“…” Nemo wiped his face fiercely, “I don’t think so.”

Thinking about the scene of Ann choking the bird’s neck in Vincent Town, he felt a little guilty.

“If it’s as Ms. Savage said just now that demon can always find you.” Adrian finally turned around with a twitch on his face. “Then you should be able to track it too. You can try it, Mr. Light.”

Nemo closed his eyes doubtfully. He thought he would get nothing, but he didn’t expect to sense something. It was like a soft noise in the corner of a dark room, or like a mosquito landing on one’s skin…

“Probably…uh, eight o’clock about a few hundred kilometers away. I’m not very…”

“Roscoe.” Adrian concluded.

“Roscoe?”

“If Bagelmaurus has been with you since it came to the surface, then it should not have developed its own ‘circle of communication’.” Adrian pondered for a few seconds. “Mr. Ramon, can you please check the Black Chapter task list?”

Oliver pulled out the task list.

“See if there is any mission about the Abyssal Church.” Adrian seemed to have calmed down. “Of course, this is my personal suggestion. It should have gone that away, assuming Mr. Light intends to find it.”

“Of course. Even if its strength is only intermediate, it’s not good to leave it alone… If Bagelmaurus really wants to leave that badly, then we need to talk about it before,” Nemo quickly said. He stepped to Oliver’s side, intending to lean in front of the task table to take a closer look.

As a result, he was mercilessly dragged by Ann who pulled at his collar.

“Don’t choose,” Ann said vigilantly. “Don’t.”

“There are a few, but they are more… Well, not appropriate.” Oliver tried his best to be as tactful as possible.

“Isn’t this interesting? This guy is asking for an escort to the tombs of the church. He promises that he’s only there to look and not take anything.” The female warrior casually glanced at the task list and pointed to one of them.

“Isn’t it suspicious?” There seemed to be shadow cast upon Oliver for task selection as he was rarely indecisive.

“It’s better than this pile of things like ‘hanging pagans’.”

“If you’re just looking for a parrot, you don’t need to take on a task.” Jesse raised an eyebrow. “I’m afraid these two little guys don’t know about the Abyssal yet. Isn’t that right?”

“It’s not just for that purpose,” Adrian said slowly as he glared at the blond young man. “There are a lot of unique demon intelligence from the Abyssal Church… At the very least, the information from the Laddism Church cannot explain this current situation. I’m very concerned about the identity of Mr. Light.”

The former knight commander spoke truthfully. “I don’t think the two of you will give up on digging deeper into this, right?”

Nemo nodded quickly as Oliver was still looking through the tasks in the task list in fear.

“That’s true.” Ann touched her chin. “If there’s more information to be found… it’s probably the only place I can think of. Hey, it seems feasible. After all, we really have a, ahem, complete superior demon.”

“…The Abyssal Church?” Nemo finally couldn’t help asking.

“Mm-hmm.” Jesse smiled strangely, as if he was trying his best to hold back this smile. “You can think of it as a refuge for demon worshippers and demon warlocks… It’s the most prominent anomaly of religions on the surface.”

“They believe in the Demon King at the bottom of the Abyss.”

The author has something to say：

Ann: Actually, I just want to ask you two who’s the top. (X

Kinky Thoughts:

Oh Ann, can’t you already tell?