Lin Ling, who was inside the room, also happened to wake up at this time.
“Mmm... ah...”
She stretched in bed, looking just like a small animal that had just crawled out of its nest.
“That was such a comfortable sleep.”
Just as she finished saying this, she froze.
Because the blanket covering her was pink.
Lin Ling looked down at the pink blanket.
Pink and very soft.
There was also a very suspicious wet spot on it.
Lin Ling: “...”
She blinked.
She blinked again.
The next second, she sat up abruptly.
“Wait, this isn't right!!!”
She had clearly covered herself with the white blanket last night.
She had even very solemnly declared her declaration of tolerance to “Mr. Blanket.”
Why did she wake up to find Mr. Blanket gone, replaced by the pink blanket from the Demon King's room?
And...
And there was even some drool she had left on it while sleeping!
Lin Ling's face turned pale instantly.
“Ah, I'm doomed, I'm doomed.”
“If the Demon King sees this...”
She didn't even suspect for a second that Ivelia might have personally covered her with this blanket in the middle of the night.
In Lin Ling's overactive imagination, the situation had already taken a completely different turn.
She must have kicked the white blanket onto the floor while sleeping last night.
Then she felt cold in her sleep.
So her hands started groping around.
Groping.
Groping some more.
And finally, she grabbed this pink blanket from the Demon King's bed.
No wonder when she was half-asleep last night, she kept feeling a large source of warmth next to her.
So it was the blanket.
Lin Ling nodded seriously.
“Makes sense.”
“Perfect sense.”
“Mr. Blanket summoned Mrs. Pink Blanket to compensate for his failure to protect me last night.”
“This is the friendship between blankets.”
As she made up these wild explanations, she quickly cast a cleaning spell on the pink blanket.
A faint Holy Light swept across the blanket.
The suspicious drool mark vanished.
Lin Ling finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Great.”
“Evidence destroyed.”
“Miss Saintess remains pure and innocent today.”
She carefully tidied the blanket, patted down her messy hair, and then tiptoed to the door.
She opened the door.
Leticia was standing outside.
Lin Ling: “...”
Leticia: “...”
Lin Ling looked at Leticia.
Her silver-white hair was slightly messy.
There was some dust on the hem of her skirt.
Most importantly, there was a smudge of dirt on her cheek.
Lin Ling blinked.
“Sia.”
“What happened to your face?!”
She immediately raised her hand and cast a cleaning spell on Leticia.
A soft light fell upon Leticia.
The dirt on her face vanished, and her hem became clean once more.
Leticia looked down at her clean dress, her expression remaining calm.
“It's nothing,”
she said.
“I just wanted to see you as soon as possible.”
She answered very naturally.
Lin Ling was taken aback.
“See me as soon as possible?”
Leticia nodded.
“Yes.”
She didn't mention that she had gone in circles around the corridors of the Demon King's Castle just to see Lin Ling.
And she certainly wouldn't say that while crawling through the hole in the wall, she had thought, If it were Lin Ling, she would probably do the same.
It was better not to mention those things.
Lin Ling stood under Leticia's gaze.
Those shimmering eyes were far too earnest.
So earnest that Lin Ling felt a little self-conscious.
She subconsciously looked away and scratched her cheek.
“Uh, well...”
“Let's go find Phelan first.”
Leticia tilted her head slightly.
“Phelan?”
“Yes.”
Lin Ling nodded.
“It's too easy to get lost in the Demon King's Castle.”
“If we're going to the residential district, it's safer to find someone who knows the way.”
As she said this, she suddenly remembered that Baroque had guided her all the way there yesterday.
And then she remembered that brutal afternoon training session.
Lin Ling shuddered slightly.
No way.
She absolutely could not look for Uncle Baroque.
Just then, a gentle voice sounded from nearby.
“Miss Saintess, were you looking for me?”
“Whoa!”
Lin Ling almost jumped out of her skin.
She whipped her head around and saw Phelan standing by the corridor, though she had no idea when he had arrived.
He was holding his recording board.
Standing tall and poised, with a calm expression.
“Phelan!”
“Why are you here?!”
Phelan pushed up his glasses.
“Recording Miss Saintess's state after waking up every morning is also a very important task, is it not?”
“No, it isn't!”
Lin Ling retorted immediately.
“That's not important at all!”
Phelan looked down at his recording board.
“Addition: Miss Saintess reacted intensely upon waking, indicating she is in good spirits.”
“If possible, I'd prefer you didn't record that.”
Lin Ling felt like crying.
Phelan's pen didn't stop.
“Addition: Miss Saintess showed clear resistance to the morning state recording.”
“Don't write down the resistance either!”
Phelan finished writing his last stroke, then raised his head to look at Lin Ling and Leticia.
“So, do the two of you have business with me?”
Looking at the recording board in his hand, Lin Ling had already given up on salvaging her image.
She cleared her throat.
“If possible, could you take us to the residential district, Phelan?”
Phelan's gaze shifted from Lin Ling to Leticia.
“Of course.”
“However, may I ask the reason?”
Lin Ling answered naturally:
“Sia said she wants to learn how to be a good Saintess.”
“So, of course, she needs to start by understanding the lives of the common people.”
“What kind of lives different people lead, what they lack, what they need, what they fear—these are all the basics.”
She spoke as if it were a matter of course.
As if this was exactly what a Saintess was supposed to do.
Leticia stood beside her, quietly watching her.
Last night, she had asked Lin Ling what a Saintess should do.
Lin Ling had told her to go to the people and see for herself.
Now, Lin Ling wasn't just treating those words as a pretty piece of comfort.
She was actually going to show her.
Phelan watched Lin Ling for a moment.
Then, he looked down and wrote a line on his recording board.
“Lin Ling's perception of the Saintess's role is strongly oriented toward practical reality.”
Lin Ling: “Don't write that down so formally either!”
Phelan did not respond to her protest.
He simply continued:
“In that case, why not have Baroque take you there?”
“He usually patrols that area.”
Hearing Baroque's name, Lin Ling's body visibly shuddered.
Lin Ling immediately flashed a highly unnatural smile.
“Ahaha.”
“Wouldn't that be interrupting Uncle Baroque's work~”
She said, her eyes darting around wildly.
“Uncle Baroque is very busy every day.”
“We can't keep troubling him.”
“Right.”
“We can't trouble him.”
Phelan looked at her.
He knew full well that what Lin Ling truly feared wasn't interrupting Baroque's work.
She was just terrified that Baroque would drag her off to train again.
However, Phelan didn't expose her.
He simply looked down and recorded:
“Addition: Upon mentioning Baroque, Lin Ling showed clear avoidance behavior, including shifting her gaze and speaking faster. Suspected psychological trauma from yesterday's training.”
“Phelan!”
Lin Ling almost lunged forward to grab the recording board.
Phelan had already taken a gentle step back.
“In that case, allow me to take the two of you.”
As he spoke, he raised his hand and cast wind magic.
A gentle breeze rose from beneath their feet, supporting Lin Ling and Leticia.
“Pardon me.”
Lin Ling's body felt weightless.
“Eh?”
The next second, Phelan carried them both as he flew out of the corridor window.
Lin Ling: “...”
Suspended in midair by the wind, she stared at the window getting further and further away behind them, falling into silence.
After a moment, she whispered:
“Phelan.”
“Yes?”
“Did you catch something from me?”
“Meaning?”
“Going through windows.”
Phelan answered calmly:
“From the perspective of route efficiency, the window is indeed faster.”
Lin Ling blinked in surprise.
Then, her eyes lit up as if she had found a kindred spirit.
“Right?!”
“The window is a hidden route!”
“This proves Miss Saintess's exploration logic is correct!”
Phelan looked down to record.
“Addition: Miss Saintess expressed strong agreement with the window route. Suspected formation of a bad habit.”
“Why does even that have to be a bad habit?!”
Leticia didn't say anything.
This was her first time being carried by wind magic, flying above the Demon King's Castle.
The morning breeze brushed past her.
She looked down.
The dark earth stretched out below.
In the distance were the heavy walls of the Demon King's Castle.
And further away was the gloomy sky characteristic of the demon realm.
Yet amidst that dark earth, a few patches of land looked exceptionally different.
There wasn't much green.
And it was far from vast.
But those patches of green, enveloped by layers of faint Holy Light Stasis fields, stood out so strikingly against the dark soil.
Like lamps that had just been lit in the deep of the night.
In the experimental fields, several beastkin were busy working.
They carefully checked the ridges, carried tools, and confirmed the state of the Magic Slow-Release Stones buried in the soil.
Some bent down to inspect the newly sprouted shoots.
Others placed the harvested crops into baskets, their movements so gentle it was as if they were handling precious treasures.
Leticia watched all of this.
She had never seen such a sight before.
In the White Tower, she had seen courtyards paved with white stone.
She had seen temple gardens meticulously manicured by handmaids.
But she had never seen this kind of green.
It wasn't beautiful, nor was it neat.
It was even a bit sparse.
Yet the look in the eyes of those demons working in the fields as they gazed at the plants made it impossible for her to look away.
It was the hope of survival.
Leticia asked softly:
“Is that what Lin Ling did?”
Lin Ling, who was leaning over the edge of the wind magic to look down, immediately waved her hands upon hearing the question.
“I can't say I did it all by myself.”
“The Demon King, Phelan, Uncle Baroque—everyone helped.”
“And many other demons are taking care of the experimental fields too.”
Having said that, she added:
“I just happened to have the right skills.”
Phelan said calmly:
“According to the records, Lin Ling provided the core technology, the Holy Light Stasis field, the domain core, the concept for manufacturing magic suppression stones, and participated in stabilizing the process multiple times.”
Lin Ling: “Phelan, you don't need to pad my resume at a time like this.”
Leticia looked at Lin Ling.
Lin Ling spoke very casually.
As if this wasn't something worth boasting about.
But Leticia could already see it.
That platinum-blonde glow was faintly connected to the green below.
Because she had truly come here and made a difference.
The wind carried the three of them across the experimental fields.
Soon, they landed in the residential district Lin Ling had visited yesterday.
Morning smoke slowly rose between the stone houses.
Demon residents opened their doors, preparing to start their day's work.
Leticia stood beside her, looking at where the residents lived.
She gently clenched her hands.
This was the first step Lin Ling had mentioned.
To go to the people.
And then, to see.
Rate on N.U.
