After listening to Lin Gui’s narrative, Roger did not respond for a long time.
He stared blankly at Lin Gui, his gaze indescribably complex.
It was as if he were looking through him at a long-buried, similar shadow.
Coming in search of Avalon... How many years had it been since he had heard such words?
Ever since Hannah took him away from the Royal Capital and hid in this forbidden land.
He did not immediately believe him, but instead questioned in a deep voice: “How do you know that Avalon is here?”
Lin Gui had long been prepared for this question.
He looked at the other party and said calmly: “Because my friend prophesied its location.”
Eve and Theia felt their hearts tighten, thinking Lin Gui was about to reveal the Saintess’s identity.
After all, Eve’s identity was far too sensitive, and across from them... there was a member of the Demon Race present.
However, Lin Gui spoke another name that even Theia had never heard: “She is the last surviving descendant of the Northern Spirit Fox tribe.”
“She was the one who told me that the existence of Avalon is real.”
“She also told me that Avalon is right here at the Wall of Sighs...”
He paused, his voice clear.
“The most dangerous location.”
“I brought my companions all this way, and while passing through the Carter Royal Capital—”
“I heard by chance that a knight named Roger was also searching for Avalon.”
“And that it was highly likely he had already arrived.”
“I learned his general appearance from a noble’s son named Fal.”
He looked at Roger with a frank gaze.
“When I saw you just now, I guessed that you might be him.”
“That is why I had my two companions follow you with slightly amateurish concealment magic.”
“The intention was to be discovered by you, so that we could have a proper talk.”
He shifted the topic, silently glancing at Hannah in Roger’s arms.
His meaning couldn’t be clearer.
Things turning out like this was entirely the fault of the demoness in your arms for attacking first.
It had nothing to do with us.
Theia opened her mouth slightly and leaned toward Eve’s ear, whispering in a soft voice: “I was wondering why it took so long for us to be noticed...”
“Is Lin Gui’s skin actually this thick?”
“Telling lies with a straight face and shifting the blame so righteously.”
Eve gave a helpless smile and reached out to gently pinch Theia’s sensitive long ear.
Covering her mouth with her other hand, she leaned toward her ear and said in an even softer voice: “Actually, he’s just a closet flirt.”
“He seems serious on the surface, but he’s quite the playboy underneath.”
Her eyes crinkled with a mischievous light.
“In my prophecies, the beautiful girls who get involved with him...”
“There are quite a lot, you know.”
Theia’s ear twitched, and her curiosity was instantly piqued.
Enduring the itch at the tip of her ear, she also leaned toward Eve’s: “Does that include you, Eve?”
Eve smiled like a cat that had successfully stolen a treat.
“That’s right.”
She paused, lowering her voice even further with a prankish lightness: “By the way—that ‘Spirit Fox friend’ he just mentioned...”
“Is a girl, a very beautiful girl.”
“What’s more, she knew him even earlier than you did, Theia.”
Theia’s eyes instantly widened, and she asked instinctively: “Then... is she even prettier than the youthfully invincible and stunningly beautiful eighteen-year-old Theia?”
Eve intentionally drew out her tone as she looked Theia up and down.
Her gaze swept from her long silver hair to her emerald eyes, and then to her pointed ears which were slightly tensed due to nervousness.
“Well...”
She suddenly reached out and gently pinched Theia’s cheek.
Her smile was full of the satisfaction of a successful prank.
“Why don’t you guess?”
“Um, I’m really sorry for interrupting your whispering.”
Lin Gui’s voice drifted over, carrying obvious helplessness.
“But can we be serious for a moment?”
His eyelid jumped as he lowered his voice.
“Across from us is a High-tier Legendary Knight, and he’s waiting for a response.”
Hearing the reminder, Theia cleared her throat and stood up straight.
Then, she suddenly put her hands on her hips, her emerald eyes glaring at Lin Gui as she said crisply: “Scumbag!”
Eve also turned her head, her eyes curving into crescents as she teased in the same tone as Theia: “Big scumbag~”
Lin Gui: “...”
He looked at the two of them acting in concert with a blank expression.
The corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
Having been single since birth, this was the first time he had ever heard someone call him a scumbag.
In the end, he simply turned his gaze away silently and looked at Roger in the distance, waiting for the man’s response.
Roger frowned slightly and asked in a deep voice: “The Spirit Fox tribe... weren’t they wiped out during the Golden Age?”
Lin Gui nodded, a hint of inexplicable resentment in his tone: “One managed to escape by feigning death.”
“Later, for the sake of revenge, she founded terrorist organizations all over the place.”
When he said this, the dissatisfaction in his eyes almost overflowed.
That resentment was too genuine to be a facade.
Perhaps because of this, or perhaps because Lin Gui truly hadn’t landed a lethal blow on Hannah.
Roger fell silent for a moment before finally relenting: “I will believe your words for now.”
“Heal Hannah for me first.”
Lin Gui did not let down his guard.
He manipulated his staff, carrying Eve and Theia as they slowly approached.
Eventually, they stopped at a safe distance—close enough to cast spells, but ready to retreat at any moment.
Eve leaped lightly down from the staff.
She did not use her usual Light Magic—
A pureblood demon was naturally repelled by light elements; forcing their use would only worsen the injuries.
She cupped her hands loosely in front of her chest and closed her eyes to concentrate.
Deep purple mana flowed from her fingertips, swirling and circling.
That mana was not cold; instead, it exuded a profound softness.
“Shadow nourishment, let the pain fade...”
Amidst the low-voiced chanting, the mana enveloped Hannah’s wounds like a mist.
Those gruesome lacerations actually squirmed and closed up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The mangled flesh smoothed over, and fresh pale-pink skin grew over the wounds that had been deep enough to show bone.
Even a hint of color gradually returned to Hannah’s pale face.
The entire process was quiet and efficient.
In just a few dozen breaths, the most severe external injuries were mostly healed.
Only faint scars remained.
Roger stared fixedly at Eve’s technique, surprise flashing in his eyes.
Such exquisite and stable Shadow Healing... was definitely not something an ordinary Transcendent Priest could manage.
Seeing Hannah’s condition improve so rapidly—
And seeing that the treatment Eve used was a Shadow-element healing spell Roger was relatively familiar with.
His tense expression finally relaxed.
He knelt on one knee, carefully propping up Hannah’s upper body and resting her in the crook of his arm.
His fingers very gently brushed away the dark red hair that was stuck to her forehead by sweat and blood.
His movements were so soft he seemed like a completely different person from the sharp swordsman who had crushed the ruins earlier.
Hannah let out an unconscious moan in her slumber, her brow furrowing.
Roger immediately lowered his voice, comforting her in a near-whisper: “It’s alright, hang in there.”
The tenderness and heartache in that voice were unmistakably genuine.
Seeing this scene, Theia couldn’t help but lean toward Lin Gui’s ear, her eyes sparkling: “Is he... really Roger?”
Lin Gui nodded slightly.
Theia followed up immediately, her tone full of gossipy excitement: “Then that demoness I injured is the reason Roger defected back then?”
“That ‘half-demon who possesses demon energy’?”
Lin Gui: “Yeah, most likely.”
Theia immediately clasped her hands to her heart, her emerald eyes looking as if they were full of stars.
She looked at the two figures huddling together in the distance and sighed softly: “Flight and companionship across races and stances...”
“How romantic!”
“You’re not doing too poorly yourself,” Eve said with a soft smile as she finished the treatment and walked over to Theia.
“Just for a casual word from you—”
“A High Rank mage brought you across rifts, through the sea floor, and into this forbidden land.”
Her purple eyes curved into crescents as she glanced at the nearby Lin Gui, who looked entirely uncomfortable.
“And he is only a High Rank mage.”
Regarding the meeting between Theia and Lin Gui, the purity untainted by any selfish desires.
In Eve’s words, it seemed to be plated with a different kind of glow.
In an instant, Theia gazed toward Lin Gui with misty eyes.
Lin Gui, on the other hand, felt a tingling sensation down his spine.
If it weren't for the system rewards... he really might not have done so many outrageous things.
He didn't have the kind of romantic sentiment Eve was implying—the kind about doing anything to win a beauty’s smile.
Enduring Theia’s increasingly fervent and affectionate gaze, Lin Gui cleared his throat, turned his face away, and gave a stiff explanation:
“It was just on the way.”
“Even without you, Theia, I would have come to the Blackwater Corridor to deliver letters.”
He tried to make his voice sound businesslike.
“Among the letters sent from New Covenant City, there are some addressed to Shield City.”
Rate on N.U.
