Inside the post office, a completely different scene was unfolding.
Thanks to the goodwill the three of them had accumulated over the past week, they didn't have to worry about furniture or daily necessities at all.
Long before this small building had even been finished, enthusiastic residents had already begun pouring in, carrying items that they claimed were "unused at home."
They had ignored Theia's embarrassed protests and pushed past her to set the items down one by one, insisting that "they were just sitting around anyway."
Yet, every single item was wiped clean and preserved in perfect condition.
Theia's fingers lightly brushed over a finely carved elven-style round table, and her eyes grew slightly misty.
"It's been so long..."
Her voice was very soft, almost like a sigh.
"It's been so long since anyone... was this kind to me."
She whispered, her voice choking up slightly.
Then, she glanced at Lin Gui beside her.
A hint of deliberate grievance appeared in her eyes.
"Unlike a certain someone."
"I've been following him for so long, and he's never even given me a single thing."
Lin Gui was currently reaching out to touch the edge of the table.
Hearing this, he could only offer a helpless smile.
Eve, standing to the side, saw that smile and couldn't help but let the corners of her mouth curl up slightly.
Perhaps Theia hadn't noticed it, but Eve had.
During this past week, Lin Gui's state of mind had been... very different.
In any other city-state on the outside, even the friendly Shield City, Lin Gui always carried a faint sense of urgency and detachment, like a nocturnal animal that was constantly on high alert.
But here, in Avalon, he had finally relaxed.
It was as if... he had returned home.
What Eve didn't know was that to Lin Gui, this place truly did feel like "home."
It had the same atmosphere of equality, without the glaring tear between the rich and the poor, and without the omnipresent calculations of interest or the pressures of survival.
That long-lost sense of peace belonging to "everyday life" allowed him to briefly... let down his guard.
It was only the excessive enthusiasm that made Lin Gui a little uncomfortable; otherwise, it really felt like he had returned to his hometown.
Not the New Covenant City he had crawled out of like a piece of trash, but the home in his memories... his home on Earth.
Who would have thought that the mundane, almost boring tranquility of his old home would become such a coveted, Eden-like dream on the Akara Continent?
Was this an other-world version of the Peach Blossom Spring? Lin Gui smiled to himself.
Theia led him and Eve to the second floor.
In the hallway, several wooden doors were lined up in sequence.
One door had a sign hanging on it that read "Lin Gui."
Opposite it was Theia's room.
To the right of Theia's was Eve's room.
What surprised Lin Gui the most was that he actually saw a doorplate for "Elvia."
As if sensing his surprised gaze, Theia gave a light cough and let her eyes drift elsewhere.
"Th-This... it's just in case... that Cowardly Princess comes to visit one day."
"At least she'll have a place to stay."
Under Lin Gui's increasingly strange gaze, Theia reached out and pushed him from behind, her speech speeding up.
"Oh, anyway, just go look at your room!"
After saying that, she gently pushed Lin Gui inside.
Then she poked half her body through the doorway and held up a forefinger.
"Eve and I have some girls' talk to do."
"No eavesdropping, okay?"
Then, with a soft click, the door was shut.
Lin Gui didn't know what kind of "girls' talk" Theia wanted to have with Eve, but every time he wasn't paying attention, the relationship between these two always mysteriously intensified.
He wasn't a girl, so he didn't understand the reason for it, nor did he have much interest in investigating.
Taking advantage of this moment of solitude, he let his mind flicker and began taking items out of his [Storage] space one by one to sort and organize them, preparing for his departure in the near future.
Those belonging to Theia were set aside by him separately.
Several wooden crates were filled with relatively special items—all sorts of perfectly preserved frozen meats, enough to last her for quite a while.
There were also stacks of the romance novels Theia loved most, with their flashy covers, and the small treasure chest she had secretly saved, which contained the spoils she had earned along the way.
Lin Gui intended to leave all of these for her.
Avalon was good, but it was an isolated little city where resources were... incredibly scarce.
His wanderings over the past week had made him truly appreciate what Elvia had once said—it was "prosperous yet impoverished."
There was no shortage of grain or vegetables, but entertainment was practically zero. The economy had even regressed to a stage of bartering, which showed how limited the variety of goods was.
He carefully placed Theia's things into the wooden crates.
When it was time to pack his own belongings, he found that there wasn't much at all. The return letters he needed to deliver were all stored in Shield City.
What remained with him were just the basics needed for survival in the wild: a tent, a sleeping bag, basic potions, and dried rations. He couldn't even fill a single wooden crate.
Lin Gui stood up and surveyed the room Theia had specially decorated for him. It was clean and tidy, yet it appeared... somewhat empty.
After all, he didn't have much worth leaving here.
It wouldn't be long before Morpheus and the others, unable to restrain themselves, came looking for him. Then, it would be time for him to say goodbye to Theia and hit the road again.
Lin Gui was organizing his supplies when a sudden clamor of voices came from outside the window.
He got up, pushed open the window, and looked down.
The open space in front of the post office had been crowded with people at some point.
Men, women, old, and young, across various races, were all craning their necks to peek inside. It seemed the news had already spread.
He closed the window and turned toward the door.
Just as he pulled the door open, the doors to Theia's and Eve's rooms also opened at the same time.
The three of them came face to face.
Theia clearly froze for a moment.
Immediately after, a faint, guilty look quickly flickered across her face. Her eyes darted around, and the tips of her ears turned a little red.
She immediately fixed Lin Gui with a sharp glare and spoke up first.
"You... you didn't just secretly drape yourself in your Shroud of the Gloomy Night to come over and eavesdrop, did you?"
Her tone carried the weight of a bluffing interrogation.
Lin Gui was somewhat baffled by her question.
"So what exactly were you two whispering about that makes you so defensive?"
Hearing his counter-question, Theia seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Then she let out a huff and turned her face away.
"That's a secret between beautiful girls. Stop poking your nose in."
Lin Gui couldn't be bothered to dig deeper. He rolled his eyes and turned to walk toward the stairs.
He had only taken two steps when a faint chill suddenly brushed past the back of his neck, as if something invisible had lightly touched him.
Lin Gui paused in his tracks and snapped his head back.
His gaze pierced directly toward Theia, who was still standing in the same spot.
Theia felt her scalp tingle under his gaze, and a cold sweat instantly broke out.
"Cough, cough!"
She gave a few dry coughs, her eyes darting wildly.
"W-Well... why are you looking at me like that?"
Lin Gui narrowed his eyes slightly.
He had indeed felt a fleeting sense of "threat" from behind him.
His gaze moved slowly from Theia's guilty-looking face down toward her hands.
Theia suddenly thrust her hands behind her back. At the same time, she tilted her head and began whistling unnaturally.
Seeing the suspicion in Lin Gui's eyes deepening, Eve, who was standing nearby, let out a light cough and interrupted in a slightly stiff tone.
"Um... I see the residents outside have been waiting for a long time. We should head down quickly and open the doors for them."
As if receiving a divine pardon, Theia nodded repeatedly. She placed her hands firmly on Lin Gui's shoulders and pushed him toward the stairs.
"Right, right! Quickly, down the stairs!"
"Don't let the guests wait too long."
"Once you've finished collecting the letters from Avalon, don't you still have to return the letters for the path ahead?"
"Time is short and the task is heavy. Hurry up!"
While she said that, the way it came out of Theia's mouth felt quite strange, almost as if she were hoping he would leave quickly.
Lin Gui felt it was very odd, but since Theia was his longtime companion, she... probably wouldn't do anything to him...
Rate on N.U.
