A Strange Companion

Inside the post office, however, was a completely different scene.

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 was even finished, enthusiastic residents had already swarmed in, carrying items they claimed were unused at home.

Without giving her a choice, they gently pushed aside a sheepish Theia and began arranging the items one by one.

They kept saying things like, “They're just sitting around anyway.”

Yet, every single item was wiped clean and perfectly preserved.

Theia's fingers lightly brushed over a beautifully carved, elven-style round table, her eyes growing slightly warm.

“It's been so long...”

Her voice was very soft, almost like a sigh.

“It's been so long since anyone... has been this good to me.”

She murmured, her voice catching slightly.

Then, she glanced at Lin Gui beside her.

Her eyes carried a hint of deliberate grievance:

“Unlike a certain someone.”

“I've followed him for so long, and he hasn't even given me a single present.”

Lin Gui was currently stroking the edge of the table.

Hearing this, he smiled helplessly.

Eve watched his smile from the side.

She couldn't help but curl her lips into a gentle smile as well.

Perhaps Theia hadn't noticed, but Eve did.

Over the past week, Lin Gui's state of mind... had been very different.

In any of the city-states outside, even in the friendly Shield City, Lin Gui always carried a faint sense of urgency and detachment.

He was like a nocturnal animal that remained perpetually alert.

But here, in Avalon, he had relaxed.

It was as if... he had returned home.

What Eve didn't know was that to Lin Gui, this place truly felt like home.

There was the same atmosphere of equality, without the glaring disparity between the rich and the poor.

There was none of the ubiquitous calculating for profit and existential exploitation.

That long-lost peace of everyday life allowed him to briefly... let down his guard.

It was just that this excessive hospitality made Lin Gui a bit uncomfortable.

Otherwise, it really felt like he had returned to his hometown.

Not the New Covenant City where he had crawled out of a garbage dump, but the hometown of Earth in his memories.

Who would have thought that the peacefulness of his old home, which was almost boring in its simplicity, would become an Eden-like luxury on the Akara Continent?

Lin Gui smiled to himself.

Theia led him and Eve up to the second floor.

In the corridor, several wooden doors were lined up.

On one of the doors hung a sign with “Lin Gui” written on it.

Opposite to it was Theia's room.

To the right of Theia's room was Eve's room.

What surprised Lin Gui the most was that he actually saw a nameplate for “Elvia.”

As if noticing his surprised gaze, Theia cleared her throat and looked away.

“I-I was just thinking... what if that cowardly princess comes to visit us one day?”

“It would be nice for her to have a place to rest.”

Facing Lin Gui's increasingly bizarre stare, Theia pushed his back and spoke rapidly:

“Oh, anyway, go check out your room first!”

With that, she gently pushed Lin Gui inside.

Then she poked half of her body through the door and raised an index finger:

“Eve and I have some girl talk to do.”

“No eavesdropping!”

Then, with a soft click, the door was shut.

Lin Gui had no idea what “girl talk” Theia wanted to have with Eve.

But every time he wasn't paying attention, the relationship between these two would always warm up in a mysterious way.

He wasn't a girl, so he didn't understand the reason, nor did he have much interest in looking into it.

Taking advantage of his solitude, his mind stirred slightly.

He took out all the items from his 【Storage】 space one by one.

He began to categorize and organize them, preparing for his departure in the near future.

The items belonging to Theia were set aside separately by him.

Inside several wooden boxes were relatively special things—

There were various kinds of well-preserved frozen meat, enough to last for a while.

There were stacks of romance novels with flashy covers that Theia loved to read.

And her secretly saved little treasure chest, which contained the loot she had been allocated along the way.

Lin Gui planned to leave all of these for her.

Although Avalon was nice, it was an isolated town.

Resources... were incredibly scarce.

This week of wandering around had made him truly realize what Elvia had once said—

“Abundant yet impoverished.”

There was no shortage of food and vegetables, but entertainment was practically nonexistent.

The economy had even regressed to the stage of bartering.

It was clear how limited the variety of goods was.

He carefully placed Theia's belongings into the wooden boxes.

When it came to his own items, however, he found that there weren't many.

The replies waiting to be delivered were all stored in Shield City.

What remained with him were just the tents, sleeping bags, basic potions, and dry rations needed for wilderness survival.

They couldn't even fill a single wooden box.

Lin Gui stood up and looked around the room that Theia had specially decorated for him.

It was clean and tidy, yet felt... a bit empty.

Thus, he didn't have many things worth leaving here.

Before long, once Morpheus and the others couldn't help but come find him...

he would have to say goodbye to Theia and set off on the road again.

While Lin Gui was organizing his supplies, a sudden clamor of voices came from outside the window.

He stood up, pushed open the window, and looked down.

The open space in front of the post office was already crowded with people at some point.

Men, women, young and old, of different races, were all craning their necks to look inside.

It seemed the news had already spread.

He closed the window and turned toward his room's door.

Just as he pulled the door open—

the door to Theia and Eve's room directly opposite also happened to open.

The three of them came face to face.

Theia was clearly taken aback for a moment.

Then, a guilty, thief-like expression quickly flashed across her face.

Her eyes wandered, and the tips of her ears turned slightly red.

She immediately stared at Lin Gui with a sharp gaze and spoke first:

“Y-You didn't secretly put on the Shroud of the Gloomy Night and come over to eavesdrop just now, did you?”

Her tone carried a bluffing interrogation.

Lin Gui was somewhat baffled by her question:

“Just what kind of girl talk did you two have?”

“Why are you guarding against me like this?”

Hearing his counterquestion, Theia seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Then she huffed and turned her face away:

“This is a secret between beautiful girls.”

“Stop nosey-ing around.”

Too lazy to dig deeper, Lin Gui rolled his eyes, turned, and walked toward the stairs.

He had barely taken two steps—

when a faint chill suddenly swept past the back of his neck.

It felt as if something invisible had lightly brushed past him.

Lin Gui paused in his tracks and abruptly spun around.

His gaze pierced straight toward Theia, who was still standing in place.

Under his gaze, Theia's scalp went numb, and cold sweat instantly broke out.

“Cough, cough!”

She coughed dryly, her eyes darting around:

“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”

Lin Gui raised his eyebrows slightly.

He had indeed felt a fleeting “threat” coming from behind.

His gaze slowly drifted down from Theia's guilty face.

It landed on her hands.

Theia suddenly hid her hands behind her back.

At the same time, she tilted her head and began to whistle unnaturally.

Seeing the suspicion in Lin Gui's eyes growing deeper, Eve cleared her throat from the side and interrupted in a slightly stiff tone.

“Um... I think the residents outside have been waiting for a long time.”

“We should head down quickly and open the doors to welcome them.”

As if granted a massive amnesty, Theia nodded repeatedly.

She placed both hands on Lin Gui's shoulders and pushed him toward the stairs:

“Right, right, right! Quick, let's go downstairs!”

“Don't keep our guests waiting.”

“Once we collect Avalon's letters, don't you still have to deliver the letters from the journey back?”

“Time is tight and the task is heavy, so hurry up!”

Lin Gui felt it was odd, but since Theia had been his companion all this time...

She probably...

Wouldn't do anything to him... right?