What happened next made Lin Gui even more certain that there was definitely something wrong with his companion, the one he had shared life-and-death moments with.
On its opening day, the post office drew in almost every idle resident of Avalon.
They crowded into the small lobby, asking all sorts of questions with immense curiosity.
Lin Gui, Theia, and Eve stood behind the counter, attending to them and answering their questions one by one.
Amidst the clamor, Lin Gui keenly noticed something.
Theia was stealing glances at him with an astonishingly high frequency.
Moreover, her gaze kept drifting downward unconsciously...
It was as if she were staring at his neck.
Seizing a brief break, Lin Gui raised his hand to touch his neck.
His skin was smooth, with no foreign objects or discomfort.
Just as he was wondering what was going on, a resident who had been hesitating for a long time finally stepped forward.
He finally pushed through the crowd of onlookers and slowly walked up to the counter.
The destination this prospective sender had in mind was rather unusual.
Flowerwood City.
To take on more commissions on his return journey, Lin Gui had specifically written a notice at the post office entrance:
Letters did not necessarily have to be sent only to the few city-states marked on the map.
If there were requests for other destinations, they could be proposed, and the messenger (Lin Gui) would consider whether it was on his way.
As for this “Flowerwood City”...
Lin Gui recalled that it should be located near Caran City.
It was a relatively isolated, independent city-state that had never joined the City-State Alliance.
Lin Gui looked up at the person making the request.
Then, he froze slightly.
The sender... was a half-demon.
He was a male of average build with a human face, but a pair of small, curved black horns grew from his temples.
His eyes were dark red, and his pale skin was etched with demon markings.
Somewhat surprised, Lin Gui asked:
“Who... do you want to send this to?”
The half-demon fell silent for a moment before replying in a very soft voice:
“To... a woman who once took me in.”
He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts, and began to speak in a low, slow tone:
“Back then, my demon markings had just awakened. I was driven out of my hometown and ended up wandering everywhere.”
“When I was on the verge of starving to death, I collapsed by the roadside outside Flowerwood City.”
“It was Aunt Martha who found me... Her eyes were bad, and she was almost completely blind.”
“She had lost her own child and thought I was him... so she dragged me back to her home.”
“She gave me food, a place to stay, and called me ‘Little Kyle’...”
“The people in the city discriminated against me, throwing stones at me and calling me a monster.”
“She would stand in front of me with a broom, shouting back in the direction of the voices.”
“She said...”
The half-demon's voice choked up slightly.
“She said, ‘This is my child.’”
At some point, the surrounding clamor completely died down.
The residents stopped chatting and listened in silence.
Taking a deep breath, the half-demon continued:
“I lived with her for two years.”
“Later... the patrol squad hunting down half-demons was about to search our neighborhood.”
“I couldn't drag her down with me anymore.”
“So, I had no choice but to slip away secretly one night.”
“After that, I met Miss Hannah on the road, along with other half-demon companions who were hiding in Flowerwood.”
“Eventually, I followed Miss Hannah here to Avalon.”
His story stopped there, and he spoke no further.
But everyone understood the unspoken gratitude and longing behind his words.
After a brief silence, the half-demons around him who had also come from Flowerwood seemed to have been deeply touched.
They began to chime in one after another in low voices:
“Aunt Martha... did she always like to wear a gray checkered apron?”
“There was a crooked apple tree right by her courtyard gate, right?”
“Kyle even helped her fix her roof back then. He fell from the tree and limped for half a month...”
“When that bastard patrol squad came, it was Old John who ran over ahead of time to warn us...”
What they spoke of were trivial details.
Yet, they pieced together a real and heartwarming past.
The half-demon named Kyle listened quietly, his eyes turning slightly red.
Finally, a beastkin uncle patted him on the shoulder, looked at Lin Gui, and spoke in a coarse but sincere voice:
“Mr. Lin Gui.”
“If possible... please help him.”
“We will all chip in for the delivery fee.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of agreement rose from the crowd.
“Yes, we'll pay!”
“Count me in!”
“And me!”
Hearing this, Lin Gui couldn't help but chuckle and tease, “It's only seven copper coins. Do you really need to pool your money for that? A pair of straw sandals costs twenty coppers.”
With that, he still reached out and took the slightly worn but well-preserved letter from Kyle's hand.
“Don't worry,” he smiled at Kyle, “I will definitely deliver this letter.”
However, he knew in his heart that the reality behind this promise was not optimistic.
It wasn't that the journey was difficult—going to Flowerwood City wasn't too much of a detour for him.
Rather, it was because more than a decade had passed.
A visually impaired woman with no children, struggling to survive at the very bottom of society in the City-State Era...
Lin Gui hardly dared to think about her current situation.
Perhaps she had already...
Forget it.
He shook his head inwardly.
He would see for himself when the time came.
Kyle fumbled in his shirt, pulled out a silver coin, and handed it over.
Eve took it and swiftly counted out three copper coins as change.
Kyle rubbed the change in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and spoke in a low voice again:
“Um... if, if she is still alive...”
“If possible, could you... give these to her as well?”
He gently pushed a somewhat heavy small cloth pouch in front of Lin Gui.
“I know this isn't quite according to the rules,” Kyle's voice grew even quieter, “but...”
Lin Gui silently untied the pouch.
Inside were some worn silver coins and two or three dull gold coins.
Kyle, who had struggled at the bottom of Flowerwood City, was undoubtedly more aware of the concerns Lin Gui had than Lin Gui himself.
“Hey! How is this tiny amount of money enough for an old woman to live a good life?”
The booming voice of the beastkin uncle from earlier rang out.
With a loud clatter, he slammed two brand-new gold coins onto the counter.
“Count me in!”
This action was like a pebble tossed into a body of water.
The ripples spread rapidly.
“I'm in too!”
“And me!”
“Wait, I'll go home and get some!”
The crowd began to bustle with excitement.
The residents—whether they were humans, beastkin, gnomes, or other races—all squeezed forward.
Coins were gently placed on the counter one after another.
Gold coins, silver coins, and even neatly stacked handfuls of copper coins.
The clinking of coins was endless.
Perhaps in Avalon, currency had long since lost its practical value as a medium of exchange.
Or perhaps, the people here were just like this by nature.
Before long, the once-empty wooden counter was almost entirely covered in various coins.
Under Eve's swift organization and counting, they actually managed to gather a whopping three hundred gold coins.
By the way, one hundred of those gold coins were a “friendly sponsorship” from Theia.
She moved extremely fast, quietly slipping a heavy pouch into the pile of money while the crowd was still squeezing in.
With his back to her, Kyle didn't notice a thing.
But Lin Gui saw it.
Meeting his gaze, Theia gave him a playful wink.
Lin Gui could only let out a helpless, wry smile.
Then, he reached into the inner pocket of his mage robe and fumbled around for a moment.
In the end, he only managed to pull out a single, lonely gold coin.
He gently placed it on the edge of the glittering mountain of money.
There was nothing he could do.
That was truly all he had left on his person.
It was the reward money that Cass the Demon Hunter had given him back then.
He hadn't used it to bid on the “guide”.
Instead, Lin Gui had exchanged almost all of it for various supplies.
And most of those supplies were not prepared for himself.
They were for Theia.
Rate on N.U.
