Morpheus was visibly taken aback when he heard the word “letter.”
His gaze instinctively drifted toward the counter nearby.
Only then did it hit him.
Right, this guy had opened a post office and had indeed collected a few letters from the residents.
He had ordered his men to inspect those letters thoroughly.
He had known about it, but back then, his only concern was whether the contents would expose Avalon's existence.
Modern-day Avalon was no longer like the early days, when it relied on Hannah traveling and spreading the word to attract new residents.
The city's population had already neared the carrying capacity of this small basin.
He had no desire to see any more outsiders flooding in.
Thus, the focus of the inspections had been entirely on “confidentiality.”
But he had overlooked a fact that he and the rest of the administration had almost forgotten:
Today was the City-State Era.
Demons ravaged the wilderness, transportation was severed, and communication was an absolute luxury.
In these dark and isolated times, “transportation” and “communication” themselves were priceless treasures.
Yet the young mage before him...
...was actually delivering letters for people at a price that was practically giving it away?
Morpheus felt a belated sense of absurdity.
The overly peaceful life in Avalon had made them all forget the cruelty and isolation of the outside world.
Thinking about it now, he was stunned to realize that this act itself was incredibly abnormal, even mind-boggling.
He looked at Lin Gui with a complex gaze.
“Are you... really planning to deliver that letter to Flowerwood City for Kyle?”
“Do you know how far that is from Avalon? How many dangerous places you have to pass through? How many Forbidden Zones you have to cross?”
Lin Gui nodded, his tone calm.
“Of course I do.”
“After all, I found my way here by traveling along that exact route.”
Morpheus's brow furrowed as he detected a contradiction.
“But you said... you came from the Carter Royal Capital, following the clues left by your uncle Roger...”
Lin Gui paused slightly.
Only then did he remember the “relative relationship” he had casually fabricated to reduce their hostility when he first arrived.
He fell silent for a moment.
Then, letting out a soft breath, he raised his eyes to look at Morpheus.
“I'm sorry.”
“I am indeed... not Mr. Roger's nephew.”
He chose to tell the truth.
“But I know his nephew, the one named Fal.”
“He is very brave. For the girl he loved, he dared to abandon a luxurious noble life, and even drew his blade against his own father.”
This confession made Morpheus's eyelids twitch slightly.
He had almost completely believed Lin Gui's story before; the details were just too specific and private.
Lin Gui smiled, feeling a bit helpless.
“I'm very sorry for lying to you.”
“But if I hadn't said that, I probably wouldn't have just been put under ‘house arrest.’ I would have been thrown straight into the dungeon, wouldn't I?”
Morpheus was silent for a while, but in the end, the corner of his mouth twitched upward slightly.
“Indeed.”
If not for the identity of “Roger's nephew,”
given the anomaly of the three of them crossing the Wailing Corridor,
Morpheus would have absolutely taken much harsher control measures.
The Wailing Corridor was both a cage that imprisoned Avalon and a natural barrier that protected Avalon from intrusion.
He re-evaluated the young man in front of him.
He was clearly just a High Rank mage.
In his initial assessment, he was clearly just an ordinary human who had gotten incredibly lucky and stumbled upon an artifact.
But now...
For the first time, Morpheus truly and seriously looked at Lin Gui.
“Then who exactly are you?”
Meeting his gaze, Lin Gui slowly stood up straight.
The sunlight pouring in from the window fell upon his worn, faded gray robe.
“Just an insignificant wandering mage.”
His voice was steady and clear.
“A... messenger who conveys thoughts.”
“If Lord Morpheus has any letters he wishes to send as well,”
“I would be glad to help deliver them.”
“As for what Lord Morpheus just asked of me, I will help.”
“I only hope that after I leave Avalon, you can look after Theia a bit more for me.”
“She... has suffered far too much in the past.”
Finally, Lin Gui said to Morpheus.
He would handle all his miscellaneous affairs before dark, and then he would leave Avalon with the person they designated.
Although Morpheus was burning with anxiety, the initiative was not in his hands, so he could only nod and agree.
Lin Gui said no more.
He picked up his worn dark gray mage robe, shook off the non-existent dust, and draped it over himself with a swift motion.
Pulling down the spacious hood, it covered most of his face, leaving only the clean lines of his jaw exposed.
He gripped his oak staff tightly and gave Morpheus a slight nod.
Then he turned around and pushed open the door, stepping out.
His figure quickly vanished around the corner of Avalon's early morning streets.
Morpheus's business was urgent, and there wasn't much time left for him.
Fortunately, with 【Storage】 at his disposal, there was virtually no need to pack his belongings.
The only thing he had to do now was to find the two girls who had slipped away secretly after committing their “crime” and were too embarrassed to face him.
Actually, Lin Gui could more or less guess where they had gone.
He sat sideways on his staff, silently activating 【Levitation】.
Hovering several feet off the ground like a gray feather lifted by the wind, he glided smoothly and swiftly through the quiet streets and alleys of Avalon.
Low-lying houses, lush vegetable patches, and early-rising, leisurely residents... all receded slowly beneath him.
The morning light cast his long, thin shadow, which slid silently across the cobblestone path.
Soon, he arrived at a small grove near the edge of the city wall.
Standing in the woods was an exquisitely designed elven-style treehouse that seemed to grow in harmony with the trees.
That was Winnie's home.
Winnie's Treehouse
Lin Gui lowered his altitude, bringing his staff to a halt in front of a small flower stand.
On the flower stand, Winnie, the green-haired half-demon Forest Elf, had her sleeves rolled up and was carefully watering several pots of light purple flowers.
Her expression was focused, her fingertips gentle.
Lin Gui's arrival was completely silent.
It wasn't until his voice rang out:
“Winnie.”
“Have you seen Theia?”
“Ah—!”
Winnie shuddered in fright, nearly dropping her watering can.
She turned around in a panic, and only when she clearly saw it was Lin Gui did her tense shoulders relax slightly.
But her dark red eyes immediately began to dart around uncontrollably.
“The-Theia...”
Her fingers unconsciously toyed with the hem of her shirt, her voice thin and weak.
“She, she... I-I saw her go over there!”
She raised her hand and pointed in a random direction.
Hovering in midair, Lin Gui's lips seemed to curve slightly beneath his hood.
“Is that so?”
“But I just... came from that direction.”
“Uh!” Winnie's face instantly flushed red.
“S-Sorry! I-I might have remembered wrong...”
She hurriedly pointed in a completely different direction.
“I-It's over there! She went that way!”
Her clumsy acting and the words “I am lying” practically written all over her face caused a muffled thud, desperately suppressed yet still audible, to leak from somewhere inside the treehouse.
It sounded like someone had accidentally bumped their head and then quickly covered their mouth.
Winnie's body grew even stiffer.
Before Lin Gui could even speak,
on the side of the treehouse, an old wooden barrel lid that was originally placed upside down to collect rainwater was suddenly pushed open from the inside with a bang.
Theia's silver-white head popped out, her face filled with helplessness.
And not far beside her, Eve poked her head out from behind a lush clump of lilies of the valley, looking somewhat disheveled and her expression filled with awkwardness.
Rate on N.U.
