Teasing

Just as the two of them were talking, a voice suddenly came from around the corner ahead, making them stop in their tracks.

With perfect coordination, the two of them peeked around the corner—one high, one low—wanting to see who was making such a grand boast.

It was a cool, edgy-looking youth with navy-blue hair. Beside him were two ordinary-looking boys looking at him with flattering expressions, seemingly his lackeys.

The young man wore a cold expression, arrogantly blowing a strand of hair out of his face, and said coolly,

“Hmph, he's just a mere commoner. This young master won't lose to him.”

“Yes, yes, yes! What is that Xia De anyway? How could he ever compare to Young Master Nakari?”

“Exactly. That Xia De is just a lowly mud-crawler. How could he possibly compare to you, noble Young Master Nakari?”

The two lackeys beside him immediately chimed in to flatter the arrogant youth, their tones dripping with sycophancy.

Hearing his lackeys speak like this, he refuted them angrily instead,

“Don't say that. Although Xia De is destined to be surpassed by this young master, we must still maintain respect for the strong.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I spoke out of turn.”

The two lackeys beside the arrogant youth immediately bowed and scraped in apology.

Xia De and Hilia pulled their heads back from the corner, and Hilia looked at him with a teasing expression.

“Well, what do you think? He says he's going to surpass you. He even called you a mere commoner.”

Xia De shrugged and smiled.

“Nakari, the young master of a local Baron's family. He's about my age—just an idiot trying to look cool. Right now, he's only at Tier One, Rank Three.

My evaluation is that although he's not very bright, he isn't a bad person. There's no need to pay him any mind.”

Hilia wrinkled her nose and pouted, saying in dissatisfaction,

“I don't know him. All I know is that he and his lackeys were talking bad about you. It wouldn't be too much for me to punish them a little, right?”

With that, she traced a green magic circle in front of her with her finger, chanting under her breath,

“Wind Magic—Wind Ride.”

“Ah! What is this?!”

The next second, panicked cries echoed from ahead. The two peeked around the corner again, only to see the three youths floating in the air, tossing up and down like they were on a roller coaster.

“Aaaaah! Mommy!”

Nakari wailed in the air.

Flying around in the air terrified the three of them. It was just like a drop tower ride—every time they reached the highest point, they would suddenly plummet, only to be caught by a gust of wind and lifted right back up.

After a few rounds of this, a large, obvious wet patch appeared on the pants of one of the lackeys.

Seeing this scene, Xia De held back his laughter and snapped his fingers, dispelling Hilia's magic and allowing the three to fall back to the ground.

Facing Hilia's dissatisfied gaze, Xia De explained softly, “I said to ignore him on the premise that I didn't know about it. But since I caught them speaking ill of me in person...”

He pointed in the direction of the trio. Hilia followed his gaze and saw them screaming at the top of their lungs where they stood.

A massive flock of birds had flown in from out of nowhere, gathering above their heads. They then proceeded to perform a textbook display of mass diarrhea right over them.

A foul-smelling rain began to pour down upon them.

“Aaaaah! What on earth is going on?!”

Nakari screamed as he dodged the bird droppings, dragging his two lackeys along as he ran into the distance, with the massive flock of birds chasing close behind them.

Xia De and Hilia exchanged a look, and then both broke into a mischievous grin.

Although neither of them said a word, a single look was enough for them to understand each other's thoughts.

Walking beside Xia De, Hilia thought of their prank just now and giggled, covering her mouth.

“I feel like those three little guys are going to be psychologically scarred by birds from now on.”

“Not that bad, not that bad. I controlled it on purpose so that it would only get on some parts of them,” Xia De said nonchalantly. “Besides, they could have easily dispersed the flock with any basic wind magic. Didn't that kid say he was going to surpass me? How can he do that if he can't even overcome a tiny obstacle like this?”

“Let's ignore them. We're finally home, and I can get some proper rest.”

Before they knew it, the two had arrived at Xia De's residence.

It was a detached, two-story western-style house. The surrounding area was quiet, with only a few white-haired elderly residents chatting nearby.

Hilia completely put the prank out of her mind. Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she looked at Xia De's home.

Her battle plan was already fully mapped out in her mind.

As she followed Xia De into the view of the elderly residents, several of them who were chatting immediately called out to greet him.

“Ah, it's little Xia De! You've finally completed your quest and come back.”

“Did you run into some trouble this time, little Xia De? You took a bit longer than usual to complete the quest. You're not hurt, are you?”

“If you run into any trouble, just tell this grandpa. Although I'm old, I still know a few people.”

Xia De also smiled warmly, enthusiastically responding to the elders' kindness one by one.

“Yes, I came straight back after completing the quest. It's still most comfortable here, Grandma Kardashian.”

“Don't worry, Grandma Pena. I just ran into a friend, so I was a bit delayed.”

“Grandpa Ducard, you're already at such an advanced age, you should just relax and enjoy your life. Don't worry about me so much.”

Just then, one of the elders turned their gaze to Hilia, who was standing beside Xia De. Although her wide hood covered a portion of her face, her beauty was still noticed by the sharp-eyed elders.

“Could this be little Xia De's girlfriend? What a beautiful young lady.”

“Yes, yes! Not only is she beautiful, but she also has great taste. After all, she likes our little Xia De.”

“Eh?!”

Faced with the elders' praise, Hilia shyly hid behind Xia De, which made the elders chuckle in amusement.

Xia De smiled and cut off the cheerful elders. He was afraid that if they kept talking like this, the elf behind him would be cooked alive—he could practically see steam rising from her head.

“Alright, alright, grandpas and grandmas. This is just a friend I met on the road. It's not what you think.”

His words prompted a chorus of disappointed sighs from the elders. Xia De gave them a wry smile and said,

“We'll head inside to wash up and rest first. We can chat more later.”

With that, he led the blushing Hilia back into his house. Closing the door, he stored Starfall back into his storage bag, casually tossed his coat onto a chair, and collapsed onto the sofa.

Looking at the still-embarrassed Hilia, he teased, “Alright, I really couldn't tell that someone as shy as you could say those kinds of things last night.”

Hearing Xia De's teasing, Hilia snapped out of it. She took off her cloak and retorted,

“How I act in front of you and in front of strangers is obviously different!

By the way, those grandpas and grandmas seem really close to you. And they aren't afraid of you at all, unlike those people at the Adventurer's Guild.”

“Yeah, those elders are just a bunch of defenseless, warm-hearted old folks. They don't have any hidden agendas, so I don't go out of my way to keep my distance from them.”

As he spoke, he sat up from the sofa. “But still, I only ever greeted them occasionally and had casual chats. I didn't expect them to treat me like family.”

“They really are very kind elders.”

As Hilia spoke, she looked around the house. Noticing that there seemed to be no trace of anyone else living there, she asked,

“Do you not live with your parents? Even though you're very strong, your parents should still be worrying about you at your age.”

“Grandma Kardashian rented this house to me. I came from a very remote village, and I'm actually an orphan. I was raised by a kind grandpa in the village, but he passed away not long ago.”

“Ah!”