Mare took out a small bottle.
"It's the stuff in this little bottle—warm and beautiful colors."
She said that if Mu Yang wasn't in a hurry, he could wait here.
She would go gather so and be right back.
Mu Yang had wanted to say that it was just a portrait—no need for such high-quality pignts.
But then he thought that painters and artists generally had their own quirks.
And the more talented they were, the more severe it was.
So Mu Yang changed what he was about to say to offering help.
Mare knew Mu Yang ant well and was probably worried about her safety.
"No need to worry—I've always gathered pignts by myself and am used to it..."
At that mont, Mu Yang suddenly felt the two of them were sowhat similar.
"Let's go together. Two people are always more convenient than one."
"Mm... if Mu Yang is willing, then let's go together."
Mare smiled and picked up her tools, "Thank you—I'm so happy."
Pure lusines couldn't hide their feelings.
When happy, they expressed it directly.
The two headed toward the mining route and soon gathered a lot.
"This should be enough, right?"
Mare was overjoyed, "There are so many ores—I can make so many pignts. Two people really are better."
Mu Yang asked her—were these ores only red? Didn't painting require all kinds of colors?
Mare said not to worry—there was one final step.
She explained that these ores contained many impurities. If used directly as pignts, the colors would be uneven when painting.
They would look dirty.
At tis like this, they needed to find purer ores, grind them into powder, and mix them in.
That way, the proportion of impurities would decrease, and the resulting pignts would be more beautiful.
"Then shall we go find [purer ores] now?"
"Mm, the purer ores require going a bit deeper inside to find."
Mare looked at Mu Yang and asked if he needed to rest—she could handle the rest alone.
"No need—I'll go with you."
Thus, Mare led Mu Yang to a purple vortex.
"This is a shortcut."
"A shortcut?"
"Yes, it's the path I usually take. It's very safe inside and warm."
"Did you take this path back to the village earlier too?"
"Yes."
Mu Yang didn't ask further and followed Mare into what looked like an ominous vortex.
After a brief mont of dizziness,
the two appeared sowhere else.
"This place is very warm and reassuring, right?" Mare asked.
"Father told there are high-purity ores here. Leave the ores here to ."
Father again...
Before Mu Yang could answer, Mare had already started working.
Mu Yang could feel that the ores in this place had slightly higher energy purity than the previous ones.
What kind of energy was this?
While he was pondering these questions, he seed to hear soone speaking...
Was it a hallucination caused by these high-purity ores?
Mu Yang thought that rather than speculating here, it was better to get hands-on.
So he followed Mare's example and began gathering ores...
When Mare returned to the original spot, she saw so many raw materials.
She wagged her tail happily.
The two took the shortcut back to the previous place.
Chatting and laughing the whole way back.
At this ti, at Mare's ho.
The strange man who had spoken to Mu Yang earlier was directing the three Eremites to rummage through things.
Moreover, he seed to know Seymour, "...Alain's little invention—its appearance hasn't changed even now."
The female leader ca out of the house, "Um... boss?"
"We've turned her whole house upside down, but we still haven't found the pignts you want..."
The man's face darkened, "Not found?"
"Y-Yes, though we found many small bottles that had contained pignts, they're all empty now. There's a very pungent sll inside—sniffing it makes you uncomfortable."
"I see—the pignts are used up... That really is unfortunate."
The boss instructed the few Eremites to restore the places they had disturbed.
After all, coming in such a grand manner to ransack soone's ho
was sowhat unseemly.
[Even thieves have their code, huh?]
[You wrecked the whole house—how do you restore decency?]
[It's fine—Mu Yang is almost here; he's a decent person]
"As for the pignts, I'll figure sothing out myself later."
"I... I understand..."
The three Eremites seed very afraid of this boss.
Yet this person's appearance didn't look that frightening.
The female leader apologized to the boss.
As it turned out, everything before had been their sche.
The first step was for the three to buy the painting—if successful, great.
If not, switch to robbing, then have the boss appear to save Mare.
That way, perhaps the debt of saving her life could exchange for a painting.
Unfortunately, Mu Yang had acted much faster.
He stepped in first.
Thus, they resorted to this underhanded thod.
They had secretly left a tracking signal on Mare.
And followed her all the way ho...
The leader's tone was this subservient because the boss hadn't paid the commission yet.
Only after receiving the boss's promise did she breathe a sigh of relief.
The boss said, "In any case, don't waste any more of my ti. Clean up these ssy doodles first."
"ssy... doodles?!"
Mare's eyes widened in disbelief.
Mu Yang noticed the abnormality here and quickly brought her back.
Just in ti to hear this sentence.
Mu Yang stared at the man in purple noble attire before him, "You're that weirdo from before. You're with them?"
His gaze turned icy, and [Withering Glory] was unsheathed.
The temperature in the entire cave dropped noticeably.
The man remained calm despite the situation.
"I haven't introduced myself to you yet. My na is Jakob. I'm a... traveling art collector."
He wore a fake smile and looked at the shocked Mare.
"Miss Mare, I'm very pleased to see you again."
Only now did Mu Yang learn that this was the [kind and gentle Jakob] who had previously praised Mare's paintings.
His approach to Mare had all been purposeful.
Everything was just a scam.
Jakob had deceived this pure lusine, only hoping to obtain the pignts in her hands.
"Were all the things Mr. Jakob said to lies?"
"That he had never seen paintings like this, that he wanted to collect paintings like this..."
"That he... could understand these paintings..."
As Mare spoke, she could no longer hide her emotions...
"Was all of this just to obtain sothing unrelated to the paintings?"
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