“Aah—choo!”
On her way to sneak out of the Tribunal, Vieya suddenly let out a heavy sneeze, nearly losing her balance and tumbling from the rooftop.
Damn it, who’s cursing at such a critical mont?!
Dare to co out and duel one on one?!
Fuming with resentnt, Vieya stopped in her tracks and wrinkled her nose. She had to admit, though—the Tribunal was built in a damn good spot. Easy to defend, hard to attack, with a commanding view. With one specially crafted far-sight lens, you could take in over eighty percent of Deerhorn City.
Look at that. Even now, there were still people drinking and carousing, as if they didn’t give a damn that the guards outside were bleeding in battle with goblins!
Damn rich and powerful parasites.
Vieya felt irritated. She had only been gone for three years, and already humanity had grown this lazy?
A bit too urbanized, perhaps.
Back then, she’d have dragged a few stinking green-skinned goblins to toss into their beds, just to disgust them half to death.
Forget it.
Nothing to do with —why bother thinking about it?
Sharing the sa boat with insects like them... how could there be any future in that?
Shoving aside her stray thoughts, Vieya pursed her lips and asked:
“Xiao Lü, how much longer until the high-tier purification magic sweeps the city?”
“Soon. Even though I slowed down their information exchange, they’ve already started their backup plan.”
Xiao Lü spread out her hands, her green form solidifying further. “Within half an hour, all low-tier monsters in the city will be forcibly erased.”
Then she added, worriedly: “Ye-sis, maybe you should hide sowhere first. Your current body is badly countered by holy attributes. It might burn you...”
“Just a minor burn, not boiling water yet. But from the look of it, the main battlefield’s in bad shape...” Vieya’s green eyes turned cold as she gazed far off toward Fengxiang Town. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in such a rush.”
Unlike Vieya’s coldness, Xiao Lü actually gave a small laugh, murmuring: “Ye-sis, you’re still the sa as before.”
“No, not the sa at all. I used to have a worse temper.”
Vieya shook her head. If she hadn’t half-abandoned her Hero’s duty to go romance a Demon King, maybe she would have evolved from a Superman into a Holander by now, eventually earning the great title of I-Don’t-Eat-Beef.
Cough!
Surely she wouldn’t ever beco that vicious...
After all, there were still several boss-level Demon Kings waiting for her to conquer. At least until she cleared the bosses, she wouldn’t over-evolve.
Vieya scratched her cheek in frustration.
“Xiao Lü, tell . If I want to ask my teacher a question... which identity should I use? My past Hero’s identity? My current monster-girl identity? Or a monster-girl identity that carries the Hero’s na?”
“I... don’t understand,” Xiao Lü shook her head, clearly lost. “If you say you’re Brother Ye the Hero, then to and Sister Red, you’re Brother Ye the Hero. If you say you’re Ye-sis the sli-girl, then to us you’re Ye-sis the sli-girl.”
But humans weren’t like her, and Xiao Lü knew it.
Rather than believe a Hero had returned in the form of a monster, most humans would prefer to believe a new type of mory-devouring monster had been born...
“Ye-sis, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ your worries aren’t wrong. For and Sister Red, as long as you’re you, nothing else matters—we eat, we sleep, everything goes on. Even if the world ends, for us it’s just another long slumber. And slumber always has an awakening. But humans... humans have far too much to consider.”
Xiao Lü sighed, puzzled what kind of question Vieya felt she must ask that unreadable Human Empress.
“Ye-sis, honestly, I don’t recomnd you ever ntion your identity to humans. Sister Red and I are original artifact spirits. We don’t have humanity’s tangled notions of ethics... humans are troubleso.” Xiao Lü trailed her words with deep worry, clinging at Vieya’s side like a shadow-spirit.
“But I am human.”
Vieya’s green eyes narrowed slightly. With Xiao Lü’s aid, she slipped down beneath the Tribunal’s observation tower without disturbing a soul.
“I feel ashad to stand among monsters.”
Xiao Lü: ...
“Ye-sis, be careful with the next steps. Avoid the patrols when you can. I’ll give you the codes and signals—if you can avoid fighting, then don’t fight.”
“If I avoid fighting, will the court hand a lighter sentence when I get caught later?”
As she spoke, Vieya swung her hand and struck down the Tribunal knight on guard, leaving him unconscious. Under Xiao Lü’s resentful stare, she stepped onto the cloud-lift up to the tower top.
“The next patrol shift cos in ten minutes, so we have ten minutes to finish.”
Xiao Lü carefully guided her. “Ye-sis, last ti you disguised yourself as staff and tricked the head of the Weapons Departnt... she’s with your disciple now. I’ll steer you clear of their path.”
“Thanks... I really am such an unfit teacher.”
Vieya sighed as she reached the top, moving the unconscious knight aside in the shadows.
“Ye-sis, you’re no longer the Night Hero. So you don’t have to feel guilty. Just go ahead and test your silly disciple.” Xiao Lü coaxed.
Vieya shot her ghostly companion a glare. “Don’t paint so black.”
“Hehe.”
Xiao Lü kept silent, linking part of her consciousness into the tower’s crystal nexus. In a flash, everything she saw flooded into Vieya’s mind.
Units of Tribunal knights with halberds ran in formation, converging at the tower base and sealing it in a tight encirclent.
“Well then, Ye-sis,” Xiao Lü’s voice quivered faintly, “if you’re not too bad... are you going to play the Hero next? Or the Demon King?”
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