Looking at the big handful of gleaming white Luen coins handed to her, Letia fell silent for a moment.
If possible, she really wanted to righteously refuse.
But there was no way—her counterpart was offering far too much.
And she herself was just too poor.
These five thousand Luen coins were truly life-saving money for her!
Even if she split two thousand five with Red as his share, she’d still net half for herself, right?
No matter how she thought about it, it was a deal she just couldn’t lose.
Maybe the first time she “sold” it she’d feel a little awkward, but after doing it a few times, she’d get used to it…
And by “it,” she meant her integrity.
After all, integrity was meant to be sold, wasn’t it?
At the same time, a brilliant idea popped into Letia’s mind.
After all, the script could be rewritten.
Just like with Tessaia—her grandmother was supposed to die, but after Letia’s intervention, she had survived.
Didn’t that mean, as long as she made her presence known to Red now and then, maybe when she ran into danger on the twenty-fifth floor, Red would show up and save her?
Or maybe, before anything happened, Red would give her a heads-up to help her prepare?
She wasn’t entirely sure, but Letia suspected the script she was in was the classic “team dropout” genre.
As long as she kept raising her importance in the readers’ eyes before her inevitable doom event—
Then even if the script wanted her dead, it would have to see if the readers agreed first, right?
Last night, she’d dreamt again of dying on the twenty-fifth floor.
That meant she hadn’t done enough, and still had to work harder.
“Let me help you out then.”
Having sorted out her thoughts, Letia accepted the money from Bethany.
The latter finally let out a breath of relief.
“But I do find something a bit odd,” Letia looked at Bethany.
“Since you can’t do this yourself, why not just straightforwardly turn down Liz’s request? You two get along well, don’t you?”
At this, Bethany gave a bitter smile.
“No matter how well we get along, if I don’t finish the task Liz gave me, I’ll get a real earful from her.”
“That’s true,” Letiya nodded in agreement.
“Back when Red was here, he’d always draw the fire for us, but you must’ve noticed, ever since Red left, Liz’s temper has gotten nastier.”
“Shhh!”
Bethany grew nervous at once, glancing around to make sure Liz wasn’t there before muttering quietly, “Letia, you really dare say anything…”
“You know me, I’ve always been like this.”
Letia was the same with everyone—put nicely, she was good at reading people; put bluntly, she’d say whatever people wanted to hear.
Because of this, even though she had no particularly close friends in Dawn’s Edge, she’d never managed to offend anyone, either.
At least that was better than Red, who’d become everyone’s scapegoat.
After that, the two chatted idly for who knows how long.
***
The sudden sound of the door creaking open interrupted their conversation.
Letia and Bethany instantly fell silent, their eyes drawn to the source of the sound.
In walked Liz.
The Knight, always stone-faced, brought a palpable pressure into the room just by entering.
Bethany dared not say a word—her mission was unfinished, and her guilty conscience was heavy.
She was afraid Liz would ask about it, so she simply kept her mouth shut.
Letia, on the other hand, was as casual as ever.
“Good morning, Captain.”
“Good morning.”
Liz nodded coldly.
“Captain, did you just get back from the Guild?”
“Yeah.”
Though Liz had previously said she didn’t want to recruit new members, in reality, she was still running to the Guild every other day.
Whether she was actually recruiting or investigating the White Church delegation, Liz kept going as usual.
But as she dug deeper, Liz realized this situation was especially complicated.
So complicated, in fact, that even with her family’s influence in Nightbreak Town, she couldn’t figure out the background of this delegation.
Even so, she’d managed to catch a crucial lead.
It seemed the White Church delegation was somehow connected to the lord of Nightbright Town—Barphest.
But this wasn’t the time to talk about that.
Liz sat down and addressed the two of them.
“A Chamber of Commerce has invited Dawn’s Edge to attend a banquet tomorrow night. Apparently, it’s to promote a new kind of Magic Device Product.”
“Oh…”
Letiya yawned, clearly uninterested.
“So, Liz, you planning to go?”
Chambers of Commerce looking for hero teams was nothing unusual.
Wasn’t it just like how in her past life, tons of companies invited celebrities to endorse their products?
It was pretty much the same deal as what Liz had just described.
“They’re offering a really high price. And aside from us, the Blood Legion and other hero teams will be there too.”
As she said this, Liz slid the invitation over to the two of them.
Letia glanced at the cover of the invitation.
“Gilded Chamber of Commerce? Never heard of that one.”
“They’re not local—they came from outside Nightbright Town.”
“I see…”
Opening it, Letia began reading closely.
The contents inside were the usual fare—
Lots of flowery flattery, praising the glorious name of “Dawn’s Edge,” expressing the Chamber of Commerce’s genuine respect and sincere hope for collaboration.
But the more she read, the more something felt off to Letia.
Liz noticed Letia’s faint frown, and was a bit confused.
“Is there a problem?”
“Not exactly a problem…”
Letia just felt that the tone of the invitation was subtly, weirdly familiar.
How to put it?
It really felt like the sort of cryptic, annoying writing Otto always used.
It must be a coincidence…
She pushed the ridiculous thought aside.
“Liz, look,” Bethany, reading along with Letia, suddenly tapped the bottom of the invitation with her knuckle.
“On the invitee list… They’ve included Red’s name, too.”
A formal invitation should always have the latest and most accurate guest list.
Everyone knew Red was no longer a member of Dawn’s Edge.
So why would they put his name on there when he’d already left?
“Calm down, Liz.”
Seeing Liz frown and her face go cold, about to speak, Letia interjected.
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? This is an outside Chamber of Commerce. They don’t know about our internal changes, so it’s understandable. No need to overreact—we’ll just explain it when we get there.”
Hearing this, Liz calmed down, rubbing her temples.
“True. In their eyes, we’re still one of the top hero teams in Nightbright Town. If Red left, that’s his loss.”