Everyone returned to the inn one by one.
The little beastfolk children were in low spirits.
The three beastfolk boys, due to their injuries, were laid back down on the floor bedding, while the remaining four little beastfolk followed Ruby with sullen faces and came to Li Qiuchen’s side.
The second floor had been wrecked beyond habitation by Aili’s Rain Spike Technique, so everyone gathered in the open space on the first floor.
They brought down bedding from the second-floor beds and old clothes from the back storeroom, arranging them into makeshift beds and giving priority to Kevin and the three beastfolk boys.
Naili fetched hot water and towels, while Kairui helped wipe their bodies.
“Get some rest quickly,”
Li Qiuchen said, patting the bedding toward them.
“Leader, can you help us register as city-state residents?”
The sheep girl Ruby sat beside Li Qiuchen and asked.
“First, don’t call me leader—I’m not your leader. Second, I can’t agree to this because I’m just an ordinary person too.”
Li Qiuchen felt the heavy burden of responsibility and immediately tried to shrug it off.
“During the time when the Demon King Army was rampant, our Tulu Tribe signed a contract with the city-state. Our fathers and many uncles joined the city-state allied forces and participated in the battles, so we should naturally be entitled to resident rights, but…”
Ruby explained the situation.
“The city-state refuses to honor it now?”
Li Qiuchen finished the rest for her.
“My two uncles and I went to the city-state civil affairs office, but they refused to help us. Then we went to the city-state court—they not only refused to file the case but even wanted to arrest us.”
Mist rose in Ruby’s eyes, and the white sheep tail under her skirt swayed slightly.
Jocelyn, who had just finished in the underground chamber and walked back, sat on Li Qiuchen’s other side.
“It’s obvious—the city-state now wants capable slaves, not troublesome free citizens.”
“You should approach a conscientious councilor or find an eloquent bard,”
Li Qiuchen instinctively offered a solution.
He had seen this kind of thing many times on the Seal Demon Path.
Belinda was accustomed to solving issues with force, which often caused even bigger messes, so it always fell to the smooth-talking Li Qiuchen to handle them.
It was somewhat similar to a PR role back on Earth: write a few silly poems or rhyming ditties, hand them to a drunken bard at the local tavern.
If you could slip them a few dozen copper taks, things would go much more smoothly.
As long as you could make those free citizens shed tears and pressure the city government through them, everything would improve.
Of course, if you could also move a few noble lords or happen upon a councilor who wanted to go against the mainstream, the matter would resolve even faster.
“You can handle it, right?”
Ruby’s longing big eyes stared at him without blinking.
Li Qiuchen avoided her gaze, but several beastfolk boys crowded around together.
“Brother Qiuchen, if we can’t become free citizens… can we become your slaves?”
Li Qiuchen stood up abruptly.
“Why would you think that?”
“At least we wouldn’t get beaten to death for stealing food, right? Brother Qiuchen can let us eat together.”
One of the horned boys explained timidly.
Li Qiuchen fell silent for a moment.
“I’ll do my best.”
His gaze fell on Kairui in the distance, and the figure of Kaili appeared in his mind again—this matter might require troubling her.
Ruby nodded, solemnly bowed to Li Qiuchen—a courtesy she had learned in the city-state—then led the little beastfolk back to their bedding to sleep.
Jocelyn wrapped an arm around Li Qiuchen’s shoulder, somewhat unwillingly saying,
“Li Zi, you know what? I searched the entire inn, including those merchants, and only found this one.”
She placed a slightly greenish gold tack into Li Qiuchen’s hand.
Li Qiuchen thought for a moment and understood.
“Clearly, the person controlling them was also someone fond of money. As for this gold tack he left behind, I guess you found it in some crevice in the underground chamber.”
“How do you know? You suddenly became a fortune-teller? Do all northeastern kids have this talent? Or did this gold coin tell you something?”
Jocelyn was somewhat surprised.
“This gold tack was probably what that illusion magic user used to recover illusion elements,”
Li Qiuchen explained.
“Don’t be surprised—we mostly encountered magical beasts on the Seal Demon Path, so we didn’t have much contact with illusion magic. But before meeting Belinda, I exchanged ideas about illusion magic with someone for a while.”
Seeing Jocelyn’s interested expression, he continued,
“Illusion elements are rare even among air elements—rarer than gold elements and much harder to tame. So illusion mages cherish the illusion elements they’ve already tamed and even recover any unused ones after casting.”
“So this greenish gold coin is the container he used to store leftover illusion elements?”
Jocelyn nodded.
“Yes. In his eyes, this thing shines brighter than the sun—he could sense its familiar aura from far away. That’s probably why he told the alpha wolf he was leaving but actually crouched hidden nearby.”
Aili, who had appeared beside them at some point, said,
“Then if we keep this thing, won’t he target us? But just giving it back to him feels… too uncomfortable!”
Her noble upbringing ultimately kept her from swearing.
Her mood became exceptionally irritable.
But thinking of the corpses hanging upside down in the inn, the miserably dead beastfolk, and the beastfolk boys’ songs, her heart…
Now, aside from handing it over, there seemed to be no other way.
She struggled, instinctively looking toward Li Qiuchen.
“You…”
Li Qiuchen whispered something in Jocelyn’s ear.
Someone could see this gold coin that looked like the sun to him.
Jocelyn excitedly ran outside the inn, then threw the coin high into the air again and again to make sure whoever was lurking in the shadows could see clearly.
Finally, Jocelyn hurled the coin hard into the swamp.
The bronze-green gold coin slowly sank into the swamp, bubbled a few times, and vanished completely.
Jocelyn cupped her hands like a megaphone and shouted loudly toward the wilderness,
“Heyyy! Sorry, my hand slipped. Hope you can still pick up your precious baby.”
With that, she returned to the inn.
Li Qiuchen held the copper mirror; under Perception, he could see an area far away where the elemental disturbance was exceptionally intense.
Aili’s mood immediately brightened.
She stood up, even wanting to do a light dance, her tiptoes tracing a delicate circle on the ground.
Suppressing the strong joy, she looked toward Li Qiuchen.
The man was leaning against a pillar, turning his head to speak with Uncle Wright.
“No need to worry. The magic arrays I left around have detection functions. If he tries to use illusion magic to enter from outside, the arrays will sound an alarm and alert everyone,” Li Qiuchen explained to Uncle Wright.
“Hey! I want to take a bath,” Aili said, frowning at Li Qiuchen, interrupting their conversation.
Li Qiuchen was a bit baffled.
“Then go take your bath.”
“Not here, right? And you’re the leader here—shouldn’t you help everyone solve problems?”
Aili used the beastfolk’s way of speaking.
“First, I’m not some leader. Second, when facing problems, we advocate solving them ourselves,” Li Qiuchen explained.
“Stupid jerk!”
Aili, like a child who didn’t get her way, immediately snapped angrily.
She stood up in a huff and stormed toward the outside of the inn.
“Third, we should respect each other and throw fewer tantrums. Aili, if there’s a next time, you’ll be kicked out of the team,” Li Qiuchen called after her.
“Shut up, you stupid jerk!”
Came the loli mage’s furious scolding from outside.
Li Qiuchen sat resting for a while.
The beastfolk beside him had already fallen into deep sleep.
He got up, walked out of the inn, and around a corner spotted Kaili.
“Kaili.”
Li Qiuchen smiled and greeted her, preparing to bring up the little beastfolk’s predicament.
This time Kaili spoke first.
The blonde valkyrie mentioned the element blessing magic.
“Um… Qiuchen, you know what? That element blessing magic you cast was really amazing, so magical… I felt like your hand was personally putting armor on me.”
Kaili froze for a moment.
She had just wanted to find something to say and praise the magic, but somehow it had veered into strange territory.
Li Qiuchen also stiffened.
He recalled Belinda’s warning to him, and Hestia’s apple-red cheeks under her green short hair after the magic was cast.
For a moment he didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t know—I haven’t used this magic much. During our escape, I only used it on two people. One of them told me not to use it randomly on others. I didn’t know it meant this.”
“It was a girl, right?”
Kaili instantly seized the key point.
Li Qiuchen blinked in confusion, preparing to muddle through.
“Ahem…”
He clearly hadn’t mentioned gender—just “one person”—how could she predict it so precisely?!
For an instant, he felt as if Belinda were standing in front of him, and he had that terrifying sensation of being caught red-handed.
She hit the mark perfectly; he was at a loss, completely bewildered.
This had happened many times before—even back when they hadn’t formally established their relationship.
He was merely discussing refinements to the Falling Rain Technique with Lumin.
Captain Belinda would walk over, stare at him until he started panicking and avoiding her gaze, then give an order: prepare some private inscription patterns for bathing, or use a cleaning spell on undergarments.
There was always something in the team.
The pressure of saying goodbye to Lumin under her gaze gave him an indescribable awkwardness—just like right now.
Kaili simply watched his flustered state quietly, like a little cat grabbed by the scruff—adorably helpless.
This poor guy had fallen into such embarrassment because of his genuine feelings for her.
She wouldn’t get angry over a girl who had once worn the element armor.
There was absolutely no need to be angry.
No one said the magic had to be used on her first, and he had explained that he didn’t know it would feel that way during the armoring process.
Her face was full of smiles—she hadn’t even noticed her fingers unconsciously tapping the sword hilt.
“It’s nothing, Qiuchen,” Kaili said, timely stopping the awkward topic.
If it really was nothing, why say so much to convince herself?
“Cousin, who are you talking to?”
Aili came out from the corner wearing loose clothes.
The silver-haired少女’s shoulders, smooth as cream, were still dripping with moisture.
The oversized clothes instead revealed different curves.
The moment she turned and saw Li Qiuchen, her ivory-pale porcelain-doll face instantly flushed crimson—like a girl who had secretly drunk cellar-aged wine.
“Ahh—! Stupid jerk, you! You! Cousin! Look at him!”
The loli mage stomped her feet in fury.
One hand clutched her wet hair, the other gripped her clothes tightly over her chest.
Water droplets fled down her ankles into her shoes.
Li Qiuchen hurriedly averted his gaze, then turned and left.
Kaili helplessly held down her cousin, who was loudly declaring she would definitely tell Father that Li Qiuchen had peeked.
“Aili, you’re only one year away from being an adult. Don’t always lose your temper like this. Qiuchen came to find me.”
“It… it was him! It was obviously him!”
The little loli trembled with anger.
How could there be such a bad guy in the world?
When she asked him to help fetch hot water for her bath, he refused.
She finally finished on her own, and he actually came to peek!
And her cousin was even taking his side.
What a fake gentleman—hateful, so hateful.