The night view of Avelina was actually quite beautiful, but Lin Yue had always lived in the wilderness and rarely had the chance to enjoy it.
Leaning against the perimeter wall with the beautiful woman, holding a cup of coffee, wasn’t a bad way to pass the time.
Lin Yue turned his head and noticed Marpel wearing merchant attire that appeared simple but was actually sleek and professional.
Compared to any of her previous uniforms, this outfit highlighted her impressive figure much more effectively.
‘The legendary… private clothes, I see.’
In the game, he rarely saw characters wearing different outfits, which stripped away much of their personality.
He had to admit that Marpel had excellent taste; she carried the aura of a powerful woman.
“We came all this way just to stand here and drink coffee?”
Lin Yue asked doubtfully.
Although he had things to say, Marpel was acting so mysterious that he wasn’t sure what she was up to.
Autumn was approaching Avelina, and the wind was strong, causing her hair to flutter in the breeze.
“Don’t you think it’s romantic? Aside from business, you have to find some fun for yourself. Besides… isn’t it nice to have such a beautiful woman standing next to you?”
Marpel flashed her usual sweet smile, seemingly enjoying the idle time spent with Lin Yue.
‘There she goes, praising herself again…’
Lin Yue rested his hands on the railing and looked down at the streets, which were still brightly lit.
“I appreciate your help with Airella’s situation,” he said slowly.
He had written several letters to Marpel over the past few days, hoping she could minimize the fallout of Airella being exposed as a Magic Beast Tamer.
This wasn’t a difficult task for Marpel.
Since the impact of the event itself was positive, she could easily fabricate a story about a forbidden beast losing control and Airella being the one to suppress it.
As for the rumors claiming it was Airella who activated the forbidden beast to destroy the world, they were easily debunked by the ironclad fact that the beast had helped protect Avelina.
To put it simply, there would always be some learned scholar willing to spin the truth for him.
Since Airella was beautiful and generally kind to others, the public narrative was easy to manipulate.
“Ho ho, you asked a girl out to such a romantic spot at midnight just to worry about another girl? Hmph… you’ve certainly got it all figured out, haven’t you, Wolf of the Avelina Back Mountain?”
Marpel teased the tactless man as she always did.
Though her words were sharp, she couldn’t help but lean her shoulder slightly closer to his arm.
“Are you sure you weren’t the one who started that nickname…?” Lin Yue was speechless.
“I’m not that bored. Important resources should be saved for important moments,” Marpel said, waving it off.
She couldn’t be bothered to mess with him every single day.
The two chatted idly, like old friends who had known each other for years.
Marpel’s personality was certainly surprising when you first met her — perhaps even off-putting — but after spending enough time together, she was actually much more comfortable to be around than others.
She carried a natural, down-to-earth quality that made her more approachable than a typical noble lady.
“The fact that the Avelina crisis could be settled so smoothly is inseparable from your involvement, isn’t it…?”
Marpel got to the point, her lips curling into a stunning smile as she looked at Lin Yue.
“I just did what any student of Avelina should do. I didn’t do anything special.”
If anyone was a hero, Charles and the main protagonist group were much more visible.
After all, they had turned the tide in front of so many people at the main gate.
It was almost impossible for them not to be put on a pedestal.
“Oh right, about your duel with Charles — who won?”
Marpel suddenly remembered that Lin Yue and Charles had a duel that day, and she wondered if it had been interrupted.
“He did,” Lin Yue said decisively.
“I don’t believe you.”
Marpel’s mouth curved into a feline shape, seeing right through what the guy was trying to do.
“You were at the peak of Tier 1 before you left that day, and you were Tier 2 when you returned. If you didn’t have a breakthrough because of that fight, I’ll eat my hat…”
Thinking about it, he really did have Charles to thank for picking a fight with him.
If he hadn’t suddenly reached the next tier, he probably would have been stabbed to death by that knight.
“Maybe I reached Tier 2 because I was struck by lightning, and it had nothing to do with Charles?”
Lin Yue joked.
“I don’t care. Either way, I don’t want to go to dinner with him…”
He hadn’t expected Marpel to be so resistant to contact with Charles.
She had even humbled herself to beg him for help with this matter, so it seemed she truly despised the man.
“He’s the big hero this time. You hate him that much?”
Marpel crossed her arms, thinking back to the moment the high-level magic fell.
“He isn’t a coward. He even lost one arm to protect the academy.”
“Are you starting to admire him?”
“No, I still hate him.”
‘What on earth did he do to make you hate him this much…?’
“Since you hate him, you should have no reason not to hate me. My reputation wasn’t much better than his at the start.”
Lin Yue was quite curious why Marpel had approached him, even going so far as to trick and coerce him into joining the Nightingale.
“It’s because you like to play the ‘hero saving the beauty.’ If you hadn’t stepped in to shield me at the beginning, I wouldn’t have noticed you… let alone become this intimate with you~”
Marpel pulled a crystal ball from her chest — the very evidence of Lin Yue’s “criminal record.”
She shook it in front of her chest as if showing off a trophy.
“Heh…”
The corners of Lin Yue’s mouth twitched.
‘Is she going to hold this over me for the rest of my life?’
However, the leverage this item provided was extremely limited.
His reputation was already trash, so carrying one more rumor didn’t really matter.
His willingness to work for Marpel was mostly based on utilitarianism.
Although the Nightingale wasn’t very active in the overall story, they appeared at every key node of the early narrative.
Even if they were forced to disband under imperial pressure, that was only a break in their information network; their true goal had never been crushed.
Nightingale had guided Allen several times toward dungeons where he could obtain new powers and helped him level up, as if they possessed some form of precognition.
It was somewhat similar to the abilities of the Astrology Association…
The Astrology Association would play a crucial role in the fourth act of the story, though it was unclear if the anomalies in this major event would affect their decisions.
For now, Lin Yue could only take things one step at a time.
After the butterfly effect had fermented for a while, the value of the information in his hands had been nearly cut in half.
Having the Nightingale would make his on-the-spot decisions much more flexible.
It could be considered a benefit of being tied to the same boat as Marpel…
He shook off his thoughts and realized Marpel was staring at him with an incredibly serious gaze.
Lin Yue felt a bit uneasy under her stare.
“What? Are you going to threaten me again?”
‘Did this girl go out and learn some new dirty trick to trap me?’
Just as Lin Yue was considering how to respond, Marpel’s expression turned solemn.
She raised the crystal ball high and slammed it onto the ground.
The crystal ball she used to threaten Lin Yue shattered into pieces.
The shards reflected the stunned look in Lin Yue’s eyes.
He hadn’t expected this vixen to suddenly make such an unexpected move.
“What… do you mean by this?”
Marpel crossed her arms and tilted her head up with a pleasant smile, seemingly very satisfied with his reaction.
“After getting to know you lately, I’ve realized that forcing you to do things is pointless. You might even end up using me in return…”
“So… I choose to trust you and give you a chance to choose again.”
She pulled a mask from behind her back — one made specifically according to Lin Yue’s characteristics.
Marpel’s tone carried a serious earnesty that was rarely seen, as if Lin Yue’s choice was extremely important to her.
“If you don’t like it, you can just turn around and leave. I won’t force you to stay… We’ll go our separate ways and act like we don’t know each other when we meet.”
Looking at the mask she held out, Lin Yue didn’t refuse.
He slowly picked it up and found that she had made a wolf mask for him.
It was a black wolf…
“So, are you willing to formally join the Nightingale for my sake?”
He gently put it on and found that it fit perfectly.
The materials were high quality, and it was clearly designed with care.
Seeing Lin Yue take the mask without saying a word, Marpel breathed a sigh of relief.
Her tension eased, and she spoke playfully.
“Since you put it on, I’ll take that as a yes… Codename: Black Wolf~”
“What kind of weird name is that…?”
Lin Yue took off the mask but didn’t reject the name.
“But… you didn’t have to break the crystal. You know it doesn’t really matter if it exists or not…”
Marpel’s smile widened when she heard Lin Yue’s question.
“Didn’t I say it? We are a community of shared destiny. If we let this matter create a rift between us, wouldn’t that be a joke?”
Lin Yue looked skeptical.
“I thought you were just joking…”
“I was being very serious, okay? What kind of person do you take me for?”
Marpel was suddenly a bit annoyed.
She hadn’t expected her heartfelt words to be viewed this way by Lin Yue.
“Argh… I’m really angry now~”
She suddenly wanted to test the guy in front of her again.
“Fine, fine. I know you don’t like that kind of talk. I’ll change it to something you can accept. Let me think…”
Without waiting for Lin Yue’s response, she suddenly grabbed his tie and pulled him extremely close.
They were so near that they could smell each other’s breath.
“I’ve got it…”
A hint of flirtatiousness flashed in her eyes.
“Then… please follow me through life and death.”
Having said that, she suddenly pushed Lin Yue away.
Using the momentum, she vaulted over the railing and dropped from the height.
“You!”
Lin Yue was stunned.
The girl vanished from his sight, falling rapidly toward the ground…