In the afternoon, after Dailina treated the last wound on Xi Ya’s arm, she removed the blood-stained old bandages and threw them into the basin beside her.
“Alright.”
She straightened up, wiping the fine sweat from her forehead.
“Xi Ya, do you have any other injuries?”
“No, there aren’t. Thank you.”
Xi Ya moved his arm; the pain had completely disappeared.
“I’m sorry, my mana is too low. I ran out of mana after only a short treatment, and in the end I had to let you help me handle these wounds.”
“It’s alright, Xi Ya.”
Dailina tucked her wand back into her waist.
She lowered her head, looking at the blood-stained bandages in the basin, and was silent for a few seconds.
“Um… are we really going to tell the village chief the truth? Mr. Kang Na is from the village. He stole so many poultry from the village and even kidnapped people. Once the village chief finds out, will he…”
Her voice was hesitant.
Although they had just decided to confess the truth to the village chief, she was still worried that the village chief wouldn’t be able to accept it.
“Precisely because it was him, we must tell the village chief. When the village chief was talking about the burning at the stake, I felt that his relationship with Kang Na and Wei Luo was definitely not ordinary. This matter must be explained clearly to the village chief.”
“But we can only tell the village chief. Don’t let the other villagers know.”
Xi Ya added.
“Why?”
“Because it will cause panic. When the villagers hear that the culprit is Kang Na, who used to be from the village, and that he turned into a vampire, what will they think?”
Xi Ya stood up, his tone becoming very serious.
“If the villagers just think that Kang Na wanted to avenge Wei Luo, then the problem isn’t that big. But if they start imagining things, thinking that touching Wei Luo would infect them into vampires, and they become suspicious of each other, won’t the village fall into chaos?”
“So it’s best to only tell the village chief about this kind of thing. As for how to announce it to the villagers later, we’ll discuss it with the village chief first.”
“Mm, you’re right. Let’s go find the village chief now.”
Dailina nodded.
Her gaze fell on Xi Ya’s tattered school uniform, then on his dead-serious face.
“Pfft… ah, sorry, you look so funny…”
She couldn’t help it and covered her mouth, laughing out loud.
“Huh?”
Xi Ya looked down at his school uniform.
Unlike Duoluolisi’s battle-damaged version that was full of allure, his outfit looked like a beggar’s.
His pants were cut into strip fringes, and the back of his top was torn into a large patch, becoming a “backless dress.”
“Ah, well… sigh, no choice. I always get hit, and my school uniform is torn again.”
He laughed self-deprecatingly.
All the pockets on his body were torn.
Fortunately, he had put his student ID into his magical storage space beforehand.
Otherwise, for an Elite Class student like him, losing his student ID would be very hard to reissue.
‘But the money in his pockets was all gone. He really wasn’t upset about it. Hmm, not at all.’
He had hidden the ritual book he secretly brought out from the cave into his storage space, intending to keep it for himself to study blood magic.
Speaking of storage space, every mage has their own storage space.
The higher the mana, the larger the space.
For example, a 9th-tier Grand Archmage’s storage space is as large as a palace treasury, while Xi Ya’s space was very small—just that book alone filled it up.
“Ahem, let’s go. It’s time to report to the village chief.”
Xi Ya snapped back to reality and urged them to set out.
Xi Ya went to a neighboring villager’s house and borrowed a half-length coarse linen cloak to put on.
The brown cloak paired with his red tattered school uniform pants underneath, making him look like he was wearing weird clothes.
As he walked, he attracted quite a few stares from the villagers.
‘What are you looking at?’
Xi Ya muttered to himself, then pulled the cloak tighter.
He glanced at Dailina beside him and found that Dailina’s head was turned to the other side, as if she couldn’t bear to look at his outfit.
‘This is so embarrassing. I feel like my toes are digging out eighteen levels of hell.’
A few minutes later, they finally arrived at the meeting hall.
The door was half-closed.
Xi Ya let go of the hand holding his cloak and called into the hall:
“Village Chief, are you inside?”
“Come in.”
The two entered and saw the village chief sitting at the table, holding a pipe in his hand.
His face looked even more haggard than a few days ago.
“Oh, it’s you. Have you found anything from the investigation?”
The village chief set down his pipe and supported his forehead with one hand, as if he didn’t even have the strength to lift his head.
“Yes.”
Xi Ya walked over, his voice very low.
“Village Chief, we only want to tell you the investigation results.”
The village chief was startled, his gaze lingering on Xi Ya’s face for a few seconds.
He quickly understood what he meant.
He nodded slowly and pointed toward the door.
Xi Ya understood.
He went over and closed the meeting hall door, then pulled out a chair and sat down next to the village chief.
Dailina followed and sat beside him.
The village chief didn’t urge him.
He just slowly picked up his pipe and took another puff.
Xi Ya looked at the village chief’s haggard state and hesitated a bit about whether to tell him the truth at this moment, but he spoke anyway, because the village chief would have to face this sooner or later.
“Last night, we went to that forest…”
Xi Ya recounted the whole story from beginning to end: from encountering the blood fowl, to discovering the three kidnapped people in the cave, then facing Kang Na, who had become a vampire, and finally Kang Na’s awakening and seeking death.
Of course, this was all a story he and Dailina had discussed and agreed upon.
He did not mention that Kang Na had come into contact with the Demon God.
Kang Na was already pitiable enough, and he didn’t want the village chief to have an even worse impression of him.
Also, he didn’t mention that Duoluolisi had helped deal with Kang Na.
In his account, Kang Na committed suicide after awakening, and the credit for persuading him to awaken was attributed to Dailina.
Earlier, during their discussion, Dailina asked him why they shouldn’t mention Duoluolisi.
Xi Ya explained it this way:
“Student Duoluolisi didn’t enter the village with you. She definitely doesn’t want others to know she was here. If we mention her, it will only cause her trouble.”
“Moreover, this commission was accepted by us. If others find out that an outsider helped, people will question whether we are capable of completing this commission. When we go back to the academy for settlement, I’m afraid they won’t give us credits.”
When he said this, he was actually a bit worried that Dailina would think he was selfish.
After all, taking credit for someone else’s work was somewhat dishonorable.
Although this was originally his achievement.
“You’re right. Student Duoluolisi probably doesn’t want to be known either.”
Surprisingly, Dailina agreed very decisively.
But looking at Dailina’s reaction, Xi Ya felt that she might have only heard the first part and not the second part at all.
So after they unified their story, it became like this.
The village chief did not speak from beginning to end, remaining silent the whole time.
Xi Ya looked at the village chief’s expression, worried that the blow might be too great.
His hand, placed underneath, touched the corner of the diary, hesitating whether to take it out.
Just then, the village chief finally spoke.
“Actually, that night, it was I who transferred away the guarding villagers, deliberately allowing Kang Na to rescue Wei Luo.”