novelnext Chapter 87 The Rejected Confession
Chapter 87 The Rejected Confession
Chapter 87 The Rejected Confession
To be fair, Suiyue teased him about this quite a bit.
Suiyue didn't use the title "Pure One," which is recognized by the Red Rat Adventurers, because she felt that it was too mild to be aggressive.
She had even harsher words, but she was too embarrassed to use them in front of Nan'an.
To say I don't care would be a lie.
But to say that such a joke could break his defenses is far from the truth.
It's more like the soft buzzing that quietly rings out inside a mosquito net as you fall asleep on a summer night, a ticklish sensation all over your body.
"So, your method of indulgence is slaughter?"
"Likewise," Almahern continued chewing her fries, her tone sarcastic. "I wouldn't dare compare myself to that headhunting madman with official Ereshkigal certification. Being able to kill legally is good, even if we're pretty much the same."
"You don't need to explain to me. I won't hesitate to twist your head off."
As he spoke, he took a step forward, causing Almahern's figure to blur for a moment, almost merging into the darkness.
Alma Hern was furious: "Can't you understand human language? As long as you don't mess with me, we can live in peace!"
Nan'an emphasized: "Would you allow a living erosion that could spiral out of control at any moment to remain active within your jurisdiction? I wouldn't, unless you're willing to accept regulation."
"Hmph, so those elders of Solitz still want to keep the Living Eclipse like livestock, wanting to rely on our divine and demonic power to fight against the Black Mist, while also wanting to keep us chained up."
"If you're capable, then defeat the entire Nora by yourself. If you have the ability to rise above everyone else, then of course you can do whatever you want."
Like countless fireflies suddenly emerging from under Nan'an's skin, they fluttered and swirled around his body.
The tiny, bright, and soft points of light outlined his entire being as a luminous statue.
Element-Driven Light Danger: The Starting Move
"Pushing me like this, aren't you afraid I'll activate my Demon Eye and kill indiscriminately?!" Almahern gritted her teeth and threatened, "I can raise the cost of maintaining order in Kren indefinitely, don't go too far!"
"It seems necessary to emphasize to you that I respond better to gentle persuasion than force. Threaten me and I'll kill your whole family. Since you don't have a whole family, I'll definitely hang your head up and play with it."
"What's the difference between you and me? Aren't you even worse than me?!"
"If you're not satisfied, let's fight now."
The dazzling lights of Nan'an indeed attracted pedestrians from not far away.
Seeing people pointing and whispering, Elmar Hern angrily snorted.
"Turn off the light within you."
Nan An glanced sideways and said, "Is this an order to me?"
"Please—you, now, immediately, turn it off!"
The word "please" seems to be forced out as if a knife were held to one's throat.
After struggling to utter a few words through gritted teeth, Elmarhern stared intently at Nan'an, preparing for battle. There was no reasoning with a war maniac like Nan'an; he was a bloodthirsty madman!
The light generated by the elemental drive gradually dimmed. Curious pedestrians in the distance squinted and watched for a while, but in the end, Suiyue stepped forward and tricked them into dispersing.
After this incident, Almahern's tone softened slightly.
"What exactly do you want in order for you to pretend you don't exist?"
"Leaving Kren is outside my jurisdiction, so I have no say in it."
"No." Almahern said firmly.
"It has to be Kren?"
"It's because it was built so well."
Nan'an couldn't hold on any longer.
Pirion worked so hard that he earned the unanimous approval of the Living Eclipses.
Powerful living erosions like Elmarhern need to travel back and forth into the depths of the black mist from time to time to immerse themselves and strengthen their divine and demonic power.
Kren's advantageous geographical location satisfied all her needs.
Almahern let out a long breath and casually pulled a crystal bottle from her coat pocket.
"then."
Nan'an silently created an elemental barrier around himself before reaching out to catch the object that arced through the air.
Having just acquired it, the giant Rubik's Cube deep within my consciousness began to rotate a little faster.
Inside the crystal bottle, irregularly shaped purplish-black crystals emitted an alluring glimmer.
The light flickered, like the breath of some living thing, or like a sleeping flame imprisoned in a transparent cage.
"Bribing me?"
Almahern turned her face away in pain, unable to bear to look any longer.
"Doesn't the Dawn Doctrine always speak of the redemption of sinners?" she asked, her breathing heavy. "Is that enough?"
Nan An weighed the bottle in her hand: "What do you think?"
"Don't be so greedy!" Almahern whirled around, her eyes practically spitting fire. "You've been into the Black Mist before; you should know how hard it is to obtain!"
"Your understanding of good and evil is muddled and unclear. If you talk to me about the redemption of sinners, the church will tacitly accept that your hands are stained with blood and will gladly squeeze every last drop of value out of you," Nan'an said. "And you think you can wash away the mud with just a single shard?"
Almahern's figure blurred for a moment.
She blended into the shadows beneath her feet, like a smear of ink spreading in water, moving swiftly through the darkness.
Emerging from the shadow of the wooden crate, it disappeared into the shadow of a passerby at the street corner.
When Nan'an chased after her, the echo of her voice suddenly rang out.
"I'll make you pay."
Almahern flickered back and forth in the shadows cast by the streetlights, disappearing completely in just a few breaths.
"Wow, old man—" Suiyue jogged to catch up with Nan'an, glancing in the direction Elmahern had disappeared. "Her speed was incredible. Your elemental drive energy—"
"No." Nan'an knew what she wanted to ask. "If you max out your sixth rank, you should be able to. But it'll still be difficult to catch her. Her skill in using it is superb. We'll need to find another person who specializes in shadow magic to stop her casting."
"If she gets angry and retaliates against Kren's people—"
"She wouldn't dare," Nan An said confidently. "The fact that she's willing to argue with me for so long, and even give up a fragment of a god or demon, proves that she wants to have a normal Nora life."
"Really? But I hear her say she really hates being bound by rules and regulations."
Nan'an continued walking towards the Black Fang Workshop.
"Because she wants to be superior to others and wants to have certain privileges."
"But she also knew very well that once she accepted the status offered by Solitz, she would not be able to enjoy both privileges and the freedom to do whatever she wanted."
"In order to have both, she needs to demonstrate value that makes her worth winning over, but she doesn't want to be managed. So you can see her left and right brains fighting each other, pulling herself in a dilemma."
"You can't be a completely bad person; that's cutting off your own escape route. Nora won't accept a pure antisocial monster, no matter how valuable she is."
"But you can't be a good girl either, or Nora will think she's cheap and that her power and loyalty can be bought with a few promises."
"What she wants is to be needed, not to be owned."
Suiyue pondered for a moment.
"Even prostitutes have more principles than her when it comes to wanting both."
Someone else would probably be fooled by Alma Hearn.
Unfortunately, Nan'an didn't give them the chance.
From the moment she was caught, her true colors were revealed.
"Old man, what are you planning to do with her?"
"If she's willing to back down, I'll consider giving her a chance to be my dog and exploit her to the fullest," Nan An said casually. "If she's not, I want her head and her demonic eyes!"
Since the Rubik's Cube can devour and purify, generating smaller Rubik's Cubes with corresponding abilities, why can't the Aging Demon Eye shine brightly with a new owner?
To achieve this goal, a significant increase in Suiyue's strength is essential.
Black Fang's eyes were sunken, and his steps were unsteady.
He was like a seasoned captain, having taken off continuously for many days without touching the ground, his energy and spirit almost completely drained.
Out of trust, Nan'an entrusted him with all the high-quality materials obtained during the Double Crown trip.
Black Fang, who had never fought a rich battle since his debut, was so excited that he trembled all over.
A scholar will die for one who understands him.
After destroying a batch of high-quality materials and wasting a lot of anti-magic dust, he dared not rest and immediately started a new round of forging.
All of this is to infuse the lingering "aftertaste" still floating in one's mind into the second forging process.
He succeeded.
The external magic device has been fully upgraded.
The design differs from the original only in the back panel; two large, semi-transparent butterfly wings have been added after the original halo wheel.
Suiyue didn't understand the reason for adding this part; it looked even more bloated.
"It was at Senior Nan'an's request that the butterfly wings be engraved with an elemental blessing that greatly increases movement speed. Once damaged or destroyed, it will be triggered immediately, allowing you to quickly disengage from combat."
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Suiyue still felt it was cumbersome, only increasing the area vulnerable to attack, but Nan'an praised it highly, wondering if it had some wonderful use that she couldn't understand.
After paying the final payment and giving Hei Feng a small bonus, Nan An left the workshop satisfied with the finished product.
On the way, seeing how confused Suiyue was, he revealed the answer ahead of time.
"Judging by size alone, it is indeed cumbersome, but what if I could tell you that butterfly wings can change shape?"
"That's it? — Huh?" Suiyue realized, her eyes widening. "No, wait, is it really this complicated?"
"I only had Black Fang create the overall framework; I personally handled the key aspects."
Suiyue couldn't stop smiling.
"Old man, you're even a craftsman!"
"No, what I need to do is modify the device's embedded magic array, which can be done by rote memorization."
"Who taught you that?"
"bookworm."
Even the most powerful magic is vulnerable to close combat.
The Gray Star Era was a time of dazzling stars, with all sorts of unorthodox and magical techniques constantly emerging.
Having experienced several near-death experiences due to depleted magic power, the bookworm was extremely dissatisfied with his weak body's inability to react in critical moments.
She envied Aslipan's powerful physique, but stubbornly insisted that she didn't envy Nan'an's level of magic warrior at all.
And so, in a flash of inspiration, her self-made external magical artifact was born.
Yes, the magic jar that Suiyue is about to get is essentially a nerd's attempt to break free from the "flesh and blood" mentality.
After discovering that materials science couldn't support her mysterious little trick, her approach shifted to crudely increasing the magic capacity.
Since running out of magic is dangerous, why don't I just fucking explode it?
So, carrying the giant magic crystal jar, she naturally earned the respect of the entire group—"Please, we don't want to be blown to bits by you."
Even though the nerd emphasized that the possibility of an implosion was very low, that the pressure could be released upon impact, and that even if an explosion did occur, it would only mean her body was completely destroyed, but—
Are you willing to bet?
Six bullets on a Russian roulette wheel – bet on a jam!
After Nan'an clearly expressed her dislike and refused to do any work for her, the bookworm broke down.
"I bet you'll want to wear the next magical artifact I design."
At first, Nan'an laughed.
Who would want to become a mobile anti-tank mine, wandering the streets, hoping for a fierce battle with a magician?
But Nan'an still chose "it smells so good".
The nerd modified the original external magical artifact into an adjustable action module controlled by an embedded magic circle.
By connecting the pre-drawn magic circle patterns with the elemental essence, and then locking and triggering them with the sealing buckle on the waist of the magic tool, the combat power of different elemental attributes of the magic tool can be activated according to the power provided by the elemental essence.
"I really like this, let me play a few rounds!"
Seeing that the nerd had made the external magical artifacts so inaccessible that no one could afford them, Nan'an readily agreed and chose to "beg".
After being ridiculed, the entire adventure team's only set of expensive armor was reluctantly temporarily given to the bookworm.
"Borrow" to Nan'an for use.
"I can take it back at any time if I'm in a bad mood."
That's what they say, but Nan'an never took it with her until her death.
During the inscription of the magic array, the bookworm did not hide from others, and Nan'an watched from the side the whole time, thus noting down the details of the inscription of several sets of attributes.
At first, Suiyue could see that Nan'an had an uncontrollable smile on his face.
But slowly, the smile faded, and his eyes were filled with melancholy, as if he were reminiscing about something.
"Hmm—old man, you actually quite like bookworms, don't you?"
Suiyue's unexpected words left Nan'an somewhat stunned.
He thought for a moment, then smiled wryly: "But she doesn't like me either."
How did you know?
Nan'an bought Suiyue some roasted meat pies and continued reminiscing, "I did confess my feelings—you know, my living conditions were very harsh back then, I was living hand to mouth, and it was easy for feelings to develop when we were together every day, not to mention—"
"You are Chu Nan."
Nan'an raised her hand to rub Suiyue's horn, but Suiyue seemed to see through everything and quickly stepped back.
"Let's not talk about that—in short, I first told Aslipan my thoughts, and then she encouraged me to be upfront and not worry about not being able to work with my teammates. Anyway, we're all here to earn commissions, and it's really possible. If we can't be lovers, we can be comrades."
"And then, she refused?" Suiyue blinked, her tone inexplicably tinged with excitement.
"I refused—I refused very angrily." Nan An looked up at the sky. "He said he would be going to the Zanti Empire for further studies in the future, and told me not to overthink it. He said that my time in the Red Rat Adventurer Group was only temporary, and that I shouldn't feel that he was giving me any special treatment. It was just a close cooperation between us based on mutual benefit."
"Uh—that sounds pretty hurtful."
"Anyway, after that, we acted like nothing had happened. Aslipan even mocked me, saying that I should confess to her, and maybe one day she would agree after she had eaten her fill, and let me touch her pectoral muscles to satisfy my craving."
Suiyue covered her face: "What a bold and generous big sister she is!"
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