Chapter 180: CH 180

“Why go through the guild? No, the guild still takes on this kind of task?” Nemo finally pulled himself out of the shock.

“As long as the confidentiality fee is paid in full, the Mercenary Guild will not disclose the information of the designated team. If Miss Savage doesn’t post the mission through the guild, when the plan is discovered, it’ll certainly be suspected what team it is due to her relationship. If she does this however, the outside world would think she was protecting her team and deliberately designating other teams that have nothing to do with us.”

Since the female warrior wasn’t there, Adrian naturally took on the task of explaining. He coughed lightly before continuing, “based on common sense, it’s more appropriate to designate a different team. Unfortunately, your strength is truly exaggerated, and Miss Savage knows this. It seems that she really values this task.”

“As for the target of the mission, the Mercenary Guild has never restricted them. If you can afford it, they’ll allow it.” Jesse caressed the box of snacks left for Ann lovingly, quite wanting to eat the contents inside. “Mr. Light, even if you rush to the Mercenary Guild now to post a task for ‘I want to marry Princess Delia’, they will collect your deposit as usual and post it, and then quietly wait for this stupid task to expire— Unless the leader of any team becomes drunk enough to take this stupid joke of a task.”

Oliver hesitated for a moment but decided to give Jesse a strong glare.

Nemo ignored the blond young man’s slick tongue as his focus was elsewhere. “Mr. Cross, you seem to be interested in the content of this task… Aren’t you surprise?”

Although Adrian Cross’ expression wasn’t rich, Nemo could manage to barely see some of the emotions that leaked out from the silent knight commander. When he and Oliver were about to be frightened out of their wits by the content of the task, Adrian didn’t even blink.

“Yes. However, I have no right to inform you of the details of this matter on behalf of Miss Savage.” The knight’s tone was firm.

The sun had completely risen, and the air was still hazy in the early hours of the morning. The shops on Clementine Street had begun to open their closed doors one by one. As curious as they were, they had more important things to do.

The appeal itself had consumed a whole day.

The inquisition in Clementine itself also had a knight’s heart. According to the agreement of the Insular Court, if the person being tested expressly submitted an appeal, the price of activating the knight’s heart will be half paid by the court and half by the person being examined.

Nemo bitterly clenched his staff, and even began to consider whether to sell it. ‘The world is unfair,’ he thought to himself. He could transform surface creatures into demons that have never existed with his bare hands, but he couldn’t turn stones into gold.

After emptying his insignificant private money, Oliver had to use Tumbleweed’s public funds.

“Ann will kill me,” Oliver muttered in despair after the people from the inquisition took away the voucher.

“No, you can get it back.” Nemo tried to comfort his lover. “But I think she’ll definitely cut the renumeration from this task.”

The next step was the long process of paperwork and a tedious appeals application, so naturally they didn’t get to eat lunch. It wasn’t until sunset that another knight’s heart stored in Clementine’s Inquisition Court was brought out.

This time facing Oliver, the knight’s heart was completely unmoved. Anyone with a kind heart, even if there was no knight’s oath, could make it beat a few times, but now it was lying lifeless in front of Oliver. There wasn’t even a single slight twitch.

It was as they had guessed. Since Oliver left the current existing magic system, all magic vows came to an end, and the testing of these vows naturally didn’t get any results.

“It may be that there is something wrong with the detection of the Insular Court.” The faces of the staff of the Clementine Tribunal weren’t good. “According to the latest information, there was another villain who summoned the dead branch jellyfish in the Roadside Town. You only need to pay for the rest of your actions. I’ll report the results, and your capital punishment mark will be removed within today, but Mr. Ramon, I will also report truthfully about your ‘lack of mercy’.”

All Oliver’s attention was on the loss of the amount of money in their Black Chapter account. His heart was bleeding profusely, and he really couldn’t even pull out a smile on his face, so he took advantage of the situation to flatten his demeanor as he responded in a vague manner, “Okay.”

As soon as he walked out of the door of the courtroom, he almost ran head-on into a large, limp mass.

“I don’t think they gave you anything to eat at noon,” Nemo said nervously as he unwrapped a large piece of baked cake in a clean handkerchief. The sweet fragrance blew on his face. “You must be hungry, do you like cakes? If you want something else to eat, let’s go now. I’ll just give this to Jesse.”

“Hey!” Jesse shouted in discontent.

Although his heart was still withering from the approaching bankruptcy, Oliver still unconsciously cocked the corners of his mouth.

Since the incident in the Withered Castle, Nemo had been extremely concerned about his diet. Despite how weird it was, Oliver didn’t resent this kind of concern. He unceremoniously accepted the cake and stuffed it into his mouth. “Yeah, I’m starving to death. Things are going well. At least now there won’t be any religious group chasing after our asses.”

“Oh.” Nemo breathed a sigh of relief. “While there’s still time, let’s grab a cheap room at the inn? Now we just need to hear from Ann.”

However, the condition of the female fighter wasn’t good.

It wasn’t that Ann Savage herself suffered an incredible disaster. In fact, she was in a dusty, cobwebbed corner of a filthy tavern near Doru, the capital of Alban, with a large glass of wine and the gray parrot.

“Didn’t you finish checking?” The gray parrot jumped on the table disgruntledly, scoffing at the scratched and grease-stained wooden table. “We should go back!” If they didn’t go back, that damn spider might really replace the great Lord Bagelmaurus, which was still plaguing the grey parrot’s mind.

“Just a little longer,” Ann said vaguely, and poured herself another large sip of wine.

“Alone?” Seeing the female warrior dizzy from drinking, a guest sitting in the other corner stood up. The burly man with a big beard glanced up and down, and struck up a conversation, with an extremely clear purpose.

“I don’t like your type, bye.” Ann hiccupped and banged her wine glass on the wooden table, spilling part of its content with her movement.

“Don’t say that. You seem to be in a bad mood. I’m just trying to be concerned—” The man chuckled, glanced at the spear behind Ann, and still reached out to catch the female warrior’s right wrist with an extremely forceful gesture.

Ann grimaced and snapped her fingers with her left hand. A burst of lightning flashed causing the man to scream and took a few steps back.

“Touching a thorny wildflower, dirty beard?” The man’s other companions laughed nonchalantly. “You bark like a mutt who had its paws stepped on. Couldn’t even handle a girl, tsk tsk.”

“Fuck.” The man became angry with embarrassment and directly pulled out a short knife from his waist. “A man drinking like this here and now being decorated by a girl? Bitch, I’m warning you. I’m…”

“I’m also warning you.” Ann yanked on her leather armor and turned slightly, flashing the black badge pin to the left of her chest. “If you fucking fart here again, I’ll cut that thing between your legs off and stuff it in your mouth myself. Well, ‘stuff’ may not be exactly. The word ‘jam’ or ‘shove’ may be more appropriate.”

The men in the other corner laughed louder, and some even whistled.

The man’s face turned blue. “This woman is a snake-level Black Chapter!”

The laughter in the corner stopped abruptly.

Ann sneered and continued to drink. The man looked at her again with a complicated expression and walked back to the corner cursing in a low voice. The guests in the corner whispered, and they stood up one after another to pay their bill.

“A bunch of goons.” The female warrior belched again. “Boss, another drink!”

“Do you want me to beat them up?” Bagelmaurus suggest enthusiastically as it jumped up and down happily.

“No need.” Ann reluctantly smiled, poking the feather on the parrot’s chest with her finger.

After years of acting alone, Ann had encountered such scenes countless times. Since she had been with her strange teammates, she had never had such a bad experience. At this moment, it even made her a little uncomfortable.

Habit was truly a terrible thing.

If the etiquette instructor back then heard her words just now, she would scream loudly, and then fainted in an elegant posture.

“Your Royal Highness Andrea, please don’t show your teeth when you laugh.”

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“Your Royal Highness Andrea, never touch food that hasn’t been cut into small pieces, and never make a sound when chewing.”

“Your Royal Highness Andrea, have you memorized all the greetings taught to you today? Be extra careful when speaking, and use different vocabulary when dealing with all walks of life…”

“Your Royal Highness Andrea, please stop pretending to be Her Royal Highness Annabelle to tease me!”

It had been twenty-one years since she and her sister met for the last time, and they were destined to never see each other again and Ann couldn’t accept this reality for a while— She still remembered the pale little girl who was climbing on the wall; her face exactly the same as her own was full of tears and sweat.

Yes, she hadn’t had time to see her sister grow up, and Annabelle must have no similarity to her now. Her gentle and timid sister, who was uncontested in the world, should live obediently in a bird cage made of gold. These trivial things such as power struggles should not have entered the life of a Princess of Alban.

“Belle…” the female warrior murmured, cracking the wooden handle of the oak wine glass.

Although there was no nostalgia for the Alastair family, Ann still felt from the bottom of her heart that they would always meet again. Walking as a Black Chapter for so many years, she had been paying attention to the movements of her twin sister from time to time.

Following the order of their father, the emperor of Alban at the time, the fourteen-year-old Annabelle became engaged to the fifty-three-year-old old duke. At the duke’s request, Annabelle married two years later and had a daughter in the same year. The old duke kept having lovers outside, and he wasn’t in good health. He died in the bed of a certain mistress before he was sixty.

The duke’s title was inherited by his younger brother, who gave Annabelle a corner of the castle. The once beautiful nightingale was dressed in a black dress and had not appeared in any public places since then. Even though high society was quite open on the issue of lovers, the princess did not spread any rumors.

She lived quietly and did not pose any threat to anyone.

But their elder brother, Eldric Alastair, still didn’t let go of this quiet sister.

Ann could guess the reason, and this reason made her sick. If Eldric did, there could be a potential possibility— Annabelle was still young, and as an established member of the royal family, she may still give birth to a son with royal blood. Unlike the underage Princess Delia, a baby boy who was still in his infancy was enough to affect the situation.

But he was their own brother, and Annabelle had done her best to reduce her influence. Ann originally thought that their elder brother would not be so thorough.

The wooden splinter on the broken wooden handle pierced into her palm, and blood mixed into the wine. The alcohol caused a burning pain, but Ann still clung to the fragments tightly while gritting her teeth.

She couldn’t trust Eldric anymore. Twenty-one years was enough to change a lot of things. Their elder brother was no longer the big brother who had bright eyes and would say to his mother, “Can I hug them?”

Delia could be in danger.

Eldric didn’t kill Delia, on one hand to not attract too much criticism, and on the other hand, it was estimated that this tender chess piece must be firmly held in his hands. He could make countless plans around her. When the emperor was still in power, he tried to use Delia’s marriage to win over the Horizon Mercenary Group and the Mercenary Guild behind it.

It was a pity that after the marriage contract, Godwin Lopez wasn’t a person that was obsessed with status of wealth, causing his calculations to fall short. The emperor must’ve known this a long time ago, so he coldly let him fool around. With the next step proceeding, how will Eldric use her as a bargaining chip now?

Now that Annabelle had passed away, the last barrier that could shelter the young princess had also disappeared.

Her sister’s daughter, her niece. It was impossible to have an independent will in this life. She would only become a deadweight, at the mercy of others.

Ann spread out her hand and stared at her bloody palm.

She made a mistake in judgement, which led to the death of her sister, and this time, she couldn’t stand back any longer and watch indifferently.

But before that, she must confirm one thing— She must meet with her niece and carefully confirm Delia’s will. Otherwise, it was impossible to determine whether the scene of 21 years ago will be repeated.

It was the eleventh birthday of the two princesses of Alban.

Their father, the first Emperor of Alban, planned to take this opportunity to show his royal authority, and chose the celebration ceremony in the church where the Demon King’s skull was stored. Who knew that when the emperor planned to make his final speech, the skull of the Demon King that should have been sealed in the dragon breath stone cabinet went missing.

Someone stole it during the ceremony, and the entire church was in a mess, and all the troops were used to search for the thief.

And Ann got her long-awaited opportunity—

“Hurry up. Hurry up, Belle! They are going to find us!” In her memory, she was holding her skirt and shouting anxiously outside the wall. Her younger sister laid on the wall whimpering, full of hesitation.

“I… have twisted my foot, Ann,” Annabelle sobbed. “Do we really have to run away? Our father isn’t that bad.”

“I heard it with my own ears. They wanted Uncle Flint’s wife to die, and then Sonia really passed away.” Ann gritted her teeth, “I told you that, didn’t I? He even decided who we would marry in the future. ‘When they come of age, Flint’s heart will recover. At that time, we’ll let him pick one, and the remaining one will be married to Duke Earley.’ …He’s crazy. We were only nine years old then and Duke Earley is almost fifty!”

“Don’t talk about father like that, he… He must have his own ideas…”

“Didn’t we agree, Belle?”

“But— But my ankle really hurts… It’s dangerous outside, Ann. Why don’t we go back?”

“There will be no second chance like this. There’s only one Demon King skull, and we happened to be in the church where it’s kept, and the thief chose today to steal it. This is God’s will— and just this time they forget to watch over us. Such chaos will only happen once. Listen Belle, once!”

“I—I still don’t want to… This wall is so high.” The young Annabelle began to choke again. “I don’t want to go anymore… Ann, don’t go either, okay?”

“Your Royal Highness Annabelle, Your Royal Highness Andrea! Where are you? Come out. It’s dangerous outside—” The shouts were getting closer.

“Come on, Belle. They’re here. I’ll catch you. Just jump. Trust me!”

“I… I’m sorry, Ann. I’m sorry. I dare not.” Her sister was crying with tears pouring down her face.

Then her figure disappeared from the wall.

The young Ann was stunned in place, but she only froze for a few seconds, then gritted her teeth and rushed into the woods behind the church. She was crying and running; her lungs aching like a knife. The eleven-year-old child’s heart was full of the pain of being “betrayed”, and she still remembered this pain.

At that time, she didn’t realize that that day would be their farewell forever.

The author has something to say：

However, after they separated, they still weren’t doing well. _(:з””)_Now everyone, do you understand the noble chaos of Tumbleweed (.

And I feel that Jesse now is more like a bamboo rat than a badger.……

Nemo: Look at this Jesse. It’s very beautiful, and it eats a lot. Let’s take him to the river and put him to work.

Jesse: …………..

Kinky Thoughts:

Whatttttt is this bombshell?! So let me get this straight, Ann’s father killed Flint Lopez’s wife/Oliver’s mother, while Nemo (Demon King) killed Ann’s (other) brother. I didn’t realize I signed up to watch a dog blooded drama during prime time.

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