Volume 4: The City in the Sky Chapter 104: Xiluo's Intelligence

  Watching Ciel devour her food like a wolf, I couldn't help but wonder if she had eaten at all during her days with Larse.

  "Why are you following me but not contacting me?" I asked in a somewhat helpless tone.

  "I've been tracking you for fifteen days and took care of three groups of people who were following you. If I were with you, it wouldn't be me helping you get rid of your enemies, but rather us being followed by others." Xilu let out a satisfied burp, then resumed her noble elegance, carefully wiping her fingers clean of oil with a napkin and meticulously cleaning the food residue from her mouth.

  "Huh? Do you know who's been following me?" I asked in puzzlement.

  Xī lù shook her head and said, "The people following you seem to be quite complicated, with assassins, magicians, and even a necromancer that I took out. Those people, when they realized their plan had failed, chose to commit suicide without exception. Some didn't even try to resist, opting for death as soon as they discovered someone was watching them. It's just unbelievable."

  Tissen and I exchanged a glance, both of us seeing the shock in each other's eyes. And apart from the shock, I couldn't for the life of me think of who would be interested in an unremarkable magician like myself?

  "Firstly, there were two magicians who followed you. They were sneaky and followed you for several days, then every day they would go to a fixed location to report back. Then they stopped following you because it was in Larsen. I didn't take care of the magicians as I feared it might cause unnecessary trouble, and I also didn't understand their intentions. Since they stopped following you, it means they've lost interest in you, so I didn't see any need to investigate further."

  I nodded and said, "You're right, the ones who were following me this time are a hidden force within Larsen. They stopped following me which means they didn't see anything special about me. Not stirring up trouble is correct."

  "Hidden forces? Is Larsen that complicated? I've been here for so long and I didn't know?"

  I smiled and asked: "Tissen, after you came to Larsson, did anyone try to pull the wool over your eyes?"

  Tissen nodded and said, "There is indeed, but I didn't pay attention to it. It's said that the background is a certain great magician of the Magician Council, but I'm only interested in magical research. Those petty power struggles have no meaning to me, so I declined."

  I nodded and said: "So Larsen is actually very complicated now, but the great magician Losa should be trustworthy. If you have any trouble, you can go to him for help."

  Tissen nodded and didn't say anything else.

  Xī Lù continued: "The second wave is a lich mage, who should be your arch-nemesis. When I was tracking him, I saw that he was releasing some kind of evil magic to deal with you. So, I didn't show any mercy and snuck up on him for a surprise attack. He probably died without knowing how he died. It's all because he was too focused on you."

  I smiled and said: "It seems like you've helped me a lot behind my back, thank you so much."

  Xiluo pouted and said, "Hmph, it's not just that. I also helped you take care of two assassins and almost lost my life. Look, this sword pierced through my shoulder, it hurts to death!" As she spoke, Xiluo revealed her pale shoulder for me to see, and indeed there were many bandages wrapped around it, stained with blood. Tissen quickly turned his head in the other direction under Lila's fierce gaze, while I also hastily pulled Xiluo's clothes back up after taking a look at her wound, apologetically saying, "I'm really sorry, making you suffer so much, it's all my fault. Next time I'll definitely find a way to make it up to you."

  Xī Lù saw the reactions of us two men and also realized that it was a bit inappropriate to show me her wound so directly, her face turned red, and she hastily pulled up her clothes, then said with a huff: "Hmph, if it weren't for my brother having important things to attend to and entrusting me to take his place in protecting you, I wouldn't bother with you, this ungrateful little person. For so many days, I've been eating dry rations, hiding in the shadows to help you resolve troubles, but you're fine, every day carefree and wandering around, eating and drinking well, and in the end, you even knocked me out without distinguishing between right and wrong."

  Lia chimed in on the side, helping her scold me: "Exactly! Such a good girl, yet you don't know how to take care of yourself. Look at you, injured like this, it's really pitiful. So young and already doing such dangerous things, men are all like that!"

  Tessie said discontentedly: "What's with mentioning men all the time, can't you just say what you want to say?"

  Lia glared at Tyson and said, "Not convinced? Come on, let's go to the room and talk. You're getting more and more arrogant, huh? Just you wait and see if I don't fix you." As she spoke, she dragged Tyson, who was sitting in a chair, towards the room.

  Looking at Tyson's dejected back, Siluo and I exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

  "You go rest in your room first, I'll bring medicine and bandages over to change your dressing later, let me clean up here first."

  "No need, I'll take care of my own injuries. They're not serious anyway. Let me help you clean up instead. By the way, when are you planning to leave this place?"

  "I'm staying," I said firmly. "You're healed, then I leave Larsen."

  After finishing speaking, I couldn't help but push her into her room.

  I quickly brought clean bandages and medicine to Xiluo's room, and Xiluo didn't decline much, revealing her wound. I carefully unwrapped the bandage for her, and a huge gash appeared before me, entering from the front and exiting at the back, forming a through-and-through wound. Judging by the severity of the wound, the assassin must have twisted the sword tip in the wound after stabbing it in with the longsword, otherwise an ordinary sword wound wouldn't cause such a large gash.

  The wound has almost healed, but I can still see the cruelty of that time. I muttered in a low voice, "What a vicious guy!"

  Xi Lu sat obediently in the chair, smiled and said: "That guy is not much better, I cut open his belly, those messy things fell to the ground with a splash, disgusting."

  As I carefully cleaned her wound with cotton balls, I asked, "Aren't you afraid of the blood and all that?"

  Xī Lù said nonchalantly, "When my brother and teacher trained me, I saw even more disgusting things. The first time I saw them, I vomited for a whole day. Later on, after seeing them many times, I became numb to it, so whatever."

  I applied a good amount of ointment to her two wounds on the front and back of her shoulder, then started wrapping clean bandages around them.

  I said: "Your assassins' training is really tough, and it's fortunate that you can bear it."

  Xī Lù smiled and said: "If you can't even bear this, how can you be an assassin? My brother said that I'm already a top-notch assassin now."

  I tied the bandage with a final knot, took a deep breath and said: "Alright, you should be fine after resting for three to five more days. Once your injury heals, we can leave Larsen."

  Xi Lu tidied up her clothes while asking, "Where are you going this time?"

  "This time I'm going to the prairie," I said.