“That’s not funny!” Xiao Lin paused for a few minutes, his first reaction thinking it was a joke.
The old man looked at him expressionlessly, and Ibeiya was bright red with embarrassment, not even daring to look at Xiao Lin.
Xiao Lin laughed bitterly. This development was way out of his expectations. If he really agreed, would he not actually be a pedophile?
That could not happen!
Xiao Lin resolutely shook his head. “You better be joking. Otherwise, we’re done here.”
The old man was perplexed. “Why are you refusing? Isn’t this good? In the future, we’ll be very helpful to you here. With your status, I’m sure your leaders won’t allow you to fall into obscurity. We won’t implicate you either.”
Xiao Lin’s head started to ache. It was true, from the old man’s perspective, marriage was definitely the best choice. Even though the natives hated dark races, those of them from Earth did not. At least, looking at the larger picture, helping Ibeiya’s clan and tightening the relationship of the St. Claude clan and Dawn Academy would help the establishment of a puppet state that belonged to Dawn Academy. In that case, marriage would be the tie that people would place the most trust in.
From a political perspective, the old man was right, and from the perspective of Dawn Academy, the suggestion was also worth considering.
However, Xiao Lin would definitely not accept it, but he did not know how to explain it to the old man. Lolicons and pedophiles were greatly frowned upon on Earth. Looking at the naive young vampire, Xiao Lin could not bear to touch her either.
Planet Norma did not have a minimum age for marriage. Some girls were married away at a little over ten years old, so the old man could not understand Xiao Lin’s way of thinking.
Ibeiya saw Xiao Lin’s awkwardness, and the blushing girl could not help but laugh, which solicited a deathly glare from Xiao Lin.
“You already knew about it, didn’t you?” Xiao Lin angrily asked. “You said you could not choose Lilith, but that was just because she’s a girl, and you can’t marry her, right?”
Ibeiya looked at Xiao Lin pitifully. “Do you hate me?”
“How could I… How could anyone hate a girl as cute as you.”
“So that means you like me.”
“Don’t put words into my mouth, marriage is definitely not on the table.”
“Then do you want to wait for me to grow up a bit before thinking about it? That’s actually fine too. We can just get engaged first.”
Xiao Lin was speechless.
“You won’t be a pedophile if I grow up a bit more.”
“… You understand some of our culture quite well.” Xiao Lin’s eyebrow twitched. Ibeiya was quite familiar with some of the horrible practices of Earth.
“I’ll help you with the tournament,” Xiao Lin finally said after being silent for a while. “Even if it was left behind by Ivan, I still took away your Shard of Creation. I will definitely return the debt, but that’s it. I’ll leave immediately if you bring up marriage again!”
The old man looked very disappointed, but Xiao Lin’s attitude seemed determined, so he could only let it rest for the moment. His dream was to return the St. Claude clan to glory, and the tournament that would help Ibeiya obtain the right to rule over the dark races of the royal city was just the first step. He understood that it was hard to go on just relying on Ibeiya and himself.
The two of them did not bring up the marriage anymore, and Xiao Lin was relieved. He suddenly thought of something, and asked, “How much do you know about the dark races nearby? Have there been any strange movements recently?”
“Do you suspect the dark races kidnapped your classmates?” Ibeiya naturally knew what Xiao Lin had been worried about.
“Yes.” The hooded man he saw in Time Rewind. Even though Xiao Lin could not make out his looks, Xiao Lin could still tell that the power he used carried very thick death energy.
“Did you find any clues?”
Xiao Lin thought about it, and described that hooded man as best he could. Since he did not see the man’s appearance, he could only describe the man’s attire. Ibeiya and the old man looked at each other, but could not give a clear answer.
“Hood? Black robes? I’m sorry, Big Brother. The attire you described… There are at least a few hundred people in the city wearing it; there’s no way we can tell.”
Xiao Lin had a thought, and remembered the spell that the hooded man had used to completely dissolve the guards in a moment. He described the spell to them.
Ibeiya’s face was one of shock when he finished, and the old man asked for a few more details, such as the color of the spell, the size, and scale and the power.
Even if the old man was very suspicious as to how Xiao Lin could be so clear on the details, Ibeiya trusted her big brother unconditionally. She said, “I think the spell you’re talking about is the Soul Disintegration spell.”
“The spell sounds very scary. Is it dark magic?” Xiao Lin smiled. He actually did not hold out that much hope. It was just a spell after all, and there were naturally many who mastered it, so it was a clue that was hard to follow up on.
There were billions of spells on Planet Norma, but they could broadly be classified into three kinds: elemental magic, nature magic, and black magic. What they needed was elemental, life, and death energies respectively. What Xiao Lin saw was definitely black magic, and it was not strange to have seen it in the royal city where the dark races gathered.
Ibeiya suddenly said, “Soul Disintegration is not high ranked by itself, but it’s a spell that has been passed on since ancient times. It’s already gone missing in a lot of places. We can’t be sure that it’s not someone from outside, but within the city, only a handful know the spell!”
Xiao Lin was shocked, and immediately asked for more details.
“Let’s talk after we get back.” The old man was serious. In the wilderness, sound traveled far. It was not the place to talk.
It was already dawn when they returned to the basement. The two vampires did not care about sleep, but when they saw Xiao Lin’s sleepiness, Ibeiya prepared a pot of tea. Surprisingly, it was authentic tea that she had gotten from the Chinese. She knew that a majority of Dawn Academy’s people liked drinking tea instead of coffee or other sorts of local drinks.
In that moment, the naive, innocent, sometimes alluring and cheeky girl actually portrayed a very obedient image.
