Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After wrapping up everything and sending the volunteers home, it was dusk when Hao Ren brought Lorissa back to his home in the Southern Suburbs. The sparsely populated suburbs looked like a derelict neighborhood. Occasionally, there would be a few old ladies coming out for a stroll, or mischievous kids loitering around. Strays were a common sight near the trash bins and gaps between houses. These dogs and cats were minions of Lily and Rollie, patrolling their territories.
The husky and the cat girl had complete control over the world of dogs and cats in the Southern Suburbs. They each had organized a herd of dogs and cats to roam around all day. Since Rollie turned into a human, Lily had shed her fear of cats. So the war between the dogs and cats had spread throughout the entire town. Those who cared to look would find that there was a sense of order among the strays in the Southern Suburbs. Everything from a trash bin down to a lamppost was strictly marked. Wednesdays and Fridays were the times when the two sides would have a street fight. But not many people cared to watch them fight. Most of the residents in the Southern Suburbs only noticed that the strays came out in groups nowadays and that the mice population was dwindling.
It is important to mention here that the fattest mice only appeared in Hao Ren’s bedroom and on the cupboard. Because of this, Hao Ren would pull Rollie’s ear and give her an earful every couple of days.
Hao Ren lamented the colorful life of Lily and Rolie as their cat and dog corps spied the streets and alleys of their enemy. Meanwhile, Lorissa, seeing the run-down town, could not help but ask, “Is this where you live?”
“Yeah,” Hao Ren replied, nodding. He pointed to the entrance to a trail not far away. “My house is right there, at the end of the corner.”
“It is more… It is not a matter of gap of expectation and reality but utterly unlike what I have ever imagined.” Lorissa looked at Hao Ren with a strange countenance. “I thought you would live in a gorgeous palace or castle with the protection of church knights and guards. This place cannot even be compared to the royal city of Holletta.”
“Ermm, I live here indeed,” Hao Ren said. Only now he realized how high Lorissa regarded him. Hao Ren scratched his head in embarrassment. “I do have palaces and castles, such as the Sun King Temple on Aerym, and my travel residence in Helcrown. I have even more places like the space station and space colonies. If you feel not comfortable to say here, I can arrange you to stay in those places.”
“No, I didn’t mean that.” Lorissa quickly shook her head. “I am not the kind of queen who is pampered but just a clone. I can live in a normal house, which I feel more comfortable than the culture tank in the lab. I am just a little curious; a pope like you live such a simple life. Are you into asceticism?”
Cold sweat began to trickle down Hao Ren’s forehead. “Who said that? I have been living here before becoming a pope. I am just too lazy to move my house after changing my job. I told you what; our denomination does not care about ostentation. As you can see, our goddess is used to stay in ruins.”
Lorissa was still speechless when she thought about the exploded “God’s Temple.”
“Since you are here, just relax. I am going to bring you to look around the world these few days. I was thinking about taking you to other planets, but you could only stay on ‘this side’ for ten days tops. Not taking today into account, you have only nine days. Probably you will not get to see much. But since you are here on vacation, unlike the family visit tour earlier, other planets can always wait,” Hao Ren said while walking Lorissa to his house. “Tomorrow, Nangong Wuyue will take you to shop for some new clothes. And your hair… you should trim it. The color is all right, just that the hair is too long; it could cause traffic accidents.”
Lorissa did not wear her usual elf-style white gauze dress now. Instead, she had changed into a women’s thick coat and cotton skirt when she left Kuiper Space Station. It was more ‘earthy’ look, but her long white hair dropping to the ankles had not been trimmed, walking in the street would attract too much attention. But in Southern Suburbs, it was less likely to get undue attention. They might encounter some old ladies on the street, but they need not worry as the elderly was usually not social-media savvy.
Another reason Hao Ren could bring Lorissa swaggering through the town was that people here had gotten used to Y’zaks’ hideous face. They would be as cool as a cucumber even if they were to see an alien, let alone Lorissa was only a girl with ankle-length hair.
The simplicity of the folks in Southern Suburbs was evident—they did not even bother to lodge a police report even if they really saw an alien.
Lorissa stroke her long hair and said, “Hair? People here can’t even accept hair of this length?”
“No, no. It is not that the folks couldn’t accept it, just that people with hair of this length is rare,” Hao Ren said. “Earth is not the same as Holletta. Here where I live is a boring small town. Compared to your world where races of different exotic appearances are a norm, people with yellow hair could only be found in the urban-rural fringe. Your ears are eye-catching too, but they are hidden under your hair and not so conspicuous.”
“Oh, I only realized it after you said so.” Lorissa blinked. “It looks like I am drawing attention here. What should I do then?”
As Lorissa spoke, she stroked her hair, and the long white hair of hers transformed in the blink of an eye to becoming a waist-length black hair. Her signature pointed elven ears shrunk back. The elven queen remained eye-catching in the crowd but only in terms of her beauty.
Hao Ren froze for a second. “Why didn’t you tell me that you have such a handy skill?”
“it is just a simple illusion spell,” Lorissa said with her hand spread. “You didn’t tell me to change my appearance in the beginning. Had I know it earlier I would have fixed my hair.”
Hao Ren was a bit embarrassed. “I did not think of it earlier. Probably I have spent too long a time in the Plane of Dreams and become numb to those bizarro characters there. If not for your strange clothes, I’d not even remember to ask to change it.”
Lorissa laughed. “Oh, I totally understand what you mean. At the beginning of artificial life research, we made many strange things. After spending a few months with those specimens, I had almost forgotten what the world of the elves looked like.”
Hao Ren forced a smile and pointed at the big house no far away. “Here we are. My house is right there.”
The tall, old house stood quietly but conspicuously at the end of the street, surrounded by open space, behind which was an endless wilderness. It looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. Lorissa silently stared at the house for three seconds before said faintly. “So this is the palace.”
Hao Ren came up in front of the door and took out the key, but before he could insert the key into the keyhole, the door suddenly swung open outward with a bang as Lily poked out happily from the inside. “Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord, you’re back! I heard your voice. Where are you, Mr. Landlord?”
Lorissa watched with her jaw dropped as Hao Ren was sent flying backward while Lily poked her head out calling out excitedly. After a while, she pointed in a direction and said, “Hao Ren should have crash-landed over there.”
Lily was stunned seeing Lorissa. “Who are you?”
It was apparent that the husky was not really a good watchdog—had Lorissa not spoken, Lily would not have noticed a stranger was standing outside the door.
Before Lorissa could reply, Hao Ren had already pulled himself out from the muck and lunged at Lily with anger. “How many times do I have to remind you not to push the door open without first checking whether anyone is standing outside. Idiot!”
Just like any huskies who had made a mistake but still expected their masters to treat them stew meat, Lily was clueless of what trouble she had caused. She waved her hand at Hao Ren happily. “Mr. Landlord, why did you come from that direction? Who damaged the door? – Ouch, please don’t pull my hair!”
The scuffle only calmed down after a while. Hao Ren checked the door finally calmed down. Hao Ren glanced back out at the street warily. After making sure that no one was looking, he said, “This is Lorissa.”
Lily was startled for a moment. After thinking for a while, she finally came to her senses. “Oh, did you bring her for a face-lift? She recovered pretty quick.”
Hao Ren could never understand how the husky’s brain worked.
“It’s a spell. Do you know what a spell is? Hurry up, get Y’lisabet here. She needs to learn from Lorissa face-changing skill. It is not enough for her to know only Demonic Flare. Learning this magic will save her the hassle of wearing a hat to cover her horn every time she goes out.”
Lily nodded with an “Oh” before she turned and entered the house.
Hao Ren saw the door and quickly stopped Lily. “Wait a second, fix the door first. My facial imprint on the door looks scary.”
Lorissa looked on with a smile the entire time. She suddenly looked forward to her days on Earth.
