Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The door opened and Sunier silently walked in. She quietly closed the door behind her and looked outside through a crack. Han Jin blanked for a moment. Why was Sunier acting like a thief?
Sunier turned and put a finger on her mouth, then waved her hand for Han Jin to come.
Han Jin was immediately curious and approached the door. He looked out the crack as well and saw Miriam sitting on a stump in the middle of the courtyard. In front of her was a wooden basin which contained Han Jin’s laundry. Steelberg sat on her side and was trying to talk to her, though Miriam appeared very cold and didn’t even bother lifting her head, let alone respond to Steelberg’s enthusiasm.
“Is he…” Han Jin smiled and whispered, “Hm, it is true he is no longer a boy.”
“Don’t you think they suit each other?” Sunier smiled. Truth be told, Steelberg was not very capable. Even though he had learned Han Jin’s magic, he had made practically no progress, and if he had been anyone else, Sunier would have never even bothered to look at him. However, Steelberg was different; he had accompanied and supported Han Jin even through his hardest times, and had always stayed loyal. Since she loved Han Jin, Sunier also treated Steelberg like a friend, and when she saw Steelberg seemingly be interested in someone, she wanted to play matchmaker.
Han Jin stayed silent for a moment. He was a little unhappy with Miriam; a girl her age should be more outgoing. But then again, considering what she had gone through, her change was reasonable. The most important part to him was Steelberg’s attitude; if he really did like Miriam, Han Jin felt it would be his duty to help him a little.
Sunier continued watching through the crack. After receiving the silent treatment from Miriam for a while, Steelberg finally smiled awkwardly and reached out his hand as if to grab the cloth in the basin, but Miriam reacted even faster and hit away his hand.
“That piece of wood!” Sunier commented in disappointment; she thought Steelberg was clearly being overzealous.
“You know, I’m not a boy anymore either…” Han Jin lightly said.
“Mhm, yeah.” Sunier was too focused on the scene outside and didn’t pay attention to the meaning of Han Jin’s words.
Han Jin shook his head and instead held Sunier from behind. Sunier instantly stiffened and tried to pry away his arms. “Stop fooling around, there are people outside!”
“Who said I’m fooling around?” Han Jin said, “We aren’t young anymore either, and Steelberg is only older than me by a couple of months. Sunier, don’t you think it’s time to consider our future? It’s spring…”
“You… what is this?” Sunier bit her lips. “Is this supposed to be a proposal?”
“Kind of?”
“Can you be more serious about stuff like this?!” Sunier rolled her eyes at Han Jin.
“How formal? Like a knight saluting a queen?” Han Jin smiled. Several months have passed since that battle. As the saying goes, ‘It is easier to shift mountains than to shift someone’s nature.’” Han Jin had always been an optimistic person, thus he had somewhat recovered from his slump.
Sunier rolled her eyes again and wanted to say something, but Han Jin’s face was already upon her. The next moment, their lips touched. Everything became easier with practice, and Sunier was no longer as timid as when they had first met. Thus, after a few moments of resistance, she gave up and allowed Han Jin to ‘bully’ her.
Just then, Yalina walked into the courtyard looking extremely excited. She walked straight toward the door and pushed it open, completely ignoring Steelberg and Miriam.
Sunier and Han Jin were still absorbed in their kisses, and Han Jin’s hands were also wandering everywhere. Yalina’s face instantly reddened at the scene and didn’t know whether to leave or wait.
Sunier screamed and pushed Han Jin away to rush outside, but Yalina blocked her way. She instead had to rush inside the house, jump onto the bed without even taking off her shoes, and tightly cover herself with a blanket.
“Yalina, manners! Manners…” Han Jin helplessly said. Although he had heard footsteps, he had not expected her to burst in without knocking.
“Ahem… sorry!” Yalina dryly laughed.
“Did you need me for something?”
“Not really.” Yalina instinctively started to leave but suddenly remembered why she had come. “No, wait! When are we going back to the Forest of Holy Animals?”
“Why would we go back?”
“The… the dragon bones!” Yalina took a deep breath to calm herself. “You know those Frost Dragons that Cold Shadow City has? With those dragon bones, I can make a dragon thrall! Even if it’s only for a short time, it’s a real Frost Dragon!”
“Frost Dragon?”
“Nevermind, I’ll come back later!” Clearly, Yalina had a lot to say if she had come all this way, but she couldn’t find the courage to continue and left in a flurry.
Han Jin stood there for a moment. He did still have some questions, but now was not the time.
Walking in front of the bed, he patted the blanket. “She’s gone now.”
Sunier didn’t react at all as if she hadn’t heard anything Han Jin had said. Han Jin had to raise his voice, “You can come out, Yalina already left.”
Sunier slowly lifted the blanket and poked out half of her head to carefully look around. Whether she was a veteran Elven archer or a highborn bearer of the divine mark, right now, she just looked like a scared rabbit, and that embarrassed expression on her face could arouse any man’s sympathy.
“I’m serious.” Han Jin had to keep on repeating himself.
Sunier dragged up her blanket and covered herself again. She said through a muffled voice under the blanket, “This is all your fault! How am I supposed to talk to her now?”
“What? If all married women acted like you, they wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone!” Han Jin didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “Sunier, Miriam has suffered a lot. Let’s not bother her, alright?”
“Hm?” Sunier didn’t understand Han Jin’s meaning.
Han Jin moved to the foot of the bed and flipped open the cover. He grabbed one of Sunier’s boots and took it off before grabbing her other leg. Sunier reacted too slow; by the time she had realized what was happening and started kicking her foot, her boots had already been taken off and she had to shrink her feet under the covers.
Han Jin remembered a test he had taken. Most men like women, but they prefered different parts. Some liked boobs, some liked hair, some liked faces, others liked feet and legs, and some liked butts. Of course, that was just for laughs, but Han Jin truly did prefer feet and legs; not that he would ever admit to it.
Han Jin reached into the blanket to stroke Sunier’s foot. As soon as their skin touched, Sunier shrunk back. Han Jin reached his hands in further, and Sunier shrunk back even further. However, the bed was only so big, and finally Sunier ran out of space to retreat. She flipped a corner of the cover and said in a low voice, “What are you doing?!”
Han Jin smiled, grabbed Sunier’s foot, and started playing with them. He enjoyed that delicate smoothness.
Even though he had known Sunier for almost two years now, he had never tried anything out of line with Sunier. He was simply focused on bigger goals – not that he was a saint or anything.
Sunier struggled a bit in the beginning, but Han Jin just held on tighter, so she eventually gave up and simply watched Han Jin under the sheets.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Chipango called out from outside, “My Lord!”
Han Jin froze for a moment and reluctantly let go of Sunier’s foot before grudgingly pulling up the cover and walking toward the door.
As Chipango debated whether to continue knocking, someone abruptly pulled open the door. Han Jin stood by the door and demanded in an irked tone, “What do you want?!”
Chipango noticed that Han Jin didn’t seem happy and suddenly forgot his words. Luckily, Hallister spoke for him, “My Lord, did Winston and his men leave?”
“Yes.” Han Jin nodded. “They accepted a task.”
“My Lord, this smells fishy.”
“How so?”
“I know what task they accepted. 200 stalks of Windchime Grass, 3 ninth-grade lightning magic crystals, and 10 Thunderbird eggs, for a total of 210,000 gold coins. Don’t you think that’s way too high?”
“They should be fine.” Han Jin frowned. “Winston even talked to me last night. The caravan that put out the task already left 20,000 gold coins worth of deposit. No one is going to spend that much money on a prank.”
“The problem is, they are using 20,000 gold coins to pull a prank.” Hallister continued. “I secretly investigated that caravan yesterday but came back empty handed. However, they left the city this morning. The whole caravan! Not a single one of them stayed.”
“Maybe… they will return after a while. Winston said the task would last at least a month. Thunderbirds only start laying eggs in another month; the caravan should know that.”
“My Lord, there’s only one place where you can find Windchime Grass and ninth-grade lighting element magic crystals… They clearly want Winston and his team to hunt Thunderbirds, and combined with the Thunderbirds eggs…” Hallister slowly said, “My Lord, the task is clearly herding them toward one place: Thunder Valley!”
“That…” Han Jin hesitated.
“And, My Lord, when I found out that the caravan had left the city, I immediately sent someone to the base of the Twilight Mercenary Corps, but their core group also left about three days ago,” Hallister said. “I then went to the Mercenary Association, and found out that the Twilight Mercenary Corps had used the Southwest Gate 3, which connects to a place right next to Thunder Valley. My Lord, there are too many coincidences!”
“Go find Gibran, Reg, and everyone else. Don’t forget Yalina.” Han Jin made his decision.
