31~ Seems about right…
“It’s futile to remain in this peripheral area any longer since the inhabitants here are mostly low-tier members of the Demon Race without Demon Hearts, such as Goblins and Orcs. These Demon Race members aren’t very intelligent, usually preferring to stick together in groups, which makes staying here a thankless task.” With Dillin absent, Tillysha took on the role of the team’s Divine Authority figure and began analyzing the situation for her other three teammates.
As she observed Tillysha’s demeanor, Aistride noticed a flicker of surprise in her eyes.
Her expression and tone were not just similar but entirely identical to Dillin’s when he analyzed situations.
Was it because Tillysha had picked up many of Dillin’s habits from being around him too long, or was this just the standard look for team leaders when they briefed their teammates?
“Therefore, I suggest instead of aimlessly circling in the periphery and failing to achieve anything, we push forward towards the central area. Although it’s risky, it’s definitely better than staying stagnant. Even if we continue lingering in this peripheral zone, we’re still exposed to significant risks. We might as well take the initiative, finish our objective sooner, and leave this troublesome place quicker.”
Princess Filisia pondered over it, feeling that it seemed reasonable. Despite her reluctance for her teammates to be in danger, continuing to stay in Ruglien without completing the mission posed a far greater risk.
Aistride had no objections either. She’d always followed Dillin’s decisions, not because she lacked the ability to think but because she was extremely clever. Almost every time Dillin proposed a plan, she immediately understood his rationale, the risks involved, and the potential benefits.
Only Wenfu remained silent, curled up silently on her seat, her fluffy tail swaying back and forth, hinting at her inner unease.
“Sister Tillysha, is there any possibility that we have an eighty percent chance of not returning?” Wenfu swallowed hard.
“Not at all.”
“Phew…”
Before Wenfu could fully exhale with relief, Tillysha continued with a cheerful grin while wagging her finger. “We have no idea what kind of Demon Race members inhabit the depths of Ruglien. So, it’s not an eighty percent chance we won’t return but more like ninety or even ninety-five percent.”
“If we encounter something tougher than the red-skinned Orc from last time, we might just end up stargazing here forever.”
“Stargazing?!?”
“Not just stargazing.” Aistride glanced aside with sparkling eyes and muttered softly, “Being turned into pastries is entirely plausible.”
“Pastries?” Filisia asked perplexedly. “Why would we be made into pastries? Do the Demon Race members have a custom of eating pastries?”
Filisia didn’t understand what Aistride meant until she questioned her, realizing what she had just said. Aistride silently turned her face, choosing not to give an explanation.
“Isn’t this extremely dangerous?!”
“If the risk is too high, we should rethink our strategy,” seeing Wenfu so frightened, Filisia added.
“Rethinking our strategy,” Tillysha glanced at Filisia. “Given the preparations we’ve already made, to put it bluntly, it’s just delaying solving the problem.”
We can’t keep feeding Filisia fast food every time she’s hungry, or one day her appetite might grow so large that she’ll want to eat the plate itself.
“Relax. I wouldn’t take a risk if we weren’t adequately prepared.” As the team leader, she was responsible for the safety of everyone in the team.
Saying that, she pulled out a scroll from between two large fruits and flicked it open.
“What is it?” Despite her extensive experience, Filisia had never seen such intricate magical markings. Furthermore, she could feel an unprecedented Divine Authority emanating from the scroll.
“It’s a teleportation scroll.”
“Huh???” After hearing Tillysha so casually state this, the other three fell silent.
Even a naive village girl cat-person knew that anything involving space magic was usually priceless, beyond monetary value. Only skilled magical enchanters could create such items, infusing them with space-related Divine Authorities.
Such valuable items were so rare that even the royal palace likely wouldn’t have more than a few. How could Tillysha pull one out so easily?
Filisia began questioning Tillysha’s background. What was the deal with this crafty blonde? If the alchemical potions she tossed out earlier could be explained by wealth, what about the space scroll?
“Is it really a space scroll?” Filisia looked at the scroll in Tillysha’s hand with suspicion.
“Of course.” It was a rare Purple-grade item she had acquired recently, clearly identified by the Divine Analysis Technique. How could it be fake?
As for why it was only a Purple-grade……
“Does that mean if we run into trouble, Sister Tillysha can simply use this scroll to ensure our safety?” Essentially, the team would have two lives, increasing the margin for error.
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean by ‘sort of’?” Filisia frowned at Tillysha’s ambiguous response.
“This scroll is indeed a proper space scroll. I had it appraised with the Divine Analysis Technique by Mr. Dillin, but its craftsmanship is quite rough. It doesn’t even meet second-tier quality. If we face an unbeatable enemy, we might escape if we’re lucky, but if unlucky, it’s hard to say.”
“…………” The three fell silent again.
Clearly, relying on such uncertainty for one’s survival was unreliable.
“But it’s fine.” Tillysha put the scroll back.
The team had grown accustomed to it.
They were already used to Tillysha treating ‘hidden assets’ as a ‘storage space,’ and thus didn’t find it strange whatever she pulled out.
“I don’t like putting my fate in such uncertainties either. Perhaps we won’t even need it on this trip.”
It was just insurance. Considering whether it would work in a critical moment was premature at this point.
“If it doesn’t work, are we done for?” Little Head tilted.
“Don’t say that. Our team’s setup is very comprehensive, from a healer Divine Authority to a knight Divine Authority and a ranger Divine Authority, we’ve got everything covered.” Tillysha reassured.
Filisia nodded in agreement, as she wasn’t someone who liked to burden herself with extra worries. Whatever was destined would happen regardless of attempts to prevent it. Most of the time, they needed to do what they could and leave the rest to fate.
After lunch, the group began packing up, and Filisia, a princess, handled all the rough work without any hesitation, making her very down-to-earth.
After cleaning the pots and putting away the tents, they set forth according to the map’s direction.
“Relax, Wenfu. Even if we lose, you’d probably be fine.” Seeing Wenfu remain worried, with her hands intertwined and head bowed, Tillysha decided to comfort her and rubbed her head gently.
“Eh, why?”
“Most Demon Race members are carnivorous, though this might not be totally accurate. Accurately speaking, they’re omnivores. They’ll eat anything edible.”
“Some Demon Race members have different senses of taste from humans, but some are likely similar.”
“So, cat meat is so sour they wouldn’t eat you for sure.” Tillysha grinned. “They might take a bite, find it unpleasant, and spit you out.”
“That’s so mean!……” Not saying that would have been okay, but now that she mentioned it, Wenfu felt awful.
How could this be comforting! It was clearly meant to scare her!
Looking at Tillysha’s smiling face, Wenfu pouted unhappily. However, thanks to her teasing, Wenfu’s anxiety lessened somewhat.
Tillysha always showed a calm and composed smile.
This kind of person made it seem like nothing was ever an issue. Wenfu couldn’t even imagine Tillysha ever failing at anything.
Seriously, how did Miss Tillysha develop such a mischievous habit?
As the sun set, even Ruglien had its cycles of day and night. The wind quickly erased the shallow footprints left by the girls on the wasteland.
Filisia, carrying her bag and great sword, walked at the front. Tillysha followed, while Aistride protected the side. Wenfu stayed timidly in the center, receiving protection from all sides.
Aistride’s gaze often shifted to Tillysha’s feet, more specifically, to her toes.
In the perilous Ruglien, everyone summoned their Divine Authority realms.
Though manifestations varied wildly, Filisia’s armor exposing her arms and legs might seem like a knight Divine Authority’s way of attracting attention but wasn’t overly out of place, and Aistride’s high heels with black stockings, though odd in the wilderness because they were completely flat, at least had shoes.
Among the team, Aistride noticed a peculiar trait of Tillysha’s realm—her feet had no shoes. Tillysha merely wore white stockings, which, thanks to a toe ring, only covered half of her foot.
Are Tillysha’s feet dirty?
Gazing at Tillysha’s snow-white ankles, Bilodis couldn’t help but wonder.
Aistride had a peculiar, private trait unknown to the others: once strange thoughts entered her mind, she couldn’t stop fantasizing, deviating far from the original subject.
She recalled how during her moments of transformation into a Divine Authority, Dillin would often glance at her legs. Despite his restraint and his embarrassed shift of gaze afterward, Aistride noticed it.
Was Dillin a leg enthusiast?
If so,
Combining Dillin’s and Tillysha’s relations, Aistride suddenly had an incredibly bold thought.
Did Dillin lick those feet before?
Upon imagining that scene—of the blonde elf girl holding her hips, seductively using her white, crystal-clear toes to pry open the lips of the person kneeling before her, slowly inserting them inside…
No no no! These are not pure thoughts! They wouldn’t…
Wait.
Aistride came to her senses, remembering her imagined Tillysha’s taunting laugh and the mocking words like “disgusting” and “do you like it so much?”
Hey, weirdly enough, that fits her character.
Thinking more, Aistride believed it was very possible something like that had happened.
Tillysha, walking behind Filisia, had no clue what Aistride was thinking and certainly couldn’t imagine how much her imagination was running wild. If she knew, she would surely be curious about Dillin’s image in Aistride’s mind, causing her to think so.
As the sun neared the western mountains, a desolate scene tinged with a touch of green greeted them, brightening their eyes.
“Forest?” Just as Tillysha had predicted, only the harsh environment at the edge was a wasteland. The interior of Ruglien still maintained a lot of forest.
Seeing the forest didn’t make Tillysha feel any more relaxed. Perhaps it was because the sun was setting, but she felt an eerie aura in this forest, like a giant creature lying dormant, opening its eyes and revealing its claws at nightfall.
Tillysha activated the Divine Analysis Technique for observation. These trees were all ordinary ones, and at least at the edge of the forest, there were no strange creatures lurking.
“Should we enter the forest?” Filisia glanced at the red sunset in the sky.
Their journey so far had been fortunate, not encountering any Orcs or Goblins. However, it was premature to call it luck, maybe it was all a setup to lure them into a deadly situation.
“Let’s go in.” Their goal was to enter the lush forest area to find Demon Race members with Demon Hearts.
Logically speaking, forests were more dangerous than wastelands. They couldn’t predict from which direction enemies would attack, their movements could easily be exposed, and it was very likely that the moment they entered the forest, some creatures might already be watching them. And being in Ruglien, it wouldn’t be friendly creatures.
The reason Tillysha was so confident was because this was a forest, and they had two Elves in their team.
Entering the forest would be like going home, not something to fear.
In her view, the presence of a forest enhanced their team’s combat ability to its peak and possibly even beyond.
The moment they stepped into the forest, both Tillysha and Aistride felt a boost running through their bodies, as if their entire beings were being refreshed.
The hunger brought on by exhaustion disappeared instantly, replaced by the sharpness of their heightened senses.
With Divine Analysis Technique and enhanced perception confirming there was nothing unusual nearby, Tillysha instructed her teammates to enter the forest.
“The sun is almost down. Let’s stop here for today and set up camp. Aistride, you’re on night watch tonight.”
“Aistride, is that fine?”
Aistride, who had been lost in reverie, regained her composure and nodded calmly.
Elves in the forest required very little sleep, making it unnecessary for her to rotate night watch duties.
—
And so the story progresses, with comedic undertones woven into the narrative.
