In the night, after a round of fierce, echoing fighting, once the sound faded, the two figures under the darkness fell silent.

They stared at each other without speaking. Only after a long while—like they’d finally confirmed the other’s identity—did they speak in unison.

“How are you here??” x2

“How could it be you??” x2

[Virtue +60]

[Current Virtue: 5579]

After hearing each other’s questions, both sides found it hard not to laugh.

“That line should be coming from me.”

“Don’t steal this princess’s line! Obviously I’m the one who should be asking you!” the shadow snapped. Even though he couldn’t see the other’s face in the darkness, Vinny could picture that pouty little mouth perfectly in his head.

That bratty, female-imp attitude—and that tone that was just begging to be disciplined—was so distinctive it already told him who it was.

“What else could it be? Right now, I’m outside the Academy. Besides a practical assessment task, what [N O V E L I G H T] else would I be doing??” Vinny looked at Milian with a strange expression. “But you—why are you here??”

As if something occurred to him, Vinny took a step back.

“Y-You—what are you doing??” Milian didn’t understand his reaction.

“You golden-haired dumbass—didn’t expect this. You’ve started playing dirty and using your brain, huh? Are you really that obsessed with me?? You actually ditched your own practical assessment and came to follow me—and you followed me without making a sound. I didn’t notice you at all. You bastard... so you’re a full-on pervert!”

“Who are you calling a golden-haired dumbass?!” Milian instantly blew up. “You’re the dumbass! Blue-haired dumbass! And you’re the pervert! You’re the pervert!” Vinny’s words made Milian so angry even the tips of her ears turned red. “Who would be that bored—ditching my own task just to follow you, you narcissist??”

“You’d better not be.” Vinny lifted his chin.

“You—!” Vinny’s look made Milian so furious she couldn’t even speak. She wanted to clap back, but because of her good upbringing—she wouldn’t curse—and her poor verbal skills, she got pushed into silence with a single retort.

[Virtue +50]

[Current Virtue: 5629]

“Who would follow you, you disgusting, vain human?!” Milian shouted.

“Then tell me. Why are you here? And don’t try to claim you’re here for a practical assessment. If you really were, why didn’t I see you on the carriage??” Vinny pressed her.

“Because I wasn’t on your carriage, okay! Who wants to follow you??”

“Then here’s the problem.” Vinny kept going, perfectly clear-headed. “If your destination is the same as mine, why weren’t you on the same carriage?”

“I—who told you my destination is the same as yours? I was on another carriage. That carriage’s final stop was the Forest of Wisdom!” Milian crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at Vinny. “My practical assessment task site is in the Forest of Wisdom. Not here.”

“If your assessment site is the Forest of Wisdom, how did you end up here?” Vinny raised a brow.

“Tch. This princess isn’t like someone. My practical assessment has been finished for a while now.” Milian’s lips curled. “Yours isn’t done yet, is it?”

“Tch, what are you so smug about?” Vinny snapped back. “My carriage stop is the final one. I just got off not long ago. You’ve been at your destination for days already, haven’t you? I literally just arrived and you’re already putting on airs??”

“I don’t care. This princess finished her practical assessment earlier than you.” Milian finally found something she could hold over him, and she refused to let go.

“Earlier by a few days—get over yourself.”

“That’s still earlier than you!” Milian dug in.

“You stinking golden-haired brat. You got here a few days earlier and now you’re acting like you’re something.”

“Still earlier than you.”

“Get over yourself.”

“Earlier than you!”

“Get over yourself!”

[Virtue +30]

[Current Virtue: 5659]

The two of them kept repeating those two lines over and over, like a pair of little kids.

“Earlier than you—earlier than you!” Milian snorted. “And someone’s still dragging their feet and doesn’t even know how to finish the assessment!”

“Who said I don’t know how to finish it?? This assessment is child’s play to me!” Vinny huffed. “If a certain golden-haired dumbass hadn’t come to cause trouble, I’d have finished a long time ago!”

“Bleh-bleh-bleh, blue-haired dumbass bragging! Aren’t you afraid one day your nose will grow long?” Milian made a face at Vinny.

“Then if you already finished your assessment, why am I still seeing you here? So you did deliberately follow me, right? Confess—how did you find me? Did you put some tracking [Magic Tool] on me??” Vinny patted at his back.

“I told you nobody’s following you! And what tracking [Magic Tool]—are you even worth it??”

“Then why are you here? Since your practical assessment is finished, why aren’t you going back to report? What are you doing here??”

“Are you really an idiot?” Milian pouted. “It’s only been how long? The Academy’s first carriage back won’t come for weeks. How am I supposed to get back?”

“Then you just had to come to this godforsaken place? You wandered around and ended up here??”

“Who told you I was wandering?” As Milian spoke, her eyes flicked to the Interpreters corpse lying on the ground. She walked over and kicked it with the leg of her leather long boot.

“After I finished my practical assessment, I discovered these disgusting poachers were showing up in the Forest of Wisdom. So I chased them, and then I found out their lair was here.”

“Poachers?” Vinny blinked, remembering—wasn’t it true that Interpreters were that mysterious bandit organization that mainly survived by poaching?

“Yeah. And it’s not just poaching.” Milian’s voice lowered. “They’ve got small groups squatting in the Forest of Wisdom, capturing my people. These humans are trying to make money, so they’re brazen enough to break into the Forest of Wisdom and kidnap Wood Elves living there.”

“Did you get your people back?” Vinny asked. He’d honestly forgotten—Wood Elves lived in the Forest of Wisdom. Behind it was the Eternity Forest, where the Golden Elves lived. Farther north was the Starflaw Sea, with Sea Elves living along the shore.

This stretch of forest was the elven race’s homeland.

“I got them back. And I killed the human slave traffickers who were selling elves.” Milian’s voice turned colder. “But I suspect they still have other people in their hands, so I tracked them all the way here. This is their lair. I didn’t expect you’d be here.”

“What’s your practical assessment task?” Milian asked next.

“Not telling you.”

“Tch. Even if you don’t tell me, I can guess.” Milian huffed. “Isn’t it clearing out the poachers squatting here?”

“Oh wow, you guessed it. You’re such a genius, Milian.” Vinny put on an exaggerated look of shock.

“Hmph-hmph... huh? Wait.” Milian was about to smugly put her hands on her hips, but then she frowned. “Why does that not feel like you’re praising me??”

“Hallucination. Total hallucination. I’m praising you for being brilliantly smart.” Vinny laughed.

“Tch! I knew it the moment I saw you smiling. You’re making fun of me!” Milian snapped.

“Alright.” Vinny waved a hand. “Since your practical assessment is already done, go back where you came from. Don’t mess with me finishing mine. Anyway, this place isn’t far from your home—go to the Forest of Wisdom and stay with your people until the Academy carriage comes.”

“Why? Then this princess came for nothing!” Milian clearly wasn’t going to listen. “Did I kill your people and make you unhappy?”

“Good kill. Great kill.” Vinny shot her a glance. “Trash like that—if you didn’t kill them, I would have.”

“Hmph. Really?”

“What else? Milian, can you stop looking at humans through tinted lenses? There are good humans and bad humans.”

“What about you? Are you a good human or a bad human?”

“This Young Master might not be good or bad... but this Young Master definitely isn’t that kind of trash.” Vinny wiped the blood off the gunblade as he passed Milian and kept moving forward.

“Tch. Back at the Academy you kept calling yourself a villainous young master,” Milian muttered.

“So what?” Vinny didn’t even turn his head. “Even a villainous young master can’t stand the kind of crap those bastards do. Not allowed?”

“I’ll warn you now—this fort is weird as hell. Things are complicated. It isn’t as simple as what you’re seeing. If you keep staying, I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“Who needs you to guarantee anything?” Milian scoffed. “You talk so arrogantly—like you’re amazing. Why don’t you just say you’re going to save the world too?”

“Yeah. This Young Master is going to save the world.” Vinny’s tone was shameless. “Besides a villainous young master like me dealing with this thankless crap, who else will? Who are we supposed to count on? Those sanctimonious ‘good people’??”

“If there are still your people in the Interpreters’ hands, I’ll rescue them along the way.” With that, Vinny carried Frostfang onward.

“What?” Seeing Milian still following behind him, Vinny turned, the gun slung over his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you want to help me finish my assessment? That’s against the rules.”

“Tch, who wants to help you? Who cares about you?” Milian pouted. “I’m doing this to save my people. I just... don’t trust your ability.”

“Fine.” Seeing that this golden-haired dumbass wasn’t going to leave, Vinny knew he couldn’t control her anyway, so he stopped trying. “Then just watch from the side. Don’t drag me down.”

“Just you wait—you’ll see who’s dragging who down. I’m top three in my year!” Milian protested. “Don’t think you’re amazing just because your realm is temporarily higher. Don’t come begging me to protect you later!”

Hearing Milian’s stubborn bravado, Vinny only smiled and didn’t say a word.

“This fort is really huge,” Milian said after walking a while. “And... isn’t it too quiet?”

“Maybe you were yelling too loud earlier, and the rest of the Interpreters heard you and ran.” Vinny teased.

“My voice isn’t loud!” Milian huffed. “Yours was way louder than mine. If anyone scared them off, it was you!”

“Hey—what are you looking at??” Milian suddenly realized Vinny’s gaze kept drifting toward her and flared up in embarrassment.

[Virtue +50]

[Current Virtue: 5709]

“Who’s looking at you? Don’t get the wrong idea.” Vinny sized Milian up. “I’m just curious why you aren’t wearing the Academy uniform.”

What Milian wore was clearly a female elf ranger outfit: leather long boots, a very elven-style white short skirt, a sleeveless short top that made movement easy, fingerless gloves, and a high golden ponytail tied up tight. A wooden bow was strapped to her back, and a huge bag of arrows hung at her waist.

Yeah. The classic elf look you’d see in all kinds of movies and novels in his past life.

“This is lighter and easier to move in.” Milian replied. “The uniform always feels restrictive.”

“Really?” Vinny glanced at Milian again.

He had to admit—Milian’s figure was genuinely incredible. The kind that was slender everywhere it should be, then stacked where it mattered. And this outfit outlined that body perfectly.

“What kind of look is that?” Milian bristled. “You got a problem with our elven clothing?”

“Shh. Keep it down.” Vinny cut her off and pointed at a corner not far ahead. “There’s movement over there.”

“I heard it already. I don’t need you to remind me.” Milian drew her bowstring and aimed at the corner.

Only then did Vinny notice Milian had already taken out her big bow at some point and nocked an arrow.

Elven senses really were sharp. He didn’t even get the chance to warn her. Even if his realm was higher, her five senses were still stronger than his.

And right then, three Interpreters filed out from the corner one after another.

“I think I heard something over there. Let’s go check—”

Before the three could finish the sentence, their eyes rolled back—and they died where they stood.

Three arrows whistled out, shot at the same time. Each pierced a throat, like death calling names. Because their throats were punched through, their vocal cords tore—so they couldn’t make a sound. When they opened their mouths, only blood flooded out.

“Nice shooting.” Even Vinny couldn’t help praising it—like complimenting someone’s aim in a game.

Nocking three arrows at once, and every single one precisely hitting a throat...

Milian’s archery was genuinely divine.

No wonder people said elves were born to use bows. When it came to archery, if elves called themselves second, nobody else would dare call themselves first.

“Hmph. Like you needed to say it.” Milian still didn’t lower her bow. “The wind is telling me there’s an open area behind this corner. There are people there.”

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