The next morning, Su Sheng groggily turned over and found that Luo Ren was already gone.
He wiped his face, his gaze fixed on a point in the empty air, unconsciously recalling the bizarre dream from the night before.
In the dream, Luo Ren and the Demon King stood together, casting pitying glances at him, while he seemed to have his hands bound, unable to move at all…
Su Sheng still remembered the feeling from the dream, helplessness, anger, panic…
Neither Luo Ren nor the Demon King spoke. Both wore identical smiles as they walked toward him, but after a moment, their figures seemed to overlap.
Then…
Realizing he had unconsciously relived the dream again, Su Sheng gripped the bedsheet, his face paling slightly. What on earth was he thinking?
After washing up, he pushed open the door and ran straight into Luo Ren, who was about to enter.
Luo Ren’s lips curved into a faint smile. Su Sheng froze for a moment, instinctively pulling back the foot he had stepped forward with, but still asking, “Why are you wandering around when your injury isn’t healed yet?”
Luo Ren suddenly took a step forward, closing the already short distance between them. Su Sheng was startled and tried to step back, but something was unexpectedly stuffed into his arms.
It was fluffy and soft.
At the same time, Luo Ren asked with a smile, “Why are you avoiding me?”
“Avoiding what?” Su Sheng subtly averted his gaze, unwilling to admit that seeing Luo Ren had reminded him of some unspeakable thoughts.
“Then why are your ears red?” Luo Ren asked, puzzled.
Su Sheng’s expression turned cold, his tone calm. “You’re mistaken.”
Yet his hand involuntarily tightened.
Only then did he remember that Luo Ren had just stuffed something into his arms.
The texture in his hand was soft and plush, but when squeezed, it felt firm.
He looked down. In his palm was a fist-sized, fluffy white kitten, crafted with lifelike detail. Its expression was aloof, yet it was posed in a playful, rolling gesture.
A voice tinged with laughter sounded beside him: “Look, I saw this at a street stall outside and thought it looked just like you, so I bought it.”
“Like me?” Su Sheng showed a look of disdain and was about to return the kitten to Luo Ren.
What a joke, comparing him to a cat?
Luo Ren took it back, deliberately shaking the kitten in front of Su Sheng with a smile. “Hmm, not alike? How come its expression is exactly like yours?”
The playful kitten swayed before his eyes, and Su Sheng suddenly felt a surge of irritation. He snatched the kitten back, tossed it onto the bedside table, and turned away, enunciating each word clearly: “Since you want to look at it, then look all you want.”
Luo Ren limped into the room, his brow slightly furrowed as if in self-reproach, though his eyes held a mischief Su Sheng didn’t notice:
“Why are you still angry?”
Su Sheng pursed his lips and looked away. After a moment, he glanced back and asked coldly, “How’s your leg?”
Luo Ren suppressed a laugh and shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“Keep your leg still, keep your mouth shut, avoid unnecessary actions, and focus on recovering.” Su Sheng warned coldly.
…
Three days later, Luo Ren’s leg had fully healed, and the two prepared to leave the Holy City, heading southwest.
When he went out, Su Sheng changed his outfit and casually applied a disguise spell to his face, making it difficult for others to recognize his appearance.
Even so, there were still some reckless troublemakers who wanted to get a closer look at his true face.
On the street, a lavishly decorated unicorn carriage stood to the side, surrounded by a large cleared area. A crowd had gathered in the open space, with Su Sheng and Luo Ren standing at its center.
The people around them whispered among themselves.
“Ah, these two are so pitiful. They’ve caught the eye of that debauched youngest son of Duke Ki Li.”
“Exactly, how unlucky. The Duke Ki Li’s estate is like the heavens in the Holy City, crossing them never ends well.”
“Those two don’t seem like ordinary people. One looks like a mage, the other a knight. Tsk, tsk.”
“What good does that do? Even if the Saint himself came to the Holy City, he’d have to make way for the Duke’s estate.”
All the idle chatter reached Su Sheng’s ears, and his expression darkened.
Luo Ren, on the other hand, stood to the side, casually playing with a small cat in his hands, not sparing a single glance at the surroundings.
Directly in front of Su Sheng, a group of mages dressed in identical black robes embroidered with a family crest respectfully cleared a path. Then, a young man stepped down from the carriage.
The young man was dressed extravagantly. If the Demon King still had some taste in mixing gold and silver, the person before them could only be described as dreadful.
His taste was even worse than the Demon King’s.
He wore a robe trimmed with gold, though it seemed ill-fitting, dragging on the ground. It was adorned with various ornaments and covered in intricate patterns, not ordinary designs, but layers of protective magic circles.
Such a robe was extremely rare in the market, priceless and hard to come by. But after staring for a moment, Su Sheng recognized it.
It was nothing special, the familiar drawing technique and outdated style told him that this robe was merely an old garment he had used to casually practice drawing magic circles during his childhood.
“What are you laughing at?” the young man snapped, tugging at his robe. “Do you have any idea how powerful this defensive robe is? It has magic circles personally drawn by the Saint himself, the kind that can block ten Demon Kings!”
As he spoke, he shook his robe proudly, as if wanting the whole world to know it was crafted by the Saint. Beside him, Luo Ren suddenly stopped his movements, looked up, narrowed his eyes, and fixed his gaze on the robe.
Su Sheng asked, “So, what do you want?”
Ki Laishi replied, “I want you to accompany me to a ball.”
Just as Su Sheng was about to refuse, Luo Ren cut him off, pulling him toward the crowd.
“Make way.”
Never having been ignored like this before, Ki Laishi’s face flushed red with anger. Muttering curses like “ungrateful wretches,” he ordered the mages around him to stop the two.
The mages moved into action, and the onlookers sighed in pity.
“Ah, the mages recruited by the Ki family are all high-level. It’ll be hard for these two to get away.”
“It looks like another unfortunate soul is about to meet their fate.”
“Wait! What’s happening?”
The bystanders stared in disbelief at the scene unfolding before them, hardly able to believe it was real.
“Bang!”
“Thud.”
“Thud.”
With three crisp, synchronized sounds, the dozen or so so-called senior mages collapsed in disarray, either sprawled on the ground or embedded in the walls, completely unconscious.
Incidentally, even Ki Laishi’s supposedly powerful magic robe was sliced into tattered rags.
Luo Ren sheathed his sword, brushed off the dust that had splattered onto his clothes, and pushed through the crowd.
Su Sheng lowered his gaze, adjusted his collar, and stepped slowly over the bodies of these men, following Luo Ren as they walked out.
“They…”
“They seem even stronger than senior mages.”
Only then did Ki Laishi snap out of his daze. Glancing at the fallen mages on either side, he shivered and hurried after them.
“Hey, you two! please wait a moment. I have a request.”
Ki Laishi caught up from behind, blocking Luo Ren’s path, though his gaze was fixed on him.
Su Sheng lifted his eyelids and asked indifferently, “What else is there?”
Ki Laishi hesitated for a moment, then silently mouthed a few words. Su Sheng understood and raised a hand to cast a shielding spell around them.
“Speak.” Su Sheng said calmly, looking at the young man.
Ki Laishi knelt down, his expression pleading. “Please, Master Mage, help me. This concerns my family. Thirteen years ago, my father picked up an incredibly beautiful woman from somewhere. She used her charms to bewitch my father, making him completely obedient to her. That in itself wouldn’t be a problem, but ever since then, male servants in our household have been mysteriously disappearing. Over time, word spread, and no one is willing to work in our home anymore. Now, aside from my father and me, there are hardly any men left in the house… I suspect she’s a succubus, but I have no proof.”
“This is your family matter. Why should we help you?” Luo Ren’s expression darkened, his tone sharp as he flicked his sleeve, a hint of coldness and disdain flashing in his eyes.
Ki Laishi turned to Su Sheng, his voice urgent. “Please. Wait, I know Lord Tuo Ri. I know you’re heading to Silver Moon Bay. The fastest route from here takes at least a month. Teleportation arrays can’t be used consecutively, and not every city has one. But I know a shortcut that can get you there quickly, saving you a lot of time.”
Su Sheng wavered, then nodded after a moment. “Fine.”
Ki Laishi broke into a tearful, grateful smile. He bowed deeply. “Then, please remove the magic now and follow me to the duke’s estate.”
…
They traveled by carriage to the duke’s estate. During the conversation with Ki Laishi, Su Sheng learned that the young man had deliberately indulged in debauchery to avoid drawing the attention of the duchess. If not for his seemingly unwell state, the duchess would likely have targeted him long ago.
Su Sheng walked ahead but carefully noted that Luo Ren had remained silent all this time, not uttering a single word.
For some reason, he felt a pang of guilt. He subtly slowed his pace, walking side by side with Luo Ren, and asked casually, “What’s wrong?”
Truthfully, Luo Ren himself wasn’t entirely sure why. Ever since he learned that the young man ahead was wearing clothes once owned by Norton, he had felt deeply displeased.
After some thought, he concluded it must be possessiveness at work.
After all, Norton was his. From body to soul, including all his belongings, everything should belong to him.
What belongs to him should not carry the scent of another.