Chapter 216: A Wraith Not Like a Human
Luo En walked alone on the way back to the hotel.
No one was following him—he occasionally used the corner of his eye to vigilantly scan the empty street behind him.
After walking for some distance, he took a one-penny coin from his pocket and lightly tossed it into the air.
The coin tumbled in the air, finally landing steadily in his palm, face up.
A crimson ray of moonlight pierced through a gap in the clouds and shone on his face, making him feel a strange sense of irritation.
He subconsciously raised his 'Phantom' and aimed its dark muzzle at the crimson glow in the sky.
"Click."
His index finger lightly rested on the cold trigger. After a few seconds of hesitation, he finally slowly lowered it.
The Red Moon—it was still inferior to the bright moon.
"Sigh—" He let out a heavy sigh, "I originally thought I'd have to howl at the sky again tonight. If there were another thunderstorm in a bustling city like this…"
"It's a blessing in disguise, I suppose."
Inside an unassuming hotel in Backlund.
Luo En had just pushed open the door to his room when he heard an ethereal voice behind him.
"Your item."
The figure of Bodyguard Miss slowly materialized behind him like a ghost.
Luo En turned around and saw Bodyguard Miss, dressed in a court-style long dress, holding the dagger he had lost in the earlier skirmish.
"Thank you."
"Where did this knife come from?" Sharon asked expressionlessly.
"I bought it," Luo En replied concisely.
"Use it carefully," Sharon said. "This knife is very dangerous."
"Understood, thanks for the reminder."
"Um—" Luo En hesitated slightly but still took the initiative to ask, "Are you—alright today?"
"I sustained some minor injuries," Sharon replied.
Minor injuries…
"Can you tell me what exactly happened?"
"You seemed to have lost very—"
"That Demoness was not my match," Sharon said in her usual tone. "However—just as I was about to subdue her, I was attacked, and—I lost that segment of memory."
"When I regained consciousness, I had already been subdued."
Lost memory… Was it a mental attack?
"Sorry," Luo En muttered to himself, "I was indeed a bit too hasty this time."
Bodyguard Miss did not respond.
Luo En walked to the bed and retrieved a small pouch of cash from under it.
"This is the remaining balance. Take it." His meaning was clear: since such an incident had occurred, she didn't need to continue risking danger.
"The protection period still has two days," Sharon said, not reaching out to take it, her voice still devoid of any fluctuation.
"Madam, sigh, you————. Alright."
Luo En didn't know what tone to use when speaking to her.
He was genuinely curious whether the Bodyguard Miss in front of him could even be considered human anymore.
Señor, the Blood Admiral, also a Wraith, had far more emotional fluctuations than she did. Bodyguard Miss resembled—a doll—more than a human.
He couldn't quite tell whether what happened today was him getting Bodyguard Miss into trouble, or if it was Bodyguard Miss's failure to protect him effectively.
Or perhaps—it was both.
"How unlucky," Luo En muttered to himself. "It feels like no matter what I try to do, various unexpected things always happen in the end."
"Even if the goal is achieved, the final outcome may not necessarily be satisfactory."
He sat by the bed for a few more minutes, then suddenly spoke:
"Madam, you are—from the Rose School of Thought, aren't you?"
Bodyguard Miss didn't reply, but Luo En could distinctly feel that the surrounding temperature seemed to have dropped a little.
Thinking of the large number of Sun charms still stored in his 'Spatial Pouch', Luo En didn't panic and simply continued to speak:
"I was once attacked by someone from the Rose School of Thought. But they felt completely different from you. They seemed to be the rumored Indulgence Faction."
"I think, to some extent, we have common enemies. I believe we might be able to deepen our cooperation to a certain degree."
"What do you want to know?"
After a long silence, Sharon's ethereal voice finally came.
"Everything you think you can tell me."
"Alright, actually—" Luo En broke the silence. He briefly recounted some of his past encounters with members of the Rose School of Thought. Of course, he also concealed many crucial details.
After all, their relationship wasn't yet good enough for complete openness.
After listening to his narration, Sharon fell into a prolonged silence. A rare emotion flickered in her sapphire-blue eyes, but it quickly returned to her doll-like calmness.
"They are indeed from the Indulgence Faction, and they are hostile to us."
Subsequently, Sharon briefly described the current state of the Rose School of Thought. For example, the philosophies each faction believed in, and the irreconcilable grievances between the Indulgence Faction and the Temperance Faction, and so on.
However, regarding her personal identity and some more private information, she did not utter a single word.
"It's similar to the information Cattelya told me before. But, it's a bit more detailed than what she said…"
Luo En continued to ask: "Do you know anything about the organization behind the man who appeared at the end today?"
"A secretive organization called the Society," Bodyguard Miss's tone remained steady.
"It has a history of at least a thousand years. Its influence is vast. It maintains a certain degree of cooperative relationship with almost all the Orthodox Churches and secretive organizations."
"However, it has overt disagreements with the Night Church."
"They advocate for cooperation and struggle."
"Before the Indulgence Faction dominated the school, their relationship with the Rose School of Thought was passable."
Peace and struggle, it feels a bit unreliable. Being friends with everyone also indirectly means being enemies with everyone.
The founder of this organization's ideology definitely has flaws.
But because it's a cooperative relationship, is that why Meihua 5 didn't try to kill Bodyguard Miss just now?
"Madam, I have another academic question."
"Ask."
"If a genuinely problematic cultist is reported to the Official, what is the probability that he will ultimately remain unharmed?"
Luo En had a vague guess in his mind.
"That depends on the opponent's Sequence. Without help, before the Mid-Sequence, it's almost impossible for the cultist to escape."
"Thank you for your answer," Luo En said thoughtfully.
"One more question."
"What kind of gifts do you think women like?"
"?"
A rare trace of surprise appeared on Sharon's exquisitely doll-like face.
"Oh, don't misunderstand!" Luo En quickly explained, "I'm just going to see a female friend and wanted to buy her something, so I wanted to hear a woman's opinion—"
Before Luo En could finish speaking, Bodyguard Miss's figure rapidly became transparent and disappeared from the spot.