Little Pink Starfish

Compared to Atwell’s side, the elder cleric and this group of paladins clearly hadn’t come with good intentions. Pei Sen had already formed a poor impression of the elder cleric back in the Esmia royal palace.

He looked at Atwell with a mocking expression. See? Just earlier, Atwell had claimed, “The church would never do such a thing,” and now he’d been instantly slapped in the face by that very same elder cleric.

Atwell hurriedly explained, “Lord Anan only came to stop me from following the young master. Please don’t misunderstand… I’m following him of my own will. Even if the church disapproves, I won’t waver.”

The elder cleric silently praised Atwell’s cleverness, then cleared his throat and said sternly, “Atwell, we made a contract with Lord Burke Angre to assign you to protect and follow Eagle Lanno. But the contract was only to protect him until he turned ten. Now that he’s older, a new contract must be signed with the church if you wish to continue.”

Atwell responded seriously, “No, Lord Anan. I’ve decided to follow Young Master Eagle freely from now on, without any compensation.”

Pei Sen watched the two perform their little back-and-forth like a rehearsed play…

He had a pretty good idea of what the Light Church was like—everything revolved around profit. There was no way he’d believe Atwell was sincerely pledging loyalty to the young master. Clearly, they had another motive.

This elder cleric had come with paladins supposedly to “stop” Atwell? Yeah right. If they weren’t currently surrounded by so many players, he’d likely try to kidnap the young master to the Light Church just like Eagle had guessed.

These religious charlatans—none of them were decent.

The players, meanwhile, were having their entire worldview shaken. This is what the church was like? As long as you paid, they’d protect you?

These guys were just a bunch of shameless mercenaries.

No wonder the young count had no intention of believing in the god of the Light Church.

As for the count’s use of divine magic, the players now understood the truth based on the priests’ slip-ups: he wasn’t just some descendant of the Light—he had awakened something called the Seed of Light.

Tsk, sounded powerful.

Regardless of what Atwell said, Eagle firmly refused to let him follow. He no longer had any fondness for the Light Church.
And it made sense—after all, the whole “transfer the curse” plan was proposed by the church in the first place.

They had said that the only thing that could counter the dark brand was Light. That the curse should be transferred to a young member of the Berfield family under ten years old, and then the Seed of Light should be awakened…

Eagle was sure at least half of that was a lie.

Judging by how shocked the church members looked when he actually awakened the Seed of Light, they probably hadn’t expected him to succeed.

It was likely just a scam to trick Orlington, Leiser, and Burke Angre into paying a massive price to obtain the Seed of Light.
If it failed, well—hey, not the church’s fault, right?

Truly a bunch of shameless bastards.

Still, though Eagle refused, Atwell didn’t leave, and the standoff dragged on.

Then Eagle suddenly said, “Atwell, if you want to follow me, shouldn’t you obey my orders?”

“Yes, young master.”

“Which of her children did Princess Carolina send back to Esmia? They should already be on the way, right?”

“She initially wanted to send the princess Salina Bonfrese, but the crowned prince Wendel Bonfrese seems to have caught wind of something. He volunteered to come to Esmia instead, perhaps to reclaim the Ruin Tablet,” Atwell replied truthfully.

A mocking smile crossed Eagle’s face. “She really couldn’t let go.”

Carolina had borne several children for the King of Bonfrese. The eldest prince Wendel Bonfrese was nearly ten years older than Salina. They’d originally planned to send this nine-year-old girl into confinement in a cell-like room for eleven years? That kind of experience would surely cause psychological damage.

When Eagle had been locked up, he was at least fifteen—already mature and sensible. Even then, being imprisoned for five years had serious consequences.
To lock a nine-year-old away for eleven years? That might twist her completely.

Fortunately, the one coming was Wendel Bonfrese, who was older and reportedly very clever, well-favored by the current King of Bonfrese.
If he had come to retrieve the Ruin Tablet, that might actually play into Leiser’s hands.

With a mother like Carolina, even someone born a prince and with great aptitude could only be dragged down.

“If you want to follow me,” Eagle said, “I’ll give you a task. If you complete it, I’ll allow you to remain by my side.”

The elder cleric’s ears perked up at this. He knew that once Eagle returned to Frost Maple territory, it would be nearly impossible to abduct him. Rumor had it that the place was now crawling with abyssal Bix tribes—even provoking them would be unwise.

But if Atwell could stay by Eagle’s side, his cleverness might eventually uncover how the Seed of Light had been awakened.

So the elder cleric silently nodded—meaning he agreed. No matter what the task was, as long as the church helped, it should be doable.

“Break Wendel Bonfrese out of the Esmia royal palace,” Eagle said coldly. “Do it before he’s locked away in the Ruins. Bring him to Frost Maple. If you succeed, I’ll consider your task complete.”

Atwell: “…”

Yeah, that mission was going to be very difficult.

Pei Sen glanced at Eagle sitting calmly in the carriage, a wave of emotion in his heart. The young master was still so kind-hearted. Even after all the hurt he had endured, he still wanted to rescue his half-brother. The boy really wasn’t a bad person.

Eagle calmly calculated: Wendel Bonfrese was still the heir to Bonfrese’s throne, second only to the king. As long as the king hadn’t stripped him of that title, he retained considerable influence.

If Wendel was as clever as the rumors said, he’d realize that cooperating with Eagle would be in his best interest—they had the same enemies, and the same terribly toxic mother.

But Eagle wasn’t actually as sentimental as Pei Sen imagined.

All the affection he had left in this life, he had probably already given to this otherworldly being who had defied all odds to come find him in the capital.

Pei Sen, in his heart, was different. It didn’t matter if he was of another race or had strange secrets—Eagle knew that Pei Sen was the only one in the world who truly cared about and protected him.

Even though they hadn’t known each other long, fate had its own strange way of working.

Atwell knew this was Eagle’s final offer. He hesitated for a moment, then agreed, and left with the elder cleric.

Whether or not he succeeded didn’t really matter—Eagle wasn’t that invested. He simply didn’t want Atwell around.

With the way cleared, the carriage continued on. The players followed happily, chatting excitedly about the church group that had just left.

Perhaps because of his earlier vomiting episode, Eagle was being especially considerate toward Pei Sen. He even gave up the best spot in the carriage for him to lie down. Pei Sen felt a bit guilty.

Sure, he had thrown up—but as a player, his physical constitution was excellent. He was already fully recovered, hopping around like normal.

Still, no point saying that now. Lying down was better than sitting anyway.

It looked like he was resting with his eyes closed, but in reality, he was browsing the forums.

Lately, there hadn’t been much worth paying attention to. Most threads were still about the recent war.

Except for the ones related to Pei Sen’s recruitment of Bix tribe members to travel to Frost Maple. Among them, a few very eye-catching posts had emerged.

Maybe because his vomiting that day made him look extra weak, and because the young master had suddenly grown up—those posts painted a version of him that Pei Sen flat-out refused to accept. Some even speculated he was “pregnant”…

Pei Sen: “……???” I’m a guy, okay?! No matter what, I do NOT have that function!

It was bad enough to imply he and the young master were in that kind of relationship. Now people were coming up with this kind of bizarre theory? Were players really this imaginative?

Just as he was silently raging while browsing the forum, a pinned notice popped up:

Dear Players:
Bix Magic Cube’s open beta has now been live for nearly five months. You’ve experienced many aspects of the game and hopefully had plenty of fun.
Of course, we’re aware of various shortcomings and bugs in the game. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
To thank everyone for your support, a new version will launch in three days, which will include a new class: Rogue (Medium difficulty). We hope you’ll enjoy this new addition…

Pei Sen wasn’t surprised. In the original timeline, the Rogue class had also been released shortly after beta began—though back then, the Mage class hadn’t been available yet.

This time, Mages had been launched first, causing a lot of suffering among players. So not many would likely want to switch classes now.

Bix Magic Cube had always been honest about class difficulty:

• Swordsman – Easy
• Rogue – Medium
• Mage – Hard
• Priest – Very Hard

And they weren’t joking. Choosing the right difficulty for your own playstyle was essential—better than having to delete your character later out of frustration.

Watching players excitedly scream about becoming Rogues reminded him of the Mage release days. He calmly closed the forum.

Forget it—might as well take a nap. The forum was probably going to be flooded with Rogue hype for the next few days.

Pei Sen’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as he sensed a bit of warmth above his eyes. He opened them just in time to see Eagle’s hand quickly retract.

The young master sat primly as if nothing had happened.

Pei Sen: “……”

Was he just trying to touch my eyes? Then just do it. Why act like it’s such a big deal?

It’s just touching someone’s eyes—what’s the big deal?

Pei Sen felt a little confused.

Ever since he brought the young master out of the palace, the now-grown-up version of him had been acting kind of… strange.

Pei Sen thought.