Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 58: The Silver Pocket Watch

…It just moved on its own?

Myss didn’t believe a single word of that. Salaar was definitely messing with him.

He had publicly bitten—no, kissed—Salaar, so there was no reason for Salaar to kiss him back as some kind of follow-up.

And if it was something Salaar had done, then there had to be some incredible scheme behind it. If that pinch hadn’t drawn blood, Myss would almost have suspected it was some occult sacrifice, or a curse ritual unique to humans.

…Thinking back on it, though, that feeling really had been strange.

Lately, Myss had buried his face in cat fur often enough. Apple had even licked his chin before, and that tongue had been warm too.

But back then, his body had never reacted with that same tingling numbness. Still shaken, Myss touched his neck and chest. The tightness left behind after that numbness was still there.

In the end, Salaar really had achieved some kind of goal. Myss could no longer brazenly bite him whenever he felt like it. If Salaar used the same trick and kissed him back twice as hard, then things would really turn into “Sweet Trap”.

At present, hugging still worked well enough. Kissing would have to be used with caution. The next time he kissed Salaar, it would have to be swift, precise, and ruthless, making sure Salaar had no chance to resist.

Myss reached this conclusion quickly and finally felt a little more at ease.

While Professor Gentry and his students inspected the stone gate, he quietly told Salaar about the Abnormal Fruit scent.

“Only the rabbit’s foot?” Salaar thought for a moment, then caught Myss by the wrist. “Good. We’ve still got over an hour. Come on, let’s take a look around.”

“Huh?”

“They have their investigation; we have ours.” Salaar’s tone was steady, as if the person who had just pinched himself so hard moments ago had been someone else entirely.

Fine. Myss conceded to that.

There were too many people around, so Salaar led him forward by the wrist. Myss found it uncomfortable.

He twisted his arm free and directly took Salaar’s hand instead. Salaar’s hand was relatively large, so Myss couldn’t grip it especially firmly, but it was still much better than being tugged around.

Salaar’s hand stiffened, and his palm grew a little damp. Taking advantage of that, Myss laced his fingers through Salaar’s.

Salaar coughed once, his grip loosening, and let Myss hold on.

This brought Myss great satisfaction.

He had always thought human “appendages” weren’t dexterous enough. The ten “tentacles” on their hands were far too rigid, with bones inside them, and could only bend in certain directions. They were short too, with clumsy flesh-pads at the ends, nowhere near as flexible as his original tentacles.

Long ago, Salaar had specifically grabbed a bunch of his little tentacles and stuffed them into gloves.

Then that bastard would poke at him with his fingers just to see how the tentacles moved under the restraint of the gloves. If Myss had understood human culture well enough back then, he probably would have flipped him off.

Unfortunately, at that time he… It hadn’t occurred to him. All he could do was twist around irritably and “grasp” the fingers Salaar poked at him with.

And every time, Salaar would let out an undignified little laugh. Every, single, time.

Now, Myss had been stuffed into a much more delicate “human-skin glove,” and his movements were much more human-like, yet Salaar was the one growing uncomfortable.

Perhaps, for humans, holding hands was the smallest scale of embrace.

Once that thought came to him, Myss tightened his grip.

Hand in hand, the two of them wore suspiciously calm expressions. They avoided muddy pits full of stagnant water, stepped onto relatively clean grass, and checked the stalls one by one.

Salaar bought one of every food item they saw and “sweetly” shared them with Myss. Myss refused nothing, eating until sauce stained the corners of his mouth, but he still didn’t taste any hint of the Abnormal Fruit.

Salaar sighed, pulled out a handkerchief, and used wiping his enemy’s mouth as cover while quietly tossing a cleansing spell.

They kept their hands tightly clasped the whole time, so tight that both their knuckles were whitening and their joints creaking softly.

Quite a few single men and women shot them admiring or envious looks. Sadly, only the two of them knew the painful little secret behind it.

After searching the food stalls, they squeezed into the trinket area. Most of the people here were commoners, so the wares were common too—all sorts of miscellaneous odds and ends piled together.

Salaar reached into one heap of junk and fished out a pocket watch that was at least somewhat decent.

Its case was sterling silver, tarnished black in places, covered in dents and scratches. Still, Salaar could tell it hadn’t been poorly maintained. It was simply old. There was also a small mechanism on the casing for setting a gemstone, one that could fit stones of different sizes.

Naturally, since it had ended up in a junk stall, there was no gemstone in it.

Salaar felt a stir of interest.

The watch wasn’t particularly valuable, but its signs of wear were just right. It would suit Tass’s gem nicely. He had only just picked it up when Myss said, “You’re buying it for that Dragon Fae?”

The question was completely innocent. Myss was probably just curious. Yet the words landed in Salaar’s ears in a peculiarly awkward way.

He cleared his throat. “It’s for you.”

“I don’t need something like that.”

“It suits your ranger outfit better,” Salaar said. “Neither ‘Young Master Karns’ nor ‘Scholar Salaar’ would use such a plain old pocket watch.”

“Letting Tass hide on you would also be better for your safety. You’re not exactly good at defensive magic, are you?”

“You’d really be that altruistic?” Myss looked at him suspiciously.

It sounded, absurdly enough, like Salaar was concerned about him.

“I know you’re unhappy about Tass joining us. This can also help the two of you get used to each other,” Salaar said smoothly. “Besides, you’re very mobile, and that makes up for Tass’s lack of stamina.”

Now that sounded more like the Salaar he knew. Myss accepted the watch and casually hooked it onto his belt.

Truth be told, the watch wasn’t ugly. Its silver case was engraved with delicate sun-and-moon patterns, and the gemstone slot sat right between the two.

“You two have a fine eye for quality,” the stall owner said with a suggestive smile. “Don’t worry, I don’t believe in the Church of Cadence. I only believe in the Eternal Hearth. The God of the Stove watches over every home.”

“This belonged to a distant relative of mine. Supposedly it was a love token from her husband. They’d known each other since childhood, and after they married, they were happy as could be. Lived to ninety-something together.”

Myss and Salaar: “…”

They had been together for over three hundred years, at least three times longer than that couple. Admittedly, “sweet and happy” wasn’t exactly the first phrase that came to mind for their own relationship.

“This fine antique is only one gold ring!”

The stall owner kept going enthusiastically, clearly afraid Myss might take off the pocket watch he had just fastened to his vest and hand it back. “Wear it, and you two are sure to live sweetly and happily too.”

Suddenly, Myss caught a very faint scent.

He immediately took the watch off and held it under his nose. Sure enough, there was an extremely thin trace of Abnormal Fruit on it. This time there were no other smells covering it up, so Myss caught it clearly.

It was well worth a gold ring after all. This time the crow-priest ought to reimburse them.

Before Myss could speak, the stall owner saw him take the watch off and his expression changed at once. “You look like you really like this watch, and it seems to have some fate with you. How about eight silver shields?”

Myss: “…”

Salaar smiled gently. “Six silver shields. The gem slot is broken, and the parts were never replaced on time. We’d have to find someone to repair it ourselves.”

“You wouldn’t lose money selling it for four, but I like the story you just told, so I’m offering six.”

The stall owner opened his mouth, stared for a while, then sighed. “Fine. Six silver shields. Take it.”

“If that crow-priest is paying anyway, why bother haggling?” Myss played with the small, delicate silver pocket watch.

“Oh, I’m paying for this one myself,” Salaar said. “It’s something I’m giving you, after all. Asking someone else to cover it would be in poor taste.”

Myss’s first instinct was that he was losing out. But then he thought about how this was from Salaar. No—how he was confiscating it from a submissive Salaar. That made him feel a surge of amusement.

After a moment’s thought, he wrapped the little trophy in a handkerchief. This time, instead of hanging it casually from his belt, he tucked it into the pocket over his chest.

……

After a full round of searching, they found no other objects carrying the scent of the Abnormal Fruit besides the rabbit’s foot and the pocket watch.

With time running short, the two exchanged a glance and headed for the largest tent there—the red-and-white circus tent.

They hadn’t even reached the entrance when they ran into Father Kalen, glowing with good spirits.

A wood pigeon with a striped tail stood on his shoulder, head tilted, black bead-like eyes fixed on them.

“This pigeon happened to pass by, and it told me Cinnamon found its little master.”

Father Kalen spoke happily. “After the Perfected Creation’s influence vanished, the children were among the first to wake up. Apparently that child cried and cried, insisting on finding Cinnamon. Once he did, he just kept apologizing through tears and wouldn’t let go of him.”

“Apple was taken back by his original family too. Butter’s former people never showed up, but Butter has decided to stay with Miss Claws. According to him, the meals at Antis’s estate are better than the ones at his old home.”

Kalen’s joy was genuine. It was rare to hear him talk so excitedly and at such length.

The pigeon cooed several times, flapping hard, as if striking Father Kalen’s ear with its wings.

Salaar asked, “What’s it saying?”

“It says it only happened to pass by, and since it remembered how much I cared about this matter, it told me casually. Actually, it especially hates those cats and told me not to get the wrong idea,” Father Kalen replied.

Was it coincidence, or luck?

Myss leaned closer. As always, Kalen had no strange scent on him. Neither did the pigeon.

“By the way, were you planning to investigate the circus?” Father Kalen asked. “I already did. The animals all like this place very much.”

“Some monkeys had inflamed paws that wouldn’t heal no matter what, but once they came here, they improved quickly. If there were some wrong sort of magical fluctuation here, animals should be even more sensitive to it.”

Salaar looked at Myss. Myss shook his head. “I still want to go in and take a look.”

But just as he said that, the communication device on him vibrated.

It was the one Professor Gentry had distributed to them after the contracts were signed.

This was a special expedition communications device, shaped like a tiny gold badge, no bigger than a thumbnail. It was much more refined than the seashells from Samper, with astonishingly clear transmission and precise positioning built in.

“Our preliminary survey is done. It’ll be dark soon, so we need to head underground quickly.”

Beverly’s rapid-fire voice burst from the device.

“At night the flow of magic is different from daytime. Ruins are more magically active after dark, and it’s easier to find anomalous points—yes, Professor, I realize this isn’t the best time for explanations—anyway, get over here!”

Myss looked up at the point of the circus tent. The place was too large. They probably wouldn’t finish investigating it anytime soon.

The priest could be considered an expert on Abnormal Fruits, and he also had the ability to detect ill omen. If even he hadn’t noticed anything from this close, then at worst this place only held another faint, half-worthless trace.

They had already gotten something out of the trip. That was enough for now.

He squeezed Salaar’s hand, and the two turned toward the stone gate.

Inside the tent—

“Everything’s ready for tonight’s performance, right?”

A staff member wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned toward the newest member in the employee tent.

The newcomer smiled. “Everything’s ready, sir.”

“You’ve got some luck, kid. My previous backup just happened to have a family emergency. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been hiring at the last minute.”

The staffer sighed. “This place really is something special. So far every performance’s gone smoothly. But as my substitute, you can’t slack off. If something happens—and I mean if something really happens—both of us are going to be in deep trouble.”

“I understand, sir.”

The short newcomer smiled, his face painted in exaggerated greasepaint.

“Please don’t worry. I’m very confident in both puppet manipulation and ventriloquism.”

“Fair enough. I suppose the ringmaster wouldn’t hire just anyone either.”

The staffer grinned, his brightly painted mouth stretching absurdly wide. “Let’s make a fortune together, Mr. Kai.”

Kai smiled and nodded, then looked toward the outside of the tent.

The entrance flap hadn’t quite fallen shut, leaving a narrow slit of sky visible. The heavens were shifting from iris blue to deep indigo, a few stars already pricking through like needlepoints in velvet.

“It’ll be dark soon,” he remarked, half-absently.

……

“It’ll be dark soon. Next time, don’t dawdle like this.”

It was evident Beverly was trying to keep her emotions in check. But when it came to her friend’s whereabouts, her face was still stretched taut.

Salaar listened humbly.

Beverly’s team had been rushing around gathering data and preparing things, while his and Myss’s side had gone off on a loving date—or at least looked like they had. Her bad mood was only natural.

At long last, Myss released Salaar’s hand. He raised the hand that had gone numb from being gripped so long and attached the emerald containing the Dragon Fae to the pocket watch.

With so many people around, Tass didn’t show himself easily. He only briefly stuck his head out to say he had no objections. From start to finish, he had noticed none of the Abnormal Fruit scent on the watch, enough to show just how faint it really was.

On the way here, Salaar had told Father Kalen about Myss’s discovery. The priest had checked both the rabbit’s foot and the watch carefully, and in the end had only shaken his head.

“I don’t sense anything abnormal at all,” he said solemnly. “According to what Mr. Myss described, the scent on the watch appeared suddenly. That doesn’t make sense. At least, I’ve never encountered a case like that.”

Kalen didn’t directly deny Myss’s discovery, but he was clearly reserving judgment.

Humans really are troublesome, Myss thought.

Salaar, at least, had never doubted him. Not even for a second. Even though Salaar himself couldn’t sense any abnormal magical fluctuation.

While Myss’s thoughts drifted, Professor Gentry opened the stone gate.

The elephant magic base lifted its trunk, and Gentry effortlessly undid the sealing magic artifact at the entrance. Beverly and Asp used illusion magic together, ensuring that no one else nearby would notice anything amiss.

The enormous stone gate slid open soundlessly, revealing darkness behind it that seemed almost solid.

Even though it was already evening, the blackness beyond still looked bottomless, like a pool of ink.

Professor Gentry snapped his fingers, and six tiny magical devices floated up into the air.

They looked like oversized mechanical fireflies, each with a bulb the size of a quail egg set into its belly. They climbed onto the front of each person’s clothes on their own, lighting the surrounding area as brightly as day, without glaring in the eyes.

The scene beyond the gate was somewhat duller than Myss had expected.

Beyond the entrance was still a gently descending passage. Stone pillars reinforced both sides, forming a tunnel like a tomb corridor. Dry oil lamps lined the tunnel walls, stretching into darkness with no visible end.

As a refuge from the Night Scourge era, the entrance tunnel had no magical traps at all. Its magical fluctuations were effectively nonexistent.

“A very common design. Nothing sophisticated. Just ordinary.”

Salaar glanced around. “The site selection wasn’t ideal. Larger underground cities were built near underground rivers. There would usually be a waterway at the entrance to make transporting supplies easier.”

His voice was pitched so it sounded like he was talking only to Myss, but anyone nearby paying even a little attention could hear it.

“The defenses are that bad? Weren’t they worried people might break in?” Myss didn’t understand.

Other than the sealing artifact Roman’s team had left behind, the stone gate itself had almost no defensive magic. Let alone an adult—even a stubborn child could probably find a way to slip in.

Human cities on the surface had defenses, but underground ones were this generous? That was strange.

Salaar gave a short laugh. “The real defenses were all inside the underground city.”

Myss still didn’t get it. “Wouldn’t it be more convenient to guard the entrance and exit?”

Even you knew enough to guard the exit to my seal.

After he asked that, a strange silence fell over the group.

Salaar was quiet for a good while before continuing. “First of all, once the Night Scourge fell, the closer you got to the surface, the colder it became. People didn’t want to stay too close to the surface.”

“Secondly, during the Night Scourge, food was one of the scarcest resources. So if ‘food’ delivered itself to your door, most people… wouldn’t refuse.”

Myss thought it over, then gave an enlightened little “oh.”

Father Kalen murmured a few brief prayers. No one else said anything. Thinking of what might have happened to Roman’s team, Beverly and Asp looked even worse.

Myss, however, shifted his attention almost immediately. He glanced down the seemingly endless tunnel and started fiddling with the firefly device on his chest.

“There are fragments of sunstone inside it.”

Seeing Myss tugging curiously at the device, Professor Gentry explained in a warm, mellow voice. His tone broke the silence, and the atmosphere became less oppressive.

“Sunstone gives off light similar to sunlight, but its magical fluctuations are very faint. Used in lighting devices, it minimizes interference as much as possible.”

Myss: “…”

That actually wasn’t what he’d been curious about.

He’d just thought the bulb made a nice rattling sound when it shook. But he didn’t want to provoke the Kingdom Archmage, so he only nodded perfunctorily.

“I remember that during the Night Scourge, sunstone was more expensive than gold. Only great nobles could afford it.”

Salaar took the initiative to continue the conversation. “Once activated, its light could only last one day at most. It was consumed terribly fast.”

“That’s right.”

Professor Gentry looked pleased. “We’ve adjusted many of these devices, but at most we can stretch the lighting time to a day and a half. The tradeoff is that the devices become absurdly heavy.”

“So technically, we’re still using designs from the Night Scourge era. Interested in Night Scourge history, Mr. Salaar?”

“Well, I gave myself a ‘nickname’ like this, didn’t I? Naturally I’m interested.” Salaar smiled.

Here he goes again, Myss snorted.

The assistant contract Salaar had signed was under Kendrick Karns. Yet Professor Gentry had not called him Karns even once. He had even asked him what name he preferred to be called.

So Salaar had openly introduced himself as Salaar. After all, in the current age, the name was common enough.

Thinking about all this talk of the Night Scourge, Myss didn’t feel anything like guilt.

…Still, he understood a little better now why the stories of “Saint Salaar” were still sung by bards to this day.

He was just thinking back to those cloying lyrics when Fork suddenly tightened around his wrist.

Myss’s expression sharpened. He grabbed Salaar in one swift motion—

“Don’t move.”

He whispered, “…There’s someone ahead.”

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The author has something to say:

Myss: Human tentacles are terrible.

Come to think of it, humans touching each other all over is also a kind of tentacle behavior…

By that logic, Salaar has tentacles too. Everyone has tentacles. Yay. [wave][sunglasses][wave]

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