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"Wuwuwu,—"
Zachary's eyes nearly bulged from his skull. His mouth hung open, but he couldn't form a single coherent word.
Just kill him. He'd rather they kill him than be made a laughingstock by a bunch of slaves.
Island residents. Please. He knew exactly who these people were , he was the one who'd shipped them here.
Once, he'd been the slave merchant who held the power of life and death over every one of them. Now he was a prisoner on display in a jail cell. A high-level Mystical Smith, humiliated like this , he would die before he gave her the satisfaction.
"Mr. Bunian, you wouldn't be thinking of ending things, would you?"
Luo Wei caught the look in his eyes. Calm as ever, she turned to the Necromancer standing behind him. "Patrick, if Mr. Bunian wants to die, don't stop him."
"Once he's dead and turns Undead, I can enslave him with a clean conscience."
"Feeding him while he's still alive is such a hassle anyway."
In the span of those few sentences, the look Zachary fixed on Luo Wei shifted from hatred to something closer to terror.
She wasn't human. She was a demon.
"Do your best to reform," Luo Wei said, giving him a generous smile. "Demon Island is a free city-state. We don't have prisoners or slaves here, Mr. Bunian. I look forward to the day you're released after serving your sentence."
"Oh — did I forget to mention how many years that will be?"
"Right. See, you haven't confessed your crimes yet, so I can't actually sentence you. I'll just have to keep you locked up in the meantime."
"The sooner you confess, the sooner you get out!"
Under Zachary's furious glare, Luo Wei gave him a little wave, spread her wings, and rose into the sky.
"Wuwuwu..."
If she wanted him to confess, the least she could do was lift the silencing spell first!
Damn black magic. If he hadn't burned through every last drop of his mana, he'd have shattered it in minutes.
Luo Wei stepped through the teleportation array and returned to the academy castle. Full dark had only just fallen, and the dorm supervisor hadn't started room checks yet. Her academic credits were safe.
The Magic Rune carved into her bed board was intact , she could use it again. She spread the bedding back over it and changed to fresh sheets and pillowcases.
The room was dim. She lit the oil lamp, crossed to the window, and pulled open the curtains she'd left drawn shut.
She pushed the window open. A gust of cold air came rushing in.
The smell of horse manure had mostly faded. The dirty water from the lawn had drained away into the artificial lake nearby.
Willow trees swayed along the bank, their long branches trailing. A few magpies had settled in the branches , more than before. They didn't like to migrate. Around December each year, they'd start carrying twigs and building nests.
Luo Wei watched them for a while, then gently closed the window.
Magpies. A good omen.
She washed up and curled into bed, pulling out her Turtle Shell , worn smooth and polished to a shine from handling , and cast a divination for herself.
Great fortune. Smooth sailing. Unstoppable.
The reading gave the new semester a promising start. She could finally stop racing against death every other day.
She set the Turtle Shell aside, sank into the soft cashmere quilt, and closed her eyes.
For now, she had nothing to worry about. Except money.
Gold mines. When would she finally get to the Misty Plain and dig up some gold?
Drowsiness rolled over her. Luo Wei yawned and dropped into a deep, heavy sleep.
She hadn't dreamed in a long time. Maybe it was all the wandering thoughts before she fell asleep tonight , whatever the cause, she found herself walking into another strange, vivid dream.
Golden light blazed so bright it nearly blinded her. Luo Wei shielded her eyes with one hand and squinted into it, and what she saw was the gold mine she'd been dreaming about for months.
Exactly as she'd imagined, countless times. High-purity gold sand lay exposed right on the surface. Gold nuggets were scattered across the hillside in clusters. The largest one was the size of an ostrich egg.
Luo Wei wandered the hillside, picking up one piece and dropping another, too excited to even put it into words.
Then she took it all in, and the elation faded into wistfulness.
A shame this was a dream. If only it weren't.
A clunk rang out. A gold nugget hit the ground.
Luo Wei startled. She looked down at her hand , the nugget she'd been holding was still right there, firm in her grip. So what had just,
She turned around.
A faint breath, slightly cool, passed over the top of her head. She was looking at a broad, dark chest.
They were close. Too close. The tip of her nose nearly grazed his skin. The sound of a strong, steady heartbeat reached her ears.
Luo Wei's eyes went wide.
This wasn't a dream?
She held her breath and went completely still.
Dark skin. She'd only ever seen two people with skin this dark.
Theodore. And a Dark Elf.
But Theodore wasn't this tall. At most 170 centimeters, barely half a head above her.
The figure in front of her was a different matter entirely. Solid. Strong. Every inch of him radiated something mature and unhurried. Looking straight ahead, she could only see his chest. He had to be over 190 centimeters.
That height. That build. A Dark Elf — one built for archery, jumping, sprinting.
Luo Wei tightened her grip on the gold nugget. Its smooth edges pressed into her palm without any pain. She still couldn't tell whether this was real or not.
If it was real, would he notice her?
If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move. She held her breath and waited to see what he'd do.
They stood face to face, less than ten centimeters apart. Wind moved between them. Long white hair and soft black hair tangled together in the current. Neither of them spoke.
Luo Wei's face went red. She couldn't hold it any longer and snatched a quick breath.
"Who's there?"
The Dark Elf finally moved. He reached forward , and closed his hand on empty air. His arm, wrapped in a leather wrist guard, stayed raised and frozen.
Luo Wei watched, transfixed, as his hand passed straight through her body. Through her like she was air. It was genuinely unsettling to see.
But it answered her question. The Dark Elf couldn't see her.
Couldn't see her, couldn't touch her. They seemed to exist on different frequencies , probably because her physical body wasn't actually here.
She stepped back a few paces. His hand withdrew from where her left shoulder had been.
The Dark Elf held his arm up for a moment longer, a look of confusion settling over his face.
He'd felt something there. He was certain of it. Now it was gone.
Had he imagined it?
After a long pause, he lowered his hand. His gaze swept the hillside. He reached back and unshouldered a woven basket strung with rope.
Luo Wei stood five meters away and watched in silence.
He set the basket down, then moved across the slope with practiced ease, picking up gold nuggets and tossing them in one by one. When the nuggets were gathered, he switched to an iron shovel and packed the finer gold sand in around them.
Only once the basket was full did he hoist it onto his back , three or four hundred jin of gold ore , and start down the mountain.
Luo Wei followed. Carrying nothing, she was still slower than he was under that load. She had to jog to keep up.
The Dark Elf carried the ore into a small town by the river. The streets were empty, lined on both sides with tidy wooden buildings , overhanging gable roofs, single-eave hip-and-gable construction, the whole style so familiar it made her chest ache.
If she didn't know she was on Galan, she'd have sworn she was wandering through some ancient cultural district back home in China.
How did the Dark Elf know these architectural styles?
She looked around. The scene was ninety percent identical to the wooden-house designs she'd drawn up for Demon Island. No , it was her designs. Built from them, planned around them, down to the last detail.
She remembered drawing those plans half-asleep, exhausted enough that she'd nodded off and kept drafting in her dreams.
Could the Dark Elf dream her dreams?
➤ Next: Give Him a Gold Ingot
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