Chapter 249: The Annoying Woman

Chapter 249: The Annoying Woman

“H-how… where did you get that?” Oss’s companion was even more shocked. He never expected the girl in their party, who seemed to have a bit of a young lady’s temper, to be so deeply hidden and capable?!

“Hmm~ my family is rich. I happened to come across it back then, was a little curious, so I bought a copy.”

“Ahem, could you get me a second-generation Magic Weapon Contract?”

“No!” Dan Marina shook her head and said firmly. The companion’s fawning expression instantly froze on his face. “Why… aren’t we partners?”

“Because I want to give it to the captain, okay?” Dan Marina said with a smile.

“Speaking of which, I’m better looking than the captain, right?” the companion said, somewhat gloomily. Since Dan Marina’s side was a dead end, it would be fine to trouble the captain later. Anyway, the difference between second and third generation Magic Weapon Contracts wasn’t that big. He was about to say more, but Oss gave him a look, so he fell silent.

He wasn’t stupid either. After being together for so long, Lena gave them the feeling of being a child from some noble family, and her behavior matched that. Plus, her active ‘revealing’ of information further confirmed this. Her family couldn’t possibly not know she possessed the Magic Weapon Summoning Book.

Currently, the benefits the Magic Weapon Summoning Book could bring were too great, especially second-generation Magic Weapon Contracts. That Dan Marina was willing to take out one was already very generous. Asking for more? Even if she was willing, would her family behind her agree? Unlike Oss, they had been Adventurers for some time.

They deeply understood the principle that the greedy get stuffed while the timid go hungry. In everything, moderation was key.

This companion wisely dropped the topic and then looked at Oss. “Ahem, captain, where are we planning to go next?”

“Hmm… Kaja,” Oss replied.

“Huh? That’s quite far. What for?” The companion immediately perked up. The city they were in wasn’t close to Kaja. Without sufficiently fast transportation, they couldn’t get there in less than half a month.

“A protection Quest.”

“Huh? How could a Quest like that wait for us to take it?”

Protection Quests were usually the main focus of Mercenary Corps. They were basically taken as soon as they appeared. After all, compared to other Quests, protection Quests offered decent pay with relatively low risk… Of course, that was only relative. “It’s not one of those with very low pay, is it?”

“Of course not, the pay is on the higher side,” Oss shook his head. He wasn’t stupid; if the pay was too low, there was no way he would have chosen it. “Maybe no one is fighting for it because it’s too far away.”

“Let us take a look,” Oss’s companions thought about it. No matter what, they should look at the Quest details first.

Oss took out the Quest sheet and let his companions see it. After reading it, Companion Number Three frowned slightly, took out pen and paper from his pack, and calculated. “No wonder no one took this Quest. Just going there isn’t a big deal, but factoring in the return journey makes it a bit of a loss. During that time, we could easily take on and complete some other Quests for extra earnings.”

“But I already accepted the Quest…” Oss scratched his head, saying a bit helplessly.

“Ahem, captain, you… forget it. Next time, let’s accept Quests together.” Oss’s answer made this companion cough lightly. Just this once they didn’t accept a Quest together, and this happened. Giving up wasn’t impossible, but choosing to abandon a Quest right after accepting it could easily lead to complaints from the employer and affect their evaluation in the Mercenary Guild. Canceling now was more loss than gain. Instead of canceling, they might as well just do the Quest.

Doing it would just mean a bit of a loss. Their team was small anyway, so the loss wouldn’t be huge. If they didn’t do it, the loss would be greater!

“At worst, we can negotiate with the employer when the time comes,” Companion Number Two suggested.

“Forget it, that’s not honorable.” If they were dissatisfied with the commission, they could negotiate with the employer. But such negotiations… often could turn into semi-threats and were especially prone to conflict. If you were unhappy with the pay, the employer could simply drop the team and find another willing group.

“Sigh, let’s just go with it. Thankfully we aren’t pure Mercenaries. On the way back, we can explore other places. Overall, it shouldn’t count as a loss.”

After the discussion ended, they didn’t say more. They went straight back to the inn to pack their things and then headed to the meeting point requested by the employer. The employer waiting there was a young girl with long purple hair, wearing a soft hat and clothes that looked like sleepwear.

Oss’s Companion Number One couldn’t help but whistle. “Whoa, I feel like we can’t lose on this Quest no matter what!”

“You’re purely motivated by her looks,” Companion Number Two glanced at Companion Number One, his expression a bit puzzled. “Just one person, and like this… I feel something’s off.”

In the Otherworld, people or things that seemed harmless often possessed some incredible level of danger. This soft-looking, gentle employer might be one of those.

“As long as we don’t get any ideas, any problems won’t have anything to do with us,” Companion Number Three said. Since they had accepted the Quest, they couldn’t just give up because the other party seemed a bit off. That would be a huge blow to their reputation if word got out. In the future, even if they managed to secure certain Quests, employers seeing their information probably wouldn’t agree.

“Let’s not talk about this for now. Let’s make contact first,” Oss said, walking actively towards the girl. “Hello, we are…”

“I know who you are, so let’s go. Requirements will be discussed on the way.”

“…” Irene glanced at Oss, who looked a bit awkward, and her gaze lingered on him for a moment longer. This young man had the aura of an Evil God’s power, but it was different from a real Evil God. It probably had something to do with that Demon Sword Sect. Irene was also interested in this sect and planned to find time to go check it out.

As for resistance? Was resistance useful in front of her?

But when she saw the only female member of this team, her eyes narrowed slightly. She suddenly felt like changing teams, then shook her head again. Once Dan Marina appeared here, her identity was probably already discovered by her. Changing teams was meaningless, especially when she looked at Dan Marina and that woman gave her a subtle smile.

“First, I don’t like being disturbed. This is very important. Then, any issues along the way that you can solve will be handled by you personally. For particularly troublesome ones, I will consider docking your pay afterwards. For things you can’t handle, I will take action myself. In short, try not to trouble me whenever possible.”

“Lastly, keep that woman away from me.”

“…” The several companions in Oss’s team couldn’t help but look at each other. Was this protection? It seemed more like hiring a team of carriage drivers. And that last part was clearly an additional, extra condition. Companion Number One couldn’t help but take half a step closer to Dan Marina. He asked in a low voice, “Lena, did you offend her before?”

“Am I that kind of person? The last sentence is definitely just a joke.” As Dan Marina said this, she vigorously winked at Irene. Others might not see the issue with this Alchemical Avatar, but for her, it was too easy. The information related to Zheng Yichen’s ability characteristics on this Alchemical Avatar was too obvious.

Zheng Yichen definitely wouldn’t be so brain-fevered as to scatter Alchemical Avatars everywhere. This Alchemical Avatar was on the same level as the one Qin used, perhaps even higher. From the little characteristic information it revealed, Dan Marina had pretty much already figured out who was using this Alchemical Avatar.

“…That’s right. Don’t waste time, let’s go.”

Inside a beast-drawn carriage, Dan Marina sat opposite Irene, looking at the Alchemical Avatar with great interest. “Irene, why do you suddenly want to go to Kaja?”

“Some business.”

Irene lowered her head, looking at the Forum page of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, and answered without looking up.

“Looking for Little Dragon?”

“…A guess?” Frowning, Irene looked up and stared at Dan Marina. She hadn’t said anything, yet this woman immediately hit the key point?

“Does that require guessing? Little Dragon is often active over there. If you’re going to Kaja, who else could you be looking for if not him?” Dan Marina answered casually. Thinking about what could interest Irene enough to go there actively, apart from the Demon Sword Sect and that thing about the Sanctuary Church creating Evil Gods—though no information had leaked about the latter yet—Dan Marina couldn’t think of any other major recent events.

“Has he been active there all along?” Irene nodded slightly and said no more, leaving Dan Marina aside, focusing on looking at the Forum page of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. The post she made had gained widespread attention in just a few days, clearly becoming a leading post for Magic-related discussions.

Every day, a considerable amount of Magic-related exchange happened in that post. Even though most were common questions, with more people came more ideas. Irene found quite a bit of useful information among those seemingly whimsical ideas.

Most of this information could only be realized in theory, but it was precisely such theory that was important. Without theory, you wouldn’t even have a direction to work towards, let alone gain results.

The reason she chose to go to Kaja this time was because Zheng Yichen contacted her proactively. He was preparing to make a batch of new Magic Arms recently and needed her help, though it wasn’t starting immediately. That’s why she chose this ‘walking’ method to go to Kaja. She hadn’t been active in the outside world for too long. Now that she had finally resolved the residual issues of her influence on the environment, and since Zheng Yichen wasn’t in a hurry, she was even less so.

“Hey, hey, hey! Aren’t you curious about what I’m doing now?”

Seeing that Irene really left her aside and ignored her, Dan Marina couldn’t sit still anymore. She didn’t stay sitting opposite Irene but moved directly to sit next to her. She reached out and stroked a strand of the Alchemical Avatar’s purple hair. “Tsk tsk, Little Dragon’s craftsmanship is really good, the texture is amazing…”

Dan Marina’s almost teasing behavior was met with Irene lightly snapping her fingers. A small burn mark suddenly appeared on the back of the hand stroking the hair. Stimulated by the slight pain, Dan Marina quickly retracted her hand. Irene’s answer followed. “Not curious. Don’t bother me.”

One must not be curious about what Dan Marina did. Irene admitted she couldn’t flawlessly avoid all of Dan Marina’s schemes to trick people, so she simply ignored any possibility of falling into a trap. No matter what methods she used to try to pique your interest, as long as you acted completely indifferent, it would be fine. Generally, under such a response of cold neglect, Dan Marina wouldn’t last long before retreating defeated… Yet this time she persisted?

“You’re not curious, but I am. What exactly is Little Dragon looking for you for?” Dan Marina gently rubbed the back of her hand. The burn mark soon disappeared without a trace.

“I won’t tell you.” Irene glanced at Dan Marina. She didn’t know if Dan Marina was aware of the truth about the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. If she wasn’t aware, once Irene revealed some related information, this woman could also act flawlessly, as if she were also in the know, to extract more information.

So, with such uncertain factors, it was better to simply say nothing. As for Dan Marina’s pestering, she could deal with it after meeting Zheng Yichen. Then she could ask Zheng Yichen to find out if Dan Marina knew about the Magic Weapon Summoning Book.

“Your relationship isn’t that good, is it?”

“Whether it’s good or not isn’t for you to say.”

“The problem is, my relationship with him is very good.”

“I haven’t asked about that, I don’t know.” Irene’s answer was even simpler. In the past, Zheng Yichen did indeed move around with Dan Marina, but back then Loris was also there. It was certain that Zheng Yichen and Loris had a good relationship, but with Dan Marina… who would willingly be close to her given her way of doing things?

“Then you should ask properly when you meet him. My relationship with him is really very good.” Dan Marina emphasized this point.

Irene looked deeply at Dan Marina for a while. “Just say it, what exactly do you want to do?”

Although she couldn’t guess all of Dan Marina’s many layered schemes, from some of her behaviors, Irene could glean some information. She probably planned to do something related to Zheng Yichen. Otherwise, she wouldn’t keep emphasizing their relationship. But since she revealed it so obviously, it probably wasn’t anything too important.

“I’m preparing to do an experiment recently. Originally, I planned to wait a bit, but since you’re going to find Little Dragon, then bring him along to do this experiment when the time comes. He’ll definitely be interested.”

“Explain clearly.” Irene frowned slightly. This woman, only saying half of things? Couldn’t she be direct? Couldn’t she learn from herself? If she didn’t want to answer, just say no. If she wanted to keep it secret, say it’s temporarily confidential. This half-hearted, dangling tease…

“Heh, you’ll know when the time comes.”

“I want to know now!”

“Then guess.” Dan Marina smiled. Irene fell silent. This was probably revenge for her previous straightforward refusals to answer Dan Marina’s questions. Guess? That took brainpower. Wait… The speed of this beast-drawn carriage meant it would take at least ten days to reach Kaja. Encountering some minor issues on the road, extending by a day or two was normal. So waiting meant quite a wait.

Annoying woman!