Chapter 674: Long-Term Leave Note

Finally, after who knew how many waves of violent vomiting, Hilley at last stopped feeling nauseous. The young lady of House Covendier leaned trembling against the wall.

Thales also forced down his disgust and worked hard to stay away from that large puddle of filth.

Hmm, it was half-digested steak. Damn it, why was he thinking about that?

Just like that, amid the mess of filth and the piercing smell, Thales and Hilley, both weak, sat on the floor with their backs against each other and pressed to the wall, each trembling.

"Do not worry. I will add a little money for the owner. Cleaning fees."

"Is that the key? Ah, my clothes..."

"They are not yours. We borrowed them from the theater."

Thales had no energy to bicker with her. The soreness and pain all over his body had reached its limit, making him so uncomfortable that he wanted to faint on the spot.

"What... huff... happened to you?"

"What, about, you?" Hilley wiped her lips in a sorry state. Her voice came out broken and faint, like a dying patient.

Thales did his best to think of a reason.

"I lost too much blood from my nose..."

"I lost too much menstrual blood..."

The two snorted disdainfully at the same time.

They arduously turned their heads back and saw each other's profile from the corner of their eyes over their shoulders.

"You think... huff... I will believe that?"

Although each had their own hardship and pain, their eyes were full of disdain and contempt, clearly not believing the other's explanation.

"Same... here."

But then the two remembered something and were startled at the same time.

"Out of the shop, turn left, straight to the third intersection, turn right, straight to the second intersection, turn left, the alley by the stone wall on the left side..."

"The third slanting alley beside the fork on Regina Street near Milton Pawnshop!"

Thales said painfully:

"Srimanny! He is going to run farther away again!"

Hilley gritted her teeth, weak and indignant.

"Not yet! There is still time!"

Thales had no time to reply. The extreme discomfort and weakness from exhaustion made the world spin around him again.

No. They had stumbled all the way and finally chased this far.

Were they going to give up like this?

Had he known, it would have been better to let Mallos send people...

At that moment, Hilley tremblingly stretched out a hand and pressed a finger-sized glass medicine bottle into Thales' hand.

"Drink this. Now. Quickly."

Thales opened his eyes a slit. The liquid inside the glass bottle was black and murky, with many sediments.

"What is this color... fuck, this smell is even worse than your breakfast! What the hell is it? Boiled with shit?" As soon as Thales pulled off the stopper, he painfully turned his head away.

"You..."

Already weak and unwell, Hilley became displeased upon hearing this and snapped back at him:

"It is an aphrodisiac!"

Thales froze, then choked with anger.

"Why not say it is contraception medicine?"

Hilley was also angered into laughing. She snorted, shook her head, and without another word snatched back the bottle.

"Yes, aphrodisiac plus contraception. Are you drinking or not?"

The girl held the medicine bottle, her expression ugly, as if forcefully suppressing the urge for another wave of vomiting.

The young man looked at the indignant Hilley for several seconds, then finally understood something and revealed a helpless smile.

Fuck.

The next second, Thales took a deep breath, grabbed the bottle, and poured it straight into his mouth.

"Ah! No, wait!"

Hilley was greatly alarmed and snatched the bottle away before Thales could finish all the medicine.

"Half is enough! It is very expensive!"

As soon as Thales' mouth left the bottle, the piercing smell, whether from Hilley's breakfast or the medicine, in any case, the two could compete, made him feel nauseated and unwell, and he panted repeatedly.

Damn it. He should have found a cup of water first.

"You, you just drank it?" Hilley coughed weakly.

Thales gasped in pain, feeling the foul taste in his mouth.

"Yes! Aphrodisiac, contraception, or letting Srimanny run away. Did I have a choice?"

The medicine already smelled terrible, and once in his mouth, the flavor was even more colorful.

Holy shit, what the hell was this taste?

A wave of nausea surged up, and Thales could not help spitting out several mouthfuls of air.

Hilley frowned at him.

Several seconds later, the young lady also understood something. She turned around, her back against Thales, and laughed while breathing in.

"What? What is so funny?"

But before Thales could finish speaking, the pale-faced Hilley tilted her head back and drank the remaining half bottle of medicine in one gulp.

Thales narrowed his eyes at her.

"Aphrodisiac?"

"Yes." Hilley put away the empty bottle, dry-retched a few times, and weakly mocked him. "Specially treats your rotten habits."

Thales was momentarily choked with anger.

But before he could react, Hilley struggled to get up.

"Stand up, no matter how awful you feel," Hilley gritted her teeth. "The medicine's main effect is numbing pain and easing soreness, while replenishing large amounts of energy. It needs us to move for the effect to work."

Numbing pain and easing soreness.

Thales sighed. Enduring the soreness all over his body, he braced one hand against the wall and clasped Hilley's hand with the other.

Hilley glanced at him but said nothing.

The two supported each other and used the wall for strength, barely standing.

But the instant they stood, Thales seemed to have an illusion.

The soreness and burning sensation inside him decreased, and his breathing was no longer so difficult.

Eh?

"This is..."

"Aphrodisiac. Also contraception," Hilley said coldly, her voice much stronger.

Fine.

Thales curled his lips.

Although her complexion was a little rosier, she still held grudges.

Several seconds later, when they had cleaned the filth from themselves, as for the floor, Hilley believed she had given the owner enough compensation, they left the room, went down the stairs, and stepped back onto the street. Thales felt that he was alive and jumping again.

Without a doubt, they were, Thales marvelously sensed his body's condition, gradually recovering at an unbelievable speed.

"Where did that bottle of medicine come from? Do you have more?"

Hilley coldly refused.

"No. Made through special channels. Precious materials."

And disgusting.

Thales raised his eyebrows.

"As for you, stop thinking about it," the girl of House Covendier shook her head. "All medicines that appear efficient but actually violate natural laws are harmful. They represent overdrawing the body's functions."

"Believe me. With that taste, no one wants to drink it again," Thales countered.

Overdrawing the body's functions?

Thales suddenly thought of the Sin of Hell's River's ability to accelerate self-healing. According to Black Sword, that would shorten one's lifespan.

But sometimes...

Thales touched the slightly crooked bone in his left arm, the one the Meteorite had broken.

Sometimes, he had no choice.

"This way." Thales gritted his teeth and strode forward. "Srimanny was very panicked, running blindly, and even fell. This will affect his speed. Perhaps there is still hope of catching up."

"I know the alley he entered," Hilley said in a low voice. "It is not easy to walk inside, but there is a shortcut here. If we are lucky, we can intercept him."

Whenever pedestrians on the road came near them, their expressions changed and they covered their noses while leaving, making Thales quite depressed, though it did save them quite a bit of trouble.

Thales still remembered the route drawn by Hell's senses, while Hilley was almost familiar with the road. Seeing the target location get closer and closer, both of their conditions became healthier and healthier, and their steps gradually quickened.

"How did you confirm Srimanny's location? Just now in the storage room, what did you do?" Thales asked suspiciously.

"Then you, what did you do outside just now?" Hilley glanced at him.

The two fell silent.

"Magic, medicine bottles, breaking into empty rooms, and this ability to find paths and people," Thales said gloomily. "Tell me, Sister Wyana, how many mysteries are there on you?"

"Not many. At least not more than your mysteries, eavesdropping, magic, nosebleeds, and the same method of finding paths and people, Brother Wya," Hilley retorted.

Thales and Hilley glared unhappily at each other while moving.

It seemed both of them had their own secrets they were unwilling for others to know.

But several seconds later, they seemed to understand something and both smiled in relief.

"Fuck you, Wyana," Thales shook his head helplessly.

Hilley was too lazy to answer and directly returned him a middle finger.

"Hey, that is my... wait, how do you know that gesture?"

"I saw it. That mute beside you did it to Wya, a 'certain' Wya."

"Ha, I knew it. You copied it wrong."

"Impossible. I remember very clearly. Stick out the middle finger."

"Correct for us. But you have six fingers!"

Bang!

Hilley heavily elbowed him, making the self-clever Thales grimace in pain.

"No one has ever dared joke with me about that!" Hilley gritted her teeth.

"Sorry, sorry," Thales hurriedly apologized. "I only thought, thought this would be better than... than deliberately avoiding it or not mentioning it."

His voice quieted.

"Sorry."

Hilley looked deeply at him and continued forward.

The two hurried along in silence.

"You have nothing to ask?"

Thales startled back to himself.

"What? Ask what?"

"Ask, ask..." Hilley paused. She touched her glove and spoke with difficulty. "My hand?"

Silence fell between the two again.

Finally, before Thales could scratch himself bald in his thoughts, he racked his brains and found how to respond.

"Oh, that." The prince laughed loudly as if entirely unconcerned. "What is that? One of my ancestors was a king nicknamed 'Eight-Fingered'..."

Hilley rolled her eyes at him.

"I know the Eight-Fingered King, but you know clearly that my situation is different from his. He was a complete and normal person who lost fingers from a hunting injury..."

"Hey!"

Thales quickened his steps to catch up with Hilley.

"So what? You only have one more finger than me, than 'normal people'..."

"Four," Hilley said gloomily, looking at her hand. "Both my hands are like this, and my feet too. When I was little, almost every doctor we found said that they were connected to bones and nerves. If cut off directly, they might damage the whole hand..."

"Excellent!"

Thales interrupted her, full of expression as he tried hard to make the atmosphere humorous.

"The things I need one whole hand to do, you only need five-sixths of a hand to do. This is an advantage!"

Hilley snorted and curled her lips disdainfully.

"Stiff. Fake."

Fine. Perhaps it was a little.

Thales felt that he had used too much force and could only obediently shut his mouth.

They turned into a small alley. This made Thales feel a burst of familiarity. This was one of the places Hell's senses had drawn for him earlier.

"I heard that when I was born, there was a priest of Sunset who said this was an ill omen or evil result, punishment from Sunset toward the entire family, or at least a warning," Hilley said absently.

Ill omen. Evil result.

Thales paused.

His memories drifted back to the Prison of Bones. At the bottom of that lightless prison, the words Zakriel had said to Yodel echoed again beside his ears.

Did King Kessel know? Did they know that the evil flower from many years ago had already borne evil fruit?

Thales took a deep breath, forced himself to show a smile, and raised both hands to Hilley.

"Look. My hands are complete. Uh, at least they look normal."

"Yes, I know, 'normal person,'" Hilley sneered. "So?"

Thales smiled reluctantly.

"I mean, I was born with complete hands and feet, but that does not seem to have stopped the Sunset Goddess from punishing the Jadestar Royal Family."

Hilley's gaze moved.

"So, ill omens, evil flowers, evil fruits, whatever. Let them all go die." Thales smiled cheerfully.

Hilley looked at him for a long time, passed by the closed Milton Honest Pawnshop, and turned into a side road without many people.

"But many people do not think that way," she said quietly. "You saw the reaction of those people on the street just now, right?"

Thales' smile shrank a little.

"Is that why you have always lived quietly and rarely gone out since childhood?"

"This matter is a stain on the family," Miss Covendier said with a trace of sarcasm. "My parents had to be... very careful. From my coming-of-age ceremony to my engagement ceremony, every occasion where I appeared in public, hmm, perhaps even my funeral. Do you know? Since I was little, purchasing ladies' gloves was an important expenditure Father specifically assigned to Ashford, top secret."

A stain on the family.

Thales was silent for a while.

"This is not your fault."

Hilley shrugged.

"I know. I figured that out a long time ago. This, this is not my fault..."

The girl raised both hands and shook them. Her gaze froze on the little finger sheath.

"But what they brought, what they brought me, what they made me into..."

Hilley's gaze gradually drifted away, then slowly focused.

What they brought, what they brought me, what they made me into.

Listening to her words, Thales could not help gripping his left hand. In the middle of his palm, the scar left by repeated cuts had become more and more obvious.

Impossible to erase.

"Do you know why, why my relationship with the Karabeyan twins is so bad, why we cannot get along?"

The Second Prince came back to himself.

"Yes, I have heard a little. When you were young, you frightened them?"

Hilley sneered.

"When we were little, they discovered... my hand."

Thales said nothing.

"Of course, they mocked me, looked down on me, and wanted to use it to control me." Hilley shook both hands, her brows and eyes sharp. "And I fought back. I fought back hard."

Fought back.

"So they isolated me, excluded me, formed little circles, and said bad things about me at balls..." Hilley continued. "And I continued fighting back."

Continued fighting back.

Thales frowned.

"In the end, the situation became very bad. It kept escalating until it reached our fathers, until my father and Count Karabeyan reached an agreement. Kasha and Qina were ordered to reflect on themselves and strictly disciplined, and they had to secretly swear before the statue of Sunset that throughout their lives, they would not leak Covendier's scandal, would not leak my... condition."

Thales understood.

So your relationship could never improve again.

"And as the price for 'fighting back,' I was sent to the Sunset Temple."

"In name, it was etiquette education and religious cultivation, but actually it was not," Hilley's face was full of sarcasm. "It was exorcism."

Thales raised his head in surprise.

"Exorcism?"

"Yes. To drive away the 'demon' on me." Hilley sneered. "Whether the four extra fingers and toes, or my violent, foul, dark, and narrow character that could scream and beat the twin sisters bloody at eight years old."

Drive away the demon.

"I..." Thales hesitated, not knowing what he should say.

But Hilley only shook her head and continued sneering.

"And one of the exorcism methods... you know, the priests believe that flame is the ember of the sun's setting, one of the Sunset Goddess's graces in the mortal world, so it has miraculous effects against demons and evil arts, and against unclean filth?"

"I know a little. 'Revealed in fire, destroyed before god.'" Thales thought of something, and his expression abruptly changed. "Wait. Flame? Exorcism? You?"

Hilley smiled miserably.

"Yes." She gently pulled open the glove that reached to her forearm, exposing the skin on her wrist. "Flame. And silver holy fire that had been prayed over."

Thales stared blankly at the skin on Hilley's wrist. It was uneven, varied in depth, and had an ugly dark red color.

"After a period of teaching, they, hmm, the priests of Sunset Temple, finally confirmed it." Hilley pulled the glove back up, her tone frighteningly calm. "Perhaps, perhaps it was not a demon's doing. Of course, it was also possible that the demon was hidden too deeply."

The round-faced girl snorted softly. She turned toward Thales and smiled brightly.

"So deeply that I could not be cured."

Flame.

Exorcism.

Could not be cured.

Listening to each of these words, Thales only felt his chest grow heavy.

"When you were sent... how old were you?"

"Eight," Hilley said without changing expression, as if telling someone else's story. "I had just learned how to tie my skirt straps."

Eight.

Thales felt a sharp pain inside his heart.

"But, but your father is the Duke of the South Coast..."

"So he had to convince the public." Hilley's expression dimmed. "For the family. For Jade City."

For the family. For Jade City.

Even if that was... his own daughter.

Thales felt his chest grow heavier and heavier, so heavy that he could not breathe.

Several seconds later, Thales exhaled.

"Do you know, when my uncle was alive, he could only sit in a wheelchair," he said lightly, no longer pretending to be relaxed. "In the past, someone wanted to cure him, but he said..."

Thales' gaze focused.

"Even without two legs, he could still stand up and be a complete person."

Hilley was silent for a while.

"Your uncle sounds like a very impressive person."

"I do not know. I never met him."

"But you, Cecilia Covendier," Thales said softly. "Even with a few extra fingers, you can still stand up and continue those ghostly Wyana pranks, right?"

Hilley was silent.

Thales took a deep breath.

"Hey, listen. They could not cure you because..."

The girl suddenly interrupted him, her tone cold and angry.

"Because I was never sick and did not need curing?"

She sneered.

"Please. I have heard that kind of comforting cliché hundreds of times since childhood..."

"No. They could not cure you," Thales denied, "because 'they,' because 'they' could not cure you."

"And you can? Divine Doctor Thales?" Hilley mocked.

Thales silently looked at her and gently shook his head.

"If it were normal times, perhaps I would say some comforting cliché: no matter what fate gives us, those are all gifts it bestowed on us."

Thales raised his head and looked toward Jade City's market-filled streets.

"But later, I understood," he said absently, his expression wooden. "Perhaps, perhaps they are not all gifts."

Hilley was somewhat surprised.

"Correct." She came back to herself, looked at her hands, and appeared sorrowful. "Not all gifts."

Thales took a deep breath.

"But they belong to us, and only to us. They have nothing to do with 'them,' with other people."

At that moment, Thales' gaze was firm.

"They belong only to us."

Hilley looked at him faintly and said nothing.

The next second, Thales followed the road in his memory, turned a corner, and stopped.

They had arrived.

In the small alley ahead, their target, Srimanny, left them a clumsy back.

At this moment, the defense lawyer was leaning against the wall, limping forward.

The timing was just right.

Thales curled the corner of his mouth, exchanged a glance with Hilley, and nodded.

But before Thales could speak, another voice sounded from the other side, from in front of Srimanny.

"Srimanny, great defense lawyer, right? You really made us search."

Thales' expression changed. He hurriedly grabbed Hilley and hid in a pile of debris at the side.

"You, you..."

Srimanny's tone was terrified at first, but he quickly calmed down.

"You want money, yes? Ah, I know. According to Jade City law, you are not robbing or extorting. You are only, hmm, only collecting a little 'passage fee.' I know this area belongs to Sangare, and I understand the rules. I will pay..."

"This has nothing to do with money, nor with the Blood Bottle Gang," the person blocking the road disappointed him. "It only has to do with you, Mr. Srimanny."

Thales frowned and instantly entered Hell's senses.

There were three people in front of Srimanny. Each carried weapons, and... each possessed the Power of Eradication.

Perhaps they were Swordsmen of Eradication.

"Unregistered military blades and swords are not allowed in Jade City... You, whose people are you?" Srimanny tried his best to maintain calm.

Military blades.

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

Bad.

It seemed the newcomers had ill intentions.

"I heard you went to the barber shop and were asking about things you should not ask about," the swordsman blocking the road sneered. "Now, defense lawyer, may I invite you to come with me?"

"I, I, I..."

Srimanny realized something and hurriedly pulled out a protective talisman.

"Actually, I still have a case on hand. The Security Hall and the Court of Judgment, uh, especially Grand Judge Brennan, are waiting for my reply letter today..."

"About that dead wool merchant, correct?" another swordsman coldly interrupted him.

Wool merchant Diop.

Thales frowned.

It seemed... they had found the right person.