After leaving the team, the adventurer ladies regretted it deeply

Chapter 560: 419, Aiko self-destructs, voyeur + big liar!?_2
 

The stray cat boldly approached.

“Hey, little lady, looks like you’re having trouble with your leg. The bros here happen to know the owner of a massage parlor, how about we take you there to have some fun?”

The girl heard the frivolous voice behind her, annoyed in her heart, wishing it wasn’t such an untimely arrival!

Wait, does that mean someone has already arrived nearby?

But the kitten still hasn’t eaten her cat food, already in poor health, what if she starves to death without eating something.

She wouldn’t normally care about the life or death of small animals, but this one happened to be a cat with a lame hind leg.

It was the “real thing,” and she was the “fake.”

She actually harbored thoughts of adopting this dirty, scruffy orange cat.

“Wait for me…”

The quiet protest failed to reach the ears of the gang members.

One of them, a Hyena Man with black round ears, glanced at the lame cat and cursed unhappily, “What a piece of crap, scram!”

The Hyena Man was a strapping young man, twenty years old, with a high level of 15. One kick would surely send the stray cat to a happy planet.

It was too late when the girl noticed the Hyena Man’s move.

A mage’s physique was far inferior to that of warrior-class professions.

Her mind could keep up, but her body was slow, as though weighed down by iron blocks.

“Stop!” she cried out in her mind.

A snap.

At the critical moment, a purple thorn whip flew through the air.

It wrapped around the right leg the Hyena Man kicked out.

With the immense force, the former lost balance and fell to the ground in an embarrassing tumble.

“Ouch, who the hell…” The Hyena Man had just turned to curse in anger when a slap struck him across the face.

The Hyena Man’s thick skin, which he took pride in, swelled under the slap, even more fragile than the crispy coating of a chocolate ice cream, and he rolled away seven or eight meters like a ball.

The two companions standing next to him, the Leopard Brothers in black leather jackets, turned pale with fear.

This wasn’t what they’d agreed upon.

“Wow, it’s the Eye of True Knowledge, how scary~”

“Run, I’m about to wet myself~”

The Leopard Brothers screamed exaggeratedly and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Lin Da touched his head, utterly baffled.

He saw the Hyena Man too, rolling and crawling away into the crowd and disappearing.

Was his reputation really that frightening?

Lin Da had thought there would be a scene where the villain picked a fight and he would deliver a powerful comeback.

With a sigh of resignation, Lin Da squatted down, reached out to pet the stray cat, and chanted Healing Art.

Although it couldn’t completely heal its hind leg, it could at least alleviate some of the pain.

At first, the stray cat glared at Lin Da with bared teeth, but as the Healing Art began, its mood gradually calmed, seemingly realizing Lin Da was helping it.

The stray cat extended its pink tongue and licked the back of Lin Da’s hand.

“Thank you,” the girl in the white dress said, patting her chest, relieved.

“I’ve already told you, there’s no need for thanks between old teammates,” Lin Da smiled and looked to his side.

At first glance, he thought the girl facing away from him was an adventurer from another city.

The girl in the white dress feeding the cat by the fountain was like a scene out of comic books brought into reality.

This type of quiet and gentle female was not present in Lin Da’s team.

She held a beauty entirely different from that of Lulu and the others.

For the first time, Lin Da felt perhaps the title of Ultimate Pervert wasn’t unwarranted…

But soon he sobered up.

If he tried to dig into Snow Goose’s territory, Lia would definitely come knocking with her Great Sword.

“Bumping into each other here, what a coincidence. Are you here to unwind too, Lin Da? How about we go to a nearby café for a drink? Bringing it along,” Aiko said, tenderly holding the stray cat, “Let’s call you Big Orange, from now on you’ll be my pet.”

“Um…” Lin Da scratched his head in embarrassment.

He hadn’t come out for some relaxation.

I still need to find that Mage the Fortune Teller spoke of.

Looking around.

It seemed like such a person didn’t exist at all.

In the square, there were only three Light Mages to be found, two of them with Great Swords on their backs, and the other one was a little schoolgirl.

Carrying a red backpack and seemingly yet to awaken her Magic Circuit.

Lin Da’s expression fell.

“Looking for someone? I’ll help you,” Aiko rolled up her sleeves, revealing her soft arms, “Don’t be fooled by my appearance, I’m actually very capable!”

“Uh, no need, I probably got scammed,” Lin Da sighed, “I’ll settle the score with that guy later.”

“Scammed? Lin Da can be scammed too?”

“A Fortune Teller.”

Lin Da recounted the entire story in an engaging manner.

Aiko blinked her eyes and listened with a dumbfounded expression.

…

A little while later, the two of them arrived at the café.

The stray cat, Big Orange, was also there. When Aiko handed over a Gold Coin to the clerk, they happily agreed to give Big Orange a bath.

Now, Big Orange was asleep in Aiko’s arms.

In the private room, after hearing Lin Da’s account, Aiko tilted her head, puzzled, and said, “Is it possible that the Mage you’re looking for… is right in front of your eyes?”

“What?”

Lin Da had always assumed that the Light Mage from the prophecy, who had no adventure team, would definitely be a “free agent.”

His hand, holding a coffee cup, froze midair.

If Aiko was the chosen one, then the Fortune Teller indeed hadn’t lied to him.

But.

Lin Da sighed and said, “I can’t choose you, you’re part of Lia’s team.”

“But your requirements might only be met by me,” Aiko said softly, petting Big Orange’s head, her lips pressed together, “Not as a lover, but as a temporary teammate to join Phoenix Tail Flower…”

“I don’t understand,” Lin Da’s gaze turned to the window as he spoke with incomprehension, “Aiko, why are you trying so hard to join Phoenix Tail Flower? What exactly did you see in me? During my three years in Snow Goose, it seemed… that everyone treated me as a tool.”

Lin Da didn’t believe he had truly made his way into the hearts of the three girls during his time at Snow Goose. It was only when he left that they realized he was someone there for them.

To put it bluntly, it was like the classic regretful cliché from third-rate comic books. The belated affection was as cheap as the damp gel sleeves in a trash can.

If Aiko had changed her mind only because she saw the Phoenix Tail Flower adventure team becoming stronger, then Lin Da didn’t want and couldn’t accept that.

Though he sometimes felt a stirring for Aiko, it came from his lower body, a normal physiological phenomenon for an adult adventurer.

Lin Da liked to hold Monica, or Lulu, or Tasya at night and engage in Witch Purification; the most important thing was the connection of souls. All the teammates were people he wanted to protect and cherish from the bottom of his heart.

But for Aiko, as Lin Da had said, he only saw her as a good old teammate.

Protecting her for life, Lin Da couldn’t do it.

“You’re not just a tool…” Aiko said quietly, “It’s just that I didn’t expect you to leave.”

After a moment of silence, Lin Da responded, “This would only harm you, everyone outside calls me the Ultimate Pervert.”

Aiko shook her head, “I don’t regret it; this is my choice. Lin Da, I hope you can get to know… the real me.”

Having said that, Aiko placed the orange cat at her feet.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and trembling, placed her hands on the round table and slowly stood up.

The room was engulfed in silence, where even the drop of a pin could be heard.

Lin Da stared blankly as he raised his head to look at Aiko, who stood before him with a guilt-ridden face.

“Your legs…”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been deceiving you all along.”

Aiko gripped her arms tightly, her eyes dimmed, speaking softly yet clearly, like a sinner confessing devoutly to a Priest:

“Not just you, but Lia, Klrona, Oru… I deceived everyone in White Dove City. They thought I was a Mage, frail and bound to a wheelchair, unable to move freely.”

The truth is not like that at all…

“I would sneak peeks through the crack in the door when you all were asleep, watching what you were doing.”

“I wanted to catch some of your embarrassing moments, to use as blackmail.”

What followed was another stretch of oppressive and deadly silence.

Even the stray cat Big Orange could feel the suffocating atmosphere; it kept its eyes tightly shut, unwilling to awake from its feigned slumber.