Su Cheng: "..."
She realized once again that the other party truly understood the Blessed of the God of Contracts.
Even though the individual differences within this group were immense, this statement obviously held universal truth.
Su Cheng: "Alright, so this is just mutual help between friends, right? I'll try to help you ask around, just consider it as repaying you for the shrimp meat you treated me to, and all the other messy stuff?"
Galen smiled without saying a word.
Fine.
Su Cheng thought speechlessly.
As long as he didn't explicitly agree, he eliminated the possibility of establishing a verbal "contract."
After that, they never brought up the topic again.
Su Cheng: "...You really are a cautious person."
But she had to admit, his complete avoidance of forming any kind of contract with her was, in a way, reassuring.
If what he said earlier was true, then he probably had a very deep understanding of how the power of a Blessed of the God of Contracts operated.
Considering his father was also very keen on setting people up, Galen might know even more than she did, especially since she had only been a Blessed for a short time.
The two left the banquet hall through another exit.
Several guests in the corridor turned to look back at them.
Their attitudes toward the Duke were quite interesting; some wanted to come up and strike a conversation, while others showed a bit of wariness and fear but forced a smile anyway.
Even though all these people were trying to mask their emotions.
"Your Grace—"
Su Cheng looked back at those people, then looked at the Duke in front of her. "I heard the royal family is considering opening the Divine Grace Trial?"
"You are very well-informed," Galen gave a slight nod, a hint of admiration in his eyes. "That ancient ritual can shape more Blessed, but that's only in theory; nothing has been finalized yet."
Su Cheng: "..."
It wasn't that she was well-informed, but rather that she had seen the term in a book and vaguely remembered Lin Yun participating in this thing, so she just asked to test the waters.
She was just about to ask for more information when Galen suddenly asked, "Your Grace, how do you think one becomes a Blessed of the God of Contracts?"
"Let me think," Su Cheng was a little surprised. "...Probably, well, having an instinctive desire to use contracts to achieve one's goals?"
"Goals?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "Maybe it's to seize more benefits, or to avoid certain risks, or both. Of course, there must be other reasons too."
"Alright," the blond man chuckled softly. "So this is your reason and your answer?"
Su Cheng didn't answer him. "What about you, Your Grace? How do you think one becomes a Blessed of the God of Wealth?"
"Hmm," Galen pondered for a moment. "Perhaps it's instinctively and eternally putting the pursuit of wealth above all else, seeing it as more important than anything."
Su Cheng thought about it. "Similar to, even if facing a risk of losing one's life, as long as there is a chance to make money, they would still take the gamble?"
"I don't deny there are such people," he shook his head slightly. "But in fact, at least as far as I know, His Highness the God of Wealth doesn't really like gamblers. Placing all hopes entirely on probability deviates from the anchor of value. Well, let's not discuss those brilliant techniques that can shift the tide of a battle, since those people aren't pure gamblers anyway. In short, He usually favors those with a business mindset—those who study the market, look for opportunities, manage risks, and allocate resources. All of this is a balancing game that is traceable yet requires inspiration. True wealth is created within this chain, not given as a gift from fate, which has no foundation."
Su Cheng fell into deep thought. "This is more than just a simple pursuit of wealth, isn't it?"
"Like I said, usually. There will certainly be some exceptions, but the pursuit of wealth is the only commonality."
The blond man turned and stepped into the long corridor ahead.
That area was no longer for guests. He hadn't taken many steps before he was surrounded by stewards and heads of merchant guilds.
They held various documents and scrolls in their hands, seemingly waiting to report to him and ask for instructions.
The group gradually moved further away.
"...What's wrong with you?"
A boy's clear voice sounded from behind.
Su Cheng turned around.
Xiao Lan had come over at some point, his face still carrying a bit of fatigue, but those magnificent blue eyes were still bright, his long snowy eyelashes trembling in the light.
His cheeks were tinted with a faint red, and he carried a faint scent of floral fruit wine, looking slightly tipsy.
"How are you doing?" Su Cheng asked curiously. "Did you find the feeling of seeing the world that you wanted?"
"I don't know," the silver-haired boy seemed a bit discouraged. "Most people are talking about things I'm not very familiar with, and I'm not particularly interested in them either."
Su Cheng looked at him with some sympathy. "Then don't force yourself. Even if there's something you should know and be familiar with, I guess the seniors in the mercenary group will tell you. I heard the people of Silver Wing often deal with nobles and even the royal family."
He nodded listlessly. "...That's true. I was just a bit curious myself, but this time, like the last, it's very hard for me to stick around until the end."
"It's normal, many local nobles leave early too," Su Cheng comforted him with a smile. "Speaking of which, the shrimp meat over there is delicious."
The silver-haired boy looked at her somewhat blankly. "Ah?"
Perhaps because he had danced earlier, his braid had loosened a bit, and a few strands of his carefully styled hair drooped softly.
From his expression, he looked exactly like a puppy drenched in the rain.
Su Cheng suddenly really wanted to rub his head.
She silently pinched her fingers. "Just in the dining room ahead, by the north entrance, there's a huge ice-armored crayfish, it seems to be some kind of mutation too?"
"Oh," Xiao Lan's eyes lit up. "I used to love eating that, I would go look for it almost every day..."
He stopped talking mid-sentence, a flash of helplessness and a bit of panic in his frosty blue eyes, seemingly realizing he had said the wrong thing.
Su Cheng: "?"
Ate it every day?
The habitats of that kind of magical beast were all various cold lakes and seas. If he used to live in those places, it wouldn't seem strange.
It was just—
Su Cheng didn't want to make things difficult for him. She didn't say anything out loud, just pondering the sentence in her heart.
"Sorry," the silver-haired boy sighed softly. "You can probably tell, I'm not truly human, and I didn't use to live in human habitats. I hope you don't mind."
Su Cheng was also confused. "Of course I don't mind. Why would I mind? You've already met my mercenary teammates."
Leaving the other two aside for now, she still didn't know Camus's race, but he most likely wasn't a proper human either.
"Oh," Xiao Lan raised a hand to his forehead. "Sorry, I'm not very clear-headed right now. Earlier I drank a few barrels of nectar brew made from magical plant ingredients, they all said the aftereffect—"
Su Cheng: "?"
Barrels?
What kind of quantifier was that?
Xiao Lan swayed slightly, his footsteps seeming unsteady, looking as if he was about to fall over.
Logically speaking, with his level of strength, it would be very hard for him to get drunk from normal drinking.
But when it came to magical plants, it was hard to say. Some drinks and wines made from high-level magical plants could knock out a mid-level warrior with just one or two glasses, not to mention he had obviously drank a lot.
Su Cheng quickly reached out to support him.
She still remembered that he seemed to have someone in his heart.
Even though there was a certain probability that it was her, whether it was or wasn't, she felt she should avoid further physical contact at this stage to prevent misunderstandings.
Therefore, her movements were very gentle, and she minimized her touch on him as much as possible.
"My lord..."
The silver-haired boy leaned against her arm, pressing his weight onto her. Then, he stumbled and fell forward, his forehead brushing past her slender wrist and the smooth lines of her forearm.
Su Cheng supported him to a sofa on one side of the corridor.
"Thank you..."
He mumbled indistinctly. His azure eyes grew moist, clouded by a hazy, warm mist.
The boy tilted his head up, his silvery-white eyelashes trembling like falling snow. His pupils seemed to be narrowing into slits. "Mhm, it's you. Will you appear in my dreams again tonight?"
Su Cheng looked at him in disbelief.
Su Cheng: "..."
Was it really her?
Was this due to some protagonist halo, or was there another reason?
Su Cheng: "I know you're not quite in your right mind right now, but I can't help but ask... we've only met a couple of times, and we've barely spent any time together, right?"
The silver-haired boy swayed and pitched forward slightly, resting his forehead against her arm. His slightly cool body temperature spread across her bare skin.
"I'm sorry," he murmured softly. "Oh, I know it sounds strange, so I don't know how to tell you. In fact—"
Xiao Lan suddenly muttered a long string of words, but it was in an unknown language.
Su Cheng couldn't understand a single word.
Elvish?
As an elemental mage, some spells were inherently related to Elvish. Even if she couldn't speak the language, she knew at least a few words.
To her ears, it didn't sound like it.
"...Mhm."
Xiao Lan revealed a look of frustration. He forced himself to sit up straight, trying to pull away from her support, but his waist seemed to go soft again, forcing him to lean back against the cushions.
He tilted his head back slightly, his breathing a bit hurried. His silvery-white hair was slightly disheveled, clinging to his forehead and the sides of his ears.
The boy involuntarily tugged at his collar. His velvet jacket, embroidered with dark silver threads, fell open, revealing a stretch of long, pale neck.
Two buttons of his silk shirt had also come undone, offering a faint glimpse of his exquisitely sharp collarbones. A thin layer of sweat, glowing with a warm light, formed on his neck and shoulders.
Su Cheng's head was pounding. "What exactly did you drink?"
Laughter suddenly came from the side. Two young people who had been kissing behind a pillar had just finished a brief moment of intimacy and were walking past.
"Probably Tears of Late Autumn," one of them laughed. "I just had half a glass myself. God, my head is about to explode. It contains moon-halo nectar, and, uh, some good stuff made by the vampires of the Southern Continent. You can help this poor kid out, he just needs to release it once."
Su Cheng noticed the rose gold coin crest on the hem of his clothes. "You're from the Aulu family—wait, are you the Duke's child?"
"What? No," the man couldn't help but chuckle, as if she had told a joke. "We are all his cousins."
With that, they walked upstairs arm in arm.
Looking around, the entire banquet was still elegant and extravagant. Very few people displayed unseemly behavior in public, but every now and then, someone would slip out the door.
Su Cheng suspected that they had all drunk something strange.
However, the Aulu family had always been well-versed in the trends of their social circles. The fact that these liquors brewed from magical plants were served meant that the nobles of the imperial capital were quite fond of this kind of thing.
Xiao Lan pressed a hand to his forehead, seemingly trying hard to calm his chaotic thoughts. Those azure eyes looked as if they had been soaked in moonlight, shrouded in a hazy, watery halo.
Deep within his pupils, a turbulent wave of passion seemed to be churning. That wave condensed in the moisture, turning into tears hanging from his eyelashes.
The damp trails slid down the boy's burning, flushed cheeks and his beautiful, sharp jawline.
