Chapter 89: The Invitation of Blood

“I found it! Master, is this the one?”

Before long, Little Dragon Daughter returned to the rooftop, handing over a broken wooden rod that was clearly polished, having been snapped in two, to Miss Vilyric.

If things went as expected, those two things had probably scattered off to some corner, and ordinary people wouldn’t easily find them at this late hour.

“Good job.”

Priestess examined the end of the rod, which still bore visible scorch marks from burning, and aligned it with the slot of the crossbow a few times.

Perfect fit.

There’s no mistake, this thing was stuck there before.

Now, the specific situation should be like this.

Tonight, or even earlier, someone came up here to set up this crossbow on the rooftop directly facing Vilyric’s room, using the rod to hold back the pulled bowstring, rendering it unable to fire temporarily.

Then, the other party connected a slow-burning delay mechanism to the rod’s center, and when the flame reached the end, it would snap the rod under the heavy load, triggering the bolt to shoot towards the designated spot.

There were no traces of magic or supernatural forces; this was a clever design relying solely on intelligence and craftsmanship, so much so that even magic would have difficulty tracing it back.

Perhaps the other party had even considered the wind and environment on the rooftop, ensuring that the arrow carrying something would reach Vilyric during curfew.

Who could it be? What was their purpose?

In fact, Vilyric could think of several suspects, but she couldn’t draw any conclusions just yet.

Deciding to temporarily keep the crossbow as some form of evidence, the two ladies returned to their hotel room.

“Master, what kind of nonsense is this? A prank?”

The simpler-minded Little Dragon Daughter naturally couldn’t immediately relate to Vilyric’s thoughts on the other party’s methods and motives. All she saw was someone fooling her master with that broken thing, disrupting their long-awaited cuddle time.

If she hadn’t failed to find the person, the hot-tempered Giant Dragon would have long slapped their head!

“Don’t be anxious. Let’s first see what’s written on this.”

The other party’s intention wouldn’t be to kill or injure Vilyric with just this simple bolt but rather to deliver the bag tied to the arrow, or it could possibly be… a warning.

Opening the bag’s mouth revealed, as expected, a rolled-up white piece of paper written in the kingdom’s script.

There wasn’t much on it, and the handwriting was deliberately treated to look printed, making it hard to discern any style.

“I know who you are. If you don’t want the one you care about to lose their life, come here before midnight tonight.”

Beside it was a hand-drawn simple map, seemingly marking a location in the southern district of the City of Courage, with one building marked in bright red, resembling a blood drop.

“Master, what riddle is this?”

Thanks to Miss Vilyric’s diligent teaching, Little Dragon Daughter could recognize most of the common script of the kingdom, naturally understanding the message on the paper.

“Interesting, the sender is quite clever, deliberately making the message vague for us to fill in the blanks and not clarifying their intentions.”

“An invitation… Since they’ve come this far, if I refuse to meet, wouldn’t that be too cowardly?”

“Are you going, Master? Got it! Any schemes or traps, I’ll crush them all!”

Even though her little pet was sitting on the bed, raising her little hand with a wagging tail, looking eager, it was too bad…

“No, I’m going alone this time.”

“Huh?”

The dragon’s tail froze in place.

“Come on, don’t look so down! Hear me out.”

Seeing Little Dragon Daughter’s tearful eyes, looking pitiful like a deserted kitten, Vilyric quickly explained.

“Although it looks like the other party’s a diversion tactic, I must admit, it’s indeed effective. At least I currently have no clue about the sender’s identity or intentions, thus I must proceed cautiously.”

“Think about it, if the enemy really has a strong card or conspiracy, then having one of us step in is enough, while the other remains as backup ready to adapt. If we both fall into a trap, that would be real trouble, don’t you think?”

“Then let me go set off the trap, and you support me, Master! How can you take a risk?!”

The Giant Dragon shouted anxiously.

However, Priestess shook her head, rejecting her pet’s suggestion.

“No, this matter is clearly aimed at me, so it has to be handled by me personally.”

“Ugh… but…”

Little Dragon Daughter dropped her head in grievance, seeming very reluctant.

“Alright, dear, nothing will happen. I’m just being cautious; you know my capabilities, right?”

“Fine…”

After a brief discussion, the mistress and the servant quickly finalized their specific strategy.

This appointment, of course, had to be accepted; even if the other party didn’t bring ‘important people’ to deceive her, with such provocation, Vilyric couldn’t pretend she didn’t see it.

And just as she said, the Priestess was actually not worried about what might go wrong; from the small details, it was clear that the other party didn’t understand her true nature or abilities.

What kind of threat of losing a life did they think they posed? Did they not know she could use resurrection magic?

Truly a laughable situation for a priestess.

Unfolding her pure white holy wings, the black-haired girl swiftly flew through the night sky.

Although there was a curfew in the City of Courage at night, those ordinary human soldiers wouldn’t likely patrol the skies. The few magical detection spells passing by were easily evaded by Vilyric.

For an hour, attempting to cross from the North City’s inn through the central district to the opposite South City during curfew would undoubtedly be quite difficult for an ordinary person.

Or rather, nearly impossible.

While this posed no challenge to Vilyric, she had reason to suspect that the other party had deliberately timed their notification to test whether the Priestess could overcome this obstacle.

The agility bonus from the [Divine Wings] and its high flying speed meant that if Vilyric went all out, even without any other magical boosts, she could easily surpass any model of aircraft on Blue Star, covering dozens of kilometers in the blink of an eye.

Feeling that the target at the other end of the contract had already reached the predetermined location, Vilyric slowly descended from the sky.

According to the plan, Xiao Guang would maintain vigilance from a distance, and if Vilyric sent out a distress signal or lost contact, she would immediately charge into the position, creating a pincer assault.

The place marked on the map wasn’t in the bustling area of the City of Courage but in a private estate located in the southern district, surrounded by vast fruit trees, seemingly home to a family-run winery.

Now, Vilyric stood at the edge of that grove, gazing inward.

Although there was a curfew outside, the estate was undoubtedly outside the jurisdiction, and at nearly midnight, that five-story building surrounded by lush fruit trees still radiated a faint glow.

What a bunch of night owls.

The letter only instructed Vilyric to come to the estate and didn’t mention what to do once she arrived.

Since that’s the case, she could only adapt as the situation unfolded.

With that thought, the Priestess dove into the fruit grove, quickly disappearing from sight.

   

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