Chapter 75: The Inescapable Miss Fox

“Ah, so that’s how it is…”

After listening to Plakaka embellish the story, mainly boasting about his hard work and seriousness, Miss Vilyric’s soul incarnation floating in the basement nodded knowingly.

Of course, this gesture was invisible to beings like the mouse right in front of her, who didn’t grasp the concept of soul manifestations.

The Priestess was also too lazy to slowly explain what a soul incarnation is or what SP means, so she just used some nonsense about “incredible long-distance communication” to brush it off, since Plakaka seemed to buy it wholeheartedly.

Miss Vilyric actually knew about this mouse man who was supposed to be working for a certain princess in the City of Courage, currently on a business trip in the Holy Kingdom. The last time she teleported back to check on the Lingyin Merchant Association’s background with Liliya, the latter told her that the Priestess was traveling in the Holy Empire.

Besides that, Her Majesty the Queen provided several Shadow People as eyes and ears stationed in big cities within the Holy Kingdom, saying that if needed, Miss Vilyric could use a token to ask them for assistance anytime.

However, the Priestess certainly didn’t expect to run into Plakaka at the sales event held in the old castle of the Saint of Bright Light.

Naturally, even if she recognized this guy later, she wouldn’t reveal it on the spot. After all, only Vilyric knew Plakaka’s origin, and Xī would have no clue about it.

Unlike Leila and Tilysha, this mouse man from the Throne of Immortality was only in a blackmailing relationship with the Priestess with some level of cooperation but no complete trust. So the Priestess wouldn’t take unnecessary risks by letting him know that Xī was actually her.

Long before the sales event, Vilyric had sensed some beings lurking and hiding in various corners, not just one or two. They were probably spies from various factions or lowly thieves like the Succubus Chloé, plotting some shady ideas.

But the Priestess couldn’t be bothered; after all, at their sales event, even if all hell broke loose, the Lingyin Merchant Association and the Saint of Bright Light would take the blame. Miss Xī was just an average passerby.

What gave Vilyric a headache was that some of those presences stealthily followed her and Yuna after they left the venue. Fortunately, it seemed like the Saint of Bright Light also noticed these pests and quickly left to draw them away, while only one was stubbornly following closely.

With no other choice, she decided to point it out to avoid further advances, and that was when she finally realized this could be, in a sense, her ally.

Speaking of which, this mouse… is he chunkier than when we first met? His fur doesn’t look so dull anymore; it’s shining like crazy. Did he start changing due to shedding his undead status?

No, no, no, I guess the focus here is that he just ate too much good food!

Well, it wasn’t worth it to nitpick over such trivial matters.

“Where’s that statue you mentioned? Show it to me.”

Upon hearing this, Plakaka was momentarily stunned.

“Uh, little mouse indeed hid it here, but I’m not sure what you mean by ‘showing it’…?”

Oh… right, this guy seems to think the Priestess is far away and can’t access things here; he probably isn’t intentionally dodging.

“Just take it out! I have my ways to check.”

“Since Lady Vilyric said so… fine…”

Perhaps due to believing in Vilyric’s mysterious abilities, or simply out of gratitude for her earlier “saving grace,” Plakaka didn’t continue to doubt her words. He quickly turned around and began rummaging under the hard board where he had been sitting in the basement.

Wow… hiding it so carelessly?

Although the urge to complain was bubbling inside her, Miss Vilyric bit her tongue to maintain the “mysterious strongman aura.”

When Plakaka finally unearthed a nearly half-meter-deep hole and the loosened stone and dirt formed a small hill, a square wooden box gradually became visible.

The mouse man brushed off the dirt on top and cautiously held up the box, then fished out a metal key from his fluffy fur and opened the intricate magical lock that seemed to meld with the box.

When the lid opened, instead of the demon statue Plakaka mentioned, there was a palm-sized pouch wrapped in unknown fabric lying inside.

“Uh, Lady Vilyric, are you still there?”

Concerned due to the prolonged silence in his mind, the mouse man couldn’t help but tentatively ask.

“I’m here, what’s up? Is that pouch the thing you mentioned?”

“Oh my… you can actually see it? Does that mean…”

Startled by the suddenly audible voice, Plakaka instinctively wanted to complain but quickly cleared his throat to deflect.

“Cough! So, Lady Vilyric, as I mentioned before, it seems demons can sense the location of that strange statue by some means; although I don’t know how that Summerfield kid hid it, I buried it using this pouch made from my own shed fur, which has some ability to reduce presence, along with the sealing magic of the empty wood box, um, temporarily hidden deep below.”

“The last two are trivial; the key aspect is really this fur pouch bearing my innate ability. If I were to open the pouch, even down here in this basement, the presence would likely leak out quickly. Though that dimwit Succubus has been caught, no one can guarantee that there aren’t more hidden demons in Mingguang City, so…”

“I see…”

Plakaka’s concerns weren’t unfounded. Given the phenomenon of Succubus Chloé shamelessly appearing in Mingguang City, plus what he described from his experience, it seemed demon forces might indeed have secretly infiltrated various parts of the Holy Empire, even extending to this western capital, Mingguang.

Miss Vilyric wholeheartedly agreed—since Chloé, the King of Corrosion’s direct progeny, was so keen on reclaiming the statue from Plakaka, it indicated that this item must have a huge, even pivotal use. Hence, it was better to handle it with caution and prudence.

After all, she had sent her soul incarnation to follow Plakaka merely to observe whether this mouse was reliable and to gather some intel from him, which she had largely accomplished by now.

While soul incarnations were convenient, the fact that they couldn’t touch or interfere with physical objects was indeed a headache. Even if Plakaka opened the pouch now, Vilyric could only just look at it.

“You make a fair point. My physical body isn’t here; if something unexpected happens, it could cause you trouble.”

“How about this? Tomorrow morning, take this item to Room 3-27 at the Bright Hotel in Mingguang City and hand it over to the white-haired masked lady you saw tonight. Her name is Xī, and she’s one of my trusted friends; her strength is on par with mine, so once you give it to her, you won’t have to worry about the demons snatching it again.”

As if startled by certain keywords, the mouse man trembled, and his words slipped out.

“Ugh?! I have to go meet that lady…”

“Lady…?”

Sensing the confusion in his mind, Plakaka was startled and nearly blurted out something. He quickly composed himself and began patting his chest to cover his embarrassment.

“Cough … Understood, Lady Vilyric! Leave this matter… to the little mouse! (Crying)”

   

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