Chapter 60: Sincerity for Trade
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Today was not an ordinary day for the sewers of the outer city.
Cold mist drifted, and there were corpses everywhere. The ornamented armors on the floor were dented and scattered everywhere on the frozen mud. In the nearby frozen murky waters, there were already pieces of ice drifting.
What made this day more unusual was that what had happened before happened once again.
On the brick flooring of the sewer, Benjamin was tormented by the curse as he was rolling around in pain and not able to do anything.
Another attempt at "I can retaliate", but another failure.
Michelle walked over the Cleaners’ corpses, and walked to Benjamin’s side. She stared down at Benjamin, without any expression of surprise, as if she had already expected this to happen.
"You never wanted to help me get the treasure, did you?" She said.
Benjamin wanted to reply, but the pain held him back from doing so.
He regretted that he thought he would stand a chance to kill Michelle. He regretted his hesitation about opening fire at Michelle just because she saved his life.
If he did not hesitate, it could be Michelle lying on the ground now instead of him.
No matter what, Michelle risked her life to save him. Common sense would have alerted Benjamin that this was his best chance to wrangle out of Michelle’s control as Michelle saved him for the sake of her treasure. However Benjamin still could not fire without hesitation.
But, after giving some thought, he thought Michelle would be prepared. Even if Benjamin had not hesitated, it would probably be hard to get rid of her.
"I really don’t understand you two." The System said," You said you will pull your gun out, then you did take your gun out, saying the curse will go into effect and it really went into effect, and yet the both of you had so much synergy just now. You guys change your mind way too fast, I can’t keep up."
Benjamin laughed wryly in his heart.
Maybe the bad part was that he had ‘synergy’ with Michelle, even if they were enemies, and they were on opposing sides, it would be hard for him to surprise her.
He was not that distraught. This was a "fake chance", and he fell for it, other than the pain from the curse, he would not get hurt in any other way. Michelle would still appear, if it would not be this time, maybe next time. He just had to succeed once, and he would be free.
Because of this tormenting, his gratitude that he just felt for Michelle was gone-----he was looking forward to the next chance he would get to kill Michelle.
This curse, it was really damn painful!
"It’s no use resisting." Suddenly, Michelle shook her head and said," Looks like I wasn’t sincere enough, and you wouldn’t trust me for this trade."
Benjamin was sweating from the pain in the cold sewer. The pain made him unable to hear Michelle clearly.
Thus, he had no strength to respond to Michelle.
Michelle squatted down, and took out a leaf from her robes. She placed this leaf on Benjamin’s forehead, and said an incantation. Suddenly, a blue light appeared and flew into his chest.
Benjamin was already in pain, but he suddenly felt an even more intense pain in his abdomen.
After that, he felt relaxed, and the pain was gone, as if he had just relieved of his constipation after a month.
This was...
Benjamin laid on the floor, and took a few deep breaths. Then he sat up, and looked at Michelle, stunned.
Michelle gave that leaf to Benjamin.
"I have removed your curse, as for this leaf from the Tree of Time, I found it on your body originally, it’s not that much of use to me, you can have it back."
Benjamin took that silver leaf, and did not know how to react to that.
Michelle.......removed the curse?
"You.....why are you doing this?" He could not help but ask.
Michelle stood up and shook her head while saying, "You are a strange man, the more I threaten you with the curse, the more you refuse to work with me. Your unwillingness to cooperate left me with no choice, I could only show more sincerity. Besides, you are a mage. I’ve said before, the Church is our real enemy, you don’t have to treat me like a real enemy."
Even though Benjamin had the impression that Michelle was manipulative, deceiving and used to playing tricks, he could feel her sincerity after hearing these words from her.
Sincerity.....this word felt like a stranger to him.
In reality, from the moment Michelle saved him, his hatred towards Michelle gradually subsided. This battle against the Cleaners gave him the joy of being able to fight alongside an ally.
It seemed like there was no reason for him to treat her like an enemy.
He put away the silver leaf silently, stood up, and faced Michelle, and showed his own way of sincerity: "Alright, I’ll help you find that thing in the treasury."
Even though he was never interested in the treasury, but right now, he had decided that he wanted to help Michelle to find that item in the treasury!
It was a troublesome task, but what else could he do as Michelle had saved his life from the Cleaners. Benjamin did not like owing someone a favor. Moreover, Michelle was right, they were mages and belonged on the same side of the war.
The most important thing was, the curse was broken and so his whole world had been brightened!
He did not want to make a deal with Michelle previously, and the main reason was that Michelle was the only one able to call the shots. Due to this reason, after dealing with the Cleaners, he wanted to attack Michelle. However right now, Michelle willingly gave way, and Benjamin had no reason to worry anymore.
Since he teleported to this part of the world, the enemies he encountered with had been gotten rid of with this kind of peaceful method.
Benjamin felt a sense of ease he had never felt before.
That kind of feeling, where one finished their graduation exam after three years of preparation, or like an intern that had been at a job for three months and finally got accepted by the employer. His life took a huge step forward.
From now on, he did not have to be fearful of Michelle anymore!
Hearing this, Michelle smiled and said, "I wish us a happy joint cooperation."
Benjamin nodded, "I wish us a happy joint operation too."
He unexpectedly managed to get rid of the curse, and turned Michelle from an enemy into an ally. This battle in the sewers also ended with victory on his side.
The both of them quickly left the sewers.
Not only did a holy knight die. A whole squad of Cleaners were wiped out. No matter who ended up discovering this pile of mud, they could easily guess that they were killed.
Once the Church found out, Benjamin could not imagine what kind of scary reaction they would take in retaliation!
Therefore, it was no longer safe to stay in the sewer.
They walked along the exit trail and got out of the sewer. Benjamin saw the floor littered with the dead bodies of the knife scarred man’s followers. They were all killed, and the wounds looked like blade wounds. It was very likely that the Cleaners killed them altogether when they came to search for him.
The bodies piled up in this derelict house looked really gruesome.
Benjamin did not pity any of these people. All he wanted was to find that assassin.
But, after looking around, he was not able to locate the assassin’s corpse. Thus, he concluded that, this Mr. Assassin went to take a piss, but got lost and decided to leave the scene, saving himself from this incident.
Dumb people have dumb luck.
This gave Benjamin a chance.
That man was not dead. Benjamin could still find him, and interrogate him into revealing who sent him.
After leaving that derelict house hidden in the sewers, Benjamin returned to the streets of the outer city. The sky had turned dark, a few unknown birds flew by, making a coarse and lonely noise.
Benjamin did not expect it to be evening already when he left his house in the noon.
This afternoon, a lot of things had happened.
He was still unable to take it all in, but he quickly left this area with Michelle, so he could avoid running into people from the Church.
He planned to bring Jeremy who fainted along, but after some thought, he decided to leave him in the sewers.
Today’s incidents were blown out of proportion, Benjamin thought that after successfully returning to his house, and no rumors were spread, he had to come up with a proper explanation.
For example, a dude appeared out of nowhere and killed all the Cleaners, then kidnapped Benjamin.
Thus, Jeremy was left there, waiting for the Church to come save him. He was unconscious the whole time anyway, even if they read his memory, there would be nothing suspicious.
But, who would take the blame for this "kidnapping"?
The answer was in front of him.
"To prevent the Church from being suspicious, once we return to the Lithur family mansion, I will give you information about the treasury, you have to act along." While coming up with a plan, Benjamin said this to Michelle as they both walked on a small street in the outer city.