Before they could step out the door, Lilith called out to Wang Yue.
Wang Yue stopped, playing the part of the obedient companion.
Though she had been granted the freedom to move about, she was still firmly under Lilith’s thumb. Without her wand, her only remaining assets were her Transcendent Melody and her Crow Sentinels.
The melodies were of little use against a witch who specialized in mental cultivation. Besides, there was a delay of several notes; Wang Yue suspected she’d be gagged before she could finish a single verse, and whatever sounds she made after that certainly wouldn’t be singing.
As for the Crow Sentinels, a direct frontal assault would be useless—they’d be swatted out of the sky by witchcraft in seconds. She would need to manage multiple threads of control and use hit-and-run tactics to stand even a ghost of a chance.
Unless absolutely pushed to the brink, Wang Yue had no desire to fight Lilith.
Lilith stepped closer, her hands gripping Wang Yue’s slender shoulders as she pinned her against the wall. A playful, mocking smile curved her lips as she admired Wang Yue’s visible distress.
Slender fingers landed on the collar of the robe, sliding down the lustrous, high-quality white silk. They brushed past the red sea bream embroidered at the waist—its tail frozen in a playful wag—before gently untying the cords of the kariginu…
Is it happening?
Wang Yue’s breathing grew shallow. Her face flushed then paled as she instinctively tried to shrink away, only to find her back pressed hard against the cold wall.
The hand she used to cover herself was forcibly moved aside. Her knees shook violently, the pale skin of her stomach and thighs playing hide-and-seek within the layers of the robe.
Just as she was about to protest, Lilith reached into the mess of silk and seized her tail.
“Guh…”
Wang Yue jumped.
It turned out she was just recharging her mana.
Wang Yue relaxed, letting her head fall back against the wall. Her gaze drifted toward the patch of sky visible above the courtyard wall.
Lilith held the Demon Tail, drawing magic from it without any unnecessary movements. She kept her lashes lowered, standing perfectly still as she immersed herself in a sense of déjà vu. After a moment, her lips trembled, and she spoke with a nostalgic ache:
“The tail… I finally touched it again… It’s so good…”
Sensing the loneliness and sorrow in Lilith’s voice, Wang Yue felt a pang of guilt. “Is the recharge done?” she asked hurriedly. “We should get going.”
“Don’t be in such a rush. I need to make sure you’re dressed properly, my Lord.”
Lilith’s hands moved like nimble butterflies, tightening the hakama, tying the sash, and smoothing out every wrinkle. She took a step back, surveying Wang Yue from head to toe, then extended a hand.
“After you.”
The two began to wander the streets.
Oak Town was hardly a tourist destination. It was a monotonous collection of oak structures—dark roofs, brown walls, wooden porches, and stacks of firewood as far as the eye could see. It looked more like a rustic mountain village lost in the snow.
The ground was a mess. The stone path was slick with water, scarred by wheel ruts, and littered with wood shavings.
Wang Yue glanced down at her brand-new black lacquered geta. Against the pristine white of her tabi socks, they looked far too clean for these streets; she felt as though they would be ruined at any moment.
Looking around, the roads were crowded and noisy, teeming with carts hauling timber and acorns. Logs were stacked into towers, secured by wooden wedges. Acorns were packed into burlap sacks, each weighing hundreds of pounds, heavily burdening the cart beds.
Just then, a group of people wearing straw hats entered the town.
They moved in a tight-knit group, giving off an air of disciplined training. However, judging by their crude lighting equipment, they didn’t look like Explorers. They carried no weapons or traps, so they weren’t hunters either. They wore waterproof leather coats and boots soaked in tung oil, their boot shafts caked in mud. Suede pouches hung from their waists, sagging with weight.
Wang Yue tilted her head, noticing that their “hats” were actually thin discs carved from solid logs, resembling wooden trays with concentric grooves carved into them.
Those were gold pans. You’d place gold-bearing silt on them and wash it in the water; the grooves would catch the densest metal particles.
These men were gold prospectors.
Wang Yue acutely noticed that the local workers were far from friendly toward the newcomers. They glared sideways at the prospectors, their dissatisfaction written plainly on their faces.
After the prospectors passed, an old man and a youth standing in front of a chewing tobacco shop began to whisper.
“Those bastards are wrecking the riverbanks again.”
“Aye. Digging up the banks looking for ‘blue earth’ filled with gold. They’re making a mess of it—severing roots and causing the soil to collapse. The trees along the shore are dying because of them.”
“Exactly. With the protective forest destroyed, the river will easily burst the dikes during flood season and divert right through here.”
“All they see is gold and gems. They’ve gone mad with greed.”
“It wasn’t always like this.”
“Plenty of people tried their luck in the past, but it was a waste of breath. You could spend all day and not find a single grain of gold—barely enough to buy a meal. But things changed a few years ago. These prospectors started moving in groups, as if they knew exactly where the gold was hidden. They just head out with their suede bags and come back with massive nuggets, rubies, sapphires, brown diamonds, emeralds, seed jade…” The youth’s eyes shimmered with a strange light.
“Don’t even think about joining them, boy. Don’t forget, we people of Oak Town have been acorn harvesters for generations. If they ruin the river and turn this into a flood zone, we can’t grow trees. Then it’s all over. You can’t eat gold.”
“Don’t worry, Pa. I’m not joining. I’m just… thinking. Last time I passed their workshop… man, the glow of that melting gold was so bright…”
The youth sighed softly, his gaze drifting to the other side of the street. He froze. Two exquisite young girls in ceremonial finery were standing right there in the middle of the street. He stared blankly, mouth agape, wondering if he was hallucinating.
“Keep staring, and I’ll shove a wand into your eye socket,” Lilith said with a sweet smile.
“Are you a demon?” Wang Yue muttered.
The street was too chaotic, so the two slipped into a tavern. They found the gold prospectors had beaten them to it, occupying a large round table in the center. They sat on wooden crates instead of stools.
Waiters scurried about serving food—plates of acorn noodles and acorn cakes, bottles of acorn wine, fruit bread, and various sausages. Acorns made excellent fodder, and the local black-haired acorn pigs were quite famous.
Wang Yue had zero interest in acorn-based food; it had a persistent bitterness that was impossible to remove. The locals who lived here year-round didn’t mind it, but to an outsider, it was nearly impossible to swallow.
Fortunately, the tavern’s food station offered standard fare.
Before long, a waiter brought over Wang Yue’s order: boiled potatoes, a sausage platter, and celery juice.
She used a spoon to mash the soft potatoes into the celery juice, slowly mixing them together. Supposedly, this was a stomach-soothing recipe that a witch doctor had once presented to Julius Caesar to treat the severe gastric issues he suffered during his campaigns.
She ate spoonful by spoonful, occasionally stealing a glance at Lilith sitting across from her. She was relieved the girl hadn’t had a “yandere” episode in public yet.
Her Crow Sentinels were stationed nearby, monitoring the diverse crowd coming and going.
At the large table nearby, the prospectors were burning through alcohol at an alarming rate. The liquor was high-proof, yet the men gulped it down like water, emptying their glasses in a single swig. Glasses clinked as the pungent scent of alcohol drifted through the air.
The acorn wine was cloudy, served in scuffed, pot-bellied bottles. It looked like wastewater as it sloshed around inside.
Fortunately, no “drunkard harrassing the little witch” trope played out. If anyone had tried, they likely would have died before they could even sober up.
The leader of the prospectors was a man over fifty, bloated and large, his loose clothing draped over a heavy, muscular frame.
There was something indescribably wrong with his appearance.
His jowls sagged so low that his head appeared conical. He was completely hairless, his skin hard and crusty in patches. His ears were little more than underdeveloped lumps. His neck was a mass of overlapping folds.
His pupils were a deep, inky blue, and his irises were twice the size of a normal human’s, occupying almost the entire eye. They looked like the eyes of a dead fish—shimmering with an eerie light, never blinking.
Beside the leader sat a tall, gaunt man with sunken eyes and a pale complexion. He had no bottle in front of him and barely touched his food. Every so often, he would lean in and whisper something to the leader.
Wang Yue monitored their conversation through several audio channels. It wasn’t that she intended to eavesdrop; she was simply habituated to processing the stream of information her crows provided.
“Vulgar, filthy, and disorganized. I really want to just wash them all away,” Lilith whispered.
“What kind of dangerous thoughts are those? You are not allowed to intentionally hurt people!” Wang Yue snapped quietly.
Lilith narrowed her eyes, falling silent for a moment before replying:
“As my Lord commands.”
