NABC Chapter 23 You're not a female bronze statue, are you?
Chapter 23 You're not a female bronze statue, are you?
Gin-yō hates being left behind by her companions.
It's not the kind of annoyance that makes me want to kill you, it's the kind of annoyance that makes me want you to come back soon.
How long have they known each other? She counted on her fingers in her mind; it had been about a week since she was picked up from under that old tree and put on the bus.
Shouldn't we have become companions long ago, given that we've only been together for a week?
She wasn't quite sure where the boundaries of the word "companion" lay, but she felt it should at least include "someone who won't throw me into a haystack and then disappear."
Silver Leaf walked back, her pointed ears drooping, her emerald green braids swaying listlessly behind her, with a few strands of dry grass still clinging to the ends of her hair.
She pouted and sulked to herself.
"Um?"
She stopped and looked at the wall at the entrance of the alley.
An arrest warrant.
The line for the reward amount was filled with a string of zeros. She counted them with her fingers: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands... When she ran out of fingers, she stretched out her other hand, but it still wasn't enough.
Yinye's eyes widened instantly.
He must be a terrible villain! Murder, arson, and maybe even robbed a goblin bank!
She tiptoed to look at the wanted poster. The portrait was better than she had imagined. The person who drew it had obviously spent time on it, and it was so lifelike that it seemed as if the cat-girl in the picture would wink at her at any moment.
She had long white hair and eyes that were a deep, aquamarine blue, lighter than a sapphire but darker than a clear sky. Compared to Arthur's calm, deep blue eyes, these eyes were brighter, and the pupils were vertical.
"Hmm..." Yinye frowned, "Why does this look so familiar?"
What are you looking at?
Startled by the sudden sound, Yinye jumped up and turned her head away in a panic.
Arthur was standing behind her without her noticing. The Pegasus stopped a few steps away from her. The lead Pegasus was nuzzling its nose at a dried fruit stall next to it when the stall owner, a cat-man, flicked its nose with his tail and pulled back.
The winged girl followed behind Arthur, holding five skewers of grilled fish in her hands, like a fragrant little fan.
Yinye's eyes instantly welled up with tears of grievance. She rushed over and hugged Arthur's leg, burying her face in Arthur's skirt: "Chusheng and Ella abandoned me and ran away!"
Arthur looked down at the emerald green head, her hand hovering in mid-air, unsure of what to do. Finally, she lowered her hand and gently stroked the green hair.
"What's going on? Weren't we supposed to be catching a thief?"
Yinye raised her little face, took a deep breath, and spoke faster than a machine gun, explaining the whole story clearly in a very short time.
From the moment Ella carried her into the alley, to whichever way the hooded man turned, whichever way Ella chased, to what Chu Sheng shouted, how she got thrown into the haystack, what the haystack smelled like, how she crawled out of the haystack and found that he was gone, how she ran the wrong way at three forks in the road, and even the fact that there was a beetle crawling on her braid in the haystack, she didn't miss anything.
After listening, Arthur pondered for a moment: "If she's a cat-person, it's normal that Ella can't catch up."
Yinye was about to nod when she suddenly remembered something. She turned her head and looked at the wanted poster on the wall. The cat-girl in the painting seemed to be looking back at her.
A flash of inspiration struck me.
"Yes! That's right! It's her!"
Silverleaf jumped up, pointing excitedly at the wanted poster: "I was sitting on Ella's shoulders and saw her profile—it's exactly the same! We're rich!"
"Don't get so worked up. Do you know what crime this cat-man committed on the wanted poster?" Arthur's expression was not good, and he pointed to the few lines of small print below the bounty amount.
Silverleaf, puzzled, tiptoed closer again. Gray elves are generally nearsighted, and the small print looked like blurry black dots to her; she had to put her nose right up to the paper to see it.
"Killing...killing one's lord!"
Yinye's face turned pale instantly, and she quickly grabbed Arthur's arm: "Then Chusheng and Ella are in danger! We have to go help them right away!"
"Don't rush." Arthur gently patted Silverleaf's hand. "Do you remember which way they ran? This alley is a maze, and without Ella's sense of smell, it would be difficult for us to find the right route."
A fine layer of sweat appeared on Silverleaf's forehead, and his emerald green hair clung to it as he gestured wildly, "Uh... from here to there... that corner... uh, and then Ella threw me down."
Arthur sighed inwardly.
"Well...maybe I can help..." A weak voice came from behind the two.
Silverleaf and Arthur turned around at the same time, only to see the winged girl timidly raising a hand.
Seeing the two of them looking at her together, she shrank back shyly, her voice growing softer and softer: "I... I can carry someone and fly, and from the sky... my eyesight is pretty good..."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Silverleaf's eyes lit up, and she grabbed the winged girl's wrist. "Elbow! Take me flying!"
Arthur could actually fly; once the Holy Light was concentrated to a certain degree, lifting a person's weight wasn't difficult. However, displaying the power of the Holy Light in public would cause unnecessary trouble, so she remained silent.
"Then hold on tight." The winged girl blushed as Silver Leaf hugged her.
"You're not a female bronze, are you?" Silver Leaf looked up suspiciously. "Let me make it clear beforehand, I don't like your type."
The winged girl hurriedly shook her head, covering her face with her hands, the skin peeking out from between her fingers so red it seemed to be steaming. With a "bang," the pair of enormous white wings on her back unfurled, and she was lifted into the air!
"Wa ...
Silver Leaf's screams faded into the distance, her emerald braids whipped about like a green snake by the turbulent air currents. The two figures shrank to mere dots on the horizon, skimming over the layered rooftops of Cat's Den and disappearing from sight.
Arthur tilted his head back and watched the little dot disappear completely before turning around.
She stared at the portrait thoughtfully.
Audrey Paladin.
Arthur knew her.
Arthur was young then, and certainly not that old now. She had a rather pleasant meeting with this Cat Princess in the heart of the Empire.
There's something fishy about this. Audrey couldn't possibly be the one who murdered her parents, so...
Arthur gazed solemnly toward the direction of the monarch's palace, where the flag atop the palace tower fluttered in the wind.
Even from this distance, Arthur couldn't make out the design on the flag, but he knew what it depicted. It was a coat of arms with a cat collar, a crouching cat with its tail wrapped around its front paws, its ears erect, and it looking eastward.
The East is the direction of the Empire, and Arthur is a knight of the Imperial Knights. Upholding justice is the duty of the Imperial Knights.
I have to go and see.