Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Young Fox of Surrender

A Successful Surrender

It had been a successful operation... the losses were not light, but the tally of victories was equally impressive. For a half-baked hack like Vinigo, achieving this much was already rather good.

The spoils were pleasing enough. Vinigo was very satisfied.

There was also a holy emblem fragment in the secret chamber of the flame-arrow archer, along with several fine magical items worth taking as replacements.

Of course, what interested Vinigo most was Shirley.

Honey's persuasion seemed to be working, but what gave Honey such a headache was that every time it seemed about to succeed, Shirley would suddenly change expression and, in an instant, switch personalities, leaving Honey's efforts to persuade her useless.

After a few such rounds, little Honey's face clearly bore a deep look of disappointment and fear.

Obviously, she also felt that if Shirley truly refused to surrender, Vinigo would not hesitate to slice her into pieces for study.

"Forget it, let me do it," Vinigo said at last after long consideration. "You can watch from the side."

Changing into a wide-brimmed pointed hat and a cloak, Vinigo closed his eyes and meditated. Role selected, analysis complete... reconstruction beginning. Royal Knight Order system, level 35 witch, construction complete!

Badge configuration: Imp Whisper Bell, Principle of Mediation.

What Vinigo valued was the increase in the success rate of persuasion brought by the Imp Whisper Bell and the Principle of Mediation.

"First enhancement, boost charm. Second enhancement, boost charm. Third enhancement... boost charm!" Vinigo murmured.

He stepped forward, lifted Shirley's chin with one hand, and stared at her fiercely.

Tears shimmered in Shirley's eyes, on the verge of spilling. Right then, Vinigo said, "Surrender, or I'll roast you and feed you to her."

He pointed at the little wolf princess, who had tilted her head to one side.

Shirley opened her mouth to say something, then her expression suddenly changed. She cursed furiously, "You bastard, let me go, now! I'll cut you down with one sword stroke, you bastard!"

"A personality shift, then..." Vinigo chuckled, reaching into his pack and taking out a piece of roasted meat, crisp on the outside and tender within, golden in color. He waved it before Shirley's eyes.

Shirley's gaze locked onto the meat, following Vinigo's hand as it moved left and right. Not only her— the little wolf princess was also staring at the meat with eager anticipation, silver gleaming at the corners of her mouth, as though something was about to drip out...

"If you won't surrender, I'll starve you for three days," Vinigo said.

"Traitor..." Shirley muttered indistinctly. "Aaaah, don't tempt me... don't..."

Shirley's face turned pale in an instant, her eyes sharp as needles, fixed straight on Vinigo's face.

"Changed again?" Vinigo scratched his head. "Surrender, or I'll butcher you."

"The Sheep-Singing Cult will punish you!" Shirley said in a low voice. "Only the Sheep-Singing Cult can save this filthy world, only..."

"Are everything the Sheep-Singing Cult says necessarily right?" Vinigo asked suddenly.

Shirley froze slightly. She opened her mouth to answer, but Vinigo, quick and relentless, shot back, "Then why does the Sheep-Singing Cult, which preaches equality for all, have high priests and ordinary believers? Why are the clothes of priests and believers completely different? Why..."

He had prepared for this. Questions poured out of him like a flood, catching Shirley off guard. Under that barrage, even the steadfast Shirley could not help falling silent.

She fumbled for words, trying to say it was because priests and commoners served different functions. But the Sheep-Singing Cult upheld equality above all, making no distinction based on ability or status. More importantly, Vinigo's many practical questions were not something a girl like Shirley could answer.

How was she to know how the vast mass of the poor might live better? How was she to know why wars broke out, and how wars should be quelled...

Seeing the girl sink into thought, Vinigo chuckled. He stepped up and, out of habit, as though stroking the little wolf princess, patted Shirley's long hair.

Shirley abruptly lifted her head, eyes blazing, and shouted, "Cut off your filthy hand! Bastard! How dare you touch my head!"

"Hungry?" Vinigo waved the roasted meat in his hand and, in just one second, sank Shirley.

No matter how Shirley changed personalities, Vinigo had a corresponding way to deal with her.

"Aaaah, I can't take it anymore! Let me go!" At last, after being bombarded all night by Vinigo's various words, Shirley finally broke.

"I suddenly feel this guy's nonsense is more frightening than torture," the big cat whispered as it slipped silently to Honey's side.

Honey paid no attention to what the big cat said. She lunged forward and hugged Shirley tightly, shaking her hard.

"Shirley!"

"Get away from me, crybaby!" Shirley shouted. "Don't rub your tears all over me!"

"A decent beginning. Uh..." Vinigo lowered his head and complained while slapping his own forehead. "An entire night? And my mercury bottle is empty again!"

After a whole night of continuous use of "persuasion" with the witch template, the large bottle of mercury Vinigo had prepared was already completely used up. Looking at the precious material, worth hundreds of gold coins, now reduced to only a few drops, Vinigo himself did not know whether it had been worth it.

Still, as long as Honey was happy.

"Mercury... mercury..." Vinigo sighed. "I need to have a mercury mine first."

"Shirley, do you know where there are red caverns?" Vinigo suddenly asked. "You traveled with the Sheep-Singing Cult to so many places—have you ever seen one?"

"Why should I tell you?" Shirley pouted and turned her face away.

"Honey, I made a peach-flavored tonic today. Want to try some? Take one before meditation; it works quite well." Vinigo turned and asked.

"Huh? Honey has always been utterly focused when meditating..." Honey answered blankly. Clearly, she had not realized that Vinigo's real target was the blue-haired little girl on the other side.

Shirley's ears twitched, and her eyes darted this way in secret.

"Then I'll give it to Arcana. I just hope she doesn't get too excited and fail to sleep all night."

"Idiot! Tonic is of course for mages! Give it here!" Shirley sprang up and shouted. "I'll tell you! The red caverns are deeper in the ice plain. My purpose in coming here was the mining district deep in the ice plain!"

"The mining district?" Vinigo said in confusion. Nevertheless, he tossed the chewy candy in his hand to Shirley.

"Yes. The Icewind Plateau sees little human traffic, and the conditions here are not suitable for mining. So there are quite a lot of mineral deposits deep in the ice plain. The Sheep-Singing Cult wants to mine them..." Once Shirley began speaking, she cheerfully told him everything she knew.

"I see," Vinigo nodded. "Ordinary people can't mine under these conditions, and strong, cold-resistant soldiers would be too wasteful to use as miners. But the Sheep-Singing Cult has Nua, that master bio-modifier, and he can easily produce a large batch of cold-resistant common laborers."

"Human modification again!" Sophie, standing nearby, said with some anger.

"Sophie, the Sheep-Singing Cult has a very shallow foundation. Without Nua's biological modifications, they would have had no chance of struggling to this day under the monopoly of the Eight Magnates," Vinigo said seriously. "Nua is a visitor from a distant planet. He does not care about the humans of this world. To him, so-called humans and beasts, or livestock, are all the same—mere materials and aids."

"I don't care about the other mines, but the red caverns... Shirley, you know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Vinigo smiled.

"An alchemical material. Mercury. Extracted from cinnabar ore," Shirley sniffed. "At least I am a noble spellcaster. Well, of course, only when that personality is in charge."

"You and Honey's cat are the same model," Vinigo said with a pout. "Fine, then next we'll take that cinnabar mine."

"I heard you found an underground ruin?" Shirley suddenly asked.

"Yes. You have been here so long—did you never discover that this cave is actually the entrance to an underground ruin?" Vinigo said in surprise.

"Never found it..." Shirley shook her head, her ice-blue hair rippling like waves. "Strange. The flame-arrow archers have been here for over two years..."

Vinigo let out an oh. Indeed, without special abilities, it would be difficult to discover that beneath such ordinary stone lay the remains of such a magnificent ancient city.

An ancient ruin buried underground, preserved by the passage of countless years.

"Tonight, we'll go explore the ruins," Vinigo said with a snap of his fingers. "We were exhausted to death last night, so rest up, everyone."

In deep sleep, the youth...

By evening, when the night was deep and all was quiet, Vinigo became lively and vigorous again. He prepared his tools and pack, then walked out of the room.

Sophie was already ahead of him. Honey and Shirley, however, were sleepy little girls; although standing, they kept nodding off from time to time, as if sleepwalking.

The big cat stood helplessly behind Honey, pressing its head against her to keep her from toppling over. The little wolf princess, meanwhile, was bright and spirited, excitedly sharpening her claws.

She had no interest in wealth, only being driven by her overflowing energy and fierce curiosity.

"What is inside that ruin?" Arcana asked eagerly.

"I don't know," Vinigo said with a smile. "But it certainly won't disappoint us."

"Why not?" The little wolf princess tilted her head, staring at Vinigo with blood-red eyes.

"Because I already sensed it before," Vinigo said softly, gazing toward the distant glaciers. "The cry rising from beneath the earth... the countless treasures sleeping there."

"Let's go," Sophie said, stepping forward.

They went deeper into the flame-arrow archers' secret stronghold, to the entrance of the underground ruin.

Vinigo stood there in clothes of a strange style, with a shabby straw hat on his head. His face clearly bore bizarre protrusions like a shark's and gill-like markings.