Arcanum: Chaos Path

Chapter 351 Little K Refuses to Die
“I don’t think I have anything to explain. Little K is my teacher, and it’s only natural for me to bring my friend to visit my teacher, isn’t it?” Amon was much calmer than Antigonus. He raised his hand to push up his monocle and smiled.

Rowling glanced at him, smiled, and said, "That would be for the best."

Luo Lin then looked at the other two in the room and asked, "Do you have anything to say?"

“Uh, Amon, and Mr. Antigonus, they certainly didn’t hurt me. They just asked me some questions about you,” Little K said honestly, then added, “Of course, I didn’t tell them.”

“Little K really didn’t reveal your information to them. In fact, Little K was trying to get information from them in the opposite direction. I could tell.” Little Amon chimed in from the side, but as soon as he said this, Little K couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.

After all, using platitudes is one thing, being pointed out to one's face is another.

Rowling, disguised as Lucifer, glanced at Kelvin, smiled, then shook his head and said, "Never mind, as long as you all know your limits."

He then glanced at "Jack" beside him and said, "Didn't you say you were going to give Little K a gift? Now that you've seen him, why are you so quiet?"

“I’m only doing you face, old man. If I spoke up, how would you discipline them?” Jack Jones gave Lucifer a strange look and said matter-of-factly.

"Should I also praise you for being so well-behaved and sensible?" Lucifer's words were ambiguous, neither sarcasm nor sincerity.

“No need then, after all, facts don’t need to be emphasized.” Jack Jones said without any politeness, then looked at Little K and handed him the book “First-Class Detective” with great interest, saying, “Little K, here, it’s been so long, this is a gift I brought you, Fors’ latest masterpiece.”

Xiao Ke: ...

Has this day finally come?

Little Ke recalled with a touch of sadness how Jack had once excitedly told him about commissioning a novel from Miss Magician, and then felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.

He stiffly took the book Jack handed him, and after opening the title page, he was struck again.

What does it mean that a detective dreams of a doll girl? What kind of story is this?!

Xiao Ke's lips twitched. Adhering to the principle that a short pain is worse than a long one, he continued to flip through the pages. He quickly reached the table of contents, but after just one glance, he lost the courage to continue.

Just by looking at the cover, Xiao Ke could already imagine what a dramatic detective supernatural love story it was.

To be honest, as a time traveler, Xiao Ke had actually read quite a few convoluted love stories. If the protagonist of this book wasn't named Sherlock, and if the story wasn't a fabrication based on him and Miss Sharon, Xiao Ke wouldn't have reacted this way.

But... reading my own romance fanfiction was definitely a bit too much!

Especially... when Little K thought about how popular the book would be with Miss Magician's fame, he felt even more hopeless.

But Jack didn't let him off the hook either. His friend, who was essentially a sesame dumpling, came over at this moment and said with a grin, "Besides this book, Miss Fors has also written the beginning of 'The Bounty Hunter and the Pirate Queen'."

"Clara's love story is just an outline, but when I saw her last time, I gave her some suggestions, mainly about the character settings for the female lead's love interest, such as a romantic green-eyed poet, an innocent noble lady... um!"

This time, before Jack could finish speaking, Little K finally couldn't bear it any longer and covered his mouth with her hand. The latter was somewhat distraught and incredulous, saying, "Wait, if he's the female lead's lover, why is there a naive noble lady here?"

Wearing Jack's disguise, Rowling broke free from his grasp and answered matter-of-factly, "Because besides heterosexual romance, this book also contains light yuri elements; of course, I prefer to call it 'best friend relationship.'" Little K: ...

At this moment, Xiao Ke was at a loss, unsure whether to marvel at how diverse his friend's interests were or to admire Ms. Fors's wide range of interests and willingness to write about anything.

Xiao Ke took a deep breath, but couldn't calm his agitated emotions. He looked at his friend and said sincerely, "Why don't you stick to pure love? Seriously, don't ship so many different couples."

He really didn't want the market to be filled with fanfiction about him, or fanfiction about different people.

“But these pairings are really great to ship. As the saying goes, shipping everything makes me feel balanced. I’m not picky.” Luo Lin looked at him with a slightly innocent expression and said, “If you really mind, you can ship my pairings too. I don’t mind.”

Do you ship your favorite couple? Do you have a couple?
Wait, I don't have a romantic partner either!
Xiao Ke stared at his friend, feeling a sense of helplessness from the bottom of his heart. He really wanted to get revenge, but he really couldn't do what his friend did and directly pair them up, or even create gender-swapped couples.

Xiao Ke's principles wouldn't allow him to do that.

"Sigh!" Little Ke could only sigh in the end and said, "Whatever."

He chose to give up.

As long as he doesn't read fanfiction or romance stories, it's as if nothing happened.

"Really?" Rowling's eyes lit up slightly, and he said almost impatiently, "You finally agree to let me write a love story between you, a witch, and another witch?"

"This won't do!" Little Ke interrupted with a dark face.

He also has a bottom line.

“Oh…” Rowling immediately showed a disappointed expression, as if he was very regretful.

While Little K was devastated by the collapse of his world because of the fanfiction, Rowling, disguised as Lucifer, looked at the wolf and raven beside him and said, "If you don't have anything else to do, why don't you come with me to see Sasriel? There's some work for you, and since you don't seem to really need this three-day vacation." The last sentence was naturally directed at Antigonus.

“…Oh.” Antigonus responded reluctantly, but dared not refute.

Amon raised his hand and pushed up his monocle, saying, "For the sake of establishing rules?"

“It’s always good to make some preparations in advance.” Rowling didn’t deny it and nodded.

As for the preparations he mentioned, it was quite simple—it's not easy to make an entire city believe in the existence of a rule, but if you use extraordinary means to make that rule exist first, at least superficially, it's much easier to make people believe in it.

Antigonus, as the angel king of the Fool's Path, can undoubtedly play a role in this, such as monitoring the entire city and taking timely action disguised as the rules.

It's not easy to achieve this through other means, but the Fool's approach is a perfect fit.

(End of this chapter)