A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 190 Baking Pawn
The wind that blew up that tarot card didn't come out of nowhere.

That was a natural spirit familiar searching for Quinn, carrying Ankua's message on the wind.

After releasing his mental energy, words, devoid of any intonation and purely driven by the sound of the wind, entered Quinn's mind.

[—An investigation has been conducted into the government morning meetings. While it was indeed initiated by Elon, it was unrelated to the Eye of Grindelwald. Attendees were ministers from various government departments, and the meeting's content primarily concerned trade fair business and security. Since Elon's second year in politics, similar meetings have been held every Arcane Festival or New Year's Day, and the content appears largely unchanged from previous years.]

[No abnormalities were found at Grindelwald's Eye. Elon, the Deputy Minister of Construction, Transportation and Urban Development, inspected the tower this morning, but only checked the parts related to the stage. Apart from the daily airship maintenance personnel, no one checked the arcane piping, and they did not report any abnormalities.]

The overload charge deactivation of Grindelwald's Eye will take at least a week to resolve; I will continue to monitor it.

I was in the middle of the fourth row at the party, and Peipei was there too. So far, no one has noticed the time reversal.

After "listening" to the wind's message, Quinn's expression remained unchanged, but he was somewhat puzzled.

Didn't Ankua notice that Pepe had some memories from before the time travel?
Let's put this concern aside for now.

Just now, Amamiya Nene, who also had time to rewind her memories, revealed some incredible information—

A man was flying through the air during the second explosion at the airport.

It wasn't Lynn in her true form as the Titan, but a man who pressed his thumb into the sea of ​​fire.

Then the world turned gray.
This corresponds to the system's future hints.

This is the only way to save Lynn and give Quinn a chance to kill the Demon King.

The time traveler activated time reversal, turning everything back one day. Quinn could continue to lurk in the human world to accumulate power, and Lin's soul was also preserved.

He was on the tower at the center of Grindelwald's Eye cannon when the guns fired, and the entire crumbling tower perished with him, leaving him unaware of what was happening outside.

According to Amamiya Nene's description, the second bombardment destroyed the spaceport as Quinn had predicted, and also affected the heroes within.

But
Nene Amamiya picking up the stargazing telescope happened after the explosion; if the hero could still ascend and activate time reversal...
It seems that the bombardment from Grindelwald's Eye was not able to kill the hero as Ankuya had anticipated.

Even a bombardment of ninth-order arcane magic couldn't render the hero incapacitated? Is he really only Sequence Six?

Furthermore, a theory about a cheat code has been refuted.

Time reversal doesn't seem to be a passive skill that activates only after death; rather, it appears to be an active skill, possibly triggered by a "thumb press" action.

The information that the hero is a man is not very useful. After eliminating Lin as a suspect, the remaining suspects are basically all men. Now, we have only eliminated Celia, who was already the least suspicious.

A new problem has also arisen—

If the hero could withstand the bombardment from Grindelwald's Eye, why did he need to activate Time Reversal?
As he pondered, Amamiya Nene, having finished her divination, walked towards him.

"Yo~" He greeted her casually.

Quinn turned to Lynn beside him and said:

"Don't copy that. That's how delinquent girls greet each other. Polite kids say 'hello'."

Although Lin never greets her, she still nods slightly in response.

"What kind of punk girl are you? I'll beat you up!"

With a disgruntled wave of her fist at Quinn, Amamiya Nene looked at Rin, whom he was holding hands with, and covered her mouth in shock when she noticed that the little girl was wearing clothes other than her school uniform: "...How did you manage to kidnap her?"

"What do you mean by kidnapping? After being cooped up in the academy for six years, shouldn't you be brought out for some fresh air?"

“Yes, you’ve finally done something that contributes to the academy.” Amamiya Nene nodded in approval.

She wasn't curious about why the little girl was so close to Quinn. After all, it was Lin who rescued them from the Abyss, and Lin even rode him like a horse in the Abyss. Amamiya Nene thought it was a genius's amazing thought process and an even more amazing transmigrator's telepathy.

"What was the result of the divination?" Quinn asked.

Amamiya Nene glanced at him and asked in a teasing tone:

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"If I wanted to eavesdrop, you wouldn't have found out."

Even if the distance were twice as great, Quinn, being a [thief], could still hear what they were saying.

"What kind of result could there be?" Her gaze swept over the bustling crowd again, and she said listlessly, "Just asking around, nothing special."

"You, a professor in the divination department of a college, need someone to interpret your dreams?"

"I'm not good at everything, I'm just looking for inspiration. Divination is all about fate, maybe she can see something. Even an ordinary person can provide the key to interpreting dreams, you know."

"Tell me about your dream?" Quinn smiled confidently. "I'm super good at math, I'm a professional problem solver."

Amamiya Nene stared at him for a long time, her beautiful eyes reflecting the streetlights, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Okay.

She then recounted the "dream" she had previously told the old woman.

The content is basically the same.

Even when Quinn pressed her for details about the "people" above the airport, she couldn't recall any more clues.

As Amamiya Yu said, those with the bloodline of heroes can resist time reversal, but this resistance is far weaker than that of true time travelers, so their memories are hazy, consisting only of fragmented recollections that they mistake for dreams.
“I’m done talking~” Amamiya Nene put her hands behind her back, bent down at Quinn’s slender waist, and looked up at him expectantly: “Master Quinn, what are your results for interpreting the dream?”

“Explosion, flames, flying man—your dream foreshadowed that you would meet someone you knew.” Quinn pointed to himself with a straight face: “So you met me, the dream came true.”

Amamiya Nene immediately rolled her eyes, muttering "He's just like any other liar," and then stopped looking at him, speechless.

"What did Lord Cavendish do this afternoon? The city council?" Quinn changed the subject.

"Those councilors in the city don't have the face to meet her. Who knows? They won't say even if you ask. They're sending her some kind of letter in such a mysterious way."

Quinn understood. The so-called "letter" seemed to be a birthday letter from the principal to Lin, but it was actually a message from a fellow villager to him. It seemed that Amamiya Yu did not want her daughter to know too much about her father.

"Your mother is gone?"

"I'll leave after dinner—"

Amamiya Nene suddenly cupped her black hair behind her, leaned closer to Quinn, and asked with a smile, "How is it?"

"How about what?"

"My hair!"

Seeing her expectant look, Quinn had no choice but to feign interest and lean closer to smell it, but she immediately pulled her hand away, looking disgusted: "...How perverted." "Didn't you say you wanted me to smell it?"

"Who gave you permission to smell it?"

Quinn thought to himself, "Women are really hard to please."

However, Amamiya Nene's hair was indeed different today. In the past, I could smell a very high-class and elegant sandalwood scent a few times, but today it was slightly different. In addition to the sandalwood scent, there was also a faint scent of kapok flowers.

Along the most expensive lakeside promenade in Eswell, vibrant red kapok flowers bloom on both sides of the boardwalk.

"My mom washed me and dried me off, hehe." She emphasized "dried me off," sounding very happy.

Quinn could immediately picture Amamiya Yu picking some flowers on her way back and putting them in warm water to wash her daughter's long hair.

The mother and daughter both have beautiful black hair that looks like a waterfall, making them the ultimate ideal type for those who love long, straight black hair.

"What a mama's girl! Why haven't you come home in the past few years?"

Amamiya Nene immediately glared at him: "You send letters every week, okay! And you don't go home just because... hmph."

Just as the little witch was getting a little sulky, Lin suddenly stepped between the two of them.

She took Quinn's other hand, forcefully separating Amamiya Nene from him.

Her small face remained indifferent and expressionless as she stared at the three-tailed fox in the cage across the street.

“Huh?” Amamiya Nene was a little at a loss.

Quinn found it both funny and exasperating that Lynn was holding his hand a little tighter; it was less like she was jealous and more like a cat guarding its food.

"When did this child become so close to you?" she asked incredulously.

"Ha, how could a teacher who's always late and leaves early possibly understand the personal charm of a night shift cook?"

Quinn pulled Lynn slightly toward him, feeling a sense of satisfaction as if he were leading the school's mascot away: "Don't hang out with bad women, I'll take you to see the foxes."

"Tsk."

Amamiya Nene shook her head and followed, "Naive. Only incompetent teachers would try to please students with food."

Lin crouched down in front of the iron cage, staring motionlessly at the white fox with three tails inside.

A man in a suit and tie, with a clock and full moon badge pinned to his chest, had noticed the three of them long ago. When he saw Lin stop in front of the three-tailed fox, he immediately came over and greeted her with a smile.

Given Amamiya Nene's looks and demeanor, if she were standing on a city street, the sheer number of men trying to strike up a conversation with her during the Arcane Festival would likely exceed one hand. However, this is Broom Alley, frequented primarily by people from the mystical world. A woman this stunningly beautiful, with a subtle air of nobility in her eyes, daring to stroll the streets without bodyguards—only a man with absolute confidence in his own strength would dare to provoke her.

Lin, who was standing to the side, felt the same way.

If Amamiya Nene is an almost perfect beauty that humans can naturally grow into, then this little girl in the pale yellow dress is so beautiful that she's almost inhuman.

The man with the two women was rather unremarkable in appearance. Apart from his black hair, which resembled that of a nobleman from the Eastern Kingdom, he was hardly anything special. If it weren't for the two striking women accompanying him, people would have subconsciously overlooked him.

In the realm of mystery, this ability to conceal oneself without making a sound is what inspires the most fear.

One more glance and you'd see his black academy robes, and then you couldn't look any longer. No wonder he could flaunt his relationship with girls like that; he was a local bully.

From the very beginning, Karel had noticed Quinn; it was clear that the man with the light stubble was the students' leader. Karel was in charge of this Fantastic Beasts exhibition, and the badge on his chest clearly indicated that he was an arcanist from the Clock Tower.

Unlike the academy, which only produces elites, arcanists like him—with no research achievements, mediocre mental strength, and even struggling to use third-order arcane magic—are commonplace in the Clock Tower. After all, due to the limitations of arcane circuits, even traditional arcane clans cannot guarantee that every descendant of a collateral branch will have the aptitude to succeed. But even with poor arcane abilities, with the help of their families, they can still get jobs at the Clock Tower Bank. Someone with outstanding emotional intelligence like Karel can even become a leader, and there's even a possibility that he could reach the Clock Tower's management level.

Lin crouched in front of the cage, watching quietly. The three-tailed fox bared its teeth at her, looking quite wary; it seemed to be a magical animal captured from the wild. After watching for almost five minutes, Karel smiled and spoke to her, "Respected lady, would you like me to introduce this three-tailed fox to you?"

Lin stared intently, showing no reaction.

Most people would be embarrassed to be ignored like this, but Karel, who was sent to do business with the academy, was clearly no ordinary person. He maintained his smile and waited for the girl's response.

After watching for a while, Quinn tapped her little head.

What happened to the fox?

“...Sad.” Lin’s voice seemed hesitant. “Little fox, sad.”

Karel laughed heartily: "Of course! Of course, this rare three-tailed fox was captured from the Western Continent by a gold-level adventurer team. Judging from its bone age, it is only a little over a year old. Tailed fox beasts do not leave home before the age of two. Once they leave home, they will enter the mating season to find a mate to reproduce."

"Among the tailed fox beasts, the probability of a three-tailed creature appearing is less than five in a thousand, but the direct descendants of a three-tailed creature have a 50% chance of producing a three-tailed creature, and even a 3% chance of producing a four-tailed creature."

Karel paused, noticing that Lynn had turned to look at him.

"Where's Dad and Mom?" the girl asked in a clear voice.

"Where are this fox's parents?" Quinn translated from the side.

It's obvious without even asking that the fox-tailed beast gives birth once every two years, with a maximum of two cubs per litter. In any case, one of the mates will guard the nest until the cubs reach adulthood. If you try to capture a cub, the adult is likely to be in grave danger.

The two-tailed fox beast is a mythical creature, not a chakra-wielding tailed beast from Naruto, nor is it a Qingqiu fox spirit or Tamamo-no-Mae. Its primary purpose is to create arcane scrolls. The tail hair of the fox beast is one of the materials used in scroll paper; the higher the rank of the scroll, the higher the quality of the fox beast required. A fourth-rank scroll requires tail hair from a three-tailed fox. Scroll makers often raise many fox beasts to breed multi-tailed offspring, making them one of the best-selling mythical creatures.

Tailed foxes typically have only one mate in their lifetime, and to reproduce, they must be young foxes that are not in heat. The value of adult foxes is only their tails, and adventurers often don't capture them alive to save trouble—Karel told Lynn these "common sense" facts that were taken for granted by all arcanists with a smile.

So Lin stopped asking questions and continued looking down at the little fox.

The little fox shrank into the corner of the cage, still looking wary with its fur standing on end, occasionally letting out a low growl.

"Do you like the fur color?" Karel smiled and held out his hand. "How about seven hundred gold pounds? We can guarantee you a cub with a similar fur color within three years, but we can't guarantee the number of tails. Of course, if you're willing to pay fifteen hundred pounds, we can give you a three-tailed fox cub within five years."

Lin still did not respond.

"What if we want this fox?" Quinn suddenly spoke up, "How much?"

Karel had long noticed Lynn's interest in the Three-Tailed Fox. As a salesman for the Clock Tower, he would teach the fortune teller across the street how to overcharge him.

"Oh dear, this is a bit difficult."

"Difficult to do?"

"In the Clock Tower, there are other three-tailed foxes who can breed with this fox; for us, they're the goose that lays the golden eggs."

Quinn gave him a cold stare.

Karel still stretched out his hand, spreading his five fingers—

"For the sake of the academy, how about I give you a discount of five thousand gold pounds?"

(End of this chapter)