Night Journey

Chapter 45 Colleagues

While the girl in red was beating up Dailin, Anya introduced the girl who had suddenly appeared.

"As Dailin previously explained, she comes from the Love family. Logically, she should live in the city-state within the inner ring of the Flame Core, leading a life of luxury and extravagance. However, due to her father's job transfer, she followed him to live in Hel City."

Anya tried to defend Meifuni, saying, "Don't listen to Dailin's nonsense. Meifuni is very hardworking, but because of her special status, the director forbids her from participating in frontline work."

"If something happens to the young princess of the Lov family, we can't cover it up."

After venting her anger, Maefoni wiped her hands and smiled at Cillian.

"Hello, let me formally introduce myself. I am Mefnny Love, and I am in charge of some clerical work."

Cillian looked at the girl in front of him. Unlike the sexy and tall Anya, she was like a girl next door, wearing brown boots, a red shawl, white clothes, long golden hair tied up behind her head, and a sweet smile on her face.

"Hello……"

Just as Cillian was about to shake her hand, Maefuni suddenly grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Oh! It's you!"

Maefuni recognized Cillian; he was the guest Anya had been investigating yesterday.

She nervously turned her head, looking at Anya with extreme excitement, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"Your name is Cillian, right? Don't you have a surname, or are you unwilling to say it?"

Meifuni's smile turned sly. "Never mind, it's okay. Everyone has their own little secrets."

She suddenly moved closer to Cillian, her eyes scanning him up and down.

"Hmm...not bad looking, and quite fit..."

Cillian was caught off guard by this sudden enthusiasm. Just as he was about to distance himself from Mefuni, she darted behind him and circled around to observe him.

"Her temperament is quite good... nothing special, I'd say."

Suddenly, she reappeared in front of Cillian. Cillian instinctively tried to back away, but instead leaned against the wall.

Mefuni stood very close, her pure gaze falling into Cillian's eyes.

"You have gray-blue eyes, and you look quite melancholy."

She deliberately poked Cillian's stomach and asked curiously, "Has something bad happened recently?"

Cillian wasn't sure if this was just Mafoni's rhetoric or if her observations were truly that sharp; the tragedy of White Cliff Town flashed before his eyes.

Cillian tried to cover it up by saying, "Is being poor and destitute a bad thing?"

Mephoni noticed Ciri's fleeting sadness.

"That's really bad."

"So, are you planning to sponsor me?"

"why?"

Meifuni took a step back.

“I thought you were just judging whether I fit your aesthetic,” Cillian straightened his clothes. “Judging from your evaluation, I seem to be doing quite well.”

Cillian had read in a book about a young boy who fell in love with a wealthy woman and lived a happy and fulfilling life, even dying in bed with her.

Like Tim, Cillian dislikes dying in bed, but it's worth discussing as a desperate measure to alleviate the economic crisis.

Cillian is a carefree person, but also a very adaptable one.

Meifuni took another step back and looked at Anya with surprise, saying, "Have you started to like this kind of weirdo?"

Before Anya could answer, Meifuni began to think seriously and muttered to herself.

"That's true. Anya has seen all kinds of handsome guys, so this type is quite rare. Besides, he does look good, which adds to the fun."

Anya sighed helplessly; she knew that Meifuni had misunderstood.

"Didn't you realize that Cillian was joking?"

Anya, not intending to explain her curiosity about Cillian, forcefully pressed Meifuni's head down.

"I apologize to you on her behalf. She's always so tactless and foolishly naive."

She said, "Me...and you?"

Ciri was completely bewildered when his eyes met Anya's.

A subtle atmosphere rippled between the two, and Anya, who was always known as a master of love, was completely defeated under Cillian's gaze.

Anya turned her head away, avoiding Cillian's gaze, her expression surprisingly shy.

"It's nothing, please don't worry about it."

"Ok."

Cillian was always very sensible.

Meghanie shouted, "Look! Look!"

"Quiet!"

Anya wished she could cover Meifuni's mouth.

Dai Lin was unsure what had happened between the two, but he simply explained the relevant details.

Cillian is tentatively scheduled to start work next Monday, but his specific job duties are currently unclear.

Immediately afterwards, Dai Lin took out a stack of banknotes.

“We don’t have a precedent for advances of salary here, but I can lend you some money personally to help you get through these difficult times.”

Judging by appearances alone, this amount of money should be enough for Cillian to last until payday.

"That's... really surprising," Cillian said incredulously.

"What's wrong?" Dai Lin chuckled. "Did you think we City Guards were all a bunch of cold-blooded lunatics? We're still very close and loving towards each other."

Dalin forcefully shoved the banknotes into Cillian's hand. "More than saying thank you, I hope you survive. Don't die before you've paid back the money." Cillian was taken aback by this sudden act of kindness and didn't know what to do.

"Thank you, Dalin."

"It's alright. Just treat me as the first friend you made when you came to Hel City."

Cillian hesitated for a moment before replying, "You should be considered the second one."

Dai Lin paused for a moment, and an absurd possibility flashed through his mind.

"Could the first one... be that dog?"

"Bruce doesn't like being called 'only,' he'll bar his teeth."

Anya, who was standing nearby, laughed.

Meifuni listened to the group's slang with a blank expression, having no idea what they were laughing about, but seeing Anya's reaction only reinforced her suspicions.

Anya was genuinely interested in this strange stranger.

Seeing that Dalyn had given Cillian an advance on his salary, she couldn't believe that Cillian's earlier offer of financial assistance was a joke.

Before Ciri left, Daelin suggested that he should take Ciri to meet the director of their city guard, but the director was in a meeting that day and they would have to wait until next time.

Anya asked, "Are you very concerned about this Cillian?"

“It’s alright, but I just feel that he is somewhat similar to me,” Dalin said nostalgically. “When I first came to Hull City, I was about the same age as him, but my situation was much worse than his.”

Meifuni overheard their conversation.

She had heard about Dalin's story at the city guard bureau. It was said that he was brought to Hel by a merchant who treated Dalin like a slave until one day Dalin killed the merchant and broke his shackles.

"And what about you, Anya? Is it really like what Maefoni said, that you like Cillian's type?"

Dai Lin asked, somewhat jokingly.

Meifuni recalled another rumor within the City Guard Bureau—no, it wasn't a rumor, but a generally accepted fact.

Dai Lin had been pursuing Anya and knew her preferences very well.

Anya smiled but didn't respond immediately. Instead, she looked at Meifuni, who was eavesdropping nearby.

"Since you're not just here to build a resume, get to work already! Do you know how many reports you owe?"

Anya rubbed Meifuni's face, "Don't think I'll write it for you again, go on!"

Meifuni knew that this was Anya's excuse to stop her from eavesdropping any longer, so she could only leave reluctantly.

Anya was still worried, so she and Dailin went to a small park outside the city garrison and sat on a bench under the shade of a tree.

"If we keep doing this, won't Meifuni feel excluded by us?" Dailin asked with concern.

“No, she’s a cheerful girl and she understands our intentions,” Anya explained. “To the city council, the Lov family is nothing short of an outside force.”

"The city council does not want the Lov family to interfere too much in Hel City. At the same time, the Lov family does not want their children to actually be involved on the front lines."

"The front line?"

Dailin realized Anya's choice of words.

Anya got straight to the point, “I investigated all of Cirion’s actions after he entered the city. He first used Soul Essence to exchange for currency, rented an apartment, and bought some daily necessities. Then, he bought a broken jet revolver from the Centipede Merchant Guild.”

Using her access to the City Guard Bureau, Anya was able to clearly determine Ciri's approximate financial situation and deduce his lifestyle.

When Dale realized that Anya wasn't interested in Cillian and was just investigating him, he felt much relieved. However, when he discovered that Anya suspected Cillian of having problems, his heart started to pound again.

"Did they find any problems?"

“It’s a big problem,” Anya said. “According to my calculations, after he bought the Jet Revolver, he basically had no city-state currency left, which matches his advance salary.”

"so what?"

"As a torchbearer, to actually buy a broken jet revolver, is he going to find a spirit craftsman to repair it? That would be an even bigger expense, which is obviously not normal."

This is a strange point of contention, but Anya can't explain why.

Anya said seriously, "But more than these, his real suspicion lies with himself."

Dailin instinctively clenched his fists and muttered, "He has a problem? Didn't we test him with the Soul Essence Agent? You also confirmed his reliability with me... Is he related to Chaos?"

Anya changed the subject, "He is not a believer in Chaos; on the contrary, he is Chaos's greatest enemy."

Dai Lin was stunned.

Anya continued, "The power of the Torchbearers relies on the continuation of their bloodline, but over thousands of generations, the bloodline, like the genes of real humans, will undergo a certain degree of mutation."

"Take the famous Cold Sun Clan as an example. Their bloodline has undergone a certain mutation, which results in their soul fire emitting a strange, ghostly blue color."

Anya hesitated for a moment before slowly saying, "My bloodline has also undergone a certain mutation. This mutation allows me to sense the purity of other people's bloodlines. In fact, I can even detect other Torchbearers who are far away through exposed blood."

"That night during the interrogation, when I pulled out the needle of the Soul Essence Potion, a few drops of blood came out..."

Anya's voice suddenly lowered, and Dailin turned his head to look at her, a very complicated expression on Anya's face.

Excitement, fervor, fear... piety.

"It was an indescribable feeling, like a power from the depths of my blood was calling to me, as if I were facing the source of my own bloodline... I didn't even dare to look him in the eye."

Only then did Dalin understand why Anya had that expression when she looked at Cillian earlier.

That was not a woman's shyness, but a kind of avoidance of the sacred.

As if in a hallucination, Anya vaguely glimpsed a dazzling light flashing among the buildings.

She said self-deprecatingly, "I even felt so lowly...wanting to lick the blood left on his body, he was like..."

"The scorching sun."

she murmured.

"A blazing sun."

(End of this chapter)