This necromancer is going to seduce the beautiful girls who are already dead.

In the Western Empire, one Imperial Coin can buy a mid-range lunch at a restaurant. A monthly income of two hundred Imperial Coins is considered high-paying, and four hundred Imperial Coins would make many people desperate to earn a living.

Judging from Abyss and Flora's attire, they certainly don't seem like people who are short of money, but they are definitely not that wealthy either.

Eight hundred Imperial Coins a month, plus accommodation—such a good job, and they just gave it to two bards who didn't even have an interview?

“Please allow us to refuse,” Flora said firmly. “We don’t need the money.”

"Still not enough?" Young Master Paron revealed a victor's smile in advance. "Why don't you two come to my house and take a look? I'll make you change your mind."

This young master's mind is really strange. It seems that this wealthy local nobleman, who had a son late in life, has really spoiled him.

Seeing that a direct refusal had no effect, Flora thought for a moment and said, "Then, let's go to your house and take a look, but I'll also try to change your mind."

"Ha! Quite confident! Then let's go!" Young Master Paron laughed loudly, seemingly unable to believe that anyone would refuse such a good offer.

The passersby looked on with disdain. They didn't believe that the two bards, Abyss and Flora, would refuse such generous terms.

I originally thought he was a very talented poet who would decisively refuse the job and show everyone his skills, but I didn't expect him to give up so quickly.

The attendants happily led Abyss and Flora toward the lord's mansion, with young Master Paron striding ahead at the head of the procession. Today was yet another complete victory.

As Abyss walked along the road, he asked Flora in a low voice, "I thought you would refuse Young Master Paron here. Why did you agree to go back with him? What are your plans?"

“If I keep refusing him here, it might anger him, and then a conflict would be inevitable,” Flora said with a smile to Abyss. “So I plan to go back with him. Also, there’s another reason; I want to see why he needs a pair of bards so much—aren’t you curious?”

“Hmm… I am indeed curious. Unless this young master is a madman, he wouldn’t be so determined to bring two bards he’s never met back to his home.” Abyss nodded knowingly, then gave Flora an approving look.

Flora has been with the Abyss for so long that her way of thinking is gradually becoming more like the Abyss's.

While observing young Master Paron, she had already discovered that although he was overly naive, he was mentally sound. His eyes were clear and focused, and even when he told Abyss and Flora to return to their home, there was a barely perceptible longing in his eyes.

That look in his eyes made it seem as if he had seized some unmissable opportunity.

This made it hard for Flora not to be curious about the reasons behind things.

As young master Paron returned to his home, after entering a very luxurious courtyard, Flora noticed that young master Paron gestured to the servants to close the gates of the mansion.

Meanwhile, the young master Paron, who had just been acting like a victor, walked over mysteriously as the door closed, looking at Abyss and Flora with expectant eyes.

“There’s no one else here now… Hey, I need you two to do something for me…” he said in a low voice, glancing at the mansion’s windows every now and then. “I’ve hidden a beautiful girl who loves poetry in my house, and you two have to help me win her over… You’re the perfect candidates. If you succeed, you can go wherever you want, and there’ll be plenty of money to go around!”

Chapter 370 A Girl Even More Beautiful Than Flora

So that's how it is?

Abyss and Flora exchanged bewildered glances, never expecting that this seemingly foolish young master would actually pull off such a scheme of keeping a mistress in a gilded cage.

“You two must not tell anyone, my father doesn’t know about this.” Young Master Paron approached ingratiatingly and said, “I need you to stay here with me for a few days—of course, not that you have to stay in my manor, but you have to stay near the town and not travel to other places for the time being.”

"Please tell me exactly what you want with us?" Flora looked at Palin with some confusion. "Why do you insist on having both of us? If you want to woo a young woman, why do you necessarily need the help of a poet?"

"Ahem... It shouldn't have been this complicated, but this beautiful girl here is someone who especially loves poetry. As for the details... let's go inside and talk about it."

Based on the townspeople's reactions, this young master Perrin doesn't seem to have a bad reputation, and Abyss isn't worried about what he might do: Sophia is actually already hiding herself and following Abyss and Flora, so if anything happens, Sophia can immediately step in to ensure Flora's safety.

So Abyss gave Flora a wink, and the two followed young Master Paron into the lord's mansion.

The mansion was extremely luxurious. The lord, a shrewd man who had led the town from ordinary to wealthy, had amassed enough wealth over the years to make many nobles envious. Abyss followed young Master Paron and several attendants through a long corridor and into a lavishly decorated room.

“I’ve already sent my men to call her over. Before she arrives, I need to talk to you about this.” Paron said, his face beaming with barely suppressed excitement, “If I could marry such a beautiful wife, I would have no regrets for the rest of my life.”

“Please speak,” Flora said. “Of course, I still don’t want to work for you right now.”

"Sigh, it's not a big deal, just listen to it." After organizing his thoughts, Paron began to tell his story.

“A few days ago, when I was playing near the town, a caravan passed by me, and a beautiful young woman dressed in gorgeous clothes stepped off—you can’t even imagine how beautiful she was—she was even more beautiful than you, Miss Poet, you’ll see when you see her.”

Because people have different aesthetic standards, there are women who are more beautiful than Flora under certain conditions. However, Flora's beauty can be regarded as the benchmark of the Western Empire's aesthetic standards. If that girl is really more beautiful than Flora, then she is truly a legendary beauty.

"The girl said that she was from the Eastern Empire and had been brought here by a caravan. She came to Salt Lake Town specifically to admire the scenery. When she saw that I was a local, she asked me to show her around the town."

"Of course I wouldn't let this great opportunity pass me by, so I immediately took her to see some nice places nearby. She was very satisfied, and we got along very well. That evening, I told her that I was actually the son of the town's lord—the next lord—and that I wanted her to be my wife."

This sounds a bit rash, but it seems like this silly young master is really capable of doing something like this.

“She wasn’t surprised. She told me that she had already guessed that I was no ordinary person after spending some time with me. She didn’t agree or refuse immediately. Instead, she told me that if I wanted to marry her, I would have to prove that I was worthy of her.”

"Her condition was that she had to hear beautiful poetry—I don't understand poetry, so I found a few poetry collections at home to read to her, but she wasn't satisfied. I thought, since there are a lot of tourists and artists in my town, I might as well go out and find a few—and here I am today during my routine patrol. You are both good-looking, well-dressed, and have a refined air about you. So I'm thinking of asking you to help me out and see if I can win over that girl... Hehe, you wouldn't refuse a young man who is pursuing love, would you?"

Young Master Paron can hardly be called a teenager; he's almost thirty. However, being so inexperienced in the ways of the world, he shows no signs of maturity whatsoever.

"Don't you have any doubts about this beautiful girl's background?" Abyss tilted his head and asked, "A girl who suddenly appeared, who didn't run away or agree after you abruptly proposed to her, but instead wanted to test you, doesn't that seem a bit suspicious?"

“What’s the big deal? My father has no enemies, and my becoming the lord is a sure thing. Even if she’s after my money, wouldn’t I be making a profit by marrying her?” Young Master Paron was completely unconcerned about the doubts raised by Abyss and appeared very confident. “You have absolutely no idea how beautiful she is… really.”

“Well, it seems your will is still very strong.” Abis smiled, neither confirming nor denying. “Please continue.”

"So, I invited her to my house these past few days. Anyway, my house is big with lots of empty rooms, so my father won't notice if I hide one or two pretty girls—but he probably won't agree to me marrying a foreign girl unless we've already slept together..."

“I want to use beautiful poetry to win over this girl. You two seem reliable, so why don’t you give it a try? The girl didn’t set a time limit. She said that as long as I can move her with poetry, she will tell me about her background, write to her family, and marry me.”

As he spoke, young master Paron took a sip of saliva, clearly showing his great anticipation.

"Young Master, Miss Pu Keli has arrived." At this moment, one of Perron's attendants came to report.

"Oh, let her in quickly!" Paron exclaimed with delight.

The attendant immediately left the room, and a short while later, a young girl dressed in the finest attire of the Eastern Empire entered.

As soon as the girl entered, Abyss raised an eyebrow.

It's beautiful, truly beautiful.

Unlike Flora's ethereal, untouched beauty, this black-haired girl possessed a classical and mysterious aura unique to the Eastern Empire's nobility. Her features and figure were as if conceived by a brilliant artist in a dream—breathtakingly beautiful yet perfectly harmonious.

Even Abyss had to admit that he was somewhat moved when he first saw the girl—after all, he was a teenager.

"Good afternoon, Master Paron." The girl greeted him with a smile as she entered. After seeing Abyss and Flora, she paused and then greeted the two strangers, "Hello, you two artists."

“Hehe, Pu Keli, I’ve found two poets who seem quite talented. Let’s see if their poems can move you,” Pai Lun said, rubbing his hands together.

“Hello, Miss,” Abyss replied, scrutinizing the undeniably beautiful young woman who had just entered.

Flora felt a pang of jealousy as she watched Abyss staring at the girl.

She tugged at Abyss's hand, but Abyss did not look away.

What was he observing?

Chapter 371 Easily Obtained Intelligence

“Miss, hello—but, Master Paron, we haven’t agreed to your request yet,” Flora reminded her at this moment.

Paron turned around somewhat helplessly: "You'll definitely get your share of the money, just do me a favor."

Flora certainly wouldn't agree to let Young Master Lun pursue a girl so easily; she was still working hard to complete the Abyss Challenge. If she just played the good guy and agreed, wouldn't the challenge be ruined?

Although Flora enjoys helping others, she doesn't always do so—for example, she wasn't particularly keen on joining in this rather absurd farce.

“Young Master, you haven’t given us a reason to help yet—we’ve already said we don’t need money.” Abis then shifted his gaze from Miss Puco’s face to Young Master Paron and said, “We don’t even know where this beautiful lady came from yet; we need more information.”

“Tsk… I don’t know anything else either.” Paron leaned closer to Abyss and said anxiously, “I finally found two people who seemed reliable, and you’ve disappointed me so much?”

Flora then gave Abyss a wink.

Abyss seemed to have been prepared, and immediately began to try to create some space for Flora: "How about this, the two of us can talk to Miss Pucolyte alone and get more information, which might change our minds."

"Hmm, I think it's a good idea." Young Master Paron thought for a moment, felt there was no problem, and nodded in agreement.

Flora breathed a sigh of relief.

If this young master Parsons hadn't been constantly urging her, she would have had time to think of a solution.

“Miss, would you like to talk to us?” Flora asked at this moment.

Miss Pu Keli smiled brightly: "Of course, I have no problem at all."

"Then I'll go out first. You guys chat here. Once you've come to a conclusion, have your attendants waiting outside come find me. They know where I am." Seeing that things seemed to be going well, Paron walked out excitedly, then turned back to add, "Oh, by the way, you can drink as much of the wine in the room as you like. Although some of the wine is quite expensive, I don't mind if you drink it."

……

After Perron left the room, only Abyss, Flora, and Miss Puco remained.

Flora then asked, "Hello, Miss Puco, it's a pleasure to meet you. However, I'd like to ask a somewhat offensive question—what do you think of Young Master Paron?"

After Paron left, Pu Keli seemed much more relaxed. She gracefully walked to a luxurious chair in the room and sat down, then said, "Alas... Actually, I resorted to this tactic because I couldn't know whether Young Master Paron truly loved me. I apologize if I have delayed you and this gentleman's time."

“Ah, it’s alright…” Flora quickly waved her hand, “That’s not why I wanted to talk to you… It’s just that I don’t want to help Young Master Paron with this… If you can clearly reject his proposal…”

“It’s not impossible to refuse his proposal… Young Master Paron is indeed enthusiastic, but he is also somewhat vulgar, not someone I can entrust my life to.” Miss Pu Keli chuckled softly. “I came out on this solo trip to see some new things along the way, and it’s about time I went to see other places—by the way, would you like to hear about my trip to the Western Empire with the caravan?”

Flora didn't really want to listen, but the other party had been very polite, so she felt bad refusing and could only agree, "Yes, if you would like to tell us."

“Actually, I am a mid-level mage, born into a family of mages in the Eastern Empire. That’s why I dare to travel alone.” Miss Pukli seemed eager to talk about her experiences on the road, and immediately began to speak eloquently. “I found a caravan that sold cloth, hitched a ride on their carriage, and followed them to the Western Empire.”

A caravan selling cloth?

Abyss's gaze narrowed almost imperceptibly.

Flora was unaware of this, but Abyss, who had spoken with Rebecca, was very sensitive to the word.

That person who seemed to be a puppet of the evil god... was just a cloth merchant...

"The caravan leader was quite interesting. He was a very taciturn man with red eyes, like a white rabbit, and he was very cold towards people. To be honest, he was a bit scary. The mercenaries didn't want to talk to him. Sometimes they had to report to him, and they would even decide who would go by playing rock-paper-scissors."

“What a strange person. Does he have some kind of eye disease?” Flora blinked.

“He said he had an eye disease, but I felt he wasn’t quite mentally sound either. He always liked to mutter things like ‘make a name for himself’ or ‘make a big splash.’ People didn’t quite understand why a businessman would think about these things all the time.”

Miss Pu Keli said with a smile, as if she found the caravan leader very amusing.

“That is indeed a bit strange.” Flora smiled politely.

“He arrived around here a couple of days ago, but he said he was going to stop in a nearby village—a small village called Salty Fish Village to the north—as if he was waiting for someone. I left the caravan before he got to that village. I wonder what kind of sensational news this merchant is planning,” Pu Keli said. “So, I thought I’d take this opportunity to stay in Salty Lake Town for a few days and see what’s going on.”

Abyss had already silently broadcast Miss Puco's conversation with them to the other family members.

"Wow, this intelligence came just in time!" Leona exclaimed happily. "It came without any effort at all!"

"What a coincidence!" Rebecca was also very happy, but she still asked her question.