Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

Has he changed at all?

"Change? No. I can't think of anything that could change Mr. Raymond."

Ariana gently dragged the chair closer to Lyle, took Lyle's hand in hers, and played with it. Lyle's skin was paler than her own flesh, but it was warm.

“Lyle, do you know that Andre has started a new club?”

Touching Ariana's soft skin made Lyle's mind wander. "New club, isn't this quite common in Andrei?"

"The club's name is the Radiant Culinary Club, and their president is Mr. Raymond."

"???" Lyle looked at Ariana, trying to find the same absurd look in her eyes as he did.

Unbeknownst to him, Nia had transformed herself into Ariana's headdress, wrapping her arms around her neck and gently rubbing her cheek against hers. Black tentacles obscured Lyle's vision, and several tentacles were forcefully pushing his chair aside.

Ariana held Lyle's hand and drew circles in his palm with her fingers.

"...Lyle, are you interested in this club?"

"..." Lyle couldn't see Anna's expression, but from her increasingly hesitant and tentative suggestions, he could hear her shyness.

After she gained flesh and blood, Lyle grew to enjoy seeing the unique expressions on her face more and more.

With a loud bang, the door to the Cup of Extravagance was violently flung open.

Ariana stood outside the door, her face contorted with rage, and let out a piercing scream at Lyle.

"Lyle Bouler!!!"

That wasn't Ariana, but her sister Beatrice, who looked similar to her. Beatrice stood outside the door, glaring angrily at Lyle.

Lyle felt a strange sense of embarrassment.

"Bini, what brings you here? Would you like to have afternoon tea?" Ariana greeted her sister.

"Sister!" Beatrice ran into Ariana's arms, pushing Nia and Lyle aside in the process. "Look what this bastard has done!"

What did Lyle do?

Beatrice snorted and took an enormous suitcase out of her purse.

An old wooden crate, large enough to fit a curled-up living person inside. However, the crate's seams and surface were stained with blood and bits of flesh. "Let him ask them!"

"them?"

Beatrice tossed three skulls at her feet, and just as Nia tentatively reached out a tentacle to touch one of them, a burst of soul flame erupted from the skull.

"Oh dear, it's the Plague Doctor." It was the voice of the Delusional Master.

"I am innocent!" The reporter's skull bounced up.

"Anna, please persuade your sister to give us back our bodies." The gentleman chose the optimal solution.

It seems these three are the ones who committed the crime.

"What happened, Benny? What did the gentlemen do?"

Beatrice glared at the three skulls. "The night we celebrated in Naslan, my waiter said that three obese men walked into my bar. They kept asking for drinks and tried every single one."

"Because they were so generous, my employees just thought they were a bunch of drunkards. The three guys drank more and more, and their bodies turned into round balls. My people thought they were a special race and didn't pay any attention."

"As a result, the three of them exploded!"

"It bloomed like a human bomb in the heart of my bar!"

"Blood, flesh, alcohol, and fat sprayed all over my bar, and everyone escaped that night covered in blood and gore!"

"All my customers have been scared away! My bar is worse than a slaughterhouse, and Bloody Rose has become a real 'bloody' rose!"

"It's all because of that bastard's hungry flesh and blood!!!"

"And these three guys too!!!"

"Did you all conspire to mess with me?!"

Chapter 329 The Power of Friendship

Beatrice's logic isn't hard to understand. She spent the night drinking with her sister, and that very night, while she was away, the tavern exploded. The culprit happened to be an acquaintance of Lyle, and had obtained Lyle's hungry flesh and blood. Beatrice, already dissatisfied with Lyle, naturally connected all these coincidences into a coherent narrative.

"That box contains their bones, and I demand an explanation!"

Ariana calmed the aggressive Beatrice, while Lyle went to the three scoundrels of the Literature Society to find out what was going on.

"Another accident?" Lyle looked at these notorious troublemakers with a mocking gaze. "Mr. Delusional, so you're a lich too?" At this moment, Mr. Delusional was a completely human skull, unrelated to his usual robot appearance.

“I’ve transferred my data soul into this body through the mind transfer device. I also want to savor the taste of fine wine.”

The gentleman chimed in, “That’s right, Plague Doctor. We meant no harm; it’s just that when we’re hungry, we’d rather savor the taste of fine wine than eat food. We’ve already visited many restaurants before we reached Blood Rose. We didn’t know that hungry flesh has a limited capacity.”

No wonder the debris from the explosion was so difficult to clean up; it turns out it was sponsored by multiple restaurants.

"So why did you choose Blood Rose? There must be more than one bar in the City of Wanderings."

The reporter chuckled. "Isn't Beatrice Ariana's sister? We're all Andrei's colleagues, so we're practically family. It's normal to patronize a friend's shop and support their business, right? Maybe we can even get a discount."

Hearing the reporter's chuckles, Beatrice, nestled in Ariana's arms, nearly lunged forward, her eyes bloodshot. "I don't need your damn 'care'!" Okay, Beatrice had indeed given you three a discount, a broken bone.

Ariana comforted Beatrice, then exchanged a helpless glance with Lyle. To put it bluntly, this was just an accident, but all accidents involving the three members of the Literature Club were terrible.

Ariana coughed lightly twice and gently stroked Beatrice's hair. "Binnie, I'll give you justice in this matter, but you have to return the gentleman's body to him, okay?"

Beatrice buried her face in Ariana's chest for a moment, then looked up at her. "Okay, but Anna has to be fair."

That's the right approach. Letting the more composed Ariana preside over the justice will prevent both sides from feeling too awkward, since Anna is already a mature adult.

Ariana looked at the skulls of the gentlemen and others with a serious expression.

"Gentlemen, reporters, and delusional folks. As Beatrice's older sister, I am furious about your destruction of Beatrice's Bar! Beatrice is the treasure of the Naslan family, and no one has ever hurt my family like this! To harm Beatrice is to be an enemy of Naslan! You have caused my lovely sister both psychological and financial loss, and you must pay the price for your actions!" Lyle understood Ariana's approach, and her words sided with Beatrice, making the vampire sister feel her sister's love. Beatrice was happy, and her pursuit of the three members of the Literature Club became less forceful.

Ariana's next punishment will certainly be a high-handed gesture followed by a gentle one, which is acceptable to both parties and saves face for both.

As expected of Ariana!

"First of all, the three of you must bear full responsibility for the losses suffered by Blood Rose after your explosion." This is perfectly reasonable.

The three skulls nodded.

The first punishment was agreed upon happily, and Ariana's face showed a gentle smile, like the warm sun melting ice and snow.

"Next is the issue of repairing the tavern. Benny, has the filth in the tavern been cleaned up yet?"

“No, sister, there was too much. God knows what they ate. That damn stuff had some terrible reaction on my counter and floor, and now it's like a huge, stinking rock! My staff were all knocked out while cleaning it up! They were rushed to the Healer's Center for Emergency Treatment and diagnosed with Grade III corrosive poisoning!”

Ariana smiled, squinting at the three skulls. "So, gentlemen, you will also assist with the cleanup of the tavern."

Yes, Lyle nodded silently to himself. This way the dispute would be over. Ariana was indeed an angel.

“Then, gentlemen, please lick the filth out of the bar,” Ariana said gently.

Lick? I must have misheard. It should be "clean up." Lyle looked at Anna's sunny smile and suddenly remembered that the weather was unpredictable, with sudden changes in temperature, making it difficult to stay warm. The coldest time would come after the snow stopped.

"Gentlemen, lick Benny's bar clean, not a single inch of it. Shouldn't the source of all evil learn a lesson from the mess your gluttonous appetites have caused?"

Lyle looked at Ariana and asked in a low voice, "Anna, that...didn't you hear it too? That stuff is as hard as stone now, and it's poisonous and corrosive."

Ariana smiled and stroked Beatrice's head, who was beaming with joy. "That's right, but isn't Lyle here? Changing a gentleman's tongue is a piece of cake, isn't it? As long as Lyle is here, he can have as many tongues as he wants to lick."

Lyle was mistaken. Ariana was the same Ariana from Naslan, one of the three Naslan sisters who were willing to abandon everything for their family. What was face? It was something that only existed on the face of one's beloved younger sister.

The three skulls did not object to Ariana's punishment, but instead turned their heads, their soul flames looking at Lyle through their eye sockets.

"Warrior!"

Ariana's nightmarish voice rang out again.

"Gentlemen, I will have my sister Helena implant a soul imprint on your bodies. If you run away, your bodies will 'die' in terms of soul science, and you will only be able to live on as skulls from now on."

The reporter, the gentleman, and Lyle all reacted in unison, and Lyle swallowed hard. This time, the three of them were really in for trouble.

"Mr. Delusional, where are you going?" Lyle saw that Mr. Delusional had broken away from the group and was rolling towards the door.

"I'm going to slip away."

The reporter and the gentleman immediately rolled over, but instead of running away, they gave chase.

"Catch that delusion! His soul is a data soul! He doesn't need a body at all. As long as he's connected to metal machinery, he'll be fine!!!" the reporter screamed, increasing the speed of the skull's rotation.

The gentleman rolled along, and suddenly his jaw opened wide, his skull sprang up, and struck the delusional man's forehead accurately, forcing his skull to stop!

"That's terrible! You're dreaming! Good brothers share joy and sorrow! And you actually ran away!!!"

"Damn gentlemen! Do you think I don't know what you're thinking? You're in the same boat as me, you must have run away too!"

"That was all your assumption. Now, we're all going to die together!"

In the end, the three skulls were brought together by their sincere friendship.

Chapter 330 The Lich's New Life

Finally, the punishment for the three members of the Literature Club was changed; Nia's tentacles now held their skulls like hooks to three teapots. Ariana took them back to Naslan, and when they reappeared, the three mischievous individuals were noticeably more well-behaved.

Lyle suspected that Naslan's eldest sister, Helena, had done something to their souls. When Lyle tried to ask them, they didn't answer at first. Instead, they stared at Lyle and answered him with pity.

"Lyle, your future is fraught with difficulties."

Three liches were temporarily transformed into devices similar to soulstones, their souls sealed within their skulls, from which even Mr. Delusional could not escape. The three skulls could be grafted onto other creations to perform labor, but they would forever suffer the abnormal feeling of being unable to control their own bodies. This wicked trick was unacceptable to all living beings.

"Your body has become a cage, and you are constantly thinking about breaking free." The gentleman described their feelings at this moment; the punishment had begun.

Lyle sighed and took his three "disabled" friends back to the Necromancer's Figurine Shop. As a friend, Lyle intended to help them as much as he could. Fresh flesh needed to resist corrosion, their sense of smell needed to be removed, and... their tongues needed to be intact.

"My God," Lyle shook his head, making the bird beak on his mask tap against the table. "It feels like the punishment for the three of you has been transferred to me."

Just as Lyle was trying to construct a body, Shining and the others walked over.

"Boss, what's this? A new collectible?" Shiny grabbed the reporter's skull.

The reporter's soul flame began to flicker erratically, and he uttered a deep, eerie sound.

"Foolish lich, you have disturbed the skull elf who has been sleeping for five hundred years, which is me. Now you must grant me three secrets, or you will be dead!"