Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

Whether physically or spiritually, she had already been unable to resist.

A strange emotion suddenly surged out from the deepest part of Lacie's heart. It was as if a crack had cracked open there. There was a slight dull pain, but more of it was a drowsy, sweet, and even euphoric feeling.

She was almost feeling happy.

"But can such happiness really last forever?"

As this thought came to mind, the emotion in Rachel's chest suddenly changed.

It became cold, hard, and sharp, and could hurt people and cut their flesh just by touching them.

Miss Witch lowered her head, took a deep breath, and suddenly became determined.

Just as if she was willing to be pierced by that emotion and cut all over, she "grasped" the emotion that lay across her chest, tasting the bitterness and pain it brought, and enjoying it.

"At worst... I can just stop being a witch!"

She thought so desperately.

"After becoming a witch, you have to take on so-called 'responsibilities' and complete 'questions'. Who knows about that?! And being a witch doesn't have any benefits for me except that I can live longer. No, can living longer really be considered a benefit?"

Rachel didn't think that was a good thing.

On the contrary, she would rather be a short-lived person. She was indeed very selfish. She wanted to die before Charles, or simply die with him - this might be the happiest thing for her.

Lacey suddenly felt like a dark, sticky slug that could not stand the light of day.

"Does someone like me deserve to be loved so passionately?"

She was a little dazed.

But she hadn't answered Charles' question yet, and she hadn't told him what she thought a sincere proposal looked like.

But the answer to this question may be simple, isn’t it?

Miss Witch suddenly raised her head.

Her eyes were slightly red, as if she was about to cry, but the corners of her mouth were raised and she looked in a good mood.

Then she extended her hand to the hero - the right hand with the ring on it.

The golden rose ring shone brightly under the light.

The witch showed the ring to the hero and asked suddenly:

"What about yours?"

"Hmm?" The brave man didn't react for a moment and asked hesitantly, "What did you say?"

"I ask you -" Miss Witch stared into his iron-gray eyes, "where is the ring that belongs to you?"

The hero reacted this time, but not completely.

He scratched his head and asked:

"What do you mean by a ring that belongs to me... When I commissioned Joseph, I only asked him to make a ring..."

"But whether it's a proposal or a wedding, it's best to have two rings," said the witch, "otherwise, if I'm the only one wearing the ring, who would know who my partner is, right?"

"Um?!"

The hero was stunned.

He was a little bit unbelievable - he felt like he finally understood what the witch wanted to say, but was it really the case? Was the truth really as he imagined?

He wasn't sure.

At this moment, he suddenly heard the witch muttering:

"You were so brave just now... No, I would say you have always been brave, pestering me to propose to you every day... But why did you start to act stupidly at the crucial moment? I should have been very clear about what I meant..."

Now even if the hero is slow-witted, he will probably understand what the witch is saying - what's more, he is not actually slow-witted, he just has never had such experience and therefore seems unfamiliar with it.

Now that he had fully realized what was happening, he no longer hesitated.

Just like when facing those extremely difficult enemies in the past, there was only one thing he would do -

Face the difficulties head on.

However, he did not swing his sword at Miss Witch. On the contrary, although he was a little awkward, he still bravely told Miss Witch:

"I'm going to go find Joseph and order new rings. This time it's a pair. We'll get married when the rings are ready."

Having said this, he paused, then hesitated and asked tentatively:

"Does this count as...a promise?"

The witch showed him the ring on her ring finger again, sighed in disappointment, then turned away and whispered:

"No, I really doubt how stupid some people are. If you ask me whether I have agreed to your proposal... Humph, when we were at Diesel, you didn't give me a chance to refuse, did you?"

"Besides, I've never taken this ring off before, and you've done so many things to me that good friends would never do..."

At this point she became obviously embarrassed and annoyed, sniffing with her delicate little nose, whining and cursing:

"You've done so many bad things, Dog Hero!"

The dog hero she mentioned touched his nose and smiled a little awkwardly when he heard that.

He didn't know what to say, and Lacie didn't pursue the matter any further, and the room fell into silence.

After a while, the brave man spoke again:

"Since you have agreed, then the wedding..."

He only said this much, and it seemed like he couldn't say the rest anyway.

The witch was also in a delicate mood, so after struggling for a while, she responded in a low voice:

"There's no rush for that kind of thing, a wedding or something..."

She stole a glance at Charles and her voice became weaker:

"Anyway, I only have Old Deng as my relative, and your relatives... well, we're both single anyway, so even if we want to hold a wedding, we can only invite... Joseph, Sire, and Godot. At most, we can send two more invitations to Lentiheim."

Without so many relatives and friends, their wedding should have been simple.

In fact, Lacele didn't want her and Charles' wedding to be too lively. Just thinking about being blessed by a bunch of strangers made her feel... scary. She was actually just like Charles. She was not good at dealing with strangers and didn't like socializing.

So it would be better to say that she is a snail rather than a mouse. She often curls up in a hard little shell, occasionally sticking out her tentacles to look out at the wonderful and beautiful world, with yearning and envy. But every time, she will retract her tentacles and enjoy solitude in her little shell again.

Although those excitements were nice, they never belonged to her.

But now, an uninvited guest has broken into her shell and wants to share this little world with her.

The strange thing is that she didn't resist his coming. On the contrary, she felt...

Quite happy.

So, she said confidently:

"Anyway... it's up to you. But let me make it clear in advance, I'm lazy and stupid, and I can't complete those troublesome things. Even if you want to hold a wedding, I guess you can only plan it by yourself. I won't help you... understand?"

But it seems a bit too much to say this, isn't it a bit unfair to Charles?

Lacele felt that although she was not a great official and could not be impartial, she still understood the principle of using a big stick and sweet dates, so why not give Charles some benefits?

After thinking about this for a long time, she finally blushed and shouted:

"Husband?"

Then I was hugged.

It was so sudden that she almost didn't react.

"You're really too cute..." Charles, who was hugging her, leaned close to her ear and said in a hoarse voice, as if he was trying hard to suppress something, "I can't help it..."

“Ah?! Ugh…”

"No, doesn't this dog hero have a CD?"

Before being completely knocked down, the dizzy Lacey couldn't help but think.

[To be continued]

-

17. Learn the truth

"All nations of men know of the Slender Man's existence," Ciel whispered, "whether they want to believe it or not."

Lacy, who was lying in his arms and hugging his arm, opened her sleepy eyes and asked in a hoarse voice:

"What about other races besides humans? For example, the elves of Lentiheim, and the dragons - do they know about this?"

"Well, Ms. Verliden immediately sent investigators to other races to bring them the news..." Charles shook his head, "But you also know that the Dragon God of War is still in his routine sleep. I'm afraid he won't wake up until summer. As for the elves of Lentiheim..."

He paused, with a very strange expression:

"Although the investigators from the White Tower truthfully passed on the information about the Slender Man to the governor of Lentiheim, Ms. Fuvenna, whom we all know, her response was -"

The hero briefly recalled the contents of the reply letter, organized his words, and tried to tell the witch exactly what it said:

"The elves were very busy. They were so busy that they had no time to care about the thin ghost figure that appeared in the dream of the Madam's continued existence."

"Ah?" The witch made a small sound of surprise, "What are they busy with?"

Then she thought of a more likely possibility and asked:

"They are still restoring order in Lentiheim? This is wrong. It's been so long..."

Although it didn’t take long.

From the time they left Lentiheim until now, it has been only about a month.

But that's an elf!

It is the result of the technology of a civilization from a certain season ago, and it has also received the legacy of the mistress, thus being able to break free from the shackles of the past.

Let alone a month, Lacie felt that if they were given a year, they might be able to fast-forward to manned space flight.

Of course, this was an exaggeration. After all, she didn't think the elves could quickly come up with the necessary pre-production technology for manned space flight and put it into actual production. If manned space flight was really that simple, the human nations would...

She had just come to this thought when Charles said to her:

"No, the order in Lentiheim has been restored long ago. In fact, according to Ms. Fuwenna, it only took the elves a few days to complete the reconstruction of social order."

Lacey frowned and couldn't help asking:

"So what are they doing?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Charles showed a complicated expression that Lacie couldn't understand.

"They are...trying to repair the Matron."

He answered in a low voice.

"what?"

Speaking of this, Lacie was no longer sleepy—no, not only was she not sleepy, she was actually full of energy!

The witch quickly got up, placed her hands on the hero's chest, and asked in disbelief:

"What did you say? Say it again?!"

The brave man repeated it again:

"The elves are trying to repair the Matron. They plan to rebuild that... starship."

There is no word for "starship" in the language system of Pangaea, so Laceer simply and crudely combined the words "star" and "ship" together to create "starship". Therefore, even now, Charles still feels unfamiliar with this word.

But now is not the time to worry about this!

After confirming from Charles what the elves of Lentiheim were busy with, Lacie felt as if she had been hit by an elbow from the head and became dazed.

“What?!” she thought dazedly, “Are we really going to start manned space flight?!”

But do the elves really have the technical reserves?

Can they really successfully repair the Matron? Rebuild the spaceship from the depths of the stars?