Chapter 33: This Is Not a War

Facing Chelsea’s question, Luo Xiu did not answer. Instead, he smiled, tipped his hat, and offered a salute.

"Long time no see, Lady Chelsea."

"Long time no see."

Chelsea smiled, continuously dabbing the sweat on her forehead with a handkerchief, which was already completely soaked through. Luo Xiu took a fresh handkerchief from his magic pocket and handed it to her.

"Thank you. You remain as much a gentleman as ever, Luo Xiu," Lady Chelsea said, accepting the handkerchief and teasing, "I truly thought the only things in your pockets were goblin pants."

Luo Xiu laughed. "It seems you have been watching from the sidelines for quite a while, Lady Chelsea."

Hearing this, Chelsea did not show the slightest bit of embarrassment. Instead, she laughed magnanimously, "Apologies, Luo Xiu. You know how it is—my husband is merely a baron. In some matters, one can only fan the flames; one cannot afford to become the firewood oneself."

Luo Xiu, of course, did not mind. "I am already very grateful that you stood up to speak for me. Since you have come to find me... there must be something you need?"

"Yes," Chelsea nodded.

"Would you like to come inside and sit?" Luo Xiu invited.

"No, thank you, Luo Xiu. My husband is still waiting for me at home," Chelsea replied naturally, her expression one of regret.

Luo Xiu paused for a moment, then said, "That is a pity."

Chelsea looked toward the elderly Mrs. Olais and Leila, her expression hesitant. The old woman gave a huff, took Leila by the hand, and began walking toward a house on the right. "Come along. Let me see if your cooking skills have grown rusty lately."

Before entering the house, the old woman stopped, turned back, and called out to Luo Xiu in a trembling, indifferent tone, "Come to my house for dinner today."

"It would be my absolute honor," Luo Xiu replied with a polite nod.

Once Olais and Leila were inside, Chelsea seemed to heave a sigh of relief and turned to Luo Xiu. "Luo Xiu, I have been keeping the guards at the town gate on the lookout for news of you. As soon as I heard you had returned, I came to find you. I wanted to ask: would you like to come with me?"

"Come with you? Where are you going, Lady Chelsea?" Luo Xiu asked, puzzled.

"My husband, Baron Toller, is soon to be promoted to a viscount. He is to become the lord of a town closer to the city of Bantanda, and the entire baronial estate will be relocating there," Chelsea explained.

"Congratulations, Lady Chelsea. Then who will be the next lord of Wheel Town?" Luo Xiu asked.

Chelsea shook her head slowly. "There will be no next lord."

"No next lord? What does that mean?" Luo Xiu’s eyes widened.

Chelsea shook her head again. "That is all my husband told me. He refused to say anything more." She looked at Luo Xiu with softened eyes. "So, Luo Xiu, are you willing to come with me?"

Luo Xiu shook his head. "I apologize, Lady Chelsea, but I think I would prefer to stay in Wheel Town."

Hearing his answer, Chelsea did not look disappointed. She wore the expression of one who had already expected this result. She smiled and said, "When I saw you dueling earlier, I guessed as much. With your current abilities, Luo Xiu, you can live well anywhere."

Chelsea’s plump hand reached with some difficulty toward her waist, pulling a silk handkerchief from a hidden pocket to offer him. "Luo Xiu, if you change your mind in the next few days, you can come find me at any time. Just give this handkerchief to Charles at the gate, and he will know what to do."

Seeing Luo Xiu accept the handkerchief, Chelsea waved with a smile and trotted away into the distance. Luo Xiu watched her labored gait until she disappeared, then tucked the handkerchief into his own magic pocket.

***

Dinner that evening was prepared almost entirely by Mrs. Olais herself; Leila had only made a spicy roasted pork dish under the old woman's guidance. Looking at the table, laden with everything from cold appetizers to the main course, desserts, and fine wine, Luo Xiu smiled. "Mrs. Olais, thank you for your generous hospitality."

Olais did not seem moved by the praise and gave a cold huff. "I don't recall ever signing a rental contract with you."

"That is true. You saw me nearly freezing to death outside and let me stay for a month for free, and afterwards, you let me pay whatever I felt was appropriate, so naturally, there was no contract signed," Luo Xiu laughed. "That was just a war notice about to be served; it seems they didn't quite see it for what it was."

Olais huffed again, extended a thin, withered hand, and pointed to the fish soup in the center of the table. "Fish from Rowamp. Drink a few more bowls; look how thin you’ve become." She turned to look at Leila. "Is it because this slave of yours hasn't been cooking for you on time?"

Accused by Olais, Leila didn't dare to move. She glanced at the slightly bulging muscles on Luo Xiu’s arms and blinked in confusion. *Master... doesn't seem very thin, does he?*

Luo Xiu laughed. "It is my own fault for not eating enough. With such a sumptuous meal today, it seems I must eat a great deal."

Hearing this, Olais’s expression softened. "Let us eat."

The dinner was indeed delicious and plentiful, and Luo Xiu finished several large bowls of fish soup. The group chatted happily at the table. Even Olais, usually a woman of few words, became quite talkative after Luo Xiu praised the badge her late husband had left behind.

"You never met him. He was a brave and handsome man, but he died at the hands of those damned green-skins, protecting this town."

"Green-skins" was the local term for goblins, often used by the older generation. When mentioning the goblins, Olais showed a rare flash of anger, her thin, papery skin stretching tight over her knuckles as she gripped her wine glass. She turned to Luo Xiu. "Luo Xiu, the whole town is saying you are a 'Green-skin Slayer.' How many of those green-skins have you killed?"

Luo Xiu smiled. "Twenty or thirty, perhaps? I don't remember exactly."

In truth, he remembered very clearly: seventy-eight first-tier goblins, two second-tier, and one third-tier. But he understood Olais’s temperament and deliberately understated the number so as not to dampen her spirits.

As expected, Olais’s eyes lit up with excitement. "He killed even more than you back then! A full thirty-seven! People called him the Green-skin Slayer too, but unfortunately..." The old woman’s eyes dimmed again.

"My condolences," Luo Xiu said, pursing his lips. "I don't know where your husband is buried. Perhaps one day I could accompany you to visit."

The old woman’s eyes dimmed further. She shook her head. "He died in the Sunset Jungle. When the reinforcements arrived, they didn't find his remains."

*Sunset Jungle?* Luo Xiu’s heart skipped a beat as he thought of the skull necklace he had taken from the goblins. He considered it, but ultimately decided against bringing it out. The old woman’s health did not seem robust enough to handle the emotional toll of hope turning back into disappointment, and if her husband’s remains were not among them, it would only make matters worse. He decided to have Leila subtly ask about the features of her husband’s head while she learned to cook from Olais.

Olais, seemingly lost in thought, suddenly perked up. "Although we didn't find his remains, we found this."

She drank half a glass of wine, slowly stood up from her chair, and walked tremblingly to the fireplace, where she stood on tiptoe to retrieve a small box. She clutched it to her chest as if it were a treasure and walked over to Luo Xiu.

She opened the box gently to reveal an exquisite pocket watch, polished to a high sheen. Olais reached out with trembling hands, picked it up, and pressed a catch. With a crisp *click*, the lid sprang open. The watch was still ticking. On the inside of the lid, two lines of text were clearly engraved. The first line read: "I will love you forever, my dear Olais."

Olais showed off the watch like a child. She had never shown it to anyone, and sharing it with Luo Xiu made her feel truly happy, as if her love had finally been validated.

"May I take a closer look at this watch?" Luo Xiu asked, staring blankly at the second line of text.

Olais did not notice the change in his expression and readily agreed, carefully placing the watch in his hands. "Old Renhous of the town found this watch and gave it to me. You probably don't know Old Renhous; he passed away nearly twenty years ago..."

But Luo Xiu didn't hear a word she said. He was staring fixedly at the second sentence on the watch. At such close range, he knew he hadn't misread it. It was a sentence that appeared to have grammatical errors, but when translated word for word, it read:

*"This is not a war; this is a Thrall-Land."*

*Thrall-Land.*

*Thrall-Land again.*

Luo Xiu had not expected to see this term here. What on earth was a "Thrall-Land"? But what shocked him even more was the first sentence. *This is not a war.*

He felt as though he had heard that somewhere before. Memories began to rewind in his mind.

*["Do you like war, Luo Xiu?" Chelsea had asked with a smile.]*

No, not that.

*["I won't lie to you, Luo Xiu, I feel like this war is not right," Dave had said, downing the brown liquid in his glass.]*

No, not that either.

It had to be even further back.

*["This morning, the garrison sent word that the slimes were going to attack the city," Cole had said, handing a scroll to Luo Xiu.]*

No, that was too far back.

Right between those two moments... Luo Xiu vaguely felt he was on the verge of grasping it. He strained his memory, and finally, a scene surfaced in his mind like a whale breaking the surface of the sea.

*["I don't know where the rumor came from, saying the slimes were attacking and that a war was starting, and that someone had seen it with their own eyes."]*

*["Hmph, I, Old White, have lived for so many years; I know what a war looks like. Let me tell you this: there is no way this is a war!"]*

*["What’s wrong with you? Afraid of war? I told you, it couldn't possibly be a war. Don't worry."] *

An elderly face became clear in his mind.

"Old White," Luo Xiu muttered.

Yes, he was the first one to say it wasn't a war. Did he know something? Or was he just spouting nonsense?

Luo Xiu’s mind was a mess. By the time he finished his thoughts, he was left with only one idea: find Old White and ask him.

He gently placed the watch back into Olais’s hands and said, "Mrs. Olais, let Leila stay here for a moment. I will be back shortly."

He then turned and bolted into the night.

The restaurants and inns outside were either brightly lit or pitch black, depending on whether any nobles were hosting dinner parties. But no one noticed a figure sprinting through the streets.

Old White was not at the exchange. Luo Xiu left the building, but this time he wouldn't stop; he had to get to the bottom of this. Since Old White wasn't there, he would go to the town library to find out what "Thrall-Land" meant.

The town library was located on the south side. It was very late when Luo Xiu arrived, but the door was unlocked. A white-haired old man was dozing in a chair by the entrance. Luo Xiu didn't disturb him and slipped inside.

The books were categorized and shelved. Luo Xiu went to the general knowledge section first, though he doubted he would find the obscure term there. After a few hours of rapid searching: nothing. Then the mysteries section: nothing. Then geography, dictionaries, noble secrets... all nothing.

Even with his rapid search, time had passed, and the faint sound of roosters crowing could be heard outside. Luo Xiu’s mind felt heavy and dazed. He looked at the shelves he had already cleared. *How could it not be here?* He had even checked the monster-language dictionaries; none of the symbols matched the one on the parchment.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He walked to the monster-studies section and began to scan the titles carefully. Finally, in the very corner of the shelf, he found several dust-covered booklets. They were filled with strange symbols that looked like a child’s scribbles. But having seen the writing before, Luo Xiu immediately recognized it as the monster common tongue.

He took the parchment scrap he had found in the goblin settlement from his pocket and compared it to the symbol for "Thrall-Land." In the second booklet, a familiar symbol caught his eye. Luo Xiu compared it excitedly—it was a match.

He went back to the dictionary section, retrieved the monster-language dictionary, and began to translate the contents of the booklet word by word. Aside from the symbol for "Thrall-Land," everything else was translated. When combined with the meaning of that word, the full text of the booklet became clear.

Luo Xiu read it aloud, word by word:

*"Although we usually attack cities directly and slaughter these weak humans to the last, sometimes we adopt other methods."*

*"Those frail kingdoms fear war and will always make deals with us. We only need to posture for an attack, and they will impatiently cede land to us."*

*"These lands are different from the ones we conquer by force. These lands have living humans on them. These living humans will reproduce and work for us. They are living blood-food, and they are our permanent slaves."*

*"The foolish high-tier humans in the kingdom (that is what we call them; I don't know what else to call them) will even announce to the public that the land remains normal, claiming they have achieved victory to appease the low-tier humans."*

*"But that land and the humans within it have actually already become our slaves."*

*"We call this method 'Thrall-Land'."*