The Court Mage watched Moya’s salute and leisurely drank his fourth cup of cocoa.
Moya’s attitude of improvement was worth learning from for a worker like him, but unfortunately his desire to improve wasn’t very strong.
The position of Court Mage was enough for him to live a comfortable, carefree life.
“Here.”
Aide took out a gold-striped savings card from the Elven Merchant Guild from his chest and flicked it toward Moya.
“Yeah!”
The moment the gold-striped savings card flew out, Moya pounced on it and snatched it away, as if competing with a tiger for food, afraid someone might grab it.
But after pouncing and snatching the card, Moya’s body tilted too far forward due to the weightless leap, her toes tripping over the magical instruments scattered all over the floor of the mage tower.
She instantly lost balance and fell straight toward the ground, ready to have a close encounter with it.
“No one’s fighting you for it, why grab it so urgently?”
Just as Moya was about to fall, Aide’s arm wrapped around her waist, catching her small body midair.
Her cloak fell back from the inertia, revealing her slightly trembling feathered ears and a face that hadn’t yet realized what had happened.
“Oh, I’m just afraid something unexpected might happen again. Even that tiny-probability, damnable misfortune of suddenly owing a debt happened to me. What if this savings card grows wings and flies away?”
Moya, still caught midair by Aide, scratched her head and showed an embarrassed smile.
“That’s what happens when you’ve been poor for too long. Thanks.”
So being afraid of poverty makes you fear a savings card growing wings and flying away?
Interesting.
Aide sometimes really wondered how Moya, while fully conscious, managed to say whatever came to mind as if talking in her sleep.
But considering Moya’s past feat of using divine arts to make a mansion grow wings and fly away, Aide actually found her idea slightly reasonable for a moment.
In all the world, she was probably the only one capable of doing something like that with divine arts.
“So, are you going to put me down?”
Seeing Aide lost in thought, Moya quickly switched from an embarrassed thanks to an impatient eye roll.
“Moya, how does your divine arts level compare to others in the church?”
Aide steadied Moya with both hands and set her down, then asked.
He had always been curious about that.
Although he had seen Moya working countless times in his dreams and through her recent performance, Aide knew her abilities were absolutely at the pinnacle.
So in the church, how many angels were at Moya’s level?
“What? This is confidential church information, something not even money can buy. Don’t think that just because I agreed to this job, I’ll blurt out everything freely.”
After standing back on the ground, hearing Aide’s question, Moya couldn’t help but roll her eyes at him again.
“Does your church care that much about information protection?”
Aide was quite surprised.
He didn’t expect that money-loving Moya’s first reaction to this question would be ‘This is something not even money can buy as an answer.’
“Of course. ‘All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity.'”
Seeing Aide’s surprised expression, Moya puffed out her chest and said smugly.
Back then, she had contributed to pushing through a resolution for strict protection of personal information.
Of course, compared to the foresight of the Punishment Angel who had proposed that resolution, Moya didn’t have such a noble sense of responsibility.
She just didn’t want others to know that she, usually a lazy slacker, actually looked so pure and innocent at work.
Just thinking about it felt mortifying.
“I don’t understand.”
Hearing Moya’s sudden obscure and hard-to-understand saying, Aide felt he couldn’t comprehend it.
“Obviously. If I could make you understand, why would I say it?”
Moya giggled.
That’s exactly the feeling of being sober while the world is drunk!
Looking at Moya’s grinning face, Aide took a deep breath.
If you don’t beat them for three days, they’ll tear the roof off.
Looks like he really needed to teach her a lesson one day.
“Alright, no more joking. So what do you say? Should I start searching now?”
Seeing Aide’s expression darken, Moya’s heart skipped a beat.
Her butt, once harshly spanked, began to ache faintly.
She quickly put her cloak back on to hide her expression and waved her hand, saying.
“Can you?”
Aide raised an eyebrow.
He had originally thought this search would be like last time, starting only after he went back to sleep and the divine Moya began her work.
“What else? I don’t want to get my pay deducted again!”
Moya crossed her arms and snorted.
Given the previous lesson, she wasn’t going to risk slacking off and leave this matter to her sleepwalking self.
She could only take the initiative to work overtime now, during what should be her off-hours.
“Although my magic can’t help much compared to Miss Moya’s divine arts, let me kindly remind you of one thing.”
Seeing Aide and Moya so enthusiastic, the Court Mage was happy to slack off.
“Miss Moya, finding the Dream Circus again won’t be so easy this time. Moreover, that pair of fake and real family heads were taken into the spiritual world with their physical bodies, leaving no trace for tracking magic.”
Aide nodded and asked the Court Mage, who was leisurely drinking his fifth cup of cocoa.
“What about that cloaked figure? Since the body-swapping incident was committed by him using the crystal ball, and now the crystal ball has disappeared with that pair of fake and real family heads, shouldn’t the cloaked figure have some idea about this phenomenon?”
“Unfortunately.”
The Court Mage sighed.
“After the crystal ball took that pair away, I immediately ordered the attendant to bring the cloaked figure from the prison. But the attendant reported that the cloaked figure lost consciousness right after the crystal ball burst and is currently in a deep coma.”
Aide and Moya exchanged a glance, having formed an idea.
“Then please take us to the prison where the cloaked figure is held.”
After confirming they were on the same page, Aide said proactively.
“No problem. Xiao Ba, take them to the royal prison.”
Hearing Aide’s request, the Court Mage didn’t intend to ask further and called to the attendant beside him.
“Let them do whatever they want. Just make sure to clearly state these two’s identities as clients to avoid any unnecessary trouble.”
Following the attendant Xiao Ba, as the Court Mage called him, they left the mage tower and went deep underground in the royal capital.
“So stinky!”
As soon as they entered the royal prison, Moya’s expression turned disgusted.
The stench of rot and mold mixed together, combined with the dead silence, made the atmosphere of the entire prison extremely oppressive.
“Then let’s finish quickly.”
Aide personally didn’t mind, but seeing Moya so uncomfortable, he couldn’t help but quicken his pace following Xiao Ba.
The attendant Xiao Ba stopped at the end of the corridor, exchanged a few whispers with the guard, and received a rusty key.
He inserted it into the lock of a heavy iron door.
The door creaked open slowly with a grating sound.
“This is it.”
Xiao Ba stepped aside.
“Please.”
The cell was small, about ten square meters.
The walls were covered with runes that suppressed magic.
The cloaked figure lay on a simple stone bed, his face pale as paper, his breathing so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Moya walked to the stone bed, reached out, and placed her hand on the cloaked figure’s forehead.
A faint holy light glowed from her palm.
“Just as I expected.”
After carefully examining the unconscious cloaked figure with holy light, Moya said with certainty.
“His soul has been extracted.”
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