Chapter 26
Pei Sen was a “commoner” who had entered the manor not long ago. Relying on the young master’s rapid rise, he had swiftly climbed the ranks and, in a remarkably short time, secured the position of steward.
Moreover, the young master insisted on having him by his side all day; even if he stepped away for a moment, the maids would be sent to fetch him back.
Such treatment was far beyond what an ordinary personal butler could expect.
Furthermore, as soon as this newcomer took charge of internal affairs, he had everyone near the young master’s bedroom reassigned elsewhere. No wonder the servants all silently understood his intentions.
Pei Sen felt his entire body stiffen. He stood there speechless for a long while, having even forgotten his original purpose.
This misunderstanding has grown far too large!
He and the young master are completely innocent; there is absolutely nothing between them.
Still, it’s no wonder people’s minds wandered. As soon as Pei Sen took up his post, everything else remained unchanged, yet he specifically transferred the servants stationed outside the bedroom, which indeed invites suspicion.
However, what he had in mind was to sneak away at night, so naturally, he needed to make arrangements regarding the bedroom!
Without alerting the two gossiping male servants, Pei Sen departed from the other side. “It’s fortunate they didn’t suspect me of harboring ill intentions toward the young master; that’s why they dismissed the servants.”
One could only say that no one yet held Pei Sen in such high regard. Moreover, since he had previously taken a knife blow while protecting the young master, nobody suspected him in this matter.
Furthermore, Pei Sen had only dismissed the male servants, not the guards. As the steward of internal affairs, he possessed no authority over the guards. Even though there were no night-duty servants outside the bedroom, the young master’s quarters remained tightly secured by guards. Servants were never meant to protect the young master; their role was solely to ensure his convenience, not his safety.
As Pei Sen walked back, he sighed inwardly. If his act of taking the young master away were ever exposed, people might truly believe he had abducted the young master and eloped with him!
This… is not good.
But this kind of matter truly cannot be clarified even with eight mouths, especially since he and the young master do share secrets, making it even harder to explain.
Eagle had no one he could trust within the manor, yet Pei Sen had unexpectedly earned his trust. Seeing that both Sardin and Keso regarded Pei Sen differently—regardless of whether this special treatment stemmed from goodwill or malice—it was, at its core, tied to Eagle’s own attitude toward him.
This brat rarely treated anyone with such “leniency”; otherwise, he wouldn’t have driven away so many male servants.
“Forget it; what must be done still has to be done. If there are consequences, I’ll deal with them later,” Pei Sen resigned himself once again to despair.
There was no choice; he could no longer delay. If the players discovered the dungeon first, not only would the ensuing crowd near the dungeon cause major headaches, but more importantly, losing the world-first clear would feel as heartbreaking as losing everything.
Bix Cube differed from other games in that the rewards for achieving a world-first clear on any dungeon were vastly superior to those obtained through normal runs. Pei Sen had previously believed the game designed it this way to encourage players to actively seek out dungeon clues, since dungeons in this game were notoriously difficult to find. Investing early efforts into locating dungeon clues would make little sense if the world-first rewards weren’t substantial enough to significantly outweigh those earned by later runners; otherwise, the return on investment simply wouldn’t justify the effort.
Since the first clear is so crucial, major guilds in Bix Cube will later dispatch specialists dedicated to uncovering dungeon clues.
No longer in the mood to check the defense status, Pei Sen felt that one must risk a child to catch a wolf. He was no longer an ordinary player; regular players could log out after playing, but he found himself unable to do so. It was basically confirmed that he had transmigrated into this world.
Under such circumstances, strength became especially vital.
“What does money matter, anyway?” Pei Sen thought sorrowfully.
He decided to use an expensive teleportation scroll.
To bring the young master along, a single-person teleportation scroll wouldn’t suffice; he had to use a multi-person one, even though there were only two of them.
Truly double the pain.
That night, Pei Sen gazed at Eagle’s wardrobe and fell into deep thought.
Eagle blinked. “What’s wrong? Is this outfit not suitable either?”
A wardrobe full of opulent garments, nearly all exuding an aristocratic air, reflected the intricate extravagance favored by the nobility of Asmia.
Yet now, needing to go out and attempting to choose a suitable outfit had unexpectedly become a dilemma.
The sky outside had grown completely dark. Pei Sen felt he could no longer delay. He settled on a relatively unburdensome shirt and a pair of dark trousers. Without yet taking the clothes from the wardrobe, he glanced at Eagle, whose face bore an expression of pure innocence, and resigned himself to personally assisting the young master in changing.
While unbuttoning Eagle’s shirt, he turned to the two maids who had not yet left. “You may both return; come back tomorrow morning.”
Carla and Linni said not a word, hurrying outside as if they couldn’t get away fast enough.
Pei Sen: “…”
He couldn’t shake the feeling that they had misunderstood something too.
Pei Sen thought to himself, what’s the big deal? It’s just changing clothes; it’s all pixelated anyway. What’s there to get excited about?
He had originally thought that upgrading his NPC panel to blue would eliminate the trouble of the mosaic, but it seems that was not the case; he probably needs to level up one more time.
In other words, to get rid of the mosaic, one must become an important figure among the NPCs.
But in truth, Pei Sen doesn’t really want the mosaic to disappear so quickly right now. After all, the mosaic is actually protecting his psychological resilience.
Not to mention anything else—if the blood splatter effects were as realistic as reality itself and the mosaic disappeared…
Pei Sen figured he should be at least somewhat startled.
After quickly dressing Eagle, Pei Sen glanced around. “Young master, is there anything you’d like to bring?”
“Anything at all?” Eagle blinked, a thrill coursing through him since he had never left the estate on his own before.
“Not exactly anything, but I’ll do my best to pack whatever you need.”
There were still some empty slots in the backpack. Spatial magic belonged to quite high-tier sorcery; advanced mages like Keso possessed their own storage rings. In fact, Peisen’s alternate account used items for expanding both backpack and warehouse capacity that were all spatial equipment native to the world of Yali Continent.
If Eagle wanted one, he could certainly afford it, but he never ventured outside. Originally, he didn’t possess such magical items, and furthermore, these weren’t things you could simply buy whenever you wished. Even if Keso had connections, acquiring them wasn’t an immediate matter.
Eagle pondered for a moment. “Can I bring Peks?”
The fat cat crouching nearby twitched, as if sensing an ominous premonition, and swiftly leaped aside with an agility that belied its bulky frame.
Pei Sen’s gaze fell upon the black cat. Living creatures… were rather troublesome, especially since this one belonged to Eagle and not to him; taking it along would be quite a hassle.
“Unless Young Master gifts Pex to me, I’m afraid I cannot take it,” Pei Sen joked.
Players could carry pets and summon them at will without trouble, but living beings could not be placed into inventory or storage.
To his surprise, Eagle replied without hesitation, “Sure, it’s yours.”
Pei Sen: “…………”
He didn’t want it, thank you very much.
A black cat that could do nothing, so fat it could barely walk—unable to fight monsters or hunt for treasures, doing nothing but sleeping and eating—what good was it? It would just take up a pet slot for no reason, wasting space, and taking it out would only invite ridicule from others.
Moreover, it couldn’t even act cute or clingy properly; while it behaved decently in front of Eagle, it treated Pei Sen with nothing but arrogance.
Pei Sen had no desire to take such a creature as his pet!
“Ding! Congratulations, player, you have obtained the pet ‘Pax’.”
Pei Sen: “…”
Pex, however, let out a sharp “meow” and fluffed up its fur in protest, clearly displeased at the prospect of changing masters; staying with Eagle meant plentiful food, drink, and a life of luxury.
What could it possibly gain by following Pei Sen?
Its master was Count Eagle Langno, and always would be!
Pei Sen glanced at Pex. Since Eagle wished to bring it along, so be it. Just as he was about to store Pex in his pet slot, he suddenly let out an intrigued “Huh?”
“Peks (LV2)
Age: 21
Race: Shadow Cat
Skill 1: Shadow Strike (LV MAX), a racial innate skill that allows launching attacks while concealed in darkness.
Skill 2: Shadow Claw (LV1) – Can construct shadow claws within the void, inflicting massive damage.
Skill 3: Rend (LV MAX) – Innate ability; any damage dealt will cause a tearing bleed effect.
Skill 4: Fang and Claw Enhancement (LV1) – Bloodline ability; teeth and cat-like claws are strengthened, increasing attack power.
Skill 5: Shadow Erosion (LV1): Attacks inflict stacking shadow corrosion damage.”
A divine pet with five skills? You definitely deserve this!
Pei Sen: “…”
Wait a minute, what’s going on with this cat? Isn’t it just an ordinary black cat? Why is it called a Shadow Cat?
No matter how he looked at it, Pei Sen couldn’t see anything extraordinary about this cat; apart from being severely overweight, it seemed no different from an ordinary feline.
Moreover, as a rare species, wasn’t Pex a bit too useless? Having lived for over twenty years, why was its level still only 2? In other words, this creature had been loafing around and waiting to die all these years, showing not a shred of awareness befitting a special race.
Judging by its skills, this cat was definitely not weak; previously, Pei Sen had never heard of any player managing to tame such a pet. In fact, most pets in Bix Cube were quite feeble; even first-tier magical beasts like the Savage Leaping Hare found on the Starry Plains could not be captured as companions. The prerequisite for something to be called a pet was that the other party must be willing; generally speaking, magical beasts would never voluntarily become human pets.
Pex was an exception; it had originally been Eagle’s pet and had simply been gifted to Pei Sen now. Back then, it had absolutely willingly become Eagle’s companion.
“Peks…” Pei Sen looked over, only to see that Peks seemed to have sensed something; its fur was standing on end as it circled Eagle, meowing incessantly, looking truly pitiful, weak, and helpless.
Clearly, it did not want a new master—not in the slightest—and was now doing its best to change Eagle’s mind.
Peks had but one wish: to continue living a life of idle comfort as an adorable nobleman’s pet cat.
However, Eagle handed it over to Pei Sen without a moment’s hesitation, simply breaking the poor cat’s heart.
The cat didn’t want a new master; it wished to continue following Eagle.
Pei Sen stopped looking at it. After Eagle finished changing clothes, he casually grabbed a few more outfits from the wardrobe, just in case they needed to change again later.
Then, he took two black cloaks out of his backpack. “Put these on.”
These standard-issue black cloaks were items occasionally sold by a mysterious merchant who rarely appeared on the Yali Continent several years in the future. At this current time, that merchant shouldn’t be making such cloaks yet. However, a few years later, these black cloaks would become one of the specialty products of the Yali Continent. Pei Sen’s storage account had kept a few of them, not yet having handed them over to his main character to sell in other worlds. Fortunately, they could be put to use right now.
“Mist Veil Cloak (Outer Gear): Pulling up the hood completely conceals your appearance; unless you lower it yourself, no one can discern your true features under any circumstances. It also blocks opponents from probing your specific information.”
For players, the second point is even more important than the first. In the late game, many players master various detection and scanning skills; some are particularly effective against NPCs, while others can reveal other players’ stat panels.
Players who wish to keep their specific stat data private will most likely prepare a Mistweave Cloak.
Eagle glanced at the dark, seemingly… not very clean cloak in his hands and desperately wanted to refuse wearing it. However, he knew that if he refused, Pei Sen would likely refuse to take him out.
Thus, he decided to endure the humiliation and put it on.
“Pei Sen, do you possess a spatial-type magical item?”
“Yes.” Pei Sen admitted readily; otherwise, many things would be impossible to explain.
Eagle pondered thoughtfully, “Such magical items are generally extremely expensive. Why did you initially…” come to the manor to apply for a position?
Pei Sen sighed, “Actually, this isn’t considered a spatial-type magical item.” He extended his hands; a pair of slender, clean hands held nothing, nor did he wear any jewelry on other parts of his body. “This should be regarded as an innate ability of the Bix race, allowing one to store certain items. However, this kind of space cannot be sold, nor can it be used to exchange for money. Besides, I do indeed possess some special things, but in Kaixi City… could they be exchanged for money?” They would only invite deadly peril.
Eagle glanced at the simple, unadorned ring on his finger; if it were ever to be sold, it might even fetch a higher price than spatial-type magical items.
He knew Pei Sen hadn’t told the whole truth; this man harbored many secrets. Sometimes Eagle could barely restrain himself from wanting to scrutinize every inch of him, yet he forcibly held back.
Eagle knew that Pei Sen’s care and compassion for him were genuine. He was aware that many people disliked him, and he didn’t want Pei Sen to grow to dislike him as well.
Sensitive, suspicious, yet exceptionally clever, Eagle hoped that in Pei Sen’s eyes, he wasn’t quite so terrible.
“Are we setting off?”
“Yes, we’re setting off.”
Pei Sen reached out his hand toward Eagle, and without hesitation, Eagle placed his own into Pei Sen’s palm.
Holding Eagle’s hand, Pei Sen took out a multi-person teleportation scroll. Under normal circumstances, using such a scroll only required standing within the magical circle it generated before the time limit expired. However, fearing that Eagle might hesitate out of fear, Pei Sen gripped his hand tightly; if they missed the timing, Pei Sen would truly have tears but no place to shed them.
After all, this scroll was exorbitantly expensive.
“Young Master Eagle, if you wish to regret this, there’s still time.” The white light of the magical circle illuminated both their faces.
Eagle shook his head, looking at Pei Sen. “You won’t regret it, Pei Sen.”
Thank you for taking me there.
Meanwhile, Akin, residing in the manor, sighed. “Starting today, have them take turns guarding this place. Say I’m in a foul mood and will see no one except Eagle.”
“Yes, my lord,” Akin’s captain of the guard replied, though he remained somewhat puzzled. “We’re at the Golden Rose Manor; could it be that even here is no longer safe? Could Boswick possibly track us down all the way here?”
Aikin shook his head. “He won’t come after me. What am I worth now? He has already obtained what he desired. As long as I do not go to the capital, he will leave me alone.”
Those feigned affections were merely deceptions designed to win his trust, yet Aikin still clung to a sliver of hope, believing that Oak Boswick would not be so heartless as to eradicate him completely.
Vido, the female butler who had accompanied Aikin all the way here, disagreed. “Boswick is cold-hearted. He served as your knight for years solely for the sake of revenge. If I were him, I would find a way to kill you, my lord, for doing so would erase the history of his past humiliation.”
“No one will ever know,” Aikin said softly. “The knight who was once most important to me was named Derry; his name was Oak Boswick. The Derry I trusted is already dead. The one now occupying my former lands is merely Viscount Oak of the Boswick family.”
No one will care about the new viscount’s past; those who knew about it either remained in that castle to serve him or fled with him to this place, while the rest perished in that calamity.
“Then why, Young Master, did you order the Captain of the Guard to heighten security?”
“Because… my friend Eagle has temporarily eloped with someone…” Aijin said, half-amused and half-exasperated, waving the note in his hand. “He told me to protect myself, to stay quietly within the manor until he returns, and above all, not to cause any trouble.”
The housekeeper stared at him in shock, momentarily finding her tongue tied. “W-what?”
When Aijin found out, it was already too late to stop Eagle, and besides, he couldn’t have stopped him anyway. He knew Eagle’s nature; once this guy made up his mind, no one had ever been able to change it. His stubbornness was terrifying.
“A personal butler, huh…” Aijin smiled bitterly. When Eagle had written to him back then, he’d even joked about it. Who would have thought Eagle actually meant it?
Leaving the manor without permission—this had turned into a massive mess.
However, their Kingdom of Asmia was surely heading toward chaos. Having his territory seized was something that would never have happened before. Now, with such a major incident occurring, the capital remained silent, even tacitly approving Oak Boswick’s actions. That in itself was highly abnormal.
“Since things have become chaotic, staying at the manor might not be safe for Eagle either,” Aijin frowned.
At this moment, Eagle opened his eyes and saw Pei Sen standing beside him. He too wore a black cloak identical to Eagle’s, concealing his features, yet his hand still held firmly onto Eagle’s, filling him with a sense of reassurance.
“Have we… made it out?”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Even when leaving the manor in the past, Eagle always traveled in his opulent carriage, accompanied by a large retinue of guards and servants; he had never ventured outside the estate on his own and didn’t even know what the scenery around the manor looked like.
As a nobleman, he would never lean out of the carriage window to gaze outside, as such behavior was considered extremely rude and improper.
Even traveling by carriage away from the manor was a rare occurrence for him; having lived at the Golden Rose Manor for so many years, he had left fewer than five times.
Besides, this barren frontier region had nothing worth seeing anyway.
Yet at this moment, Eagle looked up to see a sky ablaze with twinkling stars and, in the distance, the faint outline of the endless Starfall Plains. Behind him, close at hand, stood the estate that felt both familiar and strange.
“Shh—” Pei Sen placed his middle finger against his lips. “We’re still too close to the estate. Come, let’s move farther away before we speak.”
The two pulled their cloaks tight and swiftly moved away from the Golden Rose Estate under the night wind.
Pei Sen thought to himself, “Not bad luck; I’ve transmigrated in just the right direction.”
The player interface comes with a built-in map, so he wasn’t worried about getting lost.
The two headed toward Kaixi City. Pei Sen wanted to find that scavenger first; based on information from the forums, he suspected a certain item was currently in the scavenger’s possession.
The Golden Rose Manor was actually quite close to Kaixi City. However, instead of heading straight for the city, they detoured to the scavenger’s small shack, which made the journey slightly longer.
When the player who originally aspired to be a scavenger built that shack, his intention was to find a secluded spot far away from others. He hadn’t wanted other players to discover it, but players being who they are, some naturally grew curious upon noticing his suspicious behavior. In the blink of an eye, the location of the shack was exposed.
“Where are we going?” Eagle didn’t actually know any of the places around; after stepping out, every direction looked unfamiliar to him.
Pei Sen glanced at the map. “Let’s find a place first.”
Eagle asked no further questions and simply followed Pei Sen forward.
The roads on the Yali Continent were hardly comfortable to travel. In the past, Eagle’s carriage had been equipped with magical arrays that provided perfect shock absorption. In reality, however, the ground consisted entirely of gravel and sand, making the journey truly unpleasant.
Eagle wore his boots, yet they still felt uncomfortably hard against his feet.
Pei Sen suddenly stopped in his tracks. “Young master, are you unable to walk any further?”
Eagle pressed his lips together and remained silent.
This young nobleman had probably never walked such a distance in his life, let alone on such terrible roads.
Although he had mastered some spells, he was still merely a magic apprentice and had not yet become a junior mage; in other words, he hadn’t undergone any qualitative transformation. His physical constitution remained no different from that of an ordinary person.
No, he should be even frailer than an average person.
Pei Sen sighed, crouching down with his back to Eagle. “Come on, get on.”
At fifteen, Eagle was already nearly as tall as Pei Sen. Even though Pei Sen’s avatar possessed a standard average height, definitely exceeding 1.8 meters, Eagle would clearly grow much taller in the future.
Pei Sen recalled that later, a popular “NPC,” the Divine Son Shengyan of the Church of the God of Light, was an exceptionally tall figure; players estimated his height to be around 1.95 meters.
So being over 1.8 meters tall at fifteen isn’t really surprising.
Eagle hesitated for a moment before stepping forward, leaning onto Pei Sen’s back and wrapping his arms around his neck.
“Pei Sen, am I useless?”
“No, you just haven’t experienced these things yet.”
Pei Sen thought that someone as tall as Eagle should be quite heavy, but in reality, he was much lighter than expected.
Combined with Pei Sen’s currently extremely high strength stat, carrying Eagle was almost effortless.
Eagle pressed his cheek against Pei Sen’s. “Just carry me for a little while; I’ll be able to walk on my own soon.”
“Alright.”
In the deep night, Pei Sen walked on, carrying Eagle on his back.
Coincidentally, a faint night mist had formed tonight; the hazy fog made the path ahead unclear.
Eagle felt the world grow utterly silent, as if only he and Pei Sen remained.
Oh no, there was also Peks, walking beside Pei Sen with his face scrunched up in a tight knot.
Pecks reluctantly trailed behind, feeling that life as a cat was truly miserable; right now, he should be dozing on a soft cushion back at the manor.
Why must he trudge wearily outside?
Cats really have it too rough—far too rough.
Just then, two players logged in and spotted a hazy black silhouette lurking in the mist from afar; its bizarre appearance startled them into a shriek.
“What the hell is that?”
“No idea, a monster in the fog?”
“Whoa, don’t scare me!”
“Let’s go, take a closer look.”
“Are we really going?”
“Yeah, let’s see if we can take down that monster; it might drop some special items.”
“What if it’s an NPC?”
“Then it must be a special one; there might even be a high-level quest!”
The two rushed forward excitedly. Through the mist, Pei Sen also spotted the players running toward him with equal enthusiasm.
A sense of foreboding immediately washed over him.
And his premonitions always came true quickly.