The black smoke filled the hundreds of meters of railway tracks. Generally, it is impossible for smoke bombs to achieve this level of coverage, but with the addition of wind magic particles, these specially made smoke bombs were able to spread over a much larger area. The three smoke bombs were placed at intervals, which naturally covered a range of hundreds of meters.
However, the railway tracks were not ideal in this situation. The routes were fixed, so even if we managed to escape the smoke later, we would still be exposed to their line of sight.
But we were not that foolish. The ancients told us about a tactic called the Golden Cicada Sheds its Shell.
So, we set the speed of the freight train to the maximum, and then the three of us jumped down from the train, hiding in the forest.
Well, when they stop our train, they will realize that we have already escaped. By then, we will have already boarded the train directly to the Imperial Academy.
But now we are not in a hurry. The two teams are already heading towards two other cities, so they shouldn't encounter any obstacles.
In order to buy more time, we leisurely walked back to Tiansi City through the forest. Of course, to delay them further, we left plenty of traces in the forest to indicate that we had returned to Tiansi City.
This way, the chances of the other two teams being discovered will be lower.
Ten minutes later, the three of us returned to Tiansi City again. The guards at the gate just casually glanced at our mercenary ID cards and let us in.
There's no other way. We often change our outfits and are quite extravagant.
At this moment, we are just an ordinary team consisting of a semi-magic swordsman, a dual swordswoman, and an assassin. We even changed into the somewhat tattered clothes we wore during the fight, which further adds to the credibility of our identities.
When we reached the central square, we found a corner with fewer people and sat down.
"Let's just rest here in Tiansi City for a while. Anyway, they will soon start blocking the city, but our actions just now have already paralyzed the train station, right? They probably won't undo the alarm for a while, so let's just stay here for a little longer."
"Well, I don't mind," Aliyah said, pursing her lips.
"Yeah, as long as I'm with big brother," Oyado was happy, holding my hand and sitting next to me.
"Um..." Aliyah frowned, and at the same time, a strange mark lit up next to her name.
Huh? What's going on?
I opened the panel, and a arrow appeared on the emotion display setting.
Right, because the positioning of the emotion value and the level was too close before, I always got them mixed up, so I directly turned off the display.
...Could it be that Aliyah...
I clicked on the start button, and the value that popped up startled me!
Aliyah's value was constantly bouncing between 1 and 999, giving a feeling similar to a heartbeat.
I glanced at Oyado next to me, and her value was very normal... No, wait, why is your value staying at 888 without moving? Is it a lucky number or something?
By the way, how is this value measured? What exactly is Aliyah...
"Um... Aliyah..."
I thought for a moment and reached out my hand towards her.
"Come sit over here with me."
"Hmph! This... this is your invitation, not me voluntarily moving over!"
After saying that, she, just like Oyado, sat down right next to me and took hold of my hand.
But...
What are you two glaring at each other for...
Looking at their expressions, all I could do was force a bitter smile. However, seeing Aliyah's stats stabilize at 893, I felt somewhat relieved.
If Aliyah were to go berserk, it wouldn't be a joke...
But... Does Aliyah like me?
I can understand why Oyado has such high stats since she heavily relies on me, but why does Aliyah have such high stats too?
I don't think I've done anything to increase her favorability towards me. Why is it like this?
I completely don't understand...
"Um..."
I looked at Aliyah, about to ask something, but she suddenly stared at me.
"What's wrong?"
"Ah... It's nothing. Well, let's go eat first. We've been running around for so long and haven't eaten anything yet."
As I looked into Aliyah's eyes, the words I was about to say remained unsaid.
Originally, I wanted to confirm something, but... I feel like asking such a question would only make things awkward. If it's not as I imagined, it might even affect our relationship.
To avoid such a situation, I'll... confirm it later.
"Sure, this idea was yours, so you treat!"
"It was obviously Bai Yueguang... Fine, I get it, don't stare at me with that kind of expression, I'll treat."
Looking at Aliyah's expression, I can only force a smile while looking around.
"Alright, what should we eat?"
"Corn pancakes!"
Oyado pointed directly to the snack shop across the street.
"Tch, it's food that only kids like. Come on, let's go eat grilled meat!"
You just want to eat meat, right...
While saying that, Aliyah grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the nearby barbecue restaurant.
I glanced at Oyado and patted her head, saying,
"Okay, let's have grilled meat first, and we can buy corn pancakes later."
"Okay...big brother~"
Oyado obediently nodded.
Then, under Aliyah's strong pulling force, we went straight into the barbecue restaurant.
However, as soon as we entered, we realized that we were the most out of place people in the entire restaurant, as everyone else inside was various muscular men.
Well, of course, there were also muscular female warriors. Compared to them, describing us as thin is an understatement.
"Oh, welcome. Are you three here?"
The store manager was a middle-aged muscular man with a mustache, holding a long sword with several large meat chunks on it.
Yes, this guy was holding a long sword and grilling meat with it.
I must say, the atmosphere of this barbecue restaurant is quite impressive.
"Yes, um... do you have private rooms?"
I looked around and asked.
"Oh, well... we don't have private rooms."
"Young man! Eating meat is something that should be done together, everyone getting lively and having fun."
The man next to us said while holding a piece of meat.
"That's right, you've only recently become a mercenary, right? Just so you know, the days ahead will be spent drinking and eating meat!"
"Haha... is that so... Then, please just give me any available seat. Aliyah, what do you want to order?"
"Let's start with five kilograms of roasted beef," Aliyah said, looking at the menu.
"Oh, alright, boss. Five kilograms of beef per person, three cans of beer. Oh, and do you have lamb? If you do, please add a roasted whole lamb."
Instantly, the restaurant fell silent.
"What's everyone looking at?" I looked around, puzzled.
"N-Nothing..." Everyone turned their heads.
Huh? Did we order too little?
We used to eat about this much before, but judging by their reactions, they must be able to eat a lot more than us.
The restaurant manager showed us to our seats and then walked to the back.
I was about to say something to Aliyah and the others when suddenly, someone sat down at the empty spot at our table, holding a large glass of alcohol.
"You little brats!"
The person appeared to be a female warrior dressed in revealing armor, but her muscles made her even more intimidating.
Her orange hair was braided into a whip hanging behind her head, and her determined yet attractive face was flushed.
How much did this person drink?
"Would you like to challenge the Dragon Meat Buns of this restaurant with me? The loser will cover the cost of the competition."
"Which one of us do you intend to challenge?"
We all asked simultaneously.
The restaurant fell silent once again.
"It seems Sister Lu has encountered a worthy opponent," someone said.
"Really? Do you think those three can eat more than Sister Lu?" another person replied.
"Who knows? The other side ordered a total of 15 kilograms of meat."
"You idiots, shut up!" Sister Lu snapped at the surrounding people.
"I challenge all three of you. As long as one of you can eat more than me, you win. How about it?"
"No problem!" we all answered at the same time.
Great, the free lunch begins!
