The broken sword that had originally been tucked into Alice’s waist was now in Lin Ge’s hand. When had that happened?

Alice looked like she’d gone mad. She let go of the reins and lunged at Lin Ge without a second thought, trying to snatch the sword back.

The moment the reins went slack, the horse bolted as if it had been given a shot of adrenaline, galloping wildly out of control.

Seeing this, Lin Ge had no time to worry about anything else. He rushed forward, seized the reins, and yanked hard. Only then did he prevent things from taking a turn for the worse.

Lin Ge couldn’t help letting out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, are you crazy? Couldn’t you just talk about it?”

Lin Ge turned and looked at Alice with an aggrieved expression.

He’d thought Alice was the sort of person who could keep her emotions in check. Who would’ve guessed she’d make such a rookie mistake?

“That’s what I should be asking you, you bastard! Who said you could touch my things? Do you want to lose that hand?”

Lin Ge was angry. Did Alice think she wasn’t?

She clutched the broken sword tightly. Her eyes burned with anger, and glimmering tears welled at their corners.

She glared at Lin Ge through clenched teeth. This was the first time Alice had ever been so furious.

And it was the first time Lin Ge had ever seen her this angry, too…

Lin Ge couldn’t help feeling a little surprised and curious. What was so special about that sword?

Why did it matter so much to Alice, who usually kept such a tight hold on her emotions…?

Was it some kind of family heirloom?

“Um… Alice, I didn’t mean to—”

“Don’t talk to me. I don’t want to deal with you right now.”

“…”

Clutching the broken sword, Alice turned away and faced the other direction.

Actions spoke louder than words.

There was no need to ask. Just as Lin Ge had suspected, that sword really did mean a great deal to her.

But what exactly it meant was something he couldn’t know for now…

“That sword’s reached the end of its life. Even if you take it in for repairs, it won’t be fixable.”

Lin Ge gripped the reins and spoke.

“…”

Alice didn’t answer.

She didn’t even nod.

She stayed curled up in the corner, frozen in the same position.

Seeing this, Lin Ge let out a quiet sigh.

He hadn’t meant to upset her, but… it looked like he’d managed to make her mad.

And this wasn’t the usual kind of anger. She was genuinely furious.

Lin Ge glanced at Alice, who still wouldn’t even look at him, then shrugged helplessly. He wanted to apologize, but if she wasn’t going to talk to him, trying to force his way in would only backfire and make things worse.

In that case, all he could do was wait until the carriage stopped and find a chance to apologize.

However…

“Meet me at your place in three hours. See you.”

She didn’t even leave Lin Ge a chance to say anything.

Once they arrived, Alice left the carriage at the stable and disappeared into the crowd with both swords at her waist.

Lin Ge was left standing all alone in the middle of the main road, looking both lonely and ridiculous.

He couldn’t help feeling like a bit of a tragic figure…

“Sigh. Whatever. I’ll look around for a while.”

With no chance to explain himself, Lin Ge could only wander around aimlessly.

To be honest, he was pretty curious about how the other territories in this world had developed.

This was his hometown, after all. He really could feel a nostalgic atmosphere everywhere he went.

But that was only a feeling. He’d barely crossed over when he’d almost been pickled, then packed off to be married off. When would he have had the chance to explore his hometown?

Since Alice wasn’t giving him a chance, he might as well take this opportunity to let loose for once.

These past few days, he’d worked himself ragged trying to discreetly fix the mistakes in Alice’s leadership without letting Alice or Rosetti catch on.

Thinking this, Lin Ge strolled through the “familiar” town.

He had to admit, this really was a town governed by a high-ranking noble. Its development was on a completely different level from Bota City.

There were shops, markets, street stalls, and even casinos and brothels everywhere.

Still, now that women were gradually gaining their footing, most of the brothels had basically become male brothels. In other words, quite a few of them were staffed by people built like muscle-bound Barbies.

Brr. Just imagining that was scary.

Well, Lin Ge wasn’t especially interested in that sort of thing anyway. Gambling was poison, and he hated it more than anything.

And when it came to places still staffed by women, wasn’t Rosetti more than enough? Why would he go out of his way to visit somewhere like that?

What really drew Lin Ge in were the little food stalls along the road.

The food in Bota City had improved these past few days, sure, but that only meant they’d gone from boiled cabbage to cabbage stir-fried with salt.

It was still pretty much the same.

Looking at the colorful fruit and the skewers roasting in fragrant rows at the roadside stalls, Lin Ge couldn’t help swallowing hard.

—Grrr~~~

He was hungry.

He needed to dig in, pronto!

Taking out the purse Alice had given him before they split up, Lin Ge headed for one of the skewer stalls.

“Hey, boss, give me two of each of these skewers.”

Lin Ge swallowed and pointed at the skewers in front of him, roasted golden-brown and smelling delicious.

He rubbed his hands together, unable to wait any longer to dig in.

“Here you go. That’ll be five copper coins.”

The vendor quickly packed up Lin Ge’s order and handed it over.

Lin Ge deftly pulled out five copper coins and reached over to take the skewers.

But just as his hand was about to touch the bamboo skewers…

Clatter—

All the skewers fell to the ground.

Hey! What are you doing? What a waste!

Lin Ge stared heartbrokenly at the skewers on the ground, just about to complain.

But then…

“Y-You… You’re not Master Eight, are you?”

“Master Eight?! What Master Eight?”

Lin Ge furrowed his brow and gave the terrified vendor a suspicious look.

“Aren’t you Master Eight?” the vendor asked timidly, trembling.

“What’s this ‘Master Eight’ business? Nobody’s ever called me that.”

“So… you’re not him?”

“Of course I’m not.”

Hearing Lin Ge say that, the vendor breathed a sigh of relief.

He patted his chest and muttered to himself:

“Thank goodness, thank goodness. I thought the city lord’s eighth son had come back. Good thing it wasn’t him, good thing it wasn’t him.”

“The city lord’s eighth son? If that’s who you mean, then that’s me.”

“Huh?!”

The vendor stood there, stunned.

For a long moment, he couldn’t process it.

Only after a while did he start packing everything on his stall cart at top speed. He grabbed a megaphone from beside him and ran off, shouting:

“Everyone, run! Master Eight is back!”

“What?!”

At the vendor’s words, the whole street seemed to answer some kind of summons. Everyone stopped dead at once. The smiles vanished from their faces, replaced by terror, and every gaze turned toward Lin Ge.

Then, like an unstoppable chain reaction, everyone seemed to go mad and scattered in every direction.

Before long, the once-bustling street was deserted and utterly silent…

Just like when Alice had left him behind earlier, Lin Ge was suddenly all alone again.

His mouth twitched. His face twitched. His whole body was spasming.

When had he become some kind of walking disaster?

Did they really have to be this cold?