Chapter 614: The Beginning of Dehya's Story

[Cyno: "Manipulating hearts, disregarding life, doing anything for profit—this makes me angry."]

Yes, it was precisely because of these things that Cyno was extremely angry at Azar, and also why Cyno helped Aaru Village find people.

As for what Tighnari was here for, he actually came to treat that merchant's daughter.

Cyno is a person who values promises—since he agreed, he would definitely follow through.

Of course, Tighnari would also check on Cyno's injury condition along the way.

[Tighnari: "Play more Genius Invokation TCG, don't always have a stern face. Collei was already a bit afraid of you—this way, she'll be even more afraid to talk to you."]

Collei's little face blushed—she really was a bit afraid of Cyno before, but after spending more time together, she learned about Cyno's personality.

In the story, Tighnari mentioning Collei actually sparked Cyno's concern—he asked how Collei has been lately.

[Tighnari replied: "She's grown a little taller. Her grades are so-so. Last test, I clearly highlighted the key points for her in advance, but she still got several wrong."]

Scholars could very much understand—rather, a genius like Tighnari who aces every exam was the one hard for everyone to understand.

Knowing Collei was fine and had grown some, Cyno's expression softened slightly.

However, the readers instead frowned in confusion—Cyno and Tighnari aren't that much older than Collei, right? Why does it feel like they're her parents?

Caring about studies, caring if she's grown taller, caring about health—what is this if not parents?

But the topic of caring for the child quickly passed, and Cyno started caring about the Traveler.

He told Lumine that all the criminals who held grudges against her had been captured by him—now Lumine could relax a bit, no need to worry about being knocked out at night.

The Traveler could relax, but Cyno still couldn't.

He would keep moving forward, because there were still many people who saw him as a goal, chasing his back along his path.

Taj was right—people change, but Cyno hoped he could change slowly, because:

["This way, those who see me as their 'senior,' those walking behind me, can gain some courage from me."]

The Matras seeing this had stars in their eyes—tears flowing.

This wasn't from being moved, but from an inexplicable surge of passion—this is their General Mahamatra!

Though he loves telling bad jokes, isn't good at socializing, and is a TCG addict, he's still the very best General Mahamatra!

Just a bit fond of bad jokes...

But that's everyday Cyno—in serious mode, he's extremely cold and proper.

["If one day we find flowers that can grow in the arid desert, I want to invite you to come with me and plant some at the ruins of the Court of Desolation."]

This was his romance and remembrance.

'Lupus Aureus Chapter · Sinking Sands Return to Silence · End'

The story in the book ended, but there was a small Easter egg after the ending—Cyno telling the Traveler about a strange thing he encountered a few days ago.

A merchant came to him demanding money for a desert travel kit, saying it was 1.25 million Mora.

Cyno didn't remember owing this money, and the amount was unreasonable, so he directly arrested the guy—wasn't this provocation?

[Cyno asked: "Do you two have any clues about this?"]

Oh yes, way too many—this money was what the two of them owed, but when signing the IOU, they wrote your name.

Though knowing what happened, Paimon absolutely didn't dare say, only laughing it off.

[Paimon: "N-no, Paimon doesn't know oh."]

Little Paimon even started acting cute to gloss over it—probably the cutest thing she could think of was Klee, so she was imitating Klee.

The readers found one thing strange—why 1.25 million Mora?

500,000 each, Paimon's counted as 250,000—shouldn't it be 750,000?

Thinking about it, everyone realized—Dori had pinned the money on Cyno! This was equivalent to "selling" another travel kit to Cyno, right?

With Dori's caution, the one going to demand money from Cyno was probably a merchant under her—poor that merchant.

But merchants are merchants—even facing the General Mahamatra Cyno, daring to ask for such outrageous money—probably betting Cyno wouldn't do much to him.

If the bet lost, at worst a few days in jail; if won, over a million—no merchant could refuse this "risk."

Okay, with this, Cyno's story truly ended. What touched everyone most was the contrast between justice as heavy as a great mountain and family affection as delicate as flowing water.

This story let everyone feel the Matras' awakening, and also let readers understand the everyday side of Matras.

How to say it—it made everyone's image of Matras a few points more approachable. Before, Sumeru people were a bit afraid of Matras.

As for the knife part, Cyno's story was a family affection knife—but it felt like small knives scraping the skin, a sensation not intense but lingering and long.

For some readers, this was still too gentle—not knifey enough, just leaving some sentiment.

But fortunately, another book was released at the same time—Cyno's story was precisely the "whetstone" for family affection; now this sharp knife was about to cut people.

The other story was Dehya's story—similarly, this was also a story about family affection, a story about fatherly love.

'Mantichora Chapter · Act One · "Lion's Blood"'

The story starts very ordinarily—just the Traveler and Paimon strolling in the Grand Bazaar, then Paimon smelling something delicious and planning to buy some good eats.

Little child Paimon was acting spoiled with big sister Lumine, wanting Lumine to buy for her.

Just then, two people walked over—precisely the protagonists of this story, Dehya and Dunyarzad.

Dehya's story timeline is already quite far in the future—after the final battle.

However, the text doesn't specify this, after all, it's not the focus.

This time Dehya came back and took some jobs from the Homayani family (Dunyarzad's family), still living at Dunyarzad's house.

Regarding this, Dunyarzad's whole family was very welcoming—rather, they were used to living with Dehya normally; the past few days without Dehya felt unaccustomed instead.

Now it was in "besties shopping" mode—the two girls were purely out strolling, just like Paimon and the Traveler.

What caught the readers' attention was—in the illustration, the bandages on Dunyarzad's hand were removed!

There was nothing on her hand, skin smooth like white jade—from this, Dunyarzad's Eleazar was cured!

This truly made readers overjoyed—seeing the future has this best point: getting reassurance in advance.

But at this moment, the readers still didn't know the price of this reassurance.