Chapter 146 - 12: I Confess, I Fell in Love with You at First Sight

Back at the church in Radiant City, Duan Fei witnessed a truly rare sight.

Children recover quickly. Since they were just kids, Duan Fei had also given them a larger portion of Yan Yuan’s blood, which sped up their recovery.

Coupled with Duan Fei’s tireless use of the Rough Healing Technique, all seven children were back to full health.

The oldest of the seven children was thirteen, and the youngest was only five.

The thirteen-year-old was already old enough to help care for the bedridden Priest and Nun, but the five-year-olds, oblivious to the fact they had just narrowly escaped death, were running amok.

They even set their mischievous sights on Beist and Winston. Three five-year-olds latched onto Beist, chattering away at him and even starting to roughhouse on his broad back.

One would have thought Beist would get angry, but the tall skeleton was surprisingly patient.

He let the three five-year-olds clamber all over his armor and even squatted down, extending an arm for one of them to use as a swing.

Even as a skeleton, his reflexes were still incredibly sharp. Whenever a child was about to lose their grip and fall, he would effortlessly catch them and set them gently on the ground.

The older children were still wary of the two strange ’people,’ but after seeing Winston cast a few small magic spells, they immediately crowded around her, begging her to perform even better tricks.

Watching the two of them quietly from the doorway, Duan Fei suddenly remarked, "Don’t you think they look like a married couple?"

"They’re both skeletons, of course they look like a couple," Yan Yuan said with a belch. "The steak here is delicious. For more steak, I wouldn’t mind letting out a bit more blood."

"Just eat yourself to death, then."

As night fell, Beist used the leftover vegetables to make a thick soup, whipping up a meal for the whole group in a cauldron in under an hour.

Meanwhile, Winston read the children a story, lulling them to sleep. She used magic to send them up to the attic before slowly making her way back downstairs.

As she descended, the lantern light cast her shadow on the wall. It made her silhouette look less terrifying, and almost... elegant.

Beist, sitting by the living room table, seemed to be in a trance for a moment. Then, he reached his hand out to Winston.

Just as Winston was about to place her hand in his, she snapped out of it, smacked Beist sharply, and barked, "What do you think you’re doing?"

"I don’t know! I just wanted to!"

"Pervert! You don’t even spare skeletons! You must have seen my perfect pelvis and developed some kind of unnamable desire, didn’t you."

"Well... maybe a little."

"Pervert!"

Duan Fei watched as Winston repeatedly bonked Beist on the head with her magic staff. Beist, for his part, just smiled and didn’t dodge. The sickeningly sweet stench of romance was overwhelming.

’What have I, Duan Fei, done to deserve watching this spectacle?’

’Why don’t you two just get buried together already? And make it snappy!’

’I’ll even pay for the plot. Just let me be the one to shovel the dirt.’

After the two skeletons finally finished their little performance, Duan Fei took out three books. "I’ve handed the matter of the plague over to the Doctor Association," he said. "They’ll get to work on it, and we should see results soon."

Hearing this, Beist breathed a sigh of relief and quietly said, "Thank you."

"Also, I happened to come across three books today that chronicle the war from fifty years ago. I thought we could use them to find some clues that might help you two remember what happened back then. That should also help us make sense of our current predicament."

"Why?" Beist asked, confused. "What does something from fifty years ago have to do with what’s happening now?"

"Are you an idiot?" Winston asked, poking Beist’s skull with her magic staff. "We must have seen something like this fifty years ago. If we can remember, we might figure out what those things were. Ugh, forget it. There’s no use explaining it to this big dummy. Let’s just get started."

’Maybe it was because she’d remembered her name, but Duan Fei felt the old bag of bones was slowly coming to life, acting more and more like a teenage girl.’

’A 400-year-old teenage girl... The thought alone was something else.’

Just as he was thinking this, the magic staff swung down at him. Duan Fei dodged backward, avoiding the blow.

Winston retracted her staff and glared at Duan Fei, displeased. "You seem to be thinking something very rude."

"My master’s thoughts are never polite," Yan Yuan commented, clutching its bulging stomach.

"Shut up," Duan Fei said. "Don’t make things worse for this already dysfunctional little team. Let’s begin."

Spreading the book open, Duan Fei began. "The vineyard. According to this, that’s where you two first met. The record says that the moment you saw each other, you knew you were mortal enemies. You fought from day to night, and then from night back to day."

"Oh, I remember now," Winston said, tapping the table. "That was the first time I saw that big oaf, Beist. I remember thinking, ’Who let this bear in here, and why isn’t it on a chain? If it pounces on me, will I even be able to escape?’"

"I remember, too," Beist said with a nod. "I saw the sloppiest girl in the world. Her skin was as pale as an enemy’s corpse, her black, greasy hair looked like a drowned body’s, and the dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep made her look completely listless. And her habit of farting while she walked was particularly memorable."

"Hold on, hold on," Winston said. "I admit I might have eaten too many beans that day, but I was not farting while I walked!"

"That’s right. You were busy barking like a dog. But each fart was perfectly timed to land in the pauses between barks. It was quite impressive."

A fireball exploded in Beist’s face. His features now covered in soot, Beist blew out a smoke ring and said, "Continue."

"Shouldn’t you heal up first?" Duan Fei asked worriedly.

"It’s fine. This feeling of slowly remembering the past is actually quite interesting. Please, continue."

Sighing, Duan Fei continued. "White Bone Forest. That was where you fought for the second time."

"I remember that name, too," Winston said with a nod. "That was when I suffered the first defeat of my long life. Some bastard disguised himself as an innocent young man and tricked me into performing a Blood Drain on him. His blood, filled with a holy aura, burned my esophagus. I never dared to drain blood again after that! It was you, Beist!"

"Yes, it was me." Beist nodded. "I remember that, too. But do you remember how I tricked you?"

"You gave me flowers! You said you’d fallen in love with me at first sight and that you’d do anything for me. In the heat of the moment, I... I..."

Winston trailed off.

In the candlelight, she lowered her head, silent. Her face, hidden in the shadows beneath her wide-brimmed hat, was impossible to read, but she seemed to be trembling slightly.

The air was thick with a charged atmosphere. The hesitant Winston possessed both the bashfulness of a young maiden and the mature charm of a married woman.

Though it was unclear how a skeleton could evoke such a feeling, it was palpable enough to make even Yan Yuan sit up and watch expectantly.

"Madam, please don’t be shy," Duan Fei said with a serious expression. "We’re all professionals here. We just want to know what happened back then."

"That’s right! Please don’t leave out a single detail. The more you say, the more excited we’ll be! I mean, the closer we’ll get to the truth," Yan Yuan added, getting excited as well.

Covering her cold cheekbones, Winston hesitated for a long time before finally whispering, "So, I performed a Blood Drain on him! But it was a trap! He lied to me!"

"Tch," Duan Fei scoffed.

"Tch." Yan Yuan flopped back down to continue digesting its meal.

"Tch," scoffed the Little Nun, who had been eavesdropping at the door, before heading back to bed.

"Hey, what’s with the attitude! He tricked me, that’s the point! He actually told me he liked me! And that was the first time I’d ever drained blood directly from a person! I’d always just drunk from blood bags before!"

"I didn’t lie to you," Beist said earnestly. "I’ve told many lies in my life, but I wasn’t lying then. I really did fall in love with you at first sight."

"Huh?"

The sheer weight of this revelation left Winston stunned and confused.