Chapter 231: Ah, I’ve Been Found Out

Lance used his mind to tap the pink-glowing status icon.

The panel floated quietly in midair.

No additional explanation or description popped up.

Lance had absolutely no idea what this buff was actually increasing.

However, one thing had already been confirmed.

That Literary Girl named Yvette definitely had a problem.

It was only after that brief physical contact with her on the arch bridge that he had started falling into these strange dreams.

Leaning against the pillows of the large bed, Lance closed his eyes.

He forcibly rewound his memories, attempting a thorough logical review.

Since she had gone to such lengths to construct a dream this realistic, she definitely had some sort of objective.

He had to dissect every tiny detail from these two nights of dreams and uncover her true purpose.

But the deeper he dug into his memories, the stranger his expression became.

He grabbed the blanket beside him and covered his lower body.

It was a little cold.

There were simply too many impurities in this dream. They seriously interfered with his thinking.

Those sensations, those blood-boiling images, and that soft, delicate voice of hers...

They had all tangled together into a giant knot inside his head, severely disrupting his thought process.

...flowing onto his leg...

Lance immediately slapped himself across the face, driving the image away.

After some analysis, he first ruled out the possibility that she was experienced.

Because that girl had definitely been engaging in online duo-queueing with the opposite sex for the first time in her life.

During the practical phase, her reactions had been so awkward that it was painful to watch.

Furthermore, based on these two experiences, every time they re-entered the dream, the environment seemed to reset to match reality's current state.

In other words, her condition appeared to refresh back to its initial state every night.

Which was basically equivalent to—

“Smack!”

Lance gave himself another slap, forcibly interrupting his train of thought.

Since the practical phase consisted entirely of meaningless physical labor,

then the time when she had truly exposed her objective must have been during the conversations before the duo-queueing began.

“Damn it...”

Lance smacked his forehead in frustration.

Thinking back now, Yvette really had seemed to say something during the opening phase.

But here came the problem.

At that time, he had just been thoroughly stimulated by those five demi-human maids inside the luxury suite.

The restless instinct belonging to the Red Dragon within him had been at its peak, with nowhere to vent itself.

As a result, he had been impatient and impulsive, completely letting the lower head control the upper head.

As for whatever she had been muttering back then, he had already forgotten nearly all of it.

Lance threw aside the blanket and got out of bed.

He quickly put on his ordinary linen shirt and dark tanned-leather vest.

He needed to get some fresh air on the deck and completely cool down his overheated brain.

Judging from how these two nights of dreams had unfolded, the other party didn't seem to have displayed any hostility.

The only thing that bothered him was the colored status icon on his panel.

However, since the system had classified it as a “buff status,” it definitely wouldn't have any negative effect on his body.

What Lance felt now was simply an overwhelming sense of embarrassment.

If he went back to sleep now and got dragged into the dream again—

Should he continue?

Or not continue?

“Let's take a break first.”

Lance tightened the leather straps of his traveling boots and muttered to himself.

He would treat it as a short vacation for himself. If he got forcibly dragged in again after a few days, he could ask about her purpose then.

Pushing open the door of the luxury cabin, Lance followed the corridor onto the spacious deck.

Since this was a broad inland river that ran through the province, the ferry sailed extremely smoothly.

Walking to the metal railing, he rested both hands upon it and gazed at the scenery along the riverbanks.

Prosperous towns built alongside the water were scattered across both sides of the river.

Under the cover of night, countless lights illuminated those settlements.

Lance noticed that the closer one got to White River City, the more advanced the local level of alchemy became.

He had once heard adventurers from other regions bragging in the guild that some wealthy provinces deep within the kingdom had already established magical railway networks spanning their entire territories.

Meanwhile, White River Province possessed an exceptionally developed waterway system, allowing its massive inland ferry industry to remain the dominant form of transportation.

This enormous infrastructure gap made him realize one undeniable fact.

Graystone Town, where he had spent so long, really was nothing more than a remote rural corner of the kingdom.

A cool summer breeze drifted across the river.

It carried the faint scent of water vapor and the fragrance of riverside vegetation.

The breeze dispersed the heat lingering within Lance's body and brought a comfortable sense of relaxation, gradually calming him down.

However—

Just as Lance closed his eyes and quietly enjoyed the evening wind, a series of light footsteps came from the corridor behind him.

Turning around, he discovered a little girl around seven or eight years old happily skipping down the moonlit deck walkway.

She wore a hooded outfit with two fluffy decorative balls dangling from either side of the hood, bouncing back and forth as she ran.

A somewhat worn canvas satchel hung across her shoulder.

Just as she was running happily, she seemed to notice Lance.

Then she immediately performed a textbook-level faceplant right in front of him, crashing solidly onto the deck.

The comical sight almost made Lance laugh.

The girl wasn't particularly delicate either. She neither cried nor made a fuss.

Using both hands and feet, she climbed back up.

Unfortunately, the button on her small satchel had popped open when she fell, scattering its contents all over the deck.

Under the lights, Lance saw charcoal pencils, half a bag of candy, and several colorful stones apparently used for skipping across water.

Walking over, he stopped beside the little girl.

“Are you alright?”

He crouched down and looked at her small hands, which were covered in dust.

With a thought, he activated his ring and cast a Cantrip—【Cleansing Spell】.

A gentle breeze swept by.

The dust on her hands and clothes was instantly stripped away until everything was spotless.

The magical sight immediately made the little girl's eyes light up.

“This is the same spell Bazel uses!”

she cheered.

Then she suddenly remembered her fallen treasures and hurriedly crouched down to gather them.

When she picked up one of the fruit candies, she paused.

The wax-paper wrapper had torn open during the fall, and the sticky candy inside had collected quite a bit of dirt and sand from the deck.

The little girl stared at the obviously inedible candy and thought for a moment.

Then she performed an action that left Lance utterly dumbfounded.

She vigorously rubbed the dirt-covered candy twice against her coat, then held it out toward Lance with a sweet smile.

“Big Brother, thank you for helping me just now. Please have this candy.”

Lance stared at the candy.

Then he looked at the expectant expression on her face and fell silent.

“I literally watched that candy fall onto the ground.”

Lance mercilessly exposed her.

She looked cute enough, but her personality was a little awful.

It was obvious she didn't want to waste the dirty candy, so she was conveniently using it as a cheap favor.

“Ah, I've been found out.”

“Then I guess I'll have to save this candy for Bazel.”

The little girl sighed regretfully and stuffed the candy back into the deepest corner of her pocket.

Lance silently observed a half-second of mourning for whoever this Bazel was.

Judging by the way she addressed him without any respect whatsoever, he was probably her father.

“It's so late. Why are you running around on the deck by yourself?”

Lance stood up and looked around the empty deck.

“The wind over the river gets strong at night. And if you fall overboard, it could be very dangerous.”

The little girl immediately puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

“Bazel fell asleep. Every time he sleeps, he goes like this—snore, snore!”

Opening her mouth wide and raising both arms above her head, she made exaggerated snoring sounds while waddling around Lance like a little penguin.

Lance understood immediately.

The child had simply been unable to sleep because of her father's snoring and had secretly slipped out of the cabin while he was asleep.

“Come on, I'll take you back to your cabin.”

Lance extended his hand, signaling for her to take it.

Perhaps because the fall earlier had actually hurt, the little girl no longer seemed interested in playing around.

She obediently reached out and took Lance's hand.

“Remember this. Never run around outside alone at night.”

“As for the river, there might be monsters hiding in the water. Sometimes they climb onto ships under the cover of darkness to search for food.”

“And if you run into a bad person, they'll stuff you into a sack and carry you away.”

Holding her hand as they walked back, Lance casually tried to scare her.

Of course, he had made all of that up.

Ships like this had long since been equipped with spell formations capable of detecting approaching monsters.

The little girl suddenly stopped walking.

Tilting her head up, she looked at Lance with bright, confident eyes.

“You're not a bad person. You're lying to me.”

“Lilia!”

At that moment, an anxious voice rang out from the staircase at the far end of the deck.

Immediately afterward, a middle-aged man in his thirties came running out, panting heavily.

He wore a neatly groomed reddish-brown beard, though his hair looked somewhat messy from having just woken up.

A uniquely styled leather vest hung on his body.

Dozens of pockets of varying sizes had been sewn onto it, bulging with ink bottles, thick notebooks, and various measuring instruments that Lance couldn't identify.

The moment he saw his daughter standing there holding the hand of a strange young man, he let out a long sigh of relief.

Quickly approaching, he pulled his daughter's hand into his own and instinctively shielded Lilia behind him.

“Thank you so much. This child sleeps very lightly and always likes sneaking around the ship whenever I fall asleep.”