Four Split Personalities

"Well, how should I put it~"

Double Leaf wasn’t resistant to the topic, but as she wiped her glasses with her mage’s robe, she casually replied, "I didn’t find it pleasant at all, actually quite the opposite, extremely exhausting. I definitely do not want to come here a second time."

Motan chuckled with amusement, "Not wanting to come doesn’t mean it won’t happen. What if there is a second time?"

"Then I’ll refer to this time."

Double Leaf answered nonchalantly, then listlessly pushed herself off of Motan’s shoulder and turned around, leaning on the now tidied table as she looked at him, "So what exactly are you writing?"

"Good stuff."

Motan took a sip of barley beer and thanked the Boss Lady for passing him a dish of beans before he casually explained to Double Leaf, "I found some rather valuable things, so I made a copy just to be on the safe side, to avoid any complications."

The girl arched an eyebrow and drawled, "So your target was indeed the Whisper Sect. Did you have a feud with them before, or did you just feel like causing them trouble? Or perhaps you’re interested in the power of the Evil God? Tsk, the last one doesn’t seem likely, otherwise, it’d be quicker to cooperate with them rather than destroying the Marshall Family and searching the bodies~"

"Who knows, let’s go, I’m done here."

Motan stretched lazily and got up to walk outside the tavern, nonchalantly reaching into the cash drawer while passing the counter, just as the owner turned away, grabbing a handful of money. This left the thieves at the neighboring tables completely dumbfounded.

Five minutes later, the duo was strolling leisurely along the empty streets of Mercury City’s western district.

"The next time you leave Sālāmù’ēn, let’s restart the betting game."

Double Leaf glanced at Motan, who was quietly humming a tune, breaking the silence first.

"Alright, I’m almost done with my business here too."

Motan fiddled with a lute he had casually taken from Cloud Traveler Inn when entering the city (while the people inside were still under the influence of the Whisper), smacked his lips, and said, "My curiosity about the Whisper Sect is more or less satisfied and I’ll say hi to Shu before I leave."

Double Leaf gave him a look and impishly smiled, "With Laisa and Vanja in tow?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Motan shrugged, gesturing dismissively, "Don’t ask about the rest. Even if I’m back in form, we are still in a ceasefire, so let’s just chat about trivial stuff before splitting up."

"Fine by me. Speaking of trivial, although Baffie Marshal is dead, it wasn’t my mentor who did it. Her head was stolen. Do you have any info to share about that?"

Double Leaf readily steered clear of the ’test conversations’ that had become their routine these days, casually shifting the topic.

[The leaders of the Church of the Dawn must really enjoy this stuff...]

Motan snickered to himself, then put on an innocent face, "What information could I possibly share? After I disclosed Baffie’s whereabouts to you, I didn’t pay any more attention to it."

"That Silvia really had bad luck with you."

Double Leaf covered her small mouth, taking delight in others’ misfortune, and laughed, "You also did me a favor. If she hadn’t taken your advice to send the message back early, allowing Baffie to escape before the main force moved in, things might have gotten tricky. So thanks for that this time."

"Seriously?"

"Sincerely my ass! Can you stop always causing me trouble! Every single time, you have to stir up something way beyond the scope, can’t you change that rotten habit of yours?!"

Double Leaf flipped as quickly as flipping a book, slapping Fireball almost at boiling point onto Motan’s face in anger, "It was the same when you meddled with our backup servers the past few times! Can’t you change that damned habit!?"

Motan looked at her with feigned innocence, "Aren’t you the same?"

"I’m used to it!"

"What about your face?"

"Got shoe lifts in there now!"

"Usually walk around on stilts when you go out?"

"Exactly."

"Speaking of which, does that old fart Clayvona know his big calf dropped dead yet?"

Without continuing the cheeky banter with Double Leaf, Motan’s expression remained unchanged as he seamlessly shifted the conversation to politics, "The thousand-year-old system and structure of the Violet Empire have gradually begun to collapse. If the Emperor could cooperate and, say, kick the bucket at this juncture, the resistance our Second Prince might face would probably be much smaller."

Double Leaf shook her head casually, "Probably not yet. And even if he does know, what of it? Just lost a son, how big of a deal can it be."

"There’s truth in that, after all, there is another one."

Motan nodded in agreement and then chuckled mischievously, "But speaking of which, the Crystal Wolf, Dundis, has already firmly sided with Shu. However, dealing with the remaining five families won’t be easy. Though they have no objections to Shu taking over as Emperor, ’being integrated’ is another matter entirely. Not to mention the quirky Fernan family; even Fire Claw Duke is not necessarily willing to let the Violet Empire over-dominate and become the de facto ruler of the empire..."

Double Leaf shrugged indifferently, "What use is their opinion? In my view, even if you bundled up all those grand dukes, they’d hardly play the game better than Shu Bresen. Whether they comply or resist, it’s just a matter of time."

"That’s why I’m making an early investment~"

Motan snapped his fingers, his lips curving up wickedly, "The future of this rotten empire is still something to look forward to."

"Rather than the future of the empire, you’d better start looking forward to your own future first."

Double Leaf narrowed her eyes slightly, speaking softly, "Not to brag, but with your current skill level, this girl could squash you like three bugs with one hand."

Motan countered with a smirk, "No need to bother, I assure you improving my strength will be far easier than you growing taller. Just wash your underpants and wait."

Then...

There was no then. Following that earlier discussion on strength... or rather the exchange of threats, Motan and Double Leaf suddenly found themselves in an odd silence, making the atmosphere a bit awkward.

It wasn’t until ten minutes later, as they were strolling down Central Street, that they both sighed in unison and lamented, "Having a serious conversation is really so boring..."

They then hung their heads, rolling their eyes in disgust.

Because of what Motan said earlier about ’chatting casually about things of no consequence,’ they had both been quite careful in their talk, avoiding any overt or covert probing or misleading, which resulted in them both becoming bored in less than half an hour together.

Clearly, the naked malice they felt for each other was the deepest bond between this pair of partners and arch-rivals. As for other things, like idle chit-chat, they would typically have plenty to say, plenty of roles to play, plenty of people to trick in other contexts, but the restraint they had to exercise when facing each other only made them truly feel bored and dispirited.

"So they say it takes a hundred years to share a pillow in sleep, a thousand years to be in total sync~"

Motan forced a chuckle, as if grasping at straws, "Maybe I’ve been sleeping with you for several past lifetimes."

Double Leaf tugged at the corner of her mouth, yawning disinterestedly, then turned and headed straight towards the Mage Guild, "Boring, I’m heading back."

"See you later."

Motan smacked his lips and then turned to walk in the opposite direction from Double Leaf, his expression rather dejected.

In a way, the Violet game had come to a close, and it was likely that even more turbulent events would unfold soon, but for Motan and Double Leaf, their time to step onto the stage was over. The next moves in this chess game, and the players involved, were no longer of any concern to them.

Although both were madcaps and mavericks in a sense, they invariably found the ’garbage time’ before the end of each game especially tedious,

until the next game began...

Chapter 563: The End