Four Split Personalities

"Haha, Brother Gahares, Brother Gahares, look, that place looks like so much fun!"

The delicate little girl jumped excitedly a couple of times, pointing at the dark and deep forest not far away while vigorously shaking the skinny young man next to her, crisply saying: "Take me on an adventure there, will you?"

"This..."

Gahares glanced in the direction the girl was pointing with some hesitation and shook his head: "It seems a bit dangerous, Qiu darling, let’s go look somewhere else instead."

"I’m not afraid of danger!"

The girl pouted and made a cute grimace, indeed the Qiu that had disappeared with Gahares in Misha County.

"I’m very weak, I can’t protect you."

Gahares squatted down, ruefully ruffled Qiu’s hair: "Let’s not go over there then."

"Brother Gahares is bullying people!"

Qiu pinched Gahares’s cheek with her little hand, huffily saying: "We haven’t encountered any danger along the way, and besides..."

"Sorry~"

Before the girl could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a gentle voice, both of them turned to look, and saw a tall and handsome Elf man standing in front of them with an apologetic look on his face.

"You are..."

Gahares pulled Qiu behind him, with a hint of wariness in his dull eyes.

Of course, with his power, even being on guard was pretty much pointless...

"Rune Zhoulan."

Kanglan bowed respectfully to them and then pointed behind him to the forest: "Recently, it’s been quite unsettled there, our people are searching inside, so it’s best if you two don’t rush in carelessly."

"But I want to go on an adventure there!"

Qiu murmured a complaint, tugging on the corner of Gahares’s clothes and pouting.

The latter just shrugged his shoulders, giving Kanglan a helpless expression.

"No can do, little friend, it’s very dangerous inside."

Kanglan half-knelt on the ground, stoically said to the endearing little girl in front of him: "So, if you really want to barge in, then I’ll have to..."

"You’ll have to do what?"

Qiu tilted her head, an innocent expression on her face.

"I’ll just have to bribe you with my treasured honey from a hundred flowers!"

Kanglan grinned, taking out a small bottle of glittering pink granules from his bag, opened the cap, took Qiu’s little hand, and poured a little into her palm: "Want to try out the goods first?"

"So fragrant!"

The girl exclaimed, then pinched a bit and popped it into her mouth, her eyes widening immediately: "So sweet! So delicious!"

"Look, here’s a whole bottle of honey from a hundred flowers~"

Kanglan gently shook the bottle in his hand, raised an eyebrow, and said: "Bribing you to not venture inside, how about it?"

"Deal!"

Qiu nodded vigorously.

"Deal!"

Kanglan immediately stuffed an entire bottle of the fine consumable that could restore 100 mana points per second into Qiu’s hands.

"Yay!"

"Yay!"

The two even coordinated a high five in sync.

Gahares, however, smiled awkwardly: "I’m really so sorry..."

"No trouble."

Kanglan pinched Qiu’s little cheek and stood up, laughing: "Though you can’t go into the Mystic Dark Forest now, Jin Hui River on the other side is actually quite spectacular, you guys could go take a look."

"Thank you."

Gahares smiled and then looked down at Qiu.

"Agreed! So let’s go, Brother Gahares!"

Qiu, who was successfully bribed, was smiling especially brightly.

Afterward, they bid farewell to Kanglan and headed towards the banks of Jin Hui River in the south.

Five minutes later

"Brother Gahares, have some candy~"

Qiu sweetly pulled Gahares’s hand over and poured a small handful of honey from a hundred flowers into his palm.

Gahares was first stunned, then a not-so-dismal smile appeared: "Thanks..."

"Wow! Gahare... Auh Deh... bit my tongue, Brother Lei, look, there’s a boat!"

Qiu who had run ahead was suddenly jumping up and down with excitement.

Gahares hurriedly walked up, indeed seeing not far away on the grand and turbulent river a big ship coming, bathed in the sunset light and shimmering like gold, very beautiful to look at.

"It’s so beautiful! Let’s go on the boat too, Brother Lei!"

Qiu kept hopping up and down, giggling.

"Yeah... it’s really beautiful..."

And the latter just stared blankly at the distant waves glistening under the sunset like Holy Light, smiling bitterly.

...

"They seem like a very happy pair of siblings..."

Jiawen, standing beside the ship’s railing, gazed distantly at the two figures, one tall and one small, on the opposite shore, murmuring absently as if remembering something.

However, before her gaze could soften, she suddenly received a friend message...

’After handing over Dora to Silent Prayer, immediately set off for the city of Flame Mane in the Southern Territory of Griffin to await further commands.’

[Truly a boss who loves to squeeze his subordinates~]

Jiawen smiled and replied with a simple ’received’, but when she looked again towards the distance, she could no longer see the ’siblings.’

"What are you looking at?"

A woman dressed in a linen dress appeared next to Jiawen and asked quietly: "Dusk, perhaps?"

"Inclusive, but not entirely..."

Jiawen shrugged her shoulders and withdrew her gaze which had cleared again, sighing leisurely...

"Even the most beautiful things are but fleeting."

...

Northwest Continent, Ruined City of Ondesill