Chapter 107

Hearing Mengmeng's curious question, Lin Cheng snapped out of his thoughts, smiled at her, and said, "Just thought of some happy, uplifting things."

"Happy? Uplifting?"

Mengmeng regarded Lin Cheng with suspicion.

Instinctively, Mengmeng turned her gaze to Eclair, who was quietly cleaning and preparing the small tavern for the evening's business.

If there really was something happy and uplifting, Mengmeng felt it must be related to Eclair.

Besides, last night the two of them had avoided her, leaving her to do everything alone.

"Lin Cheng."

"You're not dating Eclair, are you?"

Mengmeng's face lit up with sudden realization!

In this situation, Mengmeng believed only love could bring happiness and upliftment.

"Puff!"

The tea Lin Cheng had just sipped shot straight out of his mouth.

"Mengmeng!"

"What are you talking about here?!"

Hearing Mengmeng's voice, Eclair's face instantly flushed red. She instinctively glanced nervously at Lin Cheng nearby, then hurriedly said, "How could I possibly be dating Lin Cheng?"

"No, why is it impossible for you and me to fall in love?"

"I don't think I'm ugly."

Hearing Eclair's words, Lin Cheng casually pulled out a small mirror from beneath the bar, glanced at his handsome reflection, and said, "Besides, Eclair, you don't have a boyfriend."

"I don't have a girlfriend either. I'm not saying we have to date, but it's not impossible."

As he spoke, Lin Cheng gave Eclair a self-satisfied, supposedly dashing wink.

As Lin Cheng continued speaking, Eclair's face grew redder and redder, and faint wisps of steam seemed to rise from above her head.

"Alright, alright, I'm just joking."

Seeing Eclair, now too flustered to speak, Lin Cheng smiled, stood up, and said, "I have something to attend to today. The evening business is in your hands, Eclair and Mengmeng."

Everything with Aizen Sōsuke was proceeding smoothly.

Under Aizen Sōsuke's guidance, Lin Cheng successfully harvested nearly a hundred thousand emotional values from Natsu's inner Fire Dragon, Igneel, leaving only one more.

After leaving the tavern, Lin Cheng put on the mask he had already commissioned.

If anyone had been beside Lin Cheng at that moment, they would have seen the space around him gradually twist, the visual imagery shifting into an island drizzling with light rain.

Finally, with a ripple of distortion, Lin Cheng vanished.

A light rain drizzled from the sky.

Jellal sat in his room, staring blankly at the rainy scene outside.

"You're my new partner, aren't you?"

Pushing open Jellal's door, Lin Cheng—masked—smiled as he watched Jellal standing lost in thought by the window. "Why are you standing alone by the window, looking so gloomy?"

"Who are you?"

Seeing Lin Cheng walk in and chatter away without invitation, Jellal frowned.

Because Lin Cheng wore a mask, Jellal instinctively cast a probing magic spell.

The result: nothing detected.

Lin Cheng's mask had been enchanted by Aizen Sōsuke using Kyōka Suigetsu.

Under normal circumstances, no one could see Lin Cheng's true face through the mask.

"I'm basically an intern member of the organization."

Lin Cheng smiled at Jellal. "Unless something unexpected happens, we'll be partners from now on!"

Jellal's expression remained unchanged at Lin Cheng's statement.

Watching Lin Cheng sit casually on his bed, Jellal said coolly, "I haven't agreed to join your Akatsuki organization."

"Oh?"

"I've already heard all about it from senior members."

Looking at Jellal's calm expression, Lin Cheng smiled. "Surely my future comrade, Mr. Jellal, hasn't given up on building the R System to revive Jelluf, who never actually died?"

"Jelluf never died—he's still alive in this world."

At Lin Cheng's words, Jellal, who had never once looked directly at him, finally focused his attention.

He turned slightly, fixing his gaze on Lin Cheng—the one visible eye, the spiral-shaped orange mask resembling Tobi's—and frowned slightly. "Your Akatsuki organization seems to know a great deal."

"On what grounds do you claim Jelluf survived from four hundred years ago?"

"If Jelluf's demon can survive from four hundred years ago, why not Jelluf himself?"

Lin Cheng countered, "Does Jelluf really rank weaker than the creations he made?"

"That's an assumption."

"In reality, Jelluf has been missing for centuries."

Jellal looked at Lin Cheng. "I want to know—what is your actual reason for believing Jelluf never died and still lives in this world?"