Chapter 41

Around eleven-thirty at noon, when Lin Cheng walked out of Magnolia's train station with Eclair and Mengmeng, his emotion value officially broke through to six million.

At the same time, from here one could truly understand just how enormous a sensation had been caused by the full-scale war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord, and by the death of Jose Porla, ranked sixth among the Ten Holy Mages.

In the early days, before the various dark forces within Fairy Tail had surfaced, being one of the Ten Holy Mages was indeed a title packed with real weight.

"Wow!"

"This is the big city! There are really so many people!"

Looking at the station that was practically packed to the rafters, Mengmeng's face was filled with an expression of longing.

As one of the very few prosperous cities in the Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia had a permanent resident population of close to a million.

For a city where most buildings did not exceed ten stories, a population of nearly a million could truly be called an enormous number.

The remote town where Lin Cheng and Eclair had stayed before had a resident count of only around twenty thousand, and with severe aging in the town, the vast majority of young people longed for prosperous cities.

"Mm, let me take a look at the map."

"According to plan, we should be going to eat lunch now."

Lin Cheng took out the map he had prepared long ago from his chest, smiled and pointed in a direction completely opposite to the Fairy Tail guild, saying: "The Class Mage guild Fairy Tail is in the other direction, so let's go eat in this area."

"Fairy Tail's guild is in a rather remote part of this city, so it won't affect us."

Although his emotion value had already broken through six million, Lin Cheng did not focus his attention on the system panel in his mind.

Instead, he began wholeheartedly taking Eclair and Mengmeng around to sightsee in Magnolia.

First, Lin Cheng took Eclair and Mengmeng to eat at the most famous Western restaurant in Magnolia. With over a hundred tool puppets working for him, Lin Cheng had no need to worry about money at all.

After the meal, Lin Cheng and Eclair took Mengmeng to the amusement park in the prosperous city she had long dreamed of visiting.

The combination of Lin Cheng, Eclair, and Mengmeng — if Mengmeng didn't have a non-human appearance — looked just like a family of three.

And during the process of entering the amusement park, some rather amusing little episodes did indeed occur.

"Young man, how old are you this year?"

An old man wearing reading glasses looked at Lin Cheng and Eclair walking together, a faint smile appearing on his face as he said kindly: "Bringing your wife and child to the amusement park to play today, are you?"

As the old man's words fell, a hint of panic instantly flashed through Eclair's eyes.

A blush quietly swept across her delicate, lovely face.

"O-old grandpa, you've got it wrong."

"I'm n-not this guy's wife."

Eclair grabbed Mengmeng, who hadn't quite caught on yet, lifted her up in front of the old man, and said in a fluster: "Look, this is a bird — how could she be human?"

"Haha, it was Grandpa who got it wrong."

"But you two do look quite well-matched, miss."

The old man adjusted the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose, finally getting a clear look at Mengmeng's appearance, and said with a slightly helpless chuckle: "Never mind, never mind, Grandpa won't say any more. Hurry up and take your boyfriend inside to play."

"My old lady is still waiting for me at home to cook."

Saying so, the old man didn't wait for the blushing Eclair to say anything more, just gave Lin Cheng a wave and a gesture that said 'no need to thank me,' then tottered off.

'Old man, if you know how to talk, say a little more.'

Lin Cheng watched the old man's retreating back, and couldn't help the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

Eclair, meanwhile, was looking around in a fluster, casting the occasional furtive glance at Lin Cheng.

Actually, if no one had pointed it out, Eclair normally didn't feel anything particularly special when she was with Lin Cheng, but once someone pointed it out, she got that fluttery, heart-racing feeling.

"Ahem, alright."

"It's our turn to go in. Lin Cheng, let's hurry inside."

After clearing her throat twice and easing her own fluster a little, Eclair acted as if nothing had happened, picked up Mengmeng, and quickly walked toward the amusement park's ticket checkpoint.

Regarding this, Lin Cheng didn't say anything more.

There wasn't much to say, either — Lin Cheng did have quite a bit of goodwill toward Eclair.

After all, it had been Eclair and Mengmeng who took him in back then. She had called him a 'burden' and all that, but when Lin Cheng had a fever, she had still spent nearly all of their money to buy him fever-reducing medicine.

However, Eclair wasn't ready yet, so Lin Cheng didn't intend to do too much — having the old man's little assist just now was enough.

As for dating and all that, they'd talk about it after Eclair's heart's knot was untied.

'Eclair's heart's knot, huh.'

'The phoenix sealed within the Phoenix Stone has at least the strength of a giant dragon, or even a Dragon King — I still need to accumulate more.'

Following behind the slightly fluttery Eclair, Lin Cheng gazed at the system panel in his mind, lost in thought.

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