Chapter 61

60. Canary

With Dorothy saying it like that, the answer was actually plain to see.

"I don't seem to have done anything special," Li Ang said.

Eight years ago, that would have been the year 293 of the Guild Calendar.

At that point in time, Li Ang's only thought was to get his adventuring life on the right track.

Survival is always the first priority for life. As a transmigrator without a golden finger at the time, he couldn't learn the ordinary life and work of the Newbis natives.

Clerical work required reading and writing multiple racial languages and understanding cultural customs; working a job required at least a decade of common sense from living here; even farming required knowing how local crops grew in an environment influenced by magic.

Adventuring, on the other hand, was a relatively decent job for him.

He remembered Dorothy, not just because her healing spells were surprisingly effective, but also, of course, because of her appearance.

As a man with normal physical and mental health, it was impossible not to be attracted to her. Even back then, her stunning beauty, like a ripened fruit, was already beginning to show, and that delicate charm born of high status was something rarely seen in adventures.

However, at that time, he was thinking every day about how to make good use of the Spellcaster profession and likely had no energy to spare to show her favor.

"Of course you don't remember. In the eyes of an ordinary person, those were all small things, but to me, it was different."

Dorothy stared into the darkness of the secret passage and simply spoke of her sixteenth year.

In the summer of 293, in the Magic City of Thousand Towers, Dorothy was attending the elementary academy of the Mistream Academy there. It mainly focused on the possibilities of magic application, and the spellcasters it cultivated tended toward professions like wizards, elementalists, and priests.

The academy was on break, but Dorothy didn't plan on going home. Because at home, there were her father and brothers who looked at her with cold eyes.

"Anyway, Dad and my brothers don't like me, so I won't go home. I'm going to be a Sky Knight during the break."

"Doro, you should reconsider..." her roommate advised.

"Why? Don't you guys want to be Sky Knights too? In this era, this is the best profession."

After the Sky Knight Guild cleaned up the order of the entire sky, even cities with deep foundations like Thousand Towers no longer viewed Sky Knights as reckless adventurers, but rather promoted them positively as a pursuit-worthy choice.

Dorothy believed that since her family didn't like her, she would walk her own path.

She didn't think about why her roommate was hesitating, took the spellcasting materials she had bought with her pocket money, went to the Thousand Towers Guild office to register as a Sky Knight, and then began accepting commissions and looking for teammates.

Simple work within the city was easily completed, and she could return to the dormitory at night to bathe and wash away the day's fatigue on a spring mattress.

Afterward, she decided to leave Thousand Towers and venture deep into the wild for a real adventure, because this was the only way to become an outstanding Sky Knight.

"And then, I was dumbfounded."

She chose the famous departure point: the Aomori Archipelago in the Floss Airspace. The guild had a base camp there, but tents and camping gear had to be brought by oneself.

On the first night of camping after arriving at the Aomori Archipelago, she was covered in bites from jungle mosquitoes.

Choosing a team was also full of obstacles. Coming from a noble background, she naturally knew how to distinguish people who had ulterior motives toward her, but unfortunately, those professional adventurers who didn't care about her appearance wouldn't group with a fledgling young girl.

In the end, it was the roadside small group Li Ang was in at the time that accepted her.

It wasn't that some people in that group weren't staring at her curves, but every time they wanted to chat with Dorothy about things unrelated to adventuring, someone would interrupt and emphasize the main tasks at hand.

"That must have been me," Li Ang said.

"Yes," Dorothy couldn't help but chuckle, "They were all itching to get at you, but that made me feel much more relaxed all of a sudden."

"If I didn't remind them, they'd just end up arguing again when the battle failed."

"I know, I know," the lady giggled.

"And then, you were the one who told me how to prevent mosquito bites too."

In the jungle, which alchemy potion to apply, hanging herbs at the tent entrance, needing to sprinkle medicinal powder before setting up camp, and collectively repelling snakes and insects—if Li Ang hadn't told Dorothy these things, she wouldn't have known how to start at all.

"And then, washing clothes too..."

Daily battles made clothes very easy to get dirty. Dorothy had no concept of the jungle environment, didn't bring enough changes of clothes, and after washing them and hanging them up, they were half-dry and full of moldy smell, making her feel miserable when wearing them.

Li Ang, passing by: "After washing, wring them out with all your might; don't just find any tree branch to hang them on."

He gave her a few black bags and taught her to pack the clothes and put them in a place with light and ventilation, which killed bacteria and accelerated drying.

The food she carried suddenly became moldy or grew worms. Once, if she hadn't looked closely before eating a piece of pastry, Dorothy would have eaten the little animals crawling on it. She was almost scared to the point of fainting on the spot, and she didn't dare to think about whether she had already eaten any.

When her own food ran out, she could only eat the food found on the spot with the team. Her stomach had never been tested like this, and she collapsed quickly.

"I didn't know the Disease Removal Spell back then, and I didn't bring medicine. It was embarrassing and my body felt terrible."

Dorothy buried her face in her legs.

"You were the one who found herbs for me and helped me process the food a few extra times."

Then, because there were quite a few rude and boundary-less guys among the adventurers, Dorothy found it hard to communicate with them, which made it difficult to coordinate during battles. Later, Li Ang would intentionally point things out to her during battles, telling her exactly what to do.

Li Ang said: "I've forgotten about these things."

"You've forgotten."

Dorothy pursed her lips, seeming a bit resentful.

"Anyway, you're just a pushover. Have you ever thought about what people think when you help them casually every time? After receiving your help, some people will look down on you instead, thinking you're self-sacrificing and don't respect you at all. Otherwise, it's like me—I just can't forget you."

She didn't continue and returned to the topic of adventuring.

"The first few days at the Aomori Archipelago, I was secretly crying every night. If I didn't think it would be embarrassing to quit halfway, I would have given up. But after you started helping me, I found I could do it again.

"Life was normal, I could get a good night's sleep feeling dry all over every day, and most importantly, I didn't have to think about what to do; someone helped me arrange everything. That way, my performance in battle was no worse than anyone else's.

"In other words, as long as there was someone like that by my side, I could be a competent Sky Knight."

"And then I prepared to leave," Li Ang said.

Dorothy nodded. They both knew the situation of that roadside small group at the time.

People were often late for gatherings, and sometimes they couldn't set off until half the night. Some people would disappear before the mission started, and only after everyone searched together did they find out they were washing dishes to pay off gambling debts. Some people would suddenly disappear halfway through a mission, only to find they had hooked up with a woman from a neighboring team and run off to have fun.

Li Ang couldn't stand it anymore and decided to run.

"When you were leaving, you asked me in passing if I wanted to leave and go on an adventure together."

Dorothy's slender fingers were twisted together.

"And then, I refused and went back to school."

Her eyes lowered: "Some of the things I said just now were me throwing a tantrum. I'm sorry. Thank you for not holding it against me; I usually don't dare to be willful with anyone.

"I fantasized later that if you had invited me one more time, I might have changed my mind."

After the sixteen-year-old girl's adventure got on the right track, she gradually forgot the initial embarrassment and developed a little pride.

Teachers all suggested that if one wanted to be a Sky Knight, it was best to hone one's professional skills after graduating from the academy. But Dorothy had experienced a whole vacation of adventuring before that, and she was somewhat eager to share her experiences with her roommates and classmates.

When she broke into the adventure world, she was acting out of spite toward her family, and she had even fantasized that if she achieved success, she would continue being a Sky Knight forever and never return to school or home—these thoughts were completely forgotten in the end.

She still missed the dessert shops in Thousand Towers, the soft and warm bed, and the casual shopping.

When Li Ang asked her that question, she was at a loss.

She couldn't make a decision, so she subconsciously chose the conservative option and chose to return to school.

After being praised and admired by her classmates, the matter of adventuring was temporarily tucked away in a corner of her memory.

Afterward, she graduated from school, and her family arranged her future. As a clerk at Spark Port, she had endless documents to process and social engagements one after another.

"Since I was a child, I've hated communicating with a group of people I'm not familiar with. As long as I'm in that kind of scene, even if they don't have malicious intent, I'll be muttering about them in my heart.

"This kind of work is very, very exhausting for me to deal with."

Dorothy was very afraid of dealing and communicating with groups of people. After the necessary social activities were over, she would refuse all invitations and return to her own room, locking herself in so she could feel at ease.

Years passed, days went by, and the cold treatment from her father and brothers never changed.

"If there's any difference between sixteen and now, it's that I've matured enough to admit that I'm just a person who becomes a mess without others taking care of me.

"My family doesn't like me. I used to resent them, but later I felt I shouldn't be like that; after all, it's because of them that I have this comfortable life."

Li Ang noticed that Dorothy hadn't mentioned why her family didn't like her, and there was no mother in her context. He had his suspicions, but he wouldn't take the initiative to ask.

Later, she found out that the job given to her wasn't in their own territory, but was in preparation for a marriage alliance between two families. She had been placed there in advance to be vetted for Count Finat.

"In this kind of life, I always inexplicably think of that time of adventuring.

"Those were days that belonged entirely to me, days when I could be myself.

"I can't help but think, what would happen if I continued adventuring with you?"

Dorothy raised her head, the light of the magic lamp shimmering in her crystalline eyes.

"Only later did I realize that the decision I made without thinking in my teens was actually the true longing of this life. The real me wanted to run freely toward the sky.

"And there was once such a person; only when he was there did I forget my own helplessness."

"I didn't understand at the time why someone as delicate as me would be so at a loss when your invitation came, even when I was full of thoughts about returning to the academy for a comfortable life? Because the weight of those words was really heavy for me; it was enough to dilute the delicacy I'd had for over a decade in an instant."

"The sixteen-year-old me was too naive, didn't value it, didn't grasp it. I retreated, harboring the fluke that everything would have a second chance.

"But life is really short, and I won't meet a second person like that. This is all my own doing.

"I've resigned myself to my fate; I just need to be a delicate doll on the day my family needs me.

"Why did you have to descend from the sky at this time?"

Dorothy turned her body to the side, sitting a little closer to Li Ang.

"Is what you said back then still valid?"