She taught him these things as if she were worried about his survival. But she should know that she herself was much weaker than him; such worry was very strange.
“Muli, two mugs of ale plus a portion of meat, how many copper coins should that cost?”
A patient question came from the woman beside him.
Muli sat on the jolting cart and instinctively began to count with his fingers.
The sun was not so harsh. They were already on the road, and that caravan followed behind them, neither too near nor too far.
Muli did not pay them any attention. He focused fully on the calculations, finding it difficult. She had already asked him three questions.
Meili waited quite a while for his answer. “…Eighty-five copper coins.”
“You got it right!” Meili’s eyes lit up, and she smiled, “Muli, you’re so smart, you got it right again!”
Muli folded his arms, his tone cold. “This is very simple. You can ask me another question.”
“Really? Then I’ll ask one more. The two of us go eat. You order one mug of ale and three portions of meat, I order one portion of meat and one mug of ale, how much do we need to pay in total?”
Muli regretted the moment he finished speaking. Hearing Meili’s question, he wrinkled his nose again and stared at his own fingers.
This was too hard.
Meili secretly smiled with mischief, quietly took out a small piece of candy, dropped it into the water pouch, and shook it. When Muli finally managed to answer the question again, she handed him the pouch. “You’ve worked so hard, quickly, drink some water.”
Muli took a sip, his voice unexpectedly lifted with a hint of excitement. “It’s sweet!”
He really did like sweets. Just listen to how cute that sounded. Meili noticed him secretly shaking his head twice and grew happy along with him. Propping up her chin, she smiled, “Yes, this time it really is sweet.”
Muli looked at the waterskin, then handed it back to her, refusing to say another word.
Meili felt he seemed a bit shy. When they stopped to rest that night, he sat there with his back to her, arms folded in that cold pose, as if he didn’t even intend to sleep.
Muli truly did not sleep that night, because he kept hearing the movements of the caravan following them. The caravan stopped not far from them, and deep into the night someone even squatted nearby to spy on them—annoying.
As long as the profit was tempting enough, caravans would sometimes do the things bandits did.
That beast armor was far too flashy. The caravan master knew its value, not to mention that when Muli bought sweets he casually took out a pouch of gold coins, displaying his wealth.
Kill two people and earn a huge fortune for free—this business was too profitable.
The caravan master woke from sleep and prepared to collect the spoils of victory, only to discover that the men sent last night had not returned. Sending people to find those two, they were long gone.
Meili did not know what had happened last night. She had been kept safely within Muli’s protection the whole time.
“That caravan isn’t following us today.” She glanced back and didn’t think too much about it. Then she turned to tease Muli again. “Do we still have to calculate today?”
Muli said seriously, “We didn’t buy anything. There’s no need to calculate.”
“All right.” Meili figured he definitely didn’t want to do any more arithmetic, so she came up with another idea. She took out a small pouch, inside was a whole handful of nuts she had accidentally picked up last night.
“Muli, catch!” She threw a nut over. Muli continued staring straight ahead, not even looking, yet he stretched out his hand and caught it.
Seeing him catch it, Meili began counting. “One.”
She threw a second one, a bit off to the side. Muli still stared straight forward, unmoving, but he flicked out his foot and the nut bounced perfectly into his hand.
Meili: “Two.”
“Three.”
Meili slowly counted more than a hundred, and no matter how she threw them, Muli could always catch them. He caught a whole handful of nuts, and Meili held the now-empty little pouch. “You can count these. With more practice, it’ll be very easy.”
He couldn’t always count on his fingers, that would take too long. Besides, he was very smart. Once he learned it, he would never be easily tricked again.
She was just thinking this when she saw Muli grab that pile of nuts and stuff them into his mouth, crunching loudly.
In just two bites he finished the nuts she had prepared for him to practice with, and he said, “…You count for me.”
He still stared forward, refusing to look at her.
Meili thought, it seemed he truly had been scared of her questions.
“All right.” She said, “As long as I’m by your side, I’ll help you count.”
Muli once again felt that women were really good.
Only, this little bear didn’t realize that he had already met quite a few human women, but the only one who ever made him think women were good was Meili.
That caravan, having lost more than half of its guards, fled in a miserable state to the nearest city. The caravan master did not get the beast armor he wanted, instead he lost guards, and in the end was almost robbed by a small band of thieves.
Seething with hatred, he arrived in a city with a Sanctum. His eyes moved and he had an idea. He instructed a servant to go to the Sanctum and tell them they had encountered a beast on the road — he did not say that the beast had already been killed.
A magic beast appearing nearby at this time was a serious matter. The people of the Sanctum would definitely go out to deal with it. Once they went out, they would not come back empty-handed. As long as they saw the beast that had been killed, they would surely bring the beast armor back.
When it came to beasts, most of the time the Sanctum was needed to resolve it. Whenever the matter of a magic beast was discovered by the Sanctum, it was a tacit rule that the profit would belong to them.
He wanted those two damned wretches to pay a price, even if it was only to make them lose a bit of wealth.
The Sanctum received news of a beast sighting, and soon more than ten warriors and two black-robed priests left the city to search.
The soldiers at the city gate quickly stepped aside when they saw them, closing the gate and muttering, “They’re going out at this time, does that mean a beast appeared outside?”
“It must be. If it weren’t a beast, would that group move out? Usually they’re just practicing asceticism in the Sanctum.”
“Enough, what asceticism — haven’t you heard the talk that they secretly drink wine and sleep with women?”
“Don’t say that! If they hear you, you’ll be in trouble!” “It’s true. They kill so many beasts every year. They can sell those and earn a lot of gold coins, yet they still demand donations from us common folk, all used for their secret pleasures.”
A group of Sanctum warriors rode out of the city, chasing for half a day without seeing any trace of a magic beast. One hot-tempered warrior shouted, “Where is this beast? The ring hasn’t reacted at all. Could that guy have fooled us?!”
Another comforted him, “Who would dare fool us? Do they not want to live? The Ring of Judgment hasn’t reacted, maybe it’s too far. Maybe the beast has already left.”
“If it’s gone, then let’s go back.” The only female warrior lazily shouted forward, “Priests, let’s just circle once and go back, so we don’t have to sleep outside tonight.”
One of the priests turned back with disapproval toward the warriors. “Be serious. I do sense a bit of a beast’s aura.”
Everyone was suddenly energized. They thought it was fake, but unexpectedly there really was a beast. In this season, what kind of magic beast would come here?
“Really? Where is it? Why aren’t our Rings of Judgment reacting?”
A priest held a wooden rosary carved with thorn patterns, meditating, and said, “This beast’s aura is somewhat special. Do not take it lightly.”
He opened his eyes and pointed in a direction. “Over there!”
Meili gazed at the sunset and suddenly saw Muli sit upright, glancing back.
She couldn’t help but look back as well, but saw nothing — only a road behind them, with more and more jagged rocks on either side.
But in just a moment, she heard the hurried sound of hooves. There were many rocks around, clustered together, and they echoed, making the hoofbeats sound deafening.
Meili quickly saw that group of mounted riders — men and women — rushing toward them under the lead of two black-robed old men. She thought they would gallop past them, but instead they circled around and stopped, surrounding them in the middle.
They didn’t look much like bandits. Meili thought, aside from bandits, there were other people who would rob on the road — what a dangerous world.
Muli sat there without moving.
That group also stared at him without moving.
“A magic beast…” the old man in the lead said as he looked at Muli.
Meili recalled the beast armor on the cart and thought that they must have come to seize that beast armor.
But why were they all staring at Muli?
“A magic beast, disguised in human form, this is my first time seeing one.” As soon as the old man finished speaking, a young warrior behind him charged forward with a blade, heading straight for Muli.
This young warrior was different from all the bandits they had encountered before — he was very strong and agile, dodging Muli’s attacks twice.
Muli didn’t seem to have the intention of killing him. For some reason, there was hesitation in his movements.
That slight hesitation and two more people pounced, trapping him in the middle.
All of them were focused on dealing with Muli, and no one paid attention to Meili beside them. Meili had only just understood what the old man’s words truly meant. She stared at Muli, comprehension mixed with astonishment.
Seeing Muli in trouble, she took two worried steps forward.
The warriors behind rushed forward as well. Someone found her annoying and kicked her big cart aside, cursing, “Ordinary people get far away! Don’t get in the way!”
Caught off guard, Meili let out a cry as she fell off the shaft of the cart.
Muli, amidst the crowd, heard the sound. He turned his head to look. Suddenly he lowered his stance, blocking all blades and swords slashing at him, swept his leg downward, breaking through the encirclement. He leaped over the cart and scooped Meili up.
“Trying to run? Stop!”
The warriors chased after them. Muli kicked a cart out of his way — the rolling cart pressed toward them. Several warriors originally just waiting on the side moved to block him.
Muli was surrounded again. His steps halted, and his tone held annoyance and impatience. “I don’t want to kill you.”
“What, a magic beast can speak!” The female warrior scratched her head and turned to ask the priest, “What kind of magic beast is this? It can talk. Could we have mistaken it?”
The stern priest who had been silent until now spoke, “No. If I’m not wrong, he should be born of a magic beast and a human.”
A male warrior clicked his tongue twice. “First time I’ve heard humans and magic beasts can have children. Sounds disgusting.”
Another warrior laughed, “Hurry and catch this little monster. Let’s see what a human and a magic beast can give birth to!”
They were all warriors who had killed many beasts, and they did not take the little monster dressed in human clothing seriously at all, pointing and joking at him.
Muli held Meili in his arms and repeated for the second time, “I don’t want to kill you. Move.”
