Every moment the Joker stood before her, Fina felt as if her heart might explode at any time from its rapid beating.
This sense of excitement fed back from her mind and heart onto her face—her cheeks were already flushed deep red.
And the Joker, upon seeing Fina's reaction, withdrew his hand and let out a light chuckle: "Perhaps I should think of some better ideas."
It was only then that Fina realized she had been so overwhelmed with excitement that she had forgotten to respond to the person in front of her.
"The portrait..." Fina was already somewhat incoherent, speaking excitedly, "You look much better than you do in the portraits!"
Wanted posters from the police and the Church usually depicted the wanted person as slightly uglier to vilify the criminal; this was standard practice.
But now that a living, breathing Joker stood before her, his eyes—harboring a morbid madness that the portrait couldn't capture at all—left Fina completely mesmerized.
Only... a trace of confusion appeared on Fina's face, but she did not activate her Spiritual Sight to scan him—that would be a great sign of disrespect.
The reason for Fina's confusion was that she didn't sense even a hint of a potion's aura from the Joker.
However, the Joker possessed mysterious and strange abilities.
Fina understood this much just from the Joker's words alone.
Because while talking to the Joker, Fina faintly felt her originally firm mind and spirit begin to show signs of being invaded by whispers, and the remnants of the potion in her body began to stir.
This wasn't an attack, because the Joker hadn't used any skills on her; Fina was well aware of this.
Can he affect me just by speaking... Fina felt slightly shocked in her heart.
She had seen powerful people of the Fifth Rank from the Church before, and had even personally witnessed a Fifth Rank powerhouse reveal their Demigod state. The mental pollution she felt then was exactly the same as what she felt now while talking to the Joker.
But the Joker didn't show any intention of revealing a Mythical state at all; she had merely said two sentences!
All the manifested information mixed together made Fina even less daring to underestimate the Joker, and the expression on Fina's face became increasingly excited.
Excellent... as expected of the person I, Fina, have set my sights on!
"Is that so? Then thank you for the compliment," Syl, currently transformed into the Joker, shrugged and lightly tapped the ground with his cane, then continued, "I've always felt that I look like a law-abiding citizen you'd see anywhere on the street."
At least, that was the assessment of his charm value given by the system.
"Ha... hoo..." Standing before Syl, Fina took a deep breath and then exhaled.
She stared straight at Syl, slowly crouched down, and then knelt on one knee before Syl, completely unconcerned as the broken stone slabs of the alley and the dirty water in the cracks soaked her dark green robe.
"Lord Joker... my name is Fina, Fina Melante. Ever since I heard of your deeds, I have been searching for your footsteps, hoping to follow you..."
Saying this, Fina looked up, staring at Syl sincerely, and asked:
"May I ask, could I have the honor of becoming your student? I swear by my life to follow you and remain eternally loy—"
Just as Fina was solemnly saying something, a man's voice suddenly came from behind.
"Hey, what are you two doing there? It's currently curfew—"
It was a soldier. Before he could finish his second sentence, he quickly drew the short sword from his waist, held it high, and then pierced his own heart, falling to the ground dead.
From the soldier's aggressive shout to his suicide, the entire process took no more than two seconds, eerie and abrupt.
"I'm very sorry, a pest has disturbed this solemn moment... it's my fault." Fina waved her hand, and the corpse propped itself up, crawled out, and moved to a slightly further place to lie down, so as not to disturb them anymore.
After doing all this, Fina continued:
"Please allow me to repeat what I just said... I swear by my life to follow you and remain eternally loyal."
After speaking, Fina lowered her head, her hands trembling slightly as she quietly awaited Syl's answer.
Meanwhile, Syl was still stuck in shock over the scene that had just occurred.
She... Fina, had killed that soldier before she could even react? And Syl hadn't felt any fluctuations of transcendent power at all.
It was as if that man had truly committed suicide on his own.
Looking at Fina kneeling before her, Syl felt a slight bitterness at the corners of her mouth.
Fina could probably kill the Joker in an instant, the kind where the Joker wouldn't even have time to react, yet now Fina was asking to be her student.
Learn what? Learn how to be killed in an instant?
Just as Syl was thinking about how to tactfully refuse, the Joker persona blurted out an answer before Syl could react.
"Your kill just now was poorly done; it didn't allow the opponent to fully experience Fear. If I were you, I wouldn't have done it that way..."
With that, the Joker began to talk incessantly about how, if it were him, he would have slowly tortured and killed that soldier just now.
Fina listened, completely dazed.
Syl also quickly stopped the Joker's urge to continue talking about how to kill people.
"So... so amazing... as expected of Lord Joker!" After a brief moment of astonishment, Fina also quickly followed the Joker's lead and began to flatter him, "Your understanding of human emotions must be extremely profound."
"I wouldn't claim to understand all emotions," the Joker smiled slightly and continued, "But regarding the utilization of Fear, and how to exploit the Fear of others, I have it down to a science."
"Then, then, then... can you take me as your student?" Fina's eyes lit up, seemingly seeing hope, "I want to learn that!"
Using Fear to manipulate the human heart—wasn't that the best way to digest the Rebel potion?
However, compared to digesting the potion, what Fina really cared about was how she could continue to stay with the Joker legitimately.
"No..." Syl was just about to say some words of refusal when she found that her right hand had been raised at some point, fist held horizontally in front of her body with a thumb pointing up.
This was the sign of agreement.
"Great... that's wonderful!" Fina stood up abruptly, wanting to throw herself onto Syl, but fearing she might anger her, she stood there both excited and conflicted, looking very much at a loss.
"Jo—ker—!" Syl shouted in her mind, feeling that she couldn't quite scold him but couldn't let it go either, a rather helpless feeling.
Scolding the Joker was equivalent to scolding herself; it was quite contradictory.
At that moment, the long-awaited system notification appeared.
"Mission Triggered"