Xiao Yu gripped [Shadow Fang] and gave a casual swipe at a wrist-thick rotting tree root near the tunnel.
No sound. No resistance.
He frowned, wondering if the dagger was just some cheap prop. But two seconds later, the upper half of the root slid off with a clean clack. The cut was as smooth as a mirror.
"Hiss..." Xiao Yu sucked in a breath of cold air. The speed of the blade made his heart race. He glanced back at the faint wisp of blue smoke where Roane had vanished, sheathed the dagger, and muttered, "Alright, old-timer. I took your steel, I'll do your job. Rest easy."
He hauled up Mia, who was still rubbing her sore waist on the ground, and spat out a mouthful of dirt. "Stop whining. We still have six stalks of Ghost Grass to pull. If we don't finish, we starve tonight."
Mia's stomach gave a thunderous growl. Her face was as pale as a ghost's. "Xiao Yu, I'm done. My legs feel like overcooked noodles..."
"Shut it. I'll teach you a trick. It's called the 'Low-Power Shuffle.'" Xiao Yu grabbed Mia's sleeve, hunched his shoulders, and lowered his center of gravity. "Keep your heels on the ground. Don't lift your feet; just drag them through the mud. Lifting your knees is a waste of fuel. Follow me... drag..."
In the mud of the mass grave, the two moved like a pair of giant worms crawling across dry land. After thirty agonizing minutes of "shuffling," they finally shoved the last of the Ghost Grass into their pockets.
By the time they crawled back to the Adventurer's Guild, dawn was breaking.
The clerk behind the counter looked sleep-deprived and utterly disgusted at the sight of these two—covered in filth, looking like zombies fresh from the soil. She picked through the ten stalks with a pair of tweezers, slapped 50 copper coins onto the table with a cold thud, and pushed over two bowls of leftover stew from the guild's kitchen.
"Here's your pay. The soup is leftover; drink it and get out."
The soup was a mess of bone fragments and wilted yellow cabbage leaves, with fat congealing on the surface. But to Xiao Yu and Mia, it was a five-star feast. They buried their faces in the bowls, slurping so loudly it sounded like a natural disaster. As the warm broth slid down into their shrunken stomachs, Xiao Yu felt that, in this moment, life couldn't possibly get any better.
Warm and satisfied, the two trudged back to their "base"—a pair of rotting straw piles in a leaky hut.
Xiao Yu pulled out the silver necklace Roane had left behind.
In the dim light, the silver glinted with the seductive, shimmering glow of pure money.
"This thing... if we sell it, we could eat crispy fried chicken for a month." Xiao Yu stared at the necklace, his dead-fish eyes locked in a fierce internal struggle.
Beside him, Mia swallowed hard, her eyes glowing green. "Not just chicken... we could get a real blanket. A coat that actually stops the wind..."
Xiao Yu's grip tightened. He was a loser. A shut-in with dead-fish eyes who, back in his old world, lived on one meal every three days because he couldn't afford more. Why act like a saint now? Roane had been dead for three years. No one knew this belonged to him. If he sold it, they could survive. If he didn't, he'd be back in the mass grave tomorrow pulling weeds.
"Should we... just sell it?" Xiao Yu whispered.
He looked at the necklace, then at the blood-stained letter. His hands were shaking. He wondered if he'd lost his mind. Why hold onto some pathetic sense of honor in a world like this?
Finally, gritting his teeth as if in a spiteful dare against himself, he tore open the letter.
The handwriting was like a crab's crawl across the page:
"Alice, if you're reading this, I'm probably knocking on Death's door.
I've spent my life killing for coin, living on the edge of a blade. I always thought a man's job was to be out there, making big money so you could wear the finest dresses and live in a mansion. But as I'm lying here dying, I realized... the thing I regret most isn't the money. It's that I didn't chop enough wood for you in the winter. I regret not being there to sit by the hearth and crack beans with you.
I bought this necklace for you. I wanted to put it on you myself once I struck it rich.
I hid my savings under the crooked tree behind our old house. Don't be stingy with it. Buy some land, buy a shop. Find a steady man and get married. Just... don't pick a mercenary. A mercenary's life is a bitter one. Find an ordinary, decent guy—someone like that messenger kid, maybe. Just live a quiet, safe life.
Next life, I'll quit the sword early. I'll come home and just stay by your side."
The hut went deathly silent.
Mia was already curled up in the straw, sobbing into her hands, snot and tears everywhere.
Xiao Yu stared at the line: "Find an ordinary, decent guy—someone like that messenger kid." He felt a lump in his throat, sour and bitter like an unripe persimmon. He thought about his old life—the people sprinting through the rain for a few pennies, the people who promised to come home but never did.
"Damn you, Roane. You old bastard. Even in death, you find a way to screw with me."
Xiao Yu cursed, shoving the silver necklace deep into his chest pocket with a rough motion, as if he were afraid that one more look would make him change his mind.
"Stop crying, you glutton." Xiao Yu kicked Mia's foot. "Tomorrow, we find out where Retta Village is. We're delivering this letter. Not for a reward... but because I have to tell that Alice woman her man was a hero. Even if he was a goddamn starving hero."
Xiao Yu lay back on the hard, rotting straw, staring up at the holes in the roof.
His stamina was still 3.5. His stomach was already starting to protest again. But for the first time, those dead-fish eyes of his looked like they belonged to a living, breathing man.