"I told you not to despise yourself, not to go and get yourself killed!"

If she were taller, she would have grabbed his collar and slapped him to bring him to his senses.

However, Troy was as stubborn as a mule: "I'm not going to get myself killed. The people from the temple can't beat me."

"So you're planning to go into hiding with a little girl who's become a fugitive? How will you live once you escape? Will you be able to earn money?"

At the mention of earning money, Troy deflated.

For a fugitive like him, with red hair no less, it would indeed be difficult to be accepted elsewhere after escaping.

Thanks to the efforts of the headmaster of Siria Magic Academy, Siria was already considered the most inclusive place among the Western countries. That's why he had fled here from the south in the first place.

If he left Siria, where else could he go?

Troy's eyes were filled with confusion.

Seeing that he had come to his senses, Luo Wei let out a small sigh of relief.

Thank goodness. As long as he could be reasoned with, things weren't beyond hope yet.

If Troy had run away with Lidia, she really wouldn't know where to find another swordsman who was both so foolish and capable of fighting. Without him by her side, the credibility of her "noble" identity would drop significantly.

"Troy, don't blame yourself. In a situation where you can barely protect yourself, not saving her is actually the right thing to do—"

"We can dye our hair!" Troy suddenly blurted out.

"You said before that if worst comes to worst, I could change my hair color. Tell me, how do we dye it?"

He looked at Luo Wei stubbornly.

Luo Wei felt a lump in her throat, almost unable to breathe.

"I did say that, I did say that. I also said I'd report you to the temple if you didn't listen to me. How come you didn't hear that part!"

"If you don't get me killed today, you'll surely be the death of me someday!"

"Who doesn't know you're my guard? You might escape after breaking her out of jail, but what about us? The temple will come knocking on our door first!"

The key was that her identity wouldn't stand up to scrutiny. One investigation and her cover would be blown!

Troy turned his head away, avoiding her gaze: "You can just say I'm a stranger you hired from a tavern. Most clerics are bullies who only pick on the weak. As long as you reveal your identity, they won't give you trouble."

Luo Wei smiled: "Troy, having you really is my blessing."

Troy's body trembled, his eyes welling up with emotion: "Thank you, meeting you is also..."

"I'm not complimenting you, damn it!!!"

"I know," Troy said with difficulty, "Forget about me. You deserve better."

Luo Wei resisted the urge to roll her eyes and interrupted him: "Troy, are you dead set on saving that little girl?"

Troy hung his head, his voice almost scattered by the wind: "Yes."

"If I don't save her, I won't be able to live with myself."

"You still have something called a conscience?" Luo Wei said sarcastically, then took a deep breath and asked, "If I told you I could help you rescue her and send her to a safe place, would you still run away with her?"

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Troy suddenly looked up: "You have a way?"

"Mm-hmm, I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"Why do you care how I do it!" Luo Wei said irritably. "Anyway, on the Day of Descent, I'll rescue her."

Troy seemed to have a great weight lifted from his shoulders. His tense muscles finally relaxed, and he visibly eased up.

Luo Wei now found the sight of him irritating: "Did you find what I asked you to look for?"

"What thing?" Troy was puzzled.

When did she ask him to find anything?

"Gray-white soil," Luo Wei said coldly. "If I don't see this kind of soil by tomorrow night, I won't be able to save that girl."

"I'll go find it right away!"

Troy rushed out the door.

Luo Wei glanced around the room: "Bella, Tom, Roman, do you know what you should and shouldn't say when you meet outsiders?"

Her ink-black eyes radiated a bone-chilling coldness, as if they could nail someone to the ground.

Roman raised his little hand: "I know. I didn't hear anything."

He covered his ears with his hands and tightly closed his mouth.

"Clever little one, of course I trust you."

Luo Wei placed her hand on his head and looked at the other two.

"If anyone wants to leak this matter, they can try and see if their mouth is faster than my knife."

"Don't forget, I can use magic."

Bella and Tom trembled, not daring to make a sound.

Luo Wei's expression was unreadable. She stepped towards the door, pausing at the threshold.

"Remember, no matter who it is, even if it's your best friend or closest relative, not a single word is to be revealed."

"Understood?"

Bella and Tom nodded hurriedly, and realizing she couldn't see them, they answered loudly: "Understood, mistress!"

Luo Wei had already left. It seemed she had just said it in passing and didn't intend to wait for their answer. She left as soon as she finished speaking.

In the room, Bella and Tom were covered in cold sweat, unable to move a step for a long time, their legs numb and stiff with fear.

Their previous mistress had been gentle and kind, always wearing a faint smile, speaking to them in a soft voice, never scolding the servants like other masters did.

Over time, they had come to think that the mistress was soft-natured and had no temper. They treated this place as their own home and the mistress as their family member, joking with her casually.

Today's incident had woken them from their dream. The mistress was still the mistress, and servants were just servants. The two could never be conflated.

Their mistress was a high and mighty noble. She was dignified, powerful, authoritative, and decisive. Although she was generally kind, she was not someone they could try to influence or betray.

Bella and Tom reminded themselves that they must put themselves in their proper place and not be as casual as before.

Roman was also touching the top of his head, his face solemn as he pondered something.

And all of this was exactly what Luo Wei wanted to see.

She had long noticed that the people in the small courtyard were overly familiar with her but lacked respect.

They might like her, be grateful to her, envy her, but they didn't revere her.

The consequences of servants not revering their master were serious. It meant the master had no authority, and the servants wouldn't consider the cost of betrayal. They might even disobey her orders and disrupt her plans under the guise of doing what was best for her.

She didn't need her subordinates to be clever on their own. She only needed people to execute her orders.

Luo Wei went to the dessert shop and had the maid bring out a box of tung fruit from the storage room.

This was brought by a mercenary when she had previously posted a notice asking people to gather various fruits from different places to make fruit drinks.

In this era, people regularly ate only a few types of fruit, unlike the wide variety available in later times. Some delicious berries had not yet entered the human diet, such as the wild strawberries Luo Wei used to make strawberry juice.

So when she posted the notice, she added a statement that whether edible or not, as long as it was a new and interesting variety, bringing it would earn a reward.

That well-traveled mercenary had brought a basket of tung fruit he had picked in the southern jungle to make up the numbers.

This thing was poisonous and inedible, but Luo Wei still had the servants keep it. Because tung fruit could be pressed to extract tung oil, a natural varnish that could be used to protect wooden furniture from decay.

Luo Wei had originally planned to use it to polish the tables and chairs in the shop to make them look shinier.

However, now she needed to use the tung oil to make something else.

Like a raincoat.

A waterproof raincoat that looked like Death's cloak.

TBC