Dim hotel. The innkeeper walked in front with an oil lamp, followed by Yilin and a group of her knights.
The iron boots clattered on the wooden stairs, producing a creaking sound as if they would collapse at any moment.
Until the top floor, the innkeeper reached out and pushed open the slightly ajar wooden door.
What met their eyes was an ordinary room.
There was a balcony, with red moonlight streaming in through the balcony's floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the desk facing the railing. It looked somewhat tattered.
Beside it was an empty bookshelf. A simple set of desks and chairs, and a bed with a brown sheet. There were no decorative hanging items or paintings on the walls.
Considering the era, a room like this was quite decent after all. It was just a place for commoners. However, despite being on the top floor, the room was filled with a musty smell, and the air was damp and stale. As soon as the door was opened, the pungent odor hit them in the face.
Yilin furrowed her brows, involuntarily covering her nose with her hand.
The innkeeper quickly ran over to open the windows for ventilation.
"Is there no better room?" the Bearded Knight asked angrily.
Lighting the two oil lamps in the room, the innkeeper said with a fawning smile, "This is the best we have."
"Then give up your own room!"
The Bearded Knight grabbed the innkeeper's collar and lifted him off the ground, scaring him so much that the oil lamp in his hand nearly fell to the floor.
Just as the Bearded Knight was about to use force, Yilin raised her hand, and the Bearded Knight immediately stopped his actions, releasing the innkeeper.
"Alright. It's just a few hours until dawn. It doesn't matter where we sleep. Everyone, rest up quickly. We have to continue our journey."
Yilin spoke, and the Bearded Knight respectfully took a step back and saluted, saying, "Yes, Miss Yilin."
"Leave us."
"Yes."
Everyone exited the room.
In the small room, only Yilin was left.
She took a deep breath, couldn't help but cough a couple of times, and covered her mouth as she walked step by step to the balcony. She opened the floor-to-ceiling window a bit wider and stood quietly, letting the breeze brush against her cheeks. Her hand gripping the hilt of her sword tightened unconsciously.
Suddenly, a scream was heard, followed by the sound of horse hooves, shouts, and crashes.
"He's here! Quick!"
"Don't let him escape!"
Opening her eyes, Yilin stepped onto the balcony and looked down at the street, seeing a small figure in a cloak running wildly. A group of knights was chasing him, with many people blocking his way along the route.
"Is there really a Lich?" Yilin's eyes widened slightly.
In no time, the figure had disappeared from her sight, leaving a trail of chaos behind.
Before she had time to react, there was a loud bang as the door behind her burst open.
The Bearded Knight rushed in, visibly relieved to see Yilin standing unharmed on the balcony. He saluted and asked, "Miss Yilin, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
...
Gray was fleeing with the Black Cat in hand, moving like a gust of wind. In his mad dash, he overturned the awnings at the alley's entrance, trampled the vegetable vendor's stall, and broke the stables' fence. The knights galloped with their lances raised, turning the once peaceful town into chaos.
No one expected that two legs could actually outrun four legs.
The Lich's agility far exceeded the knights' expectations. He could leap three to four meters high like a grasshopper, jumping over the knights' heads. He could squeeze into dog holes like a hamster, and even split into two halves, with his lower body running under a horse and his upper body leaping over a knight's head. Arrows were useless against him—if they hit, they just left holes in his black cloak, got stuck in his ribs for a moment, and then were pulled out and discarded.
"Damn it! Can't anyone get a net?"
"I'll chop him up and feed him to the dogs!"
"He ran that way! Quick!"
The knights were led in circles through the alleys, becoming dizzy and panting heavily.
Watching the knights' figures grow distant and then close again, the Black Cat was exuberant.
"Wow, you can run this fast? I didn't realize! I thought you'd fall apart while running!"
"I cast three layers of Gale Technique on myself!"
"Nice! Now you look like a proper evil Lich! Hahaha!"
Before the chubby ghost could finish laughing, Gray suddenly braked and turned around!
A charging knight raised his lance at Gray. At that moment, Gray bent down, narrowly dodging the attack, and picked up something from the ground.
The Black Cat's eyes nearly popped out.
"You-you-you! What are you doing? You scared me to death!" Recovering from the shock, the Black Cat then noticed that Gray was reattaching his jawbone. Well, it seemed that running really could make a skeleton fall apart, and indeed, his jaw had fallen off and needed to be picked up again.
After catching his breath and looking around, the Black Cat's fur bristled. They were surrounded by layers of knights, knights' squires, infantry, and even civilians!
"Now, let's see where you can run," the Silver-armored Knight grinned fiercely as he rode his horse to confront them.
"Us? No! I have nothing to do with him! I'm just a passing stray cat!" The Black Cat squirmed desperately to explain, but Gray had it firmly by the nape. All the Silver-armored Knight heard was a series of frantic "meows."
...
Yilin stood on the balcony watching Gray from a distance, with the Bearded Knight and a tall, skinny middle-aged man beside her.
Below the inn, several of her knights and knights' squires had all drawn their weapons, forming a tight defensive circle around all the inn's entrances.
...
The blood-red moonlight shone down, illuminating Gray's bald skull and his tattered cloak.
He slowly raised his head, surveying the surroundings.
All the spears were pointed precisely at him. The people holding the spears swallowed hard in unison, eyes wide and trembling with tension.
The Lich had not appeared in the world above in over a thousand years. For everyone present, this was their first time seeing a Lich up close and in detail.
Short, only about the height of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old human child. His white bones glowed with a dark red sheen under the moonlight. The dark red soul flames in his eye sockets fluttered with each of his movements, leaving afterimages. Although he looked slightly different from the Lich in legends, his sinister appearance was enough to scare misbehaved children.
Gray slowly opened his mouth, and like the evil Lichs in various novels, he exhaled a wisp of white mist. Just when everyone thought he was about to curse the gods or utter some threatening words like in the novels, he said, "I was wrong. I can bury the bones back and write a letter of apology to the graveyard's owner. Please accept my sincere apology."
The voice was transmitted directly through a soul connection.
At once, everyone was stunned. The scene fell silent.
Standing on the balcony, Yilin furrowed her brows and sneered, "What is he saying?"
Beside her, the Bearded Knight scratched his head, looking puzzled.
The Lich showed no expression, but everyone understood the meaning of his words.
The Black Cat, held by the scruff, rolled its eyes, "What kind of villain surrenders before even fighting? Apologizing? My god! You're a disgrace to Lichs!"
"I just want to resolve this in the most peaceful way possible," Gray said.
*Gray thought that, but the Silver-armored Knight interpreted his words differently, "You mean you want to surrender?"*
"Uh... you could say that, if you're willing to accept my apology..."
Before Gray could finish, the Silver-armored Knight shouted, "Did you hear that? He's afraid! He's afraid of us! Hahaha! He's scared of us, what are we afraid of? Everyone, get him!"
"Charge!" Instantly, everyone seemed energized and lunged at Gray, catching him off guard.
In the chaos, knights and horses piled up into a heap.
"Stop pushing from the back!"
"Damn! Who stepped on my ass?"
"I caught the Lich! I caught the Lich!"
"That's my foot!"
Gray was so short that he got squeezed out of sight in the crush. The Silver-armored Knight stood on the periphery, holding his lance, unable to spot Gray.
Just as he hesitated about whether to charge into the crowd himself, he noticed Gray sneaking out from under someone, and then crawling right back in, pulling out the Black Cat.
"He's over here! He's getting away!" Probably still wary of the Lich, the Silver-armored Knight didn't charge in but shouted loudly.
This moment of hesitation gave Gray a chance to escape.
He quickly formed a spell with his hands.
Before the surrounding attackers could react, Gray's feet left the ground, and his body shot up into the air like a bouncing ball.
"You can fly! Why didn't you fly earlier?!" the Black Cat screamed as Gray carried it away.
"Because I'm not good at it!"
Amid the screams, the knights saw Gray's figure describe a parabola in the sky, then crash into a straw hut on the other side of the town, falling apart.
The world fell silent.
The Silver-armored Knight, regaining his composure, raised his sword high and shouted, "Chase—!"
So everyone sprinted towards the other side of the town.
Yilin finally breathed a slight sigh of relief and chuckled, "The Lich is dumb, and people are dumber."