‘Now then, what should I do?’


    Riyue thought as he watched the haggard-looking unconscious female assassin. Upon closer inspection, her entire clothing was covered in dust, and there were white bandages soaked in blood around her stomach area.


    ‘She probably fought a monster, got injured, dragged her body here, and fell asleep.’


    Riyue then pondered between helping her or just going on his way.


    ‘...She didn’t seem to have any hostile thoughts toward me and even nodded her head at me when I first met her, therefore she might not know about me and my situation. Of course, I should still be on my guard. After all, even if she isn’t an assassin sent by the Shen Lei Kingdom, judging by her clothing, she must be related in one way or another.’


    However, Riyue didn’t think she would be allied with the Shen Lei Kingdom. After all, what kind of assassin does whatever she wants in another country? Riyue was more inclined to believe that she had some kind of teacher from the Shen Lei Kingdom’s assassin group or maybe she defected or something like that.


    After a while of thinking, Riyue decided to wake her up. It’s fine even if she memorized his face; just the description of white hair and no mole on the face would be enough to misdirect anyone hearing from her. Riyue tapped the floor with his sword scabbard and then moved closer. After he got within a certain radius, the woman’s eyes widened as she immediately stood up and assumed a fighting stance.


    Riyue immediately dropped his weapon and smiled, raising his hands in the air.


    “Please calm down. If I wanted to attack you, I wouldn’t have bothered creating any kind of noise.”


    The woman frowned as she scrutinized Riyue, then widened her eyes in surprise.


    “You are… the one awake on the ship?”


    “Yes, that''s me. Nice to meet you.”


    ‘So you remember… but it doesn’t seem like she knows my name.’


    One of the reasons why he picked the Empire was because the citizens here rarely received or cared about news from other kingdoms. Secondly, it was because the Jin Long Empire had a bad relationship with everyone in the Shen Lei Kingdom, except for the Zhang Family alone.


    ‘The fact that the Empire hasn’t guarded their borders to catch the runaway member of a family that “helped” the demons means they are expressing either neutrality or even leaning on my side… I don’t know whether they knew the family was framed or not, but I don’t think they would be foolish enough to make an immediate decision. Heck, maybe they knew the family was framed, and because the Zhang Family had a good relationship with the Empire, I might even be able to get some help.’


    That’s also why he had to get to the Jin Long Grand Martial Academy: to make contact with the higher-ups safely, prove himself and his family innocent, and then get their help to take revenge upon the Kingdom.


    ‘But this is this and that is that. For now, I have to take care of the woman in front of me.’


    “Apologies, but may I sit down? It’s quite uncomfortable to be standing around after hiking a mountain.”


    The woman frowned for a bit before she nodded, sheathed her dagger, and sat on the ground.


    “Sorry, I thought a beast had come to eat me.”


    “No problem. I would also react in the same way.”


    Riyue said while standing at a distance quite far from her, ensuring he could run away if she decided to attack. An awkward silence then ensued. Riyue was wary about the woman who was clearly stronger than him, while the woman was wary of Riyue entering the cave and taking shelter there, though she probably understood that Riyue had no intention of harming her.


    Riyue then fake-coughed before smiling.


    “May I know your name? Rather than being awkward and wary about each other, I think it’s better if we talked and figured out each other’s intentions.” Riyue smiled. The woman didn’t seem to be very sociable, but that was fine; as long as she could speak, Riyue was confident in his social skills.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Yu Xia. Yours?” Xia said, her expression unchanging.


    “Qing Yuan. A villager who held big dreams and went to the capital to enter the Jin Long Academy. Hahaha, quite a cliché, isn’t it?” Riyue said as he scratched his cheek.


    “The academy?” Xia’s eyes widened a bit. As he had expected, almost every young martial artist in Bai Zhu City held a certain amount of interest in the academy, whether to join or simply because they knew about it, making it a great conversation starter.


    “Yes, I intend on trying out for the entrance exam two months later. I’m not sure whether I could get in or not, but I should at least try, right? What about you, Miss Xia? You seem strong, so perhaps you are a student there?”


    Xia shook her head.


    “No, just like you, I’m also trying out for the entrance exam. Also, it is fine to just call me Xia.”


    “Then please call me Yuan as well.” Riyue smiled. For the next hour or two, despite his eyelids growing heavier with each passing second, he managed to create quite a good atmosphere with Yu Xia. The tension loosened, and Xia’s expression seemed to have eased a bit, at least as much as he could tell since she didn’t really show much expression on her face.


    “Excuse me, but may I know what you were doing on that ship? Ah, if you don’t want to answer, it is fine, of course.”


    Riyue didn’t really care but thought he had to ask a sensitive question to test the waters. Depending on her reaction, Riyue would either leave and sleep somewhere else or give her some medicine to befriend her and sleep there.


    Yu Xia looked Riyue in the eye for a moment before she opened her mouth.


    “Are you a criminal?”


    ‘...That''s out of nowhere.’


    Riyue smiled and said, “Though I did not live a life full of righteousness, I could say with full confidence that I am unlike the pieces of trash that roam the earth.”


    It was the truth. Xia looked at Riyue with a slight frown before her expression eased again.


    “I see,” Xia nodded. “I was there to steal things for ingredients to make a pill.”


    “I see…” Riyue’s mouth twitched.


    ‘That was obvious, but I didn’t think she would just say that without shame… Amazing.’


    Xia seemed to have noticed Riyue’s reaction and spoke again.


    “I only steal from criminals. The items, the smugglers, each and every one of them are bad guys, so I stole from them.”


    “I-I see.” Riyue’s hand unconsciously touched his chest; the Qilin’s Horn was still there.


    Though he was not a bad guy, maybe he should just find another place to go and sleep. He intended on befriending her since she was also going to the entrance exam, but perhaps it was a reckless and bad idea.


    Before Riyue tried to pardon himself, Xia smiled lightly.


    “From what I see, you do not seem like a bad guy.”


    “...How exactly do you know that? At our second time meeting, at that.”


    As if she had waited for such a question to be asked, she puffed out her chest. Even with her expressionless face, Riyue could hear the pride in her tone of voice.


    “After Father died, many liars came and tried to take advantage of me. Yet despite their schemes, I managed to overcome, avoid, or even take revenge on them for their ploys. Father had also told me that I had quite a unique talent in the regard of discovering liars that others do not have, and I had wondered why that was the case when it was so easy for me to discover them.”


    Xia groaned in pain but continued speaking.


    “Liars all live without shame. It can be seen through their gestures, smiles, and way of speaking. It is easy to identify them, living with their tongues out, ready to lie to serve their own needs. Of course, criminals and bad guys are the same way, always ready to bring others down for their needs.”


    “...I see.” Riyue smiled. He knew that Xia was speaking sincerely from her heart.


    ‘Is she just naive, dumb, or does she actually have that kind of talent? I am not sure.’


    Even if she had that kind of talent, an envious talent for identifying bad guys, he thought that she was using it wastefully or rather, carelessly. If it were him, he would not trust the other person unless they had a great track record or he had known them for a long time. Even then, he would never fully trust anyone except himself.


    The reason for that was simple.


    ‘A human’s nature flips itself like a switch when desperate times come. Or when greed, envy, wrath overcome them.’


    A trustworthy person could stab the back of a longtime friend within seconds, and a husband filled with lust could cheat on a business trip when a beautiful woman came up to him. Riyue had seen too much of human nature to fully trust another person.


    ‘Of course, there are probably some genuinely good people… People who would be able to suppress their desires.’


    But even then, Riyue would still not trust them, because that was basic precaution. Besides, if they were truly good people, wouldn’t they support that way of thinking instead? Because they knew that such an attitude was the right way to live in a world full of wickedness.


    Riyue took a deep breath and suppressed his own emotions. Regardless, it looked like he could sleep in this cave and perhaps gain Xia as a temporary ally. Of course, if his judgment was wrong, he still had the system that could warn him, and he was at least confident in running away from someone injured.


    Riyue rummaged through his bundle and took out some medicinal herbs, bandages, and other useful items for recovery, as well as an Ice Spirit Grass to cool down the body temperature in the perpetually hot mountains. He then smiled at Xia.


    “Then, as thanks for your trust, please accept these.”


    Xia’s eyes lit up as she bowed her head lightly in thanks.