Quadruple split.

Chapter 2543 Interlude: Warming Up
Game time PM22:58
Southwest Continent, Northern Border of the Griffin Dynasty, Outskirts of Simple Fortress [Death Row]

"Tom."

Melafu Howard, wearing pure white noble light armor and a snow velvet cape on her shoulders, slowly walked to the young man who was standing on the low slope with his hands behind his back, looking up at the night sky with no expression on his face. She handed the cup of warm herbal tea in her hand to the latter and said with a smile: "I heard from Lamolock that you are not old enough to drink yet, so would you like something to drink?"

"..."

Tom Lestrange, who was five years younger than her and only as tall as Melaph's shoulders, frowned slightly and shook his head gently: "I'm not interested, really."

“It’s okay without having to emphasize it again.”

Melafu smiled, then somewhat forcefully thrust the cup of herbal tea into the boy's hands, chuckling, "But this recipe was taught to me by my grandmother before she passed away. The taste is different from ordinary scented tea. Not only is it mild in taste, it also has the effect of calming the mind and refreshing the heart. How about giving it a try?"

Tom thought about it, then gave up the idea of ​​putting the drink in his hand back. He raised the cup and took a sip of the herbal tea that the other party highly recommended.

Because he had studied alchemy and herbology in his spare time, Tom Lestrange, who was able to master anything he learned in the first place, analyzed the ingredients of the drink almost in the next second. The conclusion was just a simple mixture of tranquilizing flowers, black mint, mustard root powder and ether flower candy.

Although it does have a slight calming effect, this medicinal property has no chance of being exerted in the face of Tom's body resistance. As for the taste and flavor...

The boy's only conclusion was that Melanie Howard must have loved her deceased grandmother very much.

"Well, it turns out that my cooking skills are not good enough. I can't reproduce the flavor of my grandmother's cooking?"

Melafu, who had just felt good about herself, smiled awkwardly, with an imperceptible blush of embarrassment on her cheeks, and whispered: "I'm sorry, Tom, I actually did it for my family before. Although the response was not good at that time, I thought I had made some progress over the years. Sorry, you still poured it out... eh?"

The next second, under the stunned gaze of Merave, the young man, who had just completed more than three-digit slaughter as an arrow, and whose cuffs seemed to be stained with murderous aura and blood, raised the teacup again, drank the terrible drink in it, and then subconsciously put his hand on his chest and coughed.

"Tom!?"

Melafu immediately raised her hand and gently stroked the boy's back, and asked in a panic: "Are you okay? Is it because of this tea..."

"I just choked a bit."

Tom shook his head to interrupt the other party's concern, and after a few seconds of silence, he said lightly: "The longer the tranquilizing flower is cooked, the better it is. Although you cook it very carefully, those things will be cooked into a paste if they are put into the pot for more than ten minutes. In this case, adding ether flower sugar will make the taste very sticky..."

Melafu was stunned for a moment and said in surprise: "Tom, how do you know so much?"

"I saw it while flipping through a book."

Tom said expressionlessly, and then stuffed the empty cup back into Melaph's hand. "I hope it tastes less like mud next time."

"Woo——"

With a small cry of sorrow, Melafu, with red ears, quickly put the cup back into the storage necklace. After being in a daze with the boy for about two minutes, she said softly, "Thank you for your hard work, Tom."

"That level is not even enough to stretch your muscles."

Tom replied calmly, then asked, "So, it's over with Lamolock?"

Before leaving Likud City, Lamolock had appointed him as his adjutant. He had jumped from a prisoner to the second-in-command of the invading army. Merave, who held great power, nodded slightly and said, "It's over. As I told you before, Archbishop Eden Jones, who once presided over the Northeastern Diocese and had a serious rivalry with the Dreamland Pope, made the right choice."

"choose?"

Tom sneered and said coldly, "Don't be ridiculous. Lamorok has never given anyone a real choice. You should be well aware of this."

Melafu pursed her lips, sighed silently, and said softly: "Maybe it's true, but I am the one who makes the choice after all."

"I can take you back to Griffin."

Tom glanced at Melafu and narrowed his beautiful emerald green pupils slightly: "I am different from you. I am not Lamolock's 'toy'."

"Thank you for your kindness, Tom, but please forgive me for my tactlessness."

Melafu shook her head slightly and said seriously, "For me, neither joining the cold and ruthless royal family nor returning to that dirty and absurd family is an attractive enough choice. My excellence does not allow me to go somewhere else and hide my identity as an ordinary woman."

Tom's mouth curled up slightly, his expression was rarely lively: "Indeed."

"hey-hey."

Melafu showed a young girl's innocent smile, then raised her slender white neck and looked at the stars in the night sky, which were far from dazzling, but at least bright and lively, and murmured in a voice as if she was talking to herself: "I am very deliberate, right?"

"Ah."

Tom also raised his head, looking up at the same night sky, and said calmly, "Very deliberate."

"This is the way of life for the orthodox Howard nobles. It is despicable, dirty, utilitarian, unscrupulous and unscrupulous."

Melafu gently held the boy's arm, and raised a somewhat sad arc at the corner of her mouth: "Isn't it disgusting?"

"really."

Tom responded noncommittally, and said casually, "It's disgusting, yes."

Melafu bit her lower lip and was about to let go of the boy's delicate arm: "As expected, I am still..."

"But the same goes for the Lestrange family."

Tom interrupted, staring at the starry sky in a trance: "Stupid, weak, mean, arrogant, these are the main themes of my past life."

Melaf blinked and turned to look at the thin and handsome boy next to her, whose eyes were filled with indifference and gloom, but still bright and sharp. For the first time, she realized that the other party's vertical pupils that had frightened her for a long time were so beautiful.

It is like a precious magical jadeite, making it difficult to look away.

"so what?"

So, she stared at the two beautiful yet deadly jades, and asked in a slightly impetuous tone that was not in line with the Howard family's way of life: "You don't mind, do you?"

"I do not know."

Tom shook his head and said in a tone that seemed quite indifferent to ordinary people: "But if I had to choose between the cup of herbal tea just now and Lamorelock's red wine stewed apples, I would drink tea."

"puff."

The aristocratic lady was inexplicably amused and couldn't help laughing. She covered her mouth and said, "You are so cute."

"Bad accusation."

Tom turned his head coldly and looked at Melafu, and said lightly: "Compared to now, your so-called deliberate and disgusting attitude before actually made me feel more comfortable."

"lie--"

Melafe wrinkled her nose and then silenced Tom before he could open his mouth to refute.

In an adult way, the other party was physically silenced.
The boy narrowed his eyes, but did not show obvious resistance. Instead, he allowed the other party to lead him without much deliberate effort. It was not until two minutes later that he was let go by Merave, who was objectively much weaker than him.

"It's the first kiss."

Before the boy, whose heartbeat had stabilized, could speak, Melafu, who was blushing in the true sense, bit her silver teeth and said angrily as if she was throwing a tantrum, "I am willing to swear in the name of my grandmother."

"Oh."

Tom nodded slightly, then continued to look up at the stars: "Then I believe it." "You..."

Angered by the other party's calmness, Melafe frowned slightly, then pulled Tom in front of her again and repeated the physical silence from before.

This time it lasted for five minutes, and Merave didn't stop until she was almost suffocated.

"You won't suffer any loss!"

The angry woman wrinkled her nose, then seemed to think that her tone just now was not intense enough, and gritted her teeth and said: "You are not at a disadvantage at all!"

Tom, who could clearly sense the other person's heartbeat, frowned and asked, "What are you angry about?"

"Do you think I'm an old woman?"

Melafu clenched her fists, which had no deterrent effect, and said angrily, "I am very good at taking care of myself! In three years... no, five years, I will look younger than you!"

"..."

Tom suddenly regretted not letting the other party leave and sighed in his heart. Then he ignored Melafe and continued to face the battlefield where he had just been, looking up at the night sky in a daze.

It's a pity that the other person next to him obviously didn't intend to let him go.

"The favor that Lamorok received was far beyond imagination. Not only was he able to conduct remote command by forging an oracle, he was also able to block... no, it should be said that he deceived Archbishop Moon Shadow's surveillance of several troops."

Holding Tom's arm, Melafe suddenly said to herself, "If I'm not mistaken, the cult leader probably still thinks we are in Likud City and has no idea that the situation is completely out of her control."

Tom hummed noncommittally and said calmly, "I don't care about that."

"I don't care whether you care or not, but I have no one else to talk to."

Melafu exhaled heavily, and then continued, "Now, Eden has been completely instigated by Lamolock to come here. In addition, that guy probably left a large number of 'hidden agents' at the border when he invaded Griffin last time. I'm afraid Yueying's information acquisition channels are no longer credible."

Tom, who was indeed not interested in the topic, but was not enthusiastic about daydreaming, responded and asked casually, "So after all these years of business, Moon Shadow is still not as good as that scum Lamorok?"

"It's not that simple."

After Tom asked the question, Melafu became a little excited. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke quickly, "Under normal circumstances, even if someone's talent in political schemes is equal to yours in strength, even if he is a genius who is the son of a genius, he cannot easily break the rules that mediocre people have built with time, money, and sweat. Our Griffin is the most representative example of this."

"Oh."

"The royal family has never lacked outstanding people. This generation's Emperor Chiwetel Logan and Princess Eliza Logan are even more difficult to guess. It is no exaggeration to say that even if all the leaders of the Griffin nobles were gathered together, it would be difficult to compete with those two in terms of talent."

"Oh."

"But I am different. Although I may not be better than the brother and sister, I, Melafu Howard, can at least look at things objectively instead of being blinded by those vague promises."

"Oh."

"The bad news is that in the eyes of my family, I am just a delicate vase, an 'outsider' destined to become a political bargaining chip. You know, they even planned to marry me to that lunatic Chiwetel Rogen."

"Oh."

"Aren't you angry?"

"Fortunately."

"You... huh, forget it. But the good news is that even if those family heads are idiots, the extremely outstanding Logan siblings cannot shake the domestic situation, because this is a constraint accumulated over time. Unless there are more than three generations of people like Chiwete and Eliza, and the major families give birth to three generations of idiots like Fast, the royal family will be powerless to change the overall situation."

"Oh."

"The same goes for Lamorok. No matter how powerful he is or how stupid Moon Shadow is, it is logically impossible for him to directly usurp this elite force and keep the other party in the dark."

"Oh."

"I have already said the real reason. Your so-called 'master' is too partial to Lamorok."

"I am not a follower of the Whispering God."

"So you were listening to me."

"Fortunately."

"…Religion is so unreasonable. As the 'Supreme Being' that stands above everything else, the evil god known as Whisper can completely control everything under his rule based on his own preferences."

"Oh."

"Although I'm not sure about what's going on in the Dream Theocracy, I'm sure that Lamolock has replaced Moon Shadow and become the spokesperson for Whisper."

"Oh."

Tom nodded slightly and added sparingly, "That's a pity."

"Phew, that's a lot easier now."

Melafu turned around and kissed Tom on the cheek, then smiled and said, "Well, I'm awesome, right?"

"Ah."

Tom nodded without saying another word.

"Tom."

Then, Melafu took the boy's hand and whispered in his ear——

"Do you have any other plans for a while?"

"No."

"I want to rest early today."

"Oh."

"You...want to go to my tent?"

"Ok?"

"I...have kept more than just my first kiss until now."

"Oh."

An ambiguous warm breeze blew by, and the darling of the Howard family took a deep breath. Then, she deliberately, meanly, dirty, and utilitarianly grabbed the boy's wrist and walked towards her tent in a domineering and tyrannical manner.

"..."

The boy did not resist.

Just at a certain moment a few hours later, my heart beat slightly faster.

Chapter 2534: End