Daily News: Insect Girls' Heavy Dependence

Richard entered the Duke's mansion, covered in unmelted snow and utterly exhausted.

I felt that life is unpredictable, and a heavy sense of exhaustion pressed down on me.

Before they had even stood still, Yekalin's figure appeared before them. A rare hint of apology flickered across her usually aloof face.

Although Richard felt it was just a calm notification.

Her words were concise and direct:

"The young elites of New Rome were bored out of their minds and insisted on coming to the outside world to find new experiences, so they held a party."

Richard accepted the invitation she handed him.

Ha, the names on the list certainly carry weight:

Kassan Isa Jehovah, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Southern Xinjiang; Leonardo Sotus, the eldest son of the Duke of Eastern Sea; and dozens of other noble scions of similarly distinguished lineage.

Where is the gathering?

Place?

Night Tide Fortress...

Richard's eyes twitched slightly when he saw those words.

That place remains an abandoned, unclaimed site in the official records of the Kingdom of Kiel, and is not registered under his name.

The duke's son or a nobleman's representative could simply issue a document to requisition troops, and it would be perfectly legitimate...

Yekalin continued, her tone quite helpless:

"The Holy See Knights Academy starts in two and a half months, and given my current status and situation, I naturally can't go back. But Sally's situation necessitates her going... She lost control several times that night..."

Richard wanted to say that Sally's aggressive behavior that night wasn't out of control, but rather... but he didn't say it in the end.

"Kassan Isa will take care of her at the academy. I only have a few good friends..." Yekalin added at the last moment when she saw Richard hesitate. There was a hint of pleading in her voice.

Richard stood there, the dust and snow falling softly from his shoulders. He recalled his arduous journey, the many hardships he had endured, yet he had only managed to bring back a little over two hundred bottles of the essence insect liquid.

I recalled the ferocious insects and beasts I encountered in the forest, the elusive fungus people, and the tentacle that threatened me from afar.

Now that he has returned, he finds that his stronghold may be used as a place of pleasure by a group of noble children, and his own little maid needs to be entrusted to someone else to go to school.

He raised his hand and wiped his face.

What kind of nonsense is this?!

"Actually, these gatherings are quite interesting. For example, there was a nobleman who made his fortune by trading slaves. He once held a hunting party where the hunt wasn't for animals, but for hundreds of slaves. In a closed enclosure, for three days and two nights, they competed to see who could hunt the most..."

Yekalin spoke with great enthusiasm.

Richard, however, found it utterly boring. It wasn't a surge of righteous indignation; that's just how the world is. He simply found the behavior of these aristocratic youths utterly absurd.

He had no interest in arousing the duchess's sympathy for slaves. Every social class has its limitations.

As they were talking, Yekalin realized she had gone a bit too far. Richard probably didn't like this kind of callous disregard for human life.

She stuck out her tongue a little shyly and changed her words, "Actually... I didn't approve of that hunting theme either..."

Richard's heart had already turned cold, and he adopted an indifferent attitude: "So what's the theme of this party? Is it a music festival?"

Yekalin suddenly grabbed Richard's arm and shook it.

"Uh... I didn't really care about the theme of this year's party. Aside from that one human hunt, it's been incredibly boring every year. Lately, I've been thinking about how to deal with Cassandra's swordsmanship challenge..."

Richard remained silent, simply picking up the invitation and reading it carefully with his eyes lowered.

The moment my fingertips touched the paper, I felt a strange softness—a texture even more delicate than the finest lambskin, which for a moment reminded me of the skin on a young girl's chest that had never been exposed to sunlight.

Sotus Family Dinner Invitation

From the esteemed Leonardo Sothoth to all his classmates:

As the host of this year's banquet, I extend my sincerest invitation to all of you to spend the night together at Night Tide Castle.

The theme of this year's banquet is: Livestock Domestication.

During the holiday, please take good care of training a fine "livestock" and bring it to the banquet. We will then select the most outstanding creation from the castle.

The loser must wear a "livestock" badge around their neck for the entire semester.

"What kind of banquet is this?" Yekalin frowned, genuine confusion appearing in her eyes.

It seems she is ultimately a normal person, and has never been tainted by those unspoken fetishes of the aristocratic circles...

Yekaterin might not understand, but Richard knew it all too well.

In the mouths of these unruly noble children, the word "livestock" no longer referred to cattle, sheep and horses.

Those are people stripped of their names and domesticated like livestock.

In order to hold this gathering, the young master of the Sotus family even ordered a road to be temporarily opened up on the other side of the giant wall.

The next day.

Yekalin's carriage rolled over the gray snow, setting off from Stormwind and heading towards Nightfall Keep deep in the mountains.

The road was covered with the tracks left by the previous carriage, and the arrow signs along the way pointed the way, so it seemed that they had not gone astray.

Richard hadn't realized how remote Nightsweet Fortress was from the air, but now that he was on the ground, he was truly astonished.

Looking up at the mountaintop, the outline of a castle could be seen faintly in the wind and snow.

He simply couldn't understand why anyone would build a castle in such a desolate and lonely place.

The road up the mountain became increasingly difficult. The slope exceeded forty-five degrees, and the snow was so thick that the carriage could barely move.

Along the way, we saw many of Yekaterin's carriages stuck in the snow, and even whipping the horses was of no use.

A veteran motorcyclist in the convoy next to them was trying to persuade the young master to get off and hike up the mountain, otherwise there might be another heavy snowfall that night, which would be even more terrifying if the mountain was blocked by snow.

Unfortunately, the young master, whose face was as white as if he had applied two pounds of putty, still refused to get out of the warm carriage and insisted that the carriage be carried up the mountain, no matter what.

Having no other choice, the group of attendants actually removed the wheels, and the eight of them worked together to lift the carriage up the mountain.

Yekalin wasn't as pretentious as those rich young men, insisting on taking a car up the mountain or something.

She simply had the caravan stop at the foot of the mountain, asked for a few horses, and then she and Richard rode up the mountain, leaving the entourage at the foot of the mountain to guard the caravan.

Richard looked up at the somber, leaden sky and murmured softly:

"With the mountain blocked by a blizzard, this lonely mountain villa would definitely be a prime target for murder if it were part of a Conan storyline..."

"That bastard Leonardo DiCaprio is a complete pervert, choosing a place like this to hold that kind of filthy party."

Yekalin glanced at Night Tide Fortress in the distance, let out a cold snort, and spoke up for Richard beside her.

"Why are you suddenly cursing so harshly?" Richard was somewhat surprised. Yekalin would never use such vulgar language in her normal life.

Yekalin tightened her grip on his arm in displeasure and retorted angrily:

"He's a slut! He wants to sleep with every man he sees... Humph, you're not allowed to have anything to do with him! You hear me? Don't let someone like him corrupt you!"

"Be more reserved, baby."

Richard chuckled:

"Why would I go after some gay guy when I have such a beauty like you?"