The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

"Li Yin," Du Feiya paused, as if he was still unfamiliar with this title, "Besides my father..."

Her voice gradually became weaker. "In this city, the only person I can trust is you."

Li Yin was shocked to see her sincere, even humble expression. I'm sorry, he said silently in his heart, Princess Du Feiya, I'm not someone you can trust.

However, he still nodded and acted very touched, "It's an honor."

"Don't say that," Du Feiya immediately looked up and said seriously, "We are friends, aren't we? Please don't treat me like a servant to his master."

Li Yin nodded again, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth, expressing his sincere agreement with her words.

"Well," Du Feiya looked a little relieved when he agreed, and then said, "As my only friend, Li Yin, can I ask you for a favor?"

Li Yin was slightly startled, but he still kept smiling. A princess's request - this was not a good sign, his scalp was slightly numb - if it was an ordinary matter, as long as she expressed her opinion, then countless dark elves under her would rush to complete it for her.

And if even the dark elves couldn't do it, how difficult would it be for him, a human slave?

"Please go ahead," he said slowly.

"Yeah," Du Feiya responded softly and nodded. However, she did not speak again immediately, and her expression became a little embarrassed, as if she found it difficult to speak.

When Li Yin saw this, his heart sank even more.

He had already begun to think about how to tactfully reject this request, in order to minimize the impact of this action on the relationship between him and Du Feiya, lest the effect of the charm be lifted immediately...

Du Feiya reached her hand to her waist and fumbled in the beautifully embroidered waist bag for a while. Then, she stretched out her hand, and a fist slightly bigger than Li Yin's was clenched. Through the silvery fingers, Li Yin noticed that she was holding a handful of silver coins.

What is this for... Li Yin frowned slightly - are you going to help me?

Li Yin instinctively felt that something was wrong.

To be honest, thanks to Cassia's care, Li Yin, as a slave, did not have any financial difficulties. Of course, Du Feiya did not know the inside story. As a princess, it was normal for her to imagine that a slave was living in poverty and want to help him. But the question was, if he wanted to help himself, did he need to "ask for help"? And why was he so shy?

Considering the difficulty of this request, and the racial characteristics of the dark elves, Li Yin thought more and more that the silver-shining thing was more like another thing -

Money to buy life? ! ! !

Chapter 4 Friends ()

"Um..." Du Feiya said softly, rather embarrassedly, "Li Yin, go out from this road, turn left, go straight, and then turn right at the second intersection, and you will enter Blackthorn Street..."

Li Yin's heart trembled. Target location? Is this... an assassination mission? It seems that this is indeed a life-saving payment?

The problem is, is it really possible for a human slave like him to complete an assassination mission that even other dark elves cannot complete? No matter how you look at it, he is sacrificing his life for no reason...

As he was lost in thought, Du Feiya's gentle and subtle voice continued to come: "Then, go in the direction of the Night's Edge Hall."

"After passing the second, third, fourth, fifth..." Du Feiya counted, "the sixth one, when you pass the sixth intersection, turn left and you will enter an alley."

"In this alley, you should be able to find an old male dark elf. His name is Balikel... It doesn't matter if you haven't seen him before. His appearance is easy to recognize. He has gray hair and a scar on his left cheek from his eye to the bridge of his nose..."

Sounds like a ruthless character indeed... Li Yin thought to himself, trying to imagine the ferocious face with a horrible scar in his mind, and he became even more confused.

"Also," Du Feiya paused and whispered, "the most notable feature is his hands - he has no forearms. His hands were cut off at about the elbows."

"Oh," Li Yin nodded habitually. An old male dark elf without hands?!

Blackthorn Street?!

A familiar scene suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. A ragged, wrinkled male dark elf beggar was crawling on the ground, constantly hitting the ground with his head, and gnawing something on the ground with his rough lips - because he had no hands, he could only use his mouth to "pick up" the silver coins scattered on the ground.

Li Yin suddenly reacted.

"That beggar?" he said subconsciously, eyes wide open.

"You know everything?" Du Feiya blushed and said embarrassedly, "That's right, the Borginia family's team was following us at the time."

So what? Immediately afterwards, such a reaction emerged in his mind.

It's already too much to drive people off the street, but now they are sending me to assassinate them?

This girl... after being enchanted, she looked so innocent, lovely, and approachable, but she was actually such a petty and vindictive person - no, that can't be said, it's even worse than that, after all, from beginning to end, the beggar never provoked her at all. It's not enough to humiliate, beat and scold people for no reason, but she has to put them to death?

"Since you have met him, it will be more convenient." Du Feiya's face showed a look of genuine joy.

Li Yin couldn't help but twitch his lips when he saw her joyful expression. How could someone, oh no, an elf, be able to blend an innocent smile with a cruel and ferocious murderous intent so perfectly?

"Then," as he was sighing, Du Feiya happily stretched out her hand to him, "Can I ask you to help me pass this money to him?"

"Oh no - I'm sorry, Princess Du Feiya," as soon as the word "please" appeared in his ears again, Li Yin immediately said the words he had prepared long ago, and then - "Pass it on?"

When the other two unexpected words reached his ears, he could not help but be stunned. His mouth was half open and he forgot to close it. The words he had prepared instantly suffocated in his stomach.

"Uh," he burped as the air rushed back into his throat, "Transfer it?"

He repeated again.

"Yes, is there any problem?" Du Feiya looked at him anxiously.

"It won't waste a lot of your time," she explained carefully, "if you want to return to Night's Edge Hall to check on Princess Cassia, most of it... is on the way."

Didn't you ask me to assassinate him? Li Yin almost said what he really thought, and quickly changed his words: "Why? At that time..."

He didn't say anything more, but Du Feiya understood. She immediately said "Oh", and then a slightly flustered and embarrassed expression appeared on her pretty face.

"T-That..." She stammered, "I didn't mean it at that time."

? Li Yin looked at her in confusion.

"I, I actually just... want to help him." She widened her eyes and looked at Li Yin, as if hoping to make him believe her through eye contact.

But the confusion in Li Yin's eyes became even stronger.

"Actually, actually..." Seeing that Li Yin still didn't believe it, she shook her head, anxious like an ant on a hot pan, but her words were incoherent. It seemed that she wanted to explain, but didn't know where to start.

After a while, she seemed to have finally sorted out her thoughts and spoke again, her voice becoming more stable:

"Mr. Balikle, he was a mercenary in the past," she said with a distant tone, not without regret, "and once worked for our family."

"In a battle where he was employed by the Denitya family, he lost both arms and was fired by the mercenary group he had been serving. Although the Denitya family gave him a pension compensation according to the regulations, the meager compensation was not enough to support an elf who had lost his livelihood for the rest of his life. So not long after, he lost his livelihood and fell into begging."

"I feel very sorry about this," she said, lowering her head. "I want to help him."

"But I can't just give him alms."

"You know, kindness is just a weakness for us dark elves."

"If I expose this 'shortcoming' of mine, my enemies will use it to laugh at me, attack me, or even plot against me." When she said this, she shuddered, as if she was terrified by the pervasive conspiracy surrounding her.

"Even the elves who are still following me will turn to other targets because of their master's "weakness", or even become tools used by my enemies to deal with me."

"So, in short," Du Feiya paused, "I can't give money to Mr. Balikle openly."

Li Yin was dumbfounded. After a long while, he came back to his senses: "I understand. In fact, after all, this matter is similar to the time when you tried to rescue me."

"You can't make them understand the true purpose of your actions."

Du Feiya nodded, a look of relief and joy appearing on her beautiful face.

Chapter 5 Friends ()

Li Yin recalled the scene where several silver coins flew out from the Dinitya family's team and were stuck in a row just an inch in front of the old dark elf beggar.

Combined with the incident of Du Feiya competing with the elves in the tavern with flying knives, he once thought that it was a means of deterrence to show strength, but now it seems that -

"That's right," Du Feiya lowered her eyes, raised the corners of her mouth, and confirmed his guess a little embarrassedly, "This is actually a way to kill two birds with one stone."

"Firstly, in the eyes of my family members, this is indeed a way to show off my power. Secondly, Mr. Balikle, who has a disability, doesn't have to look all over the floor for the silver coins I threw."

"Anyway," Li Yin blinked and praised sincerely, "Your knife-flying skills are really good."

Du Feiya blushed slightly and lowered her head slightly, as if she was overwhelmed by the praise. However, after a while, she raised her head in a panic, as if she remembered something, and explained:

"About...about the tavern, I also need to explain something. I don't mean to make things difficult for Eugenius."

"I just have to... behave like a princess at all times."

"I know," Li Yin took over the conversation, blinked his eyes, and smiled comfortingly, "A true dark elf noble who takes his life lightly, right?"

Du Feiya twisted her body a little shyly and nodded.

"I promise you," she then looked at Li Yin with bright eyes and said with confidence, "I did that because I was fully confident. I will never hurt Eugenius."

Li Yin smiled slightly, "That makes your skills even more awe-inspiring, my princess."

Du Feiya chuckled embarrassedly.

"Ah," she suddenly came back to her senses and exclaimed softly, "I've gone off topic."

"Anyway," she returned to the previous topic, "I did it because I wanted to help Mr. Barrickle a little."

"But," she blushed, looking quite frustrated, "just like what I did to you later, my immature plans always have some unexpected problems, causing things to develop in a direction that I totally don't want."

"My subordinates successfully understood my 'intentions' as I expected."

"But what I didn't expect was that they took my 'intentions' to the next level."

"They not only beat and scolded Mr. Barrickle, but also drove him off the street and told him not to beg there anymore."

"In this way, my self-righteous 'good deed' has harmed him instead."

"So," she looked at Li Yin, "I hope you can help me give this money to him to make up for his loss a little."

Finally figuring out the root cause of the matter, Li Yin was both amused and confused.

"I understand why you didn't go there in person, Princess Dufia," he said with a straight face, "You can't show your weakness."

Du Feiya nodded with relief.

Unexpectedly, Li Yin then said, "But have you ever considered my feelings? You yourself are unwilling to expose your weaknesses, but you let me expose my weaknesses; you yourself are unwilling to take risks, but you let me take this risk?"

Du Feiya's expression changed slightly.

"I'm sorry," she apologized nervously, "I didn't expect this. I thought... your standards were different from ours. I thought... you wouldn't see 'kindness' as a weakness -"

"We really won't do that," Lein interrupted her, "but we are in Nevre now, in your city."

Du Feiya was stunned.

"I'm sorry," she stammered, "I didn't think it through. If this is dangerous for you, then... let me do it myself -"

"Forget it," the human male in front of her suddenly interrupted her. Du Feiya looked up in surprise, only to find that the other person winked at her in a quirky way. The stern expression that was inviolable before had turned into a bright and clear smile like a pool of spring water.

"Leave it to me." Li Yin said gently.

Du Feiya's two violet eyes kept turning around, and she was still a little confused about the situation.

"It was just a joke," Li Yin smiled playfully, "Don't take it so seriously."

"Leave this matter to me."

Du Feiya finally came to her senses. She smiled at first, but then became a little hesitant.

"But," she looked at Li Yin worriedly, "Li Yin, what you said just now also makes sense. For you, this matter is--"

"One of us has to take the risk. If that's the case, let me do it." He looked up at the sky and said helplessly, "We are friends after all."

Seeing his obligatory look, Du Feiya was stunned for a moment, then bit her lower lip and said, "No, I still—"

"Let me do it," Li Yin stretched out a hand and interrupted her. "Although both of us will take risks, from a practical point of view, it is more convenient for me to do it."

"After all, even if something happens to me in the future, you can still protect me; if something happens to you, I, a lowly human slave, will probably be powerless no matter what I do." Li Yin looked at her with a smile, "Am I right?"

Du Feiya stared at him and nodded blankly.

"So, if something really happens in the future, will you protect me?" Li Yin coaxed.

"Of course," Du Feiya answered immediately and decisively with a firm look in her eyes.

"That's all." Li Yin responded readily, and then he reached out and grabbed the handful of silver coins from her hand, "Leave this to me."

When they intersected, their fingers and palms touched each other. Li Yin's fingers touched her soft and boneless fingers, and his palm was close to her soft and delicate palm. Her skin, as white as jade and slightly cool, made his heart tremble.

His hands also trembled as if he had received an electric shock, and several silver coins fell down, hitting the hard stone slab with a clanging sound. Li Yin squatted down in a hurry and picked up the silver coins.

Then he looked at Du Feiya with a slightly red face.

It's embarrassing to say that although he is a man and Du Feiya is a woman, dark elf women have a significant advantage in height over men, and Du Feiya is no exception. She is much taller than Li Yin, and Li Yin can only reach the tip of her chin.

Because of this, Li Yin's palm was not as wide as hers, so... he didn't grab all the coins just now. There were still several silver coins scattered on Du Feiya's white and smooth palm.

Li Yin pursed his lips slightly, and the temperature on both sides of his cheeks rose. He paused and stretched out his other hand to Du Feiya's palm again.