Chapter 759: The Sword Princess Search Squad
Faced with Igor’s question, Ashe didn’t answer immediately.
Ashe rested his head on the seat’s headrest, watching the LCD holographic screen on the back of the seat in front of him. A boring urban romance drama was playing inside. Igor had glanced at it earlier and immediately lost interest-a series of emotional entanglements between a beautiful blonde female lead and a vicious red-haired second female lead, all revolving around the male protagonist, with no artistic value whatsoever.
Although Igor liked to understand the conditions of different kingdoms through entertainment works, he did have aesthetic standards. Only works that could reflect certain social phenomena were qualified to be played at eight times speed in his eyes. Dramas like this, which deliberately downplayed social production relations and focused on fairy-tale-like romantic disputes, highlighting the main characters’ looks and catering to ignorant girls’ idol fantasies, simply couldn’t interest him at all.
Only Ashe could stand watching this kind of TV drama-but Igor wasn’t surprised. After all, after Ashe’s prison break, even while being hunted by Blood Hunters, he still managed to binge-watch most of “Sorcerer 100%.” Truly ignorant and girlish.
“I’m not sure,” after a long while, Ashe finally spoke, his voice a bit low. “I want to see the situation first before deciding.”
“Interesting, so you actually have a ‘observe first, decide later’ function. I thought your spinal cord only had the ‘charge’ order.” Igor snorted. “If you could hesitate like this every time before rushing to your death, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation.”
Ashe: “But if that were the case, we might still be eating Lala Fatty in Shattered Lake Prison, watching the Blood Moon Tribunal.”
“Ashe is right,” Harvey agreed. “Although for most people, not using your brain is an unbearable flaw, Ashe is clearly one of the rare exceptions.”
Ashe glanced sideways at the necromancer. “I’ll just take that as a compliment.”
“So, what are you hesitating about?” Igor asked. “Galaxia is the capital of the Stars Kingdom. Both its security forces and high-end combat power are unmatched in Stars. There are several resident legends alone. Normally, we should be hiding in the outskirts of Stars to evade pursuit, then find a way to leave through a Void Gate Spirit, not running toward danger.”“As the saying goes, ‘under the lamp it’s darkest’-the most dangerous place is also the safest. Maybe Galaxia is better for us to hide…”
“Before you can look me in the eye and lie, you’d better just be honest,” Igor said coldly.
“All right,” Ashe sighed. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to come to the Stars Kingdom-just like I want to go back to the Gospel Kingdom-but the situation in Stars Kingdom is completely beyond my expectations. Do you remember Decree 51?”
“Of course,” Harvey said. “Those Griffin Meteorologists always recite Decree 51 before taking action. I thought it was a unique Death ritual in Stars Kingdom. But reading out the opponent’s crimes before killing them is quite interesting. Looks like the corpses here will bring me plenty of surprises.”
“Are you serious?” Igor glared at Harvey. “We’re being hunted right now. The entire Stars Kingdom is our enemy. We could be in a desperate situation any second, and you’re still thinking about grave robbing?”
The necromancer’s eyes lit up as he clapped and clicked his tongue. “As expected of you. The more you say, the more excited I get.”
The Con Artist rubbed his forehead. “Looks like I really can’t control this live-in-the-moment Necrophile-so what about you, Ashe? What’s up with Decree 51?”
“You already said it just now,” Ashe replied. “The entire Stars Kingdom is against us.”
“Because of Gospel and Senlo, I thought the local kingdoms’ xenophobia toward outsiders would at most mean throwing us in prison. As an artist who finds going to prison as comfortable as going home, I’m not afraid of that. Who knew Stars would be so hostile to outsiders, killing every enemy on sight. And Decree 51 also stipulates that any Stars citizen who shelters or conspires with outsiders is guilty of a serious crime. Do you know what that means?”
Igor: “It means if you want to meet her without contaminating her record, you can only choose from kidnapping, hostage-taking, or abduction-pick whichever crime you like.”
Ashe was stunned for a moment, then patted the Con Artist’s shoulder. “The best decision I ever made in my life was forcing you to be my Prison Break partner-oh right, that works too!”
“Glad I could help.” Igor brushed Ashe’s hand away. “To have your appreciation, I really deserve it.”
“But this is also a last resort,” Ashe said. “If I think the environment doesn’t allow it, I’ll use criminal means to meet her, as long as it doesn’t affect her life.”
“And if the environment does allow it?”
“I’ll take her with me,” Ashe spread his hands, “or I’ll stay.”
Igor and Harvey were slightly stunned. They turned to look at the Cult Leader, confirming that this guy was serious.
“I thought you just wanted to go back to Gospel Kingdom and eat Lise for the rest of your life,” Harvey said.
Ashe clicked his tongue. “Why do you make me sound like a scumbag father who sucks his daughter’s blood?”
“Aren’t you?” Igor asked.
“Of course not. I just want to go back and spend time with Lise. But she’s so grown up now, she can’t keep sleeping with me. It’s reasonable for her to give me a room in the Royal Palace, right?” Ashe said. “I never wanted my daughter to support me. I just want to keep raising Empress Yisuo.”
Harvey looked at Ashe and said seriously, “Shamelessness is a flaw for most people, but you’re one of the rare exceptions.”
Igor said, “So to you, the one you want to see is even more important than Lise?”
“You can’t compare it like that. If I can take her with me, of course my first choice is to settle in Gospel. Second, if I stay, I’ll find a way to establish a permanent Void Gate connected to Gospel, so I can visit Lise often.” Ashe said, “Lise is my family. I can give her all my love. But I have to be with her, because she’s the companion who will accompany me to the end of my life.”
“Honestly,” Harvey raised his hand, “if you die before me-which, given the current situation, is pretty likely-not only will I accompany you to the end of your life, but your journey after death will be entirely handled by me.”
“So?” Faced with the necromancer’s interruption, Ashe looked helpless. “You want to be my companion too?”
“After you die, you’ll be reborn in the hands of a necromancer, so he’s not just your life companion, he’s your rebirth mother.” Igor sneered. “You should respectfully call him Mama Harvey.”
“So, Aunt Bukin, Mama Harvey, my current plan is to go to Galaxia first, see if there’s a way to clear our records, or see if she might come with me.” Ashe said, “Once I figure things out, I’ll decide how to meet her.”
“The only problem is we’ll have to take a huge risk. After all, we’ll be hiding and investigating in the capital of Stars. If we’re exposed, we could face a Legendary Sanctuary siege. And this has nothing to do with you-it’s purely my personal business.” Ashe looked at them. “If you don’t want to risk yourselves for this, I can understand.”
“Harvey, are you interested?” Igor propped his left hand on his cheek. “Risking our lives to wander around Galaxia, just to see who could make Ashe so obsessed and infatuated?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Harvey said. “Not just me, even the coffins in my spatial ring are shaking. Even Alice is curious.”
Seeing them join his “Sword Princess Search Squad” without any hesitation, Ashe was moved but also a bit worried. “If we really do meet, I hope you’ll watch your words and act a bit more normal.”
“She’s a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record. Don’t expose yourselves as dangerous weirdos the moment you open your mouths. If she ends up disliking you, it’ll be a real hassle… I don’t want to get caught in a Whirlpool of conflict between friends and a companion.”
“For example, not mentioning that you used to be tangled up with Annan and Qenna?” Harvey asked.
“Or not bringing up your complicated, mutually-destructive relationship with Silver Lantern?” Igor asked.
Ashe blinked and nodded vigorously. “Exactly!”