Aldred pulled his pants up and walked away. Seeing that Aldred was alone and isolated, they appeared in front of him out of nowhere.
Aldred raised an eyebrow. Someone still had the guts to challenge him? Or maybe they did not know about his power?
"We will be taking your spiritual rocks," one of the assassins said. They did not want their real target to be known. After all, the ring was too important.
Aldred laughed. He couldn't help but see this scene as funny. In his eyes, these assassins were nothing.
The assassins frowned, wondering why Aldred was so calm. They had never seen his power except when Aldred threw that spear. But that was all.
"Are you deaf? Hand your spiritual rocks and everything else you have."
Aldred laughed even harder. "I think this is my first time getting robbed in broad daylight."
"Don't get any ideas, boy. You are surrounded and alone."
"Pfft! Haha." Aldred laughed again.
"Aldred, what's taking you so long?" Mira came and asked. She then glanced at the assassins. "Who are they?"
"Mira, look at this. They're trying to rob me. Haha."
The assassin clicked his tongue. He did not want any unknown variable to interfere with this operation. "Damn, slut. Die." He dashed towards her. Blade in hand, swinging at her neck.
But it wasn't Mira's head that fell. It was his.
Plop!
The body fell and the head rolled away lifelessly. The assassins widened their eyes and took two steps back. What just happened? They didn't see the woman or the boy move, and yet their friend died.
Aldred wore a dark expression. "Trying to kill and even insulting my woman? All of you must have a death wish."
The assassin gritted his teeth. "Attack him!"
But before they could attack, numerous undead spawned out of nowhere, surrounding them.
"You are surrounded and alone," Aldred said with a grin. "So don't get any ideas."
The assassins panicked. They weren't told about this. The boy was too strong for them.
"You cannot kill us. We are the subordinates of—"
SLASH!
A line of bright light circled around Aldred, hitting the assassins' neck. Just as their heads were about to fall, their whole body turned into snow.
As the snow got blown by the wind, an invisible current flew in the air. A pair of red eyes, invisible to anyone under the sky, stared at the boy.
"Aldred," Mira called.
Aldred closed his eyes, ready to be scolded.
"Thank god you're fine." Mira smiled.
"Eh?" Aldred looked up at her. "You're not mad?"
Mira shook her head. "Some people deserve to die, and you made the right call."
"A—are you sure?"
Mira nodded. "You never kill the innocent, Aldred. I know you don't, and never will. I have decided to not hinder your action too much. You have killed some people behind my back, haven't you?"
Aldred scratched his head at being found out. "How did you know?"
"I raised many heroes in my lifetime. Some are harder to teach than others. I know when they hide candies under their shirt."
"Sorry, Mira. I shouldn't have lied."
"It's okay. You made me realize that I control you too much. Someone will never lie if they deemed it unnecessary. You fear my reaction to the truth, and that is why you lie."
Aldred nodded. "I am afraid of your reaction."
"Those who cannot take the truth don't deserve it, Aldred. Your decision to lie to me was correct. But you don't have to lie anymore. Lying is a great burden."
What Mira said was true. All this time, Aldred felt guilty for hiding the truth that he had killed a lot of people behind her back. Aldred sighed and smiled at her. "Thank you, Mira."
He ran to her and hugged her.
Mira received the hug wholeheartedly. She did not want Aldred to fear her. Like a parent, their children will lie if they become too strict with their rules. The stricter they were, the smarter the lie.
The only way to make children honest was to tolerate their mistakes and guide them with compassion and care, not an iron fist.
After a few minutes of hugging, he kissed Mira on the lips, and then went back to collecting spiritual rocks.
"Took you long enough to pee!" Mary said.
"We ran into some assassins," Aldred said.
"I am guessing they ran away?" Mareona asked.
"No, I killed them."
Mareona glanced at Mira. "Surprising."
They collected spiritual rocks for a few hours until Bartrem informed them that the old lady had returned.
"Do we have enough rocks already?" Sophia asked.
"I think we do."
They all walked to the old lady. A group of people were already there, giving the old lady a storage bag of rocks.
"Only one of these rocks are spiritual rocks," the old lady said.
"Eh? What is going to happen to me? Do I fail?"
"No. Stand to the side. You have to wait until everyone is accounted for."
After all the other groups were accounted for, it was Bartrem's turn.
"30 spiritual rocks. Not bad."
Bartrem shrugged. He felt like he could get better amount.
Mareona walked to the old lady.
"24 spiritual rocks."
"Cih. I was sure every rocks were correct."
She walked away and Mary handed her rocks.
"29 spiritual rocks."
"It's not that bad," she said before walking away.
Sophia walked to the old lady with a storage bags.
"34 spiritual rocks."
"Wow, nice," Mareona commented. "That's 10 more than me."
After Sophia, it was Mira's turn.
The old lady smiled. "Impressive. You got 40 spiritual rocks."
Mira walked to the side. "Aldred, it's your turn."
Aldred walked towards the lady, and then poured out all the rocks in his inventory.
Mareona raised an eyebrow. "How many rocks did you collect?"
"Around 3500 rocks." Aldred laughed.
At first, the old lady was smiling, and then it turned into the look of wonder as she glanced at him.
"How many did I get right?
The old lady looked him in the eye. "All of them."
"What?"
Everyone there looked at the boy with widened eyes.
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