Sticky Tongue

Era of Chaos, Year 1818.

The scorching sun hung high in the sky. The carriage creaked along the bumpy dirt road, kicking up a small cloud of dry dust. Half the carriage was piled with straw, giving off that peculiar, warm scent of dried grass mixed with sunlight.

"Um..." Marie licked her somewhat dry lips and asked weakly, "Could I have a sip of water?"

Liyana thought for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth: "Ah—"

Marie: ...

Just as Marie felt her pitiful sliver of hope melting away under the sun, Musen reached out and handed a leather waterskin to her.

Marie breathed a sigh of relief; there was actually a normal person in this group after all. "Thank you, Mr. Priest."

Musen rubbed his large bald head. His thick eyebrows twitched above his large eyes in surprise. "You can tell I'm a priest?"

"Uh... that thing on your chest, it's a cross, right?" Marie pointed carefully. "And I see you've been holding a scripture all this time, and what you're wearing is... well, a very standard priest's robe..."

Marie tried her best to sound sincere. After all, the priest's robe was stretched so tight by his muscles that it looked ready to burst, drawing everyone's attention entirely to his robust physique and making it very easy to overlook the clothes themselves.

"Ho haha, that's right, Miss Marie... You guessed it, I am indeed a priest." Musen suddenly let out a booming laugh, then asked eagerly, "Do you need healing? Don't be shy, tell me if you're injured."

Marie instinctively shrank back a little. "No... I don't need it for now."

"What a shame." Musen shook his head and sighed softly.

Marie: ...

The thought that there was a normal person in this group was instantly dispelled.

Xia Lun sat at the front, driving the carriage. His right hand skillfully managed the reins, while his left hand naturally held Aina's. The two sat side by side, their thighs pressed together. Aina occasionally whispered something to Xia Lun, and beneath her hood, the corners of her mouth perhaps carried a faint smile.

Moke leaned against the wooden boards, fiddling with his pile of lockpicking gadgets.

Liyana lay in the straw with a grass stem dangling from her mouth and her legs crossed, gazing up at the sky. She seemed to be looking at the white clouds, fantasizing about the tender bodies of young maidens.

Musen sat cross-legged, solemnly flipping through the scripture on his lap.

A gentle breeze swept by, bringing the fresh scent of vegetation. The jolting of the carriage almost felt like a lullaby; all was peaceful and quiet.

"Um..."

Marie suddenly spoke up again, pointing at the ice bars exuding a chilling frost right in front of her. "Could you let me out of here? I won't run away this time."

The rear half of the carriage held an ice cage created by Aina's magic, and Marie was currently locked inside it.

Everyone ignored her request.

Earlier, during her escort, Marie had taken advantage of the guards' inattention to break free of her restraints and slip away.

But she was quickly caught again... There were still traces of Aina's magic lingering inside her body, allowing Aina to find her with ease.

Thus, Xia Lun and the others personally took on the task of escorting Marie back to the Elven Forest.

"Isn't it nice in there? The sun is so hot, it's actually cool inside that cage." Liyana narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to the cage.

"But if we run into other merchant caravans on the road and they see me locked up in here, it feels really embarrassing," Marie said weakly.

"Hah, climbing onto a little girl's windowsill wasn't embarrassing for you?" Liyana angrily spat out the grass stem. "I look down on your kind of behavior the most!"

Moke couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

Of course, what surprised Moke was that Liyana didn't come over cursing to passionately trade insults with him.

"Urgh... urgh..."

Moke tilted his head suspiciously and looked at Liyana. She was pressed against the ice cage, making a series of weird noises.

"What's wrong with you?" Moke gave Liyana an odd look.

"Nn-urgh... nn-nn-urgh!" Liyana couldn't articulate a single complete syllable, only babbling incoherently and looking extremely anxious.

Moke leaned in for a closer look and saw that the pink tip of Liyana's tongue was stuck fast to the freezing ice bars.

Moke was stunned for a moment, then clutched his stomach and erupted into a fit of roaring laughter.

"Hahaha! Liyana... your tongue is actually stuck to the cage... hahaha, this is absolutely the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life! Help, I'm dying of laughter..."

"Nn-urgh... wu-wu-urgh-urgh!"

"Hahaha... sorry, I have no idea what you're saying..." Moke laughed so hard he slapped the floor of the carriage.

"Wu-urgh-urgh-urgh! (Save me, quick!)" Liyana propped herself up with both hands on the floor, maintaining a rather comical posture.

"Look at you... you look like a turtle... haha, I can't take it..." Moke continued to gloat.

Noticing the commotion behind them, Aina, sitting beside Xia Lun, raised her staff. The sturdy ice cage instantly disintegrated, turning into a small puddle of clear water that quickly seeped into the dry straw.

Liyana finally freed her pitiful tongue. Covering her mouth and gasping in a breath of cold air, she lunged at Moke, who was rolling on the floor laughing, and the two tangled into a brawl.

"Stop laughing! You bastard!"

"Hahaha... Liyana... I'm going to turn this into a ballad and sing it for generations... Only you would do something like this..." Moke kept provoking Liyana. Watching the idiot elf get so flustered was indeed a very joyful thing.

"I've even thought of a nickname for you: The Frozen Kiss. What do you think?" Moke agilely dodged Liyana's attacks. His nimble movements came in handy at this moment; Liyana felt like she was trying to catch a slippery loach.

"Ah! Moke, shut up!" Liyana shrieked in humiliation and fury. "I'm going to tear that foul mouth of yours to pieces!"

"Liyana, is it frostbitten? Do you need healing?" Musen closed his scripture and asked quite enthusiastically, a ball of white light already glowing in his hand. "A frostbitten tongue would be bad if it affects your eating and speaking."

"No need! Hiss... it hurts, it hurts, never mind, just heal me." Liyana stuck out her tongue without any hesitation.

Marie stared dumbfounded at the group messing around in front of her, a trace of envy involuntarily rising in her heart.

Even though the cage had disappeared, she didn't think about running away again this time.

She truly didn't dare.

When Aina caught her the second time, she had seen the icy killing intent in Aina's eyes... Someone like her must absolutely despise troublesome things, and Marie had already caused her trouble twice.

Marie really wasn't confident she could survive a third time at Aina's hands.

The human race was too dangerous. She had better just obediently go back to the Elven Forest.