Chapter 27: Hero, You Cannot Kill Us

Not long after, the headmasters decided it was time to leave. Their schedules were busy, and they promised to visit again in a few days. Linley, overjoyed, saw them off, only to notice that Winnie had stayed behind.

“Mother, aren’t you going back to work?” Linley asked.

Winnie surveyed the castle with great interest. “This castle is far too big. I’m worried you’ll be scared living here alone, so I’ll stay with you!”

I’m not scared at all—Linley thought to himself. Still, he’d anticipated Winnie trying to take advantage of the situation. He was soft-hearted; splitting some rooms with her didn’t bother him.

“Eight hundred gold coins—you can pick a section to stay in for as long as you like,” Linley said.

Winnie’s eyes lit up. “Eight hundred!”

She was touched. To get a whole section for just eight hundred coins—her son wasn’t so bad after all!

Determined not to give Linley a chance to change his mind, Winnie quickly handed over eight hundred gold coins, buying a fifth of the castle’s rooms.

Though she was thick-skinned, after the purchase she did feel a twinge of guilt. This castle would cost nearly ten thousand gold coins at market value. Had she been too greedy, taking so many rooms?

“…Maybe I should give you another two hundred coins?” she offered.

“No need,” Linley replied as he counted the coins. “I only bought the castle for eight hundred myself.”

“…What?” Winnie stared at him, wide-eyed. “Eight hundred!?”

“I really found a good seller,” Linley said, his smile radiant as he tucked the coins into his earring. “Thank you, Mother.”

Winnie glared at Linley as if she’d seen a ghost. Was this child a robber or a swindler? How could someone buy such a castle for only eight hundred gold coins—and then extort the same amount back from her, coin for coin?!

She regretted not being ruthless enough, but it was too late to take the money back. Besides, in anyone else’s eyes, getting such a large property for eight hundred coins was a bargain.

“By the way, isn’t there…” Winnie suddenly remembered something she’d heard before—some unsavory legend about this place, which was why it had lain abandoned for decades. “Linley, have you noticed anything strange here?”

“No,” Linley replied. “It’s quite nice here. Free fruit even comes to me every so often.”

“Fruit?” Winnie recalled the rain of corpses she’d seen before. “Those things that look like people are fruit?”

“Yes.” Linley nodded, absently touching his earring. “Teacher, why has my earring been hot all this time? Did I put too much inside?”

He’d noticed the earring growing warm hours ago. Could it really be overloaded?

“It’s likely there’s a treasure nearby,” the earring intoned. “The Tear of the Goddess has a treasure-seeking function.”

It spoke so casually that Linley nearly jumped. This earring could search for treasure?

“There’s a treasure nearby!?” Winnie’s eyes shone with excitement. “Quick, let’s find it and earn our gold back!”

Mother and son, accompanied by a leopard, followed the earring’s guidance into the castle. The closer they drew to the treasure, the hotter the earring became.

Linley stopped before a grand door, kicked it open, and both he and Winnie were taken aback—

It was an empty bathhouse, the pool overgrown with green vines and foliage. A gaping hole in the ceiling let sunlight pour in, illuminating four bizarre creatures lying on the floor.

“Whoa.” Linley’s eyes sparkled when he saw those four—alive or dead, it was hard to tell. “What enormous fruit!”

He could almost taste them. “Mother, these fruits look delicious!”

“No… I don’t want to eat them at all…” Winnie wrinkled her nose, revolted by the two-meter-tall fruit-shaped monsters sprawled on the ground.

Hearing voices, the fruits jerked awake in terror.

“What happened? Why did we pass out?”

“An explosion! I think I heard something blow up!”

“All I remember is a tearing pain in my rump!”

“Our butts—that kid blew up our butts!”

The fruit creatures were in a frenzy. Suddenly, they saw Linley again and huddled together in fright.

“Heavens, it’s him—why is he here!”

“He’s drooling! He wants to eat us!”

“Oh no, he’s going to skewer us and eat us!”

“No, I don’t plan to skewer you,” Linley said, wiping the drool from his mouth, feeling he ought to explain.

The fruits were stunned. “Then how do you want to eat us?”

“Chop you up, of course,” Linley replied. He did have quite the appetite, but these fruits were even larger than him—he’d have to cut them up to eat them.

“Ch-chop us up…”

“Spare us, hero!”

“We’re law-abiding, upstanding plants—you can’t eat us!”

The fruits dashed about in a panic, only to end up encircling Linley.

“You mustn’t eat us!” pleaded a gigantic mango, clinging to Linley’s leg.

“We’re too old—tough and tasteless!” whimpered a huge apple, hugging his other leg.

“We’ll do anything you ask, as long as you don’t eat us!” sniffled a pale yellow papaya, eyes brimming with tears.

Lastly, a tremendous banana—apparently female—lifted her peel with a sob, “So long as you don’t eat me, I’ll offer myself to you!”

“No, Banana Girl, don’t!” the other fruits cried, eyes misty with tears.

Linley waved his hand. “All right, all right. You’re so big, I suppose you really wouldn’t taste good.”

“That’s right!” The fruits all nodded vigorously.

Linley suddenly thought of the ginseng fruits. “Were those ginseng fruits your doing?”

“They’re our fruit,” the creatures answered, growing enthusiastic.

“But aren’t you fruits yourselves?” Linley was baffled. “How can a fruit bear more fruits?”

“We’re not fruits—we’re plants.” All four puffed out their chests. Though they looked different, they were of the same species—genuine plants, through and through.

“We not only produce fruit, we can walk and talk! Our master called us advanced plant people!”

Advanced plant people!

Linley’s curiosity grew. “But those ginseng fruits look nothing like you…”

“Well…” Banana Girl hesitated, then blushed and said, “We’re too cute to scare away enemies.”

“That’s right! So our fruit has to look more menacing, at the very least.”

Winnie and the leopard exchanged glances with Linley—this reasoning sounded all too familiar.

“No wonder, I understand,” Linley said, feeling a kindred spirit. Those ginseng dolls did look fierce, and their cries were terrifying. “Who would’ve thought you were so positively motivated!”

“Exactly!” The fruits grew more cheerful, sensing Linley didn’t intend to eat them after all.

“I love motivational food the most—it’s extra chewy!” Linley’s next words made them collapse in fright once more.

“Please, hero, you mustn’t kill us!”

“We’re unique—without us, you’ll have no more ginseng fruits to eat!”

“As long as you don’t kill us, we can make you any fruit you want every day!”

Their promises delighted Linley. “You can produce other fruits too?”

“It’s just a matter of adjusting our appearance and elements—we can make any fruit,” they eagerly boasted, seeing hope. “With us, you’ll never need to buy fruit again!”

To prove it, they immediately produced several strawberries. The three of them tasted one, and a jolt ran through their bodies.

My goodness, these really are fruits—how marvelous.

Linley abandoned the thought of eating them altogether. Were these three… fruit fairies?

“How do you have such extraordinary powers?” he asked.

“We’re nourished by the water in the bathhouse pool—the strongest spring in the world,” the fruits replied, exchanging furtive glances. They suddenly remembered: the water in the pool was deadly poison to animals. If Linley touched it, he’d surely die.

Linley looked toward the pool. Amidst the dense vines, he spotted a black high-boot soaking in the water.

“Why is there a boot?”

“That’s not a boot—it’s a hidden weapon,” the fruits replied, more focused on luring Linley to touch the poisonous water.

“Decades ago, it fell from the sky and struck our master. Before he died, he insisted he couldn’t have been killed by a boot—it had to be a hidden weapon, the greatest weapon in elf history!”

Then your master must have been Wang Chongyang, Linley mused to himself.