Claire, Beta, and Xi Nuo were all 18 years old.
Claire, exhausted, walked towards home and saw Xi Nuo again.
She had told Xi Nuo more than once not to wait for her, but Xi Nuo, despite agreeing, always did as he pleased, waiting for her every day.
The two were still the same as usual, with Xi Nuo massaging Claire's shoulders.
But one time, their mother discovered them and put a stop to it.
Xi Nuo no longer massaged his older sister Claire's shoulders every day... In the following days, Claire would still train in the woods late at night, and every time she returned to her room, she would see a full glass of water.
Claire knew very well who did it.
"Xi Nuo!!!"
Claire lowered her head in thought, a smile involuntarily appearing at the corner of her mouth.
Actually, Xi Nuo had asked the maid to do it. He had never done it himself... Xi Nuo and Beta were both 18 years old.
These past few nights, Xi Nuo had been spending the night at Shadow Garden.
While telling stories that day, to reassure Beta, Xi Nuo held Beta's hand.
Beta fell asleep without realizing it, but she kept holding Xi Nuo's hand.
Xi Nuo simply didn't leave and sat beside Beta, guarding her all night.
The next day, after Beta woke up, she recalled holding Xi Nuo's hand yesterday and offered a sincere apology.
"I am terribly sorry, Lord Phantom!"
And it was a dogeza apology, a prostration with all five limbs touching the ground.
"Beta, you don't need to apologize. If you're scared, I can stay with you forever!"
"Really, Lord Phantom!"
Beta leaned closer to Xi Nuo, her eyes sparkling like little stars, an expression of anticipation.
After getting Beta's consent, Xi Nuo moved another bed in, and the two slept in separate beds in the same room.
Beta was scared to be alone, and stories would eventually run out.
So Xi Nuo chose a simple and direct method.
Beta lacked a sense of security, so Xi Nuo gave Beta that sense of security.
Beta slept holding Xi Nuo's hand every day, and whenever those images appeared in her mind, a hand would pull her out of the nightmare.
"Lord Phantom!" Beta murmured continuously in her dream.
Alpha was investigating matters, while Beta was following Xi Nuo to practice her magic control ability.
Unbeknownst to them, they had been practicing for a week.
Xi Nuo decided to give Beta a break.
The two went together to a nearby town, which was not Kageno's territory.
Kageno's territory was small, and its market was also small.
They traveled to the neighboring viscount's territory, Carlo Town.
The market here was large, with all kinds of goods.
Xi Nuo took a liking to a pair of blue hairpins, and after some haggling with the boss, he bought them for Beta.
"Lord Phantom, you are too good to me!"
"Just call me Xi Nuo!"
"How can I do that!"
"Why not? It's Lord Phantom's command to just call me Xi Nuo!"
"Xi Nuo!!!"
The two walked through the bustling market. Where there are people, there are conflicts; where there are conflicts, there are bad people.
A human trafficker noticed Xi Nuo and Beta.
A white-haired elf and someone who looked like a noble. And they had no guards. Catching them would surely fetch a lot of money.
Walking through the market, some people with anti-rich sentiments noticed Xi Nuo.
"This kid is dressed so well, it's infuriating!"
Some people deliberately used their physical advantage to bump into Xi Nuo, wanting to make him look foolish in public.
Xi Nuo would not be lenient with such malicious people.
As the other party approached him, Xi Nuo made his move.
He deliberately gathered magic to form a slime, then directly pulled the other party's leg to make him fall, and incidentally stole the other party's wallet.
"Poor guy! Not even one gold coin! Only some loose change!" Xi Nuo disdainfully took the loose change inside and threw the wallet back near the person.
Although this amount of money was useless to Xi Nuo, it was impossible to return it to the other party.
As Xi Nuo and Beta walked, they came to a corner, and a large sack fell from the sky, directly covering Xi Nuo and Beta.
Beta was about to act, but Xi Nuo held her back.
"Let's go to their lair and wipe out all these human traffickers!"
Not long after, the two were transported to a village outside the city.
"Boss, boss, this time I caught two treasures!"
The human trafficker shouted excitedly, then pushed open the door, and what greeted his eyes were Xi Nuo and Beta.
"How are you two here?"
The seven or eight human traffickers gambling inside the house also looked at each other.
The human trafficker boss hadn't noticed when these two children came in, only assuming Old Nine had brought them.
"Old Nine, these two goods are pretty good!" The human trafficker boss said.
Human trafficker Old Nine turned his head to look at his carriage; the sack containing the two had already turned into shreds.
And turning his head back again, his accomplices who were originally inside the house were being stabbed one by one by Beta with a sword.
Accompanied by screams.
In the time it took to turn his head, Beta had already killed three.
"We've run into tough opponents, brothers, grab your weapons!" The human trafficker boss shouted.
At the same time, the human trafficker boss gathered magic throughout his body.
The next second, Beta plunged a sword into his heart.
In a few breaths, all the human traffickers in the house were dead.
Old Nine watched this scene with despair, then turned to run.
"Monster! Mon..."
Old Nine looked at the black sword in his chest, opened his mouth but couldn't make any sound, and fell backward.