Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 599: How Did They Find Me?
At that moment, a familiar female Sankta with short red hair burst into the teahouse, dragging along a lavishly dressed yellow-haired girl in her wake. After hastily scanning the tiny shop, her eyes immediately lit up as though she had spotted a savior, and she practically dove beneath Steven's table.
"If I remember right, you're Mister Steven, yeah? Please help us out and let us hide here for a bit! Someone's after us!" She spoke in a rapid rush, pointing nervously behind her as she pleaded for help.
Steven remembered the girl quite clearly. Her carefree tone and utterly unreliable demeanor were simply too distinctive to forget. To be honest, he had made a pretty good first impression of her.
So when the girl—introduced before by Mostima as Exusiai—asked for help, Steven merely shrugged and nodded.
He had just finished eating, and now some unexpected entertainment had practically delivered itself to his doorstep. There was no reason to refuse. A little post-meal excitement sounded pretty good, honestly.
But when Steven's gaze shifted toward the yellow-haired beast-eared girl in an extravagant idol outfit—who had clearly been dragged all the way here by Exusiai—the smile on his face grew even wider with interest.
"What's this? Pulling off some kind of idol escape drama?" he whispered toward Exusiai, lowering his voice. "Did you kidnap some big celebrity and now you're hiding from her bodyguards? Sounds straight out of a cliché romance show."
In his mind, Steven had already pieced together an entire dramatic storyline. If the protagonist had been some teenage boy instead of an energetic athletic girl like Exusiai, this would absolutely have been one of those overly sweet idol romance plots.
Unfortunately, reality and television were very different things.
The utterly confused expression on Exusiai's face made that abundantly clear.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Exusiai blinked. "Sure, Sora's an idol, but she's also part of Penguin Logistics! We're being chased by assassins right now! Honestly, if they were just bodyguards, life would be way easier."
The girl called Sora offered Steven an apologetic smile before politely bowing her head.
"Sorry for dragging you into this," she said softly. "But if possible, could you help buy us some time? We left in a hurry and didn't bring any weapons with us."
Unlike the carefree Exusiai, Sora clearly handled social situations with far more grace. Not only did she apologize immediately, she even explained why they had ended up in such a miserable situation.
"We ran into trouble with some Siracusan mafia members. We'd really appreciate your help. We'll definitely repay you afterward."
Steven, however, had little interest in vague promises of future rewards. What he really wanted to know was just what sort of mess they had gotten themselves into to end up fleeing through Lungmen like this. Neither of them looked injured, but they definitely appeared more than a little disheveled.
"Speaking of which," Steven said thoughtfully, stroking his chin, "shouldn't you just call the police in a situation like this? Don't tell me the LGD is that unreliable?"
This time, however, he directed the question toward Lin Yuhsia, who sat across from him.
Even if this was the slums, it was still technically part of Lungmen. Surely the Lungmen Guard Department couldn't just ignore something like this?
"As long as nobody's using lethal weapons or leaving corpses lying around," Lin Yuhsia replied lazily, "who's got the spare manpower to care about the poor fighting each other in the slums?"
She gave Steven a flat look.
"You don't seriously think the LGD has enough officers to handle every little mess in this place, do you?"
Lin Yuhsia calmly stated that rather cruel truth, her expression barely changing at all, as though she had long since grown used to it.
"Jeez, but they're from Penguin Logistics, aren't they?" Steven clicked his tongue. "That hardly makes them slum refugees."
"Then have you considered," Lin Yuhsia replied dryly, "that Penguin Logistics' reputation inside the Lungmen Guard Department might actually be worse than the slum dwellers'?"
She glanced toward the two girls nearby. The moment those words were spoken, both Exusiai and Sora awkwardly turned their faces away as if pretending not to hear.
Lin Yuhsia couldn't help letting out a quiet chuckle before looking back at Steven.
"..."
"That's amazing. Hahaha!"
Steven froze for a second before finally understanding what she meant, and instantly burst into laughter.
Unfortunately, his laughter was a little too loud and carefree.
The group of black-suited men who had just entered through the teahouse entrance—men who looked suspicious enough at first glance to practically scream criminal organization—immediately turned their attention toward him.
Then, almost simultaneously, their faces lit up with delight.
Step by step, the Siracusan mobsters began closing in around Steven and Lin Yuhsia's table in a tightening circle.
The moment he saw the approaching Lupos dressed in black—clearly not Lungmen locals—Steven already realized Exusiai's little hiding plan had probably failed completely.
Still, after figuring out why they had been exposed, the smile on his face only became harder to suppress.
"Why are you laughing even harder now?!" Exusiai whispered in confusion, peeking nervously at the men surrounding them. "They've already found us! Seriously, how did they notice us? Don't tell me it was really because you laughed?"
Meanwhile, both Lin Yuhsia and Sora silently looked upward with utterly helpless expressions.
More specifically, they were looking at the glowing halo above Exusiai's head—one that remained conspicuously radiant no matter how much she tried to hide it.
At that moment, the two girls arrived at the exact same conclusion in their hearts.
—Perhaps there was a very good reason why Laterano people were completely unsuited for stealth missions.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/
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Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 689: Impossible to Refute[1]
Link: https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/arknightcraft-169789182?collection=55713[2]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/arknightcraft-169789182?collection=55713
[2] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl/posts/arknightcraft-169789182?collection=55713