When Elinalise elegantly sat down beside the heavily drinking Paul, Paul had just finished a large cup of strong liquor in one gulp.
With a loud burp, his gaze was naturally drawn to Elinalise sitting beside him.
Elinalise had a tall figure and beautiful features. Especially those pointed ears made Paul want to take a bite.
Moreover, what moved Paul even more was that Elinalise was actually from the relatively rare long-eared race!
It was just that her chest was a bit flat. It would be better if it were bigger.
He knew very little about the long-eared race, so he was quite curious.
Under the influence of alcohol, Paul's nature of flirting with beautiful women was completely ignited.
His face was slightly flushed. He thought he looked incredibly suave at this moment, so he unhesitatingly opened his mouth and said, "Beautiful lady of the long-eared race, I wonder if you would be willing to get to know me? I am a swordsman of advanced Sword God Style and advanced Water God Style. My stamina is quite good, you know!"
These words from Paul, combined with his handsome young face, undoubtedly held great attraction for many women.
After all, as a member of the Notos family, he had possessed outstanding looks since childhood and had never been ugly.
This one sentence instantly captured all of Elinalise's attention. Her eyes widened, revealing undisguised curiosity.
"Oh? Really?" Elinalise's voice was full of surprise, so she eagerly pressed on, "Then what is this young swordsman's name?"
Paul was already feeling a bit dizzy, but he still tried to stay clear-headed and answered with a smile, "Me? Hehe, my name is Paul No… Greyrat."
He deliberately omitted "Notos" from his name. This action clearly showed his deep-seated disgust toward the Notos family and his desire to break free from the Notos shackles.
While Paul and Elinalise were happily chatting, Geese, who was sitting to the side, appeared somewhat cold.
He casually glanced at the dwarf sitting next to him, then asked in a flat tone, "Do you two need something from us?"
Talhand was not affected by Geese's cold attitude. He still had a smile on his face as he drank and replied, "Nothing in particular. We just thought it was interesting watching you two drink so boldly and wanted to chat with you."
Geese's lips curled up slightly into a barely noticeable smile, as if he was not surprised by Talhand's answer.
He immediately followed up with, "What? Want to join us?"
Talhand was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then suddenly burst into laughter. His laughter echoed throughout the tavern, causing the people around to turn and look.
After laughing, he slowly said, "What? An adventurer party?"
"Mm. Once that lecherous guy over there reaches B-rank, we're planning to create one. Right now it's just the two of us, so we're still short on people." Geese said calmly.
"Haha, that's actually a pretty good idea. I don't have any teammates right now either, so I could consider it." Talhand thought for a moment. Given his current situation, having a few teammates would be much better. He wouldn't have to rely on temporary parties for difficult requests anymore.
Seeing this, Geese said nothing more. After all, their joining the party was already a done deal. There was no need for Talhand to think too much about it.
However, just as Geese turned his head to talk to Paul, he suddenly froze.
Paul and Elinalise, who had originally been sitting across from them, had strangely disappeared!
All of this had happened right under his nose, catching him completely off guard.
Anxiety immediately surged in Geese's heart. He knew very well what Paul meant to him.
Paul was currently his "thigh" (his powerful backer). His future life would largely depend on Paul!
Thinking of this, Geese hurriedly looked toward Talhand beside him. Talhand seemed to still be immersed in his own thoughts and had not noticed Paul and Elinalise's disappearance at all.
"Hey, dwarf, stop thinking. Those two are gone!" Geese shouted anxiously.
Hearing Geese's shout, Talhand finally snapped out of his thoughts. A trace of surprise appeared on his face.
"What?" Talhand's reaction was also quite quick. He immediately began looking around, trying to find Paul and Elinalise's figures in every corner of the tavern.
However, even though his gaze swept over every possible place, he found nothing.
Talhand's brows gradually furrowed. He seemed to have realized a certain possibility and inwardly cursed.
Immediately after, he unhesitatingly grabbed Geese beside him and hurriedly walked toward the tavern entrance.
"I should know where they are. Come with me," Talhand said as he walked, his tone revealing urgency.
However, after some time, Talhand showed an ugly expression.
"What's wrong? Why do you have that kind of expression?" Geese asked in confusion.
"Never mind. You'll know in a moment," Talhand said helplessly.
After they climbed to the third floor of an inn, they could hear Elinalise's voice coming from one of the rooms.
The two of them exchanged glances and both understood the current situation.
But they could not interrupt the two in this situation, so they prepared to wait until they were finished.
"Has she always been like this?" Geese asked while curling his lip.
"Mm. If she doesn't do this, she'll die. It's because she carries a special curse," Talhand said slowly. Then he told Geese everything that had happened to Elinalise.
...
When Elinalise was young, she had married a long-eared race man.
Their married life was very happy at first. After marriage, Elinalise displayed desires far beyond ordinary people, and her husband doted on her. Their days passed quite comfortably.
However, fate is always full of uncertainties.
One day, misfortune befell this family. Elinalise's husband encountered a group of vicious bandits and was ultimately brutally killed.
This sudden change left Elinalise grief-stricken. From then on, she became a widow.
Elinalise carried a terrible curse. This curse caused the magic power in her body to continuously accumulate. If she did not regularly deal with it, she would die from magic power overload.
Left with no choice, Elinalise had to resort to extreme measures—attacking other men in the village to release the excess magic power in her body.
However, paper cannot wrap fire forever. Her behavior was quickly discovered by the villagers.
The angry villagers could not tolerate such a disgraceful thing happening, so they expelled Elinalise from the village.
From then on, she began a lonely life of wandering.
During her days of wandering outside, Elinalise relied on the magic crystals she produced to make a living.
At the same time, she also spared no expense searching everywhere for people who could help her "solve" the curse problem.
It was said that during this long period, Elinalise had given birth to many children, but the exact number was unknown to anyone.