Chapter 441 - 208: "Isn’t It Normal to Get Shot Twice in a Free Country?

Sean had already decided to go, but he didn’t continue the conversation.

Calling Elise "wife" just now had been a deliberate attempt to provoke Anna.

The girl had a crush on him, didn’t she?

So, this clear display of his preferences was sure to make her angry.

It would be best if she got angry enough to leave and strike out on her own. That way, he wouldn’t feel any burden.

After all, Anna wasn’t like him and Elise. She was a real person from the "New World"; if she died, she would truly be dead.

The same went for Hoyev.

That was why Sean didn’t plan on taking either of them with him. He had no desire to bring harm to his newfound friends.

Seeing his objective accomplished, Sean said no more and turned to ask about Chris.

He and Elise were leaving tonight. The cavalry had been gone for several days, and if they didn’t hurry, he feared they wouldn’t be able to catch up.

And now that Hoyev had his revenge, he would probably get back to his normal life and do what he was supposed to be doing—like restocking his inventory.

Before they went their separate ways, Sean wanted to learn more about Chris.

"I heard from people on Back Street that Chris was rescued by Mr. Hoyev?" he asked.

Hoyev hadn’t expected Sean to change the subject so quickly. He was taken aback for a moment before he nodded and replied, "Yes."

Chris had been covered in blood and on the brink of death, his breathing so faint he might as well have been a corpse. Hoyev had used all the backup healing Magic Potions he had prepared for himself, barely managing to pull Chris back from the Death God’s scythe.

"Was he being hunted?" Sean asked.

Hoyev nodded, then shook his head. "Yes, and no."

That confused Sean. "What do you mean, ’yes and no’?"

Hoyev explained, "He said he was, but I didn’t think so."

A neighboring shop owner from Back Street had been with him at the time. Chris had indeed told them he was being hunted, but they never found any of the pursuers he mentioned.

In Hoyev and his friend’s logic, Chris was just a novice Wizard with a pitiful amount of Magic Power, making him virtually no different from an ordinary person. Any reasonably built strongman could probably take him down. If someone was really hunting him and he still managed to escape, that would mean his pursuers were a bunch of rookies, too.

So, after rescuing Chris, they specifically hid nearby and waited for the better part of the afternoon, wanting to see what was what.

In the end, they waited until nightfall, but no one ever came after Chris.

Chris himself couldn’t give a clear explanation, and his mental state seemed worryingly unstable. He was also clutching a silk stocking in his hand, which led Hoyev and his friend to a conclusion. They figured the kid had probably tried to fool around with someone’s wife, gotten caught and beaten half to death, and then been thrown out onto the street. He must have been too embarrassed to admit it, so he made up the story about being hunted.

Sean was speechless.

’That can’t be right, can it?’

"That’s a bit of a stretch," he said, referring to Hoyev’s logic. "Wasn’t Chris’s injury a gunshot wound?"

"It was a gunshot wound," Hoyev said. "But in our free and democratic Empire, every household has a gun. It’s perfectly normal to get shot a few times for no reason while walking down the street, isn’t it?"

Sean was speechless.

’If you put it that way...’

’...it’s not entirely unreasonable.’

Hoyev spread his hands helplessly. "The main thing is, he wouldn’t talk. We could only guess based on the situation."

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t asked Chris what happened afterward. He’d asked all sorts of personal questions, like where Chris was from and where he lived, but Chris just told him the world was flat and spouted, "You live at one end, I at the other. Day by day I long for thee, but thee I cannot see. You and I, we are but clowns."

Hoyev had been utterly baffled. "???"

He was completely bewildered at the time. ’We’re just talking,’ he’d thought, ’so why have you started reciting poetry?’

So, his impression of Chris changed yet again. He started to think Chris might be a wandering Poet.

In this day and age, Poets who wandered around in the name of "romance" were indeed skilled at using their talents to attract women, and they were prone to stealing other men’s wives. Besides, Chris’s unhinged mental state was a dead ringer for those people who write novels and poems.

Sean was speechless.

’I feel personally attacked.’

Hoyev continued, "We hadn’t originally planned on getting involved."

We saved him because we’re good people, but after that, we figured we’d all go our separate ways.

An able-bodied man, even a homeless one, shouldn’t starve to death.

On the third day after rescuing Chris, Hoyev and his friend finished their business and were preparing to find their contact and return to Blake City.

But unexpectedly, that guy Chris started secretly following them like some kind of creep. He tailed them the whole way, periodically hiding behind telephone poles or newsstands. He even followed them onto a boat, acting as if he really thought they hadn’t noticed him.

But how could a complete rookie possibly fool two Tier Five experts?

Especially since, as "Holy Temple Remnants," they were always extremely cautious on missions. Their greatest strengths were tracking and counter-tracking. Chris’s amateurish sneaking around was like a child trying to outsmart a master spy.

It was then that Hoyev’s opinion of Chris changed yet again. He started to think there was something off about the kid. He might be a mole sent by the Church Court, and the whole "being hunted" story was just a ploy to gain their trust.

After some discussion, Hoyev and his friend decided to play along. They led Chris straight to Vernadu and asked Mr. Grey Moth Gomez to use Mind Magic to get to the bottom of who he was.

But, to their surprise, things took another unexpected turn.

There was nothing wrong with Chris.

He was a "good guy."