Sleepless Night (Part 1)

Saleen and the others decided to stay the night at Aini’s shop. The shop had two stories. The first story sold weapons while the second story was meant for people to stay in. The basement was a storehouse.

This was not usually a place that entertained guests, and the second story had three bedrooms meant for servants and no guest rooms at all. Aini was a little weird. He had no reason to have servants seeing how he tended to the shop alone.

Saleen had initially planned for Nailisi and Sika to sleep together, but Sika had refused. She had seen the original form of Nailisi and was afraid that the imp would wake up in the middle of the night and tear out her throat.

Seeing that he had no other choice, Saleen and Nailisi stayed in the same room.

Aini watched awkwardly as Saleen got into an argument with the other two women before walking into a room with the woman who was scantily clad. He couldn’t figure out the relationship of the three.

Nailisi entered the bedroom and immediately climbed into the soft bed. Saleen kicked off his shoes and pushed her off of it.

"You will sleep on the floor."

"Master."

"Sit down!"

Nailisi obeyed and sat on the floor. Saleen’s legs hung over the edge of the bed as he looked down at the imp he had just commanded.

Nailisi was combing her black hair to one side, her long fingers running through between her hair with her chest out and her legs crossed to the right side. Her slightly tall forehead made her eyebrows seem especially high, nearly reaching her temples. Her eyes were slightly pink, almost as if she had just woken up.

Her looks that were supposed to have been elegant and beautiful had changed to ones that were petite and cute out of her laziness.

However, to Saleen, the most important thing for a bound creature were its combat abilities. Looks came second. "Nailisi, what abilities do you have?"

"Do I have to say everything?" Nailisi leaned forward, her toes curling and shining under the light.

"Yes, all of it."

"I’m very good at capturing magic insects. Magic insects were the most common living creature in the demon universe and were usually worth quite little. However, these creatures were very crafty and it wasn’t easy to catch them. Among all the magic insects, the hardest to catch was a shiny aphid. Shiny aphids that had not matured were usually accompanied by magic ants for protection, and when they matured they could fly. There were many different types of magic ants, too. The hardest to deal with were the fire magic ants.

"Nailisi!"

Saleen did not want to hear Nailisi’s lecture on entomology in the demon universe. He wanted to know what Nailisi could do on the Myers Mainland. Fire magic ants? If they came across fire magic ants, it would be better to commit suicide. Fire magic ants kept their prey in their nest, keeping it alive while eating it at the same time. They were very frugal creatures.

"Master?" Nailisi looked at Saleen in confusion. He was the one who had told her to say everything and she had said the one thing she was best at. Imps had little fighting skills in the demon universe and kept themselves alive by eating magic insects, or sometimes, by hunting their own kind. Even though she had a relatively good bloodline, that was only by comparison between imps.

"What do you think of Sika’s fighting skill?" Saleen also knew that he could get impatient at times. The imp had been kept imprisoned since she had come to the Myers Mainland, so she wouldn’t understand how power was divided among humans. He could only compare Nailisi’s strength to those around him to get a good gauge.

"She barely has any fighting skill!" Nailisi couldn’t understand Saleen. It seemed her master had little fighting skill too. Thinking about this, Nailisi became a little too happy. There was a legend in the demon universe that stated that if a demon ate its master, the demon’s bloodline would change and it would gain unexpected powers.

However, since humans had arrived in the demon universe, not a single demon had been able to eat its master. How reliable was this legend? Nailisi licked her lips, looking at Saleen’s neck.

"How about you? How many of Sika could you take down?"

"That’s hard to say, master. Sika has a sickening energy around her and her blood has a weird smell. I can’t be sure what would happen if I took action. Should I silently go up to her and take a bite?"

Saleen took a deep breath. Nailisi was completely clueless about the power systems in the mainland. She only knew how to compare fighting skills, but he couldn’t possibly let her fight with Sika, could he?

"How about the white deacon that we met at the Chaotic Swamp that day? How are you compared to him?" Saleen could only slowly chip his way in and asked this, hoping he could identify Nailisi’s powers.

"Not much. He was pretty weak, and not even there amongst the common demons."

"Does that mean you couldn’t have won against him?" Saleen wasn’t easily fooled. Even though Nailisi spoke nonchalantly, Saleen still noticed that she had compared the white deacon to demons. Demons were of a higher grade than imps and that meant that Nailisi felt that she couldn’t have won versus the white deacon.

Nailisi pouted and shrugged, answering Saleen’s doubts in a very human way.

It was hard communicating with demons, even those bound by their souls. Humans were not demons and would never know what demons were thinking.

How big was the space in the bracelet? Saleen decided to ask something more substantial. He roughly knew that Nailisi had slightly better fighting skills than Sika but was weaker than the white deacon. Using the union’s way of categorizing, she was between Grade 4 and Grade 6.

No matter what grade she was, she wouldn’t be able to defeat the swordmaster.

Nailisi looked around the room and quickly said, "It’s around one out of a hundred and twenty-four times the size of this room."

No matter how good Saleen’s mathematics were, he couldn’t immediately calculate how big that was. He gestured with his hands and said, "This is one cubic foot, how many cubic feet is the space in the bracelet?"

"Approximately seven hundred and seventy-five cubic feet." The imp’s calculation skills impressed Saleen. Her answer was as quick as instant magic.

This answer was something that Saleen could visualize easily. Seven hundred and seventy-five cubic feet. That was around twenty times the size of the Ring of Gifts. Aini’s bracelet was certainly a high-grade one. He hadn’t been lying.

"Master, why do you trust that kid so much?" Nailisi wasn’t wrong in calling Aini a kid, as she had lived for tens of thousands of years.

"Go to sleep." Saleen yawned. He could tell that Nailisi wasn’t ready to disclose her abilities to him yet. The greatest possibility was that she wasn’t of age and hadn’t discovered many of her abilities yet.

It was a shame that he had read too few books on demons, or else he would have been able to tell which pedigree Nailisi belonged to and what abilities she would possess as she grew older.

"Yes." Seeing Saleen lying down on the bed, Nailisi stopped talking. She laid sprawled out on the floor, looking at the wall in front of her in a daze.

"Nailisi…"

"Master?"

"Catch." Saleen took out a gemstone from the Ring of Gifts and threw it down from the bed. Nailisi smiled as she caught the gemstone and hid it in her bracelet.

Saleen couldn’t sleep. He chose the more common gemstones from the Ring of Gifts and threw them down. Nailisi caught each one of them, quick as lightning, and placed them in the bracelet.

Clearing up space in the Ring of Gifts, Saleen thought about Nailisi’s question. Did he trust Aini? The two of them had only recently met and they definitely did not have a deep trust. However, when it came to something like trust, time was required. If there was no trust from the start, it would be very hard to be close with the person forever.

However, there was some risk this time. The deal he had made with Aini was worth more than two million gold coins.

Back then, he had nearly lost his life for one gold coin, and now the amount was two million gold coins. Comparing it this way made Saleen nervous.

Although Aini feared Nailisi, once they entered the Qin Empire and were in the territory of the Clyde Family, this fear would no longer exist.

Saleen could not sleep and neither could Sika. She took the gemstones and minerals and some things she couldn’t recognize out of her bag and piled them up on the bed.

She was rich! Sika held the cold minerals in her hand, her heart filled with warmth.

With this money, she should make her way home and not risk her life anymore. The outside world was too chaotic and dirty. However, without her, would Saleen be alright? He had another discontented imp by his side.

Sika’s heart sank. Thinking back to how she and Saleen had met, what she remembered most clearly was not Saleen’s embarrassed look when he had peeped on her while she was showering, but the time that she had injured herself and Saleen had said to her seriously, "Sika, I am no priest. Do not risk your life for me again."

That’s right. He was only a mage, not a priest. He didn’t need her protection.

Aini couldn’t sleep either. He laid on his bed, a whole bag of gemstones by his side. These gemstones could fetch a higher price in his hands, enough for him to buy the materials he needed to be a death mage.

However, he had sold away the bracelet his parents had given to him. At this thought, Aini felt saddened.

Kill Saleen?

No, that would be unethical. Besides, Nailisi was powerful. She could even use a spatial prop of such high grade, so she was definitely at least a grand mage. No wonder Saleen’s teacher would allow this Grade 1 mage to go out and train on his own. With a grand mage’s protection, even within the Qin Empire not many people would dare to offend him.

Aini was still young, and despite going through some hardships in life, he was considered innocent. He thought of Saleen’s clean smile and the unintentional question.

"Can you buy the death flame?"

Aini’s heart warmed. Since his parents had been pseudo-imprisoned, he had never seen such a sincere expression. Saleen was a mage with a powerful magic lineage and yet did not discriminate against him, someone who had lost his magic chords. How could he betray Saleen’s trust?

What did a few million gold coins matter? Once he became a mage again, even if he was a death mage, he could gain the respect of his family once more. Once he controlled a large city, he would have millions of gold coins passing through his hands each year. No matter how many gold coins a person had, could they be exchanged for a true friendship with a mage?

Just as a heroic spirit was about to burst from Aini’s heart, a piercing scream came from Saleen’s room.

It was Nailisi!

"Master, it hurts! Ahh… it hurts!"

"Don’t scream. Hold it in."

"I can’t, master. I know my mistake..."

Aini and Sika were holding their breaths, listening from their rooms. From Nailisi’s moans, it sounded like she was undergoing some form of torture. Aini’s face reddened as he jumped into bed and covered his head with his blanket.

Sika’s face sunk. That imp had actually tried to seduce Saleen?

"Ahh… master, it’s still uncomfortable!" Nailisi’s scream was softer but still penetrated the walls and could be heard throughout the second floor. Sika angrily grabbed her cudgel and banged the wall, shouting, "Keep your voice down. There are others who still want to sleep!"