房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Both of them were wearing the uniforms of the Aspakeony Academy with the closed flower-bud badges, the mark of the first-year students.

An amaranth-haired pigtail girl and a moss-green-haired bespectacled boy.

"Master is too kind. People like him tend to spare people that should be dealt with and get in trouble later on."

Thitreen sighed, taking off his thick glasses and glaring around the compound with his vicious bloodthirsty eyes.

"That might be the case, but now he has us to save him from the future trouble."

Teenfif shrugged her shoulders and smiled, prodding the boy's side playfully.

"Just remember to not maul the bodies too much or the other sentinels will have to use master's mana which will surely alarm him now that he is awake. And it's Thitreen."

The moss-green-haired boy said as his skin turned into brass.

"Sure, sure~"

The amaranth-haired girl laughed so much that her smile grew from ear to ear...

"Youngsters, block all the escape routes and cast muffle on the entire building while you are at it~"

"(~!)" x42

… and she said towards the murky-black spheres that began appearing around the two of them, while her fangs elongated until they began resembling ice picks...

-------

Thitreen was walking through the silent hallways, checking out every nook and cranny in search of survivors.

At first when he and Teenfif attacked, the monastery filled with screams and panicked cries, and it was so easy to find a target, but now it turned out into a hide and seek game.

It was slightly annoying.

His variant attribute – transformation - allowed him to turn his body into that of a brass golem.

His offense and defense were through the roof, but he did not possess any spells that would allow him to track prey.

Teenfif was a different thing.

Her attribute was blood, but one of her spells allowed her to transform.

She could attack, she could track, and she had the agility to corner any opponent.

Not to mention many different types of blood-based spells that she could cast.

One thing was sure, Thitreen would not try to compare the final killstreak with her.

Truly a broken attribute.

Still, there was a certain demerit keeping her from being too powerful – Her mana reservoir was rather small and she did not regenerate mana like every other magician, instead, she had to regain it by drinking the blood of other magicians, so in case if she ever picked a fight with someone who didn't bleed – like for example Thitreen – she would end up in a state of mana depletion after just a few attacks.

"(Here! Here!)"

"(Here!)"

"...?"

As the moss-green-haired boy was walking, two sentinels phased through the door and started calling him excitedly, making him approach and check out the room.

"Ah. I see. Founder's keepers, right?"

"(Yes~!)"

"(Yes, yes~!)"

Thitreen opened the door and smirked - there were two people inside, one was round and bound with a rope, the other was skinny with stone slabs constricting his hands and legs – not to mention that the skinny person was only in his underwear...

"Just remember – after becoming the corpse puppets, you would have to continue acting as monks for the time being and make it look like the second prince is still kept in this monastery so our master will not get in trouble."

"(We know!)"

"(We remember!)"

The moss-green-haired boy declared and the two murky-black orbs cheered out impatiently.

"Hmhm~! With that, welcome to our little corpse puppet gang."

Thitreen snickered, stepping towards the two unconscious men, raising his hand that turned into brass and glistened dangerously.

---------

"So could you tell me, why did you take us to Atreterve?"

Surou asked and looked around with a dissatisfied expression.

"Oh? You recognized the architecture or something?"

Zoemi raised his brow and asked.

The two boys were standing in the back alley of a noisy town, the buildings were in a different style than those back in the kingdom of Bellcephora.

That particular style of architecture made Zoemi recall a distant memory from his previous life...

As they were now, the black-haired boy decided it would be best to follow his original plan - at least the first part of it - and tackle the rather troublesome case of Surou's and Burushi's relationship after some progress would be made.

"That too, but the dead giveaway is that some of the passersby were wearing collars. Slavery is a serious crime in our homeland, but citizens of Atreterve country don't share our beliefs in that regard."

Surou pointed out, motioning towards the bustling main road.

"I'm pretty sure at least three people were eyeing us out, of which one seemed to seriously wonder whether he should try and capture us. Magicians are the most expensive slaves."

Surou clicked his tongue at Zoemi's answer and crossed his arms.

"Don't tell me you're actually planning to sell me off!?"

Surou's face became pale and he took a step back.

Zoemi raised his brow and shook his head in disbelief.

"I just wanted to take us to a place where we would not be disturbed. This is Vexzi, by the way. And unless a magician already has the slave collar, the slavers will not bother them, our countries have an agreement don't they?"

Zoemi waved his hand dismissively and said lightheartedly.

"I'm asking why did you take me here if you just wanted to talk, are you saying that your territory is contested in some way?"

Surou frowned angrily.

"Now, now. It's not like that. When I showed up at your chamber in the monastery you thought that I was someone that the queen had sent to dispose of you – I know that Atreterve isn't the safest place for magicians, but that's why it is one of the last places that anyone would come looking for you."

The black-haired boy explained, adding whatever he knew from the game on top of everything he learned after reincarnating.

"..."

Surou squinted his eyes, glaring at Zoemi with a bitter expression.

"...haa... Atreterve is a country of magic engineers. People from this region aren't born with the same attribute as us. While the barbarians from the north have hexes and curses, Atretervians use the power of the mana stones to create the finest enhanced equipment that is highly sought in Bellcephora... Not exactly the last place to look for a runaway second prince, but let's say that it's the thought that counts..."

The blue-haired boy shook his head and sighed before shrugging his shoulders and nodding.

"My prince, just making sure but – you are interested in being a jeweler, right? Or was that also a thing caused by the hex?"

"..."

Zoemi smiled with satisfaction at the second-prince reaction and tilted his head slightly while asking cautiously.

"...that is indeed something that I always wanted to do..."

Surou confirmed it with a hesitant nod.

After all, back in the monastery, there was an entire he was using to not get out of practice.

"How about adjusting that ambition a little bit and becoming an enchanter while you are at it?"

"...!"

Zoemi asked with an evil-looking smirk, making Surou wide-eyed.

"Follow me – we're going to find you a teacher~!"

Zoemi turned around and snickered without looking back and Surou, as the second prince end up choosing to indeed follow him to whatever the black-haired boy was going.