"I arrived in this city two days ago. Relying on my barbecue skills, I won the boss's approval and successfully landed this job.
"Oh? How did you know I also enjoy preparing ingredients? While I understand what you mean, it's lunchtime right now, so please try to avoid words like 'corpses,' customer.
"Of course I love my work! Roasting ingredients over flames gives them new meaning; death is transformed into nourishment for life. I take pride in my job!
"Ah? You're asking why I smile so much...? I was just born this way. If you don't like it, customer, then I won't say another word. My apologies."
Yaxiu really couldn't bear to listen any longer. "Wait, Harvey, since when are you so receptive to criticism?"
"Isn't it only natural to be considerate of others' feelings and mindful of their experience?"
The dark-skinned man with curly hair tilted his head. "Besides, my name is Bold Harvey. You can just call me Bold."
Yaxiu's face flushed with exasperation. "You even simplified your name into something so easy to pronounce?!"
The dark-skinned curly-haired man blinked, then abruptly turned away.
Yaxiu let out a breath of relief. At least the guy still had a temper, which gave him a sliver of familiarity. Otherwise, a tidy, sunny, considerate necromancer Harvey who didn't crack corpse jokes during meals would have made Yaxiu suspect he had fallen into some lunatic's fever dream.
Just then, the dark-skinned curly-haired man turned back around and set a cup of green-mandarin lemon tea before Yaxiu. "This one's on me. You seem troubled, customer. Drinking a cup of green-mandarin tea will help lift your spirits."
"I can't accept this!" Yaxiu slammed the table and roared.
Rose patted Yaxiu's head. "Not bad, quite an improvement from last time. At least you didn't claim this drink was poisoned."
"Bold, I'm terribly sorry. Mr. Heath's brain short-circuits at times. Please overlook his rudeness."
"Not at all, not at all! I really enjoy chatting with Mr. Heath. He's a fascinating person."
Yaxiu took a sip of the green-mandarin lemon tea and found that it was actually quite delicious—not tasting at all like corpse fluid. Just then, the dark-skinned curly-haired man finished grilling a few skewers. Yaxiu snatched them up and began eating. As he ate, tears welled in his eyes—it was so good! And it didn't taste like rotting corpses either!
Seeing Yaxiu moved to tears by the barbecue, the dark-skinned curly-haired man couldn't help feeling touched. "I had no idea Mr. Heath loved my cooking this much."
The nearby manager snapped a photo of the scene. Rose reminded him, "If you intend to use his likeness for commercial promotion, please contact End Watcher Studio."
"Of course, of course!" the manager said hastily. "With His Excellency Heath appreciating our food so deeply, we certainly won't skimp on the compensation!"
After that, Yaxiu said no more and quietly finished every skewer. When it was time to leave, he asked to speak with the dark-skinned curly-haired man outside. The latter readily agreed and followed Yaxiu out the front door. "Did you need me for something, Mr. Heath?"
Yaxiu dragged Harvey into a nearby alley, pinned him against the wall, and slapped him back and forth with all his might. "Wake up, Harvey! Snap out of it! You're Archibald Harvey, not some chef! You're a slovenly, gloomy, wicked, self-centered, taciturn necromancer who loves dropping dead-body trivia while everyone's trying to eat...!"
Rose shielded him from the view of passersby on the street, even turning up her phone's ringtone to drown out the slapping sounds.
"Enough."
"It's not enough! The woman you loved, Na'erbeier, is dead! You broke out of Shattered Lake Prison with me—"
"I said, that's enough," Harvey said. "I'm already awake."
Yaxiu blinked and let go. "Good to hear."
"I was already awake when you said 'Archibald Harvey,'" the necromancer said. "And it seems you noticed that too."
"Did not!" Yaxiu denied immediately. "Do you honestly think I seized the chance to badmouth you and slap you across the face on purpose?"
"Of course not," Harvey replied. "At least you didn't badmouth me on purpose."
Rose turned off her ringtone and asked curiously, "You two know each other? So we won't need to pay settlement money to cover up an intentional assault?"
"Who is she?" Harvey asked. "The Sword Princess?"
"No, I only just met her myself," Yaxiu replied. "She's my assistant in this world. Her name is Rose."
Rose had a sudden realization. "Ah, you're roleplaying friends."
"Let's go with that," Yaxiu brushed it off, then looked at Harvey. "How did you end up as a chef?"
"I don't know either." Harvey shook his head. "I only have faint, blurry memories, and even those are fading fast, like dreams slipping away after waking."
Yaxiu looked at Rose. "Do you have any info on him?"
Rose made an OK sign, stepped out of the alley, and returned a moment later. "I asked the boss. He's an orphan. Two days ago he was still a vagrant, but he came in looking for a cook job, and the boss thought he was decent, so he hired him."
"Orphan... two days ago..." Yaxiu frowned slightly. "What a convenient backstory... Wait, Rose, you told me earlier that we grew up together as childhood friends. What about our parents?"
"You're an orphan. My parents died a long time ago," Rose answered.
"Even orphans should have records of their biological parents, right?" Yaxiu asked. "Are my biological parents dead too?"
"I don't know," Rose shook her head. "Do you want to look for them?"
"Forget it, I was just asking." Yaxiu looked at Harvey. "Now we need to find Igola. Any ideas?"
"I just got slapped awake by you. What do you think?" Harvey asked. "On the other hand, shouldn't you explain to me why I haven't seen a single ruby? Is this really Ruby Mountain?"
"I'm not sure if the problem lies with me," Yaxiu said. "Thinking isn't really within my scope of operations, and there are too many things I can't wrap my head around... The only one among us with the potential to be a detective is the Swindler."
Yaxiu paced back and forth, pondering. "An orphan... two days ago... Rose, have you met a handsome blond guy recently? Probably an orphan who appeared in the past two days as well."
Rose thought for a moment. "Blond, yes, but I'm not sure he counts as handsome."
"Let's go. Take us to him."
Just as Yaxiu and Harvey got into the car, the restaurant manager ran out and shouted, "Bold, aren't you coming back to work?"
Harvey asked, "What work?"
"Grilling meat!"
"Oh? What meat? Elf, orc, goblin, or human? Age, gender, time of death?"
Yaxiu kicked the necromancer into the car and apologized to the manager, "Sorry, I've hired him as my private chef."
The manager wasn't particularly upset, but asked hesitantly, "Then the photo I took...?"
"You still need to contact End Watcher Studio about that, of course!"
In the driver's seat, Rose glanced back at him, then faced forward. The sports car shot forward with a violent burst of acceleration, the heavy g-force pressing the two Legendary Sorcerers upright against their seats.
Five minutes later, beside a filthy, foul-smelling riverbank, Yaxiu and Harvey stared at the figure beneath a bridge opening from a distance, both struck utterly dumbfounded.
Not to mention Yaxiu, even the necromancer—who rarely showed emotion and had practically assimilated into a corpse—widened his eyes in disbelief, his jaw almost dropping to the ground.
"You mentioned someone blond who appeared in the last two days, and he was the only one that came to mind," Rose said. "Is he the one you're looking for?"
"You've been a huge help, Lisi," Yaxiu waved his hand. "Although I don't know what assets I actually own, take whatever you want."
"I could already take whatever I want," Rose said. "Can you even recite your own bank card pin?"
At that moment, Harvey moved to walk over, but Yaxiu quickly held him back. "Don't you want to look a little longer? We have to take a photo at least... Rose, come take a picture!"
Harvey: "He'll be furious."
Yaxiu glanced at him. "Yes, but we get to mock him."
The necromancer considered this. "Truly an offer hard to refuse."
As Rose clicked the shutter, a fresh photo of the 'blond vagrant under the bridge' was born.
Indeed, Igola had somehow turned into a scruffy, disheveled vagrant living under a bridge—curled up on a grimy quilt, gaunt, emaciated, and caked in dirt!
Looking at the photo, Yaxiu was overcome with emotion. He never thought there could exist a crazy place outside a graveyard where Harvey actually lived better than Igola.
All right, time to go mock him.
Right at that moment, a pebble suddenly struck the vagrant on the head, startling him awake. The vagrant scrambled up, only to be pelted by a volley of stones, crying out in pain as he scurried out from under the bridge.
Several young thugs approached the vagrant with malicious laughter. Holding burning wooden sticks in their hands, they casually tossed them onto the filthy quilt, which quickly caught fire.
The vagrant let out a shriek. Ignoring the stones pelting him, he threw himself desperately onto the burning quilt to smother the flames, only for his own clothes to catch fire. He stammered in terrified agony, "A-Aaah! F-Fire, fire! I'm on f-fire—!"
While the vagrant rolled on the ground trying to put out the fire, the youths laughed and kicked him mercilessly. Burned and battered, the vagrant cried out in pain, begging for mercy over and over.
Then the thugs hoisted him up, preparing to heave him into the foul canal.
Right then, a shout pierced the starry night sky:
"Igola Bogin!"
Yaxiu and Harvey sprinted over, each sending a thug flying with a powerful kick.
Originally, Yaxiu had wanted to deploy his void wings or fire his Heart Sword, but the moment he went to strike, fear seized control of his body again, refusing to obey his commands.
Though he didn't know why, Yaxiu still warned Harvey not to use any sorcerer abilities, leaving them no choice but to charge in and brawl with their bare hands.
Seeing these two dare to challenge them, the thugs flew into a rage and swarmed them. But even without sorcerer abilities, Yaxiu and Harvey were battle-hardened veterans. Yaxiu in particular was a body sorcerer; with just a fraction of his martial skill, he shattered several of the punks' teeth. Seeing the tide turn against them, the remaining thugs tossed out a few hollow threats and scrambled away.
Once Yaxiu and Harvey finished off the fight, they noticed the surroundings had gone oddly quiet. Turning around, they realized that during the melee, the vagrant had already been tossed into the stinking canal.
Reeking of filth and soaked in sewage, his once-magnificent golden hair was streaked with grime. He stood in the canal with his back to Yaxiu and Harvey, his shoulders trembling faintly as he stared into the murky water, lost in thought.
Yaxiu thought for a moment, then suddenly said to Harvey, "Hey, your butt's on fire."
Before the necromancer could even ask a thing, Yaxiu kicked him straight into the stinking canal and jumped in right after him. "Mine is on fire too!"
Ugh! Yaxiu realized that his nose in this world hadn't been conditioned by Harvey's concoctions, and he could barely endure even this level of stench. As soon as he paddled up beside the vagrant, he gagged violently. "Ugh, no... you stink so bad!"
"Though, we stink just as bad now." Yaxiu grinned cheekily, then paused in thought. "Wait... are we disgracing Legendary Sorcerers? We might be the only three Legendary Sorcerers in history to ever end up in a stinking ditch, right?"
The necromancer grunted in affirmation through his nose. "Mm."
The Swindler glanced at the two of them and let out a helpless sigh. "Two idiots."
Chapter 779