After leaving the team, the adventurer ladies regretted it deeply

Chapter 566: 422, Aiko’s Revenge Diary_2

“You weren’t this weak, you even dared to defy your father when you were a child,” Bervis said as he took out a handkerchief and passed it through the small window behind him.

The handkerchief was snatched and resounded with the sound of someone blowing their nose; when it was returned to Bervis, it was sticky.

Bervis’s eyelid twitched. He reluctantly stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket, pinching one corner between his index finger and thumb.

“It’s always like this…” Aiko muttered.

“What?”

“One lie needs a bunch of lies to cover it up.” Inside the carriage, Aiko curled up on the sofa, hugging her knees, and felt a bit breathless.

...

Her mind was in turmoil, suspecting that she had made a wrong move.

The plan was named “Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage.”

In ancient times, a black bear visited a thatched cottage three times and finally ate the little white rabbit that came to defecate there, hence the name Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage.

The meaning is that as long as the adventurer has perseverance, they can achieve their goals.

The first visit was Lia and the others trying to keep her.

The second visit was saying goodbye at the city gate. Even if Lin Da suggested then that the Phoenix Tail Flower Adventure Team could take in Aiko, she couldn’t agree. That would have been too obvious and would have exposed her real purpose right away.

Source: , updated on Ɲονցο.сο

It had to be the third visit.

Lin Da and others were sobbing messily, begging her to come back.

She reluctantly agreed to join the Phoenix Tail Flower Adventure Team.

But…

Every time Aiko confidently swore she could succeed, she always ended up the clown.

This time, she didn’t have the slightest assurance of success.

Everyone’s reaction was completely different from what she had expected.

If they knew she was acting, they would probably detest her from the bottom of their hearts.

To avoid that, she had to weave another bunch of lies.

Aiko placed her arms on her curled-up knees, buried her head inside, and muttered incoherently, like an ostrich playing dead, “By the way, what if they don’t come after me? It seems like I can’t go back.”

“Go back? What are you thinking?”

Bervis made an exaggerated face, his eyes for once as wide as a normal person’s: “Of course, you’re going back to Holy Rock to take over the family business, your father is waiting with a big stick.”

“This isn’t what was agreed upon!” Aiko exclaimed, “Even if I have to beg in White Dove City, there’s no way I can go back!!”

Bervis shrugged, “You’re over twenty years old. Big brother can’t let you be wilful anymore. Or is it that you don’t trust your teammates? If you don’t trust them, how can they possibly trust you?”

“I’m out of here.”

Aiko always felt that things were about to fall apart. While Bervis was focused on driving the carriage, she performed a lazy donkey roll and jumped out of the carriage into a bush of green shrubs.

The ground was covered with soft weeds, muffling the sound as she landed.

She held a handful of grass in each hand, placed it over her head as camouflage, and tiptoed forward.

Aiko planned to sneak back to White Dove City, fool Lin Da and the others with lies—”Hey! Your most missed Aiko is back!”—don a clown suit that would only appear in a circus, and laugh off everyone’s anger amidst hilarity.

In any case… she had to go back.

Aiko clenched her teeth and looked towards the pitch-black wilderness ahead.

The farther she got from White Dove City, the clearer the figures of Lia, Klrona, and Lin Da became in her mind.

Aiko indeed disliked adventuring.

What she liked was probably just being with those idiots.

Having not quarreled with Lia for just one day, Aiko’s mouth was already itching unbearably.

Klrona knew she was retiring and was behaving exceptionally well, making it hard for Aiko to mock Klrona as a mischievous brat in her mind.

Lin Da’s trousers also lost their appeal.

She absolutely couldn’t return to South Rock City in such a dejected manner!

Aiko secretly thought to herself, so far, her plans had never succeeded.

If she continued to wait, she would only become a real clown.

However, just as Aiko was about to break into a run…

A large hand from behind her effortlessly lifted her up like a small chick.

Aiko’s heart sank, and she turned around trembling.

Facing her was Bervis’s unsmiling, broad face.

“Aiko, you didn’t think that a mere level 35 mage could escape from me, did you?”

…

…

The night was like a black curtain enveloping the entire White Dove City.

A few ornamental stars twinkled forlornly in the sky.

In a villa in the Goldfinch District, inside a bedroom on the second floor.

A white briefcase was placed next to the desk.

The diary that fell out was stuffed back into its original crevice.

After saying goodbye to Aiko, Lin Da felt emptiness inside, always wanting to find something to do to keep himself busy.

At just the right time, there was a hidden boss on the 18th level of the Mystic Realm, known as the [Snow Raven].

The conditions to kill it included [dealing over 100,000 damage in a single strike].

“Death*Magic Heart Slash, which consumes 90% of the maximum hit points to activate, can be used against the Snow Raven.”

These past few days had been too busy, and he had never tried the damage of Death*Magic Heart Slash.

Moreover, team members needed to be recruited.

Heavy Armored Warrior, Mage, functional supports…

According to the World Tree Secret Realm’s personnel restrictions, 7-10 members were ideal.

More than that were temporarily unaffordable.

“If I can recruit them, my pressure will be significantly reduced when strategizing against the Flame Giant.”

Lin Da focused his mind on the adventure, forcing himself to forget the unpleasant things.

He unconsciously wrote down various data on paper.

But as he was writing, the tip of the feather pen, out of control, wrote the word “Aiko”!

Whether by coincidence or not, from the neighborhood’s Magic Conch, a plaintive melody emerged.

It was Cyan City’s top idol, Aimmi, singing “After Conquering the Magic Dragon.” The lyrics told the story of the protagonist’s teammate who sacrificed during the battle against the magic dragon, and only when visiting the other’s grave did they realize,

that in their heart, the other was more than just a teammate.

It was only after killing the magic dragon and putting down the sword did they recognize the true feelings in their heart.

It’s worth mentioning that the protagonist is a male, and the one who died was a muscular warrior from the Tiger Clan.

At the same moment, in the studio, a girl with black hair and a black skirt, holding an umbrella, muttered to herself: “Miss Aiko, this is as far as I can help you.”

Next to the girl, a Minotaur in a black suit was sweating profusely, silently apologizing to the unconscious studio staff.

…

Aimmi’s soft and melodious voice drifted in from outside the window, as Lin Da listened to the piece troubled by an odd emotion stirring inside him.

He stood to pour a glass of water, but then he heard a “clack.”

A small booklet with a yellowed cover fell out from the crevice.

[Aiko’s Revenge Diary].

Lin Da bent down to pick it up, staring at the booklet, hesitating for a while.

Originally he had thought about, when some free time arose, taking the briefcase and diary book to South Rock City to return them to Aiko.

But the diary wasn’t locked, so taking a peek wouldn’t be noticed.

There was also another possibility, that Aiko deliberately left it for him.

All kinds of thoughts flashed through his mind.

Lin Da, holding the diary, sat back at the desk.

When he opened the first page, he was confronted with red, forceful characters. Some sections had even torn the paper, indicative of Aiko’s anger when she wrote them.

The content of those words made Lin Da’s face twitch, a series of question marks popping up in his head.

[“The perpetrator who hurt the fragile heart of the young girl, Lin Da, I will make you pay!”]

Lin Da scratched his head, puzzled.

When did he ever wrong Aiko?

As he continued to read, following Aina’s angry narrative, Lin Da finally remembered the reason for “that incident.”

More than three years ago one afternoon, when Aiko had first arrived, entering from the rental house in her wheelchair, smiling and greeting him.

At that time, he had just heard a passerby say that his sister had fainted in the market, agitated, he pushed Aiko aside and rushed out.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Lin Da sighed wearily.

Previous content, like the autobiography of Ah Q, portrayed Aiko triumphantly embellishing her victories, such as when Lin Da massaged her feet, she thought of him as a “poor little dog”, and when burying his head to devise strategies, he was a “pitiful worker”. Lia was the “brainless redhead fool” and Klrona was the “naughty spirit who will absolutely never get married.”

The entire Snow Goose Adventure Team appeared to be normal only because of Aiko.

Lin Da read with a mix of laughter and tears; the always gently smiling Aiko had so many cunning schemes hidden beneath that facade.

Struggling to manipulate them while maintaining a facade of kindness and gentleness… Just reading the diary made Lin Da feel how exhausting Aiko’s life must have been!

Halfway through, the diary underwent some change.

The previous pages had plenty of words. But when he reached this page, there were only a few lines.

Lin Da quickly glanced at the rest of the pages, the most containing five or six lines at most, often only one or two lines, and sometimes simply “weather clear.”

…

(ps: Reached 4200 words!)