Chapter 773: Chapter 773: So Things Are Inevitable
I never quite understood what Milia ant when she described her house as a junkyard until I actually saw it with my own eyes… cough cough, until I saw their living room on the first floor.
Zaku… pfft… After Uncle Zaku opened the door and let us into the living room, our first headache was figuring out where to step. Good heavens, I couldn’t imagine anyone’s living room looking like this, filled with all sorts of things: broken axles, tal scraps, discarded books, chunks of wood, flattened tal, and broken chains, and my second uncle’s old insoles—those last one was just for the sake of rhy. In short, the mont we saw Milia’s grand living room, we were tempted to pitch a tent outside for the night and reevaluate the room full of toys and comics that Little Baobao had: even Lady Shining deserves praise for keeping that room tidy.
“Ahaha, it might be a bit ssy, that’s just how it is in our line of work,” Uncle Zaku laughed nonchalantly, stretching lazily, “I’m going upstairs to sleep; this brat has kept up several nights.”
With that, Uncle Zaku carelessly walked through the rubbish-strewn room and vanished on the other side.
“Ugh, still with that lazy deanor—so embarrassing.”
Milia pressed her forehead in frustration, a look of deep sha on her face, then glanced at sowhat sheepishly, “Don’t laugh, okay? The house is always this ssy, and Uncle is just extrely lazy. He never cleans up his collectibles, and the only employee he has only cos by when they feel like it because of the low pay.”
May I ask what exactly does your family do? So legendary alien junk station? And what’s with employees who co to work depending on their mood! Using low pay as an excuse is already contradictory!
“Profession? Well, Uncle calls himself an adventurer. To be honest, I was rather shocked when I saw a registration plate for sothing called Radiant Glory Adventure Team at ho. But seeing his lackadaisical, unmotivated deanor, you’d realize it’s fitting. Calling it an adventure team is a stretch, it’s just him, Biluna, that usually absent employee, and —almost turning into a rubbish collection team.”
Milia spoke bitterly, her face filled with dissatisfaction. We weren’t familiar with the “adventurer” and “adventure team” job titles on Mobra, but after a basic explanation, we managed to grasp the concept that they’re sowhat similar to speculative, sports-like treasure hunters—on Earth, such jobs are rely mythical, with tomb raiders being the closest equivalent. However, in a place scattered with Imperial Relics, such a profession might actually have a significant chance of survival. Milia, seeing our curiosity about the adventurer occupation, explained patiently, letting us know adventurers search not only for “Holy Relics” but more so for ancient civilization artifacts and remains of battlefields. Regarding ancient civilization artifacts, they are a “mystery yet to be fully solved,” dearly talked about by scholars of this world. Researchers on Mobra discovered that another advanced civilization prospered here long after the Holy Sages departed from this world until they were suddenly extinct due to a catastrophic event. Although their relics are not as valuable as the Holy Relics, they are more nurous and favored by adventurers. After all, the Canglan Church tightly controls the exploration rights of Holy Relics; any adventurer who discovers such relics can only imdiately report and stay away, then receive so reward and a top feature in the religious publications for the next half-month. Only the luckiest might gain limited exploration rights. But discovering an ancient relic imposes no such restrictions; finders keepers, any adventurer with the relevant technology can freely excavate these sites and make a fortune.
As for the latter, war remnants, these are even more plentiful. Up to two or three hundred years ago, Mobra was a world prone to civil wars. Its current absolute peace was forcibly crafted by the Canglan Church using high-pressure policies after they obtained several Ancient Sage Weapons (here, Big Sister and I fully agree; this kind of peace isn’t a good on). Thus, these old battlefields naturally beca a good source of inco: they’re vast, easy to excavate, and the items are easier to sell, with collectors and scholars willing to buy the junk, so…
Thus, decades ago, these ancient battlefields were almost completely scavenged by adventure teams…Now, the remaining people really rely on luck to make a living.
“All of that is what a ‘normal’ adventure team should be doing,” Milia explained as she led us through the similarly trash-filled second floor, emphasizing the word “normal.” It seed she was very dissatisfied with her extrely slothful uncle who only knows how to scavenge the nearest accident site to make a living, “No one dares to enter Holy Relics casually; the missionaries of the Canglan Church are monstrous in that regard. Never have I heard of anyone exploring Holy Relics on their own and surviving their pursuit. Despite the approachable deanor of those priests, if you touch upon the words ‘Holy Sages,’ they turn crazier than anyone else. Of course, you guys… eh, hehehe.”
It appeared that Milia suddenly rembered that Biluna was right next to us and stopped mid-sentence, but a subtle, silly smile spread across her face. It probably seems incredibly amusing to this simple-minded girl that we, posing as Holy Sages, are roaming around this world, and she happens to be the only inford person.
I genuinely wonder whether her character is reliable or not for us.
As Milia introduced her family, I listened attentively, learning many new things for the first ti.
Without parents, ever since I could rember, an unkempt uncle who self-proclaid as an adventurer had adopted , and alongside him was a beautiful aunt who was said to be the uncle’s assistant. Growing up with such “parents” and surrounded by junk, I felt that my family environnt was neither good nor bad. That sowhat untidy uncle was a scary guy to Milia, but he was also the most reliable family mber. Although Milia always spoke ill of him, her dependence on her family was clearly evident.
“Actually, he’s quite an annoying guy,” Milia said, “Who announces solemnly on soone’s sixth birthday, first thing in the morning, ‘I’m not your real uncle, and I don’t know who your parents are, I picked you up from so relics’? That’s just terribly off.”
“Uh-huh, you cried a lot back then,” Biluna, who had been following us silently, nodded seriously, “It took Zaku half a month to realize he had said sothing wrong.”
…Had that uncle’s brain been hit by sothing? What’s with this bizarre emotional intelligence?
Qianqian, curiously fiddling with a small iron ball she found sowhere, asked nonchalantly, “Speaking of which, Milia, didn’t you say you were a Holy Profession? How co you are now a mber of so family adventure team? Can Holy Professions also have part-ti jobs?”
Suddenly, the footsteps behind us stopped, and Biluna suddenly looked at a sowhat panicked Milia with a serious gaze, “Did you let that slip out?!”
We imdiately looked at them curiously. Was this supposed to be kept a secret?
Under Biluna’s serious gaze, Milia felt sowhat uneasy and finally stamred an explanation, “After all, she’s my lifesaver, so… so I accidentally blurted it out.”
Biluna frowned, her gaze sweeping over us, inadvertently making everyone feel on alert, before finally sighing, “Well, it’s not the first ti anyway, but you must be careful. I’ll talk to Zaku about this.”
“Uh, sorry for the trouble.”
Watching Biluna disappear around the corner of the stairs, Milia said gloomily while beginning to complain, “Biluna is a Rebirth Person, and all Rebirth People are such rigid folks.”
“Rebirth People?”
My mind imdiately conjured up a variety of bizarre things.
“Where did your mind go?” Milia glanced at , “Rebirth People are one of the species from Mobra, as old as the purebreds. They are an umbrella term for those people who mutated back into human form after a great ancient disaster. Having been mutants, they refer to themselves as Rebirth People after their recovery. They look the sa as ordinary humans, but they are extrely rigid, reportedly due to a plethora of taboos passed down in their tribe from ancient tis.”
This was new knowledge about Mobra, and now we were even more curious about the evolutionary history of species in this world: What exactly had happened here after the Xyrin Apostle left this world?
“As for Holy Professions and all that, uncle always forbade from speaking carelessly,” the golden-haired girl explained about the Rebirth People and stuck out her tongue, “Not only did he forbid from revealing that identity, but he also didn’t allow the use of Holy Profession skills like Thunder Roar, nor revealing secrets like the Holy Plate I have. Normally, even summoning Remona had to be done discreetly to avoid drawing attention, the idea was for to act like a normal girl, but still, I ended up giving it away.”
We were sowhat speechless and also a bit confused. It seed that Milia’s identity as a Holy Profession wasn’t acquired through official ans, and she herself probably didn’t even know how she ended up being one, nor did she understand why Uncle Zaku wanted her to conceal her identity. She didn’t want to think about it—she just did whatever others told her to do.
Understanding of this world was limited; we didn’t know the standards for judging a Holy Profession here, let alone the form of a religion that worships Imperial Heritage as holy relics. Of course, we couldn’t figure out what was really going on with Milia’s identity, but Uncle Zaku’s intention wasn’t too hard to guess—it was probably to protect this careless girl. Sotis, possessing a precious thing is a cri in itself. A person not registered with the Church, yet able to use the mightiest power of a Holy Profession, holding an information terminal considered a Holy Artifact, without any faith—thinking about it, her situation didn’t seem too good.
“Hey, hey,” Sandora suddenly tugged on my sleeve, looking pitifully at the ssy mountain of junk around us, “I’m a little hungry. Can I eat these things?”
With that sentence, we all snapped out of our own thoughts. Milia, fully on guard, looked at Sandora anxiously and said, “Wait! Don’t eat my house!”
I looked conflictedly at Sandora, who had already started grinding her teeth, then again out the window at the vast Wan Lake Prairie, wondering whether I should really let this Queen sister graze in the prairie.
Fortunately, Sandora’s potential bizarre incident of chomping on residential buildings didn’t happen. Her Majesty, the Queen, overca her biological urges with her willpower—though in the process, she did consu a hundred and twenty-seven little round cakes.
That evening, we enjoyed the unique cuisine of Mobra Planet, which had a different taste and flavor from Earth’s food, but at least it was verified harmless to carbon-based life forms, which gave so relief. anwhile, Sandora made Uncle Zaku and Biluna gasp when the thirteenth empty bowl was stacked on the dinner table. Even a laid-back person like Uncle Zaku finally realized a very serious problem:
If he didn’t want to be accused of ingratitude, he’d have to start working hard from the next day.
I apologized deeply to Milia for Sandora’s enormous appetite, well aware that hosting our family would be a bit challenging due to her lazy uncle. However, she told us not to mind it and reassured us that her uncle was actually a warm-hearted person who just didn’t show it, although he looked a bit pained, but deep down, he was quite hospitable. This positive evaluation lasted not very long, ending half an hour after dinner: Uncle Zaku seed to have learned about Milia leaking her identity, dragged her out for a long lecture, and when they returned, the warm-hearted uncle in Milia’s mouth had transford into a stingy, harsh, quirky, and panicky unaccomplished man…
But despite that, Uncle Zaku didn’t develop a grudge against us; clearly, our sincere returning of Milia ho was sufficient proof that we ant no harm. The uncle just questioned us about our identities a bit: As an adult, albeit an unreliable one, he thought about a lot more things than Milia did, and he remained reasonably cautious about us, strangers whose backgrounds seed dubious.
This issue was later resolved by Sandora through a subtle ntal suggestion.
Perhaps coincidentally, that sa night we experienced the sudden strong winds of Mobra Planet’s dry season. It indeed proves the saying that local conditions shape local customs; there’s a reason why traditional houses were built this way here: Lilina, out of curiosity about the howling wind outside, went to take a look, leading to have to fish her out of “Wan” Lake at half-past eleven at night.
On the second morning on this planet, a few of us stood in the only clear space in the first-floor living room discussing the unique customs we had seen in this odd world, while Uncle Zaku continued basking in the sun at the door, having completely forgotten his ambitious proclamation of “must work hard” from last night and this morning. I estimated he wouldn’t rember until it was ti for the next al. Biluna had already headed out early in the morning, pulling a cart full of “junk” to trade at the market. Although it all looked like old copper and rotten iron, to those in the know, there was quite a bit of value in it: at least enough for next month’s living expenses.
Despite it only being the second day, we all saw who was the real support in this “ho”—the always serious Biluna was truly a good woman.
“I think the uncle will eventually grow mushrooms if he continues like this.”
Listening to Uncle Zaku’s song, whose original tune was now completely indistinguishable, coming from the doorway, Milia frowned and said sadly, “My youth is going to assimilate with these piles of junk.”
“Don’t say that,” Sandora comforted the dejected golden-haired girl, muttering under her breath, “At least they taste fine.”
Milia had already given up trying to stop the ravenous “Holy Sage.” The dinner last night and breakfast this morning had made the girl realize that Sandora could eat up her house anyti she wanted, by any ans necessary.
Just then, a noisy commotion from outside caught our attention; it seed like a large group of people were coming over, laughing and talking, and what was more concerning was that there seed to be so familiar voices among them…
At the door, soaking up the sun, Uncle Zaku was having a conversation with a large group of people. The cacophony seed a bit too much for the old man to handle and, after a mont, he suddenly stord inside, exasperatedly yelling at us, “Who exactly are you people? Why is there at least a platoon outside clamoring for you?!”
I was still stunned when a little old man, whose beard almost covered most of his face, squeezed through the door crack, his booming voice causing dust to fall in the living room. “Jaina! Co and see! This house is really quite similar to Dalaran, eh!”
A blue-clad female mage poked her head in. “Magni! Mind your manners… Chiruno, stop pulling on my dress! I’ve told you, I’m just an Ice Mage, and my dad doesn’t know your second aunt from the shores of Fog Lake…”
“Ah, it truly is a unique world here; it’s a pity Youyouzi didn’t co along.”
“Idiot brother! Can’t you take off that armor?”
“Sal! Watch where you’re stepping!”
“Sorry, Cui Xiang pushed …”
“Sunflower seeds, peanuts, ice cubes!”
Uncle Zaku’s face muscles were trembling, and so were the faces of each one of us. I now fully believed the crowd at the door was at least a platoon, and that was a conservative estimate.
“Everyone, quiet down!!”
I shouted angrily, and suddenly, there was silence at the door, with only Ling ng selling her sunflower seeds and candy still echoing in a frenzy.
“What in the world is going on here?!”
Just as I was about to start lecturing, a voice accompanied by a striking silver-haired figure burst through the door, cutting off my words completely, “Haha! Chen, your consort has co to play!” (To be continued. If you like this work, welco to qidian to vote and support us. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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