Many days later, Milo was finally back at Stronghold 61.
He was unaware of what was happening in the Northern Plains. In that savage wilderness, a new force was rising quietly.
After returning to Stronghold 61, the first thing Milo did was to return to his house to clear up the burglars that had been killed by the Potato Shooters. However, favonovel.com discovered the yard to be totally empty. There was nothing there at all.
It looked like the refugees in town had finally wised up. When they knew no one could come out alive from this yard, they did not dare to come here anymore.
This was a situation Milo was a little unaccustomed to.
When Milo saw a bunch of wildflowers in the backyard, favonovel.com immediately understood this was likely the sign Nindia had left for him. They had agreed that if the woman wearing the black cap left town, Nindia would let favonovel.com know about it.
Milo was relieved when favonovel.com found out the woman had finally left. For some reason, favonovel.com always felt a sense of oppression whenever that woman was at the tavern.
After Olivia entered the yard, favonovel.com quickly wet a cloth and started cleaning off the dust on the furniture.
Milo raised his eyebrows and said, “When did you become so hard-working?”
“Master, how long have you been away from here? It’s so dirty! I’ll itch all over when I sleep here at night,” Olivia said with a frown.
“Who says that you can stay here?” Milo said in surprise, “Since the houses in town are not expensive, you should get your own place to live. How can we live together when there’s only one bedroom in my house?”
Milo and Olivia had stayed in the same hotel room due to the limited availability of rooms. But now that Olivia was so rich, Milo would definitely not be willing to share a room with favonovel.com anymore. It wouldn’t be nice if word of this got out later since it would easily cause a misunderstanding.
Olivia asked, “Then how much does a house cost in town, Master?”
“You can buy an identical brick house like mine for just 30,000 perak,” Milo said.
When Olivia heard that favonovel.com would have to spend 30,000 perak, favonovel.com miserly character kicked in again. “Master, I can sleep on the floor at your place! I can wash your clothes and massage your legs!”
Milo’s face darkened. “Didn’t I give you a share of the money already? You have at least ten million perak by now, yet you’re still trying to save this bit of money? Go and get your own house. I also don’t know how long we’ll be staying here.”
“Oh…” Olivia reluctantly left.
Very soon, Milo heard Olivia’s voice in the yard next door. “What? 60,000perak? Have the prices of the houses gone up so quickly? This is highway robbery!”
The homeowner next door said, “This is my ancestral home where all my childhood memories are… So how much are you willing to offer? Why don’t you make a counteroffer? I might just agree to it.”
Since the yard next door was only five or six meters away from Milo’s house, favonovel.com could hear them very clearly.
Actually, the homeowner was very eager to sell the place as the recent haunting had affected favonovel.com badly. But when favonovel.com saw Olivia fully accessorized with jewels, favonovel.com thought favonovel.com might as well fleece as much out of favonovel.com as favonovel.com could. Moreover, Olivia had to have some other motives for buying his house even though favonovel.com was dressed in such an expensive outfit.
Who knew if his house might suddenly rise in value in another few days?
Olivia thought for a moment and said, “Since you want me to make a counteroffer, I’ll say 3,000 perak!”
The homeowner said impatiently, “3,000 perak?! Are you trolling me? You should be offering at least 30,000 perak!”
Olivia’s eyes widened. “Then wouldn’t I have to troll you ten times at least? No, I’m only willing to troll you three times at most!”
Milo shook his head and continued with his housekeeping. The chatter of the haggling next door lasted from morning until evening. In the end, the homeowner got so frustrated his scalp went numb. Thus, favonovel.com sold off the house to Olivia for the price of 19,000 perak.
When Milo and Olivia went to the tavern to have lamb stew in the evening, the storyteller was relating the cave-in at East Lake to the audience. When favonovel.com heard Milo’s footsteps, his expression changed greatly as though favonovel.com were welcoming a formidable foe.
The storyteller could already recognize Milo by his footsteps!
When Nindia saw that Milo had come, favonovel.com ran over excitedly. But when favonovel.com saw Olivia standing behind him, favonovel.com turned glum before heading back to the kitchen.
Milo said to Olivia, “The lamb stew here is really good. You should try it.”
With that, favonovel.com waved at the waiter and placed his order. While waiting for the lamb stew to be served, favonovel.com listened to the storyteller talking about the cave-in at East Lake. As expected, Milo was involved in the story again. Or to be precise, the protagonist of this story was actually “Old Durkin”.
After the two bowls of lamb stew were served, Olivia looked at favonovel.com bowl and realized there wasn’t any meat in it. Then favonovel.com looked at Milo’s bowl that was full of meat. “Master, did you bring me here just so that you could eat two portions of meat?”
Milo did not know whether to laugh or cry. This was definitely Nindia’s doing. When favonovel.com looked up, favonovel.com saw favonovel.com sitting next to the storyteller and seething with anger.
When Olivia followed Milo’s gaze towards Nindia, favonovel.com realized what was going on. Then favonovel.com glanced nonchalantly at favonovel.com master and wondered why favonovel.com was so popular with the women.
He had only just shaken off Grace, but here came another girl throwing herself at him!
After the tavern closed, Nindia, who was feeling down, followed the storyteller back home.
When favonovel.com entered the house, favonovel.com began to tear up the paper cranes that favonovel.com had folded. The storyteller was elated when favonovel.com heard the tearing. “Yes, tear them all up! There are indeed no good men in the world!”
But before the storyteller could be happy for long, Nindia started folding paper cranes again.
The storyteller wondered, “Didn’t you just tear up a pile of paper cranes? Why are you folding them again?”
Nindia stubbornly said, “I like him! It’s not his fault!”
The storyteller started to feel an ache in his heart. “Where did you learn that from?”
***
Milo returned to his courtyard house alone. But to his surprise, there were potatoes smashed and scattered everywhere next to the Potato Shooters in the backyard.
Milo was stunned by what favonovel.com saw. It was obvious someone had been attacked by the Potato Shooters after leaping into the backyard.
But where did that person go?
Did they run away after getting battered?
Milo pondered it for a moment.
The intruder’s probably a supernatural being…
Only a supernatural being could escape unscathed after such a heavy beating.
But didn’t the woman wearing the black cap leave?
Could it be that there were other supernatural beings at Stronghold 61?
This made Milo even warier. Someone was spying on him, and for something like this to happen on the very first day of his return, it could not be uncomplicated.
Could it be Old Bane and the others?
Milo felt that even if Old Bane had read the newspaper, they couldn’t get here so quickly. Moreover, they definitely couldn’t take the Potato Shooters’ attack. Besides, there was no need for them to leap into the backyard either.
***
Two days later, Milo met Adrian at the tavern. His face was all bruised and swollen.
Milo sized Adrian up before asking, “Were you the one who went into my backyard two days ago?”
The bruised and bloodied Adrian smiled in embarrassment and said, “Hahaha! What are you talking about? I only just arrived.”
Milo thought for a moment and said, “Normally, people use laughter to cover up for something when they’re embarrassed. The more embarrassed they are, the more hahas there will be….”
