Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

"Oh...thank you, big sister!"

They hurriedly took it and drank the potion. As the potion went into their stomachs, the feeling of drunkenness quickly faded away, and then they realized that Kalima was still staring at them.

"What are you standing there for? - Stay away from me, I stink to death!"

A few people didn't dare to say anything and walked away.

"If you really have nothing to do, go watch from the window. If any adventurers or guards come, tell me."

She naturally assigned her men to guard the window, so that even if the worst happened, she could leave quickly. Only then did she feel relieved.

"It's safe here. No need to be so cautious."

Balin said.

Kalima smiled and turned her head:

"Really? That's great, but we must remain vigilant. Otherwise, no one knows when danger will strike."

"You're right."

Kalima glanced around and said, "Say, don't tell me you've been staying in this hellhole for a month."

"It's a nice place. The people who live here are those who don't like to cause trouble and have no money. Thanks to this, the guards don't care much about this kind of place."

"But if you stay in one place all the time, won't people notice you? You see, when you're bored, you'll always be curious about why your neighbor doesn't go out all day but seems to be living a good life, and even has beautiful women come to visit."

Balin only glanced at Kalima when she called herself a "beautiful woman."

"I'm very old."

Baring seemed to be saying something completely unrelated.

"During a cold snap, staying indoors isn't unusual – it's people who move around who are targeted."

Balin glanced at Kalima meaningfully, and Kalima snorted dryly.

"You're right. I just met a stranger looking for that gray-haired...oh, that gray-haired...what was his name?"

As she spoke, Kalima thought of the blonde woman - she had to admit, that woman was really beautiful, even she thought so.

But because the other person was so beautiful, her intuition as a woman immediately made her very alert and she left there immediately. Fortunately, she was always paying attention to what was behind her and no one chased her.

"Her name is Grace. You've been a little forgetful lately." Balin asked, "You didn't kill her, did you? - I mean, the outsider who was looking for Grace."

"No, she seems to be just an irrelevant fellow."

Kalima did not tell Balin the truth - she did not attack the woman because she sensed danger, not because she thought she was an "irrelevant person".

"That's not like you. I thought you were going to try to kill her."

"Times are different now. Those adventurers are getting more and more difficult to deal with. Do I have to kill them all?"

Balin shook his head and didn't respond. Instead, he suddenly said, "I heard that you sent someone to assassinate Grace a few days ago."

As the words fell, the hut became quiet.

Kalima's eyes showed a hint of vigilance.

"You sent someone to watch me?"

Balin shook his head. "If you were someone I sent, I wouldn't have waited until today to call you over."

"so what?"

"Since she's still alive, can I assume she's stronger than you expected? At least not something you can handle."

"What do you want to say?"

"I must condemn you, the smart and beautiful Ms. Kalima. You did a foolish thing. You alerted the enemy, and this forced me to step in and deal with the trouble. Fortunately, she seems to be no less innocent than us. She didn't go to the Governor's Mansion, nor did she hire guards. It seems that she intends to solve it herself. I don't know whether to call her arrogant or courageous."

Balin said with a smile.

And Kalima sighed glumly.

"She is indeed very strong. I underestimated her strength, which caused me to lose two of my capable subordinates."

Balin then looked up and asked, "So, you are indeed short of people. Where are they?"

"It's a pity that they're all dead."

Kalima did not look regretful when she said this. Balin knew that the operation must have failed. Kalima had killed those people in some other way to silence them, and did not give the other party a chance to find her.

But this also indirectly proves that Grace's strength far exceeds that of Kalima's two men. Only in this way could they not even escape after their failure.

"It seems like quite a few powerful guys have appeared this year. A few days ago, I heard something big happened in the northern vampire territory..." Balin was filled with emotion. He asked again, "Have you shown up?"

"No."

"You're very cautious, which reassures me." Balin breathed a sigh of relief, pondering other possibilities. "But I'm curious, why do you insist on killing Grace?"

"Don't worry about it, just think of it as a woman's jealousy."

Kalima said.

Of course, it was to find the subhuman girl in Grace's hands—she wouldn't say that out loud.

Kalima gritted her teeth whenever she thought of the subhuman girl. It was because of that girl that she got into so much trouble.

Balin was about to say something, but Kalima spoke up first, "And you, on the other hand? This is clearly your territory, so why didn't you go and kill that troublemaker? You know, she's been so brazen about posting commissions in the guild that it's been really hard for us to move forward. Could it be that you're attracted to her beauty and can't bear to do anything?"

Kalima's words were sarcastic, causing Balin to sigh.

"I'm very old."

Balin repeated it again.

Of course, he would not tell Kalima that he did not attack Grace only in order to take the goods and extort a bounty. There might have been another item in the original plan: killing and stealing. Now that he knew Grace was quite powerful, he gave up the idea.

He shook his head pretentiously and said, "She hasn't found me yet, so why should I kill her? If I were discovered, I'd definitely get into trouble."

Kalima scoffed and provoked him, "Don't we have people from your side in the Governor's Mansion? What are you afraid of?"

Balin appeared calm and composed.

"Don't say that, Kalima. You might not know this, but some people came from the imperial capital a few days ago. I can't afford to offend those people. It wouldn't be wrong to be more restrained at this special time."

"Someone from the imperial capital?" Kalima felt a little strange and asked, "What happened?"

"I don't know. I just heard about it, but I don't know any more specific information."

"Even you don't know? Or do you not want to tell me?"

"You're my partner, so of course I'll tell you everything I know—but some things aren't as simple as you think. It's said that those guys from the Imperial Capital are very powerful. Not only me, but even the Governor doesn't know their identities."

Balin deliberately emphasized his tone.

"Anyway, if you encounter them, it's best not to provoke them. Luckily, they seem to have other motives and have gone north, but the Governor hasn't let up. I suspect they'll be back. All in all, you'd better keep a low profile lately."

"I've always kept a low profile."

Kalima remained silent, but couldn't help but wonder what the imperial capital looked like. She had never been there and didn't dare to go.

"Forget it, I won't ask too much about these things, but you suddenly called me over today, is there something urgent?"

"Is your cargo ready?"

"When did you start to care about me?" Kalima narrowed her eyes and stared at Balin.

"This is my business, too, Kalima."

Balin emphasized his tone.

"You told me earlier that you had a minor incident, so I'm giving you some time. But Kalima, you know I've given you plenty of time. My customers can't keep waiting. You can't keep putting me off like this. You have to get the goods here as soon as possible so I can give them to you. You know, the cold wave hit early this year. If you wait any longer, the north will be completely impassable."

As he spoke, he took out a bulging coarse cloth bag from his arms. He shook it deliberately, and a dull metallic friction sound came from inside, as if there were a lot of shells piled together.

"Of course, just like we always do, I'll pay you part of the money in advance, and the rest will be given to you after I deliver the goods."

Kalima reached out and snatched the purse from the man without any hesitation. She counted the number of gold coins in the bag and put it back down.

"I've brought some really good merchandise this time, so naturally the deposit will have to go up. And as I said before, you always find excuses to delay my payment, and I can't stand it anymore. So this time, you have to pay it all in one lump sum."

"Impossible. The most I can give you is two more gold coins. I have to collect the funds before I can give you any money."

"This is your problem, not mine. I know you have money."

They started bargaining back and forth, and at this moment there was a knock on the door - knock knock knock.

The voice was crisp, powerful, steady and rhythmic. Kalima and Balin both narrowed their eyes and glared at the person behind the door, as if blaming him for dereliction of duty. The man also shook his head innocently at this time - he didn't see when the person outside came in. When he noticed him, the person had already appeared outside the door.

"Who?"

Balin asked.

"It's a woman I've never seen before..."

"woman?"

Balin stood up suspiciously and pulled out a knife from his side. Kalima's heart sank when she saw Balin seemed to be prepared. Looking at Balin walking towards the door, Kalima took a step back calmly and moved closer to the window. She hid behind the firewood pile sideways. The others also hid in blind spots, some on the side of the fireplace, some on the beams, and some behind the straw bed. In short, only one person was left.

This is the unique caution of people in their line of work.

dong dong dong.

The knock on the door sounded again, a little more urgent than before, as if urging someone.

"Buffy, go open the door."

Balin stood aside in a blind spot and quietly told his men to open the door.

The man called "Buffy" opened the door without hesitation. Nothing unexpected happened. Standing at the door was a beautiful blonde woman holding a silver scepter in her hand.

The silver scepter glowed faintly.

"You finally opened the door? I was almost going to push it in myself."

The woman laughed, leaving everyone in the room feeling bewildered.

"You look for……"

Buffy asked, but before she could finish her words, he stood there motionless, a silver glimmer in his eyes.

Bahrain was hiding in a blind spot and hadn't noticed anything at this moment. The moment Kalima saw the person coming outside the door, alarm bells suddenly rang in her heart - because the person coming was Aisha, and Kalima had seen Aisha in front of the tavern. She didn't think Aisha came here by chance, so combined with the questions Aisha asked her outside the tavern, she instantly felt a strong sense of unease.

And... if she was not mistaken, the scepter in Elsa's hand should be some kind of valuable magic wand. This kind of wand inlaid with the magic stone is not something you can find on the street. Obviously, as she guessed, Elsa's identity is not simple.

As if she had noticed something, Elsa looked at her. Her heart skipped a beat and she turned around to jump out the window to escape. However, she was horrified to find that she had lost control of her body without knowing when - she was clearly and consciously feeling everything, but she could not move her feet even a step.

What terrified her even more was that several of her men also stood still - they had all seen this woman before and it was impossible for them to remain indifferent, but the fact was that from the moment the door was pushed open, they were all stunned like Buffy.

At this moment, Kalima realized that she had probably fallen into the other party's magic without knowing it.

"Balin!! Stop hiding! That woman is dangerous! Kill her now!"

Kalima was shouting in her heart, but no sound came out. Balin was still standing in the blind spot behind the door, winking at Buffy in front of him, but Buffy didn't respond at all, just stood there blankly.

Aside from Buffy, most of the others were completely stunned, with only a few who completely obscured their figures showing strange expressions.

Everyone felt something was wrong, but they didn't know what.

"Let me in."

Aisha said, the silver scepter in her hand glowing, and Buffy's dull eyes finally moved. He turned around and made way for Aisha. Seeing this scene, Kalima was stunned - Buffy was completely under the control of that woman?

He was able to control people's minds with just one encounter, and even suppressed her, a fellow magician, to the point that she was completely unable to control her body. A magician of this level was definitely not someone she and Balin could deal with.

What should I do...what should I do!

That woman came looking for Grace, and must be the helper Grace hired. Now she is doomed... No wonder Grace didn't plan to solve the problem through the Governor's Office. In fact, she planned to cut the weeds completely?

Kalima felt a strong chill.

At this time, Balin still didn't understand the situation at all. He just realized that something was wrong with Buffy, so he followed his intuition, picked up the knife, and pressed the blade against the door.

Kalima watched all this and prayed silently in her heart.

That's right. Only Balin, who wasn't looking at the woman and wasn't within the target of her spell, could move freely. Balin had a chance to launch a sneak attack. As long as this attack could hit the woman and kill her, then everything would be fine. Otherwise, with Balin's mental strength, he would probably be controlled in an instant, and that would be a big problem...

Elsa stepped into the hut. Balin closed his eyes, and the knife in his hand seemed to be chasing something moving through the door panel. The mysterious intuition guided the direction of his blade.

Now is the time! One strike, one kill!

Balin pushed the knife out with all his strength, but - clang - with a crisp metallic sound, Balin's knife pierced the door panel, but there was no dull feeling like flesh. Instead, his wrist and palm were numb. Balin glared, his rich combat experience told him that his attack had missed. Although he didn't know what kind of sturdy protective gear the opponent used to block his knife, he knew that he needed to counterattack immediately.

Balin kicked the door open and threw it towards Elsa. He turned sideways and drew his knife to chop, but he found that he had missed the target.

The knife was stuck in the door and he couldn't pull it out.