Emily's POV

Emily dragged Leylin to one of the rooms in the inn. The room was nicely furnished for an inn that was in a small town. There were paintings of landscapes hung on the walls and a comfortable rug covered the floor. The floor had the red tinge of mahogany and was carefully sanded to prevent guests from receiving splinters. The bed was fairly large and had a neutral-colored blanket. The blanket and sheets smelled as if they were recently washed, and everything was clean and taken care of as if Emily expected her inn to fill up at any moment.

Pulling Leylin's upper body, she laid him on the rug. She doubted that she could lift him onto the bed, so she stripped the blanket from it and covered him. Finishing this task, Emily went back to the storage room to look at the lich.

"I read earlier that there was a bounty for a lich.... I guess Leylin isn't as weak as I thought," she thought. "This situation needs to be handled carefully. He may have escaped this danger, but once anyone catches wind of this, it could attract unwanted attention."

Grabbing the knife from the table, she took in a deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to do. Cutting into the lich's chest, she exposed what should have been its heart. The viscera of the lich was completely rotten, so the stench within the room became more dreadful. After gagging for a moment, Emily composed herself and looked at the lich's chest. Instead of its heart, there was a round sphere.

"Mana stone...." she said.

In truth, mana stones were rare, and Leylin was simply lucky to find one within the chimera. Usually, the stones would dissolve, leaving behind a hollow cavity, when the monster died. Because of their rarity and usefulness, they were insanely expensive.

'With this, I won't ever have to worry about shutting down!' she thought.

A trace of greed entered her eyes, but it was quickly followed by guilt.

"But, this isn't mine to keep...."

Running back to Leylin's room, she placed it into his pocket. With the mana stone out of her hands, a weight appeared to have lifted. Sighing in relief, her eyes drifted to his sleeping figure. She noticed that he was definitely handsome, almost too much so.

"He's too forward," Emily said with a slight blush around her ears.

Leaving to avoid more embarrasment, she went to the Bounty Board to see the exact details of the reward.

Issued by Her Royal Highness on the 12th of February, The murderer known as The Tailor is suspected to be involved in the murder of 22 people in the Town of Dry Springs and surrounding establishments. It is suspected that The Tailor is a lich masquerading as a human, specifically its victims. The Tailor is wanted dead, and any citizen who completes this task will receive a reward of 10 Gold Pieces from the Royal Treasurer. Please note, the expected danger level of this bounty is severe. "10 gold pieces..." she mumbled. That amount of money was twice as much as the average person could make within an entire year. It appeared Leylin would experience a sudden windfall. "The only problem is redeeming the reward," she thought. It wasn't literally expected for Bounty Hunters to get paid from the Royal Treasurer himself. Normally, there were Bounty Offices, which were funded directly by the Royal Family that paid hunters. Unfortunately, Dry Springs was so small and insignificant that the Queen only warranted this board. To redeem any bounties, you had to travel to the closest city. Once Leylin did that, he wouldn't have any reason to come back to this small town with his newfound riches. Her inn was cheap compared to hotels in the city, so she was confident that Leylin would come back if he only completed small bounties. Sadly, with that sum of money, it wouldn't be a problem for him to live comfortably in the city for a long time. "I'd lose my only potential source of income...." Emily thought dejectedly. With a look of determination, she took the paper for the bounty anyway and headed back to her inn. - - - POV of the Creator (tbh I'm pretty sure you guys should know what Leylin is by now, but in case you don't, he's the incarnation that I mentioned in earlier chapters.) The Creator observed Leylin using mana to confirm that he was fine. He observed that Leylin was just exhausted because he had sent a large amount of mana through his body. It also didn't help that Leylin used a mana stone. "Dumb kid. Does he think he can do anything? If I hadn't interfered, he would have blinded himself! You don't know everything just because you read some random, obscure passage in a book," the Creator thought, sighing. "I admire that kind of nerve though...." The Creator was slightly impressed with Leylin's ability to think in dangerous situations. "I've chosen an interesting successor this time. Only time will tell if he is worthy of my powers."