He had initially thought that this frail, little girl had fallen under the bewitchery of the foglers. There was no better way to justify her sudden, mindless rus.h.!.+

That's right. That's what any professional mind would conclude. A little girl would only get shredded by the least of all Necrophages!

Regular folk would never stand up against the claws of foglers, not unless they've come across 'Hunters' from 'Resident Evil.' Of course, the foglers' diminutive size did not seem very intimidating. It was their shadow clone jutsu that turned them infinitely far deadlier!

They could play hide and seek as their opponents tired out. Then, they would strike!

Geralt never expected the little girl to perform actual, trained tumbles and roll behind the foglers, jamming her wind blade into their backs!

If someone had played "Tales of Wuxia 3" in this world, they would recognize the most basic of abilities - backstab!

Lady Olivia Zhao had not even started street dancing, no, she had not used any of her 'Fairy from Wonderland' skills!

Geralt was most astonished about the invisible blade. All his keen, enhanced eyes could pick up was the sight of the fogler's body sprawling forward, as it had been kicked on the rear-end. Then, the girl had used her invisible blade to stab it a few times more for good measure...

The thick fog slowly dissipated, and the foglers all lay dead.

Geralt breathed heavily, catching his breath. For a long while, he remained speechless. However, he finally understood why this girl had dared come to the border of the forest to sketch. She was some ridiculously skilled... ent.i.ty!

When he thought about how worried he had been about this little brat, he felt as if he had been tricked...

Olivia happily collected the experience points that could be exchanged for skill points from the system. She then obtained the formula for the 'Foglers' Decoction.' Apparently, one of its ingredients was foglers' mutagen. She was familiar with the other familiar alchemical ingredients. The main ingredient would be the 'foglers' mutagen.' It looks like she had no choice but to lay hands on the corpses.

Olivia then discovered that her gorgeous dress was in a mess. It had been torn in many places, thanks to rolling in the bramble and pebbles. Her snow-white skin had been exposed to the air, which made her look like she had been abused and a.s.saulted...

She had gone all out against the foglers. Her indoor dress had been treated like a battledress, and stood no chance against her ferocity.

Olivia had always paid attention to her appearance and had skilfully immersed herself in her 'perfect princess' act. Her current appearance left her in a foul mood. It somehow dampened her joy of completing a witcher quest.

As for laying hands on the corpses of those foul beasts, did you really expect an elegant princess to get her hands dirty?

"Hey, white-haired witcher, can you help me out with something?" Olivia said in a slightly arrogant tone while raising her chin.

Perhaps because she had revealed her true self in front of this guy, she had given up on maintaining any guises.

Olivia was a 'weak and delicate' daddy's girl, while Lady Zhao was a scheming, manipulative G.o.ddess. She was arrogant, conceited, and looked down upon everybody.

Of course, Geralt did not mind such att.i.tude. Instead, he thought that this ent.i.ty was an adult trapped in the body of an adorable little girl. He replied, "You already killed the monster. What other help do you need?"

"I want the foglet's mutagen, so could you help me extract it, pretty please? Everything else is yours. Take it's brains for all I care. I have no Oren [1] with me right now, but I am a Princess of Cintra. You can come with me to meet my grandmother and tell her that you saved me. She would reward you with a huge sum of money. What do you think about this?" Olivia said charitably.

When Geralt heard the t.i.tle of 'Princess of Cintra,' he fell silent once again…

He thought that Olivia was Cirilla, who was destined to become his adoptive daughter because he had invoked the 'Law of Surprise' [2] on Duny and Pavetta. This had left him inexplicably excited. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a daughter like her?

"Hey, white-haired guy. What are you hesitating for? Hurry up and help me," Princess Olivia commanded.

Geralt was unable to reject his 'daughter's' request. He went ahead and did as she told, not one bit revolted by the disgusting nature of the beast. He did this on an almost daily basis…

Olivia took out an alchemical container from the game's 'inventory bar.' That is right; the system had an 'inventory bar.' It was as convenient as those 'spatial storage rings' [3] you find in xianxia. She started collecting the blue-colored foglet's mutagen.

She found Geralt's obedience to be pleasing to her eyes, and made sure that he accepted her rewards.

The white wolf revealed an uncharacteristically affectionate smile. He rejected her offer and said. "I am not that kind of witcher who only cares about money. You killed this monster, and I did not save you as well. I cannot claim this credit. Furthermore, your grandmother must be Queen Calanthe. If she saw me, she would be outraged."

Queen Calanthe had initially commissioned Geralt to kill off Duny (Emhyr), but Geralt had instead broken Duny's curse. Pavetta and Duny ended up getting married. It had utterly derailed Queen Calanthe's plans. She would naturally bear grudges against Geralt.

"No, I want you to claim the credit. Then, after you receive the money, how about splitting it half with me?" Olivia was actually short of money. She wanted to get some money out of her grandmother, if possible.

Geralt was shocked, yet again. What happened to Cirilla? She's trying to swindle grandmother of money! How could she be so two-faced?

"I, Geralt of Rivia, would never be part of this!" Geralt was upright and righteous, and that's exactly why she found him cute.

Olivia combed her long silver hair back angrily and then kicked Geralt in the foot as she sulked. She used her pretty, emerald eyes to gaze deep into the yellow, feline eyes of the white wolf and bared her teeth. She said, "I, Olivia, farm gold!"

"Err... Olivia? You are not Cirilla?" Geralt had almost died from this loli's cuteness. He sighed with sorrow. It would have been quite nice to have a daughter like her. In the end, she was not Cirilla!

Translation note:

[1] "Oren" (奧倫幣) is the official unit of currency in Temeria and the kingdom's va.s.sal states and territories. It is variously referred to as money, gold or orens and is the only currency used in The Witcher (PC).

[2] "Law of Surprise" (意外律) is a custom as old as humanity itself. The Law dictates that a man saved by another is expected to offer to his savior a boon whose nature is unknown to one or both parties. In most cases, the boon takes the form of the saved man's firstborn child, conceived or born without the father's knowledge.

[3] "s.p.a.ce rings" (空間戒指) are rings that are used to store items in fantasy novels.