This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange-Chapter 641: Party Crasher

The figure in the doorway stepped forward, light casting long shadows behind her as she moved deeper into the courtyard.

Kain's eyes narrowed.

Then widened.

His lips parted, though no sound emerged.

Shock and slight betrayal overtook his expression like a wave freezing over still water—stiff, sharp, unreadable. His fingers, still hovering over another the golden seed, twitched as if he'd been caught mid-crime.

The woman stopped, blinked once at his expression, and gave a nervous smile. A smile that Kain didn't return.

Seeing that her smile was not returned, she awkwardly dropped the corners of her lips.

"…O-oh. Um… yeah, I guess this is awkward," she muttered. "But in my defense, I didn't originally plan to come this far either. I thought I'd die the second I came in."

She rubbed the back of her head and gave a small, awkward laugh.

"But it looks like this place was empty. Ha ha…Well, I guess not completely empty since you're here, of course."

Kain didn't laugh.

Nor smile.

His eyes remained hard, jaw clenched, posture rigid.

"…Bai Lian."

She sighed, dropping her hand and letting the rest of her body follow with a casual shrug as she came to stand across from him near the ring of pedestals.

He stared at her, unblinking.

"Why are you here? I thought you gave up on obtaining an inheritance," he said flatly.

Bai Lian winced slightly at his tone.

"I-I did," she admitted. "Really! I mean… mostly. I was pretty beaten up after my last trial. I probably would have even died if it were not for Serena. So I figured I'd just give up and watch you all fight over the inheritances and gracefully bow out of the competition. Especially since Lady Zhao and Fang Lei are dead, and I didn't want to deal with the repercussions of returning home without them… Still don't." She finished off with a whisper.

Kain didn't look reassured.

"You said you weren't interested. That there wasn't a point in fighting over something you couldn't win. You said it would be suicide to try."

"Right," she nodded quickly, "and I meant it—at the time. It's just… harder than I thought. Waiting to die without doing anything. Sitting still made it worse."

Kain's expression didn't change.

"I thought maybe," he said slowly, "we could have been allies. No conflict of interest. You weren't competing for anything, so you were safe to trust."

Bai Lian's smile faltered.

"…I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I don't want you to think I'd try to take anything from you. Especially not when the consequence of failure is death."

The silence that followed felt brittle—fragile and close to snapping.

Bai Lian turned her gaze toward the patch of soil in the center of the courtyard, then to the golden seeds resting atop the pedestals.

"I…I didn't come here to fight you, Kain," she said after a moment. "And you're right—I did give up. I wasn't planning on taking another trial. But then…"

Her gaze flicked up toward the open sky.

"…I got curious."

Kain said nothing.

She continued. "Cassian failed his trial. I don't know all the details, but… he ended up going to the Verdara one after."

"And Serena?" Kain asked, in anticipation and worry.

Bai Lian's lips tugged into a faint smirk.

"She obtained the Thar'Ameth inheritance. Passed it cleanly, I think. Um… Soreia didn't. She got angry and entered the Verdara trial after Cassian. Said something about the Thar'Ameth one being faulty anyway."

Kain folded his arms.

"You think she'll win?"

"I'm not sure," Bai Lian said. "Cassian had a head start, and… well, I guess he's quite strong and not as injured as her. So… probably not."

Kain folded his arms.

"And what about you?" Kain asked, tone sharp again. "You were just curious?"

Bai Lian glanced at him.

"Yeah," she said, shrugging. "No one knew anything about this fourth trial. The other three were all hinted at in the previous trial. This one? Blank. No info. Not even a whisper. If I am likely going to die, I'd like to do so without any unresolved questions. Like what exactly is this inheritance trial like?"

Kain narrowed his eyes.

"So you just wandered in?"

"I mean… yeah," she flinched under her intense gaze. "I figured I'd at least look. I didn't think I'd interfere or even meet you."

"I thought you were smart enough not to risk your life on a whim."

She gave him a look—dry and amused.

"Well, considering how injured I was, I'm grateful this trial didn't involve any fighting."

Her gaze passed over the pedestals again.

"No monsters, no traps, no gauntlet. Just… a question."

She paused.

"And a decision."

Kain didn't respond.

Bai Lian rolled her shoulders, suddenly looking a little more serious.

"I really do like Serena. And… she seems to like you. So I figured… maybe I'd like you too. But… if you make the wrong call and fail, then… I-I guess I'll have to try. I don't want to, but… I can't just walk away either."

She said, putting on a brave front and staring into his eyes. A bit of the spark she had before the relic beat her down and she lost all of her fellow Easterners was back.

Kain's jaw tightened again, but he didn't reply.

The tension between them thickened, not explosive but heavy—like unspoken words weighing down the air.

Bai Lian finally turned fully to face the question carved above them on the wall.

"What did Earth need most to resist the Abyss?" She read allowed the test question in that mysterious universal language.

"I didn't necessarily come here to steal your prize. I'm still not sure if I can even return home safely" she said softly, more to herself than to him. "But… I do want to see what kind of answer this world gives on how to fight the Abyss."

Her voice dropped.

"Even if I can't personally be around to see the final outcome of our fight against the Abyss."