Kiana's antics left Ryn at his wit's end. After three days of starvation, neither of them had the energy to blame the other. The black card didn't magically reappear when Kiana opened her eyes, perhaps because it was hard to find in the river.
Kiana regretted it too. She should have just thrown it into the forest. If Ryn knew she was regretting the location and not the act of throwing the card, he would have definitely smacked her on the head.
Fortunately, on the fourth day, they encountered a Knight-class Honkai Beast leading two or three Assault-class Honkai Beasts. The two starving kids charged straight at the Knight-class Honkai Beast and started gnawing on it.
There is a strict hierarchy among Honkai Beasts, and lower-level ones lack much intelligence. The Knight-class is composed of a horse-shaped Honkai Beast and a humanoid Honkai Beast riding it. The physical connection between the knight and the horse is not strong; the knight can be knocked off its mount, and once dismounted, it will sit paralyzed on the ground, unable to attack, only calling for its horse.
But now, the knight's seat was occupied by Kiana and Ryn. Although it held a long spear, it was as if it didn't exist, just crying out from the side. The horse was also bucking wildly, trying to throw off the two starving kids and welcome back its true master.
The Assault-class ones were even more useless, just spinning in place. Attacking Ryn and Kiana meant also attacking the Knight-class Honkai Beast, and they wouldn't attack their own kind unless ordered by a Herrscher. So the Assault-class Honkai Beasts stopped thinking.
Before long, the Knight-class Honkai Beast died just like that, having been mostly eaten. As it died, the knight sitting on the ground also perished, and the Assault-class Honkai Beasts began their charge.
But with full bellies and renewed energy, Ryn and Kiana were not afraid of these few Assault-class Honkai Beasts. Working together, they finished them off in a few minutes, then stuffed them into their backpacks. This would be their food for the next few days.
The two Kaslana men, observing from a distance, couldn't help but look at each other.
"That Knight-class Honkai Beast died a truly miserable death."
"Indeed. But the Kaslana Gun Kata the young miss used later... the more I look at it, the weirder it gets."
"Sigh, everyone knows Siegfried's Gun Kata is half-baked. How could he teach Kiana to be any good?" (Kiana's Gun Kata was gradually perfected through sparring with Durandal. Before that, her Gun Kata was actually quite poor, relying more on her own combat instincts.)
"But it's still very impressive. It's just her intelligence... so very Kaslana... But that can't be helped. After all, we stopped thinking once we got our external brains."
"By the way, what did the Old Matriarch say? Should we get them a new black card?"
"The Old Matriarch said as long as they're not dead, let them do their own thing. If they want to earn money, we can lend a hand."
"That's easy enough."
However, not long after, the two of them regretted this.
————————
"Boss, you wouldn't want people to know you're hiring child labor, would you~"
Ryn held his phone, whispering devilishly next to the foreman. On the phone screen was a video of Kiana carrying two large sacks of bricks under the hot sun.
Originally, Ryn and Kiana had planned to find work to earn money, and then they saw this recruitment ad for moving bricks for 7,000 yuan a day. No, this ad practically flew over and hit them in the face.
Kiana exclaimed that they had struck gold and dragged Ryn to the address on the ad. The foreman didn't ask for any information and just let Kiana and Ryn start working.
That would have been fine, but the job was just moving a pile of bricks here and then there, back and forth. Ryn sensed something was wrong, secretly took a few photos, and that led to the current scene.
"Kid, you've successfully rendered me speechless." The Kaslana family member, disguised as a foreman, felt like a dozen alpacas were stampeding through his mind. *I didn't think that far ahead. I just wanted to get you some money, I didn't think about all that!*
"Don't change the subject. I feel like you're just messing with me and Kiana. That silly girl Kiana actually believed she could earn 7,000 yuan a day and is still working foolishly right now.
I originally thought moving bricks was indeed profitable, but you had me and Kiana move things here and then there, and then back here and back there again.
What's in it for you? Aren't you just purely messing with me and Kiana?" Ryn pointed to Kiana, who was still smiling foolishly and working with great enthusiasm, and then looked at the foreman with even more resentment.
"That girl has always believed that people are kind. If you dare to make her sad, I'll let you have a taste of my fist."
"Ahem... Actually, I noticed you two siblings a long time ago." The foreman cleared his throat awkwardly, then took out two bulging red envelopes from his pocket and handed them to Ryn. "I wanted to help you two, but I was afraid you wouldn't accept it, so I came up with this idea."
Ryn looked at the stacks of cash inside the red envelopes, then at the foreman's simple, honest smile. He took a few steps back and started digging around the construction site.
"It's okay, calm down... just calm down for now... find where the time machine is."
Finally, Ryn knelt down by the pit he had just dug, his face pale.
"A time machine doesn't exist, you know!" The foreman laughed as he pulled Ryn up, patted his shoulder, and pointed to Kiana in the distance. "Tell that silly girl to stop. Now that you know the truth, there's no need to continue."
"Oh... okay... thank you..."
Ryn ran over and stopped Kiana, telling her that they didn't need to work anymore, the wages had already been paid. Kiana clapped her hands happily and shouted, "Yay!"
Afterward, Ryn and Kiana bowed to the foreman together and said thank you several times.
The foreman hastily pulled Kiana up. He didn't dare to accept a bow from the young matriarch. Although nothing was set in stone yet, since the Old Matriarch had acknowledged her, they naturally did too. (Siegfried was originally the young patriarch, but he fled the Kaslana family. During his time away, he met Cecilia, then returned to the family and, after a year, married Cecilia through an alliance with the Schariac family in the name of the youngest and strongest warrior of the Kaslanas.)
Later, the foreman invited Kiana and the others to dinner. Ryn initially wanted to refuse, not only because the foreman had given them money, but also because Kiana ate too much. It felt unfair to the kind foreman who had shown them such generosity. If she ate too much, it would cost the foreman a lot; if she ate too little, Kiana wouldn't be full.
But the foreman was clearly insistent. He took Ryn and Kiana by the hand and walked towards the restaurant. To Ryn and Kiana's surprise, the foreman's appetite was also huge!
The meal lasted from the afternoon until the evening. The foreman, on the principle of helping people all the way, also got a room for the two of them in a hotel, chatted with them for a while, and then left.