Little Alpaca – Chapter 9

Volume 1: Little Alpaca

Good.

Hah, it’s just fifty favorability points, isn’t it?

Who cares?

How could anyone possibly care about that villain’s favorability score!

Yi Qiu wore a look of indifference, almost mechanically rubbing her back and hindquarters against a clean, smooth-edged rock by the spring, trying her best not to think about that bafflingly deducted favorability.

But often, what a person thinks about isn’t something they can easily control.

Yi Qiu discovered that she really did care, and she was holding a grudge over it.

Fifty favorability points, with a bit of luck, was just a matter of spitting once. But this illogical adding and subtracting was truly enough to make one’s temper flare!

The Demon Lord You Yan truly was a woman she couldn’t see through or figure out, even if she scratched her alpaca head raw.

The more Yi Qiu thought while she washed, the sadder she became. She lost track of time and ended up soaking in the icy spring water for a long while. By the time she came to her senses, her four slender legs had gone a bit soft from the soak.

She quickly hopped ashore and vigorously shook the water droplets from her body.

A cool breeze blew past, making her shiver involuntarily. She stomped her little feet and, dragging her sopping wet body, scampered back towards her room.

The bathing spot was remote, and the round trip took quite some time. By the time Yi Qiu returned, the sky outside had already darkened.

Yi Qiu bumped the ajar door open with her side. She saw that the previously filthy room had already been tidied up. In the food basin on the floor, which had originally held hay, there was now freshly cut fruit. The pieces were small, just the right size for an alpaca’s little mouth to eat.

You Yan must have ordered someone to come and clean up. Then, to prevent her from making a mess of the room again, she had simply had the servants cut the fruit and place it in the basin as well.

“But I’m really not that much of a brat. I won’t make the same mistake twice,” Yi Qiu couldn’t help but mutter under her breath.

She wanted to find a place to dry herself off but found that the fluffy sleeping mat that had been on the floor was gone. The bedding on the bed, however, looked a bit thicker than yesterday.

Yi Qiu thought about it seriously, then turned and walked to the tall wardrobe by the bed. Using her now much more flexible little hooves, she pulled it open, dragged out a thin quilt, and spread it on the floor, commencing today’s rolling session.

---

After Yi Qiu attained sapience, she could finally communicate normally with people.

Usually, if she needed anything, she just had to go out, find any demon servant, and call out, and her needs would quickly be met. As such, she no longer had to worry about food and drink.

If there was one thing that wasn’t good enough, it was the quality of the food.

Yi Qiu had originally thought the food in the Demon Imperial Palace would be pretty good, but she later learned that the people of the Demon Realm lived very casually. The adults mostly didn’t require servants to tend to their food and lodging.

The Demon Imperial Palace had no dedicated place for cooking like the imperial kitchens in a human palace, let alone any chefs. They simply didn’t exist.

Here, eating depended on fate. Any random demon servant could cook, and whether it tasted good or not was like opening a blind box¹. Furthermore, their skills were all limited, and the food was a far cry from the meals she’d had at You Yan’s place a few days prior.

But no matter how bad it was, it was still better than eating hay.

Yi Qiu had never been a picky eater, so she didn’t pay it much mind.

Speaking of which, the days of being an obedient alpaca without a phone or computer, while boring, were also quite leisurely.

Every day she ate and then slept, slept and then ate. When she had nothing to do, she’d go for a soak in the clear spring or take a nap in the sun. She didn’t have to worry about her figure, nor did she need to consider her income and expenses, and no one would come to bother her. It was truly a life that most people could only envy.

But Yi Qiu always felt like something was missing.

Thinking about it carefully, it seemed to be because You Yan hadn’t appeared at all these past few days.

Previously, You Yan had asked Yi Qiu if she wanted to go see the Human Realm. At the time, Yi Qiu had been forced to nod under the threat of an IQ reduction. Now, several days had passed in a flash, and You Yan had never come to find her again.

Logically speaking, if it weren’t for the fact that she couldn’t travel alone and had to be tied to You Yan to follow the main plot, she would be more than happy not to see that moody great villain who had bullied her for three days straight.

But strangely, not seeing her for a few days should have been a good thing, yet she couldn’t help but proactively think about it. She just wanted to know where on earth she had offended You Yan, and why You Yan had suddenly started ignoring her.

She swore she didn’t have a shred of good feeling for this villain.

The only reason she cared so much was that she was afraid this great villain would go off to follow the main plot alone without a word.

She had to go on this main plot quest! If she was really left behind here by You Yan, she was afraid she’d never be able to return to her original world.

At this thought, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but grow tense.

In an instant, the once incomparably idle little alpaca suddenly couldn’t lie still anymore.

She hurriedly jumped down from the incredibly soft bed, rushed out the door in a panic, and randomly grabbed a passing demon servant to ask if the Demon Lord had gone out recently. After getting a negative answer, she breathed a small sigh of relief.

Whether or not to proactively seek out You Yan was a very profound question for Yi Qiu.

From the perspective of the main quest, there was no way she could get around You Yan, at least not before she met the protagonist.

But from a personal perspective, You Yan already enjoyed bullying her, and now she was angry for some unknown reason. If she went to her now of her own accord, she probably wouldn’t get any good fruit to eat².

The little alpaca leaned against her door, her gaze wandering, her mood complicated.

After long deliberation, she decided to go find You Yan after all.

Although she didn’t know what she had done wrong, if she took the initiative to admit her mistake and had a good attitude, she should be able to get a lighter punishment, right?

Thinking this, Yi Qiu took a deep breath to steel herself and, following the path from her memory, trotted with heavy steps toward the “fate” she could not escape.

You Yan’s bedchamber was as cold and deserted as ever.

Over the past few days, Yi Qiu had heard people say that the Lord Demon Lord hated having her peace disturbed more than anything in her life. No one was allowed to come within several hundred meters of her bedchamber.

Who would have thought? The great villain who used to come and bully her for no reason, and even engaged in fishing law enforcement³, actually had the “reclusive” tag in her character profile.

This was something that hadn’t been described in the novel.

But Yi Qiu didn’t want to spend time studying a fictional character’s profile. She just wanted to get to the main plot quickly, do quests, get attributes, turn back into a human, and then work hard to change that infuriating ending and return to her own world early.

Because of this, Yi Qiu stood before the main door of You Yan’s bedchamber and earnestly gave herself a pep talk.

Can’t avoid it, can’t escape it, so face it sooner!

Even if I really die, it’s better than living out my days as an alpaca, eking out a miserable existence in this strange world, right?

Besides, an early death means an early reincarnation; there’s hope in the next life. If a person doesn’t strive, what’s the difference between them and a salted fish?⁴

Unexpectedly, just as she was halfway through this pep talk, a grating sound of something sharp scraping against some unknown object came from within the hall. Its suddenness directly scared the little alpaca so much that she fell on her butt.

That sound… could it be the Lord Demon Lord playing with someone’s skull with her fingertips?

A bizarre image suddenly formed in Yi Qiu’s mind.

A beauty in a long, dark robe, holding a blood-stained, beast-shaped skull in one hand. Her fingertips scraped lightly across the bone’s surface, the eerie green spiritual light reflecting on her face. The scene was bizarre and demonic, beautiful to the point of sending a chill down one’s spine.

Just as Yi Qiu’s imagination was running wild, the door was suddenly swept open by a wave of spiritual energy.

The little alpaca couldn’t help but tremble all over.

“How long do you plan to stand outside?” You Yan’s voice drifted out from within the room. “If you have something to say, come in and say it.”

Her tone was faint, not seeming as gloomy and terrifying as Yi Qiu had imagined.

Yi Qiu quickly threw her wild thoughts to the back of her mind, took three deep breaths in a row, and tremblingly poked her head through the doorway.

You Yan scraped her fingertip lightly against the tabletop, and that grating sound rang out once more.

Yi Qiu instinctively shrank her neck, a movement that did not escape You Yan’s eyes.

You Yan smiled. “It seems you can’t quite appreciate this kind of sound.”

“I can appreciate it! It sounds nice!” Yi Qiu spouted nonsense with her eyes wide open.

The little alpaca’s voice was not the same as the real Yi Qiu’s. Perhaps because she was young, she sounded cute and child-like when she spoke.

“The last fellow who lied to my face is already…” You Yan’s words trailed off here. She simply arched an eyebrow and looked at the little alpaca.

The corner of Yi Qiu’s eye twitched slightly, and she quickly changed her tune. “Actually, it’s… a little grating.”

After saying this, she lowered her little head apprehensively.

“There are no pleasant sounds in the Demon Realm. The chirping of insects and the calls of birds, those all belong to the Human Realm.” You Yan stood up and walked to Yi Qiu’s side. Her gaze rested on Yi Qiu for a moment, then slowly moved elsewhere. Finally, she leaned against the door and said in a deep voice, “A long time ago, I asked the Yao God for a Yao musician. His melodies were played quite well and did add a lot of life to this quiet and lonely place.”

At this point, You Yan fell silent.

Yi Qiu kept her head buried and didn’t dare to speak.

After a few seconds of silence, You Yan gently nudged the little alpaca with her ankle and asked softly, “Why don’t you ask me, what happened next?”

Unbelievable. This villain even needs someone to play along when she tells a story.

Yi Qiu sniffled, put on an innocent expression, and looked up to ask, “What happened next?”

You Yan stared at the little alpaca by her feet for a long time before saying coldly, “I found him noisy, so I killed him offhandedly.”

Yi Qiu: …

This is a threat. She’s telling me—you shouldn’t have come here on your own and disturbed my peace.

For a moment, Yi Qiu’s heart was filled with both fear and a sense of being wronged. For some reason, tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes.

Yi Qiu: “Master, I was wrong…”

You Yan: “Where were you wrong?”

“I’ll leave right now!” Yi Qiu shuffled two steps toward the door, her four legs trembling. “From now on, without your summons, I will absolutely not come to disturb you!”

She was thoroughly terrified. She had only run a few meters with her limbs all out of sync when she saw a spirit wall⁵ materialize across her escape path.

You Yan: “Did I permit you to leave?”

You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not allowed to come, and I’m not allowed to leave?

“I just… I just missed Master…” The little alpaca’s voice was trembling violently. “S-so, hic~ so I couldn’t… couldn’t help but come and see…”

“Name.”

“I… I… I was really wrong!” The little alpaca was sobbing too hard to stop.

“Answer my question.”

“Huh?” Yi Qiu forcefully swallowed a sob back down into her stomach. After half a second of stunned silence, she finally realized she seemed to have missed something.

It seemed You Yan had just asked for her name.

“I… my name is Yi Qiu…”

You Yan pondered for a moment, then said, “Good.”

With that, she reached out and ruffled Yi Qiu’s head, then turned and walked back into the room.

【You Yan Favorability +100】

Yi Qiu: ??????

What’s going on? Did I see that right? So the favorability cap on this map isn’t two-fifty after all?

---

---