The fact that someone had managed to sneak up behind them without even alerting them caused them to be stunned.

Especially Kaspar, he felt his blood turn cold when he heard that terrifying voice sounding from behind them. That voice… it was filled with hostility and malice. And it seemed that it did not care whether there were mortals and children among the trespassers.

If a proper explanation wasn't given to the spirit of the Soaring River Secret Plane, then all of them would perish here!

The entourage slowly raised their hands in surrender and turned around. Rowan and his family were the first to collapse to the ground after witnessing the monstrosity standing behind them.

Daryl and Ada paled in fright when their gaze landed on the secret plane's spirit. Kaspar had an extremely grim look on his face. Only Anna seemed unfazed… or at least, she pretended to be. Because, unlike the others, she knew what to do.

Still, she couldn't help but be startled by the appearance of the spirit.

The Joker stood before them in the guise of a court jester. His outfit was a patchwork of mismatched ostentatious colors like red, purple, and gold, dangling with tiny bells that jingled faintly with every movement.

His face was painted white, with exaggerated black lines curling into a grin that was wider than it should be. One eye was ringed in red, the other in blue, giving him an unsettling, lopsided look.

The spirit's presence was playful on the surface, but the air around him felt sharp… like a knife hidden behind a friendly smile.

The most ominous thing about him, however, was that he did not radiate any sort of mana fluctuation. Yet the sense of danger radiating from him was something that even Kaspar, a Mana Vortex Magus, could not contend with.

"How curious," said the Joker, his voice cold yet laced with slight amusement. "This plane isn't meant to open for another decade. Tell me, how did you slip inside?"

"My Lord, if I may." Anna took a step forward, her face calm and composed.

Seeing her unfazed expression, the Joker's eyes narrowed. He couldn't help but murmur, his lips curling into a wide, unsettling grin:

"Human, do you value your life so little?"

"On the contrary," Anna said with a flat look on her face. She flicked her hand, and the next moment, an ivory card appeared, one etched with the image of a joker.

"I've come to your domain precisely because I value my life," she added.

In the moment that the ivory card appeared in Anna's hand, Joker's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up comically, leaving his face.

Under the dumbfounded stares of Anna and her entourage, the Joker's eyebrows slowly drifted back down like autumn leaves on a calm breeze, until finally they came to rest above his eyes once more.

"How did you come to acquire that key?" Asked the Joker, his tone filled with surprise. "I had given it to that pesky little runt…"

His voice gradually trailed off before an extremely shocked expression appeared on his clown-like face. He gasped dramatically, patting his chest in an exaggerated manner, then blurted out:

"Don't tell me… is the kid dead?!"

Needless to say, Anna and her entourage were beyond dumbfounded seeing the Joker switch from a cold, aloof presence to the exaggerated theatrics of a clown.

Anna couldn't stop the corner of her lips from twitching. She cleared her throat and said in an awkward manner, "No, he's not dead. Adam is… preoccupied with other matters at the moment."

"Preoccupied with other matters, is it?" The Joker stroked his chin in wonder. "Explain everything to me, including how you got your hands on my calling card."

Anna nodded, then recounted everything from her arrival in the Empire to her escape from it, and finally to their arrival inside the secret plane.

By the end of it all, the Joker had a ridiculous expression on his painted face. "So let me get this straight," he began. "Adam participated in a great battle, then he was framed as a traitor, and is now on the run? Is that correct?"

Anna nodded awkwardly. "Yes, that's… about right."

"I see, I see." The Joker nodded in acknowledgment. Then, he inhaled slowly and deeply, and a few moments later, he burst into a loud peal of laughter.

"Fafafafafa!!"

Needless to say… Anna and her entourage were once again dumbfounded. The Joker laughed for a long time, and it seemed he wouldn't be coming to a stop any time soon.

Rowan and his family got so scared of his unusual laughter that they couldn't help but hide behind the group of Magi, fearing for their lives.

At last, the Joker finally stopped. "Never a dull moment with that little gremlin," he muttered under his breath.

The next moment, his face turned cold as ice. He glanced at Anna and said in a tone filled with indifference:

"But that still doesn't explain why you've trespassed into my home. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't slaughter you all here and now, and turn your blood into wine, and flesh into skewered meat."

Hearing those words, everyone shuddered. They felt a primal fear well up in their hearts, and in that moment, they had this feeling that they were standing before a cruel predator of the wild. One wrong move, one simple mistake would cost them their life.

Of course, Anna was different. Adam had told her everything about the Joker—his personality, his quirks, his likes and dislikes. So she knew exactly how to handle the spirit without ending up with her blood turned to wine and flesh to skewered meat.

She knew that the Joker was a sadist and took great pleasure in the misfortunes of others. She also knew that he wouldn't care about the relationship she shared with Adam.

Technically, she and her entourage had indeed trespassed into his dominion, so the Joker had all the reasons to be angry at them. But she knew how to appeal to the eccentric spirit's nature.

With a calm and steady voice, she asked, "Sir Joker, aren't you bored?"

The Joker raised an eyebrow, his eyes flashing with slight amusement. "And so what if I am?"

Anna offered a faint smile, then spoke in a calm voice:

"The reason we've come to your domain is simple. We seek to train and grow stronger. Think about it, watching us toil endlessly, struggling against trials beyond our limits, working hard only to fail miserably, only to rise and fall again, and again, and again… Wouldn't that be far more entertaining for you than slaughtering every one of us outright?"

The Joker was taken aback by those words. He remained silent for a long time, intently looking at the crimson-haired princess. At last, his painted lips curled into a wide grin, and he said three simple words:

"...I like you."

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