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Whoosh.
The somewhat stiff lake-green fabric draped down her leg. Ariel lightly patted her skirt, smoothing out the wrinkles.
Her demeanor was incredibly elegant.
As if her clothes had simply caught some dust, and she casually brushed it away.
But the problem was.
Her skirt was inherently pleated.
It left Allen, who had just finished showing off, completely bewildered. He glanced at the dojo entrance, then looked at Ariel.
Instinctively, he began to use disjointed thoughts to mask his planned intentions:
Ariel really doesn't see me as an outsider, huh?
But the problem is, I've done everything there is to do before transmigrating. This holds almost no appeal for me... instead, it just makes things feel perverted and disenchanting, doesn't it?! Are you even sane? Any horny person in a chat group has a wider scope than you. Do you think exposing a bit of leg or flipping your skirt a few times will stir anyone's desire?
Even Rudy in the original could control himself perfectly. Why are you so crude...?
At this moment, Ariel's face, in his eyes, precisely showed a subtle look of 'satisfaction.'
Crude...?
No? Wait.
Damn it.
Looks like this...
It seems I was the one who felt parched.
Ariel, Ariel.
You'd best not ever have a chance to transmigrate back to my world.
You'd be excommunicated from humanity by some online groups.
Um... but in reality, everyone acts like they don't see it.
[Stop thinking about that, damn it. Why are you thinking such chaotic things every day? Can't you think about something important?! Your brain is truly making me sick.]
'Then don't look, can you?'
[...]
Allen eyed the system panel, which dissipated as quickly as it appeared, a faint smile curving his lips. He pulled his somewhat detached thoughts back on track.
He had calmed down.
Someone else, however, had not.
Ariel, as poised as ever, walked to Allen's side. She turned and looked at him, a strange glint in her eyes.
Some shame, yet some excitement.
Her opening words were quite explosive: "Allen said he didn't notice what color I was wearing today. Do you see it clearly now?"
Allen's face was numb. "Clearly. Lake green."
The rustle of her skirt.
"Stop. Black."
Ariel, as if she were simply tidying her clothes, casually tugged at the hem of her skirt, then clasped her hands in front of her again. Perhaps feeling it inappropriate to maintain such a masked demeanor in front of Allen, she then dropped her hands.
Her shoulders relaxed. Her hands were clasped behind her back, supporting her back against the tree trunk.
She looked up again, glancing sideways at Allen's hand, which was pinching his forehead, and at his sharply chiseled jawline.
"Allen, you look like you're not adapting well."
Allen had already turned to look at the dojo entrance. Hearing her words, he touched the sword hilt at his waist, and casually sent a hint of killing intent towards her, reinforcing his verbal threat: "You know this very well, don't you? So stop with these useless antics. Derrick Redbat always likes to babble idle chatter, but you're worse, you directly act on some eccentric ideas."
"One more time, and I'll chop off your leg, you..."
Before he could finish, the tree behind them suddenly twitched.
Then.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The tree was shaking.
Not violently, not too subtly, but in Allen's perception, it was overly clear.
His words froze. He gasped.
His face was impassive, very stiff, very frustrated, filled with mixed emotions as he looked sideways.
—He saw Ariel, head bowed, clutching the tree trunk behind her with her hands behind her back.
Her waist was slightly arched.
Her face looked very uncomfortable.
So, it wasn't the tree shaking.
It was her shaking, damn it.
"...So, was this also part of your calculations?"
"Roughly... I guess."
"Fine."
"You... you... don't like to watch?"
"Not at all."
"But I like for you to watch."
"...I understand your trick. I won't release any more killing intent towards you. Give up."
"Then that's a bit of a shame. It would have benefited those nobles who don't know you."
Allen glanced at the nobles who had just been restricted by his killing intent.
"...Don't force me to knock you unconscious with one strike in front of everyone, throw you into some basement, and starve you for three days and three nights."
"Can I do that?!"
"..."
Allen impassively rubbed his face. After Ariel's impressive move on the boat, slapping her leg, he was once again speechless by Ariel's bizarre behavior.
'Dueling' Ariel was a battle he truly couldn't win.
This was the second time.
He simply couldn't keep up with her twisted thought process.
And how did this bastard become so uninhibited in front of him? Although in the original story, Ariel always acted like a perfectly poised princess, only revealing her fetishes and malice secretly. Even in the original, she maintained her poise while publicly cursing cats and dogs with extremely crude language, not even moving her lips when she spoke.
Thinking this, Allen habitually, and incidentally, analyzed Ariel.
She loved to subtly reveal her true self while simultaneously being exposed to external view. This was a rebellious stance resulting from prolonged high-pressure oppression in the royal palace, coupled with a contradictory desire to show her true self but having to hide her thoughts and feelings. This led to a rebellious posture over time.
Sadism and exhibitionism were also based on the same principle...
Wait.
External view?
Allen looked up at the distant nobles, who were observing them from the corner of their eyes, and his lips twitched.
Isn't that just 'external'?!
Damn it, I've been seen as one of them by a pervert.
The problem is, do I look like a pervert?
"What Derrick Redbat said just now also piqued my curiosity, but unlike him, I don't believe you are a reckless person. You value strength more, and disdain power, and you must have your reasons. However, this contradicts your current situation in Asura, so, what exactly are you thinking, Allen?"
Allen glanced at Ariel's face.
She had completely recovered and was now displaying her usual princess-like demeanor for social interactions.
Her face was gentle, her voice kind, with a happy smile.
As if she wasn't the one who had just done something absurd.
She had become much more normal.
The 180-degree shift in her demeanor was also very much like the state one would be in during 'sage mode.'
Allen, seeing Ariel get down to business, also stifled his urge to complain. He looked up at the night sky. Remembering Ariel's earlier 'exposure' of herself, he decided not to beat around the bush.
He got straight to the point.
"I said I would kill James."
Ariel froze.
"Last night's threat to Duke Pilemon... were you serious?"
Allen raised his eyebrows. "What, do you think my encounter with Pilemon, and our conversation last night, was just empty talk?"
Ariel thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Logic tells me that's the case, but I recall the scenes after I met you. Your every action and thought clearly has an extremely strong purpose... to gather prestige and kill your nominal father..."
"So, is the position of family head so urgent, so important to you?"
"The position of family head is not important," Allen answered casually. "But James's death is very important to me."
Ariel was silent for a moment at his words, then said earnestly.
"But killing him isn't so easy."
Allen merely scoffed through his nose.
Ariel, seeing Allen like this, took a deep breath. Her words were fast, and even lacked logical rigor due to her urgency.
But precisely because of this, she seemed even more sincere.
It felt less like recruiting support for herself and more like an earnest piece of advice between friends.
"If you were to do such a thing within your territory, there might still be room for leniency, because the royal family only requires the family to be loyal to Asura. The King wouldn't care how your supposed successor died, or where the next successor's allegiance lies. As long as your grandfather, the Lord of Fittoa, Duke Saul, handles it properly, and gives a result."
"But." She changed tack.
"You are now alone in the royal capital. The nominal heir to the family headship is James, and he is your father. Duke Saul is thousands of miles away. You, with an attitude that offends nobles, gained prestige, and then leveraged that prestige to kill Boreas's nominal next family head."
"In this situation, without noble support and political connections, even if you kill him, the royal capital won't tolerate you, because there's no power to guarantee your 'justice'."
Allen's posture was casually relaxed. He didn't commit.
Ariel grew more anxious, her words accelerating.
"Your struggle for the succession, although it also involves much bloodshed and sordidness, why do the nobles merely watch from the sidelines? And all with an air of inevitability? Because at its core, the one who guarantees this matter is my father, His Majesty the King."
"Nobles also know that once the succession struggle is over, Asura will simply weed out factors that destabilize the power held by nobles, allowing them to more comfortably enjoy the advantages, prestige, and re-distribution of wealth that power brings."
"But you are different, Allen. While you haven't yet built a stable force, the brighter your blade, the closer your martial might pushes the royal capital's limits of tolerance, the more you disregard the rules, the less they will tolerate you. They would accept James killing you, but they would not accept you killing James."
"Because their own guards are no match for you. Everyone will fear that you, for power, will next aim your blade at their necks. If you can casually kill your completely 'harmless' father, how could they not be killed?"
"With such a rising clamor, even my father, His Majesty the King, who commands 'Dawn,' cannot simply let you off lightly."
Ariel's face was grim, whether due to the future Allen was about to face.
Or perhaps her own equally uncertain future.
"In that case... I fear that by then, only Duke Saul arriving in the royal capital in time could save you."
"Unless you kill and leave, but..." She paused.
"This is inconsistent with your actions in coming to the royal capital."
Allen raised an eyebrow, looking at Ariel's face with interest, and replied softly.
"You understand the situation better than I imagined. It's quite different from all the outward harmlessness and feigned innocence. Are you already like this at your age?"
Ariel didn't realize Allen was actually comparing her to her original Academy Arc persona. She merely offered a wry smile, her cerulean eyes even holding a hint of helplessness.
"I indeed lack skill in immediate calculations and long-term strategies, but that doesn't mean I am foolish. In the royal palace, disguise is a compulsory course. Before, I thought I truly had no chance of winning compared to my two brothers, which is why..."
"Then why did you plan for public support if you didn't harbor a hidden ambition? You're only outwardly harmless. The spark of ambition in your heart is buried. It seems your two brothers understand you better than you understand yourself, so they don't believe you are truly harmless."
Ariel froze, choked and somewhat speechless.
She looked at Allen, paused for a moment. The events of these past few days floated through her mind like dust.
Finally, she murmured as if in a dream.
"'Those who wield power unbefitting them, be destroyed.'"
"But, the prerequisite for destruction is holding power."
"Otherwise, one doesn't even have the qualification to be destroyed."
She glanced at the stone steps leading upwards beside the dojo.
"Destruction is an intentional accumulation of power, but now, a mere casual wave of the hand, a step, a footfall, is a crushing disaster for me."
"My efforts, perhaps, are meaningless."
Allen shook his head, looking at Ariel's pitiful expression, unable to discern how much was genuine and how much was feigned.
"Don't belittle yourself. You're more resilient than you imagine. Even if this pushes you to a dead end, you'll still find another way, take a different path to try and accumulate power again. Don't take a new approach."
"Isn't that right?"
As these words fell, the two were silent for a long time.
Ariel's voice sounded again.
"Don't take a new..."
"Approach..."
"Then what about you, Allen?"
"Insisting on killing James, where is your 'new approach'?"
Allen looked at Ariel with a smile.
"I don't know."
"But certainly not in the royal capital. This is just a transfer station, not my final destination."
Ariel was dazed for a long moment, then finally sighed.
"Looked at this way... do you still have to flee the royal capital? Perhaps you could consider taking things slowly..."
"Time does not wait for me."
Silence again, for a very long time.
"I came to find you because I wanted to ask if there's anything you need my help with? Given the current situation, besides Her Majesty Reida, perhaps my status can still be of some assistance."
Ariel paused, then chuckled self-deprecatingly, adding.
"This is not from a Princess's standpoint, but from a friend's perspective."
Allen chuckled softly, looking down at Ariel.
The sincerity in her eyes was clear.
But Allen had already shifted his gaze, no longer bothering to look into her eyes.
How much of Ariel's words above were genuine feelings, given the situation, and how much was a strategic attempt to manipulate emotions to achieve her goals?
Perhaps one part genuine, nine parts strategic.
Or perhaps nine parts genuine, one part strategic.
It no longer mattered.
Allen was already too lazy to slowly train this Second Princess of Asura.
Because...
The situation was set; the Great Teleportation plan needed to be completed.
Just then.
"Please make way!"
A clamor came from the dojo entrance.
Someone walked out.
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