Sofia tiptoed out of her shoes — a pair identical to Asuna's white soft boots — and stepped into the room with careful, almost apologetic movements.
She found her mother-in-law, younger and more beautiful than herself by any measure, seated before the vanity mirror, stifling a yawn as Ram and Li Yue worked through the dark cascade of her hair. There was a faint, lingering sulkiness in those eyes — like a young doe parched for rain in a dry wasteland.
Day two of Zhihua's seclusion. Missing her.
"Good morning."
The thousand-charm mother-in-law turned around, crossing her legs with unhurried grace. She regarded her daughter's lovely fiancée, voice slow and languid, tongue running lightly across her lips.
Those dewy eyes shimmered like a pool of spring water, sending ripples of devastating allure through the air — enough to make even the long-stilled, ice-cold heart in Sofia's chest itch with something she couldn't name. She lowered her head quickly.
"Good morning."
"Look how nervous you are. Afraid I'm going to eat you?"
Watching the tall, cool-eyed young constable fumble so completely at a loss, Li Fei hooked the corner of her mouth upward and gave the tip of her foot a lazy little swing.
"Have breakfast with me."
"Yes… of course…"
Sofia bit her lip. Under a subtle nudge from Eve's gaze, she suddenly reached into her spatial ring and produced a long rectangular gift box.
"This is a small token of my sincerity. I hope you'll like it."
Eve took the box and set it before her mother.
Li Fei propped her cheek on one hand with unhurried ease, then stretched out the other — pale, nimble fingertips catching the silk ribbon and tugging it loose. When the wooden case was lifted open, a single-handed sword of gleaming jade-green light met her eyes.
The blade was roughly two and a half feet long, clear and luminous as crystal — slender, light, deceptively delicate. The hilt and scabbard were traced with patterns like coiling green serpents.
By Blood Clan tradition, a sword was presented to the partner's family at the time of the engagement.
The custom surfaced in Li Fei's memory. She reached out and lifted the sword gently, and found it lighter than she had imagined — almost weightless — emitting a crystalline, ethereal chime as she moved it, as though some tiny spirit were dancing and singing within the blade.
[Blade of Joy]
Equipment Rating: Full Moon
Attributes: Sharpness Grade IV; Durability Grade III; Agility +50.
Enchantment Effect: Joy (Lv1)
Joy (Lv1): Increases movement speed and perception, and partially nullifies the effects of gravity.
Strong.
That was the first thought that surfaced after she read the description.
The Blade of Joy was a fairly well-known weapon crafted by elven smiths — inheriting all the hallmarks of elven-made equipment: exquisite, beautiful, suffused with an elegant artistic sensibility. It had long been treasured by Transcendents the world over, though production was scarce, and the Witch Coven's inventory had been down to this final piece.
Grade IV Sharpness, fifty points of Agility, and an enchantment effect that was nothing short of impressive — together they made a compelling argument for just how formidable a top-quality Full Moon-grade weapon could be. The Ogre Mage Staff didn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath.
Li Fei gave a small nod of genuine approval, and the look she directed at Sofia softened considerably.
Very good. Very filial.
Though compared to Akizuki Airi, still not quite filial enough.
She set the Blade of Joy back in its case and spoke in an even tone:
"This gift is far too valuable. Take it back."
"The Li household isn't one for stuffy formalities, and we certainly won't make things difficult for our own daughter-in-law over betrothal gifts. You and Eve care for each other — if you're happy and safe going forward, that's all I could ask for."
As she spoke, she took Eve's hand in hers, and noticed — she wasn't sure when it had appeared — a brilliantly glittering ring on Eve's slender middle finger.
"But — but…"
Sofia hesitated, her expression knotted with conflict.
Only after Eve gave her a quiet little kick did Sofia manage to stammer out: "This is… I wanted to give this to you myself. Please — you really must accept it."
"Oh? And why would you want to give me a gift?"
Li Fei's lips curved with genuine amusement as she studied Sofia's squirming, flustered discomfort.
"I — I… I feel like we understood each other the moment we met…"
Sofia stumbled over her words for a long moment, her head sinking lower and lower.
"The way you're talking," Li Fei said with a bright smile, "it almost sounds like you want to be friends with me?"
"Um… yes."
Sofia answered on pure dazed instinct.
"You adorable idiot."
Li Fei tapped her index finger against Sofia's forehead, turned around, and set the wooden case on her own table.
"Fine, I won't make this hard for you. If it's a friend's goodwill, then I'll accept it."
Mission accomplished.
With one smooth little maneuver, she had not only avoided the need to return any dowry — but in the unlikely event that Eve ever crashed and burned with this one, the wealthy, wonderfully gullible young constable was hardly going to come demanding her betrothal gifts back from a friend, now was she?
Having accepted the gift, the mother-in-law warmed up considerably. She took Sofia's hand and led her to the dining table, where they chatted about small everyday things over slices of unicorn-milk foam cake and soy-glazed fried eggs.
Breakfast done, Li Fei tossed the Nimbus 6S into Sofia's arms with a casual flick of her wrist.
"Take me to school."
"Oh — yes, of course…"
Sofia's face went red. With stiff, mechanical arms, she wrapped them around her mother-in-law's slender, springy waist. As the broom lifted into the air, that ink-dark hair — smooth as silk — streamed back in the wind, brushing against Sofia's nose, carrying with it a fragrance that went straight for the jugular.
The pale jade of that neck presented itself to the Blood Clan girl's eyes, and the gem-like depths of her garnet irises darkened another shade.
As was universally understood: necks — and especially the necks of beautiful women — held the same irresistible appeal for the Blood Clan as tentacles did for succubi, or as beautiful feet did for Margaret. It was a compulsion beyond all reason.
"Fly slower."
Li Fei gave Sofia's hand a light pat — and in the process, simply took hold of those cold, smooth Blood Clan fingers. She tilted her head back with a mock pout.
"In that much of a hurry to be rid of me?"
"If you don't want to fly me there, that's fine. Put me down. I'll walk."
"Ah — I'm sorry, I didn't mean — Mo…"
Sofia snapped out of her daze, stumbling over her words.
A warm index finger pressed lightly to her lips. Li Fei glanced back over her shoulder, tilted her chin up ever so slightly with effortless poise, and smiled:
"I'm still single, you know. Being called 'Mother' all the time is a little strange."
"When Eve isn't around… you can call me…"
The young mother-in-law dropped her voice to something slower, warmer — an ambiguous breath of heat and closeness pressing soft and sticky against Sofia's ear:
"Fei."
—
Don't drink and drive. Don't use your phone while crossing the street. These were lessons humanity had learned through rivers of blood and a great many tragedies.
Li Fei, currently horizontal on the floor of the Dean's office, had arrived at her own hard-won insight: never seduce the pilot of a high-speed airborne vehicle.
Apparently, the top courtesan's magnetism was not a whit less potent than a direct hit from a Confusion spell — and when the pilot of a flying broom took a Confusion spell to the face, the consequences were predictable.
In the final instant, Sofia had thrown herself over her mother-in-law to shield the vital points of her body. But a Sequence 9 little mage-girl breaking a leg in a traffic accident of this caliber was, all things considered, fairly unavoidable.
"All healed. Up you get."
The poised beauty with the grey braided hair draped over one shoulder gave her foster daughter's leg a light pat, eyes creasing with amusement.
"But it still feels like it hurts…"
Li Fei muttered, the memory of the bone-deep pain still fresh and vivid.
"Pain tolerance is a mandatory training subject, you know," Nicole said, lifting her red tea with perfect composure. "Students who can't maintain their concentration to cast a spell simply because of the pain from a crippling injury will not be receiving any graduation certificates."
"Speaking of which… there was a time I was pursuing a certain Witch — I had already removed her spine, and yet she still managed to escape."
The poised, refined grey-haired lady recalled this chilling anecdote with the air of someone reminiscing about a mildly disappointing holiday, and allowed a faint expression of regret to cross her face.
A cold sweat trickled down.
The slightly guilty young Witch kept her mouth firmly shut, grabbed her trousers, and began pulling them back on.
The office door was flung open. Melodia's voice came blazing through with its characteristic warmth:
"Good morn—"
The next instant, the ace teacher — golden hair in a high ponytail, black heeled boots clicking — took in the scene before her: the Special Enrollment student mid-trouser-pull with half a stretch of snow-white thigh still on display, and the Dean seated nearby, eyes curved in a benevolent smile.
As the saying goes: when the Dean smiles, life and death grow uncertain. Melodia's personal file already had its Professional Conduct column filled top to bottom with red X's — but Nicole, in a display of painstaking educational dedication, added one more to the top of that row. Under such inspiring motivation, Melodia would surely remember in future to knock before entering. How wonderful. How very wonderful indeed.
With the Dean's office radiating such a lively atmosphere, the black-haired Witch adopted an air of idle casualness and spoke:
"Nicole-mama — why do you dislike Witches so much?"
Nicole smiled and said nothing. A certain golden-haired senior teacher who never learned from experience obliged instead:
"Supposedly, a few Witches once ambushed Nicole out in the wilderness and tried to do something untoward to her — though they didn't succeed…"
My sisters really had that kind of nerve?
Shaking inwardly, Li Fei's expression remained perfectly serene as she picked up her red tea and smiled sweetly:
"Nicole-mama — I'd like to spend some of my credits."
—
"Travel permit."
The guard posted at the teleportation corridor was stone-faced and curt.
Only after a heavily built mercenary presented a gold-coin clearance token did the guard give a brief nod and wave him through.
"Next — oh."
The guard turned his head. His voice hitched for just a moment — and then he arranged his expression into something approximating a smile.
"Do you have a travel permit, miss? If not, the processing station is just over there."
"Will this do?"
Li Fei produced a photograph — herself posed alongside Bai Mengtian — and gave it a casual wave.
The guard snapped to attention with an audible crack, gaze fixed rigidly downward.
"Please proceed."
— Mengtian, your face finally came in handy!
The hand wearing the brand-new jade-green ring pressed lightly to her chest. Li Fei smiled the fond, proud smile of a mother hen, and stepped through the Path of Conquest.
The roar of ocean waves flooded her ears — followed by the brine of the sea and a faint metallic undertone of blood. Li Fei paused briefly before the teleportation gate on Turtle Island, a feeling of unreality washing over her — as though she were crossing back into another lifetime.
The ground beneath her feet was flat and solid, but utterly barren — not a blade of grass remained. Clearly the land had been torn apart in the ferocity of battle and then repaired afterward with magic.
In the brightness of the morning sun — sharp enough to sting the eyes — Li Fei could make out, not far away, the bare trunk of a single dead tree. Dense rows of gravestones stood beside that decaying giant, and Li Fei, having read certain publications, knew perfectly well what had once hung from those branches: the severed heads of Loxibrook's own citizens.
To the north of that field of gravestones, an ice mountain faced the dead tree from several hundred meters away. It was built from the skulls of the Sea Clan — at least several dozen meters tall — entombed within crystal-clear ice, the expressions frozen on their faces preserved forever: unrotting, undecaying, wide staring eyes turned toward the ocean, unable ever to return to the homeland that lay just within sight.
— Loxibrook's boundless grace brought prosperity and new life. The savages of Turtle Island, ungrateful and unruly, chose to foment chaos. The pioneers had no choice but to deliver a mild corrective lesson, as a warning to all others.
"Such a waste…"
Li Fei clicked her tongue with a soft sigh — mourning the enormous pile of experience points that had been lost — then swung one leg over her broom and kicked off the ground.
Thoom.
A sharp gust of wind swept her long hair back. Her mage robes snapped and billowed. The black-haired Witch hovered dozens of meters above the ground, eyes narrowed, tracking the terrain below while carefully regulating her mana output.
The Nimbus 6S was extraordinary in every sense — but it ran on the rider's own mana, and it burned through it quickly: anywhere from 0.1 to 1 point per second depending on speed. At full throttle, a Li Fei without her Ogre Mage Staff would be drained dry in minutes. Worth noting: the relationship between mana consumption and flight speed was not linear — even at minimum output, burning just 0.1 mana per second still maintained a third of the broom's top speed.
If she hadn't advanced to the Witch class — improving her mana affinity and aptitude in the process — Li Fei doubted she could have managed something as fundamental as fine-tuning her mana output at all.
Flying across open wilderness and flying through a city were two entirely different experiences. Out here, there were no obstacles leaping out at every turn, and no risk of Asuna materializing from nowhere to haul her off to the station. She could point herself at her destination and go full throttle without a care in the world — and it felt absolutely, breathtakingly free.
The wind screamed around her. Li Fei watched the blurred landscape streak away beneath her feet, and the shadow left by that morning's aerial mishap gradually thinned and dissolved. She poured more mana into the broom, pulling a streak across the open sky.
"Waaaaaa!"
In the end, Li Fei let out a full-throated whoop and jammed the throttle wide open.
Having a girlfriend who's brilliant at brewing potions means you never have to worry about burning through mana.
After several rounds of mana restoration, the black-haired Witch finally drew near her destination, eased off the speed, and circled in the air, pulling out a map to cross-reference carefully.
"This is it!"
She stashed the Nimbus 6S in a thicket of bushes, then turned to regard what Leona had gifted her, a smile spreading across her face.
Before her stretched a hidden forest, lush with exotic and rare flora — a riot of color in every direction. Even from dozens of meters away, a rich, intoxicating fragrance drifted toward her on the breeze. Countless fairies and a dazzling array of rare natural treasures flourished within.
This, too, was an unclaimed treasury — holding wealth enough to drive most low-Sequence Transcendents to a frenzy.
This was the Secret Garden.
During the recent upheaval, the overwhelming Sea Clan army had received no orders to exterminate the native creatures. But Transcendent beings were, by their very nature, creatures of blood and instinct.
The result: most of Viranean's native inhabitants had been slaughtered regardless, with barely one in ten surviving.
Fortunately, the most numerous of the island's denizens — the fish-slaves — were classified as non-combat units and posed little threat. And the Secret Garden's proximity to the island's center had spared it from the Sea Clan's purge.
Li Fei made her way toward it step by step. When she was still some ten meters from the entrance, several fairies came fluttering out.
They were lovely and vivacious, their eyes bright with life — and Li Fei couldn't help the quiet thought that rose within her.
The fairies at home… just can't compare to the wild ones.
"Would you like to come in as our guest?"
A blue-haired fairy beamed at her with a warm, radiant smile. "We have sweet flower nectar and clear spring water."
"That sounds wonderful."
Li Fei returned the smile, warm and charming. "If possible, I'd also like to trouble you to let your lord know I'm here."
"Don't worry — our Queen absolutely adores humans. Every human who comes in, she greets personally."
The eager blue-haired fairy had already looped her arm through Li Fei's, seemingly impatient to welcome her to a grand feast of fruit and nectar.
"Even better."
Surrounded by a cluster of fluttering fairies, Li Fei appeared to have entirely forgotten the fundamental nature of Transcendent creatures — wild ones especially — and stepped lightly into the Secret Garden.
Among the dappled shadows of swaying trees, one lovely little face after another emerged from dewy grass, babbling brooks, and the broad caps of brilliantly colored mushrooms. Gazes wild and unabashedly predatory fixed themselves on Li Fei and refused to move.
Abruptly, Li Fei's footsteps faltered. She tilted her head to one side.
"What's that?"
She raised a hand and pointed toward a figure — female in shape, but battered beyond recognition — and asked.
____
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