Earthsday morning and early afternoon was fairly mundane. Yuriko woke up early, ran Nessa around the neighbourhood while she practised her new Ennoia, then got ready to work at the Beans and Coffee Cafe. She did have to tell her boss that she could only work until four o’clock. The birthday party was at six in Winderfield, and she had to get into a cocktail dress that she found in her apartment.

It was a black and gold, off-shoulder affair that should have fallen just above her knees, but with her height now a match for her true incarnation, the dress fell to mid-thigh. She considered putting on a pair of black tights to match, then shrugged and just put on gladiator-style flats. She should have worn heels, but at her current height, it would emphasize that Lilibeth had grown taller by three inches in the span of two weeks.

She had to arrange a cab to bring her to Daublin Hotel from her apartment, but she refrained from scheduling another to return her home. She didn’t quite know what time the party would finish, or if Lilibeth’s sister, and probably family, had something else in mind.

A familiar hostility welled up from the depths of her integrated memories, and the images of a middle-aged couple, with several women, and a couple of men behind them, appeared in her head. Her, Lilibeth’s, parents, her father’s varied mistresses, and her mother’s numerous lovers. For all that, she and her elder siblings, Emma as the eldest, Walter, who was four years older than Lilibeth, and herself as the youngest. All three were full-blooded children of the pair, but there were also a plethora of half-siblings, though mostly by their father. There was one by her mother, but that halfbrother was five years older than Emma.

Lilibeth had not been invited to anyone’s birthday party, or any events really, after she left the household nearly two years ago. Why they did so now, she was unsure of. Was there something relevant about being twenty-five? The age of majority was eighteen, and she was unaware of anything legally significant about twenty-five.

She was inclined to research it a bit, but since she was in the middle of her job at the time, she could only do so discreetly. Unfortunately, she could only do so when she was manning the counter, which she only did for an hour. The rest of the time, her boss sent her out to drum up business or cajole her admirers into buying more coffee or pastries.

The funny thing was that she got more of a break that way, since the first time she did that, the two young men at the table insisted on buying her a cheesecake slice if she would sit down and chat with them for a few minutes. A look at the manager and a hastily whispered, “Ten minutes max,” saw her seated across from them while she daintily shaved thin slices of the dessert with her fork.

She only gave them her name and the fact that she was a student at Trinity University, and the rest of the time, the two young men, Jimmy and Eric, did their best to interest her with their boasting, ribald jokes, and thinly veiled flirtations. It was cute but they sort of fell below Yuriko’s threshold of attractiveness.

She was honest in her tastes, which were either cute or had a nice physique. Beyond that, she liked people who amused her and could challenge her in battle. Perhaps she would eventually like earnest men or women, but one of her baselines was physical beauty in one sense or another, as well as physical fitness. Perhaps it was a bit shallow, but she wasn’t really looking for more than that.

She also knew her feelings for her current lovers didn’t quite breach into traditional romantic love, but more on possessiveness. Well, she genuinely enjoyed their company, so there was that.

It also helped that they were physically beautiful in a way that people here in Astoria just couldn’t match up to. At least not those who weren’t blessed with some kind of Anima strengthening technique.

She also wasn’t sure how much her Mien affected her tastes. She distinctly recalled being mostly indifferent to infatuation and attraction her Mien was unlocked. Well, she couldn’t really do anything about it as she certainly wasn’t going to spend too much time fighting against herself that way…

Hmmm, or maybe she should? It would be a good way to train her Will and Intent. But then, she already had better ways to do it.

The new Ennoia, for example, gave her access to the new technique, Invisible Edge, that she used to great effect against the squigglies. Her true body had tested it yesterday, and was still doing so today, focused on major movements and power projection. Her incarnation body focused on finesse. The fork wasn’t actually what was cutting the cake, it was the Edge that was doing it, cast from her pinky finger’s slight twitch just before the fork pressed down.

It was impossible to use the Edge without a slight touch to the Ennoia. Channelling an Ennoia drained Will, though only to a miniscule point. A thousandth of a percent per second, and at those rates, Will recovered quickly enough that if she wasn’t paying attention, she wouldn’t have noticed the drain.

Exhausted Intent and Will recovered faster the less stressed it was. If she used up ten percent of her Will or Intent, it would recover in a minute. If she fully exhausted herself using it, it would take a week to recover to full. A fraction of a percent? A second or so.

The wider she opened the channel between the Ennoia and herself, the more she strained her Will. And for the Invisible Edge, a minor use was negligible.

The act of sending out and controlling the Invisible Edge took Intent. Compared to just shooting it out and controlling it after she released it, the cost was about half. An Invisible Edge that could fly to her utmost Anima reach that was about a couple of paces across, cost a full percent strain on her Intent. Two percent if she tried to control its flight path. If she wanted to keep it around longer than it took to reach the end of its range it would cost four percent. It was more expensive to use than her sunblades, but its advantage? It was in the name. Invisible.

Of course, she didn’t need an Edge that was two paces long most times. Not unless she was aiming to bisect someone, or if she fought a Behemoth or something equally large. Most times, an inch or so was more than enough to be lethal especially since it could cut through so much material. Comparatively, her sunblades would have to burn through things to get to what was behind them.

But the one thing that elated her so much with the technique? It allowed her to have a way to measure her progress regarding Intent and Will. A two-pace long Edge would cost the same objective amount of Intent. She could only perceive how much Intent and Will she had through a percentage. Finally, a way to measure her progress!

Well, she could have used her sunblades, too, but the cost varied depending on how many she had at the time and how long she kept them up, which made measuring more complicated than she really had the patience for.

When the ten minutes were up, she smiled at the two boys, thanked them for the meal, and allowed them to shake her hand. Well, Eric kissed her knuckles like a gentleman, blushing red all the while. Jimmy was too shy to do it.

The manager glaring at them from behind the counter prompted them to leave the cafe, and afterwards, Yuriko spent the next few hours getting fed pastry after pastry, while conversing with a bunch of customers.

“How did you even put all of that away?” a co-worker, Jenny, who had dark red hair bordering on brown, and pretty pale blue eyes close to Yuriko’s own shade, asked wonderingly.

“Sweets go to a different place,” Yuriko said dryly.

“No, it’s your metabolism. Or in other words,” Jenny said sourly, “you won the genetic lottery. How else could you eat that much and that’s still flat as a board?”

“Flat?” Yuriko pouted. “It’s not flat!” She pulled up her shirt slightly to show her belly button, then clenched. The soft and smooth appearance of her tummy morphed into well defined and chiseled abdominal muscles. When she relaxed, her tummy returned to softness. “See?” She giggled.

“I hate you,” Jenny said in a monotone. “Well, you’re ditching us early, aren’t you? Shoo!”

“Bye bye!” Yuriko giggled as she left the staff room. She timed out on the machine tracker and headed to her apartment.

She bathed, got dressed, then put on some jewellery. Just a silver bracelet and a pair of earrings. Lilibeth’s ears had been pierced and Yuriko found the practice strange. As it were, the holes for the earrings healed up when she merged. Thankfully, even though her incarnation was about Actualisation level in power, she was still in Transformation and with the aid of her Mien, could somewhat manipulate her body enough to open up the piercings again. The studs were gold and had a small pearl attached.

She chose not to spray on any of Lilibeth’s perfumes, mostly because the girl had kept several bottles with only a smidgen of liquid left inside as sentimental pieces. The bottles were fancy enough to look expensive so she left them in their boxes carefully tucked away inside a trunk, hidden underneath her bed.

Five-thirty on the dot the cab driver sent her a message that they were waiting outside the apartment. Yuriko hummed as she took her purse. It was not quite a good match for the dress but it was the only one fancy enough to fit. It was made of brown leather with golden studs and barely had enough space for her phone and a wallet for her Torries. She slipped her hand through the small handle loopies and pushed the thing towards her elbow.

The cab driver was waiting outside his car, and his eyes widened in wonder at her arrival. He courteously opened the rear passenger door for her, then hurried back to his seat as soon as he closed it behind her.

Five thirty was rush hour, so it took her more than an hour to reach Daublin Hotel. She had twenty minutes to spare before the official start of the event, but ten of those were spent with the car waiting in line to reach the reception lobby. She’d prepaid the ride, and she was tempted to alight just so she could walk up to the hotel’s doors, but she refrained herself as she watched the other guests enter.

Daublin Hotel rose majestically above. It was nearly twenty storeys tall and the exterior facade was charming blue-veined white marble. How much effort did it take to keep it clean? she wondered; she noticed a thin layer of grime across most of it when she extended her perception. The night, and the bright focus lights hid the stains since the veins shimmered and drew attention. She supposed it would be the same in sunlight.

Once she finally arrived next to the doors, she didn’t wait for the driver to open the door for her. Instead, she threw out a quick thanks and stepped out. Many of the other arrivals were dressed more fancily than she was, but she didn’t particularly care. Her graceful stride drew attention, and the sticky gazes lingered.

The Grand Ballroom was on the second floor, though it was a bit of a walk. She followed the crowd to the lobby, finding dozens of guests gathered in groups of two or three, sometimes holding a flute of wine or a plate of finger foods. She didn’t see anyone she recognised, or any of Lilibeth’s extended family.

The ballroom doors were closed, but it would only take a couple more minutes for the formal start. While she waited, she recalled what she found out from her quick research on the significance of the age.

Twenty-five was when one didn’t need parental consent and notice to marry.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep