Michael Stonereiz wasn’t sure, but he thought he was in love. His heart was racing, his lips were dry, and his palms were suddenly wet and clammy. His eyes were burning since he hadn’t blinked in a couple of minutes, afraid that what he was seeing was nothing more than a dream. Only when he registered the name Professor Mendez mentioned did he actually snap out of his daze.

“Lilibeth Lawson?” he muttered.

The burning dryness in his eyes finally receded when he blinked, but he couldn’t help but stare again. The Lilibeth Lawson that his teammate, Evan Andrews, described looked far different than the vision in front of him. He was sure Evan said that the girl had a light tan, but the woman here had milky white skin. Her body was much more toned than he expected, too, and he couldn’t help but drool over the exposed skin. His hand smacked his mouth, and there was literal drool. Eff.

A glance at the others mollified him since everyone else was doing the same thing. Professor Mendez was gazing around owlishly, then clapped her hands loudly.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

He noticed that Lilibeth’s pose, with her right foot on tiptoe, and her left hand extended away from her hip, looked tiring. She couldn’t keep that up for an hour! He moved close to take a picture, but it seemed everyone else had the same idea. His classmates crowded the front, and Michael looked worriedly at the nearly naked model.

Her expression was icy and imperious, as though she was a queen, nay, an empress, looking down at her subjects. No, a goddess at those worshipping her. It didn’t help that the others, probably including him, had fervent gazes on her exposed body. As the others took their reference photos, he kept his gaze on her gorgeous face. How could someone of this beauty pass unnoticed in school? Did she wear heavy-rimmed glasses or something? Did she hide underneath baggy clothes? He couldn’t figure it out. Ah, she wasn’t wearing any obvious makeup, either.

When he finally had the opportunity to come up and take his reference photo, he nodded and murmured, “Miss Lawson.”

On her platform, he could just about look her straight in the eye, and up close, those pale blue irises were all the more enticing. They held a depth that he couldn’t help but drown in…

Professor Mendez nudged him. “Get going, Mr. Stonereiz.”

“Ah, apologies.”

He snapped the picture on his smartphone, then turned it around to show the model. Lilibeth didn’t make any movements, not even her eyes, and if not for the rise and fall of her breath, he would have thought she was a sculpture made by the ancient masters.

He took her nonreaction as permission and he made his way to his place. He placed his phone next to his easel, took several deep breaths to centre himself and began sketching. He dared not look directly at her lest he find himself once again, mesmerised.

Half an hour later, he had a good pencil sketch. He dared look at her and blinked when he realised that she had not moved. He compared the photo with the real thing and could see any difference. The light from the windows that cast a different angle of shade was about it, but nothing else.

He stared at her face for a long while, and there, he found the difference. Her expression in the photo was icily imperious, but it had changed a little bit. Nothing overt that he could see, but the impression he got now was that she…was angry? Anger carefully hidden and thankfully not directed at him or towards any of his classmates. The others didn’t dare stare at her too long, but Michael could tell that they hadn’t caught her change in emotion. What was bothering the goddess? He must know, and if he could, he must offer his help.

There was little chance that he’d be able to talk to her after class, as no doubt all the others would clamour to make her acquaintance. Did he have the advantage? Or would being associated with Evan tar him with the same brush? Evan had been quite vociferous and he was no saint.

Then again, he was not either. He’d been with several women already, most of them casual nights of passion. But no more. There was only one goddess for him, and he would lick her feet if she allowed him to.

He could only wonder what pissed her off. If he could serve, he would…

__________

While Yuriko’s incarnation was busy posing for a group of students to paint, her true body descended the mountain on foot, but only for a couple of minutes. Impatience welled within and once she oriented herself in the right direction, she leapt off the cliffs.

While she still couldn’t anchor her Anima into the fabric of reality, being in Astoria reminded her of the previous way she flew. Simply by expanding her Anima and shaping them into wings, the air would carry her aloft. It had the detriment of being incredibly obvious, but she had little alternative considering she hadn’t learned any flight spells in Bresia. There had been little need after all.

Since she was quite high up, it was an easy matter to glide to where she left her motorbike. It was a matter of half an hour to fly towards the general area, but when she arrived at the tunnel entrance, and when she headed towards where she left her Kanegawa Bladedancer, she was greeted with an empty spot.

“Rotter,” she muttered. Of course someone stole it. She left it there for weeks and it wasn’t as if it had a strong defense system. She accessed her Autotab and checked if she could still track the bike, but alas, the program key had been decoupled from her account.

Even worse, she had no idea who stole it, and now she faced a long walk back to Dragon Fall City. She headed towards the tunnel entrance, but as she half expected, it had collapsed. Her escape from under the mountain had not been that easy either. The first couple of paces of stone had drained her reserves heavily, but once she broke the crystalline circuitry, she had been able to escape. Just that she might have given the Dragon corpse enough energy to field another army of antibodies. Oh well.

She let Fluffington out of her backpack and both of them started walking down the highway. The midday Sun was pleasant, but the winds were dry and dust caused the pupper to sneeze a couple times until he used his Anima to filter the smaller particles from his air.

Yuriko’s body had easily recovered from the sacrificed flesh to create the incarnation. All it had taken was for her to use her Elemental Form, and the Radiant reserves replaced the missing flesh. The process had actually purified her body further, though her Mien reasserted itself and returned her to her previous state. Some of her Intent and Will had gone to the incarnation, and those would take a bit longer to recover.

Beep beep beep!

Her Autowatch vibrated on her wrist as she received a call. Yuriko fetched her Autovisor, clipped it over her eyes and accepted.

“Gwen!” Yuriko smiled.

“Yuri! You’re back!” Gwendith’s face was all smiles.

“I am. I’m headed back to Dragon Fall, but someone stole my bike.” Yuriko pouted.

“Ouch. I’ll ask Saki to look for it.”

“I doubt she’d be able to find it in one piece,” Yuriko groused.

“I guess not. Buy another one?”

Yuriko raised both eyebrows to her hairline. “Do we not need to save ACs?”

“We would have, but, well, swarm fodder’s come out of the woods.”

“What happened?” Yuriko asked. “Beyond what you’ve told me in your messages.”

“Someone wanted to get you,” Gwendith grimaced, “and all of us were put under scrutiny.”

“What do they want with me?”

Gwendith rolled her eyes. “Your body, what else?” She smirked. “You might be more trouble than you’re worth.”

“Hey!”

“Ehehehe, I kid, of course. My little troublemaker’s too precious to give up.”

“That’s not much better.”

“Well, Saki killed the guy who ordered it.”

“Good.”

“Except there are more of them than we expected. It’s like we kicked up a nest of Femorants.”

“You don’t seem bothered?”

“Well, you remember the Conclave of Authority?”

“Yes.”

“Heron and I made contact. His was peaceful while mine, not so much.”

“Hmm, I met one too. Under the mountain. Ah, I’ve got some news to share.”

“Wait. Not over this line,” Gwendith said, “it’s not secure. And…uhm, you’re probably being tracked.”

“By whom?”

“Those traffickers and the people they paid off.”

“What about the Conclave?”

“They’re just as divided,” Gwendith muttered, “and their branch leader’s a pig.”

“Heron?”

“Cut ties after he found out what the slimy man wanted.”

“So they’re hostile, too,” Yuriko muttered. “Johann didn’t seem so questionable.”

“Johann?”

“The Conclave Ancient I met,” Yuriko said. “Where are you now? Wait, don’t bother, I’ll just follow your trail.”

“Well, the Conclave branch leader doesn’t have complete power over the city,” Gwendith explained. “They barely care about this place, according to Heron.”

“What happened to you?”

“We’re hiding. One of the Conclave rotters is after me,” Gwendith admitted, “but don’t worry, he’s barely my match.”

“Do you need my help?”

“No. At least, not yet. Well, if you can keep your handmaiden safe…”

“You intend to challenge and defeat him by yourself?”

“I will.”

“Alright.”

“Uhm, be careful. The guy Saki killed apparently was more well connected than we expected.”

“You have a bounty on your heads?”

“Yes.” Gwendith grinned. “But it’s about a tenth as much as yours.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You seduced his son.”

“Eh?”

“Yup. That’s what it said. Seduced his son and caused his death.”

“Ridiculous.”

“Indeed. Well, have fun, I guess. Ah, the bounty hunters have probably locked into your location so expect some fun?”

Yuriko rolled her eyes. “If they’re too weak, they won’t be fun to fight at all.”

“Hmm, I know. See you tonight?”

“Yes.”

“I look forward to it. Shall I ask Heron to come, too?”

“If you would.”

“Alright.”

Yuriko disconnected her call after Gwendith blew her a kiss. There was a visible dust cloud in front of her, the source, probably a couple of longstrides away and approaching quickly. Hmmm, well, that’s her ride, huh?

“Fluffers, come back.”

“Woof!” But the pupper just ran circles around her feet instead, and when the riders arrived and encircled her, he went into a crouch and started growling. The problem was that he was still in his tiny form and it was more cute than threatening.

“Hmmm, these people look more like a gang than bounty hunters,” Yuriko muttered. There were dozens of them on large, heavily modified motorcycles that absolutely destroyed the sleek aesthetics of the machines

“Oi, girlie! Your ass is worth fifty mil intact, but only 10 broken. Do us all a favour and surrender,” one of the men on the motorbike yelled at her. He was clad in leathers but his arms and chest was exposed. ‘Chronian gear arms, as well as part of his torso from what Yuriko could see. The rest were seemingly as close to the edge. All of them were openly carrying guns, and more than a few were pointing them at her.

Yuriko didn’t dignify the demand with an answer and looked at Fluffington whose tail was pointed back. His hackles were up and his Anima flared.

“Go get them.”

“Woof!”

“Huh?” the gang leader said stupidly as his last words. His torso was torn open as the Elemental Wolf pup went through it.

“What the—? Scourge?”

The gangers opened fire. Foolish as they would hit each other in the crossfire. Maybe they were inebriated? Yuriko pulled out one of her forged blades and lazily swiped the bullets that would hit her. Each slash was precise enough to cut the bullets in twain, with a cutting edge so fine that if she pressed the bullet halves back together, they would coldforge themselves back into a single piece. If she did it before they oxidised anyway.

It took about ten minutes for Fluffington to finish off the gangsters in his tiny form. And afterwards, Yuriko rode one of the better-looking motorbikes towards the city. It didn’t have the elegance of the Kanegawa Bladedancer, but it would do. For now.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep