Chapter 430: The Villain
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 430: The Villain
"How about this one?"
In front of the mirror in the tailor shop, Ariel spun around. The ink-black hem of her skirt, embroidered with gold thread, fluttered joyfully with her nimble movements like a lotus leaf caught in a breeze.
A bright-colored belt accentuated her waist, making it look slender enough to be held in a single hand. As she hopped in her deerskin boots, she radiated youthful vitality.
"It suits you perfectly, guest."
The mustachioed shopkeeper bowed low, his face full of sincere admiration. "I have a sun hat here that would make for a sublime pairing. Would you like to try it on?"
"Get lost, get lost. I wasn't asking you."
Looking at the green sun hat, Ariel curled her lip.
Although the color was indeed quite nice, for some reason, just looking at that hat gave her an inexplicable sense of displeasure. It was as if something important had left her forever.
How strange.
Did I lose some money?
But thinking back carefully, not only had she not lost any money recently, she had actually made quite a fortune. The days of being penniless were gone for good; she no longer had to eat black bread every day, and adding a chicken leg to every meal was now a trivial matter.
She didn't know where this feeling came from. Perhaps she was just a bit tired from the long journey.
"Is wearing a skirt a bit too informal? Should I change into a formal suit?"
Tossing that stray thought aside, Ariel continued to try on one garment after another with tireless enthusiasm.
After a month of hard fighting in the ruins, her wardrobe had become pitifully sparse. The dress she wore when she first emerged from the ruins was practically in tatters. If Count Eller hadn't "generously" provided her with a few sets of maid's clothes, she would have been too embarrassed to show her face in public.
And now that she was about to see Liya, she naturally wanted to dress herself up beautifully. She wanted to meet her in the best possible state so that, combined with the month-long separation, she could deliver a fatal blow to Liya’s heart under this brilliant sunlight!
Just imagine it: the sun is perfect, the sky is blue, and wind chimes tinkle under ancient eaves steeped in history.
Everything would be so wonderful.
And at that moment, on both sides of the street, the long-separated girls would stop and gaze at each other. The lady would be there, her eyes bright and spirited... With a set of fine clothes and a flower in her mouth, wouldn't her favorability rating skyrocket?
"Perhaps a men's formal suit would suit you better?"
Under Ariel's constant questioning, her teacher—who originally didn't want to bother with such trivialities—gave a helpless suggestion.
"A men's suit..."
Ariel's eyes lit up.
Of course!
Compared to the usual girls' clothing, a slightly neutral men's suit might be even more effective at inadvertently stirring a young girl's heart. Especially after not seeing each other for so long, a sudden change in style was more likely to create a powerful sense of contrast!
"That's the one!"
Ariel was a woman of action. She quickly picked out a form-fitting men's suit from the shop.
She wasn't particularly tall or broad-shouldered, so it was difficult for her to fill out clothes tailored specifically for men. Fortunately, she didn't have any "obstructive" physiological differences to worry about. Thus, when the buttons were fastened one by one, perfectly tracing the contours of her chest and abdomen, she actually looked quite the part.
Ariel looked at herself in the mirror with satisfaction. After tucking her long hair into a top hat, she looked exactly like a fair-faced, rosy-lipped little noble lord.
What "big sister" could possibly refuse such a cute young master?
"I'll take this one."
After paying, Ariel walked out of the shop with a happy spring in her step.
Tucking a rose into her breast pocket, Ariel gave a roguish smirk, her heart full of anticipation for the upcoming meeting.
*
After leaving the tailor shop, Ariel visited several more stores to pick out a gift for Liya.
Due to the special occasion, the foot traffic in the Holy City had increased significantly, and many shops were packed with people.
After much effort, Ariel finally selected a silver headpiece that looked like a princess's crown. She felt it would look beautiful on Liya's head.
She looked up at the sky and saw that it wasn't too late yet. Ariel stuffed her bags into her storage device and headed toward the center of the Holy City with satisfaction.
As she went deeper, the surrounding crowds gradually thinned out.
"Oh, right."
As she walked, Ariel suddenly clapped her hands. "I haven't even agreed on a meeting place with Liya yet. The Holy City is so big; won't it be a waste of time to just look blindly?"
But then she smiled nonchalantly. "Fortunately, we can communicate at any time now. Liya shouldn't be in such a hurry to hang up on my voice transmission stone this time."
Ariel took out the voice transmission stone, happily preparing to connect to that familiar frequency.
Her fingers rested on the crystalline stone. One by one, mana symbols were recorded into the stone as her slender fingers moved.
Everything was second nature, as she had dialed this frequency many times before.
Only one symbol remained before she could connect to Liya and communicate without hindrance.
But, just a moment before she was about to dial...
Her movements came to a dead stop.
It was incredibly abrupt.
She didn't look up; she only shifted her dark brown pupils slightly upward.
The setting sun seemed to turn cold and gloomy. The few figures around her were swaying in a disorganized fashion.
The smile on Ariel's lips slowly faded, replaced by a silent, cold ruthlessness in her eyes.
She was being followed.
Just now, a gaze had fixed on her from the shadows.
And she had felt this same gaze thirteen times since leaving the tailor shop.
It was definitely not an illusion.
"Teacher, can you pinpoint the location of the stalkers?" Ariel asked internally.
Sensing the sudden change in the situation, Ariel's lazy teacher also sharpened her focus, spreading out her powerful soul perception.
"Three on the left, five on the right, and one at the corner of the street's shadows ahead."
More than one person?
Ariel's pupils constricted slightly. "What about their strength?"
"I don't know. I don't dare use too much soul power in the Holy City, but I can feel that none of them are weak."
The teacher's voice carried a hint of gravity.
This was the Holy City. Under the sun's glow, it was the most exalted city of humanity.
While there were still shadows that ordinary people couldn't see, those shadows should never appear so brazenly in the light of day.
The newcomers were not simple.
"Any ideas who they are?"
"...No."
Ariel pondered for a moment and shook her head.
While she did have many enemies—even her own half-brother wanted her dead at any moment—most of her enemies were in Belland. The Holy City was not her usual stomping ground!
"Then was I targeted for some other reason?"
"Those things you got in the ruins?"
"Did you show them after entering the city?"
"No."
The confusion in Ariel's eyes deepened. "Maybe it's just an accident?"
"Whether it's an accident or not, I feel hostility."
Ariel's gaze sharpened, but her movements remained perfectly normal. The slight change in her expression from a moment ago was also seamlessly retracted.
She held the unactivated voice transmission stone to her ear and spoke happily:
"Hello? I'm here. Where are you now? Sanyang Street?"
"Oh, okay, okay. I'll come find you right away..."
Ariel didn't stop walking. She wound through the streets, brushing past a few believers who had not yet returned home.
For some reason, the pedestrians on the road became fewer and fewer. Ariel's destination, the Emiel Cathedral in the center of the Holy City, suddenly seemed to become ethereal, its tall orange dome shimmering in the sunset.
It was as if the entire world was drifting away from her.
Ariel's expression turned grim. She suddenly turned and ducked into a quiet alley.
Then she accelerated abruptly, her figure turning into an afterimage as she darted through the labyrinthine alleys.
Under her teacher's guidance, she was gradually shaking off the stalkers.
But...
"Watch out!"
Ariel's forward-dashing figure suddenly jerked to a halt. Her thin body bent like a bow in mid-air, her feet planting against a side wall to shed her forward momentum with a bizarre maneuver.
Her face was pale. In the shadows not far away, a silver-white arc of light waited silently.
It was a longsword, incomparably sharp. If she hadn't stopped in time, she would have run right into it and been decapitated.
These people in the dark actually dare to strike?
Ariel frowned. She felt that these ignorant rats were simply insane. This was the Holy City; to dare to strike here was simply...
"Heh... the heir of the Bugard family is certainly living a leisurely life..."
Along with the mocking words, a figure hiding in the darkness actually stepped out. Accompanied by the sound of metal scraping, a suit of silver armor reflected the cold light of the distant sunset.
"You..."
Ariel's eyes widened in shock because the person in front of her...
Was the very knight who had stopped her at the city gate!
Why was he here? Was it because her "smuggling" into the city had been discovered?
Wait, am I the rat?
"Ah... it's you. Haha... what a coincidence."
For a moment, Ariel both felt a sense of relief and scratched her head awkwardly. "Since you know I'm a Bugard, you should know that before was just a misunderstanding. I was just in a hurry to get into the city; I didn't have any bad intentions."
"No... bad intentions?"
The knight sneered. "I haven't yet verified if you truly are the so-called heir to a Count, but you went to great lengths to sneak into the Holy City, colluded with villains, scouted major thoroughfares, and even changed your attire and appearance to disguise yourself as a man... After doing all that, you still dare to claim you have no bad intentions?"
"Eh?"
Ariel was stunned by his words.
But before she could react, she saw the knight ahead take a sudden step forward, the silver-white longsword in his hand slashing down without mercy.
"Enough talk! Villain, surrender now!"
"Huh?"
Ariel hurriedly dodged, her mind a complete muddle.
Villain?
Me?
What the hell?
She had just gone shopping, changed her clothes, and bought a gift. How did that make her sound like some heinous criminal?
Was sneaking into the Holy City really such a severe crime?
"Wait, have you guys gotten something wrong?"
"Your accomplice has already been executed. Do you still intend to resist?"
"Accomplice? What accomplice?"
During this time, she had either been in the ruins or on the way to the Holy City. She hadn't even been around another human being. Where would an accomplice come from?