Chapter 703: The Cliff of Fate
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 703: The Cliff of Fate
"A beauty?"
"A beauty? What beauty?"
Nian noticed Ariel’s gaze and glanced at Feifei, who was standing nearby. Her expression turned a bit strange, as if she had thought of something odd. "Is there a beauty in that carriage?"
Ariel didn't answer her. Instead, she turned around and surreptitiously reached into her clothes, pulling out a transmission stone.
Her ring was currently being concealed by her teacher’s soul power, which was why the demons hadn't confiscated it. She had intended to save it for a critical moment... and right now, this was that moment.
Ariel quickly keyed in the frequency she had memorized. Sure enough, the transmission stone soon emitted a soft beep. This meant that with just one more press, the connection would be established.
The Abyss was blanketed by a massive magnetic field that rendered most communication methods useless, or at the very least, severely limited their range.
The fact that she could establish a brief connection meant only one thing... the person on the other end of the transmission stone had to be extremely close to her!
"I didn't see wrong. That beauty... no, Miss Muse is definitely there... She’s in that carriage."
Looking up again at the carriage receding into the distance, Ariel didn't know whether to be shocked or overjoyed.
She was shocked that the beauty would appear in a place as dangerous as the Abyss, yet overjoyed by this sudden reunion after such a long time apart.
"To think we would meet again under these circumstances."
Ariel instinctively pressed a hand to her chest.
Her chest was far too "bountiful" for her to feel her heartbeat through her touch at the moment, but she still knew how unsettled her heart was.
How many times had they met now?
From that night of chaos at the Academy on the freezing rooftop, to the glitz and glamour of the aristocratic stage, and now to this death-defying, peril-filled demon stronghold... it seemed every encounter with her was so bizarre... and so mystical.
So mystical it felt surreal.
She was like a cloud in the blue sky, occasionally looking back for a moment with soft sunlight in her eyes, but the moment you reached out to touch her, she had already drifted to some distant horizon.
Yet no matter how far she flew, leaving you to look up and search in vain, she would suddenly reappear in some unexpected corner.
Teasing, taunting, tugging... at your heartstrings.
How mysterious... and how intriguing.
"If once or twice is a coincidence... then a meeting in a place like this..."
Ariel couldn't help but lose herself in the sentiment, whispering to herself:
"It must be fate."
*
"Dammit, something feels wrong."
At this very moment, Muen felt as though he were standing on the cliff of fate. One step forward would lead to an irreversible dead end.
But this wasn't a "dead end" in the sense of losing his life; it was a dead end of a different sort...
Two days ago, he had received vital intelligence from the Imperial military scouts stationed near the demon tribes—the demons were conducting a massive roundup of female adventurers.
Realizing this was a golden opportunity, Muen had resolutely chosen to sacrifice his "lesser self" for the "greater good." To infiltrate Gutons Fortress and uncover the demons' objective, he had tearfully swallowed the magic potion Senior Sister Anna had left with him.
Don't ask why Senior Sister Anna would secretly leave such a potion with him; it was best not to try and guess the thoughts of that little devil.
Under these circumstances, a potion personally brewed by a Sword Bearer of the Silence Bureau was indeed incredibly effective. Not a single demon could see through his current disguise, and he had successfully and easily blended into the ranks of the demon captives.
However, this supposedly smooth plan had suddenly hit a snag—a small, slight, seemingly insignificant... yet utterly mocking twist of fate.
And that was...
"What are you looking at?"
Opposite Muen, a slovenly fellow who was currently picking at his feet took offense at Muen’s staring. He glared back fiercely while finally pulling down his trouser leg.
But even so, it couldn't hide "her" lush, thick leg hair.
"No... I meant no offense."
Muen squeezed out an elegant yet polite smile.
Perhaps because the appearance granted by the potion was too exquisite, the entire carriage seemed to brighten slightly at that smile. The foot-picking fellow finally seemed to realize his own rudeness and straightened his back with a bit more decorum.
"Ahem, so, do you have a problem, beautiful lady?"
"A problem... well, I have a whole basket of problems right now, but let's start with the most obvious one."
Muen looked the person up and down. This individual was wearing a floral dress and had their hair in twin braids, but neither the beard nor the leg hair had been dealt with at all.
"I recall... the demons are only supposed to be capturing women, right?"
"Yes, only women."
"The demons aren't blind, are they?"
"No, those demons have very sharp senses. Many adventurers who tried to dress as women to save their lives were ruthlessly exposed."
"In other words, if you aren't a woman, it's absolutely impossible to be here, right?"
"Correct. If you weren't a woman, you'd have been hacked into a pile of mincemeat by the brutal demons by now."
"In that case..."
Muen said in disbelief, "How on earth are you here?"
Are you kidding me? You expect to fool the demons with such a pathetic disguise? Did some gay demon take a liking to this guy and give him a secret pass?
"Huh? Why shouldn't I be here?"
"She" tossed her braids, looking astonished. "Am I not a woman?"
"Nonsense. Looking like that, of course you aren't—wait, huh?"
Muen suddenly froze.
There were no demons in the carriage, and Muen desperately wanted to expose this disgusting fellow, but as the words reached his lips, he found it difficult to speak the so-called truth.
Or rather, was that actually the truth?
Wait.
Is she not a woman?
She is a woman, isn't she?
So what if she has a beard, a bit of an Adam's apple, and slightly long leg hair?
Does that stop her from being a genuine woman?
Muen’s eyes widened.
Though his logic and experience were screaming in denial, his current cognition was telling him, without a shadow of a doubt...
The person in front of him was a woman.
A goddamn... goddamn... goddamn woman.
"See? No matter who it is, they'll see me as a woman."
The scruffy, bearded woman toyed with an inconspicuous pink pendant on her chest, flashing a weathered, roguish smile that looked exactly like a middle-aged man's.
"Don't go assuming other people's genders so casually, missy."
"..."
Muen felt as if his brain had been struck by a hammer. He instinctively leaned back, barely managing to withstand the mental shock.
"Fine, I accept that you are an excellent and authentic woman, but..."
Muen silently turned his head. "What about this one? Is this one also an 'excellent woman'?"
On the other side, a massive shadow loomed over nearly half the carriage.
"She" was sitting there "demurely." Due to her size, her upper body had to be awkwardly hunched over.
But because of that, her steel-like pectoral muscles, well-defined six-pack, and biceps that looked like they were carved from rock... all radiated an even more powerful, masculine aura.
Nearly half of "her" body appeared to be made of metal, with the luster of mana flowing over those cold surfaces. That thick metal arm looked capable of tearing a brutal demon apart like a chicken.
And right now, that blood-stained metal arm was mimicking the slovenly woman, carefully trying to braid its own hair.
"My brain is telling me that this one doesn't exactly look like a delicate maiden," Muen said, his cheek twitching.
"Sigh, sister, why are you so obsessed with appearances?"
The slovenly woman sighed with disappointment. "You have to understand that a woman's value isn't determined by a beautiful but cookie-cutter shell, but by her noble inner self and soul!"
"So, his soul is female?" Muen’s eyes widened again.
"Well, not exactly."
The slovenly woman leaned in close and whispered, "But his 'insides' are currently female. After all, he has a semi-alchemical body now. Certain parts can be swapped out and modified. If you don't believe me, you can flip up his skirt and check. It's a new technology developed by the Stone Cauldron Association. It's a good thing the demons don't know much about this, don't you think?"
"..."
Muen fell into a state of shock and profound existential crisis.
Originally, he thought his use of a magic potion to infiltrate was a pretty impressive move. Now he realized that if he just lowered his bottom line a little further, his method wouldn't even be considered unusual.
At least compared to these two, he didn't even measure up to a single leg hair.
"Hey, we've been chatting for so long and haven't even introduced ourselves."
The slovenly woman sat down familiarly next to Muen.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Maven. Maven Paul."
"Mar... vin?"
"No, it's the feminine spelling and pronunciation. The sound is slightly different."
After helpfully correcting Muen’s mistake, the slovenly woman pointed at the burly woman. "This one is called Leita. Also the feminine spelling. But this guy is a man of few words; it doesn't matter if you get the name wrong."
"I... I see. Good names. They're all good names. So good they feel strangely familiar."
Muen nodded, tears pricking his eyes.
Do you know why he felt he had been pushed to the cliff of fate?
Because even though he was in the Abyss, even though he was being taken to the demon stronghold as a captive... the number of "acquaintances" in this carriage was just a little bit too high.