After I left the tower, I didn’t waste any time resting and moved to my next target.

My destination, the temporary Royal Quarters, to enjoy the apology breakfast that was promised — well, promised was a rather liberal description of what had happened.

The more accurate definition was to say the one I extorted after not-Delia’s poorly thought-out revenge attempt, thinking that her amazing concealment would hide the truth behind her transformation — which, admittedly, was not a bad assumption. Even with all my advantages, I had barely managed to discover the truth behind her disguise and her fake skills, an achievement that relied on a lot of luck.

Though, her fake skills were the reason I let the System absorb a decent portion of the Divine Spark I had managed to steal from the headmistress, preparing myself for the experience I was about to receive. Of course, whether their fake skills would be high enough to trigger was a guess, but I was rather confident in the guess I was making.

I didn’t keep the rest of the Divine Spark in the storage either. I purified that through Tantric — a process that had gotten much faster now that I understood the principles behind it, absorbing the transformed Divine Spark, empowering myself. It was not very noticeable, eclipsed by the System, but I still liked the security of having a backup.

I walked slow enough that, when I arrived in front of the Royal Quarters, the job was already complete.

The guards opened the door before I even talked with them, bowing to me respectfully as I stepped inside silently, their bows exaggerated enough to make a clueless observer think that another member of the Royal family was visiting. Such a bow was certainly inappropriate to the point of counting as treason — but I doubted the princess would care much considering she was in the middle of a civil war, only lacking an official declaration.

Once again, a maid led me toward the familiar room, but this time, the maid was wearing a modified uniform, much more revealing than their usual outfit, creating an impressive view as her hips swayed with each step.

A small yet carefully thought little touch to put me in the mood, one that I had no problems enjoying even though I was constructing a spell simultaneously. Dealing with the great change in their attitude was fun, and the implication that they would comply with my demands rather than do something more aggressive was rather obvious.

Yet it was better safe than sorry, especially since it might easily be a trick from them to make me drop my alertness. Not to mention, with their mysterious abilities challenging my detection capabilities, the need was very clear. Especially if they had some offensive techniques to match their disguise.

Though, hopefully, they were lacking in that aspect.

The maid had led me to the same room I had enjoyed the experience of being hosted for my previous breakfast, yet, this time, it was decorated much differently. The large table was still in place, filled with an even greater number of delicious-smelling delicacies, but everything else was different. The elegant furniture was gone, replaced with huge satin pillows, thin silk curtains, soft smelling incenses, everything in tones of red and purple.

Yet, as the maid closed the door behind me, I turned my attention to the smell of the room, a soft, beautiful incense that sent stirrings inside me. A stirring that was suspiciously strong, but luckily, my healing abilities were up to the task of analyzing its nature.

It was an interesting concoction, I decided as I examined it. Despite its nature to manipulate the body, it didn’t trigger the innate resistance given by the Endurance. Understanding the reason for that didn’t take long, as rather than trying to infect the body directly, it was replicating an external pheromone, letting the body react naturally to give the response it would, only exaggeratedly.

It was a good technique, one that had interested implications to be used as a poison, which would have bypassed the biggest reason for their relative rarity — the natural resistance of Endurance. Unfortunately, I realized after I analyzed the concoction a few seconds more, using the accelerated thinking provided by my stats, that even the fastest impact would have been measured in weeks and months rather than hours and days…

Which meant it was more or less useless for me.

Then, someone stepped behind the curtains, her body swaying as she walked. Delia, or at least that was her identity visually, but I needed physical contact to make sure whether that was actually the case.

Luckily, with the way she dressed — and not dressed — a few subtle touches were certainly on the table.

She wore a beautiful silk dress, the skirt long enough to reach the floor, and the topside wasn’t exactly daintier.

[+500 Experience]

Yet, the sudden notification suggested two things, though only one was new information. The new information aspect was related to her power level. It told me that she once again chose a configuration with a higher level, with some interesting implications about her objectives. She clearly didn’t just want to earn my forgiveness, but leverage the opportunity for something more.

The truth behind that objective, only time would tell.

The second part of the information, one that wasn’t a surprise, was related to the supposed modesty of her beautiful silk dress. After all, it didn’t really matter how much skin the fabric covered, not when it lacked substance enough to reveal everything that lay underneath, not hiding the slightest.

Things that her dress failed to hide included the level of arousal she was feeling, both her wetness and the hardness of her nipples showing it excellently. It was excessive even under the circumstances, suggesting that she didn’t have a counter for the aphrodisiac she had set up for me.

How amusing, I thought even as I caught her gaze, enjoying her intense blush.

She might have been being supported by the System to an impressive degree thanks to her fake skills, but her blush clearly showed that it wasn’t enough to resist the combination of my charm and her trick.

Certainly not when she still had the amazing memories I had left her with the previous time.

“Welcome back to my modest room,” she said, her voice smooth and seductive enough to stir my heart — confirming that at least one of the skills she had chosen was related to her acting capabilities. Both her tone and attitude were too perfect to be natural.

Yet, her skills were not enough to hide the flicker of frustration as she looked at me, confirming her identity as not-Delia without needing to touch her — albeit an interesting way to identify her, suggesting that it was well past the time I discovered her identity.

How entertaining, I thought as I prepared myself for an entertaining struggle. Yet, as much as it would be fun to play with not-Delia, it wasn’t the only objective I had. I wanted to meet with another member of their little royal band of tricksters.

Dealing with the second one and comparing her capabilities with not-Delia would allow me to get a better understanding of the trick they were trying to pull under the circumstances. It would at least show me whether two could use their skill trick and disguise trick at the same time, a knowledge that would have a significant impact on my future strategies.

So, no matter how beautiful not-Delia looked in her Delia disguise, I turned toward the second figure that stepped from behind another thick curtain.

Outwardly, it was the same woman that had kicked me around the training room repeatedly, her body giving the same oppressive aura, her face contorted in frustration and anger, all enough to make me think that she was the same person.

The way she dressed was radically different than Delia, wearing scraps that were barely worthy of a slave. Two scraps of fabric, one wrapped around her waist, one around her chest, but neither piece was large enough to cover the area they were supposed to be covering — and that was before several strategic rips that further compromised its ability to hide her beautiful assets.

Of course, while they looked like scraps at the first glance, they were still made from very expensive magical silk.

Yet, the more impressive part of her outfit was not the fabrics, but the chain, connected to a collar on her neck, further increasing her impression of submissiveness, ready to be grabbed and dragged around, and the magic that was spreading from that item was strong enough to give some trouble to a high-leveled warrior.

And, she was certainly high-leveled, as the notification I received as I looked at her confirmed that conclusion.

[+500 Experience]

The notification was welcome and threatening at the same time. If it wasn’t for her smooth, seductive walk, suggesting at a considerable portion of her impressive level had been occupied by seduction abilities and Charisma, I would have been actually afraid, considering the possibility of an ambush.

Still, there was no harm in being cautious. Before I turned my gaze to catch her expression, I let a strand of my magic spread around the room, assessing the wards again, only to find nothing out of ordinary. The only thing that could be classified as out-of-ordinary was the several layers of isolation wards, making sure no one would be able to observe the room from outside. Yet, from inside, all it would take was a flex of my mana to successfully break it.

It seemed that there was no treachery waiting for me — at least, no direct one, as I certainly had many doubts about the mission they were trying to foist on me.

I smirked as I looked at the eyes of the warrior beauty, expecting to find frustration. Yet, even as I met her gaze, I found a familiar kind of frustration and arousal mixing. Too familiar.

It was the exact same impression the beauty next to her was wearing, implying that their secrets were even deeper than I expected.

[Level: 34 Experience: 592170 / 595000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6936 / 6936 Mana: 7826 / 8500 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [112/120]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [85/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania – Level 35/38]

[Cornelia – Level 22/26]

[Helga – Level 22/26]

[Marianne – Level 21/29]