Chapter 35.1

Chapter 35: Experimental Subject (3)

On a rugged mountain range, with fierce winds blowing in every direction…

In the pitch-black silence, from whence the sun had disappeared and the light from the two moons were hidden behind the clouds, an out-of-this-world ray of light seemed to awaken all things from their deep slumber.

*Pagjijikᅳ Kururureungᅳ*

It was a merciless storm of lightning bolts surging violently around the once-peaceful landscape, burning everything in it awake, and accompanied by roaring thunder, announcing that Jennifer de Kairos had finally reached this location.

Every time her purple hair bounced and her hands waved in the air, streaks of lightning materialised in an instant.

But, in contrast to the sparks all over her body like a lightning armour, her expression was anything but bright.

"What is the result?"

To the question of the first princess of the empire and the current commander of the 3rd Legion, the man standing next to her responded.

"That's... There isn't anyone there."

"·······"

"But, as expected of our majestic princess! Your valour when annihilating vicious lunatics with but a single blow, wielding such great command will be remembered throughout history—"

"Ah, what the hell, just shut up."

The man who had been speaking shut his mouth at her piercing gaze and shyly scratched the back of his head.

'Is he really one of the Empire's strongest transcendentalists?'

Jennifer lamented inwardly.

Karion, the 'frenzied mirror' of the Five Greats of the Empire, was placed under her command by her father to help her to subdue the cultists.

Compared to his crazy nickname and his splendid achievements, the man she had the misfortune to have been in the presence of for the past year was just too easy-going for her liking.

'This man is just too frivolous. Why is he so playful even at the age of 40? Even if he has this much skill, or even half of it, it would have been much better if he just had a serious personality.'

This man was also ruled out in her books.

Nevertheless, his strength was a very reliable tool on the battlefield, so Jennifer kept close to Karion while suppressing her feelings of disgust.

Ignoring the urge to electrify his mouth at every turn, she gazed down at the winding mountains from atop the mountain peak.

'I missed this one too.'

It had been a stroke of luck to have been able to execute a raid on the main base of the cult and to eliminate several heads and executives, but the operation had ultimately failed due to their haste and for having gone in without sufficient preparation.

The 'Yellow Flash' Princess had suddenly received an edict the day before yesterday.

To sum it up, it was an order to 'finish what you are doing as quickly as possible and return home'.

Cultists were evil.

Members of their church believed in evil spirits and heretics engaged in all sorts of bizarre eccentric rituals and spilt much bloodshed for a very long time.

Since they pretty much only ever operated in the shadows, their identities were still kept concealed.

At present, the empire had not gained much headway on the matter of which gods the cultists worshipped and their legitimacy, nor the size of the cult and who its leader was.

When either group came across each other, the cultists were always busy running away.

Like Leia, the dark mirror, the cultists often rode amongst the shadows and disappeared in mere instants.

Jennifer could recall a breakthrough from a month ago.

At that time, she and the 3rd Legion raided a cave based on some hard-earned intelligence.

The cult had been in the middle of a strange ritual with a young man and an object resembling a teapot in the centre.

The unconscious man appeared as young as Amer, and it was unknown whether he was alive or if he was a corpse.

The raid had been quite successful.

The upper echelons had escaped with the body of the young man, but she had managed to secure the mysterious teapot.

'Their specialties are witchcraft and curses, so there is a high probability that this is also a witchcraft tool. I'll have to leave it to Soniel to analyse it when I get back. No, why don't I take Soniel on my next expedition?'

Jennifer reminisced about her sister, the empire's greatest seer, with a nostalgic smile on her face.

It had been a year since she left the ecliptic.

It'd been too long since she had seen her beloved sisters.

She felt incredibly guilty for not being able to attend Amer's awakening.

'Is everyone doing well? If it's Soniel, I'm sure she will be fine... but Amer might be in trouble. I don't know if she'll be beguiled by some bad guy. I'm sure Soniel will have taken good care of her though in my absence.'

The rest of her family, in particular her male siblings, were not her concern.

Dave could take care of himself.

He was one of the few decent guys she had ever acknowledged.

'And...'

Jennifer so wished that her older brother, Porcus, would die soon.

***

'It's always Soniel Unnie who is the best to me!'

Amer enjoyed a refreshing morning for the first time in a while.

The white pill that her sister had given her yesterday was medication made to relieve the side effects of her rampant attributes.

Normal-level Awakened found it very hard to find artefacts that could suppress the side effects of their attributes.

She, who had awakened a continental-level, found handling the side effects even harder, so she seemed to need a powerful suppressant in the form of the medicine.

According to her sister, the drug outsmarted her [Beauty] Attribute.

Every time she ingested it, it made her body believe that she was having or finished having sex with Jeong Jihoo or something along those lines.

She didn't know the exact mechanism of actiom.

The medicine wouldn't make the attribute side effects go away forever.

If she kept taking the pills, her body would adapt and they would become less effective, so her sister said.

If that happened, she would have no choice but to drink the 'undiluted solution'.

She received a piece of advice, that suddenly came to mind, when her sister had handed over the pills.

She said—

"She drank the undiluted solution herself a few times, and said the effect is much better. But she said that it is not an easily obtainable ingredient... Do I have to ration the usage of the medicine?"

Amer decided she would only ever eat one pill right before bed.

'I feel on top of this world after taking the medicine. My sister is truly divine.'

There were still many pills left.

She wouldn't have any problems for a while still.

She could now use the time she had earned with the drugs to find some other solutions.

Anyway, she ate lunch in a restaurant that catered to the nobles with some of the other ladies of the upper class she knew, and then headed to her afternoon class.

'Sex Education'.

It was one of the lectures in which she attended with Jeong Jihoo at the same time.

She took a seat beside Jihye, who had arrived first.

Now, with the medicine in effect, she was not afraid of anything.

Starting today, this class would be completed in pairs.

With that being the case, the odds of her having to see his face were in her about.

But Amer's hopes were miserably thwarted.

[ Random Lottery Result ]

1. Celine & Vincent

2. Hyerin & Jihye

...

8. Jihoo & Amer

…

"..."

'Am I looking at the right form right now?'

Even if she rubbed her eyes, nothing changed.

To have been picked out to be in the same pair as Jihoo.

Just from the standpoint of probabilities…

'Oh, this is a dream! That's right, it's just a chickenshit plot brought about by my damned attribute which keeps trying to tie me up with Jihoo. Is this a lucid dream? The realism in this one is actually crazy.'

"Oh, Amer. We're in the same group. Please take good care of me throughout the semester... What's wrong?"

'Ouch! It hurts···.'

The flesh of her thighs which she had just pinched tingled.

'What is this… isn't it a dream...? So, is this actually real...?'

"Hummm… I wanted to be in the same group as Jihoo..."

"······Was that a jab at me?"

In response to Ji-hye's reflexive displeasure, Hye- rin, who was picked as her partner, took a stray and grimaced.

Amer saw a ray of hope in their exchange.

"... Then should we switch partners? I don't have to be with Jihoo... Jihoo, Jihye, and Hyerin are all my precious friends after all!"

A match of Rock, Paper, Scissors was carried out when Jihoo responded that he had nothing to do with Amer's proposal.

At the end of that fierce confrontation, Ji-hye won.

"Oh yea!"

With the happy smile of Jihye's, Amer approached the professor so that she could get permission for the replacement pairings.

However, the response she received betrayed all her expectations.

What she was told was that it was impossible due to equality issues with regard to the other students.

Sure, she acknowledged that wasn't wrong, but...

'Huh? How dare you ignore a member of the imperial family's request?! It's just... I can't say that, can I? Otherwise, I'll get scolded by my sister...'

Amer soon gave up and reluctantly moved over to the seat beside her partner, Jihoo.

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