2.21.

"Schwii.. something.." Evelyn muttered to herself.

Water poured down from the showerhead, soaking her hair and body wet. The grime, dirt and scum accumulated over the past week washed away with soap, finally ridding her body from the odor which had clung to her.

"She never introduced her house name.."

If Schwii truly acknowledged Evelyn as a rival, she would've revealed her family name. It was basic etiquette in the noble circle that one should take pride in one's own house regardless of status.

Evelyn foamed her hands and for the 2nd time, covered her entire body with soap. She ran her fingers through the laces of her hair, droplets of water run along the curves of her well formed body.

"Who is she exactly.."

Evelyn couldn't help but compare Sequencee's favorability of Schwii's to her own. [Activated Trait: Colours of Favorability] was a gift Evelyn had acquired, upgraded to the first tier. She is able to select a target and once selected, will glow in different colours depending on his or her emotions towards Evelyn.

Most people who knew her would show a grayish light gold or light pink glow. Close family members would appear brighter, which represented familiarity and proximity. People who hated her would be represented in shades of dark green or dark blue, subjective of whether the person is disgusted, or secretly loathe her presence.

The colour of love is pink, intimacy is gold, trust is blue.

At any one time, a person's colour may change depending on their own inner thoughts and which emotions they felt most strongly in that moment.

With the first tier upgrade to [Activated Trait: Colours of Favorability], Evelyn had unlocked two new extensions to the base function. One was the ability to focus on one emotion and determine the specific favorability. The second was to select two individuals and examine the favorability between the two.

When Evelyn focused on trust and love, Sequencee's colour was pale pink and moderately blue. But then she had Schwii as the second selected target, Sequencee's colour was normal pink and a blue which kept changing between dim and opaque. It was likely Evelyn's words had an effect on the trust between the two; a curious phenomenon.

She could break their trust, but that went against her conscience.

"He sort of likes her yet not?"

On the other hand, Schwii's pink towards Sequencee was quite intense, the kind when one had a crush on someone. Eveyln wondered what her own colour was– a shame she couldn't assess herself.

She heaved a sigh. It was clear here that Sequencee liked Schwii more than he did her.

"It seems I came too late," Evelyn smiled bitterly, remembering those yearning days of her past. The beautiful fantasies and hopeful prayers wishing that he would come visit her again–

She turned off the shower and let the water run off her body. Picking up the clean towel from beyond the glass door, she wiped herself dry. She gazed at her naked, luscious body in the mirror.

"Is he not the type who likes big chests?"

Comparing Schwii to herself, though she won in terms of seductive charm, Evelyn thought her elegant beauty and better figure bested her.

"No. No.. what am I thinking. If figure is the determiner of attraction then all the boys in the world would only love one girl.."

Evelyn sighed for the umpteenth time.

'Of course he would like that girl more than me. We just met after three entire years of separation.

She dressed herself at the bathroom vestibule before stepping out into the hall. Passing her dirty uniform to the maid, she made her way over to the open living room. She took a seat on the wooden floor with a pillow on her lap. Lazily, she gazed out towards the night sky, feeling the cool breeze she had missed in the past week. She examined the red necklace; the modified gem beautifully cut into symmetrical faces. It was mesmerizing, so much that Evelyn almost dozed off if not for someone's voice.

"Your Highness," Aaron called out to her.

"Mn? Is Takashi ready?" Evelyn turned around, her still damp hair fell from her shoulders.

"We're just waiting for you. What's wrong?" Standing beside Aaron was Shiro Takashi. He noticed how out-of-it Evelyn was.

"I'm just tired, that's all. Shall we proceed to the hospital then?" she rubbed her eyes as she got up, looping the necklace around her head.

"You don't need to push yourself if you really need to rest. You just got back from the dungeon," Shiro said with a sigh.

"I should at least see Risa and convey my concerns. She should be well enough to attend my visit, right?"

"She's better than ever. They managed to give the appropriate treatment in time, and it isn't like the poison would've killed her."

'As expected of the hero.'

Risa got bitten by the A-rank gray pygmy titanoboa. The priests on site were able to close the heavy wound on her flank, but they couldn't do anything to the poison. In normal cases, the dose of poison would've killed five people. Due to Risa's constitution as a hero and the blessing from Goddess Ra which gave her a level of resistance against most negative ailments, she wasn't left in a life threatening state. On top of that, whenever she leveled up, all debuffs would disappear. So the most it ever did to her was cause a runny nose and fever.

Even so, to ensure her safety they called off the excursion.

Together with Shiro and Aaron, Evelyn went to the campus hospital located a distance away from the central campus. The place was busy with priests, priestesses and assistant porters running about.

To best train the students to become professional priests, practical practice is inevitable. As such, Riestallia Academy also boasts one of the top medical institutions in Equestria Empire. Wedged between the campus grounds and general populace, it made it accessible for students and the sick to access the healing services needed to preserve a life.

Her Highness' and Shiro's presence garnered a lot of attention, nevertheless, the people opened up a path for them to access Risa's room– which was located at the topmost floor.

Shiro knocked before pushing the door open.

"Big brother! Your Highness welcome back!" Risa, who wore a plain hospital uniform, greeted ecstatically.

"Did you forget about me?" Aaron growled.

"And Sir Aaron too ehe.."

"Just kidding," Aaron's tone softened to a chuckle, "Greetings to you Leticia."

"Good evening to everyone.." Leticia smiled stiffly.

For the past two days since the incident, Leticia had been accompanying Risa at the hospital. The biggest complaint of her stay wasn't the fever, rather, sheer boredom. At the dungeon, she at least got to fight monsters non-stop at critical red zones sites to level up like mad.

"Good evening to you. Thank you for accompanying Risa through her recovery, Leticia," this was Evelyn's first time meeting her despite having heard from Risa. Leticia's heterochromic eyes really stood out among the girls she had met till date.

"It's what friends do.. right?"

"It's as you say. So, how are you feeling now Risa?"

"Good as ever. Say, Evelyn, can you get me out of the hospital. I'm bored–"

"Yeah. Your Highness, it should be alright to release her now, right?" Shiro also had the same thoughts.

"What did the high priest say?"

"As the priestess of our team, he said to wait for your orders."

".. That explains why you're so happy.." Evelyn looked at Risa's sparkling eyes.

Evelyn searched for the priest who was in charge of Risa and gave him her approval. So with that, Risa will be discharged tomorrow morning.

"What? Not tonight but tomorrow? Ugh.." Risa groaned.

"Priest orders," Evelyn could only reply as such.

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, how did the mage do?" Risa nudged.

"Quite well."

"Anything interesting happened between the two of you?" Risa leaned out of bed. Evelyn had to bend back a little.

"It's a mage you recommended, right? So what do you think of his abilities? Is it on par with the two heroes?" Aaron asked.

"Um.."

How should Evelyn put it? At the moment, she hadn't revealed anything about Sequencee except that he was planning to join their team. She had been busy the week before the dungeon excursion and wanted to plan a grand surprise for both sides. Especially for Aaron, it would be an absolute shocker when he realizes that said mage was Anna's son.

"It's likely that a lot of his latent abilities are suppressed because of the lack of stronger monsters? The most memorable was subjugating a C-rank centipede creature with a single spell."

"One spell for a C-rank monster? That's not bad," Risa hummed.

"Ah? Are you talking about Sequencee?" Leticia blurted. Evelyn froze up. The other three turned to her.

"Sequencee? You mean your crush?" Risa spoke. Which caused Evelyn's expression to distort further.

"I feel like I've heard that name from somewhere.." Aaron stroked his chin.

"Your Highness, is something the matter?" Shiro asked.

"Sequencee.. what did you say?" Evelyn didn't know what she was saying by this point.

'How many girls did he woo while I was gone?!'

"What did who say?" Risa tilted her head.

"Sequencee.. Sequencee.. Can't remember anything," Aaron shrugged.

"Just now.. you said that Sequencee is whose.."

"Oh, that. What's so surprising about that? Don't tell me you have a crush on him too?"

Evelyn fell silent at Risa's grin. Leticia too found her heart trembling as a cold wind blew against the seedling within her.

"This mage you talked about.. were you two friends with him?" Shiro said to warm up the chilly atmosphere, throwing a direct question at both Leticia and Evelyn.

"Friends you say.." Evelyn's voice tapered off.

"Leticia?" Shiro turned to her.

She said nothing, staring downwards with brows furrowed.

"Did I just do something bad?" Risa gulped.

Aaron scratched his head.

An awkward mood settled in the hospital room.

"Since when have you known him?" Evelyn asked softly.

"A long time ago," Leticia replied stiffly.

"How long have you known him?"

"Years.. perhaps."

"What's your relationship with him?"

"..."

"I see.."

Leticia didn't know what to say. She was surprised when Sequencee said that he knew the princess. Just that.. she didn't expect the princess to hold feelings for him. Being aware that Leticia depended on him during times of doubt, the presence of other girls wanting him for themselves made Leticia feel like she was going to lose her life support.

"Then should I take it that the girl Schwii has the upper hand here?" Evelyn said bitterly.

"She's a succubus."

"..."

Though everyone remained silent, the shock on their faces was obvious.

'A succubus.. ah, that makes a lot of sense..'

While Leticia remained ignorant to the fact that Sequencee was a half demon, Evelyn was able to make a conjecture that Schwii was likely a high demon from the demon empire. That would explain her capacity to afford Sequencee's education fee. And if that was the case..

Evelyn took out the red crystal dangling inside her clothes.

"What's that?" Risa asked.

"A communication crystal," Shiro said, having appraised the object with a hero-specific skill.

'The maid is likely a demon too.'

Piecing together everything, Evelyn came to one roadblock.

If Sequencee wants to kill the Sovereign to avenge his mother, why was a demon backing him? Rather, why would he accept the support of a demon to kill their monarch?

"I don't.. get it.." Evelyn gripped the crystal tight.

"You don't get it? What do you mean by that?" Shiro asked.

"I'm sorry Risa, Shiro. I'll get back to you when I have a clearer picture. Leticia, can I ask you a few questions in private?" Evelyn raised her head to look at the green haired girl with resolute eyes.

"???"