“I’m sorry, I don’t follow. What do you mean?” Blair questioned, confused by what Aella meant.

“Ah, my wording was weird, huh? Sorry, force of habit.” Aella briefly apologized before correcting herself. “Even if I try to pull all the attention from the Cult away from her, there’s no guarantee that’ll work. If I fail, they’ll continue to send stronger assassins after her, so I ask again, what do you wanna do with her? I’d recommend sending her to a [Dragon Rider Academy.] I was doing some research, and apparently, the highest-ranked schools are basically fortresses.”

Blair agreed with Aella’s sentiment, but she didn’t really have any plans set in place for that.

“Aetherion is strong, but less than 1% of Millions of applicants can be accepted into schools like that. Plus, her being a Naturalis would make it even harder, and she would likely be bullied.”

“By the time she’s 15 and gets admitted, Aetherion is gonna be more than strongest enough to take over the entire school. That aside, though, if you’re about her being bullied, I can help train her. Mentality, Theory, and even Practical Combat. I highly doubt there’d be a better teacher. Plus, this lets me stay close to her and protect her better.”

Blair didn’t hesitate to accept that offer. “I’ll ask Seraphina. If she says yes, then I’ll allow it.”

At this point, Aella had made her goals and stance toward Seraphina clear. Rather, Blair saw this exact question coming from the moment Aella mentioned to prophecy to her. Regardless if her precious daughter became a terrifying monster or a saint to protect the world, Blair didn’t care as long as she was happy.

Spending time with Aella would also make her happy.

“Cool, that’s everything then. I still really need to get a phone to stay in contact with you easier… When do you wanna meet up next?”

Bringing up the phone, Blair’s eyes widened as she recalled having a gift for Aella.

“Oh, here. It’s encrypted. Even the government wouldn’t have an easy time breaking into it.” She stated, pulling a mobile device out of her purse and tossing it to Aella.

“Eh? For me?” Aella questioned, genuinely surprised by the gift, checking it out.

“I’m a busy woman. I can’t always meet with you. This will make both of our lives easier. Think of it as payment for protecting my family in the Abyss Nest.”

Placing the phone in her purse, Aella thanked Blair and began walking away. “I’ll deal with that guy after you get to your car. Take a few extra turns before you go home though, just in case.”

And with that, the duo split ways, or at least, they made it seem like they did. The moment Aella was out of eyeshot, she took to the rooftops and began observing Blair.

It didn’t take long for the man to begin following her, not doing much to try and hide it. Just keeping a distance, one that anyone untrained probably wouldn’t notice. Seeing this surprised Aella a bit. He was somewhat decent at following people undetected, and yet Blair still noticed him at some point.

What surprised her even more was that Blair was taking him into progressively less populated areas.

‘Just how far away did she park? No, wait, if I didn’t offer to deal with this guy, did she have people on standby? Oh, I’m starting to like her.’ Aella mused inwardly.

With the man still following Blair, Aella used her wind to quickly grab him into a deep alley the moment they entered an unpopulated street.

“My my~ following such a busy woman like her, aren’t you a creep~” Aella chuckled seductively.

The man, who wore a striped long-sleeve shirt and ball cap which hid parts of his light green hair, was visibly shocked but kept his composure as he realized who Aella was immediately.

“You! You’re her business partner! How’d you know?”

“Wow, you’re not even trying to hide it. First assassins and now a stalker, though, she needs to hire bodyguards. So, as is customary, what’s your deal? Or are we doing this the hard way?” Aella smiled, masking her intrigue.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

She didn’t know if everyone on this planet cared so little about hiding their innocence or if she was just running into the most unapologetic people on the planet. Part of her was hoping it was the prior. It’d make her life so much easier.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, miss?”

“Y… Yeah? Yeah, I would. Did you think I dragged you into this suspiciously empty alley as a prank?” Aella asked, half hauntingly, half genuinely.

“Hmph! You have no proof I did anything. If you speak out, I can easily sue for defamation.”

“Hard way, got it.”

Opening her status panel with a mental command, Aella began putting her points into Charisma.

||

With that done, Aella smiled and looked directly into the man's eyes, who went silent immediately.

“Now, what is your deal?” Aella asked once again, emphasizing each of her words more than the last.

“I-I’m Blake Forsen, a member legislate.” He answered, a massive blush appearing on his face.

‘Aaahhh, he’s a politician. He’s even worse than those cultists.’

For a moment, Aella showed disgust on her face but quickly hid her expression. At least she had the body of an adult right now, so it wasn’t nearly as weird as it could be.

“So why were you following Mrs. Blair? Mr. Forsen.”

“I-I can’t tell you about this… I-I’m under an NDA.”

‘I’m gonna kill him after this, so it’s fine. I’m gonna kill him after this, so it’s fine. I’m gonna kill him after this, so it’s fine.’ Aella repeated inwardly over and over again like a mantra.

Leaning closer to the middle-aged man, Aella’s smile became mischievous, the ample breasts of her transformation growing ever closer to him.

“Are you sure? I’m very~ curious~.”

‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!’

Her inward screaming and self-inflicted torment aside, the blush on the man’s face only grew.

“S-spark Denizen Incorporated, her direct competitors. They paid me a considerable sum to put Blair Davis in a position against the law so they could monopolize the market on Dragon Vanity.”

“Hmmm~? That’s no good! Instead of working with them, would you mind doing a few things for me~? I wouldn’t be… Averse to rewarding your efforts.” She giggled lightly, continuing to scream internally.

“A-ah? Of course! As long as it’s in my power!”

“Great!” Aella cheerfully pulled up, keeping up her act while getting out of that horrific position.

“I want you to bring this company’s bad deeds to light anonymously. Of course, you can conveniently leave out a part about them buying out a politician to get rid of their competitors. I also need a new ID. Afterward, I’ll gladly do anything you want~”

[Charm] wasn’t mind control… It got pretty close, though. Especially against people who didn’t have strong wills, which was the exact reason Aella hated this skill. She has seen the most loyal people fall for her and ruin the lives of their lovers, partners, or whatever with little to no effort.

Even those warriors who have trained for countless years or monks who have sworn off worldly things can be stunned for moments, granting them a guaranteed death in battle. It was easily the strongest skill that her Foxin tribe possessed, and they got it as early as the second tail.

As long as nothing too contradictory or self-harming is asked, it’d be impossible for a normal person to break out of the [Charm] skill of a Foxin with 10 Charisma, much less the 100 that Aella now had. Not to mention the fact that her skill was still level 1.

“T-that’s simple enough! M-might I have your number, Miss?”

“Of course, it’s -”

…

Waving as she sent him off, Aella made sure to mark the man with Mana so she could kill him the moment he succeeded in the task given to him. She strictly didn’t harm innocents for no reason. To her, government officials were far from innocent.

However, with him gone, she thought of something else. The one loose end to her problems that she could easily solve with the charm skill. Those few Dragon Tamers who saw her face while untransformed during the boss fight.

She was about eighty percent sure that the cult couldn’t move freely in Tennessee after the incident she caused, but if any of those few people left the state, they’d be fair game to revealing her identity.

Maiming them was naturally an option she considered as it was a matter of her own safety, but she decided against it. She knew innocents would eventually die at her hands, most likely in collateral damage, but at present, her head count was still 0, and she wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Even if it meant only reducing the chances of a problem arising instead of eliminating it outright. Plus, her transformation skill was still somewhat limited in how she could transform. If she wasn’t careful, a pattern might arise, and the serial disappearances might be linked back to her.

"I'll just find someone to erase this specific memory at some point..."