Laura kept a calm smile as she stared at the group of customers currently wandering around her shop. As she observed them, her grin slowly widened. Finally, business was booming like crazy.
It was simply a matter of time before her shop’s name became widespread due to its sheer uniqueness, because what other shop could replicate the vibe of her store?
Which shop would have bees and birds flying around so cutely, chirping songs and buzzing to the beat?
Which shop would have a drop-dead, kingdom-toppling beauty whose smile would dazzle the hearts of men and women?
Which shop would sell otherworldly flowers of fantastical aesthetic?
Diverting a bit of her attention, she activated her Nature Spirit ability, tapped into the connection she had with her plants, and was greeted by an illusory place covered by shimmering motes of light. They spread all throughout the vast space, reaching as far as kilometers away.
The motes of lights were mostly found in individual clusters, with some encroaching on each other’s space. As she looked outside her store, she found colorful flowers had already begun to spread all across the street, adding a new layer of vitality to the city.
Those flowers had a tenacious level of vitality and were capable of thriving on the bare minimum of conditions that were needed for sustaining floral life. They grew between cracks and on tiny patches of land, replacing the occasional grass and shrubs with their presence.
A pleasant aromatic scent wafted across the whole street, causing the people walking along to subconsciously smile.
I could already begin affecting a majority of the city’s emotional state by just altering some of the flowers’ composition. Laura mischievously grinned. In fact, she had already done that.
By manipulating the aromatic scent those plants gave off, she could slightly induce a minor thought to those who smelled it.
I should get some of those plants myself.
It was an innocent, and ordinary thought one would get from seeing or smelling something pleasant. Moreover, who was stopping them from simply uprooting some of those plans littering the entire city and planting them in their garden or backyard?
Because of that, before she knew it, her plants had spread far and wide all throughout Insea City’s Left Isle.
“Thank you for buying, please come again later!” she handed pots of plants along with seeds to her latest customer.
“Sure will, Miss Laura!” they grinned brightly and walked out of her store, and the next customer walked up in line.
Just like this, she continued to sell more of her flowers and attracted more customers.
As the customers waited in line, they played with the bees and birds, along with the fluffy pair of cat and dog that wandered around the store. They curiously approached the customers in the line and hovered around them like intrigued infants.
“Aren’t you a cute bunch?” one of them lifted their finger, allowing one of the buzzing bees to land on their finger.
“Uwah… You’re so fricking fluffy!” a girl whispered as she crouched on the ground and petted the fluffy white cut.
“Damn birdie, you got some mad tunes!” a man gawked at the bird perched on his forearm as it continued to drop some crazy beats.
“Do you want a treat?” an old lady smiled at the large dog and she then took out some snacks she had in her bag.
Only when noon arrived did the surge of customers finally recede, and she could finally rest in peace.
“Damn, I need some good old ramen right now!” she breathed a sigh of relief and discretely took out a bowl of ramen from the void of space under her counter.
It’s a good thing I have a lot of food in stockpile. I would have been too lazy to cook anything right now and would have been forced to eat subpar food.
Although she called them subpar, Laura had to kind of admit that it was just that her standards were too high, especially when her standard of cooking was herself, a monstrous talent in the realm of everything—that included cooking.
Her zenithral power had already long reached the realms of Level 4, and her mind had continuously evolved since she became an avatar. With her talent, her level of cooking could be considered to be divine among humans.
It’s probably the literal peak of what normal cooking could ever hope to achieve.
She pulled out a pair of chopsticks from the void like she did with the bowl of ramen before and clasped her hands together.
“Thank you for the food, me.”
After showing her gratefulness to herself, she began to chow down on the bowl of ramen like a wild beast. She slurped, she let the soup splatter, she even got stains on her clothes, disregarding her princess-like demeanor entirely.
“Woof!”
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“Meow!”
“Chirp!”
The dog, cat, and the birds protested at her, complaining that she forgot to feed them.
“Ugh, you useless gluttons.” She rolled her eyes. “You guys got addicted to my food, eh? If you leeches weren’t so friggin cute, I wouldn’t be feeding you guys my special delicacies.”
“And look at the bees, they work so diligently yet they never complain!” she begrudgingly took out their meals and laid them on the ground beside her.
They let out a melodious symphony of cheers and began wolfing down on their food just like her, and she helplessly sighed at their antics, but then, she suddenly heard a faint sound of wooshing wind out of her view.
She squinted her eyes, and a faint grin crept on her face. The animals in front of her didn’t budge their heads as they focused completely on their food. No words were needed to be spoken to understand what their princess wanted them to do.
It’s showtime.
Wearing a completely oblivious look, she slowly turned towards her counter with a faint smile, when all of a sudden, she noticed a man quietly standing behind her counter. He had shadowy black hair and dark eyes, wearing a black and white suit.
“You’re a Super, aren’t you?” he asked with a monotonous tone.
“…” Laura stared at the man with an odd look on her face. “No?”
“…” The man quietly gazed at her, his expression as blank as ever. “Are you sure?”
Laura leaned back on her chair and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
The man squinted his eyes. “We’ll see about that.”
He raised his hand and shadows abruptly burst off the ground around Laura, wrapping her arms and legs in shadowy tendrils.
“What the fuck?!” Laura stared at the shadows around her with dumbfounded eyes. “You… You also have superpowers?”
“So you admitted it in the end. Was that so hard?” he shook his head as if the extra effort he had to go through bothered him deeply.
“You bastard, don’t think you could just kidnap me or whatever!” Laura glared at the man and all of the plants in the store began to writhe and grow.
The man was surprised as whips lashed at him at breakneck speeds, surpassing his expectations.
Level 3?! His many years of experience made him immediately recognize the power behind those flowers.
He swiftly looked outside the window and was relieved to see that the plants outside weren’t reacting strangely to her power.
At least she’s sensible enough to keep the innocent civilians away from this conflict.
The man, although surprised by her raw power, quickly saw that she was clearly inexperienced in using her abilities. She crudely manipulated her plants, relying completely on her greater strength to overwhelm him.
If it were an experienced Level 3, he would have been decimated already, but relying on his vast experience, he moved at swift speeds and blended in with the shadows, avoiding her attacks one by one until he advanced to her location.
Thick green whips with sharp thorns rushed his way, but his figure turned into a shadowy blob as he slipped through the tiny gaps in her attack, and soon enough, he arrived right in front of her.
He pulled back his fist and shadows gathered around it. He drove his hand forward, grabbing at her neck and willing the shadows to gather around her.
“Retract your ability, I mean you no harm.”
The sharp thorns and thick vines were just mere inches away from hitting his back when he said so. If they didn’t stop, he would have been stabbed to death already.
Luckily for him, Laura stopped attacking and allowed the plants to return to normal as they became nothing but everyday potted flowers, indistinguishable from the ones outside.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice slightly out of breath.
“What about you remove my restraints first, hmm? Kind of hypocritical don’t you think so?” she mumbled and pointed at her bounded arms and legs using her chin. It appeared that she realized that the man meant her no harm, and was simply testing her.
“I’m truly sorry about that. I just found the most efficient method to make you use your ability is… well, this.” He shamelessly withdrew his powers and stepped back, retracting his hand from her neck.
“There we go,” Laura mumbled and hurriedly turned to look at her pets who had silently stayed at the corner of the room.
Go rush at him now. We really gotta sell the image that you guys are normal, cowardly bastards who are afraid of superpowers.
They showed sufficient intellect and Laura even saw them roll their eyes, but they still relented.
Following her orders, the moment the shadows disappeared, they rushed up to the man with angry expressions. The dog barked loudly, the cat attempted to scratch him using their claws, the birds cooed, and the bees buzzed.
“Look at that, you’ve even made them angry.” Laura clicked her tongue.
“Come on guys, your mama isn’t angry… She’s just mad, but you don’t have to attack him!”
They gave one last glare at the man and hurriedly returned to Laura with sad, worried looks.
Ugh, you wretched lots. You guys just want more food later. Laura silently clicked her tongue. I’m gonna have to work my ass off cooking a meal tonight it seems.
After calming down the animals and guiding them to the second floor, she walked back down the second floor and gazed intently at the man.
“To think the first other person I’d meet with superpowers would be such an asshole,” Laura muttered.
“As I said, I had to confirm whether or not you have superpowers, and forcing you to use them was simply the most efficient method I knew,” he said monotonously. What I didn’t expect was that you were a goddamn Level 3 Super.
“Now then, ignoring everything else, and not saying any of the countless questions I have in mind… Why are you here?” she crossed her arms and squinted her eyes.
The man took a deep breath and decided to get straight to the point.
“I belong to a worldwide organization that regulates all supernatural phenomena in the world. We are humanity’s sword, shield, and shepherd. We are—Aegis.”
“We have noticed the weird plants rapidly spreading throughout the city. Although they appear exotic, they don’t pose that much of a threat to this city’s citizens, so we’ve ignored them for a while. But, we started to notice that they were emitting a strange scent that prompted the people of the city to spread those flowers.”
“Of course, we’ve also noticed the fact that those flowers are constantly emitting a stream of life force to the surrounding area, which slowly lengthens the lifespan of the organisms near those flowers, and treats them of their underlying illnesses.”
“We’ve observed that you hold no intent to harm the citizens of this city and even wish to use your powers to help them, albeit through slightly manipulative means. That doesn’t change the fact that you have a heart of gold, so—“
He bowed his head slightly, and said respectfully:
“—Aegis would like to extend out its welcoming arms to you, Laura Field.”
Bingo!
Braun snapped his fingers as green light suffused from his eyes. His gaze held a profound intent on them as he stared at the massive crystalline web floating in the air in front of him.
A green flame flickered from his palm as countless crystals revolved him around like resplendent stars.
“Laura Field, Poppy Pauley, pray to whatever benevolent god is out there, because if the key to destiny really lies within that city, you’ll be swept in the very center of my storm—my ascension.”
“The cards I’ve set are finally into place, stacking atop one another like an array of dominoes.”
“Let us see, shall wee, on whether or not four months of my progress can contend with the might of Aegis.”
Braun grinned. A boundless fighting spirit rose within him as his excitement surged. The innumerable crystals around him twinkled with mystical light, illuminating the void.