Arriving at Ironfront, Kiera quickly went to the Blue Rose Auction House in order to meet Bethany and was summoned to the latter’s room as soon as she entered the building. Entering the suite, Kiera was greeted by Bethany’s relieved expression, as if a toll was taken off her heart.
Kiera raised her eyebrow but discovered the cause shortly after. “Ms. Ashborn, I thought you either died or ditched our deal, we couldn’t find a trace of you for 26 days!”
Kiera shrugged lightly, indifferently answering, “as you can see Lady Dalier, I am not one to break promises, I just had some business to take care of.
Bethany sighed due to the little girl’s carelessness but her eyes widened when she finally truly concentrated on Kiera’s figure. Taking notice of the drastic change in her aura, both in its power and feeling.
The girl seemed like an entirely different person, she was already quite reserved before, but very expressive. Now, the former aloofness mixed with a hue of wildness was replaced, or rather suppressed by a noble indifference and immovable tranquility.
She stared at the strands of snow-white that disturbed the uniformity of the little girl’s violet, her beautiful black pupils narrowing to the size of a needle at the unusual sight.
“These white locks, were they always there?” she asked pretentiously, at her level, she had a perfect memory, a major detail like hair color would never be judged incorrectly by hair.
“No,” Kiera replied laconically, her flat tone indicating her unwillingness to explain further.
“I see… It suits you,” Bethany chuckled lightly, there was something more important to address than her hair color. “Your level is at the limit of the Apprentice Magician Rank, and your aura says your combat power stands above it, how did you reach this level in less than a month?!
She then remembered the stone tablet Kiera bought in the latest auction. Initially, she thought the little girl was captivated by its mysteriousness, but maybe Kiera knew more than she thought…
Kiera stared at Bethany’s narrowing gaze, nervousness blooming inside her. She still felt the gap between them was enormous, meaning the woman was not a mere Normal or Copper True Magician. She sighed inside at how stupid she could be sometimes, it seemed that as she got stronger, her common sense became duller.
Her first option was to try and suppress the woman with Will of the Paragon and then run away, though she had no idea if it would work. The second option was to fabricate some lie, what Kiera thought of as the better, more sane option.
“An inherent skill that grants me three times more experience from kills,” Kiera said coldly, no change in her expression or breathing that would give away her lie. “I killed many things that were of an equal rank or close to that during the recent 26 days.”
“Oh…? How unique,” Bethany praised but was actually embarrassed within, a dedicated businesswoman like her was actually seen through by a 10-year-old girl. She then nodded in approval at herself, thinking that inviting Kiera was the best decision she made recently.
The mentality to tread the Great Ranuros Forest alone and endlessly kill was something most powerhouses did not have. As for Kiera’s inherent skill, it was enviable but she obviously had no way to acquire it. So, there was no reason to antagonize Kiera, even if she could end the little girl with a wave of her palm. There was not time to check the truth of it now as well anyway.
Seeing the woman relax, Kiera secretly sighed in relief and reminded herself that her rate of growth was not in line with this island standards, so she should opt to be more careful.
“Time of departure?” she asked, desiring nothing more than to get this promise over with and rest.
“Three hours from now, the empire stands on the other side of Darium— even our fastest ship takes three days to arrive,” Bethany rose from her chair upon answering, and signaled to a nearby maid to come with a hand gesture.
The maid went to Kiera and bowed slightly, “please come with me, young lady.”
Kiera nodded and followed the maid to a room filled with hundreds of different outfits. The maid searched briefly and then picked a knee-length light blue dress complemented by a white jacket with a blue rose pattern on its back.
“Please wear these, young lady, this is the traditional tournament outfit of our Blue Rose Auction Hose. Both fabrics are enchanted by the Branch Mistress’s mana and won’t be destroyed easily. But I ask you to be careful as this outfit is not armor, so do not rely on them in combat..”
The maid then excused herself out of the room with a bow before Kiera began to change into the battle outfit. Well, it was a battle outfit only in name as when Kiera looked at the mirror in the room, she wondered if that woman wanted to dress her up instead of just having the outfit represent who she was sponsored by.
The cute outfit coupled with her extraordinary looks and stoic made her seem like a human-sized doll. And for Kiera who preferred simple black and white clothes without intricate patterns, it was an unfamiliar look she had complex opinions about.
Exiting the room, her suspicions were confirmed as Bethany stared at her with plain excitement and pride, a pride that was more to herself. “The battle outfit really brings out your budding beauty and noble mien Ms. Ashborn, I am impressed.”
“Well, thank you,” Kiera shrugged and answered emotionlessly. If it wasn’t so comfortable and easy to move in, she would have thrown it away.
A little less than three hours later of indulging in her room’s bed, Kiera and Bethany met in the Ironfront's airship port, the mature woman accompanied by another four maids, Katherine among them.
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The Corinth Head Branch's airship was awaiting them in the biggest deck, its enormous size overshadowing every other ship in the port.
Kiera struggled to understand how such a huge ship could go fast enough to reach in time,
"well, magic is magic."
Entering the ship, they were greeted by a man and a woman, both wearing a similar branch master outfit as Bethany.
Albeit not as tall and as strikingly beautiful as the latter, she didn’t lose in the contest of charm. The woman’s allure was dominantly seductive, unlike Bethany who possessed a balance of graceful beauty and dangerous sexiness, the former wearing a red slit dress under her open jacket, revealing a deep valley between the two zip lines.
However, unlike Bethany's playful atmosphere, the woman had an arrogant aura and a cold gaze befitting her disdainful aloofness.
The man himself was the definition of a pretty boy, possessing classy blonde hair and blue eyes while having no bulging muscles or a noticeably tall figure, but the powerful feeling coming from him put Kiera on guard.
Bethany greeted the two, "Damian, Naria, it is a pleasure meeting you both."
The man shook Bethany's hand with a warm smile, but the woman blatantly ‘ignored’ her with a "hmph,” indicating her hostility to the lively woman.
Bethany's smile widened in amusement as she instructed Kiera to follow, passing her two colleagues.
"Wait," a feminine cold voice echoed behind them, "is this little girl the participant you chose?"
Bethany laughed gently in a mocking gesture. "10 years old and an Lv.20 Diamond Apprentice, and holder of the top-ranked Lightning Attribute, I am sure she is qualified."
The Solar Lightning Attribute of course had several inferior variants, and the normal Lightning Attribute was of the rare-rank. But Kiera realized the residents of Darium didn’t know of the true attribute ranking and had a ranking of themselves, which made Kiera sigh in relief— at least no one would be able to discern her attribute’s true level here.
"What!?" both man and woman exclaimed simultaneously before Kiera felt two sharp gazes on her body.
She looked at Bethany with annoyance, obviously questioning the need of doing this.
The latter only smiled, mouthing 'one thousand gold' silently.
Kiera snorted, but rejoiced at the deal inside and proceeded to flare her Tyrannical Lightning for them to see, their eyes widening at her performance.
The woman, Naria's expression turned ugly, "it is true…"
She hmphed again and turned away, returning to the ship. The man, Damian smiled and said, "congratulations on finding such a promising participant, Lady Dalier."
"And as for you miss, I await your performance." he reached his hand into a handshake, Kiera returning to gesture with a light "thank you."
He followed the woman back and when he disappeared from their sights, Kiera shook her head. "His pretentiousness is unsettling, at least that Naria was honest."
Bethany covered her mouth with her palm and giggled, "I am impressed you could see that Ms. Ashborn, Damian is quite the decent actor. Truthfully, I don't doubt that he's more envious of you than Naria, so stick next to me if he's around."
"Understood," Kiera nodded and followed.
As expected of one of the most important airships that belonged to the biggest auction house on the continent, its huge interior was filled with many luxuries.
Merely the first floor itself was an enormous hall with windows instead of walls, making the view accessible at all times, a view that would be even more grandiose in the air while restaurants and drinking stalls of all kinds decorated the place, there was even a spa building at a corner of the floor.
What surprised her, however, were the hundreds and even thousands of people that littered the hall, and from their varying causal to fancy outfits— she didn’t think they were the auction house’s people. “Why there are so many people?”
“They are divided into two groups: one group are wealthy participants that wanted to enjoy the journey to the Avelot Empire. The second group is composed of even wealthier people who are on this ship for a lengthy vacation. Why do you ask?” Bethany replied.
“I dislike large crowds,” Kiera shrugged.
The woman giggled, her mesmerizing voice causing the young male attendants to blush, “it comes with no surprise!”
“Take these, the key is for your room, and the card gives you the privilege to use all the airship’s services for free,” she said after beckoning a maid to give her something.
“Thank you,” Kiera thanked and did not tarry around any longer, immediately going to her room after bidding Bethany goodbye, she had better things to do than socializing with nobles and merchants.
Her room, or rather suite, was not inferior to the one she received in the auction house, having an Apparition Crystal screen to watch scheduled night plays and concerts that occur on the airship.
It was a lie to say that Kiera wasn't slightly interested in those, she didn't know how this world's culture was after all.
But the scheduled plays still had several long hours until they started, so Kiera decided to rest and then train briefly.
Taking off her outfit and changing into a simple oversized shirt she bought, Kiera sank into the bed and immediately fell asleep even with the lack of true fatigue, dreamlessly sleeping for five whole hours.
Waking up, she unsheathed her dagger and turned it into a shortsword, proceeding to slash the air in fixed and recurring movements.
She trained for another three hours, and although the skill didn't level up, she felt some improvements. Although she did long to rest after that trial like she never did before, her body would grow restless if she didn’t do anything for a lengthy period of time. Training was one of her hobbies anyway, so she did consider it as some type of rest.
There was also the matter of her internal injuries— she could further lessen the debuff’s effects by training skills that increased her attack power. Although the debuff would still remain at -15%, it wouldn’t truly be as such if she got stronger.
Taking a bath, Kiera relished the feeling of warm water on her skin, the constant tension that tormented her these past days disappearing. An hour later, she sat dressed on her bed, turning on the screen to watch the scheduled play, actually finding it amusing. It was a reenactment of the first Avelotian Emperor’s journey of unifying the ancient Five Regal Kingdoms, which resulted in the establishment of the Avelot Empire.
The following concert was utterly boring to her so Kiera opted to check what food this ship had to offer, returning to the first floor. She looked around fleeting and chose a restaurant that sold mana beast meat, sitting down at an inconspicuous table at the restaurant’s corner.
Ordering three servings of Tier 1 Lv.120 Storm Hawk’s breast, Kiera slowly savored the food."At least I can have a rather normal pastime in this world— food."
Well, her pastime would’ve been much more pleasant, if not for the plethora of stares she received and the bothersome whispers her enhanced senses caught. It turned out everyone on the ship knew she was a ten years old, lightning-attributed Lv.20 Diamond Apprentice Magician.
With Darium being a tier-one isle, it meant Skilled Magicians were at the top of the ladder with the ability to found nations, while True Magicians were powerful enough to hold key positions in governments or strong organizations. Her being a step away from such a rank at only ten years old while holding a ‘rare’ attribute in such a low-level place would of course garner her attention.
Nevertheless, she was sure her ability to fight opponents two circulations above her would stand as more shocking, so having her true rank misunderstood was better for her.
Deciding to simply ignore the background noises, alas slaughter would commence due to some ‘minor’ complications in her temper, Kiera found her tactic helpful just as someone she recognized entered the restaurant, walking toward her within disdain in their eyes before sitting down across from her without a word of approval from her side.