Chapter 722: Meeting Up With Valerius And Mia At The Grand Plaza [Bonus - ]

Chapter 722: Meeting Up With Valerius And Mia At The Grand Plaza [Bonus Chapter]

An hour later, the midday sun hammered down from a brilliant azure sky and washed the Grand Plaza in pale blinding heat.

They’d regrouped at the hotel, shed the suit and the silver ring, and walked the rest of the way on foot.

The plaza was an immense open basin of polished white granite with no monument or pillar or obelisk to break the horizon.

It looked like a sea of flags and flagstones, boiling with life... Thousands of travelers, merchants, mercenaries and high-altitude couriers flowed between endless rows of striped awnings, wooden carts and collapsible brass stalls.

WHOOSH!

The air roared with the chaos of Central City’s open commerce.

Street performers juggled glowing mana spheres, and the greasy smell of roasted mutton skewers and fried cinnamon dough drifted from mobile ovens and tangled with the coal smoke from the lower transit lines.

Silas leaned his back against a low stone parapet along the northern rim and watched the crowd.

He was in his normal eighteen-year-old form now, in a crisp white cotton shirt and a lightweight black jacket with the sleeves shoved up to his forearms, over dark fitting joggers.

His Gold Core turned with a slow heavy pulse in his chest as his dark blue eyes, ringed with sharp gold, followed the traffic through the stalls with lazy interest.

Around him stood the women of Blessed Land, each wearing the subtle masterwork disguise runes that Rowenna had prepared before they left.

Morwenna stood half a pace to his left with her arms folded tightly over her midriff.

The Grand Runemaster’s illusions had worked a heavy deliberate change on the woman.

Her raven-black hair had washed out into a dull common chestnut brown, and her skin looked a shade paler and plainer, like an ordinary coast-guard sailor who’d never once raised a cutlass in anger.

...But the part of the rune that had poisoned her temper was sitting right under her chin.

Her proud full chest, which normally filled out her leather waistcoats with undeniable majesty, had been flattened by Rowenna’s runic spell into a modest unremarkable slope.

Morwenna’s left eyelid gave a violent rhythmic twitch as she stared at the loose wrinkled front of her plain linen shirt as her jaw clamped and her stormy gray eyes smoldered.

’That bitch,’ she raged in the venomous silence of her thoughts, knuckles white on her sleeves. ’She did this out of pure spite... She shaved four whole inches off my upper deck to make sure I’d spend the entire shore leave feeling like a half-planked skiff! The second we’re back at the Keep, I’m marching up toher room, kicking her drafting stool into the fireplace, and pounding her smug bespectacled face into her ground!’

Her sour murderous glare slid sideways and landed on Aeliana.

The Elf princess stood tall, serene and unbothered with her hands folded over the waistband of a pleated emerald skirt that brushed the tops of her polished boots.

Rowenna’s array had barely touched her.

It had trimmed the tips of her long pointed ears just enough that she’d pass for an ordinary half-elf in a cosmopolitan crowd.

Her face was still pristine porcelain as her blond hair still fell like poured moonlight, and her green eyes were as bright and clear and regal as ever.

...And, most infuriating of all to the seething corsair, Aeliana’s generous rounded bust had been left beautifully intact.

Morwenna’s teeth ground together with a soft crunch.

’Why does the pointy-eared court scribe get to keep all her cargo while I sail through the capital with empty holds?!’ the pirate screamed inwardly, chest heaving against the hated illusion. ’Corrupt! The entire territory is rotten with elven favoritism! I took three cannonballs to the ribs at the Great Reef and I can’t even get an honest cup size in the plaza!’

Aeliana, completely deaf to the mutiny brewing six inches to her right, drew a deep elegant breath of the dry plaza air.

"The atmospheric circulation across this open expanse is remarkably balanced, Lord Sy," she remarked calmly. "The continuous convergence of currents prevents the industrial exhaust of the lower flues from settling upon the vendor stalls... It is an exceedingly pleasant environment for public congregation."

"Aeli, it’s a market," Silas said.

"...It is a very pleasant market if I do have to say so myself."

Behind them stood Rika.

The Beast Goddess looked unrecognizable to anyone who’d known her in the wild basins.

The runes had bleached her wild midnight-black hair into a soft cascading curtain of pure silver, matching the quiet gentle gray that now covered her irises.

Tucked deep in the crook of her neck, dead to the world, lay the golden phoenix hatchling.

Rowenna’s illusion had coated it in a mantle of fluffy snow-white down, turning a creature of primordial divine fire into what looked like an exceptionally plump arctic dove.

Rika stroked its white neck with a lazy thumb and blinked her gray eyes with peaceful sleepy detachment, completely indifferent to the noise of thousands of mortals.

"Master," she said, to nobody in particular. "It’s very hot."

"... I know."

"The bird is also hot."

"I know that too."

"Hm," said Rika, satisfied, and went back to stroking.

The dove-shaped phoenix cracked one gold eye open, judged the heat, and closed it again with visible contempt and then there was Solenne.

The fox beastkin stood glued to Silas’s right side with her shoulders hunched and her chin tucked into the collar of her canvas jacket.

Silas had personally made a disguise for her before they left the hotel, trading her nine glorious silver tails and pointed fox ears for the single floppy set of a common domestic dog-girl.

’Good thing I know the runes.’

Her ears hung low over her temples, soft and light caramel, and behind her swayed one thick fluffy canine tail that wagged with uncontrollable buoyant rhythm against her calves.

She stared at the granite, face burning with deep agonizing embarrassment.

Because right now, in the middle of a packed public square, Silas’s right hand was shamelessly buried in her tail.

He’d gripped the plush caramel fur near the base and was kneading through the coat with lazy appreciation.

He wasn’t even looking at her. His blue-and-gold eyes scanned the passing crowd with casual detachment while his fingers worked the fur like a worry stone he’d carried for years.

’My Lord has no shame whatsoever,’ Solenne whimpered in the overheated privacy of her thoughts with her cheeks glowing like copper ingots. ’Whether it’s my nine real tails or this fake dog tail, he just grabs it! Does the species not even matter?! Does he not care that we’re in the middle of the Grand Plaza?! As long as it’s furry and attached to my hips he’s helpless! Oh heavens, somebody is going to notice... They’ll think I’m on a leash.’

She tried a tiny discreet half-step forward to slide her rear out of reach.

Silas’s fingers simply tightened a fraction and guided her right back to his hip.

She let out a tiny defeated squeak, and her caramel tail betrayed her completely by wagging even faster against his knuckles.

"There he is," Silas murmured, releasing his grip just enough to point across the plaza with his chin.

Cutting through the dense crowd beside a striped silk pavilion strode a young man of roughly Silas’s height.

His golden-blond hair glowed in the midday sun like polished brass, his eyes were sharp and golden, and he wore an expensive traveling coat of dark azure silk embroidered with the silver aegis crest of Sterling Enterprises.

He crossed the granite with broad confidence, flashing bright smiles at passing merchant daughters and flipping silver tokens to a street harpist with careless aristocratic swagger.

...Valerius Sterling.

The young lord of Sterling Aegis caught Silas’s gaze across forty paces of open stone, and his face split into an enormous dramatic grin.

He threw both arms in the air and waved with such violent enthusiasm that he scattered a flock of pigeons from the nearest awning.

"Silas! SILAS!"

"He’s loud..." Morwenna muttered.

"He’s quite loud..." Aeliana agreed. ’It’s almost like he’s in love with Master.’

She was a smut author but she didn’t want any Yaoi on her hand... Her Lord was interested in women only!

"He’s also waving at a pigeon," Silas said.

"I believe the pigeon is waving back," said Rika, with the grave attention of a goddess observing a minor miracle.

"Hm. It is a very friendly pigeon," Aeliana concluded, and Morwenna turned her face away so nobody would see her laugh. "That much I can say."

Walking right beside him was a tiny figure swallowed almost completely by an oversized ragged gray travel cloak.

The frayed wool hem dragged along the dusty flagstones, and the hood was pulled so far forward that only the tip of a small pale nose showed in the shadow.

The moment the cloaked figure spotted their group, she didn’t wait for Valerius’s long strides.

She reached up with two small pale hands, seized the edges of the hood, and yanked it off her head with a violent snap.

Flap!

A wild voluminous mane of bright blond hair tumbled down her back, framing a petite childlike face with massive sparkling green eyes and long delicate pointed ears that twitched with pure mischief.

...Mia.

"Student!" she squealed in the high bright cadence of an excited child, though her ancient eyes danced with glee.

She broke into a dead sprint across the granite with her small leather boots pattering like hail on tin.

Aeliana’s green eyes went wide.

The Elf princess gasped, and a radiant tender smile broke across her features.

She dropped to one knee on the hard white granite at once, smoothed her emerald skirt with one hand, and opened her slender arms to welcome her ancestor into a warm familial embrace.

"Grand-Aunt Mia!" Aeliana called, voice sweet and pure and trembling with genuine royal devotion. "Grand-Aunt Mia! It has been far too long... I am so happy to see you again—"

Whoosh!

Mia didn’t even tap the brakes.

She bypassed Aeliana’s open arms, dodged past the kneeling princess with a nimble mocking hop that kicked a cloud of granite dust onto the hem of her pristine emerald skirt, and kept going.

Before Silas could take half a step back, the tiny blond elf launched herself off the pavement like an acrobatic tree-frog and sailed straight at his chest.

Thud!

He caught her on instinct with his hands clamping around her small waist as her momentum carried her up.

"Ugh..." She weighed practically nothing.

She hooked her elbows over his shoulders, giggling like a maniac, and grabbed two thick fistfuls of his dark hair and yanked sharp and hard enough to snap his head back.

"Ouch! Hey! Mia, let go of the damn hair!" His Gold Core flared for a microsecond before he forced the reflex down.

"Hah! Not a chance, student!" Mia cackled, leaning in until her small nose was barely an inch from his.

She slapped his cheek with a loud rhythmic pat-pat-pat.

"Look at you! It’s been far too long since I laid eyes on my favorite pupil! You’re growing so nicely! The core is dense, your shoulders are broader, and you’ve turned into a remarkably handsome young man and this hair..." She tugged his dark locks again, grinning cheekily. "It’s much longer than when we parted in the Secret Realm! It suits you! Very dashing! Very roguish!"

"Thanks, Mia," Silas grumbled dryly, peeling her fingers out of his hair.

He set her boots back down on the granite, though a fond smile lingered at the corner of his lips. "Good to see you haven’t matured a single day."

Mia puffed out her small chest under the ragged cloak with enormous unearned pride and planted her hands on her hips.

Then, as if suddenly remembering other people existed in the plaza, she tilted her head down.

Her big green eyes landed on Aeliana, who was still frozen on one knee in the dust.

The princess’s arms hung empty in the air as her formal posture was suspended in suffocating mortification before the crowd.

Mia’s lips curled into a sweet innocent pout.

She blinked her huge eyes, pressed the tip of one finger to her lower lip, and said in a breezy singsong chirp.

"Oh, my Aeli! I didn’t see you there~"

Aeliana remained frozen on the paving stones.

The calm melodic grace that defined every fiber of her royal being seemed to shatter into ten thousand tiny glass shards.

The pale porcelain of her cheeks and throat and the delicate tips of her shortened ears flushed a violent burning crimson.

Her jaw locked and her green eyes narrowed into two razor-sharp blades of fury.

Her slender fingers curled into trembling fists against her skirt, digging into the dust of the plaza.

’You bitch,’ Aeliana thought, every ounce of her composure screaming in silent murderous agony. ’You ancient pint-sized little bitch...’

So what if she was her Grand-Aunt...? Aeliana was free to curse her as much as she liked for making her look stupid in front of her Lord.

[Author’s Note]

That’s ten Chapters today! I’ll do another mass release tomorrow, heh you support with Golden Tickets and Magic Castles~