The Devil's Duchess - Chapter 29: The wrong bride

…Ring! [ The Unique Skill ‘Grand Devourer’ has been acquired! ]

That’s how it first started.
And then… it didn’t stop:

[ The Unique Skill ‘Evolve’ has been acquired! —
[ The Passive Skill ‘Jelly-like Shapelessness’ has been acquired! —
[ The Passive Skill ‘Resistant Body’ has been acquired! —
[ The Unique Skill ‘Dwell’ has been acquired! —
[ The Unique Skill ‘Skill Copy’ has been acquired! —
[ The Passive Skill ‘Mana Perception’ has been acquired! ]

Up until…

[ The Passive Skill ‘Consciousness’ has been acquired! ]

And then I was through—

Normally, monster-type creatures don’t just pop up in some random place—let alone a human place—out of the blue, and without notice.
Yes, if we’re talking ‘normally’, monsters belong more to places like remote, hostile grounds: they ought to be from dark, nasty forests, old caves, or abandoned, ancient ruins.
As I said, it was only so long as we spoke of the usual deal, however. For better or worse, I wasn’t your regular mob.
So, forget about all the remote, uneasy places humans hardly go to—all the abandoned forests, caves, or dungeons I, a monster, should have been from—and picture a bright, lively family restaurant, in an oh-so-peaceful human village. A restaurant where people ate, chatted, and jested together, all having a good time, blissfully oblivious to the fact that, very soon, I would be cutting them all down.

By magic, a monster-type creature spawned in such a place. It was me.
So far, for the few seconds I had been living, it was quite the good life… I got to listen to a fantastic story being told and shared a cool moment with people.
However! Following an uncertain course of events, I happened to be put up against a wall, with a sword aimed at my chest, before I was mercilessly killed.

I, a unique monster, just spawned in that restaurant, with no clue regarding what was going on.
All I knew was that I wanted to live and survive.
Also, I knew I wasn’t your regular kind of monster.
Thankfully, I’d been granted unique abilities before I showed up.
That is how I managed to survive.

Super-genius Ellen Young, creator of countless tech products, retires.At the height of her career, she turns down numerous high-paying offers, yearning only to return to the countryside and lead a peaceful, laid-back life.Unexpectedly, her long-lost family comes looking for her, and a celebrity sister requests to live-stream their countryside life online.Ellen Young: ?A big, fat no!Netizens around the world think that this newly found daughter in the celebrity’s family is illiterate, lacks manners, is completely crass, and without any redeeming qualities.Becoming a laughing stock of the internet.Until.....Why is a world-renowned professor calling her teacher online?Why does a well-known CEO furiously comment 'If you don't come back, I'm not managing this company anymore'?Why are numerous consortiums sending barrages online, appealing for lower patent fees?—Isn't this just a country girl selling radishes online and making ads?

Book I: Lost ThingsTristan Abrascal is a thief, one of many making their living under the perpetual twilight of the greatest city in all of Vesper. Quick wit and a contract with a capricious goddess have always kept him one step ahead, until one night he crosses a line by accident that burns all the bridges he had left. But not all is lost, as his mentor offers a way out of peril that turns out to be more than a simple escape.It is also an opportunity to get even with the infanzones, the nobles he’s lived under all his life, and it so happens that Tristan has a full ledger’s worth of scores to settle with them.Lady Angharad Tredegar has fled halfway across the world, leaving behind a ruin of a life: her family butchered by a ruthless enemy, their estate torched and their nobility revoked. Yet no matter how far she flees the blades of assassins follow, and she finds herself growing desperate for any protection. She has one relative left to call on, her estranged uncle, but she finds that the safety he offers comes at a cost.Angharad has sworn revenge, however, and her honour will allow for no compromise. She will do what she must to survive so that one day bloody vengeance can be visited upon her enemies.The paths of the two take them to the doorstep of the Watch, but for desperate souls like them enrolment is a lost cause. They will have to do it the hard way instead, by surviving the trials on the isle known as the Dominion of Lost Things.Where every year many go, and few return.Book II: Good TreasonsThe trials of the Dominion are over.The four survivors have become students of Scholomance, enrolling together as a cabal, yet even on those infamous grounds they soon learn none are beyond the reach of their pasts.Angharad Tredegar is returned to a semblance of the world she left behind, but finds her honor sorely tested by bargains offered - every bit as tempting as in the stories and even deadlier.Tristan Abrascal needs answers. Mysterious enemies keep trying to abduct him, his classroom does not exist and he’s now had several conversations with dead people. Worst of all, his carrots keep dying.Maryam Khaimov is going mad, which would worry her less if it were happening on schedule. More frightening yet is the possibility that she is not, and there truly is someone else going around wearing her face.Song Ren must forge the others into a functional unit, all the while fending off enemies on all sides: rival cabals, vengeful countrymen and the deluge of implacable foes her companions simply cannot seem to stop attracting.Failure is not an option, for Song must bring back honor to her family’s name whatever the cost: it is the only way to keep their disgrace from literally eating them all alive.And as the four chase shadows in Scholomance, in the distance looms the greater test awaiting them in the Asphodel Rectorate. Asphodel is a faded power, the rotten carcass of what it once was, but under that rot looms darker things - of which monsters might just be the least dangerous.Besides, is treason really such an evil when you have the best of reasons for it?

When you were six years old, after watching a martial arts movie, you put your hands into the rice pile and imagined that you were practicing iron sand palm.

When you were seven years old, you were the first to greet a stranger in the new semester, and you felt that you were the diplomatic spokesperson for your class.

When you were eight, you could tell it was your parents coming home just by hearing footsteps, so you thought you had a good ear…

……

What will happen when the fantasy of secondary school when you were young becomes reality?

Ji Ruo stretched his hands into the rice pile—

[Congratulations to the host child for unlocking the achievement of Martial Dao: Iron Palm Mi Nei Shen! 】

[Acquired Martial Skill: Iron Sand Palm (first glimpse of the door)]

[The skill level can be repeatedly obtained by activating the proficiency. Heaven rewards diligence, host children, come on~]

Ji Ruo’s mouth twitched, he felt that his achievement system was not normal.

After thinking about it, Ji Ruo picked up a small wooden stick and walked to the rice field not far away…

……

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