Chosen By The Lover's Constellation-Chapter 49: Storm of Hearts, Part Five

All of a sudden, a goal had snuck into Mel’s heart. And, that goal had taken the form of a living, breathing person called Lianna Velcross.

With the taste of that girl’s tongue still fresh in Mel’s mind, she asked herself one, simple question.

[Can I win her over?]

Of course, her immediate guess was that the answer was "no." Setting aside the fact that she was married (even though she’d kissed Mel twice now), Mel was... boring. She knew that about herself. She was reminded of that every time she saw any of the other recruits walking around the guild hall.

People from well-known families, who’d already been on so many missions and who’d acquired all sorts of different loot.

Mel knew quite well that she couldn’t really stack up. And yet, now that Lianna had given her this cursed taste of true intimacy, all Mel wanted was... More.

So, she got to thinking.

The first thing she needed to consider was the obvious obstacle.

Lianna’s wife.

[Lianna had mentioned that things between them were... Complicated. Would she get in my way if I tried to, uh... hit on Lianna?]

Just mentioning the possibility of that was enough to make Mel blush. "Hitting on" anyone was the sort of thing that Mel couldn’t even fathom doing. But right now, at this current moment, it was all she cared about.

[Should I do something?] Mel thought to herself. [Maybe I should look it up online!]

Thus, Mel took to the internet to search for a solution to her problem.

"How... do... I... se-seduce... someone?" She muttered as she typed before scrolling through the search engine for answers. "Compliment the person... Touch them? In what way? Um... Talk to them often..."

She pictured it.

[Hi, Lianna... Your eyes are beau....]

She stopped.

"Agh, it’s embarrassing!"

Falling back on her couch, Mel buried her face in her pillow. She felt like she was swimming so far out of her depth.

But, it was necessary to try to figure something out.

After all, now that Lianna had invaded her mind like this, it was impossible to get her out.

Mel sighed, continuing to read that article.

"Become someone she can respect..."

That was probably an even bigger obstacle than learning to compliment her without stammering. Even Mel didn’t respect herself. Anytime she looked in the mirror, Mel would feel disgusted with the image she saw.

[I... I should do something.] She sat up. [I can just follow this article’s advice, right? I should work on myself!]

Pacing around her living room, Mel tried to think of ways to do that.

First things first, her appearance.

[Um... Maybe... I should get a haircut?]

On that note, Mel ended up deciding to do something that, previously, would have been unthinkable.

[I NEED TO VISIT A SALON!!!]

That was only the first step, of course.

[If I am to follow the steps of this article and win over Lianna’s heart, then, I need to be completely reborn! My appearance, my personality, my power level, it all needs to change!]

One more realization went hand in hand with this, of course.

[But...] She fell to her knees. [Pretty much all of my plans would require money.]

Because she hadn’t gone on many missions yet or fought many Fiends, Mel still only had a few royals to her name. The only reason that going and fighting was even a possibility was because she was a mage and not something like a warrior, otherwise, she’d be stuck with nothing but low-level equipment.

[So, then, the first thing I need to get is money,] she concluded. [Then, I buy some clothes... Get a haircut... Makeup... All that, and then...] her heart beat faster just thinking about it. [I can try to s-seduce her...]

In truth, there was a chance none of this would work. Despite what Lianna had said, Mel had spent some time among them and it did seem like Lianna and Enverna were quite close.

[I might still lose to her. But, it doesn’t matter! I need to try!]

On that note, Mel went to change her clothes.

As she said, the first step would be to get some money.

And to do that, she’d have to go out hunting Fiends.

---

{Lianna}

Lianna sneezed.

"Are you alright?" Enverna asked.

"Uh, yeah... Someone must have been talking about me or something." Lianna shifted on the couch. The movie she and Enverna were watching had been playing in the background for some time now, as Lianna had lost interest in it a while ago.

Mostly, she was keeping her mind on one, specific thing.

Her phone buzzed. Lianna went to pick it up and smiled.

"Finally! It’s here!"

"Hm? Oh, the Shields of Saren finally sent you the info? Took them long enough."

The info in question pertained to the "exploration of Kaelen", a large-scale mission that the Shields of Saren said they’d personally invite Lianna and Enverna to if they attended the gala.

Now, a few days after that event, they were finally following up on that.

"Ahem, so, here’s what they said," Lianna began to read. "Far, far to the west, there exists a cave that is, in truth, a secret path to an ancient, underground civilization called Kaelen. As you may know, the Shields of Saren have been trying to develop technology that allows us to detect the presence of high-level Fiends."

"Really?" Enverna asked, interrupting Lianna. "I suppose it makes sense. If you had such a device, that means you’d basically be notified of any high-tier loot that appears out in the world. Quite an interesting idea."

"Yeah, if it works," Lianna nodded, before going back to the message. "Our machine has told us that there is a Greater Fiend hiding in this underground civilization’s ruins. Now, given that our tech has not quite advanced to its final stages yet, this enemy should be on the weaker side, though with it being a Greater Fiend it’s still no laughing matter. As recompense for the two of you having come to our gala and generating interest for it, we would like to extend a formal invitation so that you both can come and watch high-level Players at work. As you are both recruits, we have no doubt that you can make use of..." Lianna made an "ah" expression. "Oh. So, they’re literally just saying that we can go and watch them."

"It does sound like a decent opportunity, though."

"It does..." Lianna agreed. "I mean, getting an opportunity to watch some super high-level shit is obviously valuable but... Still, I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about it."

"Why?"

[Well,] Lianna replied internally, [mainly because that "prevent the ascension of the Storm Fiend" quest hasn’t disappeared.]

At this point, after what happened during the gala, Lianna was convinced Mel was the key to this quest. But...

[Was saving her not enough?]

"Let me look up what others have been saying about this."

Enverna turned her attention back onto the movie while Lianna searched the internet for any and all crumbs of relevant information. It didn’t take long, however, before she realized:

"Yeah, this looks like a pretty top-secret operation," Lianna murmured.

"Hm? Did you find nothing at all?"

"Nothing," Lianna affirmed.

"Could it be a trap, then?" Enverna asked that question so casually, as though making attempts on others’ lives was a normal part of life.

"Why... Ah, maybe."

Lianna had been about to ask "why would anyone want us dead?" when she recalled that this offer had been made to them before the footage confirming their innocence had been revealed.

[Maybe, in that case, the Shields of Saren meant to use us to generate publicity for the gala, and then just toss us aside afterward?]

Lianna blinked.

[That’s kinda messed up! I-I mean, sure, we were alleged murderers... But, still, kinda messed up!]

Sighing, she looked back at the message she’d gotten.

[But, they sent this to us now, after the fact. Now that they know we’re innocent, they shouldn’t have any reason to want to do that anymore so, if that was the purpose behind this, why go through with the invitation? Is it just out of politeness?]

Right next to her, Enverna contemplated the matter quietly, before saying:

"Perhaps we should make use of our connections and ensure that we will not be harmed during this undertaking."

"Okay, but what ’connections’ do you have in mind? We don’t know anyone."

"But, we do, don’t we?" Enverna smiled. "A certain someone has been helping us for a while. I’m sure if we could reach her, she would help us again."

"Oh, you mean Miss Taylor?"

"Indeed."

"But... I don’t know how to reach her," Lianna sighed. "I’ve never been able to reach her. Even though she’s been keeping tabs on me all this time, I don’t know what the first step to contacting her would even be."

"Lianna, maybe that would have been true a few months ago, but, come on, you certainly have a way to contact her now..."

Hearing that, Lianna pondered Enverna’s words for a moment.

Eventually, her eyes widened.

"The administrator!"

"Exactly," Enverna nodded. "Let’s try asking her how we can contact Miss Taylor. Maybe she’ll have an answer. Even if she doesn’t know Miss Taylor personally, she must have some way to reach her as the Watchful’s administrator."

"You’re right!"

"Why, of course I am," Enverna replied, pulling together one of the most smug expressions Lianna had ever seen on her.

"We may as well go ask her right now, huh?" Lianna asked, pulling herself up off the couch in a hurry.

[Holy shit,] she thought. [With any luck... I might even be able to meet her in person!]