Chosen By The Lover's Constellation-Chapter 50: Storm of Hearts, Part Six

{Mel}

Mel put on her armor.

Or, well, what she called her armor. All she had were some leather rags, her running shoes, and an iron plate that, if others’ experiences online were anything to go by, even average Fiends could cut through like butter.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she thought to herself that if she had to place her faith in someone who looked like her to protect her from monsters out in the wild, her conclusion would simply be:

[I’m fucked.]

The mere possibility of fighting still scared her, but she had to go through with it.

She had a crush she wanted to impress.

[I could ask her for help, but... No,] Mel shook her head as she tied the laces on her shoes. [I want her to see a transformation.]

There was a high chance nothing she did would matter, but she still wanted to try to shock Lianna somehow. So, Mel walked out of her room and made her way to the Player’s Gate.

From here, after a long walk, Mel found herself in the Haunted Forest.

[Doesn’t seem like any other players are here.]

She couldn’t hear much. The trees hugging the paved path she was on were coated with thick mists. Every tiny sound, such as leaves being crushed by her shoes or twigs snapping as she walked over them, felt like they were amplified. Every step she took felt painfully loud.

Mel brought out the staff she’d acquired from her last time out in the field.

Basic Wooden Staff

{Weapon}

{Lesser}

{Class Req: None}

{Stat Req: None}

{Description: A long, wooden stick that one can cast spells from. Can be used as a cane as well!}

{Effect: Spells are 5% stronger}

Holding onto this staff like the lifeline it was, Mel’s amethyst eyes scanned her surroundings.

She had to keep her guard up. As high-tier Players often liked to say, the moment one stepped into an encounter zone, their lives were on the line until they left.

Something shifted behind a bush in the distance.

"...!" Silent but alert, Mel pointed her staff at the bush and waited.

Only for a squirrel to hop out, give her an almost apologetic look, and run off.

Mel sighed.

"Seriously? What-"

A tentacle wrapped around her right leg and snapped back, pulling Mel so harshly she nearly dropped her staff.

"AAH!" She screamed as she was dragged along the dirt toward that tentacle’s grinning owner.

A Fiend perched atop a nearby tree. Like the other Fiends Mel had seen, this one was practically just a lump of flesh stuck to the side of the tree, but unlike the others, this one had a mouth. One that was grinning with anticipation as Mel moved closer and closer.

Out of sheer reflex, Mel reached into her Inventory and pulled out a dagger. With it, she sliced through the tentacle.

The Fiend hissed, retrieving its limb.

Mel stood up and aimed her staff at it, gritting her teeth.

Sparks - 25 MP

{Spell}

{Lesser}

{Class: Sorcerer}

{Desc: Launch a weak lightning bolt at a target.}

Using {Sparks}, she put her staff in front of her. Thunder cracked and lightning surged out of the staff’s tip, flying straight at the enemy. The bolt struck it. Brown, slime-like liquid spurted out from the wound Mel had just created. The Fiend fell from its position on the tree.

Obviously, this wouldn’t be enough to kill it but Mel had no intention of letting up from here.

One bolt after another, Mel took a step back, making sure to keep her distance as her spells flew toward the fallen target. It screeched, a sound so awful Mel wanted to cover her ears.

And yet, there was an odd satisfaction she was feeling right now.

[Yes, yes, DIE!] She thought, scowling as she kept the spells going.

The Fiend had died a while ago, actually. But, due to the adrenaline going through her system, Mel continued until she finally realized the Fiend wasn’t reacting at all.

MP: 100/400

Looking up at her own mana, Mel fell to her knees.

The Fiend lay in a puddle of its own filth, just a couple of steps away.

[Ah... Scary...]

With her first kill of the day gone, Mel walked up and went through the fallen monster’s Inventory, extracting its Mana Core and immediately moving away from it.

[One down. I should go for five. Or, maybe ten? I don’t know. Whatever I have time for, I guess.]

---

{Enverna}

Enverna and Lianna stood before the administrator’s office.

Looking at each other and nodding, Enverna stepped forward, rapping her knuckles against the door.

"Come in." A voice that left no room for discussion gave them that instruction.

The two girls walked inside.

The administrator, whose name neither Enverna nor Lianna knew yet, was sitting behind her desk. She had on a brown beret along with a white shirt and her usual white gloves. The rest of what she wore was obscured by the dress, but what the two of them could see made the administrator look like an artist.

"Good evening, girls. I take it everything’s been going well since the gala?"

"Thankfully, yes, it has," Enverna answered.

"I haven’t seen as much hate for us online, so, yeah," Lianna added. "Thank you for uploading that video."

"That is not something I should be thanked for," the administrator shook her head. "Though, now that I think about it, I could have extorted you for some money! Hahaha!"

[She just made a terrifying statement so casually...]

"You need to capitalize on this, though," the administrator continued. "Now that you have both been cleared of your murder allegations, you will no longer remain in the minds of the average citizen."

"Isn’t that a good thing?" Lianna asked.

"It can be, depending on what your priorities are. But, Lianna, don’t you remember what we talked about? Ah," she looked at Enverna, "I suppose Enverna was not present for that discussion. Let me go over it again. The point of publicity isn’t just to gain likes on social media posts, it’s to act as a gateway for opportunities!"

The administrator stood up, revealing the black skirt she’d been wearing. She paced around the room, hands held behind her back.

"Sponsorships, invitations to secret missions, photoshoots, advertisement campaigns, all of this sort of stuff requires you to maintain a presence in the collective consciousness!"

Enverna nodded along.

It made sense, of course. The showcases she and her family would do back at Garriden served that exact purpose.

"To what extent you want to, well, be celebrities is up to you two. But, I would advise that you take advantage of the attention that Jack boy went through so much trouble to garner for you," she winked.

"I see. Indeed, that does make sense," Enverna voiced her opinion.

Sure, it did leave a sour taste in her mouth to have to care about her image in Telvan as well just like she had in Garriden, but still. She understood that these were quite the potential benefits.

"Anyway, enough of that," the administrator said. "That’s old news. What are you girls here for now?"

"Ah, yes," Enverna shifted in her seat, "we received this opportunity a little while ago and we were wondering if you, as the Watchful’s administrator, could help us reach someone to ask them for help."

"Okay..." The administrator nodded slowly. "What’s the opportunity and who would you like to reach?"

"We’ve been invited to some ’secret mission’, the exploration of a place called Kaelen."

"Oh," the administrator blinked, "really?"

Lianna and Enverna looked at one another.

"You... sound familiar with it."

"I am," the administrator smiled. "It’s a mission that’s been pending approval from the president for a while. Personally, I thought it was never going to happen."

"Well, we were contacted by the Shields of Saren," Enverna explained. "Apparently, it is happening and in exchange for our presence at the gala, they’re letting us tag along."

"Is that so?" The administrator smiled, narrowing her eyes. "It would appear I was left entirely out of this discussion. Not that they require my permission to work with Watchful members, but... It’s a courtesy thing, you know? Hm... Okay then," she moved on, "who do you need to reach?"

"Um," Lianna spoke up now. "We... We were wondering if you could help us reach Cynthia Taylor."

"..."

Again, the administrator blinked twice.

After a very long pause, she asked:

"May I ask why?"

"Well, we’re trying to see if she can... I don’t know, make sure the mission’s safe. A-As you know, just a short time ago, we were literally murder suspects." It clearly made Lianna uncomfortable to bring it up, but she pushed through it. "We don’t think it’s that unlikely that this invitation was made with, uh... Not the best intentions in mind. So, we wanted to see if she could help us somehow."

"Hm... I see," the administrator’s face remained completely blank as she looked back at both girls. "I suppose I could contact her. I could also contact the Shields of Saren themselves and have them explain why the Watchful were... accidentally left out of this discussion."

"Thank you!"

Lianna and Enverna both stood up, then. The administrator held a little smile as she said:

"It’s good that you’re not being too trusting of those around you, by the way. Keep it up."

Just like that, the visit concluded and the two recruits walked out.

Lianna exhaled deeply as she stepped out and closed the door behind her.

"I don’t know what it is about that woman, but... Her presence is suffocating."

"I know what you mean," Enverna agreed. "But, she’s going to help us which is what matters. By the way, I feel I did not let you speak enough in there. I apologize."

"Huh? No need," Lianna shook her head. "I love it when you take the lead like that."

[... Is that so?]

"By the way, how strong is our dear administrator?" Enverna asked.

"I don’t know."

"Huh?" Enverna raised a brow. "But, you can see others’ statuses."

"Uh, yeah, but... I try not to do that unless I have to. Maybe it’s stupid, but, you know, I feel like I’m invading people’s privacies if I just do it at will."

"Huh. Well, I don’t know how you can resist checking hers. I’m certainly quite curious."

"... Maybe I should next time," Lianna replied. "I guess it would be cool to know."