Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!-Chapter 277: Turning point (8?)

***Back to when the perspective changed away from Etaria***

'It pains me to admit, but that lass…'

Etaria gritted her teeth as she rushed deeper and deeper into the forest.

'She was most likely right.'

Even though there should be a whole unit of elites from her golden legion with her, Etaria only needed the take a few steps into the forest to find herself completely isolated, all alone.

Just a few steps, and not only her private guards vanished between the trees… but so did the spy and Zanba, tasked with escorting her. Even though the entire front of the army should have long since passed by the place, the princess couldn't feel the presence of even a single soldier.

All of those along with the fact that she should be right now right in the middle of a group of powerful ascended all lead to one conclusion.

"And where do you think you are going?"

Right as Etaria raised her face, ready to call the only person capable of causing all of this out, Zanba emerged from the shadows of the forest.

He wasn't alone either, forcibly pulling the panicking spy.

"Can't you tell?! We are right in her domain!"

This strange woman lost most of her ingrained elegance when she allowed the sense of urgency to take over her priorities during the negotiation. And now, panicked to the point of letting out tears and struggling with all her might to wrestle her wrist free from Zanba's iron-like hold…

All the grace and elegance seemingly weaved into the very core of her human form has now vanished, tarnished by the vivid emotions drawn all over her face.

"I nearly lost my sight of you," Zanba ignored the woman and addressed the princess instead. "The air here… feels really heavy," he then added after taking a quick look around.

"So it is," Etaria muttered in response, turning her eyes back to the seemingly deeper part of the forest.

By now, she only had her memory to rely on to judge the directions, as even the trees behind started to somehow come closer together, obscuring the view and leaving the small group with an extremely narrow view.

"I like it less and less in here," Etaria gathered her saliva and spat it out in quite the un-princessly fashion. "Especially after everything you said," she added, looking over at the unexpected spy.

Etaria took a deep breath before turning her eyes slightly to the side.

"Just in case, are you ready?" she asked, staring right into Zanba's eyes.

"I mean… sure?" the man hesitated a little, taken aback by Etaria's question far more than he was by the extremely weird situation they found themselves in. "But are you really sure about it? If I do, you won't really have much choice but to…"

"But to marry you, I know," the princess rolled her golden eyes before turning them back to where she remembered the forest went. "I wouldn't have asked otherwise."

Zanba squinted his eyes a little.

The shock of the news was so great, that the spy shook her wrist and finally freed it from the man's grasp. Yet, contrary to what she clearly wanted to do with every fiber of her being…

The woman didn't dare to move an inch from her spot.

'Right,' Etaria rolled her eyes again. 'We are right in the middle of her domain, so she's as good as dead the moment she leaves our side.'

The princess took a deep, long breath and rested her hands on her hips.

'Okay. Let's do it!'

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Etaria exhaled… And released the strangling hold she kept over her mana, pushing away at the impeccably hidden influence of the forest's supreme domain.

*Whoosh!*

Like an explosion, Etaria's golden aura spread in every direction, creating a dome of gold that cleared the foreign aura from its surroundings.

All of a sudden, a whole lot of confused soldiers appeared all around them, ranging from Salvador's survivors, the first wave, and even Etaria's own, personal guard.

And just a few meters to the side, casually drinking from an exquisite, glass bottle, stood the very same woman Etaria had the questionable pleasure of meeting before.

"Are you going to try to tell me this doesn't qualify as a direct involvement?" Etaria asked, cutting right to the chase.

The unwritten and unspoken agreement was for the supremes to rein themselves back from any conflict of the mortals below them. It was counterproductive, costly, and extremely risky to boot.

The taboos hardly came by for no reason, after all.

"I'm merely out here to enjoy a drink in peace now that the show's over," Madam offered the princess an amused smile before taking a sip and then raising the bottle towards her. "You can't blame a beautiful woman like me for taking precautions not to let those…"

The celestial fox in her human fox threw a scanning look around as if to point at all the soldiers blessing the princess's intervention that freed them from the entrapment of Madam's domain.

"Not to let those brutes approach while I'm enjoying my drink."

Etaria lowered her eyelids and took a long yet shallow breath.

"Cut the bullshit, would you?" Etaria tightened her fists. "You really fear not Lo'Atkar's wrath, do you?"

The sly, white fox only smiled in response.

"It's you, child, who knows not how to hold back from rousing his ire." Madam lowered her bottle-bearing hand to her hips before stepping away from the trunk she was resting her back against and throwing her head to the side as she graced Etaria with a smile choke-full of confidence.

"You really…"

"That bottle," Zanba interrupted the princess right as she was about to start cussing. He matched Madam's movement and stepped forth, even raising his hand to point at the bottle in the woman's hand. "It's my first time seeing one like that. Would you mind me getting a sip?"

Etaria's face tensed up.

In a single instant, several lines of thoughts started, executed, and concluded within her mind.

'Is he for fucking real?'

Already at the end of her wits, only the fear of sparking the battle and thus breaking the taboo held her back from actually voicing her thoughts.

The situation was as tense as it was already. A single, ill-placed curse was all it would take for the fragile balance the fate of everyone around was connected to. For if the Supremes were to really clash…

Contrary to the princess, neither the white fox nor her own partner appeared to be bothered by the situation.

"Sure thing," as if recognizing a fellow drinker, Madam approached the princess… Only to pass right by her and pass the bottle over to the man.

'This fucking…'

"Thanks!" Paying no mind to his liege, Zanba brought the bottle up and took a serious yet politely restrained sip.

Before he could even bring the glass container down, his face already melted down in a look of bliss.

A strange light lit up in his eyes while the corners of his mouth twitched and pulled his lips into a small, satisfied smile.

"Damn!" Lowering his head down from the eighth heaven he found it at, Zanba stared wide-eyed at the bottle before raising them to Madam's face.

His eyes alternated between the two a few more times before he finally found his voice again.

"This is awesome! Where did you get…" Zanba pressed his lips together and made an ugly face before shaking his head. "Right, you wouldn't tell me anyway," he grumpily muttered, reaching out his hand to return the bottle…

Only for his hand to stop mid-way.

"Oh right," he looked over at the princess. "This is kind of her first time in a situation like that, so would you mind letting her get a sip too?"

Etaria's eyes sharpened and launched the most lethal stare she could produce right down at the back of her partner's head.

If looks could kill, not even Zanba's miraculous physique could save him from a sorry fate.

"Sure, I don't mind," Madam shook her shoulders, as casually standing right in the midst of their group as she did walk right into it. "Also," as if only now taking notice, she turned her eyes towards the spy, "it's really a shame to see you with them.

What happened, Syie?" she asked, the casual and amused look in her eyes showing first hints of extreme and utter coldness that emerged when she looked down at the traitor. "Managing a whole damn clan wasn't enough for you?"

Madam shook her head.

"I should've known better when I allowed you to approach Loraz."

The imperial spy, or Syie as Madam called her, squinted her eyes.

The fear, the respect for Madam's strength… they were free for all to see in her eyes. And yet, she didn't falter.

"You should've known better when you gave up on our fate," she argued back, refusing to lose the moral ground despite her standing as a spy and a traitor. "In a sense," Syie laughed out, "I'm the one not stopping at anything to uphold it!"

"Then you surely know by now that the valley is just an extension of the plains," Madam replied without missing a single beat, "and that it's actually extremely easy for us to cross both."

The fear, the respect and determination… They all froze when Madam's words struck Syie like a hammer.

"What?"

"It took him merely a day to figure it out. And looking back, the trick was so obvious we were the ones at fault not realizing it before," Madam added, shaking her head with an exasperated look on her face.

As much as Etaria wanted to observe the interaction longer, to learn more from the snippets of their discussion…

She couldn't do so when Zanba practically shoved the exquisite bottle right into her face.

"Just give it a try, would you?" he whined in the voice of a teacher annoyed by how he needs to scold his students over even the simplest stuff.

Etaria gave her partner another stare of death… before reluctantly accepting the bottle.

'He never acts that persistently…' she thought, following this strange instinct as she raised the bottle and took a swing herself.

And the drink…

To call it marvelous would be a grave, treacherous insult to the absolute masters who brew this drink.

It was stronger than the imperial wine… yet the taste of alcohol barely dulled all the other flavors. In fact, rather than numbing Etaria's throat, it only served as another spice that brought forth so many different aromas.

But that wasn't all!

Truly proving the divine mastery of the ones who produced the bottle of this godly liquor was the fact that the way alcohol numbed and irritated Etaria's throat and tongue… Actually allowed her to experience a whole new, hidden palate of the drink!

"Haaaa…."

Breathing out the hot air that gathered in her lungs under the influence of just a single sip, Etaria blinked her eyes a few times as she stared at the bottle.

And funnily enough, despite being the figure behind a total and absolute ban on drinking while on the job… The habits from her early adventures kicked in. With the alcohol lubricating the gears of her mind, things suddenly grew easier, simpler, and more straightforward.

Just like how the bottle in her hand… Couldn't be made with any of the techniques Etaria was aware of. Or the fact that the letters ingrained directly into the glass were nothing like any of the alphabets she ever encountered before.

The world's class art serving as mere decoration plastered over the bulk of the bottle was the next detail that the princess observed.

A plethora of things that she never encountered before. All a product from different fields of craft and knowledge, ranging from glassworking through artistically masterful brewing at a state-of-the-art piece of art used as a mere label for the bottle.

All of those things, when on their own, could be explained as some sort of exotic luxury, a product from a distant land where people managed to master one skill beyond the limit of their peers.

But when all taken into account together, the picture just this bottle painted was awfully in line with Syie's report.

"That's one hell of a drink, isn't it?" Zanba praised out loud while reaching out for the bottle, most likely intending to pass it back to its rightful owner. The light in his eyes intensified a bit when his fingers brushed against the glass. "I invoke Lo'…"

"No, you don't!"