"Use them? Why wouldn’t I use them!"

After thinking for a while, Ariel gritted her teeth and said,

"He’s already said this much. If I don’t use them, wouldn’t that just be wasting them instead?"

"Oh my, is that so? But from what I can see, these materials all keep quite well. Look at this Guslanville scale armor—this is the kind of good stuff that could sit around for hundreds of years without losing the slightest bit of its effectiveness."

Peles blinked and teased, "Can that really be called wasting them?"

"Then count it as me spending money, all right?!"

Ariel said in embarrassed irritation, "That guy still owes me a hundred million!"

"A hundred million?"

Peles said in surprise, "Goodness. Amusement parks, Crystal Palace, all sorts of gourmet food, clothes, rare materials... that hundred million really does stretch a long way. How come the money you used to have on you was never this durable?"

"Teacher, how can you—"

"All right, all right, I’ll stop teasing you."

Seeing Ariel’s face already flushed red as volcanic clouds and looking ready to explode at any second, Peles quickly cut herself off.

If this girl exploded and tore the room apart, that would not be fun. They had just freeloaded all this stuff for nothing, and if they turned around and blew up the man’s room afterward, a thick-skinned old thing like Peles would be fine, but Ariel might end up having to lie down on the bed and repay the debt herself.

Thinking of what Ariel would look like if it really came to that, Peles smiled to herself again.

She had to admit, compared to the way Ariel used to be—single-mindedly devoted to training, caring about no one but beautiful girls and money—recent Ariel had indeed become much more interesting. Teasing her now and then was genuinely very amusing.

Work and rest. Work and rest.

"Since the materials are ready, let’s begin right away."

Peles lifted a hand, and the rare materials on the floor gradually floated into the air. Then with another point of her finger, the storage magic ring on Ariel’s finger flashed faintly, and a huge metal container appeared in the room.

It looked like an enormous cauldron, but its shape was far more ancient and exquisite. Countless patterns not belonging to the style of this age were engraved across the metal surface, and the moment it appeared, an ancient aura rushed out to meet them.

"I’m sure you already know the dangers involved in this, but just in case, I’ll ask the usual question before we start."

Peles gazed seriously at Ariel.

"Are you ready?"

"Of course."

For Ariel, shifting from embarrassment into seriousness took only an instant. She nodded just as seriously.

"I’ve been ready for a long time already."

"Very good."

Peles smiled in satisfaction. "That’s my disciple."

As soon as she finished speaking, Peles moved her fingers slightly.

A mysterious wave began to spread over the entire room, and the doors and windows sealed themselves shut.

Peles’s hazy figure drifted through every corner of the room.

Candles made from deep-sea magic whale oil were lit, replacing the magestone light in the room, and incense blended from more than a hundred ground and refined aromatics sent up curling wisps of smoke, thoroughly driving out all impurity in the room.

Several arrays were drawn with exquisite precision, helping gather magic power while also ensuring that if the tempering accidentally failed, the room would not literally be blasted into the sky.

After doing all that, Peles lightly patted the ancient cauldron, and the patterns on it gradually lit up with profound glimmers.

"Ariel!"

"Here!"

Ariel, who had long since been fully focused and prepared, did not hesitate in the slightest. She ignited her Divine Favor flame and concentrated with all her mind, controlling the fire as it began to heat the cauldron.

Peles, meanwhile, followed a sequence that absolutely could not be disturbed, dropping the materials into the cauldron one by one. Her powerful soul force monitored every change in temperature at all times, allowing no room for error.

And so, through the seamless cooperation of master and disciple, who knew how much time passed before a great golden broth gradually simmered out inside the cauldron. A rich and strange fragrance spread through the room, even overpowering the expensive purifying incense used for the ritual.

The golden broth was still bubbling, but Peles had already lifted her head to look at Ariel.

"It’s ready."

"Mhm."

Ariel nodded. Without the slightest hesitation, she removed her clothes and stepped directly into the cauldron, which was still being scorched by roaring flames.

"Hiss—" Ariel bared her teeth.

In only an instant, intense pain struck her from every inch of her skin, making her body curl in on itself instinctively.

This kind of excruciating agony, woven together from high heat and overwhelming medicinal power, was no different from countless sharp blades slicing open Ariel’s flesh all at once. An ordinary person might have fainted in an instant, but after only a brief frown and a muffled sound at the start, she began adapting with astonishing speed.

This level of pain was nothing to Ariel Bugaard.

"Don’t relax."

Peles gave a sharp warning. "Your physical body had already reached a bottleneck through your previous tempering. It will take at least three gradually rising rounds of refinement to break through that barrier. Understand? This is only the beginning."

"Yes!"

Ariel answered, then immersed her mind and began feeling the changes gradually taking place in her body beneath the constant battering of medicinal force, becoming tougher and stronger step by step!

...

...

"Haah... so sleepy."

Outside the ducal estate, a watcher hidden in the shadows yawned as he looked toward the hands of the distant clocktower and began calculating how many more hours remained before the shift change.

It was not that he was slacking off at work. It was just that he had gone to a tavern yesterday and spent the whole night there angrily cursing that trash Kingdom together with a bunch of like-minded men, so he really was a little out of sorts right now.

Ah... if only he could get off work sooner. The argument he had with that arrogant bastard last night over whether the Kingdom would be crushed in one month or two still was not settled.

How could it possibly take two months? With trash like the Kingdom...

"Focus!"

Suddenly, a stern voice poured directly into his mind, making the watcher jolt violently.

"Captain!" Looking at that imposing figure approaching him, the watcher felt his heart contract hard.

Damn it. He had actually been caught spacing out by the captain.

"This still isn’t the time to relax, understand?" The captain’s face was dark as water as he stared at the distracted watcher and said coldly, "Pull yourself together!"

"Yes, sir!"

The watcher straightened his chest and raised his head, answering seriously.

"Good."

The captain patted him on the shoulder. "It’s not that I’m being harsh with you. Guarding the ducal estate is a very important duty. If anything goes wrong, neither you nor I can bear that responsibility."

"Understood, sir!"

"Here, don’t be nervous. Have a little drink and wake yourself up."

The captain handed him a flask, and his tone had softened quite a bit.

Warmth rose in the watcher’s chest. It seemed the captain was actually in a pretty good mood today and not as harsh as usual. Normally, if he got caught doing something like this, he would definitely be punished severely.

"Thank you, Captain."

Thinking that he really had almost fallen asleep just now, the watcher took the flask and tipped back a big gulp.

But the moment the burning liquor went down his throat, he suddenly realized something was wrong...

That captain, always so serious, rigid, dutiful, and disciplined—even if he were in a good mood and willing to go easy on punishment, how could he possibly bring alcohol while on duty?

And actually urge him to drink it?

Did the sun rise in the west today?

No.

The watcher realized it then.

This was...

"You..."

With a clatter, the flask fell to the ground.

Before the watcher could raise an alarm, he felt a horrifying wave of dizziness strike his mind, then swallow his entire consciousness whole.

His eyes widened as he stared fixedly at that "captain." Though this person’s face and aura were exactly the same as in his memory, the feeling coming off him at this moment was utterly unfamiliar.

"Heh."

The "captain" caught the unconscious watcher in one arm to keep him from falling and making noise, then sneered. "The ducal estate’s guards aren’t much after all."

A faint mist drifted over from the end of the street.

"Who goes there?!"

Several sharp shouts came from the shadows around the ducal estate, but before they could spread very far, they were swallowed up by even deeper shadows, together with the endless night.

"Lord Arthur."

Not long after, several shadows swept in soundlessly. "There was one fifth-rank warrior, one Radiance-Rank mage, and a bunch of third-rank watchers. They’ve all already been successfully knocked down by the poison you gave us."

"Only this many guards?"

The "captain" wiped at his face, and the originally upright, square-jawed features instantly turned gloomy and sinister. He took out a mirror and glanced into it, marveling at just how excellent Cat Lover Dennis’s transformation magic really was, while the mockery in his smile deepened.

"For a ducal estate, the security is much weaker than I expected."

"It’s probably because of the war. That empress of the Empire transferred away too many of the Empire’s strong people. I suppose in her eyes, as long as that bear is guarding Belrand, nothing can go wrong," one of the shadows said.

"That bear is troublesome indeed, and it seems the former Saintess is here too. Two genuine Crowned Ones are more than enough to hold Belrand down. But unfortunately, our target is not him, nor the imperial palace he’s keeping under close guard."

Arthur lifted his head, his eyes reflecting the ducal estate crouching in the night like a giant beast.

It was said that when Duke Campbell had still been here, the defenses of this place had been impregnable. Even if an entire army were assembled to attack from the outside, it still would not have been able to break through.

But unfortunately, the Lion King was gone. All that remained here now were a few little lions that had not yet fully grown.

Those little lions might one day have the potential to become great lions, but at this moment they were still immature. Not so frightening after all.

"Lord Arthur, should we deal with these people?" From within the shadows, killing intent spread.

"No."

Arthur rejected the suggestion.

"That bear is very sensitive to the smell of blood. Large-scale killing right now would be no different from stirring the grass and startling the snake. The real business comes first."

"Understood."

"So next comes the main event." Arthur straightened his clothes. "Split up and move according to the plan. End it fast. Don’t give them the slightest chance to react!"

"Yes!" the shadows answered in vigorous unison.

"Heh, very good. Those little lions will probably get quite a scare."

As those shadows shot rapidly into the ducal estate, cold light flickered in Arthur’s eyes, and the smile at the corner of his lips still had not faded, as if he could already see the stunned, horrified disbelief on the faces of those few targets.

Yes, who would ever have thought that someone would dare launch a direct assault on the ducal estate, a place no one had ever attacked head-on?

This method of sudden attack was extremely despicable, but it could not be helped. After all, they were here precisely to squeeze soft persimmons and bully little lions.

Hopefully, these tender little lions would not be so frightened that they burst into tears at the end.

...

...

"Hiss... hoo..."

Ariel let out a long breath of foul air.

Perhaps because she had gone through too much tempering in the Abyss, or perhaps because the materials provided by the ducal estate were even better quality than she had imagined, this round of refinement had gone astonishingly smoothly, without a single accident along the way.

So when Ariel woke up, the medicinal liquid in the cauldron had already nearly turned into clear water, all of its potency perfectly absorbed. Her skin had even begun to faintly glow with golden light.

"Well?" Peles withdrew her soul force and looked Ariel over.

"It’s incredible."

Ariel clenched both fists, feeling the immense power surging through her limbs and bones.

"My rank hasn’t obviously increased, but I can clearly feel that the strength of my body has risen by an entire tier."

"I deliberately suppressed your martial rank. After all, using something this precious, something meant to reinforce the foundation, just for simple advancement would be far too wasteful."

Peles smiled. "Looks like this round of tempering was perfect. Even the effects are a little beyond my expectations. You really ought to thank that little lover of yours properly. Otherwise, something like this probably would have had to go through twists and turns again and drag on for several more months before it was done."

"What little lover?!"

Ariel gave a snort. "Don’t make it sound so intimate."

"Oh?"

Peles deliberately drew out the sound. "If he’s not your little lover, then what are you? Husband and wife? My, did I hit the mark? You’re already having thoughts like that now? Keep it up. Your teacher will help you. Kick out those gaudy—"

"Teacher, can you stop bringing that up all the time?!"

Flushed with embarrassment and irritation, Ariel turned her head away and decided she was no longer going to pay attention to her teacher, who seemed to be transforming more and more into some kind of shameless mischief-maker.

She stepped out of the cauldron on her long, firm, powerful legs and rustled back into the dress she had worn before.

Before she knew it, the thing she wore most often now was exactly this sort of soft, fluffy clothing, even though there had once been a time when she had not liked dresses at all.

But without even realizing it, Ariel had already grown used to it, and no longer felt there was anything wrong with that.

"The results of the tempering were definitely beyond expectations, but... somehow it feels a little regrettable."

After getting dressed, Ariel threw a few casual punches. Though they hit nothing tangible, the air still let out heavy, muffled booms.

"Regrettable?" Peles asked in confusion. "What’s regrettable?"

"In the past, whenever I did this kind of tempering, it was always while I was being hunted down, stealing time to do it. The moment it was over, I’d have to go right back to fighting for my life with someone, so I could immediately feel how much my strength had grown in a very short time..."

Ariel threw several more punches, but the more she swung, the less satisfying it felt.

"This is the first time I’ve ever finished it in such a peaceful setting."

"I understand what you mean."

Peles smiled. "But this is the ducal estate, after all. You can’t exactly go pick another fight with that maid."

"Hmph. It’s not like I couldn’t."

Ariel let out a disdainful snort, thinking to herself that it was not as though she was afraid of that woman.

But the moment that thought surfaced, her little butt seemed to remember a faint burning sensation, and the idea was immediately shoved back down.

"Forget it. For Muen’s sake, I’ll spare that slutty maid for now."

Ariel thought herself thoughtful and kind... not scared of getting her butt smacked again. Definitely not!

"I’ll go out and stretch a bit first. I wonder if Muen’s awake yet. In a ducal estate this big, there should be some kind of training ground, right..."

Ariel lifted her head and reached for the room’s door... but just as her hand was about to touch it, she seemed to sense something, and her expression abruptly froze.

Some strange premonition began ringing faintly in her mind. Yet in her perception, there was indeed nothing at all outside the door.

Ariel shot a glance at her teacher. Peles’s long brows lifted slightly, as though she had discovered something interesting, and she nodded at Ariel with obvious amusement.

So it really wasn’t a mistake...

Ariel did not hesitate any longer. Her hand suddenly clenched into a fist and smashed straight through the door!

"Hm?"

A startled voice sounded from the night.

A certain shadow that had originally been plastered right up against the outside of the room retreated like a sheet of paper blown by the wind, then gradually solidified into a human shape.

"You actually noticed me? Impressive."

The light from inside the room spilled outward, illuminating the figure’s true face.

It was a rather gaunt man, with sunken eye sockets and jutting cheekbones, dressed in a gray formal suit slightly too large for him, as if he had just come off a full year of sleepless overtime. His whole bearing was exhausted to the extreme.

And yet, in complete contrast to that, a vicious, beastlike aura kept pouring off him. Just standing there facing him made a person instinctively uncomfortable.

"Who are you?" Ariel asked with a frown.

"You don’t look like one of the ducal estate’s people. Barging in here in the middle of the night like this—what do you want?"

"Heh heh... who I am isn’t important."

The man split his mouth in a grotesque grin.

"As for the purpose, it’s very simple. Just like Lord Arthur said, because a certain turtle shell is too hard to break, we’re here to squeeze soft persimmons."

"Hah?"

Ariel was so stunned she almost thought she had misheard him. She pointed at herself. "Soft persimmons? Me? Where exactly did you hear a joke that funny? Or did you just crawl out of a graveyard or some ancient ruin and know absolutely nothing about what’s happening on the continent?"

"Heh heh... isn’t that exactly what you are?"

The man’s smile grew stranger and stranger. He pulled out a sheet of paper from somewhere and began reading aloud to Ariel.

"Ariel Bugaard, female, born in Belrand’s Lower District. Mother died when she was ten, after which she began wandering the Lower District and was later taken in by a Church orphanage. During that «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» period, she established a close friendship with the current Saintess, Liya Angel... 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"The most recent time she acted in public was the Saint Maria Academy exchange conference several months ago, where the rank she displayed was late fourth rank, while the strength she demonstrated was early fifth rank. Extraordinary talent, astonishing potential. To cross ranks so easily and fight stronger opponents at your age, while also possessing the fire Divine Favor everyone else longs for—truly admirable!"

"What a pity!"

The man suddenly crushed the paper into his palm and said smugly,

"In the end, you’re still too young. Time is your only weakness. Let’s be generous and assume you’ve improved over the last few months too—but how much could you possibly have improved? Let’s make the boldest guess and say your real strength is already approaching mid fifth rank. But in front of a true powerhouse like me, a veteran late fifth-rank expert, what waves do you think you can possibly stir up?"

"You—"

Hearing the man rattle off such a long and detailed list, and feeling that overwhelmingly powerful aura he was deliberately releasing, Ariel could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

"Now you understand, don’t you?"

The corners of the man’s mouth nearly stretched all the way to his ears.

"I’m not joking with you. After all... the reason we’ve been able to contend with the Church for so many years is because the thing we value most is so-called intelligence!"