The storeowner herself came to greet us upon our return to the dress shop. Her hair was frizzy, as if it had been pulled, and she was wringing her hands.

  “Pick a few more summer-appropriate dresses,” Leticia commanded, ignoring the woman’s distress. “A little louder this time. I want to make an entrance.” She gestured back to me. “For her, I think perhaps more subtle lines. Something sleek, but with warm colors. She’s loud enough as is.”

  She hooked a finger at Esther, who was trying to use a mannequin as a shield against my gaze. “Esther, prepare a changing room for just the two of us and an attendant. Seal it against all eavesdropping. I want it completely private.”

  I hung back while Leticia looked over the selection of dresses the shopowner had picked out. My maids were already drifting through the racks, their eyes sparkling. Leticia had given them carte blanche, and they were taking full advantage of it.

  But didn’t I tell them the same thing?

  The princes were enjoying coffee and snacks at a small table prepared for them.

  I inched back toward the foreigner as he worked his way toward me, pretending to idly examine the outfits on display, sweeping his hand over the fabric.

  I had a feeling neither of us was good at subterfuge because both the old captain and Anthony kept looking toward us.

  No helping it.

  “You are Middle Kingdom person?”

  The foreigner spoke in strange, sharp, tonal words that should have been incomprehensible to me if not for [Demon Insight].

  Was the Middle Kingdom another name for Orlina? A memory flashed of Steve playing a strategy game, a classic: Romance of Three Kingdoms. The map was that of China, but the generals in it had called it: The Middle Kingdom.

  “Chinese?” I risked asking in English.

  His eyes perked up. “Ah! You transmigrator too?” he replied in stilted English.

  “Hearts of Flames?”

  Did the main game include eastern regions? I still had no idea how large it was.

  The foreigner skewed his lips. That spice emanating from his soul thickened, flaring up like a struck match.

  He patted his chest. “No. Hearts of Flames: Romance of Dragons. Best DLC. Better than original.”

  He flicked his long ponytail over his shoulder and struck a pose, a movement so unnatural and fluid it felt rehearsed, like an actor on stage.

  But why would he need to perform here? Aren’t we trying to be subtle?

  As if on cue, Anthony’s voice piped up from beside a rack of dresses. “So you two know each other well?”

  The foreigner let his hair fall, his pose faltering. “Oh, no, Lady Cecilia was just telling me about herself,” he said in accented Avatinian.

  I fought to keep a straight face.

  Hadn’t he heard me introduce myself earlier?!

  Anthony chuckled, stepping into view. “Her name isn’t Cecilia. That, I believe, is her sister.”

  The foreigner blinked. “Really? So she is not the Peerless Demon Sword?”

  He tilted his head, looking at me as if I was some broken puzzle. “No, she has to be. She looks like the cover.” Then he looked up at my face. “Just not the eyes, and the scar.”

  This guy… How did he even survive here?

  “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” I said loudly, cutting him off before he could do any more damage. “But I’m a person, and so is my sister.”

  Anthony laughed, looking strangely relieved. “Guess you two don’t know each other. But Jo, this is Long Aotian. He’s an emissary from The Great Dragon Realm beyond Orlina. My mother has taken a liking to him, and has assigned him as a protector for my Intended.”

  He stepped in between the two of us, creating a polite but firm wall. “Forgive him for being a bit crude, but he doesn’t fully know our ways yet.”

  I rolled my eyes at Anthony. “I never said you could call me that, Your Highness. Especially in front of others.”

  —

  The heavy curtains slid closed over the changing room entrance. Magic emanated from the other side of the thick wool cloth. I moved my hand closer to see if I could get a sense of the magical structure.

  “Don’t worry, Esther might be a bit haughty, but her obfuscation magic is top notch.” Leticia remarked as an old maid unlaced and peeled off the top of her gown.

  She stepped out of the wide skirt, which parted to reveal the intricate, uncomfortable-looking boning underneath.

  “Ah… that’s much better.”

  She stretched her arms outward in her frilly chemise, and she took a few light hops across the room before landing next to me.

  Her face and voice felt different, lighter, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

  The old maid moved to me, unfastening the back of my dress. She pulled the bodice away from my chest and then stripped the sleeves, one by one, from my arms.

  “Wow,” Leticia said from behind me. “You’re really chiseled, like a sculpture. I have never seen a girl so… muscular.”

  My undershirt was thin since the dress was light, so it was mostly see-through. I felt awkward.

  None of the girls had ever commented on my body before except to say I looked beautiful or graceful, but that was because they were my maids.

  Justin had mentioned something about my back being muscular when I was wounded, but I just chalked it up to him being… well, him.

  A finger poked beneath my right shoulder blade.

  “Oh, it’s hard.” Leticia giggled and prodded me a few more times.

  What’s with this girl? It’s like night and day from her prim and polished self outside.

  “Do you train a lot? I know ‘Big Brother’ Long does. He says that it makes his body ‘hard like jade’.” Another giggle sounded behind me.

  “That foreigner? Do you…” I glanced over at the maid warily as she pulled the dress down my legs.

  “No, I am not enamored with him. And don’t worry about Nan saying anything. She’s deaf. Plus, I’d known her since I was a child, so I trust her completely.” She appeared out from around my back. “He’s an interesting person to talk to, though. He’s strange. Always asking me to call him ‘Big Brother’, says I’m some ‘Unmatched Beauty’, and keeps offering me these mud balls of his.”

  Leticia stepped in front of me, her eyes roaming up from my chest to my collar bone, and then my neck. “Most of all, he talks about himself all the time, like he’s the prized ‘Pearl of the World’. Reminds you of anyone?”

  “I… wouldn’t know. I haven’t really talked with the Crown Prince that often.”

  She laughed at the joke I hadn't intended to make. Then her hand gripped my chin, tilting it as she examined my face. “Your skin is really interesting. I have never seen anything like it. So sparkly. I’m not sure if we should put any foundation on you. I think leaving it bare would really accentuate that fearsome gash.”

  She picked through a few dresses hanging off a wheeled rack. “Definitely a backless one. That would put the finishing touches on the whole warrior princess aura you got going.”

  “You’d look so dashing and gallant, next to your adorable prince.” She twirled, holding the sleeves of a backless silver dress like a dance partner. “You two will make the perfect couple!”

  “I am no display piece,” I hissed sharply at her.

  The maid’s old wrinkly hand reached for my bracelet and I shook my head. I caught her hand when she reached up for the [Tiara of Solace], shaking my head again.

  Neither of these, I would ever take off.

  “You even have a crown to go with it,” Leticia mused, eyeing the Tiara. “It’s off-putting, though. That blue gem in the center looks so… weepy. And it radiates a dark glow. Are you sure you don’t want something more heroic?”

  “No.” I made my annoyance clear through my eyes.

  Why is she so intent on dressing me up?

  “Can’t you just relax, Sister-to-be?” She released the dress, letting the delicate lace pool on the ground. She spun around and flopped backward onto the chaise lounge, her limbs sprawling comfortably.

  “I saw it back there. My maids let me have a peek. You had that one moment of vulnerability when you kissed Tomas! The way your eyes lit up. So cute!” Leticia gushed, hugging a pillow to her chest.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “You have the wrong idea about me.”

  That wasn’t me she saw back there.

  “I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to attend.”

  “Please, you have to!” Leticia pleaded, sitting up. “It’d take so much of the load off of me. Anthony can’t be bothered at those things. And I have to deal with all the guests alone.”

  “So you can’t rein him in?”

  She laughed bitterly at my expression. “Rein him in? You were hoping I could control him?”

  “But he listened to you back there.”

  She slapped her thigh, her body racked by laughter. “That was my last resort. I had complained about being disrespected to my father so many times, and he had relayed that to the Queen. She is the only one Anthony listens to. I have no power over him.”

  I sighed, my shoulder drooping. The old maid lifted the dress from the ground and brought it over to me.

  “Yes, I know. These boys…” Leticia rested her chin on her knees, watching her maid pull the dress over me. “At least you have the pliable one. Way cuter!”

  —

  Since we were now deep in the center of the capital, I couldn’t train in the forest anymore. But I asked Father for a place to myself, and he cordoned off a section of the residence gardens just for me.

  Calling the area a garden was a bit of an understatement. It had more than an acre of dense ornamental trees and high hedges, thick enough to obscure my movements from the main house.

  It was, in essence, a private forest.

  For the past month, this had been my training ground.

  I wove through the trees, ducking under a black blade hissing through the air, and sidestepping another nebulous figure swinging its sword at me. More [Shadow Clones] leaped at me.

  They were the perfect sparring partners, having my moves, my speed, and even my spells.

  And they were more substantial than my [Shadow Fingers] puppets. I traded blows with one clone several times before stabbing its head. It dissolved into wisps. Another came at me, and my fist caved in its chest.

  My new routine also included me fighting off my own [Shadow Snare]. It was good exercise for both mind and body, since it pitted my [Mental] and [Atk] against each other.

  The only problem was how embarrassing it looked: A girl in a manicured garden, sweating and panting while wrestling with shadowy, grasping arms and hands.

  I’d rather not have Mama catching me like that again.

  After another round of drills, I collapsed back against the gnarled trunk of a willow tree to catch my breath.

  A pair of dark wings flapped overhead. The silhouette of a raven strafed by, dropping a flask of clear water.

  I snatched the glass container out of the air before it could shatter, uncorked it, and took a long sip.

  It was time to jot down my stats and attributes as usual. I opened the status screen.

  Following the dungeon clear and the assault on the House, I woke up the next day with +1 to all my attributes—likely the result of ranking up as the Demon Sword, just like last time.

  A month of training since then had added another point to all my attributes except for [Toughness].

  And as always, [Sync Penalty] doubled the growth on the attributes which still had it active.

  Short of hurting myself, I had no idea how to increase [Toughness]. It didn’t seem to be directly tied to stamina, since running for long periods had never helped before, and it wasn’t helping now.

  I actually had hurt myself a few times by using [Soul Ignition] during training, hoping to raise [Toughness] through curious experimentation.

  That was a mistake.

  Once, the backlash hit me right in the middle of dinner. Mid-bite, agony spasmed through my chest and I coughed a spray of bright blood onto my dish.

  Father was instantly on me, yanking me up to face him. The look of unabated terror on his face made me regret even thinking of the idea of using the skill.

  Mama chastised me for an hour afterwards, but she did tuck me into bed.

  I had raised my spells level to [Spells III] through casting the one spell that had been surprisingly effective against the demons and monsters: [Dazzle].

  There weren’t many animals at the gardens, so I aimed for the birds.

  It made for quite a gruesome sight. I targeted a flock of pigeons flying past and forty of them dropped from the sky, carpeting the grass in gray feathers and twitching bodies.

  Most of them shook it off, but a few remained where they were. I made a quiet apology for the slaughter.

  I also used [Seduce] on a conspiracy of ravens that had stationed themselves on the garden walls. It earned me a few loyal helpers who would warn me when servants approached my section of the garden, and bring me gifts: water when I was thirsty, or the occasional shiny coin.

  The ravens were surprisingly intelligent. They listened well to my requests, and the world around them.

  Using those spells helped me reach:

  After that, I decided to splurge. I spent a skill point since I had a few extra, and selected the upgrade immediately.

  The bonus to [Mental] and [Grace] wasn’t a permanent stat increase, and likely only applied when casting mind spells, but it was a hard thing to test.

  I also spent a skill point on a spell that became available right after I gained [Mind Mastery II]. It looked too useful to pass up.

  Using the spell was a surreal experience. I could feel the gazes of all little critters locking on me the moment I cast the spell. No targeting needed. I just pointed and they would scurry this way and that, fully enthralled.

  A very useful spell indeed.

  Most importantly, one of my keystone abilities had finally been unlocked due to my higher [Willpower].

  It was the one that I usually rushed for to compensate for my low [Toughness]. The times I’d forced myself to pray until my knees were raw were etched as one continuous monolith in my mind.

  The description was misleading. The aura didn’t allow me to just ignore damage: it actually traded damage for Spirit Points. So I still needed to be mindful of enemy artillery and getting swarmed, or I would burn out too quickly.

  Caaawk!

  A raven cawed a sharp warning.

  My [Shadow Fingers] shot out of a tree’s shadow, stretching up a wall.

  They turned to a figure perched on top of the stonework. He was dressed in golden scalemail armor that threw back the glare of the evening light.

  His dark eyes were fixed on me.

  I lowered my practice sword and curtsied to the intruder.

  “Big Brother Long, is there something you need of me?”