Beside Lake Virginia, the special dormitory district, the bathroom of Duchess Bellina’s exclusive dormitory building, the 1st suite. Bella and Ariel were in the water with their backs against the walls of the bath, sitting face-to-face. If it wasn’t for the fact that Ariel’s eyes were differently coloured from those of Kriss’, it was quite easy to mistake the two of them for each other, especially without the presence of one of the main indicator of their identities, their clothing.
“That mysterious store that you were talking about, it most likely isn’t recorded in ‘Strange Happenings of the Olsyvia Academy at Midnight’, that text only records the strange things that happen late in the night. That store has not only appeared at our academy, there have been reports of it happening in other areas as well, in fact, some of these reports pre-date the existence of the Olsyvia Academy itself.”
“Er, have you entered that store before? Why do you know so much about it?”
“I haven’t myself, but I think Elaine has gone inside before. Go and ask her when she returns from class later.”
“I’m not too familiar with Elaine, Ariel, I need your help. Neither Kriss or Lisha are experts in magic and neither Noreya or Elaine’s classes will end for a while.”
Bella had chosen not to enter the mysterious store earlier due to how scared Ivy and Marlie were, Bella didn’t want to leave the two behind in a street full of philosophers and so they could only return to their dormitories. However, Bella had been curious of whatever was in that store.
The strange ring that was given to her by the fake loli Charlotte was a product from the mysterious store, this was a hard-earned chance to uncover Charlotte’s secrets. So, after they had returned to their dormitories, Bella immediately began to assemble a new team to explore the mysterious store with her.
Both Kriss and Lisha held the title of hero and were quite renowned even within the Olsyvia Academy, it would be quite awkward to have everyone’s’ eyes on them when Bella wanted to keep this rather low-key. Due to her being the younger sister of the Euphemia branch’s student council president, Elaine would also draw too much unnecessary attention if Bella were to take her along.
It was a shame, as Elaine was probably the person most suited for the task, being skilled in magic as well as adept in the fields of the supernatural and curses, could there have been a more perfect person to bring along to explore a supernatural place? Noreya wasn’t really skilled in magic so she wasn’t the most ideal person to bring along, so Bella had to settle for the other mage of their dorm, Ariel.
“Bella, tomorrow I have to go and purchase some magic equipment and a magic pet, I don’t really have time to go with you tomorrow…”
“Ariel, your little brother Adelaide was stalking me and Kriss earlier, if you don’t help me this time, I’ll tell him about the your true looks that you’ve kept hidden from the entire world!”
“Bella, you… alright, I’ll help you just this once. However, don’t use this method to threaten me next time, or else you’ll lose me~”.
“I knew you’d help me, Ariel! Right, let’s get Noesha to tag along with us tomorrow! Noesha knows spatial magic and if we run into anything unexpected, it’ll be easier to escape.”
“Hmph, I know spatial magic as well. Whatever, call whoever you want.”
Ariel turned her face away from Bella, a slight look of disappointment quickly showing on her face before disappearing. She had wanted to go with Bella together, just the two of them because there were some things that she couldn’t talk about with more people around. Bella had lost herself in the beauty of Ariel’s tilted face and wasn’t able to notice the slight change in Ariel’s expression.
After getting her first kiss stolen away by Bella, Ariel had always bore some strange feelings towards Bella deep within her heart. Across all of her incarnations, this was the first time that she had lost her first kiss, the worst part about it wasn’t the kiss itself, but that Bella had mistaken her for Kriss at the time!
As for what exactly those strange feelings were, not even Ariel herself could describe it in words. Every night as she saw Lisha and Bella cuddled up together at night in bed while asleep, jealousy and envy gnawed at Ariel’s heart. In their dormitory suite, Lisha and Kriss quite evidently had feelings towards Bella and while neither Noreya or Elaine had expressed anything yet, Ariel knew that she had to do something soon before the number of competitors grew larger and larger.
___
The Euphemia branch’s Bruce Street. Early this morning, several girls arrived at the philosophers’ paradise. Due to it still being class time and most of the Euphemia branch’s students being still in class, the entire Bruce street was devoid of the hustle and bustle that Bella had seen the last time she was here, most of the stores had not yet opened up either.
The gatekeepers from the Brotherhood weren’t the same ones at last time, but just the same as last time, Bella and the other girls were able to enter the Bruce street without any obstacles. The Brotherhood’s higher echelons had heard about Bella’s pursuit of other girls and they were secretly in support of her actions.
The girls that Bella were after were all beauties and after they became ‘acquainted’ with Bella, they would no longer be interested in males, meaning that they wouldn’t be able to distract members of the Brotherhood from their philosophical arts. This was something that benefited both parties, one of the big reasons why the Golden Legend had their movements against Bella’s Rose Society was because the Rose Society was being secretly helped by the Brotherhood.
On the empty Bruce street, Bella and others once again stood in front of the mysterious store.=
The girls who accompanied Bella this time were: Ariel, Noesha, Mia, and Angel. Apart from Ariel who’s true power Bella didn’t know much about, the other four, including Bella herself, were all on the level of demon gods. If such a party were still able to be scared off by some supernatural beings, then they might as well hang themselves with a pool noodle, having lost all the face of the dark side.
As soon as they entered the mysterious store, Bella felt the temperature around them suddenly drop dramatically.
Bella turned back around to look through the door that they had entered from and saw that the scenery outside had completely changed. Different from the Bruce street, from just a glance Bella was able to tell that the street outside was some place that humans shouldn’t ever be.
The people walking on the streets had all turned into terrifying humanoid evil beings, similar to the western demons of Earth’s myths, horns and accessories included. All of the street’s stores were open for business, but what they sold were completely different from those back at the Bruce street.
“Nee-sama, this is Halifax, the City of Sin. A place of trade between the Worldbreakers and the Troublemakers, if one is lucky enough, they may be able to find some people from other factions here. Those that walk these streets are mostly the demon kings and demon gods of other dimensions. I didn’t expect for a gateway to open up in our dimension.”
Noesha was the first to identify the place they were in, seemingly quite familiar with the city, it was quite evident that this wasn’t her first time here. Mia and Angel also seemed to have been here before as well, as they didn’t seem very shocked by their surroundings. As for herself, Bella felt a little bit of familiarity with this place, it was possible that the “original’ Bella had been here before.
Bella’s eyes traveled to a mirror that was hung on the wall of the store that they were currently in. Reflected back at her was no longer the golden-haired female knight with blue eyes, but Bella’s true form, a black-haired beauty with mismatching eye-colours. She was also no longer wearing the knight’s light plate that she had been wearing previously, but a set of black mage’s robes.
In Halifax, the City of Sin, no matter what faction one was from, visitors would be forced to show their true human forms, a special ability of the location that the city was built on. Even if the visitor was several times stronger than the 7 Lords who ruled the City of Sin, they would be forced to do so as well.
Bella looked a little nervously at Ariel who was behind her, apart from the three lolis Noesha, Angel, and Mia, not even Lisha and Kriss with whom Bella was the most intimate with had seen Bella’s true form. Now that she had been exposed in front of Ariel, Bella didn’t know how to react.
Ariel’s looks had also undergone some change, while her hair was still the same flowing strands of silver and her pink irises were still the same, the demon wings that had sprouted from Ariel’s back were evidence enough that Ariel was a member of the dark side as well.
In Ariel’s hands was a tome with a golden cover that radiated pure and untainted holy power, seeming to be preventing Ariel from changing further. Meaning that this was, quite evidently, not Ariel’s complete tru form, the rest being sealed away by the golden tome’s holy power.
“You…are Ariel right? I didn’t expect for you to part of us as well…”
“You’ve misunderstood, I’m not one of you Worldbreakers… but… I’ll take my leave for now, I’m not used to this place.”
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