Chapter 173: Too Much Shine and Absolutely No Sense (Rin and Vaelory Argue Again)
Chapter 173: Too Much Shine and Absolutely No Sense (Rin and Vaelory Argue Again)
Rin stared at Vaelory. It was not polite—although Rin didn’t have a polite bone in her body. It also wasn’t a curious stare. Her stare portrayed confusion, a look she reserved for situations where someone had committed a crime against logic itself.
"I did not give you those," Rin said slowly, carefully, as though explaining something delicate to a particularly stubborn child. "Those jewelries were not gifts."
Vaelory scoffed, loud and dramatic, flipping her perfectly styled blonde hair over her shoulder. The movement made at least four necklaces clink together violently.
"Get your facts straight," Vaelory said. "I didn’t even ask you for jewelry. You’re the one who brought them to me."
Rin blinked once.
Twice.
"You say that," Rin replied, "as if that makes them yours."
"They were in your chest where you keep jewelries, and then they were in your hands," Vaelory shot back. "Then they were on my body. That’s a clear transfer."
Rin made a disbelieving sound. "I may not be human and may not understand most things, but I am very certain that is not how ownership works," she told Vaelory. "Right, Morthen?"
Morthen adjusted his glasses and then nodded. "Yes, ownership doesn’t—"
"Shut up, Morthen," Vaelory said to him.
Morthen stared in shock, mouth agape. "My— I was asked a question, and I was just answering."
"And you are wrong. In my terms, that’s exactly how ownership works. You have, you give me, and that’s it," Vaelory said to him. "And besides, that’s how it works with clothes."
"That is not how it works with clothes. And besides, jewelry is not clothing," Rin said to Vaelory.
"It was worn!"
Rin pressed two fingers to her temple. "I was trying to help you so you could try to look more attractive to Naviel." Rin paused, then added, "Honestly, I just did that because I was bored. The queen wasn’t in the palace, and I had to do something."
Vaelory was shocked at that. She had thought Rin was genuinely helping her that day.
She rolled her eyes at Rin. "Typical demon behavior."
"Typical human behavior—taking what doesn’t belong to them," Rin told her.
Vaelory ignored her. "Anyways, you helped me look like this even though you did it when you were bored, and I’m going to make sure Lord Naviel sees it."
Rin swept her gaze over Vaelory from head to toe.
The tight dress. The plunging neckline. The rings stacked on every finger. Bracelets climbing nearly to her elbows. Earrings heavy enough to qualify as weapons. Necklaces layered so thickly they looked like ceremonial armor.
She couldn’t even understand what she was seeing at the moment. Her face scrunched up in distaste.
"Is this how you plan to meet with him?" Rin asked Vaelory.
"Of course it is," Vaelory told her. "You and Lady Seraphielle told me his last partner was a succubus, and it was appropriate that I dress like this to seduce—" She coughed. "To make him at least see me as a potential love interest."
Rin stared at her, then turned to Morthen, who pretended like he was looking someplace else.
She turned back to Vaelory. "The dress isn’t bad. Lady Seraphielle has good taste after all, but... I’m going to be blunt with you..."
"When are you never blunt?" Vaelory muttered with an eye roll.
Rin ignored her. "...You look like a demon who is prone to making poor decisions and works at a tacky shop where they only sell fake jewelry—which they stole, by the way—and are trying to convince others to buy their fake products, but it’s not really happening because they look so tacky."
There was a beat of silence after that. Vaelory blinked at her, and so did Morthen, who adjusted his glasses as well.
"So... that’s an insult, right?" Vaelory asked her.
Rin nodded.
"You just called me tacky in a roundabout way, right?" Vaelory asked her.
Rin nodded. "More or less."
There was a beat of silence, and then Vaelory gasped.
"How dare you?"
"How dare I what?" Rin asked her.
"How dare you insult me?" Vaelory asked her.
"Oh, right," Rin said to her. "I did insult you." She paused, then continued. "Why are you wearing every jewelry at once? That’s tacky," Rin told her, gesturing at all the jewelry Vaelory had on her.
"Because—"
"Do you honestly think," Rin interrupted, "that if you’re shiny enough, Naviel will simply accept you out of sheer visual exhaustion?"
Vaelory’s mouth fell open.
"That’s cruel!"
"That’s realistic."
"You’re the one who dressed me like this last time!" Vaelory snapped. "You and Lady Seraphielle! You were the ones who specifically piled jewelry on me!"
"We didn’t even get to finish, but I was trying to decide which one was better, and that’s why I did it," Rin told her.
"Why didn’t you tell me?"
"You claim to be smarter than me—how could you not know?"
"I’m not from the realm! How was I supposed to know?!"
"Do humans in your realm dress the way you do?!" Rin asked her.
At this point, they were screaming at each other, and Morthen was confused. He had no idea what was going on. He thought he did at first, but now things had gone beyond the point where he understood.
"Um... perhaps we should reduce our—"
"Shut up, Morthen!" Rin and Vaelory said at the exact same time.
Morthen had no idea why they were so harsh toward him. He didn’t do anything after all. But he knew how to pick his battles, and he was not going to say anything anymore.
"You know what," Vaelory told Rin.
"What?"
"I’ll prove to you that even with this thing you made me do—"
"I told you not to meet him. You didn’t listen."
"I’m talking about the jewelries!" Vaelory told her.
"Oh!" Rin said, screaming back at her. "I didn’t know that!"
"Anyway, as I was—wait," Vaelory said as she just realized something at that point. "What are you even doing here? You didn’t want to come with me, and you also went to the office, so what are you doing here now?"
Rin paused, her eyes widening. "Oh—my jewels! My lady sent me to get you before you do something you regret."
Vaelory’s eyes widened. "The queen?"
Rin swallowed, then nodded. "Yes."