Chapter 255: Once-In-A-Generation Jade Beauty
Yet, despite her ridiculous bickering and shameless arrogance, Silas couldn’t help but let a warm confident smile spread across his face.
That unshakeable and terrifying confidence was precisely why he loved his crew.
Silas stepped onto a small stone step, looking over Brida, Tasmin, Morwenna, and the assembled Shieldmaidens.
"Morwenna’s right," Silas announced firmly with his gravelly voice carrying an unshakeable authority that quieted the courtyard instantly. "It doesn’t matter who Lord Sky brings to our front gates... It doesn’t matter how many hidden Heroes he has hiding in his treads, or how many millions of viewers are watching his stream. The Blessed Land does not lose. We will win this war, and we will take their territory’s strength for our own."
"YEAHHHHH!"
"FOR THE BLESSED LAND!"
"FOR LORD SILAS!"
The Shieldmaidens cheered in a synchronized bloodthirsty roar.
Silas smiled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the dark black metal disguise ring.
He slipped the band onto his left ring finger.
BOOM!
A dense wave of royal purple mana erupted around his body as in a fraction of a millisecond, his height compressed, his shoulders narrowed and his left arm vanished into an empty sleeve as his golden eyes transformed into a deep mesmerizing violet.
Standing before the crowd was Vespera.
Brida and the Shieldmaidens stared at his single-armed female form, letting out a wave of playful, admiring whistles and giggles.
"Damn, Boss!" Brida grinned cheekily. "You look gorgeous as a lady! You’ve got better hips than half the girls here!"
"Shut up, Brida," Vespera replied drily in her smooth raspy voice, though an amused smile touched her lips.
Vespera turned her head, calling out toward the Keep gardens:
"Valkyrie! Luna! Time to ride!"
HOWL!
GRRR-RUFF!
Two thunderous howls echoed across the grounds as the massive gold-furred Alpha wolf mate Valkyrie and the sleek gold direwolf Luna bounded over the stone fences, landing gracefully in the courtyard.
Vespera turned her purple eyes toward Aeli.
"Aeli," Vespera instructed smoothly. "If you’re coming along with me to the border camp, put on your helmet right now. Lord Sky might have his stream cameras active."
"Yes, My Lord!" Aeli answered eagerly.
She reached behind her back, pulling out her massive, neon-yellow-and-black motorized biker’s helmet.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Aeli jammed the giant plastic helmet straight over her silver hair and long elven ears, snapping the tinted visor shut with a loud click.
Standing there in her pristine, flowing white arcanist robes topped off with a giant motorcycle helmet, Aeli scrambled up onto Luna’s broad saddle, striking a heroic pose atop the direwolf.
’Being an author... I need to experience many things in order to understand what I see in the books.’
Vespera swung her body effortlessly up onto Valkyrie’s back, adjusting her balance with her single right hand.
She looked around at her troops, offering a confident breathtaking smile.
"We’ll be back shortly, girls," Vespera called out. "Keep the perimeter tight!"
"Safe travels, My Lord!" Tasmin bowed deeply.
Vespera pressed her boot lightly against Valkyrie’s flank. "Let us go!"
FWOOSH!
The heavy iron gates of the Keep ground open as Valkyrie and Luna exploded forward in a blur of gold fur, shooting out across the inner plains at high speed.
As the cold wind whipped past their faces, Vespera rode smoothly atop Valkyrie, while Aeli rode beside her on Luna, holding onto her saddle reins with her neon helmet bouncing slightly against the wind.
Vespera turned her deep violet eyes toward the helmeted elf with her voice carrying clearly over the roaring wind.
"By the way, Aeli... thanks for letting me use your lap earlier while I was resting in the vault. That was really comfortable."
Inside the giant motorcycle helmet, Aeli went completely, utterly rigid.
Her heart skipped three beats as a bright burning crimson flush exploded across her hidden face!
"A-Ah! Y-You’re very welcome, Lord Silas... I mean, Lord Vespera!" Aeli stammered out frantically with her muffled voice trembling from inside the plastic visor.
Vespera tilted her head slightly, her purple eyes flickering with playful suspicion.
"Though... it was strange," Vespera added thoughtfully, scratching her cheek with her single hand. "When I woke up... my lips tasted kind of weirdly sweet and salty. Do you happen to know the reason for that, Aeli?"
"EEEEEEEKKK~!" Aeli let out a high-pitched adorable and panicked squeak that echoed muffled inside her helmet.
Her mind went into a red-alert panic.
"I-I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT, MY LORD!" Aeli lied frantically, waving her hands in flustered desperation. "IT... IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE MANA IN THE VAULT! OR... OR MAYBE A SPATIAL CONDENSATION EFFECT! YES! SPATIAL MOISTURE!"
Vespera looked at the flustered helmeted elf, letting out a soft and genuine laugh that echoed musically over the wind.
"Heh... you’re really cute, Aeli," Vespera chuckled softly, shaking her head as she looked back toward the path ahead.
Aeli slumped forward on Luna’s saddle, clutching her chest through her white robes, her face burning hotter than a volcanic forge inside her motorcycle helmet.
’He thinks I’m cute...’ Aeli squealed silently inside her mind with her soul practically melting into a puddle of blissful joy. ’He called me cute...!’
Ten minutes later, the two direwolves broke through the western tree line, sliding to a smooth stop at the edge of the wild border clearing.
Standing in the center of the clearing was the colossal, three-story treaded iron war-rig of ’The Unmovable Wall.’
As Vespera and Aeli trotted into the clearing, Silas’s purple eyes scanned the enemy camp and a deep exasperated frown immediately tugged at her lips.
The atmosphere in Lord Sky’s camp was a chaotic mess of loud partying.
Over two hundred soldiers, vanguard warriors, and element-casters were gathered around massive open bonfires.
They were drinking heavy iron mugs of ale, singing boisterous tavern songs, roasting bird meat, and laughing merrily without a single care in the world.
There were no scouting patrols posted along the perimeter.
There were no defensive wards being actively maintained and there wasn’t even a single officer reviewing tactical maps.
Vespera grimaced internally, a wave of disgusted disbelief washing over Silas’s mind behind her female disguise.
’Are you fucking kidding me...?’ Silas thought, staring at the drunken, merry army. ’They are literally engaged in a territorial standoff with an unknown top-ranked domain... and instead of strategizing, drilling formations, or setting up defensive traps... they’re throwing an open-air kegger party?!’
Silas let out a silent weary sigh.
’These Classic Lords who rely on stream popularity really get way too comfortable...’
Still, Vespera noticed one key detail that eased her annoyance... hovering around the camp, the six brass camera drones were completely powered down, their glowing lenses dark, resting quietly on magnetic charging docks atop the war-rig’s roof.
Lord Sky had officially turned off his live stream broadcast for the evening to give his crew privacy.
THUD!
Valkyrie came to a complete halt twenty paces away from the central mahogany meeting table.
Lord Sky, who was standing near a roaring bonfire wearing a loose leather tunic over his chest, though still keeping his featureless silver-and-black alloy mask firmly over his face, spotted their arrival.
He set down his drinking horn and walked forward, waving his hand in a cheerful friendly greeting.
"Welcome back, Lord Vespera!" Sky greeted warmly, his voice relaxed. "We didn’t expect you back so quickly this evening!"
Vespera didn’t immediately reply to his greeting.
Instead, she casually raised her single right hand, channeling a subtle wave of spatial inventory mana.
FLASH... HEAVE!
BOOOOOOM!
Without saying a single word, Vespera released the colossal six-foot-tall iron-bound trade crate directly out of her Lord Inventory, letting it drop straight out of empty air to slam violently onto the mud clearing.
The multi-ton impact rattled the ground so hard that several drinking mugs sitting on the nearby mahogany table jumped six inches into the air as the drunken soldiers around the bonfires flinched, snapping their heads toward the massive box in utter shock!
Vespera slowly folded her single right arm over her waist, offering Sky a smooth and breathtakingly cool smile.
"Good evening, Lord Sky," Vespera greeted him back with her voice carrying effortless authority across the silent clearing.
She gestured casually with her chin toward the massive wooden crate resting in the mud before adding:
"I brought over today’s promised meat shipment... tell me, Lord Sky... will four tons of prime Basin game be enough to satisfy your hungry army for the night?"
"Of course! It’s more than enough however...!"
Lord Sky leaned his silver-and-black alloy mask slightly to the side with his eyes scanning the figure sitting atop the sleek mount beside Vespera.
The woman was wearing pristine, flowing white arcanist robes that radiated a subtle high-tier magical aura.
But jammed directly over her head was a massive, neon-yellow-and-black motorized biker’s helmet, complete with a dark tinted visor that completely hid her face from view.
"If you don’t mind me asking, Lord Vespera..." Sky began, pointing a gauntleted finger toward the helmeted rider, "who is your companion here? And... what is the reason for the high-tech headgear? Is that a specialized artifact?"
Sitting atop Luna’s saddle, Aeli froze completely.
Behind the dark tinted visor of her giant motorcycle helmet, the elven arcanist’s silver eyes widened to the size of dinner plates with her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
’Fuck!’ Aeli panicked frantically in her own mind, her fingers clutching Luna’s leather reins so tightly her knuckles turned white. ’What do I say?! What kind of excuse do I use?!’
Aeli’s mind raced through possible cover stories at light speed.
’Should I tell him I have a sudden, horrific skin disease on my face right now?! That my skin broke out in ugly magic boils and it’s not pleasant to look at?!’
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Aeli violently shook her head inside the helmet.
’No, no, no! That’s a terrible excuse! If I tell another Lord that I have an untreated skin condition, it’ll make the Blessed Land look like an impoverished backwater territory that lacks basic medical potions and high-tier healing facilities... It would completely drag our Lord’s prestigious reputation through the dirt!’
Before Aeli could succumb to social paralysis and accidentally stammer out something ridiculous from inside her plastic visor—
STEP!
Vespera casually shifted her weight on Valkyrie’s saddle.
She turned her deep purple eyes toward Sky, offering a smooth and effortlessly charming smile as her voice cut smoothly through the cool evening air.
"Forgive her strange appearance, Lord Sky," Vespera explained smoothly, gesturing toward Aeli with her single right hand. "My companion here is simply quite uncomfortable with showing her face to strangers. In fact... back in our world on Earth, she can be considered an extraordinary once-in-a-generation Jade Beauty."
Vespera tilted her head with her purple eyes sparkling with playful intrigue.
"Because her natural beauty is so overwhelming that it tends to cause violent rivalries and endless distractions wherever she walks, she prefers to keep herself completely concealed when visiting outside territories."
"PUFFT—!"
Inside the giant neon biker helmet, Aeli’s face exploded into a thermonuclear burning crimson flush.
’A... A JADE BEAUTY?!’ Aeli screamed internally with her soul practically ascending to the heavens. ’My Lord just called me a once-in-a-generation Jade Beauty in front of a famous Classic Lord?! AHHHHHH!’
Overwhelmed with dizzying embarrassment, Aeli instinctively leaned forward, reaching out with her slender hands to tightly clutch the black fabric of Vespera’s empty left sleeve, hiding her helmeted head behind her Lord’s shoulder like a shy flustered child.
Lord Sky stared at the helmeted "Jade Beauty" clinging timidly to Vespera’s sleeve, then threw his head back and burst into a loud and thoroughly amused laugh.
"Hahaha! A Jade Beauty hiding under a motorcycle helmet!" Sky chuckled merrily, shaking his head beneath his alloy mask. "Well, I certainly cannot blame her for wanting privacy in a realm full of predatory Lords! That is a remarkably unique choice of disguise, I’ll give her that!"
Sky looked back at Vespera, his posture relaxing into a warm, business-like rhythm.
"In any case," Sky continued, gesturing toward the multi-ton wooden trade crate resting in the mud, "since the gifts we have received from Blessed Land today are so extraordinarily plentiful... tons of prime game is no small gesture, you can rest assured that ’The Unmovable Wall’ will return the favor in equal kind."
’I’d expect so...’
Sky rested his hands on his hips. "So tell me, Lord Vespera... what would you like in exchange for this shipment?"
Vespera smoothed down her dark trousers with her single right hand with her violet eyes gleaming.
"A few more variation boxes of those luxury Valorian spices couldn’t hurt," Vespera answered casually. "And as for the metals... a few more ingots of rare alloy would be wonderful. If you happen to have anything rarer than True-Silver Tungsten in your vaults, I certainly wouldn’t say no."