Chapter 205: ....husband?
Waiting for Anastasia in front of the Whetstone Fort was Delilah, who was repeatedly looking towards the horizon hoping to see an airship approaching. Standing next to her was Rose who was also doing the same.
Soon enough, a large airship cruised over from the distance. "Oh, there she comes!" Delilah exclaimed.
"About time she’s arrived." Rose muttered.
Both Rose and Delilah had their hairs tied in a ponytail and were clad in combat outfits. They wore tight tshirts and trousers that hugged their skin, along with knee height boots. The only difference was that Delilah held a longbow in her arms, while Rose held a sword. Each girl had the crest of their Houses engraved on their left chest.
Due to the fact that the Whetstone Fort was already aware of Anastasia’s arrival, her airship continued straight towards the massive stone fortress without any disturbance, up until it lowered itself not far away from the two princesses.
Not long after, Anastasia who was dressed similarly to the two leapt off the deck and landed lightly on the ground.
"Gods, what took you so long, Sia? We’ve been waiting for hours." Delilah complained.
"Sorry, had to take a small detour." Anastasia apologized, swinging her sword as she began to walk towards them. "That, and also the fact that father was extremely reluctant to let me come."
Over the past three months, the three had grown quite close. Though part of it was natural, the main catalyst that led to their closeness was ’his’ death.
Glancing at the others from the corner of her eyes, Anastasia’s eyes paused on Delilah.
Out of the two, Delilah seemed to be the one that cared the least about ’his’ death. In hindsight, they never really get along, therefore she didn’t have any attachment to his death.
"Hey, is it me or did you get more beautiful?" Delilah asked, inching close to Anastasia. It had only been a month since they last saw each other when they parted ways during the end of the institute’s year, but the redhead seemed to have grown even more beautiful than she was before, if that was even possible.
Anastasia had been stunning beyond comprehension before, but now she seemed to have gained a completely otherworldly glow to her, as if she was out of this world.
"It is just you." Anastasia smiled, lightly pushing Delilah away from her face.
"So, what did you told us to gather here in combat gear for?" Rose said, lifting her head. Before even sharing any formalities, she quickly went straight to the point.
"Want to join me on a small adventure?" Anastasia replied back. "I promise you’ll love it."
The moment she said those words, Rose’s face alongside Delilah’s froze up, and the smile on Anastasia’s otherworldly face did little to ease them up.
"Adventure?" Rose frowned. "What type? While I am of the opinion that you wouldn’t put us through something truly dangerous, I still have to ask in sight of your suicidal tendencies."
This wasn’t the first time the three had been out together, but that was during a mission, and Rose had witnessed first hand how suicidal Anastasia could be.
"She is right, Sia, what type of adventure is it?" Delilah also asked.
"It’s nothing, just something I thought you might be interested in." Anastasia replied with a smile that looked utterly insufferable to Rose for some reason.
"And what is that?" Rose asked.
"A little training trip along the Living forest Deadlands."
Both princesses stayed silent for a bit at Anastasia’s words, before Delilah broke the silence.
"...What?! Sia dear, are you sure you’re right in the head?"
The living forest Deadlands was a vast Deadland taking a large portion of the kamar continent. As it’s name entailed, everything inside that forest lived, not I. the sense of trees and plants being living things, but in the sense that everything including the trees themselves were trying to kill you.
One of the most notorious stories told about the deadland was that if a person ever gets caught in the living forest’s grasp, after the forest would ravages their bodies for the next few decades or so, there would be nothing left except a neither living nor dead being.
Not only that, once you’re in, the living forest would try its utmost to prevent you from leaving. So the fact that Anastasia said she was going there baffled Delilah, but what happened next baffled her even more.
"I see, when do we depart?" Rose asked as if she hadn’t just heard they were diving into a Deadland.
"It seems you also have suicidal thoughts." Delilah stared in shock. "This is a deadland we’re talking about."
"I know that." Rose replied calmly.
"Then why..."
"I guess it sounds interesting." Rose shrugged.
"Gods, I never knew I was stuck with people this crazy." Delilah silently cursed.
"Relax, we’ll be okay." Anastasia leaned on her sword. "Which one of us three isn’t a genius among geniuses? Besides, I guess you haven’t noticed, but I’ve broken through to the Zeta- rank." She said nonchalantly, but the smile on her face said otherwise.
Seeing their baffled expressions, Anastasia couldn’t help but think; ’So this is how it feels when you brag off and others are stunned shitless. I guess it’s not so bad.’
When ’he’ used to brag and flaunt of his intellect, Anastasia often felt amused, and at the same time felt like caving his face in. But now she realized why ’he’ does it, it was so much fun.
With Delilah and Rose meanwhile, thunderclaps went off in their heads. ’Did she just say Zeta- rank?’ Delilah thought in disbelief. ’No, I must have heard wrong.’ She thought. Delilah didn’t want to believe what she heard, but then again, Anastasia was just that monstrous.
Rose meanwhile, was thinking of another thing entirely. ’Just when I thought I had closed the gap.’ Rose had reached the Theta+ rank a month ago, two days after her departure from the institute. She thought she had finally caught up to Anastasia but now the gap had widened again, even more so than before.
"When did you have your breakthrough?" Rose asked.
"Three weeks ago." Anastasia replied.
"What?! Its been three weeks and you didn’t think to tell us?" Delilah finally asked after breaking free from her reverie.
Anastasia obviously couldn’t say she wanted to see their shocked faces, which was why she waited to say it to their faces. So instead, she improvised; "I was so busy training it slipped my mind."
’Curse you, even after your death you’re influencing me.’ She silently cursed.
"Say, what ability did you get?" Delilah asked excitedly, and even Rose’s ears perked up. Even though she didn’t show it outwardly, she was immensely curious.
Anastasia smiled, summoning her status screen to see the ability again.
====Status===
– Unique physique : Timeless path physique.
– Initial ability: Time zone: [You have a localized temporal field, and can manipulate the relative time of yourself, others, or the environment in said field.]
- Zeta ability: What will be: [You see ’what will be’ of two seconds ahead. Any longer than that would no longer be ’what will be’, but ’what might be’.]
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Anastasia was extremely satisfied with her ability, more than satisfied even. Her ability had two different effects. One allowed her to constantly see what would definitely happen two seconds ahead, it doesn’t matter the variables, if she does see it, then it would definitely happen, and wouldn’t change unless and unless she actively wishes to change it. It could either be passive or active depending on her choice.
The second was that she could push further to take glimpses of minutes, hours, days, months, and even years. Only, this one wasn’t definite, what she saw could change depending on her interference. Of course she hadn’t actually try to see past a few minutes.
The reason? Anastasia had no business with what would happen in the future and couldn’t care less wasting her time fixating on changing what was only a possible future. No, she was too lazy for that. So, she couldn’t even be bothered to look past a few minutes.
Dispelling her status screen, Anastasia turned back to the two princesses. "I can see the future." Anastasia simply said.
"..."
"..."
Once again, the two princesses, went silent. Thia time though, shock wasn’t the only reason they went silent.
Delilah’s head slowly raised to meet Anastasia’s almost cynically.
"Wait... What type of future? Can you see my future? Wait... Who do I marry in the future?" Delilah threw one question after the other in quick succession.
Rose on the other hand was much more composed, but it was easy to see that she was also curious to know.
Anastasia however only smiled mischievously. "I won’t tell."
"Oh, come on." Delilah visibly deflated while a look of visible disappointment appeared on Rose’s face. "I promise I won’t tell hi.... No, I won’t even bother him." Delilah pleaded.
"I still won’t tell, not unless you agree to come with us to the Living forest Deadlands." Anastasia said.
"Fine, I agree." Delilah replied with no hesitation.
"Okay, let’s set out then." Anastasia nodded with a smile. we’ll have to be back before the month is over, which means we have a little over three weeks."
"That... should be more than enough time." Rose said, her striking grey eyes giving place to an incandescent glow.
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