“That does sound pretty tempting, but why does it feel like a sales pitch...?”

Tiran rubbed her chin and muttered suspiciously.

But little Feizi didn’t hear Tiran talking to herself. She happily ducked between the grape trellises and began searching for ripe fruit.

Unlike ordinary grapes, White Diamond fruit didn’t grow in clusters. Usually, each hanging stem bore just one fruit, more like an apple or a peach.

“Hmm...”

After standing carefully to one side and studying the sign beside the picking area for a while, Her Highness the Princess covered her face and sighed.

It’s exactly the same! So it really was prewritten sales copy!

Come to think of it, it was pretty interesting that this world had people researching plant hybridization too. Before this, the only kind she’d seen was Vera’s type, using Magic to create weird mutant plants.

“Is this something like polyploid breeding? It really does look pretty good.”

“Wha—?!” A startled cry suddenly rang out from among the grape trellises.

“What’s wrong?”

Her first thought was that the little angel couldn’t possibly run into any danger in a place like this, but Tiran still hurried over toward the sound. She arrived just in time to see the little angel turn to look at her with a deeply aggrieved expression.

“Someone else picked them all...”

“You’re upset over that?” Tiran sighed helplessly. “It’s just a kind of fruit.”

“But I really wanted to taste one!” The little angel clenched a fist and declared loudly.

Tiran scratched her head. “Well, I actually wanted to try one too.”

After all, they’d turned a whole bunch into a single fruit. Forget the unusual appearance, the cultivation techniques, and all the sales-pitch hype—the taste alone was worth looking forward to.

“Why don’t we keep looking? This is a huge vineyard, so there might be one they missed. If not, I can ask someone at the estate later and see if they’ve kept any.”

Tiran said as she lifted the vine leaves on either side to take a look.

As her gaze swept over a dense tangle of overlapping leaves, the corner of Tiran’s eye caught a hint of an unusual color.

It was already the turn of summer into autumn. The grapevines around them were a rich, mature green, and some of the leaves were starting to show signs of withering. That faint hint of color was what caught her attention as it flashed past.

“Hey, little Feizi! There seems to be one over here.”

“Where? I’m coming!”

Tiran called through their contract to the little angel, who’d gone searching at the other end of the trellis area. Then she parted the grape leaves draped over the fruit like a blanket and took a close look at the fist-sized grape.

It must’ve been cultivated from white grapes, right? Its green skin was so pale it was almost pure white, and so translucent that she could practically see the plump flesh inside. At first glance, it really did look like a flawless gemstone.

“Hmm. I should pick it first.”

With that thought, Tiran reached out and pinched the grape. Her face filled with surprise.

Because someone else had grabbed the grape too.

“Huh?”

The owner of the other hand hesitated too, apparently. But since the grape was growing on the side of the trellis closest to Tiran, the mass of leaves blocked the other person’s view, so they couldn’t see that Tiran was holding it as well. They simply tried to yank it off.

Now Tiran wasn’t having it. She’d found it first—there was no way she’d let someone else just take it.

But the other person was just as stubborn, and they had plenty of strength. They kept their grip and refused to let go. In theory, few could rival Tiran’s strength as a Holy Rank, but the fruit in her hand was delicate. Crushing it would be a terrible trade.

Worse, the other person was applying just enough force to avoid breaking the skin while still exerting as much pressure as possible. And... their technique, both in applying force and finding a grip, seemed even better than hers. Tiran could clearly feel the one and only White Diamond grape slipping out of her control, bit by bit.

“Tsk.”

Tiran clicked her tongue softly. If that was how it was going to be...

A faint frost Chi spread from her fingertips. Without chilling the flesh inside, she formed a fragile, paper-thin layer of ice over the grape’s surface, reducing the friction between the other person’s fingers and the fruit.

Feeling the force the other person could apply weaken, Tiran’s lips curled into a faint smile.

But she didn’t get to enjoy her victory for long. Soon, she noticed her own fingertips getting slippery too—but it didn’t seem to be because of the ice. Was that a rapidly moving current of air?

The airflow not only took away the friction between Tiran’s fingertips and the grape’s skin, it also blew away the thin layer of ice she’d created with a tiny amount of frost Chi. The balance shifted, and the grape slipped right out of Tiran’s hand.

“Haha! I don’t know who you are, but it looks like I’ve come out on top—”

A man’s smug voice came from the other side of the trellis, hidden behind the vine leaves.

But Her Highness the Princess, now fired up to win, wasn’t about to give up so easily. A glimmer flashed in her emerald eyes, and the colors of the world around her abruptly dimmed. The swaying wind and leaves, the shifting light—all of it slowed by force until it nearly came to a standstill.

Going to all that trouble—even using the Law of Time—just to snatch a grape was, in its own way, incredibly unreasonable of Her Highness the Princess...

But what did it matter? Once the Law of Time was in effect, the other person wouldn’t even notice. To him, the grape would simply go from his hand to Tiran’s in an instant. He’d be so baffled he could only accept defeat.

Heh heh heh. That’s what you get for trying to take it from me! Bet you’re dumbfounded!

If this had been a one-on-one video game match, with no way for the other player to reach through the screen and beat her up, Lady Tiran would’ve wanted to rub it in. But since they were face-to-face, she decided to show a little restraint. She’d grab the grape and hurry off with the little angel before they ran into each other and things got awkward.

But then something happened that left Her Highness the Princess dumbfounded.

She’d already grabbed the grape that had been taken from her, and time still hadn’t started flowing normally again. Yet right before her eyes, the colors on the other person’s outstretched hand suddenly sprang back to life.

“What?!”

Even Tiran couldn’t stop herself from crying out. She tried to hold it in, but the shock in her heart was impossible to hide.

The only ones who could move in a world where time had slowed—or even stopped—were the person controlling time and other Holy Rank powerhouses who understood and had mastered the same Law.

In other words, was the person on the other side a Holy Rank too?!

You’ve got to be kidding me! Am I some kind of walking, talking Holy Rank magnet? Why do I keep running into powerful people like this wherever I go? Weren’t there supposed to be hardly any people at this level in the world? Why do I run into one even when I’m on vacation?!

Just like Tiran, who was already questioning her whole life, the person on the other side had realized that someone was interfering with the Law of Time and had entered the slowed-time world at the same moment. So they’d also figured out that the person fighting them for the grape was a Holy Rank.

To Tiran’s surprise, though, he didn’t take the chance to snatch the grape back. Instead, he let go on purpose and allowed her to keep it.

Time began flowing normally again, and the colors around them returned to normal.