If one word could paint the detention room of the Forest Fortress, that word would be perfect.
Utter chaos.
“Damn it! This is all because of you, Shao Rong, you bitch!”
“You’re the little bitch! You dared side with a Murder Fiend. Today I’ll be heaven’s blade.”
“Big sisters, can we talk it out? If you keep fighting, I’ll get mad!”
“Kids don’t butt in!”
Girl-on-girl feuds are like summer storms—fast, loud, and terrifying. Worse when the three are princesses of Dragon Heaven. New grudges stacked on old ones, tinder meeting spark; Qinhui and Shao Rong burned hot, neither willing to yield an inch.
“Damn you! I’ll kill you this time!”
“Shut it! The dead one will be you!”
But…
With mana-suppressing bracelets clamped on, the noble princesses couldn’t sling elegant spells. They had to brawl, raw and rough, like thunder without rain.
They were dragons. Their skin was scaled silk, supple yet tough; common steel barely kissed it, let alone a girl’s nails. So both Qinhui and Shao Rong went for the next best target—the other’s clothes.
“I’ll tear it!”
“Over my corpse!”
The red-haired girl hooked her fingers into Shao Rong’s blouse and yanked, ripping holes like moths eating a lantern shade. The golden-brown-haired girl seized Qinhui’s skirt zipper and hauled, trying to strip it open like peeling bark.
Ji Wan rushed in to stop them and caught a stray swipe. Threads on her maid uniform snapped like dry twigs; outer and lining slid off together, as if she were heading for a bath.
“I didn’t save you so you could do this!”
Maria finally couldn’t stand it. She pushed up her glasses, gaze like a winter knife on the warring princesses, and spoke in her most rigid tone.
“If you keep this up—Princess Qinhui, I’ll let the Butterfly Snow President admire you just like this. Princess Shao Rong, what you did in the Rainbow Sanctuary will be published, word for word, in the Rangers Lodge Daily. Princess Ji Wan, this isn’t your affair. Please go have little cakes with Lady Ailuna and Zaocun.”
The dragon girls froze like birds under a hawk’s shadow.
“Don’t! I’ll get expelled!”
“How dare you call Dixue over!”
“Eh… Free little cakes?”
“Of course! Fancy ones!”
Zaocun appeared in the doorway, waving a cake like a festival flag.
“Uh… I’ll go eat one first! Sisters, wait for me, don’t fight now!”
“???”
Qinhui and Shao Rong stared, wrong-footed, while Ji Wan ran out.
Two dragon girls, blouses torn and bodies tangled—any outsider would think the air smelled of citrus, all honeyed misunderstanding.
Maria stepped in on that pause.
“Princess Shao Rong, since Princess Ji Wan chose to forgive what you did, cherish that grace. Not everyone can laugh off something like that.”
“Ugh…”
“Conduct yourself well. The Rangers Lodge keeps its right to supervise.”
She finished coolly, then turned to the redhead. “Princess Qinhui, I don’t know what happened between you and the Butterfly Snow President before. Whatever it is, you still have to meet her.”
“If you make me meet Dixue, I’d rather die!”
Before Maria stood a very strange red-haired girl—back in the Lost City, Qinhui had been willing to cast off her title just to see Dixue. Yet here, in the Forest Fortress, she refused to see Yue Dier at any cost.
A girl’s heart is a misted lake—calm on top, currents below.
Maria understood what churned beneath. Not only because she was also a woman, but because she’d seen enough while working with Dawn Goose. The pattern was clear.
“My advice: prepare to apologize. Not just to the Butterfly Snow President, but to Yue Liuyi. If you’re sincere, you might even become friends. If not, regret will be your own shadow.”
She smiled, secretive as a crescent moon. She even foresaw Qinhui’s next line.
“Never! Apologize to that little nobody? No way. One look at that harmless face and I feel sick—just like Shao Rong’s fake-act crap!”
“Hah? Qinhui, you want your nose stepped on again?”
“Hmph. Let’s duel if you dare. I’ll beat you till your own mom won’t recognize you.”
“Damn it! If we hadn’t lost so many people cleaning out the Thunder Cult, you’d never have escaped into the Chaos Lands!”
Qinhui and Shao Rong locked up again, a tangle of limbs and shredded fabric.
Chaos rose anew, feathers flying in an unseen coop.
“Lady Maria, orders are here!”
Just then, Zero Wei came skidding in like a gust.
“Oh? What did the President say?”
Maria didn’t stop the scuffle. She lounged into a chair like a cat in a sunbeam and turned to Lingwei.
“Mm… The Butterfly Snow President said, if they don’t behave, it’s naked aprons. And something about a hunk belt…? Lady Maria, what’s a hunk belt?”
“Hunk bandage!? Zero Wei, are you sure she said that!?”
“Um… maybe? I’m not sure… Huh? Lady Maria, why are you nosebleeding?”
“Uh! It’s nothing. I just remembered last night’s movie!”
“Wuh… was it that scary? A horror movie?”
“Yeah… exactly.”
Maria hesitated, then nodded solemnly. “A horror wrestling flick. Not for kittens. Very scary.”
“Wah! Then I won’t go into Lady Maria’s bedroom…”
“Only at night~”
Compared to that detention room, the mood in another room was a quiet pond after rain.
“Breeze, fresh sakura mochi! It restores life force.”
Ailuna, gentle as spring sunlight, carefully fed the green-haired girl the cakes she’d just made.
“It hurts… losing… like that…”
The feeling hit first, a stone in her chest. Outwardly, Breeze ate stone-faced. In secret, her eyes kept drifting to the white-haired girl on the sofa.
Dawn Sky hadn’t died. After the battle, they brought her back to the Forest Fortress.
The white-haired girl who had even beaten Dixue now posed no threat. As Dixue said, she was an artificial World Tree Maiden. Without charging, there was no magic in her veins.
So no restraints bound Dawn Sky. They’d simply laid her on the sofa, still as a sleeping swan.
“You didn’t lose, Breeze. Everyone’s safe.”
“…Mm.”
Ailuna clapped softly and offered another piece. “And Wan Han is defeated! You must’ve reclaimed your own power by now. That’s wonderful!”
“…”
She didn’t expect her words to land like frost. Breeze’s expression clouded—rare for a girl who wore no expressions at all. That could only mean the hurt ran deep.
“Eh!? Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry!”
“N-no…”
Time with Sister Dixue and Sister Yue had made Breeze grow without noticing. In moments like this, she knew to say “it’s fine,” even if the words felt like pebbles in the mouth.
“It’s not… Ailuna’s fault. When Wan Han died… I received… his memories.”
“Wan Han’s memories?”
“Mm.” Breeze nodded slowly. After a while, her face steadied again, but her eyes held a new tide. “Inside them… I found… something beautiful.”
“Eh? Something beautiful? But the sisters said Wan Han was a cruel Murder Fiend. How could he have—”
“I don’t know. But…”
“If you can, would you tell me?”
“Mm…”
As Breeze spoke, slow as drifting petals,
a story
unfurled before Ailuna’s eyes.
