[Level: 62]
[Affection Skill Potential: Gold]
[Emilie: A Dendro Vision holder, Fontaine's most renowned perfumer. She also maintains a long-term cooperative relationship with the Special Security and Surveillance Patrol, serving as a "scene cleaner," responsible for removing the final traces left by victims after the forensics team and the Marechaussee Phantom have completed their investigations.]
Looking at the information fed back through the affection skill, Nolan came to a realization.
It was perfectly normal for Fontaine's most famous fashion designer and most famous perfumer to know each other. After all, different styles of clothing paired with different perfumes could create excellent results.
Moreover, this golden-haired Miss Emilie also worked with the Special Security and Surveillance Patrol. She most likely knew Chevreuse as well. Since she knew them, she might have even interacted with Navia before.
Nolan speculated as he walked. When he stepped into Chiori's Boutique, it naturally attracted their attention.
"You're here. Perfect timing, there's a newly designed outfit here." Chiori looked at Nolan, a faint smile appearing on her fair, composed face.
"Alright…"
Nolan let out a sigh. Being a model was rather boring, but since he was already here, he might as well get to work.
For the next stretch of time, he continued helping out as a model in Chiori's Boutique. He even thought about using his newly acquired divine ability to assist Chiori.
Specifically, he could imagine the clothing Chiori designed in his mind, then turn that imagination into reality.
After all, his ability allowed "all phenomena to follow his will and manifest as imagined," so something like this was easily achievable.
Moreover, turning a set of clothing from imagination into reality didn't require much power, and maintaining its existence was the same.
This could greatly save Chiori's time, allowing her to focus entirely on designing without having to spend time physically producing each piece just to decide which looked best.
However, Chiori refused. She considered it a form of cheating.
Because it wasn't her own ability. If it were her own skill, it would be fine, since achieving such a thing would simply be part of her strength.
But since it relied on Nolan's power, it counted as borrowing someone else's ability, which she felt was unfair, so she declined.
Alright then. Nolan felt she had a point, so he didn't insist. Instead, he obediently continued being a model while slowly building up the girls' affection.
During this time, he also formally got to know the girl he had just identified as Emilie. By noon, she had already developed quite a bit of affection toward him:
[Emilie Has Developed Good Feeling Towards You. Obtained 1 Affection Point. Current Affection Level: Lv.2 (142/200)]
Similarly, the other girls also developed some affection toward him. Chiori and Navia were now even closer to max affection, only a few hundred points away, while Chevreuse's affection had already reached Level 9 with over a hundred points.
In the afternoon, Nolan continued modeling for Chiori, and time passed just like that. By evening, she had finally selected the outfit designs for the upcoming competition.
Three sets each for men and women, which would be used until the end of the offline competition.
That was simply how the rules worked. The outfits had to be designed in advance and used for the competition, and once it officially began, no new designs could be submitted.
This was mainly to prevent participants from seeing someone else's design during the competition, borrowing certain elements, and then creating new designs on the spot, which would inevitably interfere with the judges' decisions.
At the same time, Nolan spent another afternoon with the girls and successfully maxed out the remaining affection for Chiori and Navia, whose affection levels were already close to full.
Chiori's affection reached max first. After their interaction in the morning, her affection toward Nolan was Level 9 with 764 points, so by around 2 PM in the afternoon, the remaining points were filled.
As expected, he obtained an affection skill from Chiori, and its effect was closely related to her:
[Chiori's Attire: Can activate on clothing crafted by Chiori. Based on the material, style, design, and artistic concept of the outfit, it will derive unique properties exclusive to the clothing. After deriving these properties, they will be further enhanced by an additional percentage equal to "the sum of both parties' levels."]
An affection skill that could be applied to clothing made by Chiori, granting those clothes unique traits, and even further amplifying those traits.
Nolan tested this skill on an outfit Chiori had made for him earlier. While its appearance didn't change much, its essence had already transformed into a golden-quality artifact, gaining a unique trait that automatically absorbed surrounding energy to restore his consumption.
Although this effect wasn't particularly useful to Nolan himself, there was no denying that it had become a golden-quality treasure. It could be stored in his Wonderland Space, expanding the space while also granting it additional properties.
With this ability, Nolan essentially gained the power to mass-produce golden-quality clothing artifacts.
The production speed depended entirely on how fast Chiori could tailor them.
It had to be said, this affection skill was absurd. When combined with the effects of the Wonderland Space, it became absurd on top of absurd, to the point that even Nolan didn't know what to say.
Looks like he'd have to ask Chiori to make more clothes in the future. He'd get several sets of all kinds for himself, and also prepare some for the girls in the Wonderland Space, filling everyone's wardrobes to the brim.
Of course, there was no rush. He would wait until he found a chance to invite Chiori to stay in the Wonderland Space before bringing it up.
Presumably, since it benefited everyone, she wouldn't refuse.
Chiori's affection skill was already outrageous, but Navia's was hardly any less impressive. At noon, her affection toward Nolan was Level 9 with 573 points.
It wasn't until after 6 PM that the remaining affection was finally maxed out, and he successfully obtained her affection skill:
[The Young Lady's Code of Elegance: Any target that wishes to attack you must abide by the Code of Elegance.
- Rule One: Greeting Etiquette. Before initiating an attack, the opponent must first perform a greeting in accordance with human cultural combat etiquette. Otherwise, the first attack will be nullified, and all subsequent attacks will have their power reduced by one-thousandth of "the sum of both parties' levels."
- Rule Two: Duel Etiquette. During battle, the opponent must engage in a direct confrontation. Sneak attacks, hidden weapons, poison, and other methods that violate proper duel etiquette will be nullified.
- Rule Three: Exit Etiquette. After the battle ends, if the user's opponent is victorious, they must exit in accordance with proper human cultural etiquette. Otherwise, the entire battle will be deemed invalid, and time will rewind to before the battle began, with no possible interference.]
Naturally, when facing enemies, Nolan wouldn't go out of his way to explain the details of this affection skill.
As a result, unless the opponent happened to be very polite and unknowingly fulfilled the "Greeting Etiquette," not only would their first move be nullified, but all subsequent attacks would also suffer a massive reduction in power.
As for the second rule, "Duel Etiquette," it went without saying. It directly restricted opponents to face him head-on, rendering all other methods ineffective.
And the final rule, "Exit Etiquette," was even more outrageous.
If a capable opponent managed to follow the greeting etiquette, or endured its weakening effect and fought Nolan head-on to barely achieve victory, but then failed to leave politely afterward, Nolan would simply rewind time to before the battle, returning himself to a perfect state.
Just thinking about it made one feel how aggrieved the opponent would be.
(End of Chapter)
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