The moment she laid eyes on Kenneth, Li Fei's first instinct was to bolt. She half-suspected this man had decided to throw caution to the wind and come looking for payback right here inside the city walls.
Fortunately, her mind snapped back to cold clarity fast enough to bury that undignified and unwise impulse. She regarded the uninvited guest standing in her doorway with a flat, icy sweep of her eyes.
In truth, Li Fei had been fully prepared for House Mettis to come knocking from the moment she'd finished off Eddy and his group. The decision to skip today's wolf den grinding session and arrange a shopping trip with her best friend hadn't been purely about fencing loot — it had also been a deliberate move to make whatever Mettis operatives were inevitably watching her stop and think twice before retaliating, once they'd had a chance to assess just how well-connected the star courtesan truly was.
What she hadn't anticipated was Kenneth moving this quickly.
Kenneth raised his head — and Li Fei's complete transformation in both appearance and bearing struck him dumb for a full second, nearly pulling him under in that bottomless, oceanic aura of hers.
Does this woman have a succubus bloodline awakening? No — no, that's not right. An ordinary succubus couldn't hold a candle to her...
Kenneth cleared his throat twice before he found his footing again, and offered with considerable poise: "My apologies for the intrusion, Ms. Li Fei."
"Spit it out."
Li Fei gave no quarter to an enemy she'd long since made. She regarded him with the expression of a cat who had been stepped on, her tone carrying the unmistakable chill of someone ready to slam the door at a moment's notice.
"There may have been a small... misunderstanding between us, Ms. Li Fei."
Her coldness and barely concealed irritation failed to rattle him. Kenneth maintained a warm, unhurried smile, all gracious courtesy. "If I have given offense in the past, I offer my sincerest apologies."
Oh, what a perfectly human performance.
Li Fei dropped her gaze and let the display of gentlemanly manners wash right over her, without so much as a flicker of acknowledgment.
If you hadn't looked down on common folk like some lord above the clouds, assuming you could toy with anyone beneath your station — do you think I would have gone and risked my life over it?
"As a gesture of good faith..."
Seeing that silence was all he was getting, Kenneth kept his posture deferential and prepared to demonstrate what House Mettis considered a meaningful olive branch.
He had witnessed firsthand the staggering force of nearly two hundred points of Charisma, and the conclusion had formed quickly: Dean Nicole's interest in Li Fei was no accident. Unless this woman dropped dead tomorrow, she would go on accumulating powerful backers — which meant that no matter the cost, smoothing over this enmity was the smarter play.
Left unchecked, this woman could pick off Mettis personnel outside the city walls whenever it suited her, and spend her evenings whispering poison into powerful ears. Even a family of House Mettis's standing could be slowly ground down to nothing.
"I've brought a few..."
Kenneth's sentence died in his mouth.
His gaze had landed on the silver brooch pinned to Li Fei's chest.
The Special Admission brooch.
The very thing his family had spent a fortune trying to secure for him — digging into ancestral reserves, staking resources accumulated across generations.
In that instant, Kenneth's face went green. A jealousy he had never felt before ignited in his chest, scorching hot and savage, and for a moment his expression twisted into something he couldn't quite hide beneath his carefully maintained composure.
The jealousy wasn't only about the brooch. It was about Nicole.
A Special Admission slot was priceless, yes — but Sacrificial Gemstones, treasures that could command the attention of high-Sequence Transcendents, were no lesser offering. Even a single one rivaled the brooch in value. The chest of gemstones House Mettis had sent had been a test — a probe of Nicole's intentions and boundaries.
And it had been refused without a second thought.
Kenneth possessed an Aptitude that few in recorded history could match — a talent on par, they said, with the very ancestor who had founded House Mettis.
Over the long centuries since, the Mettis bloodline had spread wide but the family's standing had quietly declined, generation after generation failing to produce a talent brilliant enough to recapture the ancestor's glory — until Kenneth's Aptitude assessment results came in, and the family caught its first glimpse in hundreds of years of a dawn that might make the Mettis name great again.
Hundreds of years. Not a single descendant had come close to matching the ancestor, until him.
And when the Magic Academy's entrance examinations had concluded, a young Kenneth — bright-eyed and brimming with the confidence of a man who believed the future was already his — had crossed paths with the elegant, enigmatic Dean Nicole in a quiet corridor. That single fleeting glimpse of the grey-haired beauty had been enough to keep him tossing and turning for nights on end, a young man well and truly captivated for the first time.
Kenneth had quickly found himself backed by his family. From his mother's perspective above all others, if Mettis's rising star could forge a union with the Dean of the Magic Academy, the benefit to the family would be immeasurable — hence the chest of Sacrificial Gemstones, the family's deepest and most extravagant show of sincerity.
The offer had been declined, politely and without much apparent effort on Nicole's part.
This had not discouraged him. No one else could pluck that high, untouchable flower — and he was convinced time was on his side.
Kenneth had never doubted his own future. He had the confidence to ascend to high Sequence, restore the family's glory, and claim the magnificent Dean Nicole as his own in due course. That had been the shape of his life, complete and unassailable — until Li Fei appeared from nowhere and put a crack straight through the center of it, like rot spreading through something that could never be made whole again.
The intelligence he'd purchased just hours ago had already left him sick with dread. Now he was standing here, watching that brooch — the brooch that meant everything to him — pinned shamelessly to Li Fei's chest in plain sight.
The ancient and storied Magic Academy. Cradle of heroic bloodlines. A sacred institution that has cultivated Knowledge Sequence prodigies for thousands of years without interruption. And now it's handing out Special Admission slots to a tavern girl?
And Dean Nicole is spending every night with this woman...
Damn it. They're closer than I imagined. Far closer.
How far has it gone?
Has Nicole already been... defiled?
The last thread of his self-control made Kenneth lower his head before Li Fei could see the expression twisting his face.
Li Fei noticed the shift immediately.
"Ah — I believe Lady Nicole mentioned something about House Mettis offering a considerable sum for a Special Admission slot..." She tilted her head in theatrical musing. "Don't tell me that was meant for you, Senior Kenneth?"
The moment it fully landed — that the coveted prize her enemy had fought and failed to claim was now sitting on her chest — the star courtesan's mood lifted considerably. She straightened up on instinct, and the impressive, C-cup-and-climbing endowment beneath the silver brooch pushed it to proud new heights, making it impossible to miss.
Several seconds passed. Kenneth raised his head again. His smile was warm and polite as ever — but thin red threads had crept into the whites of his eyes.
"I've brought some gifts, in hopes that we might put the unpleasantness behind us."
"Mm."
Li Fei gave a cold, non-committal laugh.
Kenneth waved a hand. One of his attendants stepped forward immediately, presenting a fine wooden box with both hands.
The lid came off to reveal ten rows of gleaming gold coins, ten to a row, each one polished to a mirror shine, catching the light.
The dazzling sight gave Li Fei a moment's pause — but she recovered quickly and let out a scornful little laugh.
"And what exactly is this supposed to mean? You think you can buy me off? You know perfectly well what you were planning to do with me back then — I certainly haven't forgotten. That humiliation isn't something I'll ever put behind me, let alone sell for a handful of coins."
— One hundred gold coins. Not even enough to uncork a decent bottle of wine. What is this, charity for beggars?
Before the words had fully settled, a second wooden box was opened.
Li Fei's expression grew colder still.
"I was an innocent woman, forced into that world of disgrace. Now I can't set foot outside without people pointing and whispering. I'll never be able to hold my head up again..."
— Two hundred coins. Hmm... still short. Nowhere near adequate compensation for this lady's emotional suffering.
Greedy woman.
Kenneth's brow tightened almost imperceptibly. He had already decided to sweeten the deal. He gave the signal, and his attendant presented the final reserve box.
Three hundred gold coins combined — enough to retain a Sequence 9 Transcendent for years.
"Honestly, I'm not one to hold a grudge," Li Fei said, her expression easing by the smallest fraction. "A minor slight from before — I put it out of my mind long ago."
"In that case—"
Kenneth exhaled — and Li Fei cut him off.
"But yesterday, your men came across me alone and chose to attack me unprovoked. With clearly indecent intentions."
Li Fei folded her arms with an air of righteous indignation. "I want justice."
You killed my men and now you're asking me for justice?
You shameless, insatiable—
Kenneth's smile locked in place. He took a measured breath before responding, his voice tight with barely leashed fury. "How dare they commit such a disgraceful act. I'm relieved you weren't seriously harmed..."
"I nearly died outside the city walls."
Li Fei raised her arm and gave the bandaging Mrs. Annie had so carefully wrapped a slow, deliberate shake. The message was unmistakable:
Less talking. More paying.
Kenneth set his jaw. He reached into his spatial ring and produced a vial of pale yellow liquid. "I give you my word nothing like this will happen again. This is a Tier-II Healing Potion — it should help speed your recovery considerably..."
Tier-II Healing Potion. Roughly a hundred gold coins' worth.
Li Fei assessed the value in an instant, and for the first time, a genuine smile crossed her face.
"House Mettis's sincerity — I feel it now."
"Then I'd say we're friends from here on out!"
"That is exactly what I was hoping for," Kenneth answered, with every appearance of sincerity.
"Speaking of which — we'll be schoolmates soon, won't we."
The star courtesan touched the brooch with one hand and fixed him with an equally earnest gaze — asking a question she already knew the answer to. "I'd imagine Senior Kenneth must also be a Special Admission student?"
"Regrettably, no."
Kenneth gave a light, breezy shrug — though his smile had developed a certain subtle crookedness.
"Oh — I'm sorry, I just assumed—"
Li Fei covered her mouth in exaggerated surprise, but those half-smiling eyes of hers were broadcasting, as clearly as a signal flare, just how wonderful it was to be a Special Admission student.
Kenneth pressed his right fist behind his back, where Li Fei couldn't see it tighten. He interpreted her look, through his own private anguish, as: Isn't your dream woman Nicole absolutely wonderful.
The star courtesan had not fully appreciated the scope of what she'd stumbled into. The brooch was only the surface of it — the depths of Kenneth's misery ran far darker than anything she'd imagined. And so, entirely by accident, she had just delivered a taunt that had nearly pushed both of them to mutually assured destruction.
"I'll take my leave, then."
Kenneth felt he could not remain for another second without losing control entirely — and dragging House Mettis down with him into ruin.
"See yourself out."
Li Fei let the smile drop from her face and leaned against the doorframe.
She lit a cigarette and watched through the drifting smoke as Kenneth and his attendants grew smaller in the distance. The feeling inside her chest was nothing like it had been a month ago.
Why the arrogance before, and the deference now?
She held that thought for a long moment, then flicked the cigarette butt into an empty corner with a lazy snap of her fingers, bent down, and began carrying the boxes of gold inside one by one.
...
"Well?" Kenneth asked the mage travelling with him, his face unreadable.
The Sequence 7 Illusion Mage opened his palm. In it blazed a searing crimson light.
Detect Lies was one of the most widely known and practical Order-type spells in existence. Absent interference from a superior supernatural force, it could accurately identify deception — the azure glow of mana shifting to a sharp, unmistakable blood-red whenever a lie was detected.
"As expected," Kenneth said with a short exhale. "It seems the beautiful and petty Ms. Li Fei has no intention of making peace with us."
The result was no surprise. The visit had never been about a genuine reconciliation — only about buying time. A temporary ceasefire.
House Mettis currently had no effective means of dealing with Li Fei within the city, while Li Fei could continue picking off isolated Mettis members outside the walls at her leisure, stripping the family of face and forcing them into an increasingly passive position. Seeking a truce was the only real option.
As long as Li Fei stayed quiet, House Mettis would find the right moment eventually — and when it came, she would learn the price of making enemies of them.
His most trusted aide, Annan, quietly offered him a fresh cup of tea.
Crack.
One moment Kenneth's face was composed. The next, his features contorted. He snatched the cup and smashed it against the ground.
"A whore, extorting me?"
"That damned woman — and that damned... that she-devil!"
The rage and jealousy consuming him had nearly pulled Bai Mengtian's name from his lips. He caught himself just in time — narrowly avoiding the catastrophe that invoking that name would bring down on his family.
Her power had grown to a degree that defied rational understanding. Within Loxibrook, speaking or writing her name was guaranteed to reach her ears — a conclusion the noble houses had arrived at only after paying a terrible price, and one they guarded as an absolute secret.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Three cups in rapid succession, shattered one after another. Only then did Kenneth stop, breathing hard.
"If you're truly at your limit, my lord... I could arrange for her to meet with an 'accident' outside the city walls."
Annan offered quietly.
"That woman isn't worth the risk of offending Lady Nicole."
Kenneth's voice came out flat and dark. "The Magic Academy's enrollment period hasn't closed yet. Yarman's sister — I recall she has decent Aptitude. Arrange a meeting."
Annan understood immediately. His figure dissolved into the gathering dusk.
Kenneth turned and looked toward the Magic Academy in the distance, a cold smile curling his lips.
"Special Admission student? Special Admission students who die in the trial grounds are hardly an uncommon story..."
...
Li Fei had barely finished taking the gold coins out when a rapid knock at the door rang through the room, accompanied by a sweet, cheerful voice:
"Open up, open up!"
"Nobody home!"
Li Fei checked the time, flopped back onto the sofa in protest, and pointedly ignored her chronically late best friend.
Her phone screen lit up almost immediately, buzzing with a flurry of rapid vibrations.
Li Fei grabbed it and took one look — then burst out laughing despite herself.
Warrior of Palpitations: Password Red Packet (Fei-babe I'm sorry) [Unclaimed]
Warrior of Palpitations: Password Red Packet (Don't be mad~) [Unclaimed]
...
I transmigrated to another world and you're sending me a dozen online money packets!
Li Fei puffed out her cheeks, launched herself off the sofa in a huff, padded to the door in bare feet, peered through the peephole to make sure no strangers were lurking in the corridor — and then yanked the door open and hauled in the aggrieved, righteously indignant dark-haired beauty waiting outside.
Slam.
Door shut hard. Li Fei pinned the two-hours-late culprit against it on the spot and rendered her verdict immediately: both hands found the offender's waist and went to work, tickling mercilessly.
"Do you admit your wrongdoing?"
"Ugh — just kill me already..."
"Oh? Still talking back?"
Li Fei's eyes gleamed with the focused intensity of a predator, and her hands increased their efforts. "Are you going to behave from now on?"
"Okay, okay — I'll behave, I'll behave!"
The she-devil who struck terror into the hearts of every noble in Loxibrook finally crumbled beneath the rhythm game veteran's nimble and utterly merciless fingers, surrendering in undignified defeat.
"No conviction in your voice. Say 'mama.'"
"Mama, mama..."
"Louder — I can't hear you!"
A full five minutes passed before Li Fei graciously withdrew her hands, refreshed and deeply satisfied. Bai Mengtian, meanwhile, had slid down the door into a boneless heap on the floor, gasping for breath. Her impressive, generously endowed chest heaved up and down, buttons on her shirt under considerable structural stress; one of her brown leather shoes had come off somewhere in the chaos, and the foot left in a black silk stocking looked soft and slender, the elegant toes hanging limp and helpless in the most mildly suggestive way.
The fact that this best friend had been reduced to such a state could not, in fairness, be blamed on any cruelty on Li Fei's part or lack of sisterly feeling — the texture had simply been too good, and she had made the mistake any woman would have made.
"Wash your hands. Then come help me cook."
Li Fei adopted the bearing of someone who had already put all of this firmly behind her, stood up, and marched directly into the kitchen, issuing commands without the slightest hint of apology.
____
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