Irish's eyes fluttered open in shock. She breathed heavily, her chest rising and falling with each deep breath. Her pupils darted from left to right. For a second, she thought that everything she had seen a moment ago was just a bizarre dream, but then she saw the same ceiling and found herself sleeping besides Scarlett.
She closed her eyes and inspected herself internally, and immediately realized that what she had experienced was without a doubt true.
"What did I see? An alter version of Scarlett? Or someone purposely hiding inside her and waiting for the right moment to harm her?" Irish muttered to herself, a cold shiver running down her spine.
For a second, she thought of waking Scarlett up and telling her everything that she saw, but she immediately paused. The Scarlett look-alike had clearly warned her to keep their conversation a secret. Who knows what would happen if she decided to reveal it to others? Irish felt a knot of fear tighten in her stomach.
Irish sighed heavily and, with a thought, opened her status window. The glowing blue screen appeared, floating in the air in front of her eyes.
Unique Skill: Idol Transfiguration
Unique Skill: Predation
Rare Skill: Berserk, Soul Burst, Rush Hour, Phantom Force, Hawk Eye, Recovery, Spatial Hand....more.
Irish looked at her status window. It still felt nostalgic to think about how strong she had grown since she first gained her unique skill, Predation. Her status couldn't be compared to an ordinary human anymore. Not just ordinary, she could be considered extraordinary among all extraordinaries.
Especially her rare and normal skills. She had ten times more rare skills than Lunatic and Reiza both combined. Of course, most of them were useless skills that she never used and treated like they didn't even exist.
"The growth in my stats isn't much, but what's this new title, 'Anti Narrative'?" she muttered to herself, her brow furrowed in confusion.
She got her title 'Predator' when she first obtained her unique skill, Predation, and gained the 'Dark Knight' title after she became an expert in dark magic. While 'Undying' and 'Lord of Soul' were obtained after she gained her other unique skill, Idol Transfiguration. But this 'Anti Narrative' title was surely new and weird.
And there was one more change.
"Dark Apprentice? Is it her way of saying I'm still at a low level of her blessing? Will it rise if I do something worthy or become more powerful?" she said to herself, thinking too hard.
But then, a deep yawn escaped her mouth. She looked towards the window; it was still midnight, the world outside quiet and dark. She then looked at Scarlett's peaceful sleeping face and smiled faintly, her heart feeling a little warmer.
"Let's sleep for now!" she said to herself, hugging Scarlett gently and closing her eyes with a genuine smile, finally feeling a sense of peace.
****
Soon the morning came, bathing Irish's face with golden light. Her eyes squeezed shut for a second to protect themselves, but then her body moved, waking her up from sleep entirely.
She sat up slowly, stretching her limbs and then rubbing her eyelids. As she opened her eyes, she saw Scarlett still sleeping in the bed, and once again, she had undressed herself in her sleep, being naked on the bed.
Irish was just about to have some naughty thoughts while looking at Scarlett's one bare leg sticking out from under the milky-white bedsheet.
But then, she looked to the front and saw Reiza was in the same position as her. She had woken up at the same time as well.
Irish: "....."
Reiza: "....."
Both looked at each other for a second, and then—DASH!...
Both dashed up from the bed and ran outside of the room. Their destination was clearly the kitchen, to make tea and breakfast for Scarlett. Both ran at rapid speed, creating shockwaves behind their backs as they ran through the hallway and slipped down the stairs.
And at last, they both stretched their feet inside the kitchen entrance at the same time, entering at once.
"I'm the first!" Irish shouted.
"No, I was!" Reiza replied.
"It was clearly me, don't cheat!" Irish argued.
"Stop lying, human!" Reiza argued back.
Before it could escalate further, another voice came from behind them.
"None of you are first!" Lunatic's voice came from behind them.
As they turned back, they saw Lunatic already holding a tray with prepared tea and breakfast. She was clearly the winner here.
"Heh! Try waking up more early from now on!" Lunatic said with a narcissistic tone as she left the room, leaving both of them behind with regret.
****
After Scarlett had her tea and breakfast from Lunatic, she had a bath and changed her clothes, and then headed out to take a stroll around the palace.
"Scarlettt... Where is the angel?" Aoto's voice echoed through the hallway as he ran towards her. He had been excited about seeing the angel for the last night and couldn't even sleep well.
"Have some patience, she is not going anywhere. Let me show you something else first!" Scarlett added with a smirk.
She then led Aoto to the other side of the basement of the royal palace, to the secured treasure room. The moment they entered, the whole vast chamber was filled with gold and silver coins, murals, antiques, and many more. The entire room was shining as if it were made of gold.
"So much gold!" Aoto's pupils turned into golden coins as he jumped on the pile of gold coins and started swimming on it like it was a swimming pool.
"Yep, half of it is only taxes from the last six months. If this continues, I guess we need a bigger place to hold all that money!" Scarlett said, feeling a little proud.
"Wow, if you collect this much with such low taxes, I wonder how much that old man has in his treasury? " Aoto said, seriously thinking about it.
The hundreds of years of collective treasure of a kingdom, with such a high population at that, would be fathomable.
"Damn, I guess I need to give up my harem plans and marry only Princess Ingrasia instead!" he added, rubbing his palms in a greedy way.
"Tch, all you think about is money and women. Ever thought of falling in love instead?" Scarlett added with a disappointed tone.
"I have already fallen in love with money. Although I was quite rich back there, but having this much gold sure hits different!" he added with a dreamy look.
"Hmph, hypocrite!" Scarlett crossed her arms and sighed.
Aoto jumped up from the pile of gold, landing on his feet swiftly. "I sure am!" he answered shamelessly.
"Let me introduce you to the angel. And I'm doing it because your unique skill might help her heal, so don't even think of trying anything funny!" Scarlett said, her expression turning serious.
"Okay, okay, I'll help with what I can!" Aoto nodded in agreement, his curiosity piqued.
Only then did Scarlett lead Aoto to the guest room where both the Archangel Raphael and the Primordial Demon Osiris were resting.
As they arrived inside the room, Aoto's eyes immediately landed on a woman lying unconscious on a bed. The woman looked otherworldly—six pure white wings stretched gracefully behind her, a glowing crown of light hovered above her head, and she wore a robe so white and divine that it almost shone with a soft, heavenly light.
Aoto's mouth immediately hung agape. "Ohohoho..." he was literally baffled, his eyes wide with wonder. He immediately rushed towards her, but before he could say anything, he spotted something unusual in the room.
"Wait a minute, who's he?" Aoto looked back with confusion, pointing at the demon lying on the bed in another corner of the room.
Scarlett scratched the back of her head. "I got no idea either!" she said.
But then, her gaze fell upon a small note board stuck below the bed. On it was written about him: Osiris Ragelia. Scarlett read the contents and remembered about him.
"Ohh, it's the guy I dug out of the ground. He has a hell of a weird skill!" Scarlett said, and then she continued telling Aoto about how she met him.
After hearing Scarlett's story, Aoto rubbed his chin, thinking about it. "Hmm... a skill to make others forget about your presence. Is that a skill or a curse?" he said, half-joking and half-serious.
"I'm just glad I don't have it!" he added with a sigh, feeling glad for himself and a little bad for Osiris.
"He heals quite quickly. When I first saw him, even I got confused about how he was even alive in the first place!" Scarlett said, remembering the half-butchered and rotten condition where she had found him buried inside the ground. Compared to then, he had already regained his muscle tissue and bones again.
"Well, forget about him. I don't think he'll be waking up for the next five to ten years. We should focus on her instead!" Scarlett said, pointing towards the angel.
Since Osiris hadn't spoken up since he came here, and before that, he had only asked Scarlett for a place where he could rest quietly without any disturbance, it was highly likely that Osiris was planning for a long-term sleep for a full recovery.
Compared to that, Raphael had said that she needed less than one year to heal, a time when she would be able to open her eyes again.
But before both of them could move their attention to Raphael, a voice spoke up.
"Are you two talking about me?" Osiris's voice came as the next second he sat up casually.
"Ahhh, ghost!" Aoto, who was just standing beside him, immediately jumped back in fear and shock.
"You healed already?" Scarlett asked in surprise.
Osiris chuckled bitterly. "Of course not, but at least I can sit up. I know my skill has caused quite the trouble for you, so I'll try to control it from now on, so you won't often forget me," he said.
"Good, good. It was sure a pain in the ass!" Scarlett added bluntly.
Osiris didn't say anything and turned to look at Raphael, who was lying down quietly like a doll.
"So you are trying to heal her?" he asked.
"Yes. Do you want a shot too? Maybe Aoto can help you as well!" Scarlett offered.
"No, please don't. I don't want to take any risk. I heal by myself just fine!" Osiris replied, shaking his head slightly.
