Chapter 135 - 134: Lilith: Someone Beat Me to It?
Chapter 135: Chapter 134: Lilith: Someone Beat Me to It?
For 30 advance/early Chapters : p atreon.com/AutumnXd
"You’re back?" Lilith’s languid, intoxicating voice, carrying that unmistakably bewitching timbre, drifted to Luke’s ears.
She’d sensed it the moment he returned to the Magic Card Civilization’s main plane. What she hadn’t expected was for Luke to have lingered in Crescent Moon Land for quite so long.
As a Card Master who had once entered Crescent Moon Land herself, Lilith remembered that obtaining a Crescent Moon Blessing didn’t normally require such a drawn-out stretch of time. Then again, her own entry into Crescent Moon Land had been two thousand years ago by now, and her memory on the matter wasn’t especially sharp.
As she finished speaking, Lilith’s pair of alluring peach-blossom eyes swept over Luke, and then narrowed slightly.
She’d registered that after only a single night, Luke seemed to have undergone significant changes, and the thing that most caught her attention was the aura about him.
To Lilith, it was as though Luke had been marked by someone else, which left her feeling, ever so faintly, displeased.
"Yes, Master." Not noticing Lilith’s subtle shift, Luke nodded, and was quickly drawn to the woman standing beside her.
Glossy black hair, sleek and smooth, cascaded down her back. It didn’t fall all the way to the floor as Celestine’s did, but it still reached the level of her waist.
She possessed a peerless beauty that, like Lilith’s, could only be described as bewitching by nature, but her bearing differed from Lilith’s, just slightly.
If Lilith was allure threaded with dignity, then the woman before him had been born purely to enchant all things. Her allure was pure, without a single trace of impurity, vivid as peach and plum blossoms, seductive enough to stir the heart.
She wore court robes whose style diverged dramatically from anything modern, intricate in appearance, yet they showcased her flawless figure to perfection. Her bust was even fuller than Lilith’s, and somehow it all looked perfectly proportioned, never giving any impression of unpleasant, swollen excess.
What most caught Luke’s attention, though, were the nine fox tails swaying gently back and forth behind her, fluffy and soft, the sort that made a person want to reach out and touch them.
「 Circe 」 Race: Nine-Tailed Fox Quality: Legendary Level: ★ ×12 (Twelve-Star) Skills: Bewitching Grace, Nine-Tail Heaven Wheel, Immortal Body, Beast of Finality
A Twelve-Star Legendary-quality card spirit. This was, without question, the single most powerful card spirit Luke had encountered among all the card spirits he’d come across to date, especially given that she belonged to the Nine-Tailed Fox lineage.
The history of the Nine-Tailed Fox lineage was a genuinely rich one. Back in Luke’s previous life, the range ran from benevolent celestial foxes to ravenous demon foxes, a span as wide as the gap between heaven and earth. Whatever the variation, though, the strength and renown of the nine-tailed fox were undeniable. It might not match the truly peak-tier divine beasts, but it wasn’t something just any stray cat or dog could pick a fight with.
Of course, this was the Magic Card Civilization, not Luke’s previous life, so the nine-tailed fox Circe before him was merely a card spirit Lilith had crafted.
But more than the shock of a Twelve-Star Legendary-tier card spirit, what Luke was more mindful of was that he could see through Circe’s information. In the past, even having ascended to the Leader Realm, he normally should have had no way to view the information of a card spirit at this level.
Could it be because I linked to Celestine’s Spirit Core? In the end, all Luke could do was guess quietly, and that was the most likely explanation.
But if that were truly the case, then Celestine’s strength was even more terrifying than he’d imagined. For Luke, though, that was actually a good thing. At the very least, it lowered the degree of danger threatening him.
Circe, for her part, felt only that after a single glance from Luke, it was as if he’d seen straight through her. How strange. Why does it feel like he saw right through me? With my strength, that shouldn’t be possible.
I’m a Twelve-Star Legendary-tier card spirit, when all’s said and done. Surely I’m not being seen through by a Leader Realm Card Master. It must be my imagination. As the thought flickered through her mind, Circe had already dipped into a slight bow toward Luke. "Young Master Luke. It’s a pleasure."
At the same time, peach-blossom eyes cut from the same cloth as Lilith’s regarded the student her master had newly taken on with open curiosity. This was, after all, the first student Lilith had accepted aside from Selene Dawnford, and a male one besides.
A fox was a fox. With nothing more than that simple gesture, Circe put a woman’s tender, seductive allure on full display.
"Luke, this is Circe, one of my card spirits." Composing herself, Lilith made the introduction.
"Ah, understood." Although he’d already reviewed Circe’s information, Luke still feigned a look of dawning recognition before continuing. "Master, I was planning to head out and get something to eat. Is there anything you’d like me to bring back for you?"
By Luke’s reckoning, Lilith had settled in here, but she surely wouldn’t go out and show herself casually. Even so, that alone was an enormous test for Victor. Recalling the man’s expression before he’d left the day before, Luke could roughly picture the harried state Victor was likely in right now.
"No need to go to that trouble. I’ll come with you." Lilith’s answer, once again, fell outside the range of anything Luke had expected.
Or rather, every single thing Lilith did fell outside everyone’s expectations. "Circe, return for now."
With that, Lilith waved a hand, and Circe’s figure slowly dispersed, transforming into a card that returned into Lilith’s body.
Whether or not it was his imagination, Luke felt that after Circe was recalled, the bewitching air about Lilith had grown considerably stronger. For Luke, though, even that was no hardship to look at.
"I don’t mind. But, Master, are you certain there’s no problem with showing yourself like this?" Coming back to himself, the expression on Luke’s face turned rather peculiar.
He had a feeling that if Lilith genuinely appeared on the streets of Ashenvale looking the way she did now, it would absolutely throw the entire city into uproar and turmoil, and the whole City Lord’s Mansion would shift into its highest state of alert. The boss of his boss’s boss showing up here, and any unpleasant incident befalling her, would mean Aldric was the first person who’d refuse to let Victor off the hook. It would be a matter far graver than simply breaking a few legs.
Of course, Luke figured that if anyone genuinely went looking to make trouble for Lilith, the one who ought to be praying was the troublemaker. Even harboring such designs would earn them an invitation to the Mansion for "tea," quite possibly the lifelong kind.
"And what do you think I should do?" A thought stirred, and the corners of Lilith’s vivid, alluring mouth curved upward slightly as she posed the question.
"Ah, how about a veil?" Luke ventured. A veil was a touch odd, but it would absolutely cut down on the commotion by a wide margin.
Like Celestine, Lilith was practically the definition of perfection, and not merely in terms of her face. Her bearing, her figure, all of it had reached a level of perfection. Even covering up that nation-toppling beauty, her figure alone was enough to drive everyone wild. For certain people, after all, things looked the same once the lights were off.
"A veil. That’s not a bad idea. But I have a better option." Seeming to grasp Luke’s meaning, a faint smile flickered across Lilith’s face.
As she spoke, Lilith walked toward Luke, and with each step she took, the bewitching quality about her thinned by a degree, until, by the time she stood before him, the bewitching aura she’d been radiating had been fully reined in.
Her exceptional looks were still very much at the nation-toppling tier, but stripped of that signature bewitching aura, others could now look upon Lilith’s face without sinking into it, unable to pull themselves free.
"Master, you’re genuinely practiced at that." Watching the transformation, Luke couldn’t help giving her a mental thumbs-up.
"So, can we set off now?" Lilith treated Luke to an eye-roll. Even in this state, with the bewitching air pared away, she carried a distinct charm all her own.