Chapter 773 258 - The Plot (Part 3)

"...Young lord Derizno, you better have a good explanation or I will actually be more inclined to believe lord Lutroan's words about you all being insurgents."

The first prince backed off as his body began shining with the golden glow of the light enchantments.

"Our head instructor is acting a bit suspicious, don't you agree my prince? Reo, what's with that artifact?"

Xeonith glanced at the gold-haired boy and shrugged his shoulder keeping a steady hold on the struggling man before speaking up to the brown-haired girl he left behind.

"Ah...! Right...!"

Reo flinched and nodded. She leaned down to pick up the bloody artifact but suddenly froze.

At first, it looked as if she was just disgusted with the blood and scraps of meat stuck in the crevices of the device, but judging by her expression, that wasn't actually the case.

"I... Don't know what this is..."

Reo said and took out a handkerchief picking up the artifact through it and slowly raising it so she could inspect it more closely.

"So it's not a defensive artifact? What is it then?"

"I really have no idea... I have never seen an artifact in this configuration..."

Burushi furrowed her brows and asked while checking up whether her spell properly closed up the wound in her patient's chest before moving on to another person – but Reo shook her head and repeated herself.

"Eh? Aren't you a prodigy with those things? How come you don't recognize an artifact made in our kingdom...? Hold on... oh shiiit...!"

Burushi frowned in confusion before kneeling by the next patient – and then a realization hit her.

"It's not from Bellcephora kingdom."

Even though she didn't have to, Reo said out loud while staring at the bloody artifact...

"...!" *SHING*

Burushi gulped down her saliva and checked on the patient before using the water jet to cut apart the man's chestplate despite that part of the armor not being damaged in the slightest as he was hit in the lower abdomen.

"...ummm... everyone... this guy has the same thing in his chest as the previous one, only his sticks out a lot more..."

The blond-haired girl leaned away from her patient and declared, pointing at the faintly glowing crystal surrounded by a metallic ring embedded in the fallen man's chest...

"What about it, your highness? Doesn't this coupled with a head instructor's peculiar actions look suspicious enough for our friend here to initiate an immediate response even though it put him in a bad light?'

Xeonith's face lighted up with a relieved smile as he turned back to the first prince.

"..."

The gold-haired boy bit his lips and a shadow of the old Horeo could be seen in his eyes as he glanced between lord Lutroan and self-proclaimed lord Banemor.

The first prince also looked over to the Victureo siblings and his expression darkened even more.

After all, the Lutroan family was a branch of the Victureo house and the man being the head instructor for the King's Guard training they were all participating in was Ehmi and Grazio's uncle.

"...young lady Kalleronte, if you could, check whether all of the incapacitated instructors have the magic device in their chest. Also, sir Derizno, since you are already holding him down, do you mind helping lord Lutroan from his armor? It must be uncomfortable."

"Yah... I... I mean, of course, your majesty."

"At once, my prince."

The first prince took a deep breath and ordered to which both the blond-haired girl and the brown-haired young man nodded without delay.

"Zoemi, what even happened to you, I don't understand..."

Miriette muttered while fidgetting slightly in Zoemi's arms while the others in the room were taking action to examine the extremely suspicious turn of action.

"Well, I had quite the experience recently. I met Presence and hopefully dealt with Cherro for good... I have also learned from her, that you might have very well merged together with Guide because you should have disappeared since she took away all traces of her existence and all."

"!!!"

Zoemi murmured into her ear, dropping quite a bombshell out of nowhere and making Miriette jolt and pull away at a hand's reach.

"I...! I don't... I mean... What are you talking about...?"

"...~"

For a second Miriette's expression looked completely lost but then her eyes darted to the side and she mumbled awkwardly as if she was a kid caught red-handed on playing a trick – to which Zoemi smirked, tilting his head to the side to match her line of sight.

"...alright fine..." *CRACK* x74

*WHOOSH*

The dark-haired girl admitted and closed her eyes, suddenly every single piece of jewelry she wore exploded and she wanted right out of the black-haired boy's arms.

"KYAAAH!"

"What the?!"

"What did you do to her?!"

The spectacle didn't go without notice – Reo creamed in terror and rushed to Xoenith's side, the brown-haired boy himself also gasped in shock but the first prince was definitely the loudest of everyone.

The attention was solely on Zoemi even though he was more confused than anyone else and he felt his heart drop the moment that he could not feel Miriette in his arms anymore.

Thankfully, the very next second the entire canteen filled with the scent of ozone, and a young platinum-haired girl without a face materialized in front of him.

Then, without giving anyone a chance to raise any questions, in the blink of an eye, the faceless girl was replaced by a young woman with long platinum hair and... face strikingly similar to Miriette only more defined and mature.

"Don't stare at me like that, I am aware that you liked the old Guide but I really didn't want to disappear without seeing you again..."

The platinum-haired Miriette grumbled while fidgeting, making a sulking expression and looking to the side away from the stunned Zoemi.

"Miri~!"

"No, hold on! Before you say anything, I know that with the new timeline and me in this form completely replacing Guide technically means that I am now much older than you, but I regained my true self only moments before you summoned me through the star chart and was working on some sort of autopilot before that so I... umm... and speaking about my current self... thing is..."

Zoemi gasped feeling his chest becoming lighter but Miriette reached out her hand stopping him from approaching and continued to sulk while fidgeting uncomfortably.

"... I know that now since I am a god... it's even worse than before when I was you were my attendant and I was your master... but I still love you so mu... eh...?"

Miriette tried to explain herself but felt as if she was digging her own grave deeper and deeper with each word... that's why she was surprised enough to gasp when Zoemi took the hand she was reaching out to stop him and pulled her into his arms.

"Well, well, well. I guess there is nothing else to do for me but to stay as your champion. Tough spot for you. As your Heavenly Star Warrior, I deserve a prize, but I don't want anything other than you."

"Zo...!"

The black-haired boy grinned and kissed her the moment she opened her mouth to call his name.

The kiss was rather an intense spectacle and even the people with their memories form the past life intact blushed and turned their gaze away.

Miriette wasn't passive in the slightest and got into it almost immediately entrusting herself to Zoemi without hesitation.

As she held onto him hungry for the sensation of his lips her hand moved across his horribly scarred face and the wound disappeared without a trace in a flash but funnily enough, neither she nor the healed boy even realized that it happened.

*WHAM*

"Agh...!"

"REO...!"

Using the distraction, Lutroan jerked up and hit his head against Xeonith – the hit itself didn't do a thing as the earth enchantments of his level were much stronger than the light enchantments that the head instructor was capable of casting – but the sudden move startled the brown-haired girl by Xeonith's side and her scared voice caused the young man to lose his grip allowing the captured man to slip away.

*haaaaaa*

"FUCKING...!"

Judging by the sound similar to a person breathing out in relief and the furious curse leaving Lutroan's throat, the head instructor was trying to teleport away but failed, so he dashed towards the door with reckless abandon.

"..."

As if it was the most normal thing to do, the platinum-haired god flicked her hand without separating from her champion which resulted in the bearded man stopping all actions and getting stuck mid-run with a grimace of desperation stuck to his face as his eyes were solely focused on the exit.

"Nhuaah~"

Miriette pulled away from Zoemi just the tiniest bit and breathed out in delight, lowering her head and nuzzling against his chest.

After she seemed to have her fill of that she looked over her shoulder glaring at the back of the man frozen in time with such hatred that everyone besides Zoemi felt chills of fear running down their spines.

"As a god in charge of this world, I might have countless rules about not messing around with the population of my worshippers, but when someone begs for annihilation for disrupting my quality time with my man I will respond accordingly."

The platinum-haired god declared forcing everyone else to look away in panic.

*thump*

It seemed that especially Reo took her words to heart because her knees gave out and she plopped down while clinging to Xoenith's leg on the verge of bursting into tears.

Miriette had the ability to overwhelm any situation with her presence and that talent definitely blossomed after she merged with a god whom she also overwhelmed and took over...

"What are you looking at? You want that trash so capture him. I am not going to hold him down for you indefinitely. Now then..."

The platinum-haired god scoffed and turned back to her champion with a coquettish expression.