金瓶梅第2部

⟬ The City of Archangel, the Sapphire Tower. ⟭

When everything was going her way... it always felt like there was a Burst Slime just around the next corner, ready to explode.

That... was Coraline Heartsong's life in a faerie walnut shell.

A few moons ago, she managed to solve a murder on a passenger airship without dying. She snagged a figuratively-hot boyfriend and a literally-hot fire elemental, while she was at it.

But then... Lone had to go. He had to travel because of his job-- not that Coraline could really be upset about that. She fell in love with him for him, his work ethic included.

She was the same way. She put her everything into what she did, work or not. Honestly, that didn't leave her much time to think about her boyfriend... and she was surprised that it had been so many moons since she'd last seen him.

Coraline found a job in Archangel working at the Sapphire Tower as a research assistant. There was always something to do... experiments that needed replication, reports filed, familiars hunted down-- things mad wizards needed to be done on a per-sun basis.

It was mostly a thankless job... but the Chief Executive Officer always took time out of her busy sun to thank her personally.

Bella Sapphira... former legendary gladiator of Sol Invictus, even at her age, she was still a smoking-hot fireball of a lady. Coraline respected her more than any other man or woman she'd ever met.

...They even exchanged gifts at the last holiday get-together.

Poor, destitute, sad and lonely Coraline made the CEO a handmade doll of an armored warrior... the making of which earned Coraline bloodier fingers than she'd ever care to admit.

It was supposed to be Dragan, one of the most popular gladiators of Sol Invictus. Lady Bella didn't recognize it... but she seemed to be really happy with it?

As (probably) expected of the wealthiest woman in... all of the Eastern States, the CEO got Coraline the most beautiful pearl earrings she'd ever seen in the history of... ever.

It was probably worth a hundred thousand silver-- easily... but you had to really look at them to see all the intricate details.

Subtle, yet exquisite. Professional, but cute. They suited Coraline perfectly.

It really complemented the only other piece of jewelry she wore... a promise ring her boyfriend gave her that she wore on a chain.

...Also, the earrings were enchanted with a spell circle that stabilized other glamour magics. Or maybe they just made her look more mature?

Coraline was evolving into sexy Coraline.

...Maybe that dummy Lone would actually say something nice about her looks, for once.

When Coraline got them... when she first put them on and looked in a mirror, she might have cried... a little.

Or a lot.

Lady Bella just smiled-- and even gave the gentle but stern order that they were to be worn at all times when she came to work.

...If she hadn't done that, Coraline might have just kept them in the box, for fear she'd lose them.

The Assistant to the CEO appreciated Coraline too... but she didn't... quite appreciate him the same way he did her.

She got the weird feeling that... he was attracted to her.

Nothing would happen, though.

Coraline touched her blouse, feeling the ring she wore on her chest... every sun... every bell-- even when she bathed.

She had a boyfriend.

Anyroad, she received a weird letter from Baron Tychon a few weeks ago.

Apparently, her boyfriend blundered his way into getting afflicted by an Ancient Elven curse. In the letter, Sir Tychon assured her that it was perfectly normal.

...Honestly, Coraline wasn't surprised.

Her boyfriend was... even clumsier than she was.

That made him perfect cursebait.

It just so happened, though, that being a researcher at the most prestigious Mage Tower in the Eastern States gave her a very particular advantage towards de-cursing her hapless boyfriend.

Knowledge is power!

Power corrupts.

Coraline would become a goddess of evil, in order to save her stupid boyfriend from his own stupidity!

...or that was the goal, anyroad.

Yet, after weeks of sleep-stealing, after-hours research... Coraline had... really not enough to show for it.

There was... one thing she did find.

A single drop of divine essence could cure any malady afflicting a mortal. The diction was... inexact, as Elven is a language with a lot of nuance.

But for certain... whatever elixir or ambrosia or magic potion they had to get-- there had to be a spark of god essence to it.

A blessing from a common Bronze-Rank Adept wasn't going to be enough... not that she could afford it.

There HAD to be something else, though. It's not like Coraline could just find a god in a random public house and approach them with her stunning beauty, 'heyyyy, can I have a drop of your divine essence, sir and/or ma'am?'

Yeah.

No.

The gods don't just walk around in this sun and age. They might have, ten thousand years ago, when dragons still walked the Realm... but definitely not in modern times!

...If they did, Coraline had some very strong words she was saving for the god of sleep.

ANYROAD, if Coraline couldn't find a literal god, she just had to do MORE RESEARCH!

She plopped a stack of books on the librarian's desk. It took her probably half her mana, tirelessly circulating through her small and cute Elven body, to carry it up and down the library's endless staircases.

Fluttering her eyelashes-- her deadliest weapons... she pouted coquettishly at the aging, half-blind gnome, "Can I please check these books out, Sir?"

The gnome looked down over his spectacles. It seemed like he was sitting on a dozen pillows just to have his black-sclera eyes level with hers.

"Miss Coraline, ten of these eleven tomes are forbidden for a researcher of your status to even *touch.*"

The sectioned-off parts of the library might have had signs on them... but the locks were a hundred years old and big enough to pick with a common hairpin and ten minutes of practice.

They were a test! Coraline passed them! She deserved to be granted the knowledge she deserved!! BLEIGHHHH!!!

'Rules were made to be broken, old man!' She yelled-- in her mind.

Coraline would never dare to say that aloud. That would be rude.

"I uh... about that," She forced her mouth into a smile, the cutest smile in the library, for sure, "Maybe... let it go? Just this once?"

"Young lady, please observe proper decorum," The gnome chided. "I am aware that Lady Bella grants thee special exceptions, but that is not an excuse for impropriety towards thy elders."

Coraline WAS being proper. She was just... bleigh.

"*Mind* thy expression, Miss Coraline," The old gnome grimaced. "Thou wears thy emotions as clear as a *human.*"

He shook his head and sighed, "I ask of thee to return the tomes to their *proper* places... and to re-secure the gates, if you would."

It felt like steam was blowing out of Coraline's ears as she felt her face redden, "Well-- fine, then!"

Coraline clenched her tiny fist. She would not be dissuaded so easily. She was an Arcanist! A powerful, Bronze-Rank Arcanist with a super-strong fire elemental at her beck and call.

...But as fire and books did not play nice, she used her usual magic.

"⌈Swords of Truth!⌋" She waved a hand above her head, then shot both arms forward at her elderly opponent, forming a diamond shape with her fingers, "Speak to me truthfully, Sir! Why is it that I am the only one here with such crappy access?!?"

The gnome, surrounded by blazing mana-created swords of revealing light, took off his spectacles, calmly cleaning them with a cloth, "⋖ Because you've literally held your station for less than a year. ⋗"

He gestured to the other... quieter denizens of the library, "Thou has the youngest age and art in the lowest percentile of seniority amongst thy peers. Besides thyself, each and every reader present has been granted access to the library only after *thirteen* years of dedication to the Sapphire Tower."

"...O-oh." Coraline tapped her two forefingers together, "Is... is that so?"

"It is so."

"Then how am I SUPPOSED TO SAVE MY BOYFRIEND?!" Coraline raised her voice in a panic-- which she did not mean to.

She was in a library. Total faux pas.

The gnome glanced around himself in embarrassment, his own face flush upon seeing the other members of the Sapphire Tower glare at him judgmentally.

Ahaha... Coraline took vindictive glee in that. The Gnomish librarian was going to be known as a crotchety old man who made a girl cry.

She expended all her mental energy into producing fake tears... which honestly wasn't hard because she only got two bells of sleep the previous night and hadn't eaten anything since a poppy seed bagel for breakfast.

Then, because the fates did not look kindly upon her evil-ness... and even though she was standing still, with no obstacle anywhere near her... Coraline lost her balance and fell over literally nothing.