酷视

\'What\'s with everyone and their fondness for the elevated position?\' she thought, recalling the sigh of another hill where her daughter nestled herself for the last few days.

Shaking her head, Madam casually climbed up the hill\'s light slope only to appear in front of a small, extremely weird camp.

On the back end of the hill\'s top, the humans settled up around twenty times. A bit closer, the group of roughly fifty horses calmly grazed the area they were bound to, and then…

And then, a long, decorative table stood at the very top of the hill, with a young, beautiful human sitting on a fancy chair behind it.

Madam squinted her eyes as she stared at the golden-haired woman.

The supreme fox sensed her match as soon as she appeared in the general vicinity of the forest. A being on their level, after all, affected how the world\'s mana around them behaved, even if only to a degree.

Only now, though, the two women came face to face. One-on-one, someone could even say, if not for a small contingent of battle-ready soldiers standing at attention between the human supreme and Madam.

"It seems that we will resolve the war as usual," the princess spoke in a bright, confident voice. She then raised her eyes to stare right back at the supreme fox. "Supreme to Supreme."

The princess calmly stood up from behind her desk. She then moved around its side, grabbing an elegant mace and a bulgy sack with some sort of drink.

The human supreme was quite the beauty, easily rivaling the most graceful of the celestials and divines. To a degree, her extremely refined form brought her close to the level of Fay…

Her shoulder-long, straight, and perfectly golden hair waved while she moved. Her full, bright lips opened up as she caught the cork of her sack with her teeth, tearing the container open and taking a sizeable sip.

The princess stopped a few steps in front of her personal guards, eagerly taking another big gulp of whatever it was she was drinking.

In no hurry to finish her task, the golden-haired woman took her time to finally lower it down. She wiped her greasy mouth with her sleeve before throwing it forth.

"Straight from the finest imperial vineyard," she spoke when Madam easily caught the half-filled sack.

The forest\'s supreme took a glance at the container before looking back towards the princess.

\'She takes too much pride in her status to degrade herself with a sneak attack…\'

There were many mysteries regarding the nature of supremes. It was believed that no one really knew the full extent and limitations of their powers or the exact means and principles they used to operate.

Maybe it was the elite status of those of the supreme rank? Or maybe something carved out into their souls the moment they reached this stage?

Either way, Madam feared no retaliation nor poison when she raised the sack and took a sip rivaling the princess\' own performance.

The rich, fruity flavor exploded in her mouth. The slight numbness of the alcohol and minuscule amounts of some other dulling agents allowed Madam to explore a completely new side to the taste, once its richest tones mellowed down with her now altered sense of taste.

"Fine wine," Madam spoke… Only to lower the container before carefully placing it on the ground. "But it\'s nothing on what I have."

A smug smile blossomed on Madam\'s face as she opened up her arms.

The princess twitched… but her hand remained stationary, gripping two small axes while resting her knuckles on her hip.

\'I\'ve gotta tell Fay,\' Madam thought, a sudden snicker nearly emerging on her lips. \'This pose and those clothes… make for quite the combo!\'

The princess obviously knew how to make the most of her beauty. Her simple, white uniform consisting of a light tunic, thin coat, and short skirt perfectly outlined her elegant, dignified beauty.

In a sense, she exposed quite a lot of body for someone of the imperial household, even more, when taking into account the climate around these parts.

Yet, for a supreme, cold breeze was no longer of a noticeable significance. And the effect of resting her hand on her hip, leaning slightly to a side while calmly watching Madam\'s response to her courtesy…

"It\'s a fine wine," Madam repeated herself before calmly pulling out two bottles from within her robes. "How about you try some of the booze I brought?"

They were both supreme.

If they were to fight, none of the princess\' soldiers could survive. And from the looks of things, she invested in their equipment quite a fair sum.

Their presence wasn\'t a provocation, not yet. It was merely an assurance that no annoying disturbance to the princess\'s plans like a random, high-stakes fight would happen.

They were here to sniff each other out at most, not fight to the death.

In a sense, their individual lives were worlds more valuable than whatever they could be fighting for and neither had any pressing desire or reason to push for a devastating outcome of their fight.

In other words, the princess guards were here just to deter Madam, for while they would surely die… They could easily turn the tides in their princess\' favor.

"Those bottles are glass, though," Madam called out, respectfully keeping to the distance established when they encountered each other. "How about I approach? It would be quite the waste for them to break."

The princess\'s face appeared intrigued. She squinted her eyes, lowering her eyelids over her golden eyes. Still, the cheeky and outright condescending smile remained.

"Come on in."

When Madam moved forward, she nearly chuckled at how thick the air grew to be at the top of this lonesome hill. Still, the distance she had to cover wasn\'t all that great, so she stood directly before the princess in just a short moment.

"I have a refined one and an herbal one," Madam spoke softly while presenting the two, starkly different bottles.

The bottle on her right came straight from Peter\'s world. Apparently, it was one of the very best of what their booze-makers had to offer. The bottle in her other hand, though, came from Leinei\'s quick, makeshift mix of her fruits and herbs of choice and Peter\'s heavy spirit.

The princess looked at both bottles for a moment before raising her eyes back to Madam. A certain sense of hesitation appeared on the golden princess\' face.

"You know you won\'t be able to make me drunk…" she spoke, as if ashamed, forced into an awkward position of schooling someone too naive to be angry at.

"Actually, those two can," Madam grinned, no longer holding back the smuggish sense of superiority she harbored the seed of in her soul for quite some time. \'It looks like Leinei was right! Human… They cannot brew anything that will make their supremes drunk!\'