57. Necessary Appeasement
She couldn’t just send the letter as is and say the flower wilted during the journey, could she?
Reina placed the flower on the Goddess’s bracelet, hoping it would purify the flower. But the result was unsurprisingly disappointing; there was no change at all.
Based on her guess, she needed to further increase her Light level to truly use pure light magic.
Reina began to write the letter, thinking of a good way to use the corrupted light flower to prove her identity.
—That was, to turn the problem back to the Saintess.
“The Goddess of Light has chosen to trust you, but you must purify this corrupted flower of light to prove your devotion.”
Plan successful.
Suddenly, she remembered a good orcish den to raid. If she guessed correctly, there were more “Goddess’s Treasures” waiting for her there, and the more treasures she collected, the higher her level would become—compared to her demonification level, Reina believed that her Light level was what she should be focusing on.
At least, she wouldn’t grow wings that way.
More importantly, it would make it harder for Calysia’s magic to turn her into a vassal, and she wouldn’t fall in love with that dummy.
Reina nodded and put the golden bracelet on her left wrist—thanks to the maid uniform, it wasn’t visible at all.
The Goddess of Light had many jewelry-type treasures. In the game, they could be placed in the seemingly useless “accessory slot.” Besides their aesthetic value, they also increased a mysterious “luck” stat.
Luck didn’t have any direct effect in the game, so it was ignored by everyone. Reina even considered herself quite unlucky, even though she had worn a full set of the Goddess’s treasure accessories.
If it weren’t for the treasures’ ability to “block attacks” for her, Reina wouldn’t have bothered collecting such flashy things.
She continued writing the letter.
Besides mentioning the humans’ next target location, the letter also explained the rationale behind the Goddess of Light’s existence. Finally, at the end of the letter, she didn’t ask for anything, only for the humans to send her the Goddess’s treasures.
This request wasn’t a burden for them. Although the Goddess’s treasures had sentimental value, most of them didn’t possess world-destroying power or even any basic function. It was better to use them for trade… Everyone knew this.
Besides, the sender of the letter might actually be the Goddess of Light herself~
Returning lost property wasn’t unreasonable, right?
…
It was already 8 PM after a day’s work.
To avoid Calysia, she went to the bathhouse in the recreation area early.
The bathhouse was a huge, steam-filled space, several times more luxurious than what Reina considered a “private pool,” but it maintained the size of a typical bathhouse or hot spring, seemingly designed for privacy and a sense of security.
After taking off her clothes, Reina’s entire body was covered in a misty steam. She sat by the edge of the pool and dipped her fair toes into the hot water… if it could even be called “water.”
It felt like 30 degrees Celsius, but in reality, it might be something akin to surface magma.
Reina slowly lowered herself into the water, from her toes, calves, thighs, and hips, to her slender waist and long hair. She savored the feeling of the hot water engulfing her, washing away the remaining fatigue from her body.
Then she found a corner and submerged herself, leaving only half of her head above water.
Now, there was a question she had to consider.
Just like Shining Scale, another Demon Moon, Crimson Scale, had also sent something to Reina, but it wasn’t treasure, but a banquet invitation.
—Crimson Scale’s banquet invitation.
Reina remembered that Crimson Scale was a smooth-talking, two-faced dragon. Hoxas, the traitor, was one of his creations.
He was a fearsome strategist in the game, and his current actions were indeed consistent with his identity. Similarly, although he had helped the Dragon King resist the protagonist’s invasion and died in battle in the game, Reina knew that he harbored deeper schemes and ambitions.
He had conducted cruel experiments on humans and used his power to amass a large amount of treasure, practically writing “rebel against the Dragon King” on his face.
Of course, Calysia might not actually know about this.
Because Reina always killed Crimson Scale first in every playthrough—after all, he was the most troublesome of all the [Demon Moons].
And the purpose of the invitation was very simple—Reina had stepped on his toes.
So far, everything was within Reina’s predictions.
If nothing unexpected happened, this might escalate into a major internal power struggle within the dragon race.
“Tired of living,” Reina murmured, blowing bubbles. She suddenly remembered something, surfaced, got out of the bath, and carefully examined the Dragon Mark in front of the full-length mirror.
—Compared to the first time she had observed the Dragon Mark, now she could faintly see the purple magic veins extending deep into her body, like a core controlling her fair body, a startling yet beautiful pattern.
She turned around, looking at the bluish-purple scales on the slightly raised, graceful curve in the mirror—that was the strange place where her tail was about to grow.
Then, Reina closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and…
“Wings of Light.”
As she chanted these words, Reina imagined the shape of wings, and instantly, a pair of bluish-purple feathered wings sprouted behind the naked dragon girl in the mirror—they weren’t real wings, but just like the Goddess of Light’s, they were tools for transportation, manifested from magic power.
She couldn’t fly.
In the few days she had been working at the Dragon King’s Palace, she had never been more than a kilometer away from Calysia, so most of the time, there was no need to fly, and she didn’t have to worry about this detail.
But the banquet she was supposed to attend clearly required long-distance flight to another location.
Although she could contact Fire and Azure, asking for their help would be a loss of face for a superior like her. Therefore, Reina resolutely chose this somewhat immature method.
If Reina couldn’t fly to the banquet location on her own, then she would have to ask Calysia to take her there, and she would definitely face the same situation as before!
Reina didn’t want to be taken advantage of by Calysia again.
She changed her clothes and, while Calysia was still busy with official business, secretly went to the park in the Dragon King’s Palace.
She tried to invoke gravity magic while simultaneously using the wings to fly.
Reina instantly ascended, spun like a top for 7200 degrees, and landed clumsily, almost stepping on the lawn—if she didn’t have a superhuman physique now, instead of a human one, her brains would have been scrambled.
At this moment, she once again longed to grow dragon wings. That way, flying would be as easy as walking. But for the sake of her human dignity, Reina continued her flight training.
Finally, after falling from the sky 17 times in an hour, Reina temporarily gave up on this impractical idea. She couldn’t fly to the banquet on her own.
So, she made up her mind.
Reina returned to her room and quickly put on the golden bracelet on her left hand, finally feeling at ease.
While it was still early, she immediately went to the bedchamber, took off her clothes until she was only in her underwear, and burrowed into the covers of the huge bed.
Her body temperature rose along with the warmth of the bed.
—Why, after all this trouble, am I back to warming the bed?!
“Necessary appeasement, necessary appeasement…”
Reina chanted silently in her heart, trying to forget everything.
