“You sent her away,” Antina said.

“She has tasks to complete, duties to perform, and choices to contemplate,” Iris said. “I merely give her an opportunity.”

“The Court’s treasury has many treasures, some of which may be of use.”

“My insufficient contribution points cannot procure them.”

“You’re Mother’s favourite. Anything you wish, we’ll present them.” Antina leaned on the carriage’s sofa and rested her arm along the backrest. “Mistress, you sent her away.”

“My Secain must grow on her own. I cannot protect her forever.”

“Liar.”

Iris raised her brows. The carriage crossed a stony bump. The curtain twisted upwards, exposing gaps for orange light to shower the compartment. The sparkles on her face highlighted her unsmiling countenance, within which tiny bubbles of emotions manifested and burst into the void.

The tremor ceased; intense light faded. The afterglows, too, failed to hide her dark eyes. She closed her eyes and reopened them, whose regained colour spoke nothing of what came before.

“I have you by my side, Antina.” Iris grinned. “There shouldn’t be two maids serving one mistress.”

“Your dark harem implies otherwise.”

“I . . . have no such sinister plan.”

“You sent her away.”

“To protect her.”

“From who?”

Iris pursed her lips. “Right now, the most dangerous place is by my side.”

“No harm shall befall you, Mistress.”

“Do not exclude yourself from the declaration.”

“And do not exclude me from this conversation,” Ludmint said.

Iris turned to her side, where her fiancée leaned on the doorframe. Ludmint coyly slanted forwards. Her big, silver eyes shone like gems adorned only for her lover. Iris reached for her prize, giving her hopeful spouse a kiss on her bouncy cheek.

Despite not peeping, Antina pouted. She’d been working hard for her mistress, yet two ladies had already gotten the reward before her.

“Can’t you hold in your lust?” she said. “Sneaking up like this will only arouse suspicion.”

“The carriage is ours, the night mine and hers,” Ludmint said. “My Dearest rarely takes a carriage home, and she never lingers in one.”

Through silence, Antina conveyed her thoughts by giving her mistress a defeated smile. She left the carriage and spoke with the driver, who eagerly accepted praises from her superior’s maid.

Holding Antina’s hand, Iris walked out of her carriage and entered her home. The cold clean air brushed her face like freezing water splashing her warm body. She exhaled away her drowsiness as her fiancée took off her hat while her maid prepared her cutlery.

She settled on the central seat, around where appetizers and wines were arranged. An intoxicating, fruity fragrance hit her nose, twirled around her head like a current of stars, and buzzed in her ears.

Once her maid poured her a glass half-full, she took a light sip and accepted the bottle. The intense flavour burned her throat, numbing sizzling thoughts within.

“What would be the occasion?” she said. “A mere welcome dinner doesn’t befit this magically distilled wine.”

“You deserve all the most precious, the most lovely.”

Ludmint sat opposite Iris while Antina insisted on standing behind her mistress before getting forced into sitting beside her. Though Ludmint’s eyes twitched, she refused to protest.

Iris had a small slice of meat pie. A variety of subtle flavours washed away the wine aftermath, which retreated to her sense of smell. She placed down her knife and fork and looked at her fiancée, who was staring at her as if feasting on her beauty.

“Is my expression not enough of a praise?”

“I wouldn’t be savouring it if it weren’t.”

“Does my sincere smile please your heart?”

“Even your lies sound sweet, your apologies entrancing.”

Without hesitation, Iris finished her wine. Her face reddened, though she kept her visage still. Only her wavy smile existed on her deep features. She touched her forehead and supported her head on her right hand popping against the armrest.

“Now that my mind is sufficiently muddled, shall we move on to the interrogation?”

Sighing, Ludmint too finished her wine. She poured herself the second glass and downed that one too. Her bright pink ears stood out from beneath her milky strands of hair.

She stared at her empty wine glass, whose curved surface reflected her own profound expression as well as a distorted view of her fiancée.

“You rarely share your feelings, Iris.” Ludmint closed her eyes. “It sometimes makes me wonder if I weren’t of any help.”

“No one but you, Ludmint, has ever hugged me until I fell asleep, whispered reassurance to me, sang lullabies and listened to my confession.”

“Despite all that, I’ve still never seen you.”

“All of them are me, my Dear.”

“Only fragmentary.” Ludmint opened her eyes and stared at her fiancée. “I want to know the complete version of you, your body and soul, heart and mind.”

Antina deliberately coughed. “Ludmint, do you believe you could force her?”

“Would I have tried this little if that were the case?” Ludmint hmphed. “This is my way of pleading, the only way she could understand.”

“Her slippery heart is indeed worrisome.”

Iris frowned. “Bullies, the two of you.”

“We’d like to gently hold you, but you keep dissolving away.” Antina pressed on her mistress’s palm, which rested on her lap. “You cannot protect her forever.”

“You cannot protect me forever.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?”

The dinner progressed as if nothing happened. The three Monster Girls, whose gestures could level their surroundings, cuddled in a soothing dining room, tasting the food and each other’s beauty.

The sun had already left the sky when Iris finished wiping her lips, her maid finished cleaning the table, and her fiancée finished washing the plates. Moonlight twinkled in her eyes, bringing forth the clutching exhaustion sealed deep within her.

She yawned. Her maid arrived beside her and kissed her cheek. She let out a suppressed moan but didn’t resist. Her hands caught her maid’s while she stood up. Her teary eyes looked for her soon-to-be wife.

“There exist three ladies to whom I’ve been paying special attention,” she said. “They were fragile humans, delicate to the touch, soft to the whispers.”

Ludmint vanished and appeared in front of her lover, her brows twisting into a knot. She wanted to hug and seize her fiancée within her grasp forever. She couldn’t do that.

“Why are you telling me this?” she said.

“Is this not the confession you were after?”

Ludmint shook her head. “Am I that possessive?”

“You love me too much.”

“You love yourself too little.”

Iris let go of her maid, who turned around and faced Ludmint. Antina raised her right arm, whose loose sleeve fell and concealed her mistress’s eyes from Ludmint’s view. She donned a teasing smile befitting Iris’s maid.

“Dancing in a circle is too tiring, is it not?” Antina said. “Many things have happened; Mistress is already tired.”

Antina frowned. “Iris, please answer me: What are you planning to do?”

“Everything is for precaution.” Iris drew away her maid’s sleeve. “Nupian’s curse is an urgent matter. I merely wish to prepare ahead of time.”

“Will you tell me first?”

“I won’t disappear without any reason.”

“You must tell me.”

After a moment of soundless pause, Iris nodded. She gave her maid a look before turning around, but her fiancée grabbed her arm, pulling her into a warm embrace, into which she willingly sank. Ludmint’s body temperature heated her chest, lighting her ember of affection.

They spent time unashamedly entangled despite Antina’s surprised, enchanted gaze pricking at their amorous bodies.

Only after Iris felt her body giving in did she extricate herself from that embrace so magical and tender. She brushed her lips on her fiancée’s cheek and softly tapped her fiancée’s lips.

“Here is not appropriate,” she said. “I must bathe first, or I risk dirtying everything I touch.”

“Allow me, Mistress.” Antina went to prepare the bathroom.

Before Iris could follow her maid, Ludmint took out a letter sealed with the symbol of aquilegia, the symbol of the Babille Family. Gantil, with whom Iris had traded a cure for her daughter Mantil, was inviting Iris to examine the first batch of thalassic accessories and treasures.

Gantil had secured a reliable source of oceanic exotic ingredients, which would aid The Court’s development in Jenkin and Yilon Archipelago. Though the letter hinted at a roadblock requiring The Court’s decision, much of the content assured Iris of success.

“Ludmint, would you like to spend our time choosing necklaces and gemstones?”

Eyes sparkling, Ludmint rapidly nodded, but her energetic burst failed to move her fiancée, who scrutinised her with eyes narrowed.

“Are you allowed to apply for leaves?”

“A department head like me is granted much leeway.”

“Will it impact your status?”

“My achievements can at least suppress those rumours.”

Iris scowled. “Forget what I said.”

“Why can’t I get a date when Parmin and Morbi can?”

“They don’t get to slip into my bed.”

“I’m your fiancée; such a title comes with certain privileges.”

Iris reached with her fingertips to tap Ludmint’s chest where her heart lay palpitating. Her nails pierced through the ethereal disguise, almost touching the sensitive ghostly heart.

Trembling, Ludmint mumbled a breath-stopping cry. She grabbed Iris’s hand and pulled it deeper, but Iris’s arm shattered and reformed away from her partner.

“Endure it, my Dear. I’ll do everything for you once everything settles.”

“Everything?”

“A honeymoon laced with sweets and alcohol, a retreated solitary and unending. Only the two of us, in a mansion amidst the forest, in a cabin overlooking a misty landscape, in a suite curtained in fragrant deco.”

“Promise?”

“A promise.” Iris slid close to her fiancée and sealed her oath with her lips unto Ludmint’s. Her warmth imprinted itself on her lover like a teasing whisper. “Wait for me.”

Iris walked to the second floor, where her maid awaited. Ludmint stayed on the first floor and lightly slapped her puffed cheeks. Her ears twitched, and she quickly undressed and entered the bathroom to witness her fiancée’s naked body rinsed by milky water and concealed in a sea of foams.

The three spent their exciting time in the warm bath, within which water splashed and rose and fell and sloshed. Translucent soap bubbles, adorning myriad colours on their surfaces, emerged near their moving, shifting bodies and burst whenever their voices sharply reverberated.

When Iris’s slime became milky white, no longer containing any hint of her calm blue scent, she finally arose from the streaming bath neatly wrapped in her towel. Her dripping slime trailed behind her into the candlelit bedroom.

She chased away her maid and fiancée. They wryly retreated to their rooms, leaving her silence at last. Her half-curtained window let moonlight illuminate her desk, where scribbled notes scattered unorderly.

The prior bathing session left her vitality restored and her mind restless. After organising her notes, she opened her magically locked drawer and took out the thick, dusty, and coverless Speculative Divinity.

Now that she’d reached the Condensation Phase, her Soul Power had exponentially increased; she could try to glean enlightenment from this legacy. Duality’s secrets might be useful for her future.

She needed every help she could get. Her time was running out, though she couldn’t know how fast.

The empty pages of Speculative Divinity rapidly flipped through her vision. A blob of black inks splattered out of the page and enveloped her.

Her consciousness jumped into the pages ridden with indecipherable arcane symbols. They morphed into an endless series of endless shapes, whose fractal silhouettes stretched until they became harmonized with their surroundings.

Iris gradually sank within this illusory landscape, but she found neither the endless plain nor Duality.

Her spiritual body slowed its descent. A ray of divine light flashed past her, blinding her senses. She rapidly plunged deep within the inescapable spiral, where chaotic memories dominated all thoughts and emotions.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the majestically reflective cathedral. In front of her was a maiden in saintly attire, kneeling before a statue of heavenly beauty.

Iris’s past self, Elizabeth, opened her cold azure eyes and raised her head, staring at the veil covering The Lord’s unknown smile.