Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2013: Extravagance : Lamentation

With countless people coming to her with requests for information, Jaina eventually got so fed up with disturbances that she ended up retreating to number seven of her twenty-three secret bases. In reality, this was just the basement of her castle, but, with her Guide turning most people away, it was one of the few places she could truly relax due to the existence of fifteen luxurious baths, each filled with different types of highly-concentrated and exceptionally valuable Shinsu.

Though she had no interest in climbing the Tower, that didn't prevent Jaina from taking measures to ensure she was adequately prepared for her climb. After all, she wouldn't be allowed to take the Opera with her, so, before the 'hateful' rabbit came knocking on her door, she was doing everything in her power to strengthen her body. This predominately revolved around simply soaking her body in various types of Shinsu, but, with countless High Rankers lining up to gift her with exceptionally valuable materials, she wasn't going to simply refuse the platinum spoon life had gifted her...

While soaking her body in a tub of Shinsu that could compress the average C-Rank Regular to the size of a grapefruit, Jaina made the most of her leisure time by completing Dailies on her eighteen favorite mobile games. At the same time, she used miniature Lighthouses connected with her Opera to keep track of various markets throughout the Tower. One of her favorite hobbies was beating her real-life High Scores, which, in essence, amounted to opening a new bank account at the beginning of each year to see if she could beat her score from years prior.

Noticing a notification pop up on one of her games, Jaina's mood immediately improved as the only people on her friends lists were other Princesses and interesting people she had forced to play with her in exchange for information. Most of them quit shortly after playing for the amount of time specified in the contract, but, every now and then, she managed to convert one of her sisters into a hardcore gamer like herself.

Opening her notification box, Jaina was unsurprised to see the nickname 'HatefulMonkeySnake' in the sender column. This was the nickname she had assigned Yuri's account handle after the latter joined up with Vahn and started wreaking havoc throughout the Tower. She normally wouldn't have cared, but, three days after Yuri's year-long 'vacation' in the Little Garden, she ended up blabbing to Jaina about her relationship with Vahn. To make matters even worse, she also prattled on about the existence of the Quest System, so, as an avid gamer, Jaina couldn't help feeling 'extremely' envious of her elder sister's luck. If her spoon was platinum, Yuri's was formed from some type of rare and indescribably valuable gemstone, as, despite being a complete idiot, everything always seemed to go her way...

With half her face sinking beneath the surface of the water, Jaina began to blow bubbles as she prepared herself to read Yuri's braggadocious text. To her surprise, there were only three words making up the body of the message, specifically, "Look behind you." This caused Jaina's body to tense up, as, despite being an irredeemable idiot, Yuri was also a remarkably straight-forward and tactless woman.

Though it would have been simpler to use her Lighthouses to reflect the view behind her, Jaina slowly shifted around in the bath until she was staring at the empty space behind the tub. Under normal circumstances, this would have caused her to feel relief, but, shortly after she had looked back, Yuri's disembodied head, attached to a translucent neck, manifested out of the void as she shouted, "Boo...!"

Without startling in the slightest, Jaina simply stared at Yuri for several seconds before asking one of the most important questions plaguing her thoughts, chiefly, "Are you alone...?"

Stepping out of the void as if it were some kind of malleable fabric, Yuri adopted a slight pout as she said, "You're no fun. What kind of lame reaction is that?"

Ignoring Yuri's comment, Jaina commanded her Lighthouses to scan the area as her Opera, located in her main bedroom, lit up like a miniature sun. Even this didn't allow her to sense where Yuri had emerged from, however, so, even without the former explaining, she could reasonably assume that Vahn was either nearby or currently present. This caused her face and body to heat up considerably, as, despite caring very little about three-dimensional romance, the notion that an invisible deity had invaded her bath was supremely embarrassing.

Amused by the pink-haired woman's reaction, Yuri was thinking about the best method to tease her when Vahn sent her a telepathic message telling her to stop fooling around. Unfortunately, this only served to rile her up even further, so, before the former could use his Unit Management to teleport her away, Yuri began to undress, saying, "Make some room. It's been a long time since we last took a bath together. I might not longer be a Princess of Jahad, but I'm still your big sister. It's important for us to bond when we get the chance~."

Disregarding Jaina's protests, Yuri stripped down in a matter of seconds before forcing the petite pinkette forward and sinking into the peculiar green Shinsu filling the tub. This caused the bath to overflow a bit, and, due to the runes on the tub only affecting the Shinsu within, a rather sizeable explosion occurred as the highly compressed liquid instantaneously converted into a gaseous mist that quickly filled the entire room.

With reaction speed that allowed her to casually dodge lightspeed attacks, Yuri was easily able to veil Jaina with her Ki long before the explosion occurred. Despite this, the pink-haired maiden still had a disgruntled expression on her face, and, were it not for the fact that she might trigger a much larger reaction by moving around too quickly, she would have immediately kicked Yuri in her smug face. Instead, she retreated to the opposite end of the oversized tub, hands protecting her relatively modest breasts as she asked, "Tell me, why are you here? Where is Vah-, I mean, where is the Sage Dragon Emperor? You clearly had his help infiltrating this place. Subtlely has never been your strong point..."

Laughing in response to Jaina's words, Yuri hooked her arms over the sides of the tub, answering, "You're right~!" before using her toes to invade the pinkette's personal space. This caused Jaina's face to redden considerably, as, due to the former's height, she could easily extend her toes to the opposite end of the bath. Yuri wasn't exactly shy, either, so, even if Jaina wanted to shout at her to stop messing around, getting her to behave was nigh-impossible.

Just as Jaina was about to protest, the tips of her ears turning scarlet, her mind completely blanked when Yuri simply vanished into thin air. Were it not for her clothes littering the ground, Jaina might have assumed she was having some kind of fever dream. Instead, she quickly yet cautiously got out of the tub before hurrying over to the hamper containing the same garments she had been wearing prior to her bath.

Under normal circumstances, Jaina wouldn't think twice about wearing the same clothes for days on end. This time, however, she hesitated for a moment before lifting her frilly pink panties to her nose and giving them a tentative whiff. The smell of her own aroma caused her still-ruddy cheeks to turn a textbook example of apple red, as, for the first time in her life, she deeply regretted not practicing proper hygiene...

Though the notion she was being watched made her feel exceptionally flustered, Jaina did her best to wash her panties in one of the tubs before donning them. She was lucky that the enchantments on the tub attracted the Shinsu within towards the bottom, so, as long as she was careful, anything pulled from within would dry before it breached the rim. The enchantment was like an exceptionally powerful magnet, so, even though she invested several minutes into washing her clothes, she didn't have to worry about having to dry them out after the fact.

By the time she was ready to go upstairs, Jaina had spent the better part of forty minutes mentally and physically preparing herself. Before she left the bath, however, she made sure to stamp her feet on Yuri's clothes. She might be the closest thing to a real friend Jaina had ever made but that didn't mean she would simply forgive everything the former Princess did. Just the thought of what might have transpired if Yuri wasn't teleported away caused her to turn beet red, so, if she didn't take her anger out on 'something', she wouldn't be able to calm down.

With her petty revenge complete, Jaina combined all the miniature Lighthouses she had brought with her into a much larger cube before riding it back to her room. She disdained having to walk around, so, much like a member of the Eurasia Family, her preferred mode of travel was floating. In fact, it was this ability that first earned her the attention of the Tperie Family, as, despite the fact she had yet to become a Regular, she could freely manipulate the Tower's Shinsu. The only other people with capability were Irregulars and absolute monsters like Baek Ryun, so, ever since she was a child, the entire Tower lauded her as a genius.

Unfortunately, due to her nervousness, said genius could barely travel in a straight line, and, were it not for an invisible force preventing her from stumbling, she might have fallen off her Lighthouse as it ascended the spiral staircase connecting her bath to another of the castle's secret chambers.

With her intelligence, Jaina could easily guess that the invisible force was somehow related to Vahn, so, by the time she finally reached her bedroom, her face had become a dangerous shade of red as she manipulated the doors to open with her Shinsu control. Instead, undetectable despite the fact they were a few meters away from her Opera, a large group of people was sitting in a semi-circle, clearly waiting for her to arrive. This included an unrealistically handsome man with dark-brown hair and green eyes that seemed to shift to a mysterious shade of blue whenever the light hit them just right. Unfortunately, the moment he looked towards her and smiled, Jaina immediately blacked out, propelled from her Lighthouse as if Vahn's smile carried some kind of physical force behind it...

---

Feeling a peculiar and somewhat ticklish warmth spreading through her body, Jaina opened her eyes to discover that she was sleeping in the middle of a distorted landscape filled with adorable yet mishappen creatures. This confused her quite a bit, but, seeing a sickeningly cute girl with pink hair floating a few meters from her position, understanding donned upon her as she groaned, "It's been a while...Lady Eurasia..."

Nodding her head, the pink-haired girl, Blossom, approached to within a few centimeters of Jaina's position before explaining, "You passed out. I suppose locking yourself away and refusing to even meet your own Guide face-to-face has had some...unfortunate side effects..."

Adopting a pout that was greatly emphasized due to the fact she was currently in a dreamscape, Jaina complained, "3D isn't supposed to be comparable to 2D. There is something seriously wrong with that guy. Wait. I know! He must be using some kind of transformation magic to make himself look better...!"

Cupping her cheek like a concerned mother, Blossom adopted a somewhat helpless expression as she softly remarked, "What a helpless girl..." before immediately following it up with a radiant smile the moment Jaina glared at her. Then, before the pinkette could complain, she snapped her fingers and said, "Well, I'm sure you'll do better the second time. Good luck~!"

Confused by Blossom's words, Jaina was about to ask what the inordinately petite woman was talking about when the ground beneath her spontaneously ceased to exist. This caused her to fall into an abyssal black void, frightening her to such an extent that she immediately lurched forward in the real world, grabbing the closest thing to her. Unfortunately, this just so happened to be Vahn, so, after several seconds of stunned silence, Jaina immediately blacked out a second time...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'I wish I could set High Scores like that...','Yuri has naughty toes...','RIP Jaina xD...')