Vol 4. Chapter 108: A Stunned Sakura

Everyone appreciates beauty.

The students of Yexinlian Royal Academy had also privately selected several famous campus beauties based on appearance, temperament, figure, manner of speech, and other qualities. Although Yexinlian Royal Academy was one of the top academies on the continent, the students studying there were, in the end, still adolescents at the age when romantic feelings first began to bloom.

For them, aside from attending classes and cultivating every day, the every move of these campus beauties was also quite capable of attracting their attention.

And among them,

the most eye-catching and attention-grabbing of all was naturally the silver-haired girl named Mengxi.

The academy was practically overflowing with descendants of kings, nobles, generals, and ministers from all across the continent. Princesses, daughters of dukes, young ladies from major factions, and the like were hardly rare here. Compared to them, however, Mengxi's identity was unique.

She was one of only three reserve Saintesses of the Asumos Church, and more importantly, the only Child of Destiny on the entire Anqieka Continent. According to prophecy, she was the person who would save the world in the future. Now that the Son of Destiny, Xue Tianao, had mysteriously disappeared and his fate was unknown, Mengxi's status across the continent had risen even further.

Although this Child of Destiny currently held no actual authority within the Asumos Church, the importance of her identity had already far surpassed that of ordinary princes and nobles. Strictly {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} speaking, this silver-haired girl should be the single most important student in all of Yexinlian Royal Academy.

Apart from her noble and unique status, Mengxi's strength was equally astonishing. When she left the academy, she had only been at the Fifth Tier, yet after returning just a few short months later, she had somehow already reached the High Sixth Tier? The speed of her progress was enough to leave anyone dumbfounded.

One had to understand that even those extraordinarily gifted students recorded throughout the academy's history had needed several years to advance from the Fifth Tier to the Sixth Tier.

From this alone, it was clear that the talent of the Child of Destiny was simply beyond comparison with ordinary people.

At the same time as reaching the High Sixth Tier, Mengxi's practical combat ability had not fallen behind either. After returning to the academy, she had mercilessly defeated several senior students who were likewise at the High Sixth Tier. It had directly opened the eyes of those self-important members of the Student Council.

It also allowed quite a few students who disliked the Student Council to finally hold their heads high for once, causing Mengxi's popularity within the academy to soar even further.

Of course, many people were also curious about what exactly had happened to the Child of Destiny over the past few months. Unfortunately, no matter how they asked, the silver-haired girl was unwilling to reveal anything. She would only smile and politely decline to answer.

The Child of Destiny.

Perfect looks, incomparable talent, a noble identity, a gentle and pure heart, and an incomparably brilliant future.

How could a girl like that possibly fail to attract young people from every race in droves?

If someone could win the heart of the Child of Destiny, then even if their future could not be described as instantly soaring to the heavens, it would at least be boundlessly promising.

When Xue Tianao had still been around, everyone had restrained themselves somewhat. After all, the Child of Destiny and the Son of Destiny looked like a match made in heaven, and Xue Tianao had previously been far too overbearing, giving off the unmistakable impression that anyone who dared compete with him for the Child of Destiny would get beaten down by him personally.

However,

now that Xue Tianao was basically gone, the young people from all the major top-tier factions naturally began growing restless. After Mengxi returned to the academy, they launched one frenzied pursuit after another. Some were even particularly bold. For example, Ankeqi, the Third Prince of the Crimson Leaf Empire, had directly confessed his feelings to Mengxi just last week...

Unfortunately, the result had not been very good.

In full view of the public, Ankeqi, holding a bouquet of flowers, had been rejected on the spot.

If that had been all, then fine.

But after Ankeqi continued questioning her, Miss Mengxi unexpectedly dropped an explosive piece of news.

-"Sorry, actually... I already have someone I like. She likes me very much too... so... could you please stop bothering me?"-

The moment those words came out,

Ankeqi froze stupidly on the spot.

The entire Yexinlian Royal Academy exploded into an uproar as well.

Practically everyone began discussing where the hell this damn brat had come from who dared steal the heart of the Child of Destiny?!

Of course, none of them suspected that Mengxi had lied merely to avoid trouble. After all, the Child of Destiny was so pure. How could she possibly lie?

After that day,

whether it was Miss Mengxi's fan club or the subordinates of Ankeqi and the other noble heirs, all of them began searching for information on a massive scale, trying to locate the ‘damn brat’ who had ‘deceived’ the Child of Destiny. Needless to say, if this ‘damn brat’ did not have powerful enough backing or sufficient strength,

then Mengxi's legions of male and female admirers would certainly use every method imaginable to make this ‘damn brat’ change their mind before bringing down the butcher's blade.

If they could not make that person change their mind psychologically,

then they could only do it physically by making their head fall to the ground...

It was not as if they had never done similar things before. They were already thoroughly familiar with the process.

The only question was: who the fuck was this womanizer who had swindled away Miss Mengxi's heart?

In order to uncover the culprit, the entire Yexinlian Royal Academy, and even Anvika, capital of the Crimson Leaf Empire, had been thrown into an uproar. Among the large number of students currently gathered around Mengxi, quite a few were actually ‘observers’ sent by those noble heirs~

They wanted to see whether that overconfident ‘damn brat’ would come looking for Miss Mengxi!

...

--

Hidden behind a distant windowsill, a certain red-haired man finally lowered the telescope in his hands with great reluctance after observing the silver-haired girl for quite some time.

His fairly ordinary-looking face was filled with emotion, and he seemed to be muttering embarrassing things like ‘My goddess...’ under his breath, making several people beside him instinctively reveal awkward expressions.

Fortunately,

after lowering the telescope, the man gradually returned to normal and adopted a serious expression.

Then,

the red-haired man turned impatiently toward his two underlings.

"What, you still haven't found out who it is?"

"S-Sorry, Your Highness Ankeqi."

The chubby boy who had been halfway through eating a piece of bread hurriedly stood up and shook his head somewhat guiltily.

"We checked. Recently, hardly anyone has had any contact with Miss Child of Destiny at all. Even the people who did come into contact with her only did so briefly because of daily matters or official business. The only person who's had multiple conversations with Miss Mengxi is Instructor Felik. But... he doesn't seem interested in Miss Mengxi that way. He simply treats her as a student and hasn't shown any signs of doing anything inappropriate."

"So basically, you've still found nothing lately, right?"

The red-haired man, Ankeqi, Third Prince of the Crimson Leaf Empire, spoke impatiently.

Hearing the irritation in his boss's voice, the chubby boy lowered his head in shame.

"Sorry, Your Highness. ...But... could it be... the person Miss Mengxi likes isn't at the academy? Maybe she met them while she was in Skyvault? Could it possibly be... Xue Tianao?"

"Oh, give me a break. Even an idiot can tell Mengxi hates Xue Tianao. Otherwise, when Xue Tianao came to Anvika last time, the two of them would've gotten together already, okay? If she actually likes Xue Tianao, I'll swallow this durian whole right here!"

"Uh, all right. Then could she have met someone else?"

"It's not impossible."

Ankeqi raised a hand to his chin and sank into brief thought.

"Why don't you ask your elder brother, His Highness Anmutu? He went on that trip to the Snow Night Empire too. Maybe he knows something?"

"That guy... even if I ask, he probably won't tell me..."

A trace of displeasure flashed through Ankeqi's eyes.

Setting aside the fact that he had been attracted by the silver-haired girl's beauty and temperament, the most fundamental reason Ankeqi pursued Mengxi was that he wanted to gain the support of the Child of Destiny and the Asumos Church behind her. Only then would he have any chance of defeating his second elder brother, Anmutu, in the future struggle for the imperial throne.

Anmutu knew this perfectly well, so why the hell would he tell me anything?

And the person I'd secretly planted in the group to follow them to the Snow Night Empire just happened to get slapped to death by an Abyss Demon?!

Damn it!

The more Ankeqi thought about it, the more irritated he became. All he could do was gaze thoughtfully at the goddess in his heart in the distance.

Yet while staring at the beautiful profile of the silver-haired girl, Ankeqi unconsciously frowned, revealing a confused expression.

"Strange..."

Although he had not had many opportunities to speak with the Child of Destiny, Ankeqi knew very well that she did not enjoy being the center of public attention. Even if she really had someone she liked, she should not have announced it so openly and caused the entire academy to explode into chaos, right?

Hadn't she just instantly become the number-one trending topic in the academy, with everyone watching her?

The more Ankeqi thought about it, the less he could understand...

...

--

Meanwhile,

on the rooftop of the library,

the little QB-like creature sitting on the table and eating dessert one bite at a time could not help shuddering when she noticed the enormous number of onlookers surrounding them.

Then the little creature blinked her ruby-like eyes and looked in confusion toward the silver-haired girl quietly reading beside her.

At the same time,

a message traveled directly into the silver-haired girl's mind through telepathy:

"Miss Mengxi, after you pulled something like this, things have gotten even less peaceful, haven't they? There are three times as many people watching us as before, okay?"

Hearing the little creature's words, Mengxi temporarily stopped reading and indifferently glanced at the distant crowd from the corner of her eye.

"Mm. That's more or less what I expected."

"Didn't you dislike becoming the center of this kind of attention? Why would you do this?"

"Xue Tianao is gone now, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"Once he disappeared, I lost my shield. The number of people coming to pursue me every single day increased again. In that case, I might as well tell them directly that I already have someone I like. After that, quite a few people won't embarrass themselves by confessing to me anymore. Let them make a fuss about it for a while. Once they're done, it'll pass."

"Ohhh! So that's how it is!"

The little creature, Sakura, immediately revealed an expression of sudden enlightenment and cast an admiring gaze toward her host.

"Miss Mengxi, that's actually a pretty good move. Pretend you have someone you like and directly redirect all those annoying people's attention toward that nonexistent person~ Then you can use the opportunity to focus on studying and cultivating~ As expected of Miss Mengxi~"

"Hm? Sister Sakura, what are you talking about?"

"Huh? What do you mean, what am I talking about?"

"I wasn't pretending~ I was telling the truth. I really do have someone I like."

"Ohhh, I see............ Hm?!!"

The pink little creature, who had been nodding repeatedly, suddenly trembled from head to toe and stared at the innocent-looking silver-haired girl in disbelief.

"Y-You're... serious?"

"Of course~"

Mengxi raised her book to cover her mouth and spoke as though she were slightly embarrassed.

"I wouldn't want people confessing to me every day and making her jealous~"

Sakura: ...Huh? O__O"