Chapter 15: Just Great
Rin used his newly minted 'Consultant' status to flash a signature at the Royal Library guards, slipping past them into the massive, dust-scented archives. "If I'm going to find a Divine Soul Stone in this backward kingdom, he thought, scanning the endless rows of leather-bound tomes, it's going to be in some forgotten legend about a holy dragon or a hidden dungeon."
He began systematically pulling down obscure volumes, searching for references to high-mana artifacts. He'd barely made it through the third row when a soft, giggling sound broke the silence. It wasn't the quiet hush of a scholar; it was the high-pitched hee-hee of someone thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Rin peeked around the corner.
Sitting in a sunlit reading nook, completely surrounded by a towering barricade of stacked, dusty dictionaries, was Alice Silver. She looked nothing like her older half-sister, Princess Fern. While Fern was all structured jackets, powerful reptilian tails, and high-strung authority, Alice was a quiet, almost domestic, presence.
She was dressed in a simple, high-collared white blouse with a blue ribbon, her vibrant red fox ears twitching as she held a brightly colored novel. Her blue eyes were shining as she giggled, her voluminous red tails swaying lazily behind her. She looked... innocent.
Until she saw him.
The moment Alice's eyes landed on Rin, her entire demeanor changed. She let out a silent eep! and used both hands to wildly shove the colorful book toward a nearby ventilation grate, where it landed with a soft clack. She quickly adopted a saintly, hands-clasp-daintily-in-her-lap posture, looking at him with wide, blameless eyes.
"Um... may I ask why a 'Labyrinth Anomalies Consultant' is currently snooping through the restricted legends section?" Alice asked, her voice sweet and composed, though a dusting of pink still colored her cheeks.
"I'm not 'snooping,'" Rin countered, keeping his tone even. She's way too perceptive for a kid reading smut. "I am simply gathering data on this kingdom's local artifacts. Lord Finn requested some background research for a project, and I decided to start here."
Alice didn't even blink. She just sighed, her red ears drooping with a look of bored disappointment. "Please don't bother with the lying, Rina. Your logic is sound, but your presentation lacks conviction. Lord Finn wouldn't know a 'legend' if it hit him in the visor. Besides, my sister already told me about you, the 'consultant' in the massive hoodie that she found in her fiancé's arms."
Rin stiffened. This family is terrifying.
Alice's gaze slowly traveled over Rin's slender, silver-haired form, taking in the elegant grey and deep rose dress the maids had "gifted" him. A slow, thoughtful smile started to spread across her face.
"It's funny... Fern was hysterical, thinking you were another one of Finn's accidents. But as a high-ranking Beast-Kin, I can feel something your maids couldn't. Your mana signature isn't just familiar... it's almost identical."
Alice stood up, her fox tail swaying as she closed the distance between them, cornering Rin against a bookshelf.
"You're his other half, aren't you? The part of his soul that got 'misplaced' during the absorption. I recognized you the moment you walked in." She looked at him with a predatory curiosity that completely overrode her earlier "innocent" pose. "But I have to confess, Rina... I wasn't expecting my future co-husband's instructors half to be such a surprisingly cute little girl."Rin felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He had dealt with ancient monsters and labyrinth traps, but the look in Alice's blue eyes was a different kind of danger. It was the look of a scientist who had just found a very rare, very durable lab rat.
"In exchange for my silence," Alice began, her red fox tail swaying with a rhythmic, hypnotic slow-motion, "I want you to be my primary test subject for an upcoming experiment. It involves mana-conduit stabilization—something a 'split-soul' like you should find very relevant."
Rin weighed his options. If she talked, Fern would likely have him executed or, worse, locked in a damp tower. If he agreed, he might at least get some data on his own condition.
"Fine," Rin sighed, crossing his arms. "I'll do it. Just keep your mouth shut about my soul signature."
Alice's smile widened, but then her expression softened into something almost like pity. "I should warn you, Rina... the process involves a high-intensity mana flush. It might... well, it might hurt, especially since you're a girl. Your physical threshold in that form is quite low."
Rin felt a vein throb in his temple. He was tired of being treated like a fragile doll. He leaned in, his silver eyes flashing with a bit of his old "Saint of Steel" authority.
"I'm not a girl," Rin said, his voice dropping into a flat, masculine deadpan. "I'm a man. I'm just stuck in this 'twink' of a body because the reincarnation ritual was a disaster. So don't worry about my 'threshold.' I've handled worse."
The silence in the library was absolute. Alice's eyes went wide, her ears standing straight up. She stared at Rin's face, then down at the elegant dress the maids had forced him into, then back up to his silver eyes.
"Oh..." Alice breathed, a faint, manic blush creeping onto her cheeks. Her fingers interlaced in front of her face. "Even better. A male soul in a feminine-attuned vessel... the resonance variables will be fascinating."
She stood up and patted Rin on the shoulder—her touch lingering just a second too long. "Meet me here in four days, 'Rina.' I need to calibrate my equipment for a... male subject."
As she turned to leave, grabbing her "smut" novel from the vent with a flick of her tail, she looked back over her shoulder. "And try not to get 'broken in half' by my sister before then. It would be a waste of such good research material.
"Rin watched her walk away, feeling like he had just traded a dragon for a kraken. He had four days to find that Divine Soul Stone on his own before he had to face whatever "experiment" Alice had cooked up.