We finally reached the heavily fortified boundary separating the merchant hub from the highest, most exclusive echelon of the capital: the 7th District. This was the inner sanctum where the grand high-tier administrative towers, elite knight barracks, and Chief Roman's central office were located.
Stationed right at the center of the pristine, white-marble checkpoint was a minor supporting figure who stood out drastically from the standard, heavily armored vards. It was Paper. He was dressed head-to-toe in an elaborate, perfectly tailored black-and-white mime outfit, completely disregarding the rigid military dress code of the sector in favor of his own theatrical style. True to his eccentric reputation, he stood entirely motionless, a living statue guarding the gate.
Since my tongue was fully functional and my voice perfectly smooth and restored, I didn't bother waiting for him to break his vow of silence.
"Greetings, Paper," I said deadpan, my mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes locking onto his painted face.
Beside me, Elicia and Evelyn offered polite nods of recognition.
"Good morning, Paper," Elicia added, her majestic 5'8" frame projecting a calm, respectful authority.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my silver status card, while Evelyn dug into her Luminous Knight armor pouches to retrieve hers. Elicia, however, kept her hands resting elegantly on her high-tier healing staff; as a legendary commander of the northern border, her official clearance records were permanently housed inside the Bureau's central database, meaning she didn't carry a physical card on her person today.
Evelyn and I extended our identification cards toward the silent gatekeeper. Paper blinked, his dramatic, expressive eyes lighting up with theatrical flair. Instead of just taking the cards like a regular official, he performed a sweeping, elegant bow.
With a rapid, fluid flick of his wrists, he initiated a series of flawless sleight-of-hand magic tricks. He tapped my silver card against his palm, and poof… it vanished entirely into thin air. Evelyn let out a small, delighted gasp, her bioluminescent blue-green hair tips flickering with childish excitement. Paper then spun around, pulled a spectral, invisible thread from the air, and dramatically forced the cards to reappear right out from behind Evelyn's heavy shoulder pauldrons, handing them back to us with a flourish and a silent, exaggerated wink.
A rare, genuine bubble of amusement broke through my cold, tactical exterior. I let out a soft, involuntary laugh at the sheer absurdity of the performance, the stress of our impending confrontation briefly melting away. Even Elicia couldn't help but smile at the whimsical display.
Paper bowed one final time, stepping aside with a grand, sweeping gesture of his arm to open the reinforced barriers. With our status verified and our spirits unexpectedly lifted, we stepped officially into the pristine, sunlit avenues of the 7th District, the grand obsidian doors of the central Bureau headquarters looming directly ahead of us.
We left Paper the mime behind, moving briskly past the grand white thresholds of the 7th District and onto the pristine, marble-paved boulevard that directly connected to the 8th District… the absolute pinnacle of the capital's architecture where the massive, cathedral-like towers of the central Knights Bureau resided.
As our boots clicked sharply against the clean stone, the silence of our march was broken by Elicia. She had been staring intensely at Evelyn's commanding, voluptuous 5'6" frame, a sudden look of deep, maternal panic crossing her elegant features. Her silver hair shifted as she stopped her long stride, her high-tier healing staff resting against the pavement.
"Wait, Evelyn, If your hybrid physiology is undergoing such extreme, accelerated growth... what happens in a few months? Are you going to keep aging at this catastrophic speed until you're moving around like an old grandma?" Elicia said, her crimson eyes wide with genuine worry as she processed the conversation from earlier.
Evelyn let out a cheerful, melodic laugh, completely unbothered by the question as she adjusted the heavy pauldrons of her white-and-scarlet Luminous Knight uniform.
"Oh, no! Don't worry, Elicia! Us slimes are special. Our physical development caps completely once we hit the biological age of twenty. After that, our cells stabilize perfectly. In fact, we're actually considered completely ageless from that point on! I'll stay looking like this forever."
Elicia let out a massive, visible sigh of relief, her hand dropping from her chest as she smiled warmly at our baby sister.
"Thank the gods... I don't think my heart could handle seeing you grow old before you even get to experience the world."
I kept my pace steady at 5'5", my mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes scanning the grand, sunlit surroundings with practiced, tactical efficiency. I was just about to tell them to keep moving when my gaze suddenly locked onto a shaded corner terrace near a high-end food hub up ahead.
Sitting beneath a canopy of purple wisteria blossoms was a familiar, distinct silhouette.
My chest tightened slightly behind my simple dress. It was Na Tae-Man. He was wearing his iron-leather vanguard armor, his Golden-crimson eyes blinking as he leaned across a wooden table. The teenage Earth gamer and self-proclaimed light-novel protagonist was currently completely locked into his usual animated, loudmouth delusions, entirely unaware that his "Roxanne" was walking past with a completely different face and a massive family entourage.
I froze for a fraction of a second, my mind flashing back to the absurd memory of sharing a frozen berry-blend milkshake with him through two separate straws, and the sheer, burning embarrassment of his dramatic, clumsy confession under the wisteria shade.
My subtle hesitation didn't escape Evelyn's razor-sharp, S-rank tracking instincts. She followed my gaze straight to the terrace, locking onto Tae-Man's dense, unpolished aura. A deeply smug, incredibly wicked smirk instantly split across her voluptuous face.
Evelyn nudged my side aggressively with her gauntleted elbow, her hair tips violently flashing a mischievous, teasing shade of vibrant yellow.
"Well, well, well... look what we have here, Hey, Eirene... is that your boyfriend? Right? The funny armor guy you were sharing a drink with? I knew you were hiding a whole army under your bed, but I didn't know you were hiding a little romance too!"
A visible, violent flush of pure heat rushed straight up to my pale, scarred cheeks. My left eye flashed a lethal, predatory crimson as I shot my baby sister a freezing, murderous glare to shut her up before Tae-Man could look over and ruin our entire operational cover.
"He is a client, And if you say another word, Evelyn, I will personally ensure your next jar of jam is entirely out of reach. Move. Chief Roman is waiting."I muttered coldly, my smooth, restored voice cutting through her teasing like a razor blade as I forced my boots to move forward.
Before I could even take another step to force our group past the terrace, Na Tae-Man's hyperactive gamer senses flared. He caught the sharp, icy glare slicing toward him from beneath the shade of the wisteria canopy. His crimson eyes widened into dinner plates, his face lighting up with absolute, unbridled excitement.
He bolted upright from his wooden chair, completely shattering his cool protagonist posture, and waved his arms frantically in the air.
"Hey, Roxanne! Over here!" Tae-Man yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing loudly across the pristine, white-marble boulevard of the 7th District.
Because he was entirely locked into our Earthly familiarity, he casually blurted out the Western pseudonym I had used during our bounty-hunting operations, his distinct Korean-accented cadence completely failing to blend into the local architecture.
Elicia and Evelyn stopped dead in their tracks, their postures instantly freezing. The two sisters turned their heads simultaneously, their faces twisting into expressions of profound, absolute confusion.
"Did... did that boy just call you 'Roxanne'? What kind of foreign dialect is he yelling? And who exactly does he think he's addressing?" Elicia asked, her majestic 5'8" frame tensing slightly as her analytical crimson eyes blinked in bewilderment.
Before I could even open my mouth to manufacture a smooth administrative lie, Na Tae-Man completely bypassed all tactical caution. He scrambled out of the restaurant terrace, his iron-leather vanguard armor clinking loudly against the cobblestones, and sprinted directly up to our group. He halted right in front of my 5'5" frame, entirely ignoring the intimidating, S-rank military pressure radiating from my sisters.
His eyes locked onto my fully exposed, unhooded face, and his jaw practically unhinged in sheer, unadulterated awe.
"Thank God, Roxanne! You're completely healed! Your eyes... they're magnificent! The mismatch is incredible! And the scars... there's absolutely no more necrotic tissue on your face! And your arm… "
Tae-Man gasped, his voice trembling with a mixture of intense relief and sudden, starstruck reverence. Without a single microsecond of hesitation, he reached out and gently took hold of my left forearm, his fingers tracing the perfectly restored skin beneath my dress.
"Your arm is entirely back! Did you find a high-tier holy elixir, or did you finally clear that legendary regeneration dungeon?!"
A massive, suffocating wave of intense heat flushed violently across my pale cheeks. My left eye flashed a predatory, dangerous crimson. The absolute idiot was loudly listing out every single physical modification I had painstakingly concealed from the public record, right in front of the two highest-ranking members of my biological lineage.
Behind me, the sudden shift in the psychological atmosphere was catastrophic. The confusion on my sisters' faces instantly evaporated, replaced by a pair of deeply amused, aggressively teasing grins that made my blood run cold.
Elicia leaned gracefully against her legendary, high-tier healing staff, a thoroughly dramatic, exhausted sigh escaping her lips as she shook her pristine silver hair.
"Oh, by the gods... this is completely unfair, Am I truly the only sibling in the Rynd family destined to have absolutely no romance? Our eldest brother has a secret life, little Ren over here is sneaking around the 7th District running a secret relationship under an alias, and she already has a baby on the way while I am stuck running a magic academy! The administrative balance of this family is completely broken." Elicia murmured, her tone dripping with mock envy as she patted my shoulder.
To my right, Evelyn nearly dropped her empty jar of strawberry jam into her pouch, her voluptuous 5'6" frame trembling with a sudden burst of childish, S-rank giggles. The bioluminescent blue-green tips of her hair violently flashed a rapid, mocking shade of bright yellow as she leaned down, her forest-green eyes sparkling with immense mischief.
"I knew it! I knew it! He's the milkshake guy! Eirene, you're blushing so hard your face looks like strawberry jam! Are you guys going to go back to the terrace and share another pink cream blend with two separate straws? Do you want me to order it for you, big sister?!" Evelyn cheered loudly, pointing a gloved finger at Tae-Man.
"That is enough," I whispered, my smooth, restored voice carrying a freezing, razor-sharp edge that briefly caused the ambient mana to drop by five degrees.
Moving with the blinding, hyper-velocity reflexes of a Phase 5 apex predator, my hand shot forward. I completely bypassed Tae-Man's baseline physical defenses, firmly grabbing the teenager by the top of his left ear and twisting it sharply until he dropped to his knees with a sharp, pathetic yelp.
I leaned down, pulling him close until my mismatched crimson and jade-green eyes were inches from his flushed face, my tone dropping into a lethal, deadpan hush.
"Hey, you. Shut up, will you? If you truly want to build that ridiculous, light-novel harem you keep rambling about... you need to behave yourself. One more loud word about my stats or my alias in public, and your next quest will be surviving without ears. Do you understand me?"
Na Tae-Man froze, his face turning an incredibly vivid shade of bright crimson as he looked up at my intense, blushing face from his knees. The sheer, unadulterated influence of his Earthly romance tropes instantly overrode his panic. He cleared his throat roughly, his gamer confidence rapidly deflating into a submissive, frantic stammer as he raised his hands in a gesture of absolute surrender.
"I-I get it! I copy, Roxanne! Total radio silence! The main quest objective is complete compliance! I'll behave, I swear! Just... please don't rip my ear off in front of your high-tier guild party!" Tae-Man whispered frantically in English, his eyes darting nervously toward the towering, smirking figures of Elicia and Evelyn.
I let go of his ear with a cold, deliberate flick of my wrist, causing Na Tae-Man to stumble backward onto the cobblestones while rubbing his bright red cartilage.
Before he could even fully recover his footing, my two sisters instantly closed in on my sides like a pair of predatory vipers, their faces splitting into deeply amused, aggressively teasing grins.
"Oh, little Ren, your face is practically glowing a magnificent shade of crimson, And here I thought your only passions were ancient Dalon scrolls and high-caliber firearms. To think you've been hiding a passionate, youthful courtship right under our noses." Elicia murmured, her voice dripping with mock academic fascination as she leaned her 5'8" frame down toward me.
"Right?! She was acting so tough and serious at the forge, but the second her little vanguard boyfriend shows up, she completely short-circuits! It's so cute!" Evelyn chimed in with a loud, S-rank giggle, her bioluminescent hair tips pulsing a vibrant, mocking shade of yellow.
Tae-Man frantically adjusted his iron-leather armor, his golden-crimson eyes darting between my two sisters as his hyperactive gamer brain finally started processing their physical descriptions. Suddenly, a bright spark of recognition lit up his face, and he pointed a shaking finger directly at our baby sister.
"Wait a minute... I know you! You're the high-tier elite recruit who swarmed my shaded terrace with an entire army of Luminous Knights! You completely ruined my textbook milkshake date, Evelyn!" Tae-Man blurted out, his voice cracking slightly.
He then shifted his gaze over to Elicia, taking in her majestic posture, her pristine silver hair, and the massive, radiating holy mana humming around her high-tier healing staff. He let out a low, deeply impressed whistle.
"And who the hell are you, the silver-haired girl? Are you like... some kind of high-level party healer? Did Roxanne finally recruit a dedicated support class for her vanguard build?"
Elicia drew herself up to her full, imposing height, a calm, deeply regal smile touching her lips as she rested the butt of her staff against the marble pavement.
"I am Elicia Rynd, Director of the Capital Magic Academy and Commander of the Northern Border Vanguard Division, And more importantly, young man... I am Eirene's big sister. Though it seems she prefers to go by 'Roxanne' during her covert romantic endeavors." Elicia introduced herself smoothly, her piercing crimson eyes locking onto the teenager with a gaze that practically screamed high-status authority.
The moment the words left her mouth, Tae-Man's jaw completely hit the floor. His eyes darted from Elicia's mature, breathtaking beauty, down to Evelyn's voluptuous S-rank frame, and finally back to my pale, 5'5" silhouette. I could practically see the theoretical gears turning behind his crimson eyes as his delusional, Earth-gamer brain unlocked a brand-new, catastrophic level of fantasy harem tropes. He looked like a man who had just stumbled into the ultimate jackpot route of a romance visual novel.
Recognizing that look instantly, an icy vein throbbed on my forehead. My left eye flashed a violent, predatory crimson.
"Don't you dare think about joining this family, If a single impure, harem-seeking thought crosses your mind regarding my sisters, I will personally ensure your level-one baseline stats are permanently reduced to zero." I hissed deadpan, my smooth, entirely restored voice dropping into a freezing octave that cut through his delusions like a razor blade.
Tae-Man instantly froze, his face flushing a vivid shade of crimson as he raised his hands in absolute, frantic surrender.
"I-I copy! Total radio silence on the harem matrix! I was just evaluating the lore, I swear!"
"Let's get going, sisters,"
I commanded coldly, completely turning my back on him. I spun on my heel, my dark cloak flaring slightly over my hidden wings as I forced our group to resume our march toward the 8th District.
"We have exactly thirty minutes before our armaments are forged, and Chief Roman's clock is ticking."
Elicia and Evelyn laughed softly, falling into step right beside me as we left the terrace behind.
"Roxanne! Mind if we go on another romantic date next time?! I'll pay for the sweet cream berry-blend again! Two straws, I promise!" Tae-Man cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting frantically after my retreating form as he tried to salvage his main quest.
The moment the word date echoed across the 7th District boulevard, the two girls immediately began aggressively poking my sides again.
"Oh, look at that, 'Roxanne,' He wants another indirect kiss! Are you going to hold his hand next time too?" Evelyn drawled mockingly, her hair tips flashing a rapid, teasing rhythm.
"You really must tell me where you find the time for a social life, little Ren, The administrative paperwork for your upcoming nuptials is going to be an absolute nightmare." Elicia said
"Both of you, be quiet,"