PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

From then on, there wasn’t much to talk about, as the outskirts of the roaming cloud city weren’t particularly dangerous. It didn’t take long for Claire and the girls to find their way to the city’s entrance. Predictably, the girls drew a lot of attention as soon as they appeared; such a diverse group of beautiful women was not to be found everywhere.

It was there that the girls’ problems began. It must be mentioned that, unlike Desmond, the girls had no experience dealing with otherworldly culture. In the case of Sasha, she was a hermit; she spent her life in the forest isolated from the world, while Cecilia’s life in the church was not very social either. Hence, the experience of the girls could have been more helpful.

Their inexperience and lack of determination to be ruthless were on full display when their beauty started causing trouble as soon as they tried to set foot in the city. Ironically it wasn’t any of the ill-intentioned bystanders who made his move, but one of the city guards themselves.

With an obscene smile and a shameless attitude, the guard at the city’s entrance had no qualms about acting authoritative and perverted toward the girls. “I’m sorry, ladies, but I must check if you’re transporting dangerous objects. Don’t worry; I’ll check every part of your body.”

Though tempted to make a move, Claire couldn’t be reckless against someone who worked for the city, while Sasha and Cecilia were too passive to take the lead. Fortunately, although Revna had the same experience as the rest of the girls, she had something that the others didn’t. Revna was crazy enough to resort to violence when necessary, regardless of the consequences.

Claire, Cecilia, and Sasha didn’t even realize when Revna had slipped away. Still, they did see her as she emerged from behind the guard, holding a shadow-covered knife to his throat.

Had he been there, Desmond would have applauded Revna for being decisive and would be even more pleased with the next move from his beloved assistant. As she dangerously nuzzled the guard’s neck with her blade, Revna acted confident and arrogant, making statements that seemed outrageous to the ears of the rest of the girls.

“How dare you speak like that to my young ladies? Do you have any idea who they are? A mere guard like you cannot afford to offend their families.”

.....

Feeling the caress of death on his throat, the guard did not dare to act arrogant. On the contrary, the guard became incredibly humble and subservient. “I am very sorry for the misunderstanding. I did not know I was speaking with ladies from distinguished families.”

The guard wasn’t stupid; otherwise, he would have died long ago in some nameless alley. As soon as he found out that the girls seemed to have a backup, his attitude did a 180-degree turn.

Of course, the guard didn’t blindly believe all of Revna’s bullshit just because she said it, but he relied on the strength shown by Revna. In a world where virtually everyone was an Aura user, being able to sneak behind the guard like Revna did had to mean the gap between the parties was absurdly wide.

There was also the way Revna referred to the girls. She sounded pleasing and sincere, which gave the girls’ false backup more credibility. If one added to how young Revna looked and how strong she seemed, one could only assume that the girls’ backing must be quite powerful, hence why the guard became so obedient.

Although it might seem that all these deductions and analyses were getting a little out of hand, people tended to become quite cautious in a world dominated by martial arts and strength. No one wants to die from accidentally offending someone with powerful backing.

What neither Revna nor the rest of the girls knew was that in the traveling cloud city, people had a solid psychological shadow of a certain insanely strong female duo. So no one dared to act too rampant anymore, and no one wanted to fall victim to a third or fourth woman with heaven-defying talents.

In the end, after Revna’s threats and lies, the guard becomes obedient like a filial grandson, leaving the rest of the girls in a somewhat awkward position where they don’t know what to do next. Fortunately, Revna had training in undercover work and infiltration, so lying and subterfuge were like buttered bread.

With no choice but to go with the flow, Claire, Cecilia, and Sasha made their way into the city under the guidance of a frightened guard. At the same time, Revna hid in the shadows again to add a sense of mystery and danger. In less than half an hour, the girls ended up in a private room in a tavern where they could talk and plan what to do next.

As the guard left after escorting the girls there, Revna appeared again, scaring the poor guy to death. “I suppose I can forgive your transgressions towards my young ladies.” Revna said before throwing a bag full of coins toward the guard and adding. “Here, I won’t let anyone say that our family is cheap.”

Feeling the weight of the bag and hearing the sweet sound of the coins jingling, the guard smiled and thanked before disappearing. Seeing the guard leave, Claire couldn’t help but comment. “Are you sure about this? We are drawing too much attention.”

Revna looked at Claire, the first wife of his Master and the one who had known him the longest, and explained after some thought. “I am afraid that no matter what we do, we will attract attention. The young miss might not know it since Master has always tried to deal with such matters in secret, but the beauty of you and the rest of the ladies is a source of trouble that is hard to control.”

Although she wanted to say something, Claire didn’t dare. She wasn’t naive enough not to realize this; it was just that she had always trusted Desmond to deal with such problems. Once again, Claire realized how much she was dependent on Desmond and how little she was doing for him. This time, instead of becoming depressed, Claire was filled with determination.

Claire refused to be just a vase or a source of carnal pleasure for Desmond. She didn’t want to lose herself in complacency and love; she wanted to give Desmond as much as he gave her. Understanding Revna’s concerns, Claire nodded in agreement with her approach, but she still asked a question that was on her mind.

“But why do you call me and the rest, young ladies?”

As soon as the girls entered the private room they requested at the inn, Revna answered the question. “From what I have heard from Master, the society in this world bears a strong resemblance to some things seen on earth. Nobility, power, and background are highly respected here. The main difference is that, here, one’s background represents, in a very real way, one’s ability to annihilate others depending on the experts behind them. For example, no one in this city would dare to mess with someone from the Traveling Cloud Sect since the sect controls the city. With the backing of the sect, messing with one of their disciples, especially highly valued ones, is the equivalent of messing with the sect’s high-level experts. Although it may be a cowardly and pretentious approach to handling things, that is the custom in this place. Here beside one’s own martial prowess, one’s background is the most important thing.”

There was a long silence where they all looked at Revna as if she were some kind of alien with tentacles. No one expected Revna to have analyzed the situation before making her move. They didn’t know that analyzing all kinds of factors was very common in Revna’s line of work. To successfully infiltrate all kinds of places, one had to thoroughly understand all aspects.

Earlier, when Myrilla had given the girls the names Mei Fei Long and Miao Xiauyue, Revna had made the connection to some things she had heard from Desmond. Using what little he knew for sure, as well as some comparisons, Revna formed a basic picture of how society worked in the Sovereign Martial World.

In that sense, the rest of the girls could really only look down at the ground in shame. Revna even had the time and initiative to use her shadowy form to do some pickpocketing on her way from the city gate to the inn, so she was able to pay for the private room and compensation given to the guard.

Seeing the somewhat embarrassed look on the girls, Revna tried to comfort them. “You don’t have to think too much about it; this is, after all, my specialty. Right now, the most important thing is to adapt to this city and take advantage of our strengths while we try to work on our weaknesses. I just want you to consider this is not the earth; things work differently here, here strength and martial arts overcome reason.”

As if it was trying to agree with what Revna said, from her bedroom window, a fight broke out in the street. It looked like a typical drunken brawl coming out of a bar. The drunks were two expert aura users who soon demolished half a block with their brawl before a group of guards stopped them. What left the girls speechless was that, as soon as the two drunken men resisted, the guards went straight for the kill.

As if it were the most normal thing in the world, the guards unleashed all martial arts and flashes of aura, quickly taking down the two drunks and leaving them to die in pools of blood. A minute later, the guards removed the bodies and cleaned the blood from the scene as if it were a matter of course for them.

Although neither the guards nor the drunks were powerful enough to intimidate the girls, the ease with which violence and murder were resorted to still left them stunned. A society where martial arts reigned supreme could be incredibly violent and ruthless. Yet, it was the perfect place for the girls to develop precisely those two traits.