Chapter 112. A Ga Beneath the Moonlight
He imdiately put on the expression befitting the "Capital's Debauched Scoundrel," his gaze sweeping over Aeldelin's figure without the slightest restraint.
"Lady Aeldelin truly lives up to her na…… though it isn't quite appropriate given the circumstances, I still must ask you one thing—"
Luo Nan bent forward slightly, his left hand clasped behind his back, his right hand extended forward in an inviting gesture. "Would you care…… to share a dance with ?"
Aeldelin's delicate brows lifted lightly—she clearly hadn't anticipated Luo Nan would say sothing like this.
The crimson beauty's vermillion lips parted gently. "Mr. Luo Nan…… inviting a lady you've only just t to dance, before you've had any chance to get acquainted—isn't that a little improper?"
Aeldelin walked back into the pavilion and settled gracefully into the seat beside the round table. "But since it is Mr. Luo Nan's invitation, I naturally wouldn't refuse outright……"
"Huh? What are you two doing?!"
Anya's voice cut in at the most inopportune mont, interrupting the exchange between Luo Nan and Aeldelin.
The girl's eyes went wide; she involuntarily patted Luo Nan on the shoulder and whispered: "Hey, what are you doing? Are we fighting or not? How did you go from that to asking her to dance the mont I wasn't watching?"
"……"
With Anya throwing a wrench in things like this, Luo Nan dropped the feigned "elegance" he'd been maintaining.
Of course, Anya's interruption was sothing he had arranged in advance.
He straightened up and tilted his head, replying in a low voice: "Don't rush—this one's temperant is volatile. If we go straight to the point right away, who knows how she'd react. Let
set the tone first."
"I can hear your little whispers, you two~~"
Aeldelin at the round table propped her cheek lightly on one hand, idly toying with her crimson hair that nearly reached her ankles, while responding to the two of them with a gaze that seed to regard no one as her equal.
"No matter—Lady Aeldelin, since I dared co to face you directly, I've already made sufficient preparations." Luo Nan said with a confident smile.
"Hah. Based on what I know of you, I know full well you eat up this kind of open, above-board scheming—so I'll just dig the pit and wait for you to jump right in."
Luo Nan likewise walked into the pavilion and took his seat on the opposite side of the round table.
"Of course—since Lady Aeldelin has already overheard mine and Anya's whispers, there's no reason for
to keep 'circling' around you. Let's get straight to the point."
Luo Nan glanced at Aina, who was sitting upright on the long bench, and said: "I wonder why Lady Aeldelin found it necessary to abduct my personal maidservant?"
"Mm…… please don't use the word 'abduct,'" Aeldelin lowered her right hand from where it had been propping her cheek, and swept aside a lock of crimson hair that had fallen by her temple. "I rely invited Miss Aina for a chat in the Moonlight Greenhouse."
"You know, Xino Palace is filled with the vulgar air of scheming and deception—I personally find the atmosphere there rather disagreeable."
Luo Nan gave a slight nod, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. "On that point, I very much share your view. But…… it's already quite late, and Aina needs to co ho with ."
"Lady Aeldelin, what do you think?"
"Ti is no issue."
With that, Aeldelin's fingernail traced a streak of light, and the Moonlight Greenhouse, which had been bathed in night, beca in an instant a "Daylight Greenhouse."
Luo Nan showed no surprise at this move from Aeldelin.
Simply put, he had seen it happen countless tis already in The Shining Myriad Trails.
Environntal control—one could say it was the standard operating procedure for late-ga bosses in The Shining Myriad Trails.
"Mr. Luo Nan doesn't seem at all surprised by this trick of mine?" Aeldelin asked with a curious tilt of her head.
"Your strength—I've naturally made it my business to know."
"And yet you still dared co alone?" The crimson beauty's jade eyes narrowed slightly.
"Hey hey hey—you, what's wrong with you, do you not think of
as a person?!"
Anya cut in again, thoroughly out of place.
But Aeldelin paid no heed whatsoever to this "Chosen Hero"; her rose-red eyes fixed directly on Luo Nan. "Luo Nan von dillion, to speak honestly…… you've exceeded my expectations considerably."
"Not only were you able to identify my true na in a single stroke—but the feeling you give …… it seems as though you know
very well?"
"If my mory serves, we haven't t before?" Aeldelin asked in a gentle voice.
Luo Nan interlaced his fingers, his gaze settling slightly. "Naturally. But my understanding of you…… goes far beyond just that."
"Ha……"
In that instant, the crimson beauty whose expression had been utterly composed underwent a sudden shift in her entire bearing.
What had been a bright, luminous sky was now stained blood-red; beneath that blood-sun, it was as if countless deaths and atrocities were surging and echoing before Luo Nan's eyes and at his ears.
"I……ugh……this……"
The sudden pressure bore down on Luo Nan's shoulders like a mountain collapsing, drenching his clothes in cold sweat; Luo Nan clenched both fists and held on with everything he had beneath the scrutiny of those rose-red eyes.
"Since you know
so well…… then you must know the extent of my power?" Aeldelin's voice was cold as a ten-thousand-year glacial river, as if it could freeze Luo Nan's very soul.
"Indeed…… this is the true Aeldelin Xueting."
Luo Nan raised a hand to press down on his own jaw, which wouldn't stop trembling, steadied his composure, and said in a low, asured voice:
"I naturally know your true power, and I understand your desires. My coming here…… is naturally for the purpose of playing a 'ga' with you."
"Oh?"
Upon hearing the word "ga," the crimson beauty revealed, for once, an expression of interest.
'She took the bait after all!'
Luo Nan was quite certain: Aeldelin, as a Chrono Phantom Demon who had lived continuously from the last era to the present, had an excessively long life—so long that she had long since lost all interest in everything the world had to offer.
The past thousand years or so, she had spent almost entirely in slumber.
Were it not for the birth of that "Greatest Demon King in History," Aeldelin Xueting—a living fossil if there ever was one—might well have gone on sleeping until the end of the world.
Therefore, aside from that Demon King His Highness—well, at this point in ti, the one who had yet to take the throne—it was already very difficult for anything to capture Aeldelin's interest.
As for why she had turned her gaze to him in the original storyline of The Shining Myriad Trails, Luo Nan had no way of knowing—he could only chalk it up to the "Mysterious Great Hand."
But in the present reality, based on Luo Nan's own deductions and his questioning of Anya, the reason she had fixed her gaze on him was, in all likelihood, the battle in the Listone Mine Shaft against "Nature's" Projection.
With that thought in mind, Luo Nan continued: "Lady Aeldelin, I know why you invited
to the Moonlight Greenhouse."
"You know?" Aeldelin involuntarily sat up straight.
"Naturally," Luo Nan nodded. "It's because of a certain power left behind in the Listone Mine Shaft, isn't it?"
The crimson beauty's fingertip traced a fleeting Iridescent Color; her eyes grew sowhat hazy, and she said softly: "It seems you have so connection to that great existence."
"I naturally know that you're curious about my secrets."
"Your se—crets?" She broke into an even more intrigued smile.
Watching the crimson beauty before him gradually walk into the script he had laid out for her, Luo Nan's heart gradually steadied—even the terrible pressure that had been bearing down on him all along lightened by a considerable asure.
Sensing the mont was ripe, Luo Nan spoke the ga format he had designed long in advance:
"A ga, best of three rounds. If you win, everything I have—all my secrets—belong to you; if I win, then please let the three of us leave."
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