357 Six
Reaching the podium, Dyon noticed a faint look of interest on the receptionist’s face. She rarely saw men as handsome as Dyon, but that wasn’t what captured her. There seemed to be something deeper about him. A fact that wasn’t lost on someone like her who dealt with a lot of fakes everyday.
However, when she noticed Ri’s raised eyebrow at her gaze, she could only shift away from Dyon with a faint red blushing her cheeks.
Dyon smiled, pretending not to notice that small interaction. Ri probably wouldn’t normally be so territorial, but it seemed a lot of things had subtly shifted with the full awakening of her faith seed. A female beast would definitely be a lot more protective.
Clearing her throat awkwardly, the receptionist began her introduction. “As you probably heard, we aren’t allowing non-saint experts in unless you’ve reached the top 100 of the cumulative rankings. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Dyon nodded before his eyes flashed in gold.
Ri blinked, noticing what Dyon had done. With her awakened aurora, and Dyon not particularly trying to hide it from her, she had noticed him shift his tracker from himself to her while changing the name back to Alexandria Acacia.
Immediately realizing what Dyon meant, Ri nodded. “Can you check for us please, we’re honestly not sure.”
The receptionist tilted her head in confusion. Who wouldn’t be aware of something so outstanding? Being among the top 100 was a great honor and something families would be pining over. Was it really possible for not one, but two people to be unaware of such a thing?
That said, she had no way of knowing that Ri had spent the last few weeks sleeping and that Dyon had been accompanying her. Ri couldn’t check, and Dyon wasn’t in a mind state to care.
However, the receptionist suddenly remembered a commotion that had happened after the end of the most recent campaign. There had been a few new names, but maybe the most shocking was that the largest leap in ranking history had occurred. And the worst part? No one had ever heard of them.
That’s right… It hadn’t been one person with a record-breaking leap… The record had been broken by again and again and then yet again. More than ten people had had unprecedented leaps, and many of them were unknowns. On top of that, it seemed that many of them were from this very universe and two of them had names no one had ever heard of.
Clearing her throat again, the receptionist asked a probing question. “What clan do you represent?…”
Ri brought her hand to her hair, lightly sweeping it behind her ear to reveal a pointed ear that may not have been as long as some other elves but was definitely much more pointed than it would be for a human.
“I represent the Acacia family of the Elvin Kingdom.” Ri said with a light smile.
Suddenly, the sound of a dull thump resounded behind Ri and Dyon.
Looking back, Dyon raised an eyebrow as he noticed the young man that had been annoying them before hand had fallen to his knees. ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
But, when he looked back, he noticed that the receptionist had paled.
“W-What’s y-your name?” The normally calm receptionist seemed to have lost all semblance of her once cool personality. She couldn’t help but shift her gaze away from Ri, staring at a screen on the podium she stood behind.
Ri tilted her head in confusion, but still answered. “Alexandria Acacia.”
Dyon’s eyes turn a gold flecked with red and purple for an instant as he scanned through the podium and at the list the receptionist was looking down, quickly memorizing it.
A light laugh escaped Dyon. “It seems my little feu glace is quite amazing.”
The eyes of the receptionist widened at Dyon’s form of address. ‘He gave the princess of the Elvin Kingdom a pet name? Who is he? Could he be?…’
“I-I’m sorry to ask this, but I need to use your tracker as confirmation or else I won’t be able to open the elevator door for you and your…”
“Husband.” Ri smiled, seemingly prouder about her answer to the receptionist than she had been about the reactions she was getting.
Ri had long since stopped calling Dyon her fiancé. In the Martial World, there weren’t as many legal bindings on husband and wife and usually only consummation was necessary. However, even that was more socially constructed than concrete fact. As long as two accepted each other, that was enough.
With how many planets and universes there were, it was impossible to maintain a singular and uniform system. Knowing this, Dyon had accepted and stepped into the role happily.
Suddenly, with Ri’s words, the lobby quietened significantly. People had already been paying attention due to the yelling young man, but with Ri’s reveal as the Elvin Princess, many finally got to put a face to her legend.
Alexandria Acacia. The only woman other than Madeleine Sapientia that had burst onto Earth’s ranking list during her first campaign.
Alexandria Acacia. The princess to an Elvin Kingdom that had once rivaled the Belmont family.
Alexandria Acacia. The daughter to a man many thought was the most powerful in this universe…
She hadn’t appeared in more than decade, but here she was. And she had no only appeared by herself, but with a young man of near unmatched aura… A young man she called her husband.
In a lot of ways people were as curious about who Dyon was as they were about Ri.
But, all thought of Dyon was completely erased when eyes finally landed on Ri. The room suddenly lost a collective breath and the hearts of many skipped…
Many never thought they’d ever see a beauty to rival Madeleine. And yet, in just the past few days, they had seen four others. And now, Ri made the fifth. The five beauties of the universe had suddenly becoming a domineering six…