Chapter 617: Excuse me, Princess...deja Vu...

[Guys...why are we just sitting here?]

[What do you mean, Hurricroak?]

[I mean like...Nepherage, right about now, our lord would’ve toss our tiny toy forms into a forgotten room corner somewhere and we’d spend that time snooping around whatever strange area we’d be dumped in,] Hurricroak explained, [but this whole ass evening has so far consisted of us watching our lord and his family partake of food and wine provided by estranged relatives, while those same relatives fire off dirty glances in our direction. We should be kicking their teeth in at this point or something. You guys aren’t bored by this?]

[No,] Nepherage bluntly answered, [we had a full day of fighting in that tournament. I don’t mind the down time.]

[Okay, you had a full day of fighting, so did the zakos, the rest of us have just been sitting on our asses as accessories this whole time. Frosttusk, you got me, right big guy?]

[Not...really...I...don’t mind...waiting...,] Frosttusk rumbled while sneaking in a yawn.

[How are you sle-we don’t even need to sleep!]

[Oh chill, you rambunctious reptile,] Razorstella interjected.

[Think of this time less like we’re not doing anything and more like this is time for us to do creative planning. You’re a performer too, you must understand preparing a set list, right?]

[That might be true, but-]

[Wait, guys,] Spring Brawler interjected, [what was that thing you guys said the ringmaster had a knack for? Attracting beautiful women that could kill his ass, right?]

[More or less, yes. Why?]

[I think its happening right now.]

[Heyo?!]

And with that simple statement from Spring Brawler, the boredom hanging over the kaijin just blew away...along with summoning Logos and Pathos who were waiting for a moment like this.

<Alright, someone bring up the pool for personality and the pool for origins.>

[On it.]

[On...it...]

<Wait, did we ever establish if those pools were completely separate or interconnected?>

=I think I remember going with...underworld adjacent sweet girl type. The director has already attracted at least two nobility types, they can’t all be royals.=

[Come on tsundere assassin, come on tsundere assassin...]

[Are you guys sure that he’ll actually engage with this woman? He could easily-]

<=[Yes, we’re sure.]=>

[Okay, that was just freaky and I understand the director a bit better now.]

[Tsundere assassin? Wait. Isn’t that Lady J-]

[SHH! The conversation is about to begin.]

[Oh. Bet.]

<Bet, indeed!>

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*Bing-Bong*

Due to this entire chapter being in Tide Tongue, normal quotation marks will be used.

Thank you.

*Bing-Bong*

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’Alright, who or what the fuck am I dealing with here?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he quickly dismissed the ghost zakos and did his best to hide his presence, physically at least. He didn’t have to worry about someone picking up on his aether signature since he didn’t exactly have a natural one that was easy to detect.

As it would turn out though, his measures of needing to hide himself were thoroughly unnecessary.

"Accursed brother. What does he know about love, let alone marriage? He cheated on his last fiancée with his current wives!"

Due to the fact that the person he was listening on was stuck in their own world at the moment.

’Ignoring that comment about love and marriage for the time, being she looks familiar...’

The person in question was a young woman dressed in a beautiful purple silk dress, that Zhen Liu could best describe as "a jade-like beauty with a classical air to her" mixed with "rambunctious tomboy". Granted, the woman in question also had branching dragon horns popping out of her head and was about a solid six inches taller than Zhen Liu without them, but that added to her beauty as opposed to detract from it.

Of course, he couldn’t really appreciate the beauty of this girl at the moment, due to being stuck in a somewhat clandestine situation.

’Ah shit, now how am I going to get out of here.’

For whatever cockamamie reason, this familiar looking young woman had decided to barge into the same empty corridor Zhen Liu was originally in and started ranting to herself.

This was the exact thing Zhen Liu was trying to avoid when he hid himself away.

Sneaking up on someone and listening to their conversations is already considered impolite in normal society, one didn’t really have to imagine the consequences when cultivations powers get involved.

It also didn’t help that his only real cover of stealth, came in the form of this woman being distressed and cursing to herself.

"Fucking dumbass lecher...’Oh Xiao Ren, you’re at peak of maidenhood, you should be engaged by now!’ Well fuck you too brother, I don’t need that sort of lecture from someone who had a fiancee run away on him!"

’Okay, this is starting to sound really familiar and I think I know where this might be going. I either need to get out of here without being seen by her, hope to the heavens that she is so wrapped up in her own problems that I can run pass her or-wait...could I just sneak into the library using my key?’

Just as Zhen Liu was going to entertain the thought of using the key to get out of the situation, he had to quickly toss out at the same idea for two reasons.

Firstly, there weren’t any doors for him to use or soft surfaces for him to draw open an entrance without attracting attention.

Second, and more importantly, depending on what Logos, Pathos and the kids were doing at this moment, opening the door to the library could attract way more attention than what he wanted or needed right now.

’Well then, I guess plan C is back to it’s original proposal: going out there and talking to her.’

This sounded stupid on paper, and practically, but Zhen Liu’s reasoning was that if he confronted her early enough, then there’s a chance of being able to play off the situation as if he had been walking in her direction anyways, like it was one big coincidence.

Zhen Liu’s ability to be stealthy was shit anyways, maybe just talking could work.

’I mean...I could also just sit around and hope she leaves...but then I’d have to lie about stomach issues again...ah, fuck it.’

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[Oh shit, what’s he doing?]

=I believe this is what is referred to as...winging it?=

<Oh this is gonna be good.>

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"I mean, what’s so hard to understand? I don’t want to court any of his suggestions, because I-"

"Excuse me?"

"Huh?"

Zhen Liu had exited from his hiding spot in a manner that suggested that he was simply someone who got lost and made a bad turn somewhere...at least that’s the impression he wanted to convey.

There was a good chance that maybe he’d be considered a pervert or an impolite eavesdropper, but he also knew a way to avoid this impression.

Taking control of the conversation early.

He already had an opening statement in mind, he just had to ad lib the rest. Granted, this also hinged on the woman in question not beating him to that metaphorical punch.

"Sorry, I was just-"

"Were you spying on me?"

"What? No."

Unfortunately for him, the dragon horned woman spoke first.

’Wait, why am I getting a sense of deja Vu?’

"Who sent you, huh? My brother? My father? My aunties? An enemy faction trying to use me as a hostage?!"

"I-no. I don’t know who your family members are and I don’t know about any enemy factions that you may have, since I have plenty of my own to deal with."

He wasn’t exactly lying about this last statement, but he wouldn’t know about that till later.

"Well isn’t that convenient for a sp-wait a minute..."

"Uh..."

It was in this moment that Zhen Liu learned that this girl had surprisingly warm, gold tinted eyes that were a bit like a reptiles. An understandable trait given the dragonic heritage but the way she was staring into his eyes were a touch...uncomfortable.

This kept up for a solid minute or so until...

"Is...something wrong with my face?"

"No...,"the dragon girl trailed off as she squinted her eyes in concentration until they opened wide with realization.

"Now I recognize you! You’re that guy who slapped the absolute hell out of his cousin in the middle of a match! Zhen Li? No, Zhen Liu! That was it."

"Oh...yeah, that’s my name...wait, that dude was my cousin?"

From the way she had said Zhen Liu’s name in an excited manner gave Zhen Liu a little hope that maybe things weren’t going to be that bad after all.

At least not in this moment.

"Oh, where my manners," the dragon girl suddenly paused before recollecting herself.

"My name is Jinju Ren, or if we’re being formal, you can refer to me as the 38th Princess of the Pearl Scale Empire, Jinju Ren...please don’t call me that full title though it is a mouthful."

"Ah..."

Never mind, this situation was bad.