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Chapter 523: I’m Switching Tracks

Words were often extraneous when it came to gauging intimacy. What was more indicative were the behaviors, attitudes, and even the distance between two individuals when they stood beside each other.

That was why women were sensitive about such details.

The invaluable information they provided allowed one to assess the relationship between two individuals, and Alicia Ascart excelled in it.

Even from a young age, her eyes had always been on him. From the subtlest details in his expression and gestures, she was able to capture his innermost thoughts that eluded others. That was why she had refrained from making a reckless move when she reunited with Roel outside Rosa City.

As a love strategist, Alicia could grasp the strengths and weaknesses of herself and her rivals. From the moment she saw Roel and Charlotte alight from the Diamond Rivière, she had already known that Charlotte had the absolute upper hand here.

The situation was beyond her expectations.

She knew that Roel would become much more protective of Charlotte due to the suffering she had been put through, but it shouldn’t have led to a significant advancement in their relationship. Yet, the actual situation was worse than she had anticipated.

Even from a distance away, she could sense that the gazes they looked at each other with were different from before, carrying concern and adoration for the other party. She knew that Charlotte must have done something, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Roel had been slowly succumbing to Alicia’s attacks in recent years, but for some reason, he was extremely bothered about whether she had reached adulthood or not. He had already rejected her several times on that basis just when it looked as if she was about to succeed.

An age gap of two years had somehow become an insurmountable cliff for Alicia.

Her only option was to go on the defensive until she finally reached adulthood, but she made a huge miscalculation when she allowed Roel to go to Charlotte’s aid without taking any protective measures in advance.

Roel was a conservative person. He refused to lay his hands on any woman before marriage, not to mention that Charlotte was severely ill. That was why Alicia was willing to patiently wait in the Ascarts’ manor for Roel’s return after she had scouted out the situation.

Unfortunately, she had underestimated just how close Charlotte had come to death. It would be weird for the two of them not to do anything when the days they had together were numbered.

As long as Charlotte said that she wanted to experience the bliss of consummating her love in the final days of her life, there was no way Roel would have been able to turn down her request…

… and that was indeed how Charlotte had managed to breach his mental barrier.

The disadvantageous turn of events rattled Alicia quite a bit, but she quickly regained her composure and reconsidered the situation. After some thought, she decided to keep her distance from Roel.

Similar to how Roel knew that she would miss him, Alicia also believed in his feelings for her. She was certain that there were many things he wanted to tell her after they had been away for so long. She knew that she could make him more conscious of her by keeping her distance from him…

And that was the stance she maintained for their entire day.

But by the time the banquet was coming to an end, she had already decided to change her strategy.

On one hand, she sensed that Charlotte was plotting something to get in her way. On the other hand, she couldn’t bear it anymore.

She had traveled all the way to Rosa City because she couldn’t bear waiting for Roel to return, so how could she stand staying away from him when they were so close? Putting her heart into a pot of boiling oil would have been less of a torture than this!

Thus, when she saw Roel leaving alone in a carriage, she decided to tag along. Much to her delight, her initial plan seemed to have paid off.

“Are you missing me, Lord Brother?”

A smile blossomed on Alicia’s lips.

…

In a hotel room, Roel looked at the silver-haired woman reflected in the mirror in front of him with a helpless look on his face. Seated on a comfortable chair in front of him, Alicia smiled with her eyes curled in bliss.

Two hours had passed since the end of the banquet.

The silvery moon and twinkling stars hanging in the night sky made the winter Rosa City seem colder than ever, but inside the hotel room, the two individuals illuminated by the crackling fireplace were overflowing with warmth.

The assault of the silver-haired bandit had forced Roel to cancel his initial plans.

Roel had intended to avoid any encounters with Alicia and rest for the night, but his plan was thrown into disarray when a silver-haired bandit raided his carriage. While the outcome was utterly bewildering for him, he couldn’t help but wonder about the process too.

Why do you seem so well versed in this? Even with the augmentation of spells, it shouldn’t have been that easy to accurately teleport into a moving carriage without some practice.

Roel had an inexplicable feeling that this wasn’t the first time Alicia had done something like this, especially considering how smooth her movements were. However, he chose not to say anything about it since it was normal for a younger sister to visit her older brother…

… and he was delighted by her visit too.

Still, it was improper for two individuals of the opposite genders to meet in an enclosed space, even if they were siblings. While he had turned a blind eye to it back when she was younger, he couldn\'t it continue condoning it.

“Alicia, barging into another person’s carriage is a breach of etiquette,” Roel sternly lectured her before softening his tone. “But you’re right. I was missing you.”

Alicia’s lips subtly curled upward.

“I wouldn’t barge into just anyone’s carriage. I did it because it’s your carriage, Lord Brother. Hehehe, you missed me? Is it because we weren’t able to catch up with each other earlier?”

As she probed deeper into Roel’s feelings, she casually rested her body against his. Her familiar display of intimacy evoked strong nostalgia from Roel.

“That’s part of the reason too, but it’s more because it has been a long while since we last met. I’m sorry for having left you by yourself for so long.”

“Lord Brother…”

Alicia found herself at a loss for words after hearing Roel’s apology.

She could never accustom herself to his absence, no matter how she distracted herself from it. She found herself consumed by a feeling of emptiness when she had to take the long journey back to the Ascart Fiefdom alone.

It was a huge disappointment to her that her first academic year had to end in such a manner, but when he apologized to her, it suddenly didn’t seem like a big deal anymore. The feelings she had repressed from months of yearning transformed into a warm stream that flooded her heart.

Even so, Alicia feigned indignation and demanded compensation.

In the hotel room, Alicia released her bindings and her silver hair smoothly cascaded downward. Roel picked up the comb placed by the side and began tidying up her hair.

Hair combing was a duty usually left to the maids in the Ascart House.

It was unbefitting for someone of Roel’s stature, being the successor to a marquess house, to comb another person’s hair. On top of that, it also defied the religious conventions of the Saint Mesit Theocracy.

It was said in the legends that the Genesis Goddess bestowed Her blessings upon the masses by touching their heads, which led to a widespread belief that the head was sacred and mustn’t be carelessly touched. This belief was further reinforced by the teachings of the church.

Even if an individual didn’t subscribe to noble customs and religious beliefs, there was still the matter of safety to heed here. The human skull hardly offered any decent protection against transcendents\' enhanced strength, not to mention that there were spells to influence the mind.

Considering how easy it was for an unarmed transcendent to crush the human skull, it seemed hardly wise to carelessly expose one’s head to another person.

Allowing a person to comb one’s hair was a symbol of absolute trust. Its significance was further deepened when this act was performed between those of opposite genders.

“You shouldn’t be casually making such a request to a man. Why don’t you ask for something else instead?”

“No. I want you to comb my hair.”

“But…”

“Lord Brother.”

Roel was put in a spot by Alicia’s request, but he eventually relented to her pitiful gaze. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to her and gently puffed up her smooth silver hair.

There were many transcendents with unique hair colors in the Sia Continent, but he thought that Alicia’s silvery-white hair was the most beautiful of them all. The stunning color was accentuated by her striking looks, from her ruby eyes to her fair complexion. It was this combination of elements that made others gasp in wonderment at the sight of her.

Roel’s hands subconsciously became much gentler handling such hair.

Before he could begin his work, his hands were suddenly grabbed by the ravishing woman sitting before him.

“…It’s all right, Lord Brother. You can hurt me.”

“There’s no way I would do that…”

Through the mirror, Roel could see the demure blush on her face as she said those words, and his heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly refuted those words before lightly knocking her head.

“Don’t say stuff that can cause misunderstandings.”

“Misunderstandings? What kind of misunderstandings are you talking about, Lord Brother?”

“…”

Alicia blinked her eyes in a daze, looking like an innocent girl oblivious to the other connotation of her words.

Unable to respond to her question, Roel focused his attention on her hair instead. He gently brushed the comb through her hair, carefully untangling any knots that he encountered along the way.

Alicia closed her eyes and exhaled in pleasure at his delicate touch.

“Yes, Lord Brother. It feels good there…”

“…”

Roel’s heart began tingling at Alicia’s sensual moans, and the atmosphere started to turn weird. He couldn’t help but wonder if he had become far too sensitive after indulging himself over the past few weeks.

W-what’s going on? I’m just combing her hair though!

Meanwhile, Alicia slyly slipped her glowing hand behind her back.

Now that Roel was aware of the side effects of excessive life force, she could no longer directly infuse a large amount of life force into his body. Fortunately, she had gained the ability to indiscernibly suffuse her surroundings with her life force from her recent breakthrough, which was exactly what she had done here.

Similar to how the advancement of technology was viewed to be the key to humankind’s progress, Alicia saw the advancement of her transcendent abilities as the greatest insurance to her romance.

Under the influence of her life force, Roel’s thoughts couldn’t help but go astray.

Alicia has really grown up.

Roel thought to himself as he looked at the ravishing woman reflected in the mirror. A sudden bout of self-awareness made it hard for him to look directly at her, resulting in his eyes swimming nervously around.

Alicia took in his response as she pondered her next course of action.

As transcendents deepened their Degree of Assimilation, they grew not just in terms of their fighting prowess but their constitution too. High transcendents like Roel had a high level of resistance to unnatural conditions, especially if they had strong willpower.

And when it came to willpower, Alicia could confidently say that Roel was the most unyielding person she had met thus far.

All of these meant that her life force served as nothing more than a spark to stimulate Roel’s feelings, and the good thing was that it seemed to be working. However, similar to how there were different ‘routes’ in a good galge, she had to carefully decide which feelings of his to stimulate in order to maximize her chances of success.

So far, she had only used her life force to stimulate Roel’s primal lust. The effect was potent, but she swiftly realized that it didn’t contribute anything to their relationship in the long term. In fact, Roel always saw through her ploy and punished her for it.

An alternative option was for her to stimulate Roel’s affection for her.

Truth be told, the old Alicia wouldn’t have bothered considering this option, as she believed that she had already maxed out her closeness with Roel, but analyzing the case study of Charlotte’s recent success had changed her mind.

Just Charlotte’s affliction in itself wouldn’t have been enough to make Roel compromise on his conservative principles and succumb. It would be much more accurate to see their union as a natural result from the elevation of their relationship…

… and this is the correct answer to take down Lord Brother. The route I chose before was too narrow.

Lamentation swamped Alicia upon coming to that epiphany, and she knew that she would have to change her path if she wanted to make any progress. Her expression slowly turned serious as she resolved herself to make things work this time around.

Roel quickly noticed the anomaly in her expression.

“What’s wrong, Alicia? Did I hurt you?” asked Roel.

Alicia quickly shook her head before gradually lowering it with a forlorn expression. A heavy silence settled between them for a brief moment before she hesitantly spoke up.

“Lord Brother, I hope that you can answer my question… Have I been useful to you?”