"A beauty?"

"A beauty? What beauty?"

Nian noticed Ariel’s gaze. She glanced at Feifei beside her, then for some reason her expression turned a little strange.

"There’s a beauty in that carriage?"

Ariel didn’t bother with her. She turned around and, with a sneaky touch, took out a transmission stone.

Her ring was being concealed by her teacher’s soul power, so it hadn’t been taken by the demonmen. She’d originally planned to use it at a critical moment... and right now was the critical moment.

Ariel quickly input the string of frequencies she remembered. Sure enough, the transmission stone soon let out a soft beep. That meant that as long as she pressed it lightly one more time, the transmission stone would connect.

The Abyss was covered by an enormous magnetic field. Most communication methods didn’t work here, or rather, their range was extremely limited.

And the fact that it could briefly connect right now meant...

The other side of the transmission stone had to be in a position extremely close to her!

"I didn’t see wrong. A beauty... no, Miss Muse really is there... she’s inside that carriage."

She lifted her head again and stared at the carriage gradually pulling away in front of them. Ariel didn’t know whether she should be shocked, or delighted.

Shocked that a beauty would actually appear in this dangerous Abyss, delighted at this sudden reunion after a long separation.

"I didn’t expect we’d meet under circumstances like this."

Ariel subconsciously pressed a hand to her chest.

Her chest was far too turbulent, so she couldn’t feel her heartbeat through touch right now, but she could still tell how unsteady she was inside.

How many times had they met now?

From that riot night at the Academy, on a rooftop where the cold wind cut like knives, to that noble ball overflowing with wine and indulgence, and then to this demonfolk main camp where you could die nine times out of ten and danger lurked everywhere... it seemed that every time she met her, it was always this bizarre... and mysterious.

So mysterious it felt unreal.

She was like a cloud in the blue sky—sometimes turning back for a moment with soft sunlight, but when you reached out to touch her, she had already flown to some distant horizon you couldn’t even imagine.

Yet no matter how far she flew, when you lifted your head to search in confusion and couldn’t find her, she would suddenly appear again in some corner you never expected.

Teasing, provoking, tugging...

...at your heartstrings.

How mysterious... and interesting.

"If once or twice is only coincidence... then meeting again under this kind of circumstance..." Ariel couldn’t help sinking into that mood, murmuring softly. "That has to be fate."

...

...

"Damn it, something feels a little off."

At this very moment, Muen felt like he had stepped onto the cliff edge of fate. All it would take was one small step forward and it would be an irreparable dead end.

But this wasn’t a dead end in the sense of life and death.

It was a dead end in another sense...

Two days ago, from the Imperial military scouts stationed in demonfolk tribes, he obtained very useful intel—demonfolk were capturing female adventurers on a massive scale.

Realizing this was a perfect opportunity, Muen chose without hesitation to sacrifice the self for the greater good. In order to infiltrate Gutongs Castle and find out what demonfolk were planning, he drank the potion Senior Anna had left with him, tears in his eyes. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Don’t ask why Senior Anna had secretly left that kind of potion with him, because it was best not to casually guess what that little devil senior was thinking.

In a situation like this, a potion personally refined by the Silent Bureau’s Swordbearer really did play a huge role. No demonman could see through his disguise right now, and he successfully and effortlessly mixed into the demonfolk’s captive convoy.

But this plan that should’ve gone smoothly...

...suddenly developed an accident that looked small, minor, unimportant...

...yet once again made Muen feel like fate was playing with him.

That accident was—

"What are you staring at?"

Across from Muen, that sloppy bastard who had been picking at her feet was unhappy with Muen’s fixed gaze. She glared viciously back at him and finally pulled her pant leg down.

Even so, it still couldn’t cover up "her" lush leg hair.

"N-no... I didn’t mean to offend."

Muen forced out a smile that was elegant without being rude.

Maybe because the face the potion had transformed him into was too outstanding, the whole carriage compartment seemed to brighten a little under that smile. That foot-picking bastard also seemed to finally realize how crude she’d been, and straightened her back a bit more properly.

"Ahem, well, uh... what’s your problem, beautiful miss?"

"A problem... even though I do have a whole basketful of problems right now, let’s start with the most obvious one."

Muen looked the person in front of him up and down—she was wearing a floral dress and had two braided pigtails, but whether it was her beard or her leg hair, none of it had been dealt with at all.

"I remember... demonfolk only capture women."

"Yes. Only women."

"Demonfolk aren’t blind, are they."

"Yes. Those demonmen’s senses are very sharp. A lot of adventurers who would do anything to live and tried cross-dressing were ruthlessly exposed."

"Meaning, if you’re not a woman, there’s absolutely no way you’d be here."

"Yes. If you weren’t a woman, you’d probably already be chopped into a pile of minced meat by those vicious demonfolk."

"Then in that case..."

Muen said in disbelief, "how the hell are you here?"

What a joke. Trying to fool demonfolk with that kind of pathetic disguise—wasn’t it more like some demonfolk pervert had taken a liking to this trash and secretly gave her a pass on purpose?

"Huh? Why can’t I be here?"

"She" flicked her braided pigtail and said in surprise, "Could it be... I’m not a woman?"

"Don’t talk bullshit. Looking like that, of course you’re not—hm?"

Muen suddenly froze.

There were no demonmen in the carriage. Muen really wanted to expose this disgusting bastard on the spot, but when the words reached his mouth, he couldn’t bring himself to say that so-called truth.

Or rather...

Was that really the truth?

Huh?

Wasn’t she a woman?

She was a woman.

Wasn’t it just that she had a beard, a little Adam’s apple, and her leg hair was a little long?

Did that stop her from being a genuine, real woman?

Muen’s eyes widened.

His rationality, his experience—everything was fiercely rejecting something, but at this moment, his cognition was telling him without any doubt...

The one in front of him was female.

Fucking truly fucking... fucking a woman.

"See? No matter who it is, they’ll all think I’m a woman."

The scruffy, sloppy woman toyed with an extremely inconspicuous pink pendant on her chest, showing a weathered, wicked charm—like an old man’s smile.

"Don’t casually assume other people’s gender, miss."

"..."

Like his brain had just been smashed with a hammer, Muen subconsciously leaned his head back, barely managing to withstand that mental shock.

"Fine. I know you’re an excellent and genuine woman, but..."

Muen silently turned his head again.

"What about this one? Is this one also an excellent woman?"

On the other side, a huge shadow almost covered half the carriage.

"She" was sitting there "quietly." Because of her size, her upper body had to bend awkwardly.

But precisely because of that, those steel-like pectorals, clearly layered abs, and biceps like rock poured into a mold... all radiated an even more distinct aura of brute force.

Half of "her" body looked like it was made of metal. A magical sheen flowed over those cold surfaces. That thick metal arm looked like it could tear a vicious demonman apart like a chicken with a casual grab.

And right now, that bloodstained metal arm was imitating the sloppy woman, carefully combing her own hair into a small braid.

"My brain is telling me this one doesn’t look like a delicate young girl at all," Muen said, his cheek twitching.

"Sigh, sister, why are you so obsessed with appearances?"

The sloppy woman sighed like she couldn’t stand it, all disappointed.

"You need to understand: what determines a woman’s value isn’t a beautiful but cookie-cutter shell, but a pure inner self and soul!"

"So his soul is female?" Muen widened his eyes again.

"Well, not exactly."

The sloppy woman leaned in and whispered.

"But his inside is indeed temporarily female right now. After all, he’s half alchemical-body. Some parts can be swapped out and modified. If you don’t believe me, you can lift his skirt and take a look. This is new tech the Stone Cauldron Association just developed. It’s great that demonfolk don’t know much about this stuff, right?"

"..."

Muen fell into shock and an intense crisis of existence.

Originally, he thought his potion infiltration was already a pretty amazing method. Only now did he realize that as long as you lowered your bottom line just a little, his method didn’t count as special at all.

At least compared to these two, it didn’t even count as a single leg hair.

"Hey, we’ve talked this long and we still haven’t introduced ourselves."

The sloppy woman plopped down beside Muen like they were old friends.

"Nice to meet you. I’m Marwen. Marwen Paul."

"Mar... vin?"

"No. It’s the female reading and spelling. The pronunciation is still a little different."

After kindly correcting Muen’s mistake, the sloppy woman pointed at the burly "woman."

"This one is Reta. Also the female reading and spelling, but this one’s a blockhead. Even if you say it wrong, it doesn’t matter."

"S-so that’s how it is. Great names. All great names. So great they give you this kind of déjà vu feeling."

Tears at the corners of his eyes, Muen nodded.

Do you understand why he said he’d been pushed to the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) cliff edge of fate?

Because this was the Abyss. Because he was being sent as a captive to demonfolk’s main camp.

And yet the number of familiar faces in this carriage...

...was a tiny bit too many.