CHAPTER 37: CRYSTAL PRINCESS

"Revenge... I’m here to fight the Scourge."

’Same as Salome, huh?’

Vale nodded a little.

Ximena carried on, indifferently, while remarking:

"You don’t seem surprised by my response."

Vale gave the princess a warm smile.

"You’re not the first being I summoned from Kaldora."

Finally, a hint of curiosity slipped onto Ximena’s marble-like face, but it quickly faded, making Vale question if his eyes had made a mistake.

Ximena started slowly walking around the white expanse, studying the rubble, the black door, the pink portal, miscellaneous materials strewn about from their expeditions, as well as Larry, who’d come in to retrieve a stick and immediately left.

Though if any of the sights surprised her, her face gave no indication.

As she continued to meander, she began speaking again.

"As for the second prong to your question... I know that if I want to have my chance at revenge, I have to protect myself. You, who are apparently known as the Master of Lust. I also know if you or the thing you have to protect dies, I die; I also know this space is the inside of whatever I have to protect; however, I’d rather die than prostrate before an hedonistic idiot... so, that’s why I requested to see your worth."

Vale slowly followed the owl girl with his gaze, staring intensely into her carmine irises.

"Have I shown any qualities to your liking yet?"

Ximena stopped once she’d realized she’d seen everything to see.

"No... not particularly. But, you haven’t given me a reason to hate you... Your outfit is questionable and unbefitting of a regal such as myself, but it’s what I expect from someone bestowed a title like Master of Lust..."

Ximena slowly began walking toward Vale until she stood close, and she began studying his body.

"As for your physical appearance, you’re muscles are a little big for my taste... For some reason, though, even if your appearance isn’t to my palette, I am intensely physically attracted to you. Not that that matters. You also smell nice... And you would produce a worthy heir if my body were capable of reproduction."

’So... is my Trait at work again?’

Vale stayed still, only following Ximena with his eyes, who was walking around him, studying his body. It was like a role reversal from his initial situation with Salome.

Vale lightly joked as Ximena disappeared behind him.

"Too big? I thought bigger was better for most women."

Ximena reappeared on the other side of his vision and then walked in front of him, placing a hand on his abdomen and beginning to feel the rigid surface.

Her hand was cold and hard, as if she’d been living in a freezer. But, even if her hand was icy, it was gentle and uncalloused. While a touch from something this cold would have made Vale usually shiver, it was a welcoming touch that refreshed him.

For some reason Ximena had an awkward look in her eyes, but her face didn’t seem to agree.

"Well, I’m not most women. I’m Princess Ximena. Hopefully you learn what that means quickly. And, be quick on the uptake. I do hate repeating myself."

’Hmm... how prideful.’

Unlike Salome, Ximena viewed Vale as completely lesser — just a means to her end.

While Vale’s ideology and methodology as a leader were laissez-faire, he still needed to prove some sort of agency to be recognized as a leader.

Salome and Toy followed him without question. Or perhaps ’accepted’ would be a better word. In any case, Vale had no intent of being strict with any of his ’underlings,’ other than maybe Larry, who continuously failed, and didn’t fancy being seen as ’master.’ Still, he couldn’t ignore his own duty and position entirely.

He knew, whether he wanted it or not, he had to make Ximena recognize him as ’master.’ Or at least as a leader.

Vale stared at the top of the owl woman’s head and contemplated rubbing her dark green furry ears. Something about them, when juxtaposed to her impassive expression, made him want to pet them.

"Well, Princess Ximena. I hope it’s not too candid to ask... but what would make me worthy in your eyes?"

Ximena pressed her hand into Vale’s chest, testing his skin’s hardness. She was so close that Vale could feel the gust produced by the flowing fabric strip.

"Can you handle me?"

’Handle her?’

Ximena looked up at Vale and surveyed his face with the cold, heartless expression still plastered on her own.

Vale’s eyebrow raised slightly as he saw his face for the first time through the reflection of Ximena’s ruby eyes.

’I’m devilishly handsome...’

"Perhaps I phrased that wrong..."

Ximena lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Vale. Simultaneously, the fabric drifted away and began its revolution again, now encompassing both of them.

The sudden hug surprised him, but he understood its purpose a moment later. If her hands were cold, her body was glacial. It felt as if he’d stumbled to one of the poles, midwinter, without clothes on.

"Can you survive me?"

’So... this is what she meant.’

Vale froze at first, quite literally, but a moment later, a weird energy flowed through him and fought against his cryonic state. Vale wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but he knew his Aspect was responsible for his body’s refusal to succumb to this numbing.

Nothing as mundane as temperature was going to hold back Lust.

Vale fought the stiffness and, like reverse rigor mortis, he snapped his ligaments out of his petrified state and reciprocated the hug.

Ximena, who had pressed her face into his chest, peeled her head away and looked up at Vale. Once again, the icy princess’s face was overcome by an emotion. However, the emotion that she felt was difficult for Vale to comprehend.

It could have been many things: confusion, surprise, elation, fear, curiosity, or relief. But to Vale, he knew what it was, or more so, he had an idea.

’This cold she exudes...’

’I think it is not a racial quirk but a curse... a curse that freezes anyone she touches. If so...’

The look on Ximena’s face was that of a girl whose entire life had just done a spastic 180, and everything she knew was flipped on its head; it was not one emotion claiming dominion over her face and mind, but all of them transfused into one — an emotional synesthesia.

A single tear rolled rolled down her cheek and froze solid the moment it separated from her skin, falling to the nonexistent ground.