Chapter 124: Oaths (4000 words)

"Why don't you try it and find out?" Brenna looked at her and said, "Few creators know exactly what a work will look like before they finish creating it."

"Especially Transcendental painters."

"True." Yun Mu nodded in agreement.

When she practiced Spiritual Painting next time, she would try using food as a material.

She wondered what the effect would be; just thinking about it made her look forward to it.

"Nom."

Could there be a painting that could summon pocket pies infinitely?

Feeling the flavor bursting in her mouth, Yun Mu thought to herself.

"Alright, you two start training."

After lunch ended, Brenna sat casually in the corner of the room and said.

"What are we practicing today?" Yun Mu looked at Elena and asked.

"." After the other party was silent for a moment, she looked at her and said, "The book, have you read it?"

"I've already finished it!" she said immediately.

"Very good." Hearing her words, Elena nodded and said, "Then today, let's practice communication and conversational skills."

"Princess." Elena looked at Brenna and said.

"Hm? Is something the matter?" Brenna tilted her head, looking a bit curious.

"You seem quite idle; would you like to come and rehearse the scene for the day of the plan in advance?" Elena reached out an invitation.

"You want me to act as Miss Yun's attendant? Sure." Brenna agreed quite readily.

She hopped lightly off the chair, then walked quickly to Yun Mu's side.

"Perform well, Princess~" Brenna said in a playful tone.

"Yes, yes, my attendant." Yun Mu rolled her eyes and said.

And after their conversation ended, Elena began: "Next, I will play nobles of different identities, or perhaps clergy members of the Church, to simulate different scenarios."

"You must judge what you should do based on my identity and the current situation."

"Let's start with something simple."

After thinking for a moment, Elena said, "Ahem, listen up, I am now Bishop Land of the Dark Night Church in Frostfall City."

"After the Night Parade and the group prayers have all concluded, a large number of nobles have remained inside the Church to hold a banquet."

"I walk toward the Princess and say—"

"Ahem." Elena coughed lightly to signal to the two that the important part was coming, and said: "Good evening, Princess. I have long heard that a great personage from Frost Bank had arrived, but I did not expect it to be you."

"It is truly my honor that you could grace this banquet with your presence."

"That Bishop Land would never say something like that." Brenna waved her hand and retorted:

"The Church and the monarchy are theoretically equal, but most clergy believe the status of the gods is above that of the King. As lambs following the gods, they do not need to be overly reverent toward the royal family."

"When facing the King, the Pope has equal rights and status to the King, while a Bishop exists on the same level as royal nobles."

"So when facing me, that Bishop Land would never use a phrasing that demeans his own status to welcome me."

"This is just a simulation, Princess." Elena said in a calm tone.

"Please provide your response." She said.

"Hmm." Listening to the two's conversation, Yun Mu lowered her head and thought for a while, then said: "Can I assume that Bishop Land is setting a trap for me?"

If her answer contained any implication that her status was higher than Bishop Land's, it would be considered a failed response.

"You may assume that." Elena glanced at Brenna, who was snickering on the side, and nodded.

"Then I know how to answer."

Yun Mu slowly bent her waist, stood with one foot in front of the other, then lightly lifted her skirt with her hand and said: "Good evening, Bishop."

"It is hardly an honor; it is merely my duty."

She specifically emphasized the word "duty," implying that the other party had not acted according to his own duty.

And while she spoke, Brenna, who was on the side, acted as if she were truly an attendant by her side, keeping her head lowered, silent, and saying nothing.

Elena used a critical eye to search for errors in Yun Mu's performance, and finally, she nodded with satisfaction.

"I'll consider you qualified." She said.

"Then, the next question..."

Time passed quickly, and when Yun Mu snapped out of her state of Focus, she found that the time had already reached about 2:30 in the afternoon.

"It's about time for afternoon tea, isn't it?" Brenna yawned and said.

"." Elena looked at her, and finally had to sigh, saying: "Princess, I must remind you that you are about to run out of money."

"Ah?" Hearing her words, Brenna was stunned. She said: "How is that possible? Didn't we just earn a large sum of funds using the Credit Card deposit method?"

Hearing her words, Elena held her forehead and said: "The Gold Frost spent on your daily research, plus the high-end desserts you've been eating lately, have eaten up almost all the operating funds."

"The remaining money must be kept to ensure that others in the city can withdraw coins from the Credit Card at any time; it absolutely cannot be touched."

"B-but!" Brenna was a bit anxious.

Afternoon tea around 2:00 PM every day was her source of happiness; if she couldn't enjoy desserts, what was the point of living? "No money means no money." Elena turned her head away, avoiding Brenna's gaze with a guilty conscience.

"However," she paused for a moment and said, "if the Princess could cut the research funds by a quarter..."

"Damn it, that was your real goal all along!" Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by Brenna: "High-end desserts are expensive, yes, but aren't the desserts I eat every day made by you?"

"How could the cost price be as expensive as selling them outside!"

"You want to cut my research funds by a quarter? I absolutely refuse!"

"Then one-fifth." Elena said.

"Deal, it's a deal!" After hesitating for a moment, Brenna agreed decisively.

"."

"What are these two doing?"

Yun Mu thought to herself, her head full of question marks.

She had originally assumed that since Brenna was a Princess, she would surely have plenty of money, but she never expected that she would be struggling to even afford the desserts for afternoon tea.

Although, it couldn't exactly be called "struggling to afford it"... it was just an excuse Elena came up with to cut down on research funding.

But this did indeed show that Brenna didn't have much money left on hand.

And the new credit card launched by Frost Bank was actually something she had come up with to earn operating funds... "Hiss."

Thinking of this, Yun Mu suddenly had the urge to immediately withdraw all her money from the credit card.

"Um, if there's nothing else, I'm going to go practice Painting," she said.

"You just finished practicing, won't you rest for a while?" Hearing her words, Brenna asked with some surprise.

"Diligence is certainly a good thing, but you must also pay attention to rest," Elena said at this moment: "After six o'clock in the evening, we still have to meet that Mr. Edward, and go investigate the blood-red mist permeating the streets."

"I'm afraid we won't be sleeping tonight, so it's better to conserve some energy." "That is true..." Yun Mu nodded.

She didn't know what they would encounter during the investigation tonight, and going to practice Painting would consume her own Spirituality.

Although after advancing to a Second-rank Painter, her Spirituality could be said to have almost doubled.

But it still couldn't be called very durable.

Like the complex painting of the Cold Crow, although it wouldn't make her faint like before, it would still consume most of her Spirituality, causing her to feel dizzy, lightheaded, and other symptoms.

And those paintings that consumed little Spirituality wouldn't take much time either.

There was no need to rush it for the moment.

"Please wait a moment, you two." Elena folded her hands over her abdomen, bowed slightly, and then walked toward the depths of the room.

After Elena left, Brenna sat in front of the dining table, humming a tune Yun Mu had never heard before with a very happy expression.

"Actually, there was a bit of a selfish motive in having you come to join me for afternoon tea," Brenna stopped humming after about ten seconds or so and looked at Yun Mu.

"When I was in the Royal Capital, I usually had afternoon tea with other friends."

"We would share the things we liked while enjoying the pleasant afternoon sun."

"But ever since I came to Frostfall City, only Elena has remained by my side."

When she said this, her tone suddenly changed, and she said: "That rigid fellow Elena, communicating with her is nothing like chatting with peers."

"But you trust her very much," Yun Mu said softly.

"." Brenna was slightly stunned for a moment, then nodded somewhat awkwardly: "Is it that obvious?"

"It's really obvious," Yun Mu retorted: "Sometimes it feels like she's your older sister."

"Is that how you see it?" Brenna turned her head away, twisting her hair with her fingers somewhat embarrassedly.

"That's not wrong, I suppose," she said softly, as if recalling something: "I am the Third Princess of the Frost Kingdom, and Elena's father is the Chef of the Royal Cuisine."

"From the time I started to have memories, Elena was always appearing by my side."

"Back then, she would always pull out all sorts of snacks for me, and I would indeed chase after her calling her Sister Elena..."

"When did it become like this?" she said, looking somewhat troubled.

"Do you feel like there is already a pathetic, thick barrier between you two?" Looking at her appearance, Yun Mu retorted.

"It's not that exaggerated." Brenna rolled her eyes at her.

"So..." Yun Mu asked curiously: "Although it's very rude to ask, I'm really curious, as the daughter of the Royal Cuisine Chef, why did Elena become a Shadow Guard?"

"This..." A look of distress appeared on Brenna's face.

"Uh, if you can't say it, never mind," Yun Mu said, looking at her expression.

"There's nothing I can't say." Waving her hand, Brenna said: "I just don't know where to start."

"Hmm..." After thinking for a while, she said:

"Simply put, a mole snuck into the Royal Cuisine and attempted to poison and assassinate me, and that mole was invited in by the Chef, who is Elena's father."

"Although it was later discovered that the Chef was not in league with the mole, due to being implicated, as well as the crime of bringing people in without authorization using his position, he was still sentenced to at least ten years in prison."

"I was young and ignorant at the time, so I won't mention exactly what I did," she rubbed her forehead and said: "In the end, the Chef was spared from the sentence, but was stripped of his status as the Royal Cuisine Chef."

"But Elena was arranged to be by my side and began to be trained as a Shadow Guard..."

"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing; after all, a Shadow Guard is, at the end of the day, a profession of risking one's life and killing."

"Although Elena doesn't say it, I still feel very guilty."

"Oh~ I see." Yun Mu nodded, then pointed behind her and said: "How would you know what others are thinking if you don't ask?"

"Hmm?" Seeing the direction of her finger, Brenna's muscles stiffened instantly.

"You, you, you, when did you come over?" She looked at Elena, who was standing behind her, with a flushed face.

"Just now, when Princess said that she was young and ignorant," Elena chuckled and said.

She placed two cups of steaming black tea on the dining table, and then took down a plate of freshly baked muffins.

"You don't need to feel guilty; it was all the responsibility of my foolish father," she said after putting down the muffins.

"He was already over fifty at the time, and whether he could come out alive after being locked in prison for more than ten years was a question."

"I am very grateful that you were willing to speak up for him at the time, and becoming a Shadow Guard to protect you at all times is also what I desire."

"Being able to guard your peaceful sleeping face every night is the Oath I will never regret in this life."

Boom!!

Yun Mu felt as if she had seen something explode.

If this were a two-dimensional world, Brenna's head would surely be covered in steam by now.

"You, you, you, you, what are you saying, you idiot, there are people watching!"

"Alright, then I will say it again next time when there is no one around."

"Not even when there's no one around!"

"Why?"

"I, I, anyway, I just can't say!"

*Slurp. * Yun Mu watched the two people in front of her and silently took a sip of black tea.

Ah, this tea is truly delicious.

About half an hour later, the afternoon tea came to an end.

Yun Mu returned to Brenna's bedroom and took out the card containing various painting tools from the lining of her coat.

She still wanted to practice a little.

However, she would be mindful of the scale, trying her best to let her Spirituality recover to its optimal state by the evening.

"Are you going to start painting?"

Brenna did not go to her research room, but instead lay prone on the large pink bed in her room.

A pair of small feet wrapped in white silk stockings swung up and down continuously.

"Yeah, at the very least, I have to paint one piece every day." Hearing Brenna's words, Yun Mu replied.

She injected her Spirituality into the card, then skillfully tossed the card onto the carpet.

In an instant, a large quantity of painting tools appeared before her.

"Hmm."

After setting up the Painting Board and the canvas, Yun Mu looked at the blank work before her and began to think about what to paint today.

PS: First time updating a four-thousand-word chapter; it feels alright.

You all can provide feedback on whether two-thousand-word chapters are better, or if four-thousand is fine.

The main thing is that writing four thousand words doesn't have a break in the middle, making it less easy to think about slacking off, hahaha (awkward) (End of chapter)