Chapter 108: Let’s Begin Our Date, Your Majesty
At 5:20 a.m.
Before Rast’s consciousness fully awakened, he had already caught a faint, drifting fragrance in the air.
His career as a gold-medal host in Deep Blue Port's rotation had honed a special skill—"Scent Recognition of Women."
He didn’t need to see a face; even the faintest trace of hair fragrance was enough for him to clearly identify different women.
For example, Shiltina had always preferred a shampoo made from a plant native to her hometown in the Autumn Leaf Territory.
Therefore, Shiltina’s scent was as soft as the violet flowers used as ingredients in that shampoo...
Emis’s long hair, on the other hand, carried the faintest trace of sandalwood, so subtle it was easily overlooked... just like her gentle and serene personality that made one unconsciously want to sink into tenderness.
And the current scent in the air fell somewhere between Shiltina’s and Xiao Ai’s.
Its first impression was rather cold, evoking an image of moonlight on snow and cedar needles.
In Rast’s database... this was a scent exclusive to Akxia, the top student at Starfall University, and Helen, the Queen of the Underworld in the Sixth Era’s Nightworld.
With a breath, Rast opened his eyes.
As expected, a girl with long ice-blue hair was already standing by his bedside, waiting.
This was the servant’s quarters in the palace.
Normally, having Her Majesty personally enter a servant’s room would be considered a great breach of etiquette... but Helen clearly lacked such awareness.
She was sitting on the window seat in the room, her long pale legs swinging idly in midair.
Morning light filtered through the window, landing on her pale cheeks, making her skin seem almost transparent.
In the air, icy blue lines traced shapes between Helen’s fingers, forming the figure of a kingfisher perched on her fingertip, fluttering its wings continuously.
Seemingly sensing Rast’s awakening, she gave a gentle wave of her hand.
The kingfisher, drawn from icy blue lines and teased by Helen, disappeared without a trace, leaving only scattered points of light.
Helen turned her body slightly, quietly watching Rast with her deep violet eyes.
“Why is Your Majesty up so early today?”
Rast yawned.
His routine was quite rigid—sleeping at 11 p.m., waking at 5:30 a.m.
Day after day, year after year, without change.
As Dean Silver would say, this guy lived with the precision of a machine.
It was a habit Rast had developed in Deep Blue Port.
Because body resets occurred after time loops, his physical condition remained that of an average person.
Unlike Shiltina, who, as a "War Chariot," could fight for dozens of hours straight like a superhuman without losing energy.
Therefore, a regular routine greatly improved Rast’s efficiency during waking hours, keeping him in peak physical and mental state at all times.
If his schedule was disrupted by some urgent matter, Rast would always make time to compensate and correct it afterward.
Like that one loop when he met Shiltina—after finishing a battle late at night, he still dedicated five full hours to sleep recovery.
Three hours in a well-prepared, focused state might accomplish more than ten hours in a distracted and exhausted one. That was the philosophy Rast had always believed in.
And after becoming a servant in the palace, his routine hadn’t changed, since the Queen he served exemplified all the traits of a shut-in.
She had never taken a single step outside the palace since birth, and staying up late was her daily habit.
Since she never went out, day and night held little meaning for her.
Even when Rast oversaw her bedtime, Helen often secretly turned the lights back on to read after he left.
One of Rast’s main duties as her personal servant was placing breakfast in a thermal box and then standing outside the royal bedroom until noon, waiting for Her Majesty to wake up and eat.
For a reclusive queen like her to wake this early—it was like the sun had risen in the west.
「Play」
An icy blue character appeared in the air before Rast.
Helen tilted her head at him, a few strands of her ice-blue hair fanned out across the white bedsheets.
As if afraid he wouldn’t understand, that single icy blue character flickered and reshaped into new words—
「Go play」
She still stared at Rast silently, yet joy sparkled unmistakably in her misty eyes.
The text in front of him repeatedly flashed and enlarged: 「Go outside and play」
The queen he served truly had no concept of subtlety…
Whatever she wanted was always written clearly in her eyes.
Rast sat up from bed, went through his morning routine as usual.
“All right, let’s head out.”
It seemed Helen hadn’t informed any other maids, including the head maid, that she planned to leave the palace with Rast today.
And Rast, for the sake of his goal, certainly wasn’t going to foolishly alert the staff that he was sneaking their queen out.
“But...”
His gaze lingered on the icy blue-haired girl’s attire.
She wore a pure white, off-shoulder long dress, with a hem that trailed across the floor. Other than that, she wore nothing else—not even shoes.
Usually, this was how the queen wandered the palace barefoot.
Under the effects of that frozen dusk, the interior of the palace remained spotless, so Helen never found anything wrong with her behavior.
“Your Majesty, are you sure you want to go out wearing that?”
The queen tilted her head: 「Is it not okay?」
“Definitely not.”
Rast sighed. “Hygiene aside... given Your Majesty’s power, I suppose normal dust and germs wouldn’t affect you.”
“But aside from staying at home, who walks around outside in just a dress and bare feet?”
“If Your Majesty wants to see the real world, like the protagonists in Chronicles of Silver Wings...”
“Then surely you don’t want everyone recognizing you the moment you step outside, kneeling and saluting the whole way.”
He opened the wardrobe beside him and pulled out a hooded cloak in the Shorewalker style, along with a pair of wool boots he had previously used.
“Please make do with my clothes for now, Your Majesty.”
Helen looked curiously at the plain and unremarkable hooded cloak.
She extended a pale finger and tapped the air.
The cloak floated midair, then flew straight toward her.
Rast instantly knew what she intended to do.
He quickly drew the curtains and turned around.
A moment later, the sound of clothes falling came from behind him.
Rast silently counted to one hundred in his heart before turning back.
The elegant white dress had already slipped from Helen’s body, replaced by a modest gray-white cloak.
Even her striking ice-blue hair—sure to attract attention if revealed—was now tucked away under the hood.
“With this, I won’t have to worry about us being mobbed like rare animals the moment we step outside.”
Just as that thought formed...
Rast noticed the girl before him looking somewhat puzzled at the floating wool boots.
After a long moment, she seemed to realize something.
She lifted her bare foot and tried to slide it directly into the boot.
“Your Majesty, before putting on boots, you need to wear socks first,” Rast quickly stopped her.
「Wah… zii？」
Helen tilted her head, confused, and looked at him.
Right.
He’d almost forgotten—this was someone who had walked barefoot in the palace her entire life and had never worn shoes.
Her understanding of shoes probably came solely from fairy tale illustrations of dashing heroes and heroines in boots.
To her, shoes were merely for looking cool.
Aside from that, she knew absolutely nothing about such basic life knowledge.
“Socks... are garments worn on the feet to prevent direct contact between skin and shoes, which might otherwise cause blisters from friction.”
Rast took out a pair of black stockings from the wardrobe and showed them to her.
He had prepared them back when he cross-dressed to sneak into the palace, just in case Her Majesty had any unusual preferences.
Who would’ve thought they’d be useful now?
「Protective... gear？」
「Just this… thing？」
Helen’s deep violet eyes were still filled with confusion.
She looked at the stockings, then at the floating boots, clearly unable to comprehend how such small footwear could possibly harm her skin.
As the ruler of the underworld, let alone a pair of boots—even a steel-piercing weapon might not leave a scratch on her.
“I know, Your Majesty, you’re not afraid of such things…”
Rast rubbed his forehead. “But if you want to experience life like a fairy tale, it’s better to follow local customs.”
Helen still seemed unconvinced.
But seeing Rast’s insistence, she finally gave a small, obedient nod.
Then, from under the cloak, she extended her slender, pale legs and lifted her small feet before Rast.
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
Rast’s expression remained calm as he gently held up the black stockings.
Once her pale feet were wrapped in black silk, Helen lifted her foot curiously, examined the nearly transparent stockings, then slid them into the wool boots.
She sat on the bed, curiously stepped on the floor, and waddled a few steps like a clumsy duckling.
With her great strength, she quickly mastered the art of walking in shoes.
Outside the royal bedroom, Rast had already opened the grand palace doors.
Sunlight fell softly on the boy’s profile, casting his features in clear relief.
Then, he smiled and extended his hand to Helen.
“Well then—”
“Let’s begin our date, Your Majesty.”
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