Chapter 43 – First Use of Divine Appraisal
“Tsk tsk, that guy Bryn sure pulled the short end of the stick. Finally gets a chance to show off in front of his peers—in the most high-profile opening match no less—and what does he draw? The Whiteglass Princess. Yeah, he’s done for. Instead of a grand debut, this’ll be pure public embarrassment.”
John clicked his tongue, happily munching from a tub of popcorn-like snacks. Pure chaos enjoyer—never passed up a good spectacle.
“Is Felicia really that strong?” I asked.
“It’s not just a question of strength… She’s the kind of…”
For once, my question actually left John at a loss.
“Let me put it this way: if that guy Bryn can survive three moves under Princess Felicia, he’ll have bragging rights for a year.”
“Is the gap between Divine Princesses from the same class really that extreme?” I frowned.
“Well, let’s use an admittedly crude analogy. You’re a human, right?”
“…What else would I be?” I shot John a side-eye.
“Well, the King of the Whiteglass Kingdom is also a human. One’s a monarch above millions, heir of the Zorsha bloodline. The other—no offense—is a broke Divine Child, struggling to get by. Technically both are human, so why’s the gap so massive?”
“Same logic applies to Divine Princesses. There are ‘kings’ and there are ‘commoners.’ Among all combat roles, Divine Princesses have the most extreme disparity between the floor and the ceiling.”
“There are many factors behind that difference—aptitude, resources, dedication—but the biggest factor, hands down, is bloodline.”
That made sense. I remembered now why families with even a shred of prestige went to such obsessive lengths to preserve bloodline purity, often to absurd extremes.
Family legacy and honor were part of it—but the bigger reason was that bloodline mattered. It directly determined how powerful a Divine Princess could become—something that no amount of hard work could make up for.
It was like breeding pedigree pets. Mixing with impure blood wasted the value of a rare lineage.
Sure, comparing noble Divine Princesses to pets was inelegant—but it was probably the easiest metaphor to understand.
Still, John was clearly a little hesitant to keep going. After all, I was a direct victim of noble bloodline discrimination.
When Felicia—the amber-haired, golden-eyed royal—stepped onto the ring, the sheer wave of cheers from the crowd nearly deafened me.
Most of the spectators were male students, all hollering her name. But among them were quite a few flushed, nervous-looking female students watching Felicia just as intently.
I noticed it right away—John was right about this at least: in Coleman Academy, those with strength, especially Divine Princesses, attracted boundless adoration. And that adoration crossed gender lines. Especially when the person wasn’t just powerful, but also influential—backed by the Whiteglass Kingdom—and stunningly beautiful to top it off.
In that case, it wasn’t so hard to imagine Felicia pulling off a 1v5 “sleepover special.” With that many young female fans, warming her bed would just take a word—and they’d probably consider it an honor to be chosen.
By contrast, Bryn—her unfortunate opponent—looked utterly miserable.
He’d drawn Felicia in his very first match. And though he was standing right there in the arena, nobody paid him any attention. The entire audience was cheering for Felicia. It was like he didn’t even exist.
He stood on the stage, awkward and alone. I felt secondhand embarrassment just watching him.
“Damn, damn—these stats are worse than I thought. This isn’t even going to be a fight,” John cursed as he stared at something, totally engrossed.
“What is it?”
“Oh, nothing. I just used Divine Appraisal to check Bryn and Felicia’s stats.” John shrugged. “I take back what I said earlier. This guy probably can’t even take one hit from her.”
Right—Divine Appraisal...
I was curious too. With the boost from the Golden Chalice Butterfly, I wanted to see just how much information my Divine Appraisal could extract from a Divine Princess.
So I activated it. And in an instant, a flood of data rushed into my vision like a dam bursting.
My brain jolted. I couldn’t tell whether the info was just too much, or if the target’s power level was too high, but my mental energy ran dry almost immediately.
Fighting off a headache, I started reading Felicia’s data.
Divine Appraisal didn’t display stats as single numerical values. Instead, it showed a broad overview of various attributes—like strength, speed, jumping ability—each color-coded by rating.
White, yellow, green, blue, purple, black—light to dark, low to high.
In other words, you couldn’t directly “see” someone’s overall combat skill. Divine Appraisal couldn’t measure things like battle experience. All you got was the raw stat “panel.”
And in terms of a Divine Princess’s true strength, the most important aspects weren’t even these base attributes. It was their Divine Authority Domain and Divine Power.
But even so…
[Felicia Zorsha’s Stats:
Strength: Amethyst
Speed: Emerald
Jumping: Topaz
Endurance: Sapphire]
Now look at Bryn’s...
[Bryn Kaido’s Stats:
Strength: Topaz
Speed: Topaz
Jumping: Topaz
Endurance: Topaz]
A clean four-Yellow streak.
The stat gap was insanely large.
Next up would be the Divine Authority section…
“Match beginning. Contestants, take your positions!”
“Felicia Zorsha, First Princess of the Whiteglass Kingdom.”
Felicia stepped forward, withdrawing her weapon from her storage ring.
A massive, crown-shaped greatsword with a blade as thick as a shield.
“That thing’s ridiculous…” John gulped. “Just dropping it on me would turn me into ground beef.”
The sword was huge, ornate, and yet somehow, the petite Princess held it aloft in one hand.
She gently brought the giant blade down to the ground.
BOOM!
The shockwave kicked up a cloud of dust. The crowd fell utterly silent, the cheers vanishing all at once. Everyone instinctively cast pitying glances toward the poor soul standing across from her.
“It is my honor to face you.”
Felicia smiled with refined confidence, placing her sword before her chest. She didn’t give a lady’s curtsy, but a knight’s salute.
“…Bryn Kaido.”
Bryn nodded stiffly. He had no mental bandwidth left to admire her beauty. After stating his name, he nervously drew his weapon—a decorative rapier.
Compared to Felicia’s sword, it looked like a toothpick. One could almost believe her first swing might slice both him and the rapier in two.
“Mr. Kaido, there’s no need to be nervous.”
Felicia noticed his trembling and offered a reassuring smile. “Think about why you stand here today, at the Coleman Academy arena. That alone will bring you clarity.”
“We are classmates, aren’t we? Show me all you’ve got. As proof of mutual respect, I too shall hold nothing back.”