Free and Unfettered 66 Deflections

The assassin, stunned but reacting befitting a professional assassin, retreated immediately, but not before Nine stuck a tracking spell onto their skin. They wouldn't be able to get it off without her permission, allowing her to track them wherever they went.

Nine did it so casually that it escaped the notice of everyone else. She frowned, wondering who had tried to assassinate her. There had been killing intent in the strike just then.

The moment the assassin disappeared, Shade followed after them like a silent spectre.

Lucien turned around doubtfully, having felt killing intent in the air just then, but there was nothing he could sense that was out of place.

"Did something happen just then?" he asked doubtfully.

The various classmates around him voiced a negative, wondering what he was going on about.

Lucien's eyes locked onto Nine's, his eyes questioning. Nine gave him a shallow nod, looking unconcerned. Lucien casually made his way to the back of the group where Nine was whilst the rest continued moving.

Nine felt a tinge of approval at his actions. His senses had already grown to the point where he could make out an assassin even at his level, which wasn't much higher than the rest of his classmates.

If she had to describe this one student, then it was that he was somewhat like a novel protagonist. Even in the same ranks as the others, he somehow managed to achieve superiority and could likely cross ranks to kill Magic Beasts and monsters. Not only that, his senses were sharper and more sensitive than a normal person's.

Nine secretly imparted more techniques to him as he walked alongside her, as if trying to prevent anything else from happening. She couldn't help but want to smile at his actions. He was clearly weaker than her, but he was still trying to protect her.

The rest of his friends seemed to sense that something was off, so they stuck close to Nine as well, trusting Lucien's instincts. Nine couldn't help but reach out to pat Lucien's fluffy hair, despite his body being older than hers.

Despite trying her best to slow down her body's rapid growth, her height had ended up shooting up in the last two years, making her feel somewhat speechless. She now towered over her 'older' students, leaving her taller than even Seyton, who was a good 185cm tall.

Thankfully, her chest wasn't flat. Otherwise, she would really have doubted if her body was female or not. The Vampiric genes were too strong, to the point where her height had shot up this much, the so-called 'perfected' genes.

In order to fool the people around her, however, she ended up creating a new function on her interspatial bracelet that allowed for disguises. She upgraded everyone else's interspatial bracelet as well, allowing them to have better infiltration skills should they ever need it. Plus, it had the added side effect of hiding in plain sight.

No one managed to figure anything out, mainly because the transformation was truly a transformation of the body, which caused an excruciating pain in the process, but the end result left one satisfied, in which at every angle was the supposed appearance with no discrepancies.

Nine left everything unchanged except for the fact that she changed genders from female to male. Honestly, it had been a long time coming, with puberty. There was no way anyone would fail to notice that she was disguising herself unless she went this far.

Nine honestly thanked that she had landed in a magical world. Had she been on a world with technology like Earth, things would be much harder for her.

When they reached the training grounds, she pushed Deltan's face away, who had ended up sticking way too close for her liking. The Eldest Prince let out a startled yelp before scowling at her. Nine eyed him, thinking that his 'scowl' looked too much like a pout, with the way the Vampiric transformation left him. He looked more like a beautiful maiden rather than an already grown man.

Nine looked at him dryly, wondering what he wanted.

"You know, younger brother, if you act like this with your wife, won't you just end up making her sad all the time?!"

Her surroundings fell into silence at his words before exploding with noise from all of her students.

"What?! Teacher is married?! Wait, no. Teacher is getting married?!"

"What! Who's the bride? Is it someone we know?"

"Yeah, Teacher. We have to make sure that they're good enough for you!"

"Huh, someone who is getting married to Teacher… They have to be a beauty, right?"

Nine's brows furrowed the slightest amount, levelling a deep stare at Deltan, leaving him sweating slightly. "Yes. I'm getting married soon," she said nonchalantly, shoving any negative feelings deeper down.

Deltan coughed, having intentionally dropped that bombshell for some entertainment. He could practically hear the hearts of Nine's numerous fans in the distance breaking at his younger brother's admission to his marriage.

He rubbed his hands in glee inwardly, causing Nine to look at him suspiciously.

With her Vampiric hearing, Nine could hear the almost silent despair that her fan club tried to conceal, leaving her feeling helpless in the face of these brainless fans.

She looked at Deltan, who was all but cackling at the despair showing on other people's faces, causing Nine to feel that she had been too lenient on this elder brother of hers lately.

She smiled at Deltan, causing him to immediately stop the gleeful expression on his face as a dawning fear crept up on him silently.

"What did you say, Eldest Brother?" Nine questioned, almost saccharinely, "I'll make my wife sad?"

Deltan seriously debated his options right now. Should he answer his brother? Or should he just flee as fast as he could right now? Somehow, he felt like his younger brother's words contained a trap in them he couldn't detect.

He cautiously answered, ready to flee at any given moment. "Y-yes?"

Faster than the eye could pick up, Nine swept Deltan off his feet and into her arms, bridal style. Deltan clutched onto her in shock, his mind unable to process what just happened.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Deltan couldn't help but blurt out.

"Nothing?" Nine questioned faux innocently, her eyes wide. "I'm just showing you how I'll treat my wife from now on. Didn't you want to see?"

"No," Deltan spat out. "I didn't mean on me! Put me down!" Deltan struggled futilely in Nine's grip. She had no intentions on allowing him to escape his punishment.

"Don't worry, Eldest Brother. I'm just going to show everyone how well I'll treat my future wife," she said, almost soothingly. Nine started walking towards the school, leaving Deltan struggling in her arms.

Behind her, the rest of Nine's students struggled to contain their laughter lest they draw any ire upon themselves. Her fan club seemed to recover somewhat at this, putting aside the news that Deltan dropped on them without any warning.

She wasn't worried about the news spreading, because with all those officials being present during morning court, there was no way it wouldn't spread to everyone in the city. Even if they found out now, it would most likely be all over the city tomorrow.

As Nine waited for Shade to report back to her about who was trying to kill her, she messed around more with Deltan in the meantime.

"Younger brother, oh younger brother. I won't do it again next time, so let me down okay?" Deltan begged, forgoing his pride. It never lasted in the face of his younger brother anyhow.

Nine acted like she couldn't hear him, entering the school where the surrounding students gawked at the two of them.

'Ahhhh,' Deltan screamed in his heart, failing to resist the urge to bury his face in his hands. 'Goodbye pride and dignity.'

Chapter end