Chapter Forty-Two: A Chapter with a Green Title

"Meyuna, that was too harsh," Ruby said. He didn't smell any blood, which meant that Tinasia's body was now tougher than the walls themselves, but he still thought Meyuna had gone too far.

"I kicked her, not killed her. She won't die," Meyuna huffed, taking Tinasia's seat and pulling out a milkshake Ruby had made from her spatial ring, replenishing her MP as she drank.

"I didn’t expect you to have a friend like her." Ruby was curious about the way the two interacted; it was like friends trading barbs, except with their level of power, it came across as dangerously intense.

"She's not my friend! That woman is my number one nemesis—her head is packed with muscle, not brains!"

From Meyuna’s account, Ruby learned another story. When Meyuna’s teacher first brought her to the imperial capital, she had met Tinasia, who was the same age. For the little crown princess, it was her first time meeting a peer, and seeing how cute Meyuna was, she naturally wanted to befriend her. But in her excitement, she couldn’t control her strength—her left foot tripped over her right and she crashed into Meyuna, knocking her out cold.

It was just an accident, nothing a simple explanation couldn't fix. But for the young, ostracized Meyuna, what was she to think? Obviously, she would see it as an attack from a villain jealous of her looks. From then on, she regarded Tinasia as a sworn enemy, and her efforts to grow stronger were all to fend off this so-called villain who showed up every so often to bother her.

"But you can hear from her tone that she truly considers you a friend. You should cherish that," Ruby said gently.

"I don't want to. She's nothing but trouble."

Meyuna could be kind to those close to her, but could just as easily say cutting words to those she didn’t care about. After she spoke, Ruby noticed Tinasia—who had been struggling to pull herself free—suddenly stilled, probably hurt by what she’d heard.

"Tsk, now I see why Arrogance chose you as her master," Draggon spoke up before Ruby could reply. He knew exactly what Arrogance used to be like; anyone who claimed Meyuna didn’t have something special to attract her would be lying.

"Are you saying I'm arrogant?"

"Disregarding genuine feelings, taking them for granted, and refusing to see them—that is arrogance."

Faced with Meyuna's irritated question, Draggon answered her calmly, explaining what arrogance truly meant before closing his eyes and falling silent.

"But when you were on the brink of death, you still thought of her, didn’t you? That proves you do care, at least a little," Ruby continued. The two partners worked in perfect harmony: Draggon first crushed the mage girl’s haughty attitude, and then Ruby gently nudged her heart. He understood Meyuna’s character and didn’t want her to lose a true friend because of a careless word.

"That, that was..." Meyuna now regretted asking the Pope to pass along her message. She absolutely refused to admit she accepted Tinasia. It must have been her fever addling her mind at the time, nothing more.

"Meyuna, do you really care about me, just like Mr. Ruby says?" Before Meyuna could bask in her own cleverness, Tinasia had already torn off a chunk of the wall, now standing before her and asking uneasily.

"Don't call me Meyuna! And why do you keep approaching me, again and again? Anyone else would have stayed away after being treated like that!" Meyuna exclaimed in frustration. She had often used magic to tease this muscle-brained princess into a mess when they were children, but the girl kept coming back, much to Meyuna’s annoyance.

"Because seeing you so lonely makes me sad," Tinasia answered softly. "I can feel that we’re very much alike. My mother died before I could even remember her, and my father is always busy with affairs of state and has no time for me. Isn’t it natural for two lonely people to want to be together? Besides, don’t both our names have ‘Na’ in them? We must be destined to be friends."

Tinasia smiled gently, and Meyuna remembered what happened after her teacher passed away. She had locked herself in her room for three days, refusing food or drink, and there had always been someone outside her door, keeping vigil in silence. Though that person never offered her a word of comfort or showed their face, who else could it have been?

"Are you a child? Just because of our names... Pfft!"

Meyuna wanted to protest, but as she glanced at Tinasia, she caught sight of Ruby behind her, stretching his cheeks into a ridiculous face. Caught off guard, Meyuna burst out laughing.

"You smiled at me! It's the first time you've ever smiled at me. You do care about me after all!" Seeing Meyuna's radiant smile for the first time, Tinasia couldn’t help but hug her. This time, she controlled her strength, so the trapped Meyuna could only bear the coldness of the armor and give Tinasia an awkward pat on the back. The air between them seemed to turn pink with warmth.

"Draggon, what's wrong with you?" Ruby suddenly noticed a green glow pulsing atop his head. Draggon, for some reason, was emitting light like a neon sign.

"Oh, who knows? Maybe I’m about to sprout," Draggon replied, his voice dripping with mischief and schadenfreude. Playing pranks on his partner from time to time brought him no end of satisfaction.

"Then I’ll go make you some fertilizer later."

"Tinasia, why is there a hole in your wall? Were you training in your room again?" As the two bantered, a deep, mature male voice sounded near the collapsed wall. Soon, a man in a dark gray robe entered. Ruby, having idly studied Earth’s physiognomy, could see the man’s chiseled features, his natural air of authority, and the way he walked—like a dragon or tiger—marked him as a true emperor. There was probably only one such person in the entire imperial palace.

"?" Emperor Kaysk XIII was utterly baffled by the scene before him. His usually friendless daughter now had two people in her room—one of them a man, and the other glowing green, with his daughter hugging a girl in her arms. No matter how he looked at it, the whole thing seemed bizarre.

"Father, what brings you here?" At the sound of her father's voice, Tinasia released Meyuna and turned to ask curiously.

"You're Meyuna!?" The Emperor, seasoned as he was, still took a few steps back when he saw her. What he was thinking wasn’t that the Mage God had returned from the dead, but what Meyuna’s return could mean for the Empire.

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PS, Ruby: Of course, I choose to forgive her!