咪咪影场

With waves of laughter in her wake, one of the women walked up to the elevated podium with a shy expression. Even though she was not ugly, in comparison to Reol\'ran\'s beauty, she felt like mud.

The fat announcer rubbed his chin and watched the shy woman with interest.She clasped her hand in a praying gesture and for all of the audience—including Mark—to see, her Karma Threads were revealed.

"Woah!" The crowd burst into excitement.

The pudgy man said, "The red thread that you can see extending so deeply from this young miss. That is the thread connecting her to her Destined Partner!"

Many people seemed to be able to distinguish different colors of Karma Threads but it felt all the same to Mark—near transparent.

He focused on the woman instead.

Some threads expanded from her body with incredible density and connected to many members of the audience. Everyone turned to look at a specific young man and the woman shyly covered her face.

"Ah!" The announcer roared. "That young man is so lucky."

Mark looked at him.

That person\'s threads connected to the woman standing shyly at the podium were especially deep.

He silently watched as one woman after the other entered the raised podium and walked out with different looks. But all of them walked out knowing who their Destined Partner was.

Most of the people here gave him an intense sensation of danger, but the women who got destined with more dangerous men seemed a lot happier.

Like the first young man—he seemed very dangerous. These people in the audience were all strong beyond his knowledge.

Finally, it was Reo\'lran\'s turn and she walked regally up the podium.

The chubby announcer gave her a wide berth and looked at her bloody warblade with a bit of fear.

She didn\'t even make a praying gesture and just sheathed her blade.

The audience erupted.

Mark could see that almost the entire audience of men were enamored.

She, though, seemed angry. Hateful.

With a snap of her fingers, her Karma Threads were revealed.

This was not only able to show her Destined Partner, but it probably also showcased her life for the people here to witness.

All her Karmic Ties.

If she had done something criminal, she could have been convicted too.

Surprisingly, Reol\'ran didn\'t have much Karma with anyone in the entire coliseum.

Silence prevailed.

The fat man looked at her threads and frowned.

Her red threads seemed not to connect with anyone. The announcer tried to touch the red thread but a shiing sound of a half-drawn blade stopped him in his tracks.

Mark could feel a thick thread connecting him to the woman.

"This…" The fat man seemed anxious. "Miss, this means your husband-to-be did not come to the event today. Or he is not in the city at all. Or he is ignoring you outright."

She looked angrily at him, sheathing back her blade. "I know."

"What?" The woman threw a sideway glance at the audience. Her violet gaze shimmered. "Just because my soul mate hasn\'t appeared here today, it doesn\'t mean I am any less worthy of the crown of this city. I was promised the crown when I was born and today, I will be taking it."

The audience grew silent.

The vision ended.

Mark came back to the River of Destiny. Before him, a woman, who seemed much older than her previous self, smiled.

She shook her head with a chuckle.

From her, a thread, incredibly deep connected to him.

Is that thread… red?

"For a Heaven-Soul to reach their full potential, they need to bond with their Destined Partner. If they do not do that, they will forever be condemned to Tier 4 strength at the maximum."

"... I see." Mark scratched his eyebrows.

"When I was rejected the crown of that city because of you, I hated you very much," she said. "When I understood that I alone will remain a maiden when the scarce amount of friends I have lead more vibrant lives with their families, I hated you even more. When I felt lonely in my path, I cursed you.

"When I got stuck in the 4th Tier for more than a decade, I loathed you to the core of my existence."

"But then, I moved out of that cursed city in search of the other side of my red thread." She looked at him. "For more than a hundred and twenty years, I have been searching for you. And now, here we are—finally, face-to-face. But yeah, even I didn\'t expect you to be a little Lower Demon. That could be called a very bug coincidence, I guess."

"I wasn\'t even born at that point," he said.

"I know."

"And what is your connection with… the Viol—"

Reol\'ran placed a finger over his lips, seeming flustered for the first time since he met her.

"Never utter that to anyone. Even me. Keep it in your mind and just stay silent. If you have to talk about it no matter what, talk to me when I am in the form of a detached will inside your mind."

"..."

"I have not much connection with it. But something linked to that is what helped me finally find you. It is a mirror, right?"

He nodded with a frown.

"I have a shard of it inside my mind too. That is also partly why the Karma between us goes way deeper than just Destined Partners for life."

"How did you find that I will be in the Hunter World? I was a human some months ago," he said cautiously.

"Yep. I didn\'t know you would be here, by say. I made some arrangements that made sure you will appear exactly here."

She explained it to him calmly.

Apparently, she had used a unique method of her race and made sure that Mark ended up here. The method was unclear even to herself but it added a Destiny in Mark\'s life that he would somehow end up in the Hunter World exactly in this time period.

It had cost her a lot to do that.

And that made Mark think a lot about himself.

That meant that he was in the Hunter World now because of supernatural means.

Maybe, that had even manipulated his reincarnation itself to happen. Maybe, if she hadn\'t done that, he would still be on Earth living a normal human life.

But still, he knew he will have to think a lot to reach clear conclusions.

By the time she ended her explanation, Mark\'s sight blurred slightly and he woke up with a gasp in the real world.

Inside the ice cage before him, Reol\'ran\'s body was motionless.

Her voice echoed in his mind, "My energy is empty. I can\'t access the River anymore…"

He rubbed his head. "...Why is your body encased in ice?"

"That\'s not ice. That is crystallized water from the River of Destiny itself. I went against its rules by using tricks to find you by making you appear in the Hunter World unnaturally. So my attempt backfired and it sealed me. But yeah, in the end, I also found you."

"..."

No wonder he couldn\'t do anything to the ice even with Alchemic Shapeshifting.

Mark looked at his palm and clenched it into a fist.

He could feel the new demonic trick stirring within him.

"Reo\'lran," he called in his mind.

"Yes."

"I do not trust you," he said coldly.

She sighed. "Well, I need a lot of your help from now on. I have to rely on you and honestly, I expect that to be something I should take for granted. There has never been a failed relationship born through Destiny."

"I don\'t believe in destiny. I live by my rules."

"Destiny is not the puppeteer of your actions, Mark. It just says where you will end up—not how. If it says you will die, you will just die when the time comes. It doesn\'t matter how you do it, it is just a destined outcome. Just like that, we are destined to be partners through life and death."

"What if I don\'t trust you one bit even then?" Mark spread his wings widely.

A sigh echoed in his mind.

"Mark, I believe in Destiny. It\'s a force of nature that is as simple yet as profound as life and death.

"I can only trust in you and our future destiny, and do… this. I hope you trust me after this, at least."

Mark frowned.

Reol\'ran murmured deep into his mind something incredibly sacred to her. Mark felt his heart thump in his chest as she finished and her confident voice grew silent.

"...Is that your True Name?" he asked in disbelief.

It must be.

Because he felt as if she was his. In a very literal way.

"One couldn\'t be more sincere than this." Surprisingly, she didn\'t seem too startled. "Tell me, Mark, do you trust me now?"

"..."

No wonder she was so fine with giving away an ability as good as Clown\'s Circus to him.

To her, she was not giving away the Clown\'s Circus to a stranger, but gifting it to her husband.

To her, she was not being enslaved to a random man by revealing her True Name, she was just showing her own sincerity to make him have enough proof to trust her.

She had seen him as her husband even before she met him. No, even before he was born, he was her husband to her.

Being nice to her husband was natural to her.

Her behavior seeming like a scammer was nothing but true sincerity being questioned due to having seen too many scams before.

Now, she couldn\'t go against him even if she wished to, and Mark was speechless.

Even he wouldn\'t do this.

There was no reason to believe in her anymore, he knew she was not scheming with him.

She was sincere.