Chapter 195 – Well, Isn't This a Coincidence?

The next day, Ciel returned to talking normally with her close friends in class.

Although Ciel was a top-notch beauty in the March Academy, thanks to her excellent social skills, she did not get alienated by the other girls in her class.
On the contrary, she was friendly with all of her female classmates.

While Ciel and her friends were discussing whether they should head to the nearby shopping district for a stroll after school, Alice's voice suddenly came from the classroom door:

“Ciel! Come here for a moment!”

Ciel subconsciously shuddered when she heard Alice's voice, a faint blush forming on her face.
However, she quickly calmed down and patted herself on the face, reminding herself not to have dirty thoughts.

After getting ordered around and stepped on by Alice for the past week, Ciel had developed a reaction where her body would feel electrified whenever she heard a command from Alice.
This definitely wasn't a good sign.

Aside from being agile, catkins had another common characteristic—arrogance.
Although Ciel normally behaved like a friendly and modest person, arrogance was engraved deep into her bones.
Meanwhile, this arrogance prohibited her from being inferior to others.
This was also why she had reacted with such dissatisfaction when she met Alice for the first time.

Even though Alice hadn't done anything wrong to warrant her dissatisfaction, her arrogance still prevented her from acknowledging Alice.
Unfortunately, even that arrogance had lost to her fetish in the end.

“You seem to be getting along very well with Her Highness Alice recently, Ciel.” While Ciel was mulling over how she could break free from Alice's control, the girl next to her said to her enviously, “How nice.
Both you and Her Highness Alice are incredibly popular in the academy.”

“What are you saying? You girls have your strong points as well.
I am merely popular by virtue of my race,” Ciel said as she suppressed her anger toward Alice.
However, she was starting to have trouble maintaining her smile, so she quickly jumped out of her seat and said, “I'll go see what Alice wants.
We'll continue our talk afterward.”

After saying so, Ciel quickly walked out of the classroom.
Then, as soon as she entered the corridor, she saw that in addition to Alice, three more people were also standing with Alice.

After glancing at the three people next to Alice, Ciel recognized all three of them.
They were Zauna, Lalu, and Luna.
Due to her wariness toward her potential rival, Ciel had previously looked into Alice's closest friends.
So, even though this was her first time meeting Zauna and Lalu in person, she immediately recognized the two when she saw them.

In the case of Zauna, the girl was above average when it came to appearances, and she was relatively skilled in magic.
However, the March Academy was a place where geniuses roamed, so Zauna's skill in magic wasn't particularly amazing.
As for Lalu, she was an international student from the Elven Forest, and the young elf seemed to be curious about everything in the human realm.
She also had a relatively innocent personality, so she was easily influenced by others.

Ciel couldn't help but snort unhappily when she saw Zauna and Lalu.
She was an elite among her tribe, so she felt a sense of superiority over Zauna and Lalu since neither had any outstanding qualities.
Yet, Alice had chosen to befriend these two unremarkable people.
Knowing this, Ciel couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with this for some inexplicable reason.

“Is there something you need from an ordinary beastkin like myself, Your Highness?” Ciel asked in a sarcastic tone.

“What's gotten into you again?” Alice couldn't help but grow confused when she heard Ciel's tone.
However, she didn't bother dwelling on the matter.
After looking around and ensuring that the few people in the corridor weren't paying attention to them, Alice pointed at Zauna and Lalu, asking, “These two here are Zauna and Lalu.
What do you think? Do you feel anything from them?”

“No.”

Ciel clicked her tongue.
She was aware that Alice was implicitly asking her “do you get the urge to be stepped on by them?” Unfortunately.
She didn't seem to get such urges when it came to other people.

Just like how chicks imprint on the first creature they see, Ciel had also seemingly imprinted on Alice, the first person to have developed her fetish.
Although Ciel was glad that her masochistic tendencies wouldn't act up with just anybody, she also felt frustrated because this prevented her from escaping Alice's control.

“Still no good?” Alice sighed when she heard Ciel's response.
However, she didn't feel too disappointed by this situation.
On the contrary, this made Ciel even more trustworthy.
After all, if Ciel couldn't find anybody to replace her, the catkin would have to follow her commands obediently.
Otherwise, Ciel would no longer have anyone to satisfy her fetish.
“Nevermind, then.
By the way, how is the relationship between catkins and dogkins?”

“The dogkins?”

Ciel's expression instantly darkened when she heard Alice's question.
Based on this reaction, Alice could roughly guess what Ciel thought of the dogkins.

Sure enough, Ciel immediately began an angry rant:

“Keep those dirty and rude dogs far away from me.
Those dogs don't even know table manners when it comes to eating.
They're the perfect example of a failed evolution.
They are an embarrassment to all beastkins.”

“There's an ongoing feud between the catkins and dogkins,” Zauna whispered into Alice's ears while Ciel was ranting about the dogkins.
“Although things have calmed down a little now, the two races still can't see eye to eye with each other…even though their tribes live very close to each other…”

Meanwhile, Alice couldn't help but grow a little disappointed when she heard Zauna's explanation.
Initially, she had thought she could get Ciel to help her contact the dogkins.
However, if there was an ongoing feud between the catkins and dogkins, it was unlikely that she could get Ciel to help her with this matter.

As to why Alice was looking to contact the dogkins, it was because of the totems Kristine mentioned, the one that was capable of tracking down the Demon King.
Said totems were owned by none other than the dogkin tribes.

The dogkins had always prided themselves on their keen search capabilities.
As a result, their totems had also gained a tracking ability.
So long as one injected the target's mana or aura, the dogkins' totems could seek out other existences with similar mana and aura.

This was also why nobody had mentioned this information to Alice before.
If they wanted to track down the Demon King using the dogkins' totems, they would need to inject a sample of the Demon King's mana or aura.
Otherwise, the totems would be incapable of locating the Demon King.

However, the Demon King was a unique existence.
If they wanted to use the dogkins' totems to track down the Demon King, they'd need to get a sample of the Demon King's mana or aura, which was a problem since they didn't know the Demon King's whereabouts.

This was also a predicament Heroes of past generations had faced.
During Kristine's generation, Kristine had similarly thought of using the dogkins' totems to track down the Demon King.
Unfortunately, she had faced a similar problem, and the idea was eventually shelved.

However, unlike the Heroes of past generations, Alice just so happened to have the solution to this problem—Luna.

The mana flowing within Luna's body was a product of the Demon King's Power.
Hence, it could be used with the dogkins' totems to track down the Demon King.

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If everything went smoothly, Alice might even be able to locate the Demon King's Power, which was currently accumulating its strength, using this method and destroy it.