Rank Four Arbiter

Law Freya took out the Rank Four Arbiter potion, pulled out the stopper, drank it in one gulp, and fell fast asleep. Meanwhile, Freya's original body left the bedroom to find Euphy and ask about the advancement ritual for a Law Pathway Arbiter to progress from Rank Four to Rank Five.

Euphy showed a thoughtful expression, and after a moment, she said, “I don't know.”

In the extraordinary world, Rank Four was already considered the backbone of strength, and Rank Five was even more so—representing the high-end combat power of various factions. Naturally, things like advancement rituals were not easily disclosed.

Simply put, only the royal family and official high-ranking officials directly under them knew what this advancement ritual was. This put Freya in a bit of a dilemma. Where was she supposed to get this advancement ritual from? She couldn't very well just go ask Trig, could she?

No, wait... maybe she could ask her cheap biological father?

But he was the king of a nation after all, so meeting him probably wouldn't be easy. After some thought, Freya looked back at Euphy. “Euphy, can you think of a way to introduce me to His Majesty the King?”

As one of the three dukes of the kingdom, the Holmes family should theoretically have a channel for this.

Freya's purpose wasn't hard to guess. Euphy asked in surprise, “You aren't planning to just ask His Majesty the King what the advancement ritual is, are you? How could he possibly tell you?”

Freya replied straightforwardly, “I think he actually might. After all... biologically speaking, he is my father.”

Visibly, Euphy's expression froze. “Huh? What did you say?”

Because things had happened so suddenly in the last simulation—with Jessica's abrupt visit and Kuro whisking Freya away—the simulated Freya hadn't been able to bring out the occult array that allowed Euphy to 'inherit memories.'

Thus, Freya could only verbally describe the events of the last simulation. As for the Mind Reader coming to inspect her memories tonight? There was absolutely no need to worry about leaking secrets. That Mind Reader would only look at her memories from the aristocratic gathering. The reason she had been discovered in a previous simulation was because she had told Euphy about stealing the potion during the gathering itself.

So as long as it wasn't during that specific timeframe, it was perfectly fine to talk about it. Furthermore, one shouldn't forget that Scholars naturally countered the Mind Pathway. As long as a Scholar refused to cooperate, a Mind Reader wouldn't be able to read any useful memories at all.

It took a good while of explaining before Euphy finally sorted out the sequence of events. Her lips couldn't help but twitch slightly. “So many things actually happened in just twenty short days...?”

Freya clasped her hands together and acted cute. “Anyway, please help me, all-powerful Euphy~!”

Euphy sighed. “Alright, alright. I'll go talk to my grandfather right away and ask him to help.”

After all, Euphy certainly didn't have that kind of authority herself, but both her father and grandfather had the right to audience the King. As for why she was asking her grandfather instead of her father, there was no need to state the obvious.

Freya added, “Also, the meeting shouldn't be today. If possible, tomorrow afternoon would be best.”

By then, her Future Simulation cooldown would have reset. It was definitely much safer to carry out these actions inside a simulation.

Euphy replied, “Well, it's definitely impossible to meet immediately. What are you thinking? It's hard to say if we can even secure an appointment by tomorrow afternoon.”

Time flew by, and soon it was time for the aristocratic gathering to begin. At the exact same time, Law Freya's Rank Four potion was completely digested. Her hair had turned entirely silver-white, with subtle blue highlights visible at the tips, and her pupils had become sky-blue.

When Freya returned to the bedroom, what she saw was this version of herself sitting upright on the edge of the bed with her legs pressed together. How should she put it? Her first impression was that she looked rather cute, yet she also exuded an aura full of majesty.

The former came from her appearance, while the latter was due to the Law Pathway extraordinary ability called 【Coercion】. After her advancement to Rank Four, this ability—which she had acquired back at Rank One—had been significantly enhanced.

“A pity my height is a bit too tall—just over 1.6 meters. Otherwise, I could probably cosplay a certain character from a game in my past life.”

Without a doubt, the character Freya was referring to was Kelydla, nicknamed 'the Tall One' in a certain Honkai: Star Rail game. This was mainly because Law Freya's hair color was extremely similar to Kelydla's.

As for the two new abilities she obtained at Rank Four, they were 'Contract' and 'Judgment.' Freya had actually encountered the Contract ability many times already. The earliest instance traced back to when she had just transmigrated; she had joined the Special Service in a simulation and signed a contract that prohibited her from leaking the secrets of the extraordinary world to ordinary people, as well as betraying the Special Service to commit evil deeds.

The effect of this ability was to draft a contract, the contents of which were entirely decided by the drafter. Once the contract was signed, its terms had to be strictly followed, or else there would be severe punishment.

If Freya wanted to, she could even draft a contract that looked completely unequal, such as one stating she would give someone one dollar a day while they had to give her a hundred dollars a day.

Once signed, this contract would also be enforced by force. Of course, the premise was that the other party had to be willing to sign. Alternatively, if Freya had the power to coerce them—for instance, having War Freya hold someone's head down and threaten to kill them if they didn't sign—the contract would still take effect normally in that scenario.

As for the binding power of the contract, it was related to the strength of the drafter themselves. For example, Law Freya was currently only at Rank Four. If the person signing the contract with her was an ordinary person, and the contract terms included not leaking secrets, then even if that ordinary person wanted to leak them, they wouldn't be able to do so at all; they would find themselves physically unable to speak a word.

On the other hand, if the one signing the contract with her was a Rank Five or even Rank Six powerhouse, the contract wouldn't be able to completely restrict them. They could still leak the secrets, but they would pay a price by suffering a massive backlash. While this backlash wouldn't kill these Rank Five or Rank Six powerhouses, it would certainly make them extremely uncomfortable.

The only exception was a Punisher, whose Distort ability could directly tear up a contract without suffering any backlash whatsoever.

The second ability, 'Judgment,' condensed a blue longsword around Law Freya. She could control this weapon with her mind to attack enemies, much like controlling a flying sword. Under normal circumstances, this blue longsword was just like an ordinary iron weapon—it could do anything a normal iron sword could, and conversely, it couldn't do anything a normal iron sword couldn't. Its power was very mediocre.

However, once an enemy had committed an act that 'violated the rules,' the power of this weapon would skyrocket.

For example, in the Kingdom of Tarapaca, a murderer was sentenced to death upon being caught. If Law Freya used her Judgment ability on this murderer, the blue longsword would gain an 'instant death' effect.

......