"I-I… what am I even doing?!"
After licking her lips, Conis immediately froze in place.
She couldn't help it—someone with her personality should never have been thinking about things like that in the first place. On the path her life was originally supposed to take, even if she married and had children, she wouldn't have done anything like that for her husband.
But after seeing the erotic works Arton had created with her as the heroine, she realized she was… slowly starting to accept those settings.
It was like doing those kinds of things for Arton could be allowed. Even more intense things—things she'd never dared imagine before—seemed, somehow, like they might not be impossible either.
Conis lifted a hand to her chest and took a deep breath, trying to force the images out of her head.
Except the harder she tried to erase them, the clearer they became—more vivid, more numerous, and far more stimulating than she wanted to admit.
Without realizing it, Conis reached back and brushed her hand over her backside.
"Th-That… shouldn't be the normal way, right?" she murmured. "The things in those drawings… can they really be done in real life? If we're being reasonable… the 'front' is the proper way, isn't it…?"
"Conis? What's wrong—are you feeling unwell?"
A familiar voice suddenly sounded right in front of her.
"F-Father!"
Conis jolted, only then realizing that at some point she hadn't noticed, her father—Pagaya—had already walked up to her.
"I-It's nothing," Conis hurriedly shook her head and said to Pagaya. "I just… zoned out for a moment."
"Really?" Pagaya asked, looking at her strangely.
"R-Really!" Conis nodded again and again.
"I see…" Pagaya scratched his cheek, then smiled. "Conis… you wouldn't happen to have someone you like, would you?"
"F-Father, why would you ask that?!" Conis blurted, startled.
"Because your face is bright red," Pagaya said with a laugh. "Your mother used to look exactly like that, too."
"Y-You're misunderstanding!" Conis panicked. "Father, I still have work I haven't finished—I'll be going now!"
With that, Conis hurried out of the room.
At this point, she didn't even have the mental space to keep thinking about whether the things in Arton's works could really be done in reality.
Faced with her father's searching gaze, there was no way she could calm down and think straight.
…
Meanwhile—elsewhere.
Over on the Shandian side, where Raki was—
"Should I… wash up thoroughly?" Raki thought, cheeks faintly red as she stood with her back to the mirror and looked over her shoulder. "That way, if Arton wants to… use me… it'll save time."
Just like Conis, she didn't understand why Arton drew those kinds of things—pictures whose meaning she didn't even fully grasp.
But since Arton had drawn them, that meant they were something Arton had once fantasized about.
And if they were Arton's fantasies… Raki didn't mind recreating them for him.
As long as Arton could help her deal with Enel.
'That said… what template did Arton just draw, anyway? Does it fit me? If it fits Ain, Arton will probably give it to Ain to use, won't he…?'
Raki let out a quiet sigh.
She had the resolve for that. After all, neither she nor Conis had truly met Arton face-to-face yet.
In that situation, Arton would naturally prioritize Ain—someone who'd already earned his trust.
"Raki, are you in there?"
Suddenly, someone knocked on Raki's door—another Shandian, Kamakiri.
Chapter 509: The Path's Potential Might Even Surpass the Raiden Shogun?!
"What is it, Kamakiri?" Raki hurriedly pulled her pants back up and hid the enema canister.
"It's time for patrol," Kamakiri said.
"I know. Wait a second."
Raki patted her cheeks, forced herself back into a normal state, and then opened the door.
"Let's go. Aisa says she sensed a ship flying up from the Blue Sea," Kamakiri continued. "We need to go check it out."
"Okay."
Raki nodded.
Aisa was a natural-born user of Mantra. From Arton's diary, Raki had learned Mantra's other name—Observation Haki. She understood Aisa wouldn't lie about something like this.
Just as Raki was about to grab her weapon, she froze.
A ship showing up on Skypiea right now—who else could it be besides Arton's ship?!
Raki's eyes widened, and a bad feeling slammed into her chest.
"What's wrong? Not feeling well?" Kamakiri asked, confused when he saw her stop.
"Kamakiri," Raki asked tensely, "where's Wyper?"
Wyper—descendant of the great Shandian warrior Kalgara, and effectively the current leader of the Shandians. Powerful, yes… and also impulsive to a fault.
"As for Wyper, he already headed for the outer sea first—wait, where are you going, Raki?!"
Kamakiri watched Raki burst past him and immediately chased after her.
But after only a few steps, she vanished right in front of his eyes.
"So fast… Aisa wasn't wrong," Kamakiri muttered in amazement. "Raki really has gotten way stronger. That speed… it might even surpass Wyper. Should I ask her how she got stronger?"
What Kamakiri didn't know was that Raki's strength came entirely from the points granted by the diary copies.
Even if Arton hadn't mentioned her name many times, he'd still mentioned it a few times.
And the points from just those few mentions were already enough for Raki to surpass Wyper.
But right now, Raki felt no excitement at all about being stronger than Wyper.
Her heart was full of dread.
"Please… I have to make it in time. Wyper, you bastard—don't you dare lay a hand on Arton and them…"
Raki sprinted at full speed toward the outer sea, all while keeping a constant eye on her diary copy.
At this moment, she was terrified she'd see Arton suddenly turn on the diary's recording function—capturing the instant the Flameblade Pirates ran into the Shandians.
Especially when new lines began appearing in the diary, her fear spiked even harder.
"This is…!"
For a split second she nearly stopped breathing—then—
"Thank goodness… it's not a message about Wyper."
Raki patted her chest, steadied herself, and focused on the new text again.
"Template Serval… Arton is recording the template he drew? Serval's template can grant the user control over electricity?"
"Pathstrider… what does that mean?"
Then—
"Wait—Serval's potential can even surpass the Raiden Shogun?!"
Raki's eyes went wide with disbelief.
And it wasn't just Raki.
At that exact moment, everyone watching Arton through their diary copies was stunned.
They reread it again and again before they finally accepted the truth:
They weren't seeing things.
Arton's diary really was expressing that the Serval template's potential surpassed the Raiden Shogun template.