After Crossing Over, I Marked the Empress

The Guthrie Commercial Circle was a large integrated business complex, combining commerce, offices, hotels, exhibitions, and entertainment.

Around the modern shopping mall were many small shops and stalls that depended on it for survival.

Half a year ago, when Shen Han snuck out of the base with Gu Junwan for fun, they chose a pedestrian street on the outskirts of this commercial circle.

At 10:30 AM.

Princess Quintina, the young princess from the Ksenrode Kingdom, was having a delightful time strolling along this pedestrian street.

She felt that the delicacies in the Free Federation were far more diverse than those in her own kingdom!

For instance, the first cup of milk tea in autumn, the first batch of sugar-roasted chestnuts in winter.

Just hearing about them was enough to make one excited!

Taking advantage of her brother’s business trip, Quintina had successfully deployed her spoiled princess tactics to set foot in this long-curious city of delicacies!

The little princess had just turned 16.

Her silver hair beautifully inherited the royal bloodline of her family, while her emerald eyes already revealed extraordinary nobility despite her young age.

Her features were exquisite, like a porcelain doll displayed in a showcase window.

Now, Quintina, with her silver hair tucked under a hat, stood before a milk tea stall.

She chewed small mouthfuls of the little black balls in her mouth, speaking to the shopkeeper in very broken Federation language: “The taste doesn’t seem as good as the day before yesterday.”

The shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman with high cheekbones, nearly blurted out the truth: “Nonsense! This is from the day before yesterday!”

The woman smiled at the two customers who were clearly foreign tourists and pointed at some freshly pressed egg rolls nearby.

“You need to eat these together for the full effect. They’re crispy!”

Quintina didn’t quite understand, so she turned to look at her maid, Julie.

Julie was actually also a reluctant “Federation expert.” Seeing the princess’s gesture, she quickly answered in their native language: “She wants to promote another product, saying that mixing the two tastes even better.”

“Oh, so I’ve been drinking milk tea the wrong way? Let’s buy some then.”

Following the princess’s order, Julie immediately took out her wallet and purchased a box of egg rolls with the exchanged Federation currency.

Watching the two walk away, the stall owner finally sighed to her son: “Why is that girl’s hair all white?”

“Is this what you young people call the trendiest thing nowadays, bleaching?”

A student-like young man snorted, looking annoyed: “What do you know? That’s her natural color. Give me some money, I want to go browse the stationery store with my classmates.”

……

Quintina drank half a cup of milk tea with the egg rolls and felt her entire stomach was uncomfortably full of sweetness.

She stuffed the remaining egg rolls into Julie’s hands, pouting: “Give these to them to eat. Don’t waste them.”

Julie took the snack box and waved slightly to the left and right. Immediately, several plainclothes bodyguards gathered around.

“The princess gives you these to eat. Finish them, don’t secretly throw them away.”

The cold-faced bodyguards, with Bluetooth devices hanging from their ears, looked at each other.

One of them accepted the snack box with both hands. After confirming the princess had no other instructions, they quickly dispersed into the surrounding crowd.

At this time, Quintina spoke up: “Oh right, I heard from Andrei that there’s a very fun alpaca shop on the second basement floor of the Guthrie Mall. Let’s go play there.”

Naturally, Julie wouldn’t refuse the little princess’s request.

She nodded in agreement and quickly took out her phone to search for the exact location of the alpaca shop.

……

After arriving at the agreed commercial circle, Gu Junwan went directly to the conference center to meet with Prince Joris.

Neither side’s Alpha guards participated, with only assistants following to be available for instructions.

Joris had booked the revolving restaurant on the top floor of the hotel. In the vast dining room, including the waiters, there were only a few people.

Bodyguards and the rest of the team waited quietly outside the restaurant doors.

Shen Han led Jiang Xinyue on patrol in the nearby mall.

Though called a patrol, the atmosphere wasn’t that tense.

The hotel where the Empress was meeting with the foreign prince was basically sealed off in secret, with plainclothes guards filling the inside and outside. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

“By the way, I’ve always been curious. If I’m right next to you when you use your ability, can I feel the fluctuations you sense?” Shen Han asked in a voice only the two of them could hear.

After several months of interaction, Jiang Xinyue could now accept Shen Han standing beside her.

Although her fear of Alphas remained unchanged, at least she and Shen Han could cooperate normally, rather than communicating from a great distance as they did at the beginning.

Jiang Xinyue shook her head: “Probably not.”

In her heart, she thought: Absolutely impossible. I’ve used my ability near you so many times, have you ever felt anything?

But Shen Han persisted: “Just let me try, okay? How about you do it for 2 minutes now, and let me observe?”

After recent training, Jiang Xinyue’s physical condition had improved. She could now use her ability for up to 7 minutes daily.

Seeing Shen Han’s eager face, she had no choice but to agree.

Although she knew the other would feel nothing, she still kept her promise and activated her ability.

Shen Han: “Tell me when you start, okay?”

Jiang Xinyue: “It’s been 10 seconds already.”

[Ah! It’s started already? Why can’t I feel anything?]

[Well, I guess sensing fluctuations itself is an awakened ability.]

[I wonder what those so-called fluctuations are like. Are they electromagnetic waves? Or some kind of dynamic light waves, like biu-biu-biu?]

Jiang Xinyue: “……”

At this moment, she suddenly heard someone else’s thoughts.

It was a male voice, and in the Ksenrodian language.

[The bow is hung on the wall, the crossbow limbs and mechanism are hidden in the cabinet air conditioner’s food bucket. Installation takes some time. Damn! Why couldn’t they just give me a carbon fiber gun to hide?]

[Can that outdated weapon from the ancient Federation really kill Princess Quintina? What if it can’t penetrate her close-fitting armor?]

Jiang Xinyue’s pupils suddenly contracted!

Princess Quintina? Isn’t she the one who came with Prince Joris?

This is bad! The Empress is meeting with her brother right now. If the little princess gets shot in the mall, it could cause a major incident!

She hurriedly looked towards the source of the voice. She couldn’t find the Awakened person who was thinking, but she spotted the disguised Quintina.

Although the princess was wearing common Free Federation attire, her striking foreign features made her easy to identify.

Jiang Xinyue couldn’t tell Shen Han that she could hear the thoughts of Awakened individuals.

She spoke anxiously in a low voice: “Captain Shen! I just sensed a very dangerous fluctuation! There’s another Awakened person near us.”

“Their fluctuation carries a cold killing intent. I think something bad might happen!”

Shen Han had been trying hard to feel if there was anything different about Jiang Xinyue.

Upon hearing her words, she immediately became serious.

She knew the other would never joke about such things.

With Gu Junwan currently in the conference center next to this mall, and an Awakened person appearing with killing intent, her first reaction was that the enemies from the North had made another move.

“Can you locate that Awakened person?”

“They went into the coffee shop around that corner! A few foreigners went in too. I can’t be sure which one it is right now.”

Without further ado, Shen Han led her straight to the nearby coffee shop, while simultaneously calling for Group 1 of the security team to quickly arrive through the Bluetooth communication channel.

She was carrying a silenced handgun.

At this point, she had already taken the gun from its holster at her waist, loaded it, and then gripped it with her hand tucked into her tracksuit pocket.

“Don’t panic. Just stay behind me. Once we’re inside, you just focus on identifying the person. Regardless of whether that Awakened individual is problematic or not, we’ll detain them first and sort it out later!”

After giving these low-voiced instructions, Shen Han removed her Bluetooth earpiece and reached out to push open the glass door of the coffee shop.

As the door chime rang out clearly, the two entered the shop one after the other.

In an instant, a group of golden-haired, blue-eyed bodyguards who had been scattered around suddenly stood up.

The metal chairs scraped harshly against the floor.

A series of sharp, probing gazes locked onto the Alpha who had suddenly entered the store.

The four alpacas leisurely strolling in the shop were also startled.

They huddled together in pairs, nostrils flaring, necks cocked, both hiding and observing the strange customer.

Shen Han hadn’t expected such a situation inside the store.

Damn! Eight burly foreign Alphas, could they all be mercenaries?

Wait, no! They seem to be protecting the girl sitting in the middle.

Sensing the atmosphere in the store was a bit off, the two shop assistants didn’t dare come forward to take orders. They just shrank behind the counter, ready to call the police if things went wrong.

No one in the room spoke.

Time seemed to freeze briefly.

Quintina, however, found the scene before her quite interesting.

Her green eyes kept examining the Alpha who had suddenly appeared before her, full of lively curiosity.

‘They’re about as tall as my brother, with an upright posture and a clean aura.’

‘Interestingly, they’ve deliberately altered their appearance. Are they trying to avoid being recognized, like me?’

‘Is this person dangerous? Paul and the others all stood up.’

No one knew what the little princess was thinking.

At this moment, Paul, the head bodyguard, also noticed Shen Han’s unusual demeanor.

He slipped his right hand into his suit jacket, where a special gun that could pass through weapon detectors was hidden.

This was the only gun the entire team carried while accompanying the little princess on her outing.

In large commercial areas like Guthrie, there were security checks everywhere.

Ordinary people couldn’t smuggle in guns, let alone knives with any significant threat.

“Who are you?” Paul asked while using tactical hand signals to instruct the bodyguard team to remain alert.

Shen Han didn’t understand Ksenrodian.

Jiang Xinyue behind her immediately began translating for her, and also quietly informed her about the Awakened individual hidden among the bodyguard team.

When the two of them entered this alpaca coffee shop, Andrei’s inner complaints had never stopped.

Jiang Xinyue easily locked onto him.

Shen Han now found herself in a predicament.

Arresting someone based solely on her teammate’s sensing was clearly not feasible in this situation.

Moreover, she had already been targeted by the surrounding Alphas, and the person who just spoke might be carrying a gun.

What should she do? Should she retreat with Jiang Xinyue first, then surround this place after meeting up with the security team members?

Jiang Xinyue was now extremely anxious. She couldn’t let Shen Han retreat with her.

Because if they withdrew, the little princess might lose her life.

She also couldn’t reveal her biggest secret.

So, pretending to admire the unique decorations in the coffee shop, she walked to a wall near her and took down several small wooden bows hung there as decorations, cradling them in her hands and playing with them.

The Alpha bodyguards in the room were all focused on Shen Han and didn’t pay much attention to Jiang Xinyue’s actions.

Only Andrei’s face showed alarm, followed by a quiet curse in Ksenrodian.

Because the weapon he needed to assemble was now in her hands!