The Scent of Truth
Bianca was furious. Why does Ian only lie to me? Though she had an innocent personality, she was by no means a fool. Even before binding Ian with magic, she had already cast a certain spell on him.
Veriscent. A rather peculiar magic that emitted a stench so foul it could rot one’s nose when the truth was spoken, and a sweet fragrance when lies were told. Bianca had tested him with half expectation and excitement, but… what returned was a cloyingly sweet scent that could rot teeth.
Every single thing, from start to finish, had been a lie. In her rage, Bianca decided she would personally educate Ian’s sweet-talking mouth.
Ian’s naughty mouth… I, I’ll scold it myself… hehe.
She tried to rush toward him, pretending to be moderately angry with a thoroughly pouty expression, but—
Huh? What?
Suddenly, her body began trembling violently. It wasn’t just from excitement. In the future, no matter what tricks Bianca tried, she couldn’t lay a hand on Ian. But now it was different. A lust far more intense than what Serena had once felt toward Ian completely overpowered her body. To put it crudely, Bianca was unbearably turned on by the current Ian.
The problem was that this ‘excitement’ had triggered the awakening of her Magic Eye, which should have happened much later.
I, I need to tell Ian…
Bianca was in the middle of ‘awakening’ in real time, to the point she couldn’t even speak properly. Naturally, Ian’s misunderstanding continued.
To bring Bianca back to her senses… I’ll have to use extreme measures.
Some kind of ‘drastic remedy’ was urgently needed. However, the only part of Ian’s body that could move while bound by magic was his ‘mouth.’ At this rate, anything he said would be useless. It might even backfire.
Therefore, to move Bianca’s heart, he needed something equally intense—pure sincerity.
I never thought I’d have to do something like this again…
Recalling the battle with Aria, Ian felt a wave of PTSD coming on. At first he considered trying to kiss her like before, but since he couldn’t move his body, he judged that taking the lead was impossible and came up with a different plan.
This was nothing more than a self-made drama based on what Ian had observed of Bianca’s personality. Even that carried the risk of making things dangerously worse.
Ian steeled himself and bit down hard on his tongue.
In the place where the Empire’s most noble figures resided—the Imperial Palace—someone was kneeling with their head bowed low. Before him sat a woman with an arrogant expression.
The Empire’s Second Princess, Olivia von Lebeus. Her brilliant platinum blonde hair and uniquely glowing purple eyes made her appearance even more striking. Of course, to the man’s eyes, it looked less beautiful and more terrifying.
Gazing coldly at the ‘sinner’ trembling before her, Olivia opened her mouth.
A faint spiral pattern was forming within her pupils. It was proof that she had inherited the imperial bloodline more strongly than anyone else—the Magic Eye.
"Y-Your Highness, if you mean your younger sibling… are you referring to His Highness Alex?"
The Third Prince, Alex von Lebeus, had not manifested a Magic Eye, but he was undeniably Olivia’s younger brother. Yet the answer that came back was still icy.
"W-What on earth do you mean…"
The man flinched. It was a secret known only to him. In the current Empire, aside from him, there was only one other person who knew this secret.
"H-How could you possibly…"
The man trembled violently, but Olivia merely sneered and offered no further explanation.
"Y-Your Highness! I’ll explain everything! In the first place, it was His Majesty’s order—"
Slap—
She struck him with her palm as if swatting away a fly. At the same time, the man vanished without a trace.
Olivia murmured while staring into the deepest part of the Imperial Palace.
Crunch—
At Ian’s sudden self-harm, Bianca’s mind went completely blank.
"…H-Huh?"
Bianca tried to rush to Ian immediately, but her body was currently evolving in real time under the influence of her Magic Eye. Until the transformation was complete, movement was impossible.
But…
Crack—
Bianca forcibly moved her reconstructing body and approached him.
"I-Ian… I-I’ll save you…"
Surprisingly, the more she moved, the more the backlash of energy around her decreased. It was clear proof that Bianca was actually suppressing the awakening of her Magic Eye.
Talian, who had been watching, was stunned.
She’s forcibly suppressing the evolution of a Magic Eye? What kind of nonsense…
It was an act of physically crushing bodily evolution with sheer ‘will.’ Forcing a progressing body to regress was naturally something that should have been impossible.
It’s not a matter of strong or weak will. This is fundamentally going against the instincts engraved into the body. How on earth…?
The instinct of living beings carved into their genes from the very beginning. The mortal desire for evolution and growth—Bianca was forcibly severing it. No matter how much she had reached transcendence, she couldn’t change her own origin.
This was something even the future Ian couldn’t do. In this absurd situation, Talian looked up at the ‘sky’ and finally realized the truth.
A conclusion so simple it was almost laughable.
Should I call this stupid or clever?
Bianca wasn’t simply enduring everything with willpower. In the first place, while she possessed outstanding talent, her will and mentality were somewhat weaker compared to other transcendent beings.
Talian looked up at the ‘sun’ floating in the sky with a dumbfounded expression. The ferocious energy that should have been used for bodily reconstruction was all being redirected toward the magic in the sky.
The heat source sphere, now grown so large it was difficult to take in with one’s field of vision, revealed an even more powerful presence.
Goooo—
Even the monstrosities that had barely survived Philia’s magical bombardment would surely die equally beneath that sun.
This might create an even greater disaster.
Using her innate mana control ability and her transcendent realm, she was performing a near-impossible feat of redirection. Even at this very moment, all the energy that should have gone to Bianca’s body was being converted into mana.
It was a tightrope act—if she lost control of the energy even once, it would explode instantly. Yet astonishingly, Bianca was gradually getting used to it.
At this rate, it looked like the reawakening of her Magic Eye would safely conclude.
But…
The end result is still death.
Even if the energy from the body’s qualitative leap was converted into mana, its volume was far too great to be contained within a single spell. Perhaps the vessel itself was simply too small.
Until now, it had endured because it was a grand magic created by fusing several high-level spells, but…
Crackle—
The heat source sphere, overloaded from accepting too much mana, looked dangerously close to bursting at any moment.
It won’t hold much longer. It’s going to explode soon.
Before long, the magic that could no longer withstand the mana infusion would undoubtedly explode. If that orb burst, it wouldn’t just be the immediate area—an entire region would be completely annihilated.
For Talian, who had not yet regained ‘all her power,’ this was quite a fatal threat. She wasn’t worried about her own survival, but it might hinder her growth. Besides, she was just a tiny bit concerned about Ian’s life and death.
Sigh… Just this once.
Talian let out a sigh and whispered toward the ‘world.’
"Domain Declaration."
⟨ Realm Proclamation ⟩
In an instant, the entire Forest of Nightmares fell into her grasp.
"Manifestation."
"Featherfire Dream Realm."
⟨ Wings of Fire, Realm of Dreams ⟩
Before she possessed the unparalleled technique known as Monster Domain, this was the authority and source of power she had cherished since ancient times. This was why Talian was truly called the Monster of Chaotic Divinity.
A woman wearing a monocle. Liriya, the master of Dreamfall, blinked as if she had noticed something.
"Hmmmm. What is this? Someone has summoned a ‘dream’?"
As a succubus, her senses regarding dreams were unrivaled.
"How strange… At this point in time, there shouldn’t be any children capable of summoning dreams, right?"
Her homeland and birthplace, the Dreamworld, had already been destroyed by her own hands long ago.
"I heard rumors that some mongrels who couldn’t even reach proper rank were living on the Eastern Continent. Could one of them have sprouted the seed of Primordial Regression? How interesting."
After making various guesses, she soon realized she hadn’t been very considerate of her listener.
"Oh dear, it seems I only talked about things I know again. So, how are you feeling right now?"
"……"
Liriya was nestled in the man’s arms, gazing at him lovingly. The man, with no time to react to her atrocities, was deeply asleep.
In a ‘dream within a dream,’ he was fighting endlessly against all the enemies he had faced so far. While stroking his cheek, Liriya whispered softly into his ear.