A Healthy Heueung

"Should I take a seat here, Professor?"

"Could you move those books first?! Th-those are important research materials."

"Yes. Understood. My thanks for the warm welcome, Professor. Though, speaking privately, the lab is rather······."

It hadn't been maintained at all—dust lay piled thick everywhere.

I'd heard she treated the faculty residence like her own home, but at this rate she was going to pick up a Black Death debuff. Then again, a life without me was probably unimaginable to her. Perfect environment for becoming a shut-in.

"G-guests aren't exactly common. At least not for me."

Sophia explained, her face flushing red.

The filthy room was secondary, honestly—wasn't she a 12-Circle Archmage? The circles embedded in her heart had a purifying ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠effect of their own, so looking at Sophia alone, her skin practically glowed. Had she noticed me surveying the room?

Sophia was desperately trying to change the subject.

"Ha. Hahaha. Mikhail, would you like some tea, perhaps······."

"I'd love some."

And so Sophia served freshly brewed black tea. She fidgeted with her fingers, clearly waiting for me to drink.

······Yeah, drinking it that easily was another matter.

Still, though. That's how these things go with people. Let your guard down and you pay for it.

"By the way, Mikhail."

"Yes, Professor."

"Doesn't it smell n-nice? I b-bought a new scented candle."

A nice smell, huh. Sniff sniff.

There was definitely a floral scent. Sticky, clinging, and unclean.

Come to think of it, this······ I was pretty sure Arlea had one in her room too. I set the teacup aside and dug through my database one entry at a time. Soon I found the culprit behind that sense of déjà vu. Oh-ho, so that's how you're playing it?

Using Lustgrass, are we.

Lustgrass.

An aphrodisiac incense made by extracting a succubus's love juices. Originally crafted for breeding livestock in barns, but it worked remarkably well on humans.

⋯Not from personal experience, but I'd once been amazed that a single person could produce that much of the stuff. The human body is seventy percent water, after all.

Nothing strange about that. Right, anyway—back to the point. I pressed Sophia.

"Professor. That seems like a rather indecent incense. Where ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did you get it?"

At the very least, it was contraband that couldn't be smuggled in at this point in time. The Holy Emperor Cult was hunting down "heretical" goods with fire in their eyes. The empire's foremost band of fanatics had come down here.

Was she even in her right mind? Caught off guard, Sophia let out a whimper.

"Hic."

Tap, tatatatak—

She couldn't keep her fingers still, like a pianist. Nervous? Fair enough.

The Holy Spear always kept the Eye of God at her side. She'd struggled so hard to escape that damn Saintess—no, that succubus of a woman.

"Professor. Please maintain your dignity. Showing that kind of appearance to an unrelated man is not only indecent—it's terrible for your reputation."

"W-what are you talking about! I received it as a gift too!"

She's lying.

Her true thoughts were plain as day. Sophia, you're right in the palm of my hand.

Had Sophia pulled this stunt just to seduce me alone?

Good thing I'd taken the antidote before coming in.

Otherwise I would have caused one hell of an incident. I stood up from my seat.

"The scent is quite strong. Unpleasantly so. I'll open a window."

"Ah, no! It's because I lit the candle just now. I like this kind of⋯⋯ uh, dark atmosphere. I-it's cool, right?"

As if. Honestly, I could leave and it wouldn't matter. I'd delivered the letter, so my business here was done.

If I told Ackres who I'd be traveling with, things should stay quiet for a while.

What?

I frowned. My feet simply wouldn't move.

"⋯⋯Why are you staring at me like that?"

"M-Mikhail is a pervert, right?"

Pffbt—

Sophia's sudden outburst made me spit out empty air.

A pervert?

I'm not some sex criminal, for crying out loud.

And the pervert is you, Sophia—coming out in underboob pajamas in front of an unrelated man!

Th-that absolutely is not because I feel guilty about secretly sexually harassing Arlea.

"Professor. I'm sorry, but people with that kind of sexual preference aren't accepted even by organizations like the Imperial Knights."

I corrected her immediately. No matter how much I liked yanderes, I was not a pervert.

A-and whether big-hearted or small-hearted, the important thing was being able to touch them.

I wasn't the picky type…….

"Is that so? Ah, ahahaha. Mikhail. You⋯⋯ are actually under h-hypnosis. I put you under hypnosis. I've been wondering why, why it wasn't working."

Sophia lifted her eyes. In that piercing gaze, none of the earlier fluster remained.

"…It was strange. I set an unprecedented record as a 12-Circle Archmage, and I still maintain those circles. No matter how much of a Constellation she is, what works is magic."

And that woman, for all her magical prowess, was a complete amateur in that field. Sophia added:

"The Imperial Princess is bad at scheming. Always honest, never hides her embarrassment. A destroyer who only focuses on her emotions and war. Simply put…."

I could already guess what she was about to say. I poured power into my aura. If I went into aura rampage… how long could I hold out?

"She's arrogant. Does whatever she wants, and naively assumes the board will just keep rolling her way."

Sophia smiled so wide her mouth nearly split.

"There's no way she cast a protection spell. She hasn't even met me yet, after all. So then… what was it that blocked me from Oppa?"

"……."

"Oppa."

Sophia glared at me.

"You… saw it, didn't you."

"Oppa!"

Sophia's expression turned ecstatic.

"Haa, Oppa. Wh-why did you hide your identity?"

Sophia staring at me with murderous intensity.

Goosebumps rose instantly.

…Can I hold out? She's 12-Circle. No—holding out isn't even in the realm of the problem.

With the protection of my Privilege, I can nullify every spell cast on me. The problem is what comes next.

If Sophia goes berserk?

A woman who can artificially create black holes, with the mental fortitude and potential to withstand even fragments of Outer Gods.

Most of that power is sealed or lost now… but the fact that the potential exists is what matters.

How much power has she accumulated now? No—more precisely, would the "collateral damage" she could throw at me wake the other heroines? It wouldn't be a small amount.

I immediately started devising a plan. What move could get me out of this alive against this insane yandere bitch…….

"Oppa. How much of it was an act?"

Sophia smiled with her fingers laced together. Instantly, masses of mana condensed around us. The mana flow was anything but ordinary. Ecstasy. Love. Obsessive desire. And rage.

The tea grew cold. Space itself scorched black. The boundary between Sophia's whites and pupils crumbled away. Her eyes were nothing but pitch-black void, like emptiness itself.

Ssssss—

"That's something we'll figure out in due time."

Ding-!!!

.

.

.

Fuck. I'm screwed.

The might of a 12-Circle mage was absurdly overwhelming. A single mage could collapse an army; two could level a city; three could wipe an entire principality off the map—that was the terrifying scale of their power.

Shasasasasasasasa─────

Nature-element spells came flying at me. Every last one of them was lethally dangerous. 「Sunspot」, 「Solar Corona」, 「White Night」…….

Her research lab, warped pitch-black, stretched on endlessly like a black horizon. With all twelve circles fully open, she was a force capable of facing half a continent alone.

In raw power, she had nothing to fear from anyone.

"Come to think of it, this place……."

I turned my head. It was that battlefield—the one where I'd faced the Grand Duke. She had dragged the battlefield from her memories into reality.

An illusion?

First priority: run!

Tak, tak-tak—

Even if I'd been the Empire's greatest swordsman and a Sword Master, that was a past life. In this regression-cliché weakling of a body, running was about as effective as a flea hopping away.

Kwaaak──── Suddenly my skin began to tingle.

M-my voice—

My airway seized up. I couldn't—I couldn't breathe properly. Probably the dense mana concentration in this place.

And, most likely—

"Sophia. That crazy bitch, she actually—"

I craned my neck upward. Even if I was decent at dodging incoming spells, if I couldn't suppress Sophia looking down on me from midair, my death was a foregone conclusion.

.

.

.

Jjajajajak—

Golden ropes embroidered the empty air. These were a different breed entirely from the spells that had been grazing past me like mirages.

God.

A powerful authority usable by demigods. Instantly, I could see sections of space crumpling in on themselves.

「Divine Tether」

A prayer-class ability—a different category from magic entirely.

It used divinity itself. An artificially forged power.

See? Reading my panic and despair, Sophia cackled as if thrilled.

"Oppa. Oppa───! I'll, I'll definitely protect you this time!! This time I'm going to try a d-different approach. An optimal method that doesn't touch your mind or anything else."

What do I do, what do I do?!

What kind of lunatic faces a demigod bare-handed? I needed to buy time first.

"Wait!"

I shouted at the top of my lungs. My windpipe, flooded with mana, bubbled and boiled—but the sound alone was loud enough to reach a decent-sized apartment complex.

"Hnn—"

Sophia paused, as if her interest had been piqued. So did the densely packed spherical web of ropes aimed at me.

"Finally, finally— finally! Oppa, are you at last accepting my feelings?! Cases where someone approaches this kindly, like m-me, are rare, so rare!"

Kindly, my ass. If I didn't have magic resistance, she would have erased my very existence. Whew—I'd bought time. Now came the real problem.

A plan?

None.

The future?

Making babies with Sophia, wet and messy.

Goddammit.

Living with yanderes might actually be worse than just dying. But then Sophia would obviously go berserk. And if she started manipulating someone's memories—

Manipulate?

.

.

.

Yes. That was it.

No matter how willing Sophia was to be hypnotized, mages had built-in self-protection systems.

Basically…… like having a pill program hardwired in.

But right now Sophia was half-berserk, using her past divinity. Her emotions were running hot. If I could break through the safety locks, it might just work.

I'd learned hypnosis myself once, trying to escape Arlea's obsession.

I slowly approached Sophia.

"So-Sophia. I'm sorry. I must have been out of my mind."

"Oppa."

Sophia answered in a teary voice. And the figure floating thirty stories up slowly descended.

Shuuuuuuk—

Sophia touched down. Her fully matured body felt like a ripe, luscious fruit, and from her long golden hair, the spiritual essence of the cosmos was faintly perceptible. On top of that, she was taller than me.

…Damn it, should I have worked out more during my growth spurt?

Anyway, Sophia stood before me in her future form.

…She was still attacking me in secret, of course. I had to seize the opening while her guard was down.

I spread my arms and smiled as if I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meant no harm.

"Sophia. My, my little sister. Come here—let me hold you."

"Hnnngh……."

Look at her, getting all emotional. She looked pretty when she cried, sure—but I had zero intention of actually touching her.

Sophia spread her arms to embrace me. The instant she did, I launched myself forward.

Shwing———!

I forced my aura into a rampage, reinforcing my body. In a flash, the distance between us closed.

"Eek?!"

I felt a crack form in my Aura Heart, but it didn't matter. Anything was fine if it bought me a stay of execution from this living hell. I immediately recited the formula.

"Become mine!"

"Hongyaaak!"

Thud—

Sophia took the hit and toppled sideways.

Flap-flap—

I blinked a few times, and Sophia was thrashing on the floor like a freshly caught tuna—soaked through with a full bladder of incontinence.

"─────?!!"