Angel Wings and the Harem Question
Can I do this? What the hell is this? I stared blankly at the wings sprouting from my back.
"Seres, are you okay?"
"Snap out of it!"
Arios and Ares rushed over to my dumbstruck face right away.
It wasn't until they spoke to me and shook my body that I finally came to my senses.
"Keep your wits about you!"
"...In this situation?"
I mumbled blankly back at Ares's advice.
If wings suddenly sprouted from your body and you could just brush it off like nothing happened, you'd have to be human. No, an enlightened immortal.
"What is this?"
I tried to suppress my bewilderment and asked about the thing on my back, but Ares didn't answer.
"How should we know?"
"It's on your back!"
Instead, Viol and Red replied as if they were just as baffled.
Well, if even I didn't know, there was no way the others would.
"My lord, does your body feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
"Does it hurt?"
Soon Niobe and Hames approached and checked on my condition. I shook my head at them.
"I'm fine. Weirdly enough, nothing feels off at all. If you guys hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have even noticed the wings on my back."
"...So these wings feel completely natural to you, as if they've always been familiar."
Hames examined the wings on my back with a serious expression, then glanced subtly toward Sibylius.
"Do you know something?"
"Even I can't figure it out on the spot."
Sibylius soon inspected me as well.
"We'll need a more precise examination, but not here. Let's all head into the Imperial Palace for now."
"With these?"
Ares scowled fiercely, pointing at Viol and Red.
"Ares, look around."
At Sibylius's advisory tone, not just Ares but I looked around too.
"Did you see that?"
"Seres got wings!"
"So he really wasn't human after all."
"He was a real angel!"
The famous women had already drawn a massive crowd from their fight, and now that they'd seen my wing-sprouting stunt, the onlookers had multiplied several times over.
"...Mother, if I stick around here longer, weird rumors will spread. Let's just go in ourselves and leave the others—they might swarm over wondering what happened."
"Tch, fine! Let's hurry inside!"
Ares reluctantly agreed since I was about to become a spectacle, and we all entered the Imperial Palace together.
I was led to some room inside the Imperial Palace.
"It's a room used when treating royalty. It's rarely needed, but the facilities are always kept top-notch."
Since something had happened to me, Viol had immediately guided us to the royals' treatment area.
It was spacious enough for our whole group, so with me seated in a chair at the center, everyone formed a circle around me.
Sibylius stood in front of me, using various tools and spells in the room to examine me.
"These wings seem to be spiritual organs, not physical ones."
She focused especially on my wings.
"They burst out from your back without tearing your clothes. They passed right through them."
"And?"
"...Hold on a moment."
Instead of answering my question, Sibylius unexpectedly beckoned to the group—and to my surprise, it was Red she called.
"Me?"
"Yes."
Red approached with a baffled look, clearly clueless why she was being summoned.
"Touch Seres's wings."
"Touch the wings? That'll do it?"
Red touched my wings with a puzzled expression, and at that moment, a strange sensation washed over me.
It was the first time anyone had touched a brand-new body part, so it really felt weird.
"There, I touched it."
"Did your hand burn or melt in pain?"
"No."
"Ah, then it's safe for me to touch too. Get your filthy hands off and go back to your spot."
"...This bitch!"
The wings looked so holy just from a glance that she'd used Red as a guinea pig, apparently.
Red grumbled after suddenly becoming the test subject but didn't dare charge at Sibylius and slunk back to her place.
Sibylius then impassively grabbed my wings, inspected them, and brought her face close to sniff them.
"...She's finally lost it."
When it was too ridiculous, even the energy to react drained away.
Instead of shoving her off, I just looked at Sibylius with pity.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"You lunatic!"
Ares and Viol rushed in on my behalf and yanked her away.
"Wait, I did it to confirm!"
Only when they grabbed her by the hair did Sibylius start making frantic excuses.
"These wings give off a strong version of Seres's natural body scent!"
"So?"
"It proves my theory was right."
"What theory?"
"That Seres is actually an angel."
Viol and Ares, who had been grilling her, both fell silent.
Everyone, including me, had similar reactions.
We all stared at Sibylius with blank faces.
I barely managed to open my mouth.
"What did you say I was?"
"An angel. Records say celestial beings always emit a fragrance from their bodies."
"...So anyone who smells nice is an angel? Why were you even looking for records like that?"
"Because I've thought you might be an angel for a while now."
This is bad. Sibylius has gone as crazy as in the original story—no, even crazier!
"Even the empire's greatest grand mage is done for."
"It sounds like mad Maou ravings, but it kinda fits."
Viol and Ares looked at her like she was pitiful, but
"It might actually be true."
At that moment, Hames surprisingly voiced agreement!
"Think about it—Seres's origins are still shrouded in mystery. Why can he wield Divine Power? Why does he bear the Huferion royal traits despite being adopted?"
"Hey?"
"Why did that demon, Has, call Seres a noble being and try to make him the Maou's consort?!"
I tried to speak up, but Hames was lost in her wild speculations.
"It all makes sense if Seres is a celestial who somehow entered the human world and Has found him. A heavenly origin explains the Divine Power perfectly."
"Then what about Huferion?!"
"Huferion originally received power from the Celestial God. It's a lineage from the heavens, so a celestial could be distant kin."
An absurd hypothesis.
And yet.
"It makes sense!"
Arios nodded enthusiastically first.
"I've thought for a while that Seres is too pretty, cute, lovable, and beautiful to be human!"
"...His looks definitely aren't human."
Viol agreed next.
"Is it really? There's evidence, and it's logical, but..."
Unexpectedly, Ares seemed hesitant.
I'm going insane! These people don't know my real background, so they're jumping to weird conclusions. What do I do? Should I explain everything now?
"I think so too."
As I pondered, Niobe chimed in out of nowhere.
I stared at her in shock—she knew the truth, yet said something so off—but then Niobe spoke directly into my mind using some method.
-My lord, their guesses aren't far from the truth. You are a being from the heavens, connected to Huferion, aren't you?
Well, yeah? I was artificially made, but as a clone of the Celestial God, I'm heavenly, and linked to Huferion. So I could really be an angel with wings sprouting. But why now?
"An awakening?"
As I mulled it over, Red—another who knew my situation—replied hesitantly.
"Has was certain you could revive the Maou. But to me, you didn't seem to have that power before. So..."
"The latent power fully awakened now, and that's what made it possible?"
Is that really it? Did I fully awaken it earlier from all the anger while using my power?
If so,
"Someone go to the kitchen and grab a raw chicken—plucked and prepped."
I requested one to test it out. When I used Divine Power on the chicken,
Cluck cluck!
"It revived?!"
It became a live chicken, fully restored to its pre-death state! I was shocked, and so was everyone watching.
"See? Seres is a real angel!"
"...No, this qualifies as a lesser god."
Hames broke out in a cold sweat, countering Sibylius who was still spouting nonsense.
"Perhaps a lesser god under the Celestial God..."
"Divine Power is a god's inherent strength. Seres had the qualifications from the start."
Arios replied unusually gravely to Hames's mutterings.
"My son is a god?"
"..."
Ares was stunned, and Viol gaped blankly.
If even these two were like this, it must be a real shock.
"My lord, you have become a being unbound by the rules of the human world!"
Suddenly Niobe shouted excitedly for some reason.
"A transcendent existence beyond humanity! The greatest holy king of all time!"
"May eternal glory be upon our divine lord!"
Niobe and the Death Knights seemed thrilled, chattering away positively.
As I watched them, a thought struck me.
If I've become a god, unbound by human world's rules...
...Can I have a harem now?