Chapter 73 — Uriel Wayne Daina Alfred
Ferzen looked down at Uriel collapsed in his arms and opened his subspatial pocket to retrieve the coffin containing Isabel's corpse.
Uriel had claimed she stayed behind for final exam preparations, but traces of daily life were scattered throughout the professor's office—too many for that excuse to hold.
That old monster Coleone... must have given her a rather childish punishment.
Clicking his tongue, Ferzen reached out and carefully began undressing Uriel.
This...
He had roughly anticipated it the moment he entered the room, sensing the incongruity in the fragrance.
Incense flower...
A sweet, peachy scent.
As soon as he unbuttoned her shirt, the body fragrance—trapped within her sweat-soaked clothes—burst forth along her cleavage in an instant.
With his sensitive sense of smell, Ferzen unwittingly buried his face in her nape and lightly bit her soft skin.
"Mm...! Ah..."
Uriel flinched at the pain, moaning even in unconsciousness, but Ferzen couldn't tear himself away from her scent for quite some time.
Humans grow accustomed to repeated scents, perceiving them as odorless over time—but a body scent altered by incense flower defies that.
Only after leaving countless red marks and faint bite impressions on her nape could Ferzen barely suppress his desire and pull back.
"..."
He frowned, disliking his loss of emotional control and this unseemly display.
Resuming his usual routine, he continued undressing her.
She's... changed quite a bit.
Compared to the Uriel etched in his childhood memories, her fully matured body now possessed something that undeniably stirred a man's desires.
Her large breasts, which had once jiggled distractingly—straining his eyes whenever he intentionally blurred his focus—now appeared enticingly ripe.
"Mm..."
Gently cupping them from the base in his palm, they overflowed his grasp entirely.
A soft texture that swallowed his fingers whole, with no sag and perfect resilience.
"Ah, pa..."
But Uriel always suffered mastitis around this time, so she murmured faintly in pain at his touch, her eyebrows quivering.
"..."
What was he even doing?
Sighing, Ferzen eventually stripped her bare.
He then commanded Isabel's corpse to transmute mana into water, warming it slightly, and wiped down her entire body.
Blood trickled from her crotch down her thighs, mingling with the transparent water orb and spreading like ink.
To check for dried stains, he bent her forward, spread her legs wide, and inspected meticulously. Seeing her anus and vulva clenched desperately, twitching in futile resistance, he let out a smirk.
No intention of forcing the door—yet the tenant inside gripped the knob in frantic misinterpretation.
Like her master, perhaps.
The sight of her extreme defensiveness before him tempted him to poke with a finger, but what point was there in toying with a patient? He calmly dried her damp skin and fetched spare clothes.
No underwear, huh...
For now, he tied clean cloth into a triangular pad for her crotch, then dressed her in the simplest one-piece dress available.
Fortunately, its black hue concealed her pink areolas and nipples, even without a bra.
After clearing the scattered garments and bloodstains, Ferzen carried Uriel to the infirmary and laid her on a bed.
He had overstayed his absence from duty station; time to return.
With the IV, her expression seemed far more at ease.
No cause for deep worry—he could continue their talk come morning.
"Rest well."
Though she couldn't hear, he left those words and departed.
Uriel Wayne Daina Alfred.
She dreamed of her childhood.
Born blessed with mana, she caught Coleone Wayne Barreta Alfred's eye and was raised with utmost care—as a vessel to bear Brutein's seed.
From age five, she consumed incense flower to warp her natural scent; from eight, she learned seduction arts from the realm's priciest courtesans.
She had preferred shoulder-length bobs... but was forced into long hair, ostensibly to accentuate her nape's graceful line or allow subtle sideboob exposure when tied up—for that extra sex appeal.
Once Jeremiah was named successor, her curriculum zeroed in on Ferzen's hobbies alone.
Shared interests breed easy rapport, after all.
In essence, Uriel Wayne Daina Alfred was a human custom-crafted for one man: Ferzen.
This life's trajectory... left her childhood far from purely happy.
Everything bestowed upon her, every lesson drilled into her—it was all for Ferzen, never herself.
Not even owning her own existence proved more agonizing than imagined. Yet penance with an end always kindles hope, so Uriel endured in silence.
Become Ferzen's wife, and it all naturally concluded.
Aware of that, she claimed her sole joy—dreams of blissful marriage—as bedtime ritual.
At thirteen, when their engagement ceremony was arranged, Uriel ventured forth adorned to perfection, heart aflutter.
Each awaited second choked her breath.
When Ferzen finally appeared after the interminable wait, she forgot all etiquette, staring blankly at his face.
The happy married life nightly envisioned—its star, Ferzen, unknown until that moment, had been her solo fabrication...
Reality eclipsed fantasy.
She couldn't mask her racing, thrilled heart.
Her first love, perhaps. No—it was.
Fortunately, thirteen years' education solely for him made conversation effortless.
Barring appearance, gender, lineage... everything aligned with Ferzen's.
But the finale? A wreckage.
The engagement imploded spectacularly.
...Can mud mixed into the sea turn it into ocean?
Even at twenty-three, Uriel couldn't forget his icy words spat at her then.
Afterward, the chains binding her snapped.
Yet joy eluded her.
Paradoxically, not becoming his wife was an overlooked path—the simplest, really. In thirteen years, it never crossed her mind.
She refused it.
Thirteen years was far too precious to squander.
Abandoned in his wake, Uriel sat dazed.
Thirteen years chasing wifehood... four thousand seven hundred forty-five days. One hundred thirteen thousand eight hundred eighty hours.
Expended on a mere fifteen minutes of his one-sided mutterings.
Pathetic, utter desolation.
Emptiness coiling through her, she drifted two years like a puppet severed from strings.
Her family scorned her as obsolete stock.
She clawed free at seventeen—upon ascending to Euclid-rank elemental mage.
Now, reuniting with Ferzen... bittersweet sentiments stirred within Uriel.
He had wed, she heard.
Offspring of that wretched frontier Ruerg clan. Utterly lackluster beside her.
Anger? To deny it would lie.
Her pique at each sighting of him? Likely rebellion over those squandered thirteen years.
Deeper still, a wish for his regret.
For letting her slip away.
...Any recompense for time lost.
"Ah..."
Her eyes fluttered open.
She glanced around.
Infirmary bed. Morning light outside.
And...
"You're awake."
Ferzen stood before her.