A gentle breeze brushed through the woods, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees.
Ain quietly rested his head on the girl's lap, while she sat upright on the ground, gazing down at him with a gentle look.
Ain slowly opened his eyes, silently making a judgment in his heart.
“It doesn't seem quite as lacking as Lillian's.”
“Are you thinking about something inappropriate?”
Lola suddenly spoke up.
Ain closed his eyes again and replied in a very leisurely tone, “Of course not.”
“But it's not as bountiful as Erylin's, either.”
Soon, neither of them spoke.
But after a long silence, both of them spoke up at the same time.
“Are you thirsty?”
“By the way, can you let me see your tail again?”
Lola's expression gradually darkened, and a dangerous glint flashed in her eyes, sending a shiver down one's spine.
Ordinarily, she might have just taken it as a joke, but ever since the last incident, and now she happened to be asking him if he was thirsty...
Lola felt that Ain's mind was entirely filled with dirty thoughts.
Ain also noticed Lola's change in mood and quickly said, “Hey, I'm warning you, I didn't mean it that way. People with dirty minds always project their own...”
Smack!
Lola's small fist swung right into Ain's face.
But soon, she let out a soft sigh, gently brushing aside the stray hairs on Ain's forehead. Then, with a smile on her face, she quietly gazed at him.
“You did a good job this time.”
Being treated like this by an underclassman who looked even younger than him, Ain felt incredibly awkward, a sense of discomfort permeating his entire body.
“I don't want praise. Do you have any idea how tired I am today?”
“Then what do you want?”
A dangerous smile instantly flashed across the corner of Ain's mouth.
This was exactly the sentence he had been waiting for!
“Sigh, my demands aren't high.”
“First, I have two major courses that I don't want to attend, so I want to be exempted from all future attendance and written exams.”
“Second, I don't have much money on hand, so toss me a few hundred Corona Gold coins to start.”
“Also, access to Minerva's restricted library section, a private high-spec laboratory, and...”
The girl frowned slightly and said, “Are you ordering off a menu here? Where on earth am I supposed to get all that for you?”
Ain's expression turned highly dissatisfied, looking very much like a troublemaking thug.
“With just one word from you, I went running to help you save someone. But look at you, treating me like a pawn—throwing me away the moment you're done, without even wiping me clean? Eye of the Astral Splendor sure has grand generosity. I think...”
“Stop, stop, stop!”
Lola couldn't take it anymore.
“Fifty Corona Gold, and not a single coin more.”
“One hundred.”
“Twenty-five. If you say another word, you're only getting ten.”
“Five hundred.”
“?”
“Can this guy really be the Goddess's blessed?”
“Is the Goddess blind?!”
“Isn't this just pure highway robbery?”
Ain chuckled, saying with a touch of smugness, “Do you know why I'm asking for this much? Did you think I didn't know who you are?”
Lola suddenly grew tense.
“Did he actually figure it out?”
“Wearing a student uniform, yet with a name I've never even heard of...”
“Possessing an appearance as outstanding as Erylin's, yet completely unknown to the students...”
“There are only a few famous members in the Eye of the Astral Splendor, right?”
The girl's pupils contracted sharply. She had originally thought he only knew the name Eye of the Astral Splendor, but she hadn't expected him to actually know some of its members.
“Speaking of which, that rumor I heard about the Dean earlier was quite interesting...”
“Although I didn't know much at first, after chatting with Erylin for a bit, I still managed to find out the Dean's name.”
A flash of cunning crossed Ain's eyes.
“Loretta...”
The girl's hands clenched tighter and tighter, her heart pounding violently as a layer of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
“Loretta, just like you, is actually one of the academy's higher-ups, right?”
Lola let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness...”
“Thank goodness he's an idiot.”
As if convinced he had guessed the correct answer, Ain said with great pride, “Speaking of which, that Loretta looks quite young, but in reality, she's probably an old woman who has lived for hundreds of years.”
“?”
After hearing this, Lola punched Ain right in the face.
“Hey! What was that for? I wasn't talking about you. Are you Loretta? Why are you taking it personally...”
Ain took another punch from her.
“Seriously, is this person out of her mind?”
“I'm not playing anymore! I'm leaving!”
“You're not allowed to leave!”
Ain wanted to get up, but he was forcefully pinned back down by the girl.
“Can't I just give up this lap pillow?”
“No!”
The girl looked at Ain with puffed-up cheeks, looking incredibly adorable in an instant.
“I don't have that much money to give you, but I can answer a few of your questions.”
Ain looked at her with a completely speechless expression.
“Are you sure you can answer anything?”
Lola revealed a confident smile.
“Don't you want to ask why Lillian fell into witchification so early?”
“Shouldn't her witchification have only begun a few weeks from now?”
Ain was stunned.
“How does she know what I'm thinking?”
According to the development of the original plot, Lillian's storyline indeed should have only started three weeks after Act One took place.
But now, there were only two days separating the plots of these two acts.
Why was it advanced by so much?
Lola pressed down on Ain's head and said, “Do you remember what Lillian was originally going to do when you were fighting Mordred?”
“What do you mean?”
“Let me rephrase the question then. If you hadn't been present at the time, what would have happened there?”
“Erylin and the others would have had their mana drained, been defeated, and then the academy's instructors would have arrived...”
Lola gently shook her head.
“No?”
Ain tried hard to recall the scene back then, attempting to piece together a complete picture in his mind.
If he hadn't been there at the time...
“I'll solve it! I'll find a way!”
Lillian's voice from back then suddenly echoed in Ain's mind.
This also made him remember the original plot of Act One.
As the invincible boss of Act One, after everyone else was defeated, Lillian would have forcefully manipulated the mana within her body to fight Mordred.
Seeing that Ain seemed to have realized something, Lola provided the answer.
“If you hadn't been there, the unstable mana inside Lillian's body would have been forcefully released by her. But because you appeared, she didn't do so.”
“That mana continued to accumulate and compress within her body, thereby accelerating the process of witchification.”
Ain suddenly understood.
“So that's how it is...”
After all that, it turned out to be his own doing.
Suddenly, Ain thought of something else.
Besides Lillian, there was another character who made an early appearance.
Sevis!
“Then why did Sevis appear in...”
“You'll find out in a few days.”
Ain felt a bit annoyed.
“Can you stop talking in riddles?”
Lola chuckled softly and asked, “Any more questions?”
“No.”
Before his voice could fade, Lola conjured a Card of Canal and pressed it onto Ain's forehead.
“What are you doing?”
“Allowing you to see the trajectory of fate clearly. Next, you will see some scenes that are destined to happen and are extremely important to you.”
Ain was a bit bewildered.
“What's the big deal? They're just some images. They might even make me misjudge my next moves. How about we skip it?”
“I told you to look, so you have to look!”
“Oh.”
Soon, Ain's consciousness gradually drifted off to sleep, and a flush of heat spread through his chest.
His vision slowly recovered from the endless darkness, and he found himself lying comfortably on a wide bed.
Morning light spilled through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating the messy, scattered clothes on the floor, as if a hasty and passionate storm had just taken place.
Ain felt an inexplicable surge of excitement in his heart. His rationality was instantly thrown to the wind, and he was deeply immersed in the scene before him.
He gently pinned the petite, loli-like girl down onto the bed, stripping away all complicated layers of concealment, allowing her skin—white as fresh snow—to be exposed defenselessly to the air.
Ain's fingertips brushed against the girl's ankle, and he naturally grasped her small foot in his hand.
Her beautiful arch was like a fragile piece of porcelain, gleaming with a soft luster in the dim light. A few rounded, translucent toes curled up shyly at his touch, radiating an adorable innocence that made his heart tremble.
At this moment, Ain only felt his throat run dry, an urge to completely possess and deeply cherish her burning in his chest.
“You're so beautiful, Lillian.”
The next second, Ain abruptly opened his eyes and sat straight up from Lola's lap. This sudden movement caused their heads to collide, making Lola clutch her nose in pain and gasp softly.
“What are you doing?”
Lola spoke in great anger, while Ain, with lingering fear, clutched his chest and frantically felt around his clothes.
“They're still here, they're still here...”
Right now, Ain's mind was a complete blank.
What was that just now?
Me and Lillian?
In bed?
Recovering his senses, Ain blinked and forcefully suppressed the lingering throb of excitement in his heart.
Under Lola's slightly bewildered gaze, Ain simply gave up all pretense and obediently returned to the familiar warmth of her lap.
As if that wasn't enough, he deliberately shifted his body to adjust to a more comfortable position.
“?”
“I'm ready.”
“Didn't you say it was useless?”
“Oh, come on, hurry up, hurry up!”
“...”
“I beg of you! Miss Lola! I really beg of you! Let me see it one more time! Just let me see it one more time!”
Lola gave Ain a suspicious look, but without thinking too much of it, she pressed the Card of Canal onto his forehead once again.
Ain prepared himself.
This time, I will hold my breath, focus entirely, keep my eyes wide open, observe every single detail, hold nothing back, be completely entranced, greedily and passionately, and with utmost devotion and obsession, watch and enjoy this entire process!
Rate on N.U.
