Another night passed.
With my body still severely injured, I was unable to feel my mana and Ki circuits and core which left me greatly vulnerable.
Thankfully, the lady had been guarding me non-stop through the time I was unconscious. She had been awake for the entire ten days. We shared a moment in the night before she clasped at my chest and told me about her thoughts. How she had been scared that I would forget her. How it was the first time she had felt that she needed someone's approval. How she was afraid somewhere deep down that maybe she would annoy me with anything.
She was deeply confused by all these feelings.
I, too, let myself freely talk about things. I don't remember when the two of us fell asleep.
And now, morning had come with the lady resting her head against my bed. She was fast asleep for the first time since the day I had been taken away. What had been ten days for me were barely ten hours here.
Sitting up on the bed, I turned my gaze to the window.
The room in the Acacia estate of the capital was now lit by the morning sun as rays of light fell on her hair. I gently stroked the locks of white in my hand as she remained asleep.
"Eugy..."
I heard a voice.
"Titania?"
Sitting atop my head, was my fairy partner. I thought she would have been gone due to my injuries.
"I am sucking mana out of that girl."
I nodded my head at her words. So she was leeching off the lady.
Taking in a sharp breath, I leaned my head back. The fairy moved away from my head and floated in front of my eyes.
"Thanks," I said. I could have died again if not for her taking action.
Titania scoffed and crossed her arms.
"It's only natural. I told you, from Hell to Heaven, I'll guide you anywhere you want to go."
I nodded, a smile hanging on my lips. Eventually, I sighed and leaned back against the bed.
The battle with Balam flashed in my mind over and over. On the day I had fought with the monster of the Deep Down Dive with Dawn, a reverse flow of World's End had given me a new idea.
Just like Mana and Ki, I thought of using this new form of energy as my fuel. Over the last two years, Titania and I had tried many ways to train with it, but most of them failed. Just using it for even a small time completely wrecked my body from the inside.
But that fight gave me another insight.
"I think... something is missing."
"Missing?" Titania muttered.
The sound of the lady... Lethe's soft breaths continued. I stared at her hair as I talked with Titania in a whisper.
"I think there's something that I haven't found yet. I am sure after using it for so long last time, that is a power that I can control. Just not right now—"
"Great observation!" A voice suddenly came. I snapped to the side as someone stepped inside from the open window. Floating above that someone was a tiny fairy that slammed straight into Titania. "You reached the right answer without needing a push—"
"Shush!" I hissed and pointed at the lady.
The intruder, Kaiser, raised his hands and stuck his tongue out. He slowly walked over to the side of the bed and audibly grinned.
"How are you feeling now?"
"Good as new."
"You know, Eugene, you're much weaker than I expected."
Stay quiet? Fuck that. I clenched my fists and got ready to pummel the son of a bitch when he waved his hands in an attempt to calm me down.
"Ok, ok, you're getting me wrong. I am not insulting you, I swear."
"Oh yeah? It's not an insult, but you look like a censored image Kai."
"That clearly was an insult?!"
"Was it now?!"
I stared at the bastard before both of us broke into small cackles. Kai sighed and shook his head.
He hadn't forgotten about the lady.
Back when we were in hell, the lady said that she saw him widening his eyes before anyone should have noticed her. She would have assumed it was just because of his heightened senses, but after we came back, he openly referred to her as the lady.
"Do you not sleep, Kai?" I asked. Just as always, there was no need for pretense in our conversations.
"When you reach my level, those things become elusive."
I hummed and leaned back again. Sleep was also just a weakness for the truly strong, I had learned something new.
Kai alternated his gaze between me and the lady as if waiting for me to speak up.
Crossing my arms, I continued.
"What did you mean?"
"You're certainly stronger than anyone your age but—"
"Not with that. The thing about being in the right direction."
Kai hummed and nodded again. Though there was no pretense between us, there surely seemed to be judgment. It seemed as if he was assessing me with my every word.
"When I took care of that place in hell, I noticed what you left there."
The energy of World's End.
"For someone who wields something on that level, you should be able to thrash those demons with a yawn."
"What movie did you watch dude?"
"Movie?"
I shook my head at the adventurer's crazy words. Overblown as it was, defeating people with a yawn sure seemed to be interesting. Anyway, he didn't know about movies, loser. I was strangely bitter about being called weak, even if it was meant to be in a sense different that what it intonated.
"Well anyway, the reason you're unable to do so is simply that your power is incomplete."
My eyes slightly widened. I knew something was missing, but I didn't expect the state of the energy itself to be unstable.
The recoil already made it impossible to research well. I had somehow managed to incorporate a pseudo-mixture in some attacks, but that didn't compare to the real thing.
"And you know this... how?"
"It's because I have seen something like it before."
At those words, even Titania turned this way.
"Seen it before? Don't lie, even I have never seen something like it before."
"No, aunt, it is true. I have seen it too."
Titania and I were both stumped.
"Where...?"
"Charlotte," Kaiser said.
That name came up once again.
? The one I wasn't interested in. It seemed that I slowly had no choice but to be intertwined with her.
My mother,
"Charlotte Fonias—"
A loud bang interrupted us.
"Are you awake—"
"Shush!" I screamed at the intruder that burst the door open. "Dimwit, can't you see someone is sleeping here?"
I turned to Lethe, ignoring the stunned intruder at the door. Thankfully, she hadn't woken up.
"Di-did this guy just call me a dimwit?"
The man was still loud.
"Do you not learn, who in the world are you?" I asked.
Suddenly, Kaiser leaned closer and spoke in a strained whisper into my ears.
"That's the duke of Acacia."
"Duke or a king, do you think I care—"
Oh, wait.
If my lady was the lady of Acacia.
Then won't the duke of Acacia be her father?
Realization slowly dawned on me as I turned to the man at the door with dropped jaws.
"Uh..."
"Did you call me a dimwit..." the man said. "Son. In. Law?"
What? Son in what?
Wait before that.
Fuck.
Things will be lighthearted for a while now~ The arc is pretty much on the epilogue.
Up next, smut filled transition ofc.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel