"W-What nonsense are you spouting!? Have you lost your mind from the pressure of a crisis you can't handle!?"
"Ah, my apologies. That slipped out before I knew it."
Firvis was genuinely flustered.
And at her perfectly natural reaction, I honestly admitted my mistake.
Well, that wouldn't do at all.
What kind of honorable gentleman who studied in England would behave like that?
"Ahem. Let me correct myself."
I calmed my excitement and spoke to her again in a serious tone.
"Lovely Miss Firvis, would you care to live a new life with me?"
I was speaking only the truth, without the slightest misunderstanding or lie.
And the result was...
The smile vanished completely from Firvis's face, which had still held a trace of humanity despite her confusion.
In her eyes, an indescribable, contemptuous fury flickered.
"Hah. I see. So that's it."
The shadows beneath her eyes deepened even further.
At the same time, her mouth twisted into a bizarre, sneering smile.
A contradictory expression—one that was not laughing, yet somehow was.
I wondered if she realized just how much that indescribable eeriness only made her more adorable.
"So you want to live, do you? Fufufu, yes. You're just like all the other ordinary fools before you, desperately begging me to spare your life. You're afraid of dying alone in a place like this too. That's why you're spouting such ridiculous flattery and nonsense..."
And then, before I knew it, my mouth moved first.
"Ah, um. I know this is terribly rude, but could you perhaps move your arm? No, it's not like I'm disappointed that I can't see your cleavage, or curious about what cup size you usually are, so please don't misunderstand. This is all, strictly speaking, just a natural process driven purely by academic curiosity..."
What are you doing, Mouth!?
Following you, Brain.
Noooooooooooo!
"... Die."
Boom!
As expected, her response was a fierce, cold fury and punishment.
Another black bolt of lightning shot from her hand.
But I had already anticipated it, and while my defensive magecraft bought me a moment, I narrowly managed to evade it unharmed.
Still, now that I'd taken it head-on, this lightning was stronger and faster than I'd expected.
It was enough to shatter every kind of defensive magecraft I used in a single blow.
For a spell cast with such a short incantation, that kind of power was absurd.
At this level, she was definitely close to Level 7... no, maybe even stronger.
That meant she was now on par with the strongest in the city.
So it was true after all—blackening really did make you stronger!
The overwhelming power of her corruption was enough to steal my heart.
This feeling was unmistakable romance!
"Oh, that's fiery."
"So it was a mistake. To be thrown off by such a pathetic little joke."
Unaware of my feelings, she kept hurling her cold fury at me without restraint.
Rather, after realizing the overwhelming difference in our strength, she even seemed to toy with me, tormenting me and sending out spells at the last possible moment.
Could this be what people call push and pull!?
To think I'd experience this for the first time in my life as a lifelong romance solo agent!
Sniff, I'm so glad I'm alive.
"No matter how much you struggle, your end won't change. Nothing will change. You'll simply die here by my hand and be forgotten in vain."
"I see. I understand now."
"Fufufu, yes. So you've finally realized reality? What a pitiful man."
So I gathered myself and once again composed my seriousness.
Then, in that state, I offered her my sincere apology.
Yes, this was the true posture of a gentleman!
"Yes, I seem to have been too hasty and rude. First, let's get to know each other a little before we proceed with our relationship. I really enjoy brewing a strong cup of black coffee with no sugar and no milk while researching magecraft late at night, then drinking it with the cream-flavored Potato Boy I saved for the daytime. How about you, Miss Firvis? If there's something else you especially like, could you tell me..."
"If a person is talking, then listen to them, youuuuu!"
Boom!
I dodged again by the narrowest margin.
But, uh... hmm...
Looks like I messed up again somehow.
Let's reflect, reflect.
Then, just like the professor taught me before.
First, let's compliment the woman in front of me.
That might ease her mood a little.
"Hahaha, as expected, you're quite fiery despite appearances! Very nice!"
"Shut up! I'll kill you! How dare you mock me with such ridiculous jokes! I'll tear you apart and kill you without leaving a trace!"
Well, that wasn't it either, huh.
Come to think of it, even if it's something my respected professor said, it wouldn't always be right every time.
At this point, I was starting to feel sorry for her.
I really had no experience in this sort of thing, so I was making too many mistakes.
If I'd known things would turn out like this, I should've just shut up and followed my senior's suggestion when she told me to practice dating.
Even if that "dating" was really just "touring curry restaurants."
"And... ha! How amusing. So, seeing me like this, you fell for me at first sight, did you? Then let's see whether those words are sincere."
Flash!
And then, to my surprise, she suddenly did something strange.
Uh, that is... she took off her clothes.
More precisely, she roughly pulled open the front of her chest and exposed her skin to me.
In other words, she showed me her boobs.
"Look at this hideous form! This cursed, filthy, disgusting body!"
What nonsense!
A grown woman should not be doing such outrageously indecent, embarrassing things in broad daylight—anyway, super lucky, thank you very much, ma'am!
"Heh heh heh, yes. That is the truth. That is reality. This vile body—who could possibly welcome it besides Lord Dionysus? What man could possibly desire to hold it with lust? In the end, your words are nothing but lowly lies from a desperate struggle to survive... huh?"
Stare...
"W-What is that look!? D-Don't look!"
Stare stare stare...
"D-Don't... d-don't look at me with such intense eyes..."
Stare... Hah! What am I doing!?
It seems I'd been staring far too openly at her chest without realizing it.
No, but the skin there, so heavily altered and covered in something inhuman, and that polychromatic magic stone embedded right in the center, pulsing as if to show itself off...
There was no helping it when all of that was so intellectually tempting to my spirit of inquiry. Ugh, what a blunder! What impiety!
Come to think of it, I hadn't known because it had been hidden under thick clothes until now, but contrary to appearances, hers was quite large and luscious too.
That was only a rough visual estimate, but the number was probably around C!
That's different from Tiona, different from Tiona!
... Hm, that last part felt a little ominous.
Surely I didn't really transmit something to her, did I?
Let's pray that I didn't.
In any case, since I was the one who'd been rude, I decided to apologize first like a gentleman.
So I'm not the bad one... I'm sorry. This time, it was all my fault.
"Ahem! I-I apologize. For a self-proclaimed gentleman like me to show such disgraceful behavior. Truly, I'm ashamed."
"I-I see... that's enough..."
The air had somehow turned awkwardly embarrassed and bittersweet.
With that, Firvis hurriedly gathered up the clothes she'd opened and covered herself again.
Ah, the peach-blossom paradise before my eyes...
"E-even so, nothing changes! Magus, you will die here. You must die here! That is what I must do, and it is what I must do for Lord Dionysus. So, y-you..."
By now, Firvis had regained her senses and glared at me, steeling herself.
But instead of the dark, cold witch's gaze that had looked at me like trash just moments ago, there was now something pitiful and sorrowful in her eyes.
At a glance, it was the kind of look that said, I have a story, okay?
But for some reason, it didn't seem like she'd tell me easily.
Hmm. In cases like this... the classic method is probably best.
"Miss Firvis."
"W-What..."
"Please... look into my eyes."
After all, the best way to understand a woman's heart is mind scanning!
Mind reading, sgeee~
"Ngh! Y-You! Even in a situation like this, you're still spouting that nonsense...!"
At my request, she got angry, but for some reason she couldn't refuse as strongly as before and instead met my gaze hesitantly.
And in response to her gaze, I removed my [Mystic Eyes Killer].
"Now then."
With my eyes closed.
"Look."
I opened only my right "eye" again.
"[Open, Kamui]."
I met her gaze.
"Huh?"
At that moment, my one and only Mystic Eye opened as an entrance and passage.
What had seemed like an ordinary eye transformed into a vortex and opened.
And as the strange pattern of my right eye reflected in her own, it entered her field of vision.
Swoooosh!
Before long, the two of us were sucked into that pupil.
And so Firvis and I vanished from the Dungeon.
We truly vanished, leaving not even a shape or trace behind.
That was only natural.
Because right now, both she and I were inside my inner [Reality Marble].
"W-Where is this...?"
"Welcome. I'm glad you came, Miss Firvis."
At that moment, the instant we entered yet another "world," forgotten memories, newly added memories, knowledge, and information surged into my mind like a flood and were forcefully injected into me.
And so I came to know everything.
With that, the woman before me became even more adorable.
Ah, Firvis.
More pitiful and foolish than anyone, and yet a sorrowfully ugly fairy.
A woman who longed for the light of the past, yet could no longer return to it.
Truly, truly, you have come well.
"This is my inner world of the mind."
A false throne, one that had merely copied another's and reproduced only part of it.
And yet, its name was unquestionably...
"Welcome to the [Timeless Temple]."
The source and driving force behind my dream, my romance.
This was the trace of a "king" greater and kinder than anyone else.
*
Swish...
The "shadow" ripples.
The "greatsword" agonizes.
The "faith" prays.
"Death" simply follows.
-Not yet...
The "bell" has not yet tolled.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
From within, the trace of the "beast" sneers.
Cheerfully, and yet sorrowfully.
"Magic" merely pities the young "sacrifice" lightly.
.
.
.
.
.
.
This is a place with nothing in it, a place filled only with emptiness.
A space of nothing but vacant "void."
[Heh, you foolish little brat. What will you choose this time?]
Everything?
Or one?
In the white space, "white" smiles with anticipation.
It is a far-off future that no one knows.
It is a far-off past that no one remembers.
And yet the "door," just as it was then, remains closed.
Once again, waiting only for the "door" to open, just as it did back then.
Even today, the story of the "observers" continues on.