The Mage Emperor

Cards down, Cards up!

“Greetings, my name is Edwin,” the guy with the white bracelet introduced himself. Although everyone called him a genius, he didn’t seem to let it get to his head.

I was pleased to hear him talking in a friendly tone, so I also introduced ourselves, “I’m Seth, and this here is my wife, Lien. I’m in a bit of a hurry so make it short if possible,” I followed up, seeing that he wanted to ask something.

Nodding his head, he kept his distance and asked, “I just want to ask a few questions, it won’t take long, okay?”

“Go ahead.”

Smiling at me, he asked, “What do you want to do with your hostages?”

“I want to interrogate them,” I said bluntly.

“That’s a good thing, though would it be possible to hand them over once you’re done with your interrogation? They’d be a good source of information.”

“It depends on what I hear from them. If they aren’t bad people and are just a little lost, I may ‘guide’ them a little instead of letting you have your way,” I cut into his words.

“I’m sure you’re excited to jump at them and start torturing them, but I’m not a fan of that kind of stuff,” I said with a smile. Although Edwin had a calm face, the others in the back were shaking from the wrath they felt.

“Please, we aren’t barbarians. We’d just beat some sense into them,” he smiled back.

I understood that they went through a lot of hardships thanks to people like these two, but my hostages didn’t seem to be crazy people, which made me want to find out what was their reason to fight on the side of Dark city. Honestly, when I imagined what would they do with these two, I couldn’t help but think that killing them would be better than handing them over to Light city. It was a community whose members’ desires were drowned since birth and people like them could do nasty things when they could run free. At least, that was what I believed.

“You know, I can sense everything that’s going on in your bodies and thanks to sensing the chemicals that were being produced while you were talking, I know that you lied. You shouldn’t lie to me because you’ll be busted the moment you do. You could cover it up with chemical magic if you were strong enough, but you clearly aren’t,” I chuckled as I replied.

Seeing him biting his lower lip, I added, “Either way, if that’s all you wanted-” at that moment, I couldn’t help but stop in the middle of my sentence since I noticed Valerie in the distance.

Looking back towards Edwin, I finished my sentence, “-then we’re off. See you later.”

“What-” before he could say anything, I grabbed Lien’s arm and charged out of the city. With my maximum speed, it took only a few seconds to reach our village and then I landed in front of our beautiful wooden house and put the dryad and the demon on the ground.

I was about to ask Lien to help me with something when I noticed that she wordlessly knelt down next ot the dryad and started undressing her.

“Lien? What are you doing?” I raised my voice, seeing her taking off the girl’s shirt, unraveling her giant breasts.

“If you find it in yourself that you’re getting aroused by her body then turn away, I want to inspect her thoroughly,” she murmured, not even minding me.

“What? Wait, I don’t think you should dress them down just like that-” I started, but while I was talking, she turned towards me and raised her brows and kept staring at me until I couldn’t help but shut up. At least, I knew I was in the right.

Turning back towards the girl, she continued what she started and quickly rid her of all of her clothes. Pulling her grass-like hair to the side, she grabbed her pointy ears and felt them up. Once she had enough of the dryad’s ears, she pried the girl’s eyes open and took a quick look at her black eyes which had no pupils. It was the second time I saw her, but it still looked a bit creepy.

“How strange,” she muttered, moving towards her breasts.

“Woah, hers are even bigger than mine,” she cried out as she started fondling them and then squeezed her own breasts a few times. “They feel quite different. Mine are more squishy and bouncy while hers are just a big lump of fat, though I suppose that’s because she doesn’t work out. I can also feel some kind of hard balls inside them if I push my hands deep enough,” she murmured.

Not finding the right words to this situation, I just sat down and listened to her mumblings. I wasn’t a fan of lesbian stuff, but seeing her touching that giant breasted dryad all over the place made my fantasy run wild. Moving between her legs, she shamelessly looked at the girl’s private place as well and even commented on it, “Hmm, that’s strange. She doesn’t have an asshole.”

“God damn, Lien…” I rolled my eyes.

“What? I can’t just scan her like you since my mana is weaker than hers,” she looked at me with a frown.

“Yes, yes, but I could just tell you the differences. Some of them aren’t visible anyway,” I shook my head. It was at this time that I noticed the dryad’s lips quivering, which wouldn’t be possible if she wasn’t awake.

Could it be that she’s conscious? I put my hand under my chin, taking a closer look at her face. Seeing me staring at the girls face, Lien said playfully, “She’s quite cute. Do you feel like cheating?”

Raising my brows, I walked closer and then squatted down right above the girl’s head and poked her nose. Since I had the chance, I went ahead and scanned her body thoroughly, finding out every little detail that I was missing. She had no heart, guts, stomach, or anything of the sort and had a giant amoebae in place of everything which had a nucleus.

Thinking about it for a moment, I’ve realised Sylvanus’ doppelganger had a similar body structure, though still different. The amoebae inside her was like a slime from those old stories. It could consume and devour anything and everything.

Not realising that the girl was awake, Lien continued her playful show of jealousy, “I bet you want to abuse her body now that she’s unconscious.”

“Please, I’m a gentleman. I wouldn’t force myself on an unconscious woman,” I replied, shaking my head.

Turning more serious, she said, “I know, I was just kidding. So? What did you find inside? I suppose that’s why you touched her,” she asked. After telling her how the girl’s body worked, she seemed to be even more interested in her, but I followed up with a remark, “She’s awake, by the way.”

“What?” Lien gasped while the dryad girl sat up and pulled up her legs to cover herself, screaming at the same time, “Kyaa! Please, don’t touch me!”

Covering her ears, Lien squinted as she looked at the dryad and grumbled, “Damn it, why would you scream when we’ve seen everything? Your voice was so high pitched I thought my eardrums would explode.”

Rubbing my right ear, I said, “I wasn’t expecting it either since she has been awake for a while.” Although she had no lungs, her whole body could store oxygen and some of it was withdrawn from her cells when she was talking and moved up her throat, shaking her vocal cords. Basically, she was generating voices in the same manner as normal humans, except for that the air wasn’t coming from her lungs.

Climbing closer to the shaking girl, Lien put her hand on her belly and pushed her hand as deep as she could. Since the dryad had no guts, stomach, or anything of the sort, her nucleus simply deformed and flowed up in her body, giving way to Lien’s hand. “Hahaha, this is so strange! Look, if she pulls up her nucleus, I can grab her sides and squeeze her until her belly is only a few centimeters thick. This looks so strange,” Lien started laughing as she started playing with the girl’s belly while the dryad just kept staring at me with fearful eyes.

It was no wonder since I had to pour my mana into her to scan her and since she was awake, she must have felt the overwhelming difference that was between us. She didn’t even dare to move, even though Lien was weaker than her and she could have killed her with a surprise attack. Well, not while I was present.

“Could you leave her alone? I’m afraid she’s going to pee herself if you continue,” I put my hand on Lien’s shoulder and pulled her back. Nodding her head, she knelt down in the send and reached towards the dryad, who quickly covered her head and threw herself on the ground, probably thinking that she’d be beaten.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Lien, and I’m sorry if I scared you but I was really curious about your body,” she said.

A few seconds passed when she finally opened her eyes and lowered her arms, and after gathering her courage, she also shook Lien’s hand.

“Put these on,” I said as I stepped closer and moved her black clothes towards her lap.

Snatching them from my hand mid-way, she quickly stood up and dressed up while looking back and forth between me and Lien, her eyes reflecting fear. “You don’t have to fear us, though I wonder what this is good for,” I raised my brows, showing her the black dagger she wanted to suicide with.

Seeing her eyes opening wide, I knew it was something important to her so I put it into my right pocket. “That’s- could I have it back?” she muttered in a low voice.

“Maybe you can, depends on how much you tell me. I’m not going to hurt you or experiment on you or anything of the sort so you don’t have to fear me. I captured you two to gather information from Light city and Dark city. I have a feeling you know more about them than me.”

“Aren’t you from Light city?” she asked with wide opened eyes, clenching her fists.

“I’m not, though they wanted me to hand you two over,” I said with a smile. Seeing her becoming panicked, I added, “But like I said, I don’t want to do that unless you give me a reason to.”

“I- I’ll be a good girl,” she lowered her head.

“I guess we all know that you’ll be better off here. If you tell me enough, I’ll let you go wherever you want, along with your friend,” I said as I pointed towards ‘Damon’.

Following my finger, she opened her eyes wide and knelt down next to the demon guy, “Damon! Wake up!”

“He shouldn’t wake up for about another hour. I knocked him out with my soul force, just like you,” I frowned. “I’ve been wondering about how you regained your consciousness so soon and came to the conclusion that the nature element helps regenerating both the soul and the body. Is that correct?” I asked.

Seeing her nodding, I was about to continue chatting when I realised that Lien started dressing down the demon guy. “Lien, you can’t be serious!” I raised my voice.

“What? If I looked at her, why can’t I look at this guy? Could it be that you’re jealous?” she turned around and started laughing at me, cheating a small smile to the dryad’s face as well.

“I’m glad you find it funny, but shouldn’t you side with me and stop her instead?” I asked, shaking my head.

Seeing that I wasn’t some savage murderer and that I was being friendly, she regained a bit of that fiery personality she showed when I captured her, and said, “I had to go through this while I was awake so he’s much better off than me. Well, and Lien is a beautiful girl so I’m sure Damon wouldn’t mind her touching his body.”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not going to inspect him as thoroughly as you else he’d die of jealousy,” Lien pointed at me, making the dryad chuckle.

“Sure, sure. So? What’s your name?” I asked.

“My name is Dixon,” she replied, starting to feel more relaxed around us.

“Then I hope you don’t mind if I start touching your body all over the place, right Lien?” I asked with a smile, staring at Dixon. Taking a step back from me, she crossed her arms in front of her chest while Lien silently stood up and walked up to my side.

“You can go and do it then,” she murmured.

“Wait, you want me to undress a guy and start touching him?” a cold shiver ran through my body as I imagined the scene. “Hell, no!”

“How about I simply use my mana and answer any question you may have?” I asked. Quickly doing as mentioned, I inspected his body with my mana and then told her everything I knew. The only difference I couldn’t find out without touching him was that he had two hearts, one on the left and one on the right.

“Oh! I get it now, thanks,” she smiled at me when I finished explaining everything. Turning towards Dixon, she asked, “Have you ever seen someone who mutated by mixing every element and storing it in their body?”

“That’s something only few can achieve but why are you asking?” she asked.

“Yes or no?” Lien pressed on.

“Ah, yes, yes, I’ve seen a man,” she nodded.

Smiling at me, Lien stepped closer and said in a commanding tone, “Take off your shirt.”

“Huh? Why’d I do that?” I raised my hands defensively.

“Come on, don’t be shy, she won’t eat you and you really don’t have to be ashamed of your… body,” she bit her lower lip, seeing me removing my shirt. Shaking her head a little, she made me turn around and showed my back to Dixon, and then put her finger on the mutated area and asked, “Can you see this? Is this what it’s supposed to look like?”

“Erm, I’m sorry but I can’t answer your question since I’ve never seen him naked. The only thing I know is that he also looked like a normal human and that he had the ability to transform into any of the mutated states. At the time I saw him changing, he mixed the lightning-based mutation with the wind-based mutation. That’s all I know,” she replied.

Raising my brows, I turned around and smiled at her, “Oh? Is that how it works?”

“I can’t answer that sort of question,” she lowered her head.

“No, it’s fine, it’s more than enough. I felt that I could spread the mutated cells in my body, but I wasn’t sure if I should do it since there was a chance that I couldn’t turn it back. Now that I know how it works, I dare spreading them,” I replied, waving my hand.

“Uhm, just in case things don’t work like that, could you turn into a demon?” Lien muttered, not daring to meet my eyes.

“Hahaha, what’s up?”

“Well, it’s just that I’m sure you wouldn’t become ugly in your demon form so if you were to get stuck in your mutated state, I’d rather have you as a demon,” she replied. Seeing me peeking at Damon’s muscular body, she raised her hands defensively and said, “Oh, my god, no. What are you thinking? It’s not because I like his looks.”

Leaning closer, I whispered into her ear, “I bet you’d like the increased size.”

A little embarrassed to talk about this in front of others, she peeked at Dixon and then said in a low voice, “Come on, we both know that you could make yours bigger even without transforming into a different species. I just like it when you wrap your big arms around me because it makes me feel warm inside.” I knew she wasn’t lying since she was my apostle and I’d notice if she tried to lie to me.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Well, demons are quite human-like and I grew up seeing only humans so I think they look the best out of the options I’ve seen, though I have yet to see the other mutations. Maybe if I spent more time in the company of mutated people, I’d start liking their looks more. Ah, but I’m not saying these because I’d stop liking you, you know?” she tried to explain herself, even though there was no need to. I knew her better than anyone, after all.

“I know, I feel the same way about this matter. I also wouldn’t want you to turn into an entirely different looking person since I like the way you are,” I started caressing her face, trying to show her that it was alright.

If she told me that I was fat, I wouldn’t mind working out more to lose weight, though I trained my body every morning and night, except for the nights when we spent all of it ‘having fun’. Grabbing her wrist, I straightened my body and slowly lifted her into the air.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she bit her lower lip, eyeing my chest. She was starting to get too used to being handled roughly, though I found it quite funny and exciting. Peeking at Dixon, she clicked her tongue and then looked into my eyes, her gaze reflecting her desires.

For a moment I forgot what I wanted to say, though I remembered it after a bit of thinking, “You weigh... what, fifty-two kilograms?” I raised my brows. “Anyway, you’re quite light but I don’t think I should be able to lift you up this easily with a single hand, especially because I haven’t even enhanced my body.”

“Are you trying to flaunt your physical strength?” she asked playfully, obviously understanding what I was trying to say. Looking at Dixon, I pulled her closer with telekinesis and then pressed her wrist against Lien’s.

“Hyaa-” she cried out as I wrapped my fingers around their wrists and lifted them up. After holding them in the air for a few seconds, I put them down and said, “Ever since these mutations appeared next to my spine, my muscles have become much stronger. I lifted up more than ninety kilograms with a single hand and I didn’t even feel that it was heavy. Tell me, isn’t that abnormal?”

“It certainly is, though you should warn people before you do stuff like this,” she rebuked me, seeing that Dixon got a bit scared once again.

“Hai, whatever, let’s check it now or never!” I shouted as I closed my eyes and poured my mana into the mutated scale-covered part on my back. As I started feeding the fire-element-based cells with my mana, they suddenly grew twice as big as before and started dividing at an incredible speed. It took only a few seconds until the demonic cells spread through my whole body and then devoured my normal cells, turning me into a complete demon.

On the way, they also formed a bunch of ribs, another heart, a tail at the end of my spine, and a pair of horns on my forehead. My nails also turned into short claws and my bones turned stronger and harder.

“Wo- Woah, you’re big,” Lien gasped as she looked me up and down. She obviously meant my height, though my pants tore as well, so I had to cover it with my hand.

“And you’re really tiny,” I smirked while looking at her. Leaning down to her, I whispered into her ear, “Wanna do it like this? Though it’s going to hurt for you, I’m sure everything has become fiery in my body.”

“Uhm, I’m not sure. I’m like what, half your height?” she asked, seemingly worried that I meant it.

“Well, you’re a hundred and sixty-eight centimeters tall while I’m three hundred and forty-seven centimeters tall so you aren’t even half of my height, though you don’t have to worry, I was just kidding when I said-”

“No, I know that but can you turn back?” she raised her brows, making me realise that we’d have a very bumpy road ahead if I didn’t know how to increase and decrease the size of my manhood.

“Did you forget that spell?” I asked.

“Huh? What sp- oh! Now that you mention it… then it’s alright,” she stopped worrying all of a sudden.

“Hey, Lien. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, but don’t you think your commandment would be the same as mine?”

“What? No way. I’m not as perverted as-”

“Hmm?” seeing me staring at her, she lowered her head.

“Okay, that might be true, but we can’t be sure, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I love that you’re perverted!” I stuck out my chest.

“Screw you,” she said aloud.

Clenching my fists, I used my alchemy to form clothes around my body and then punched the air a few times. I had to admit, I felt great in my new form. “This shit is great, I’ve turned even stronger than before!”

“Good for you, not that you needed it,” she pouted.

“Please, I’m never strong enough,” I put my hand on my chest.

“Why don’t you try turning back instead of talking bullshit?” she rolled her eyes. Although her way of speech implied otherwise, thanks to her being my apostle, I knew that she wasn’t worried that I’d stay in my demon form. She simply wanted to find out the way to do it, thanks to her curious nature.

“Actually, I’ve stopped pouring my mana into the mutated cells so I’m not sure how to do that. I’m either going to revert after some time or I have to withdraw the cells by myself.”

“Well, then why don’t you try it?” she raised her brows.

“I was about to do that but I can’t do it while talking,” I stuck out my tongue. Seeing her sending me a kiss, I closed my eyes with a smile on my face and then imagined my mutated cells separating from the normal ones and moving back to my spine. I was a bit surprised when I realised how easy it was to move. It was barely harder than moving mana particles that were converted into elements and I had a lot of experience in that.

Once my body returned to normal, I spread the wind-based mutation in my body and grew a bunch of feathers on my body. My nose and mouth also turned into a beak, which was a really strange feeling. Looking down, I realised that my legs have transformed as well. Although I still had five ‘toes’, they turned into talons which made standing quite hard for me.

“Oh, my god, what the hell are you?” Lien stepped closer and put her hands on my chest. “Oh- you’re really fluffy…” she muttered, unconsciously starting to play around with my feathers. “This is quite fun!” she started smiling like a kid.

“How come you find something good in all of my forms?” I shook my head.

“Well, you’re the person I love so I can’t help it,” she replied with a smile. “Though I don’t think I’d do that with you in this form,” she started touching me in that area, unable to find anything under my feathers…

Putting my wing on her face, I pulled her into my embrace and gave her a big hug. She was so cute when she said stuff like that, though her hand was quite perverted… Once I felt that I had enough of hugging, I pushed her back and took a step backwards. “Now keep some distance because this could be dangerous,” I said.

Seeing her nodding, I poured some mana into my fire-based cells and spread them through my body. My feathers caught on fire the moment the two cells came in contact and a strong wind surrounded my body. Just like the other transformations, this also took about a whole minute to finish and it also came with a bit of pain, but it was surprisingly ‘cheap’ in every aspect. The wind compressed into the shape of feathers and formed a thick layer of feathers of fire around my body.

My legs shortened and the number of my talons decreased to three, but my body and my wings grew much larger and I also felt an explosive energy filling my chest. Turning towards an empty area close to one of the corners of my barrier, I spat up a giant fireball in the blink of an eye. I could cast magic like that quickly even as a human, but my casting speed still increased by about a hundred milliseconds, which would mean seconds in normal people’s case. Even for me, it was an incredible growth, and it also cost less mana to use the wind and the fire element than ever before.

“Lien, could you use physics magic to mix up the fire and the wind elements?” I asked, using wind magic to speak since my beaks of fire couldn’t be used to talk. Well, I had to use wind magic even when I was in my Wind form.

“Let me try,” she nodded and a moment later I felt a strange pressure on my body.

“Dixon, can you cast fire magic?” I asked, seeing her staring at the scene with interest.

“I can’t,” she shook her head.

“Yeah? Then look at this,” I said as I spat out another ball of fire which flew past Lien and exploded when it was far away from everything, turning that area into a zone of death.

“How’s that possible?” Lien frowned.

“These transformations aren’t as simple as I thought. They all come with a ‘law’ built into our bodies, which apply to our spells as well. This means that as long as I spread a given set of elemental cells through my whole body and combine them with my normal cells, I’ll be able to cast elemental magic even if a physics law is supposed to cancel it. On the other hand, it seems that I can combine any of the elements in my body if I want to, but just like in normal cases, some elements are very much against each other and are hard to combine,” I explained.

“In that case, why does fire and water make a pair on your back?” she raised a brow.

“Based on what I felt, they’re tightly related to each other ever since I combined them. If I transformed into the Fire-Water shape, I could cover a large area in mist which’d burn anything and everything to the death inside.”

“Can I look at the other transformations?” she asked.

“Yeah, though I can’t transform that quickly,” I replied as I slowly turned back into a normal human. Seeing that Dixon wanted to say something, I asked, “Anything you want to share with me?”

“Uhm, based on what I’ve seen, men and women tend to take different shapes. By this, I mean that if Lien were to turn into a demon, she wouldn’t grow three meters tall and her ribs wouldn’t change either. I have a demon friend in Dark city and she looks quite different compared to you and Damon.”

“Mhm, thanks for the useful information,” I smiled at her. I was quite satisfied with her behaviour up till now. She probably understood that her only way out would be to please me so she was trying her best to behave around me and tell me whatever I wanted to know.

I was about to try out my next form when I heard someone groaning being my back. As I turned around, I realised it was Damon since he was sitting, holding his head.

“Oh, you finally woke up,” I squatted down in front of him.

After looking around, he suddenly jumped up and took a defensive position. “Who are you? How did I get here?” he shouted.

“Do you not remember that I knocked you out while your team was trying to escape one of the ruins?” I raised my brows.

Before he could say anything, Dixon ran up to him and pushed down his hands, afraid that he’d attack me and get them killed. “Stop, you have no chance,” she whispered into his ear.

“Dixon? Uh, my head hurts a little,” he grumbled as he covered his face.

“Hmm, I think it was a good idea to capture Dixon, but it seems Damon is unnecessary so-” I took a step towards him, but the moment I did, Dixon jumped in front of him with her arms spread and shouted, “Please, stop!”

“There are things he knows and I don't so he'd be definitely useful to you,” she added.

“Oh? That's good to know,” I smiled at her as I sat down and pointed towards an empty hut. “You two go there and you tell him the situation. Once you feel that you're ready to be questioned, come back here. I’ve sealed you magic so don't try anything funny,” I added.

Nodding her head, she grabbed Damon's hands and dragged him towards the hut.

“You seem to be having fun deceiving them,” Lien stood behind me with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“I'd lie if I said no to that,” I chuckled.

Kneeling down behind me, she leaned on my back and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“They're having a rather fun conversation,” I couldn't help but laugh, hearing Dixon's panicked explanation of the situation.

“What if I was in Dixon's place and you didn't know me?” Lien asked playfully.

“Hmm, I'd make you mine,” I replied, kissing her arm. Slowly getting around me, she sat in my lap facing me and looked into my eyes. Pressing her lips against mine, she closed her eyes and hugged me tightly, pulling back only after a good minute.

“That was delicious,” I smiled at her when she ran out of breath.

“I’m glad you liked it,” she smiled back. “You should be careful not to outplay yourself. I also think that forming some kind of relationship with Dixon would be useful.”

“I know, though trouble seems to follow me for some reason,” I shook my head.

“What do you mean?” she leaned back, making a confused face.

“Guess what, Valerie and her bodyguards are on their way to this place. I suppose she followed us, or Em or Sean gave her the coordinates.”

“Oh, damn it,” she clicked her tongue. “Do you have to let her in?” she asked.

“I don't have to but I should, I believe,” I sighed.

“I’ll go and welcome them, you should question the others in peace while you can. I’m afraid they wouldn’t tell you anything if they saw Valerie,” she said.

Clicking my tongue, I said, “If it was you who welcomed them, they could simply ignore you and rush straight to me in which case, they could interrupt my questioning. I also thought about switching places, but I’m afraid they wouldn’t tell you anything.”

“I’m sorry for being weak,” she lowered her head.

“Ah, I’m so sorry, dear. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that-”

Placing her finger on my lips, she silenced me, “Shh, I know that you didn’t mean it in a bad way, but the point is that I’m too weak to be of help to you. I can’t say I like it but it’s the truth so… that’s all there is to it. Since I can’t reach a level where I could help you in the blink of an eye, you’ll have to think of a way to deal with this situation. You either ignore them and let them in only after you’re done questioning Dixon and Damon, or you leave them to me and hope that they’re going to answer me even without the need to showcase your power.”

“But I’m still sorry-”

“Seth, I don’t need your apology. Just make up your mind and decide what to do,” she smiled at me, trying to show me that she wasn’t angry. Jumping up from the ground, I picked her up in my arms and then bolted off towards the hut and charged straight inside without knocking.

They were sitting at the table in the kitchen and were in the middle of talking, though they stopped the moment we appeared. As I let go of Lien and put her on the ground, I directed all my energy towards the two in front of me and said, “I’ve got some stuff to take care of, so she’ll ask you a few questions in my stead.”

“I’ve sealed your magic so you won’t be able to do anything funny and I swear that if you harm even a single hair on her head you will experience true hell. I’ll be nearby and we can communicate through Link, so I repeat, don’t even try running away or hurting her. You have time to answer her questions while I’m dealing with my visitors, but if you try to lie or keep silent about something she wants to know, you’re going to regret it later. Do you understand?” I asked, seeing them shaking and sweating buckets from the pressure.

Both of them started nodding like those funny toys and stopped only when I kissed Lien and left the room. Well, I could sense and hear them even from the other side of the village if I wanted and Lien was definitely stronger than them with their magic sealed, so things should be alright.

Hoping that Valerie and company wouldn’t ruin my plans, I went out to welcome them. If they tried to go towards the hut or go anywhere I didn’t allow them, I’d definitely kick them out and send them back to their city. This was my place, so I wouldn’t let them do as they pleased.