The Mage Emperor

--- Lien’s pov ---

“You're finally here! I was starting to think that you didn't even want to see me,” my father cried out as soon as I entered the house.

“Come on, we had a few things to take care of and in case you forgot, it's the middle of the week,” I rolled my eyes.

“Ah, I'm sorry! I’ve completely forgotten about it for some reason. Maybe because you two are surprising me every time,” he laughed.

“Well, we won't have to go to school anymore,” I remarked while I greeted Seth's parents. It was quite common in families to greet each other with a kiss on the face, though I always found it a bit strange. I wasn’t sure why.

“What do you mean?” Anna asked. “Son? Have you done something bad?”

“Why'd you assume that it's because of me?” Seth rolled his eyes.

“Because it's fun,” she laughed.

“Yeah, of course,” he replied, his voice lifeless.

“Come on, have some sense of humour,” she slapped his back. “So? What's your reason?” she looked at me.

“We can train and learn on our own thanks to the principal and our homeroom teacher. We’ll have to rank in the top five on the tournament of schools and pass the final exams, but both of these are things we could achieve even now, probably,” I replied.

“If Seth hadn't told me his secret, I'd call you overconfident now, but I guess I'd be ignorant if I still said that,” Dad remarked, shaking his head.

“If possible, don't even mention it in any conversation. I'm not the only incarnation and I was keeping it a secret for a reason. You better pretend that you don't know anything about it,” Seth said with a frown, seeing that Father was talking about it openly.

Realising that this piece of information was much more sensitive than he thought, he opened his eyes wide and then closed his mouth.

“I'll never bring it up again,” he said, crossing his fingers in front of his mouth.

“That'd be great. There could be someone listening in on you anytime. Unless I start a conversation about it, you should never bring it up,” Seth said.

“It'll be fine, dear. We can keep secrets,” Anna waved her hand.

“Mhm. Now then, how about we hold the marriage this… Thursday?” he asked.

“Wait, what? Where’d this come from?” my father asked.

“Haven’t we told you that I asked for her hand? I want her to be my legal wife,” he replied.

“Eh?”

“But you'll have only tomorrow to prepare for it like that. Let's make it Sunday so that the people you invite would have enough time to come,” Peter ignored my father and tried to push back the wedding a bit.

“How about Friday then?” I asked.

Looking at each other, our parents nodded and then said in union, “Saturday.”

“...” We both rolled our eyes.

“Why does it feel like you're trying to make it impossible for everyone but us to be present?” Father asked.

Seth couldn't hold back his mouth and said, “Because we're trying to do that.”

“Do whatever you want, you’re adults already,” Anna just shook her head.

Neither of us was interested in inviting people we’ve barely ever met, even if they were family. And honestly, from my side, I wanted to see only my father on my wedding.

“Alright. Sit down and let's eat. We can talk about this later,” Anna stopped the awkward silence that was about to form.

In the end, they all called up their bosses even before we got to eat and they all took out the rest of the week from their jobs. It felt nice that our parents supported our relationship, even more so because Seth’s parents handled me like their own daughter. My father, on the other hand, was starting to consider Seth as some sort of friend or little brother. It was a bit strange to see them forming that sort of relationship, but I took after my father and if I came out well with Seth, he’d also come out well with Seth! At least, that was what I believed in.

I was in the middle of eating when I suddenly felt a hand touching my thigh. Looking at Seth from the corner of my eye, I found his lips curving upwards. It was good that I wasn’t wearing a skirt because he’d have surely moved his hand all the way up to my private place. Sometimes I really couldn’t understand what was going on in his mind. Our parents were eating and chatting in front of us and he was feeling me up under the table.

“Would you fucking stop?” I asked through Link, shutting my legs to stop his hand from advancing any further.

He continued eating as if nothing happened and made a remark only about half a minute later, forcing his hand between my legs, “Your grumpy face is cute as well.”

Grabbing his hand, I pushed it away and then continued eating in silence. Our parents were having a good time chatting, while I was forced to be on alert the whole time because of my idiotic boyfriend. Did he really want to start doing dirty things to me under the table, right in front of our parents?

I knew he was daring enough to do it, though he surprisingly never attempted making a move again, only when we got back home. The only problem was that his touch was enough to excite my mind and I became quite aroused by the time we got home. I made him take responsibility for his actions.

In the end, he also admitted that he intentionally put me on alert. The night ended with a slap on the back of his head…

---

Next morning I was startled awake by a loud booming noise. I sat up on the bed and looked around in the room, but there was nobody except for us. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was still only seven in the morning.

“Hey, Seth, wake up!” I shook him.

“Mhhm- What do you want?” he groaned, barely opening his eyes before closing them once again and going back to sleeping. I was about to answer when the same booming sound was repeated, but this time I realised that someone was knocking on the front door. I was a bit confused since I couldn’t imagine who’d be trying to get into our house so early in the morning.

Creeping to the side of the bed, I put my feet on the soft carpet and quickly fixed my hair with my fingers. Standing up, I walked up to my wardrobe and took out a black nightgown. It was quite thin and short, but it was better than going stark naked. I just wanted to check who was it anyway. I snuck out of our room and peeked through the small hole once I reached the front door, only to find my father standing in front of it.

I quickly unlocked the door and opened it, “Father? What are you doing here so early in the morning?” I raised my voice. “And here I thought that someone was trying to break into our house,” I sighed out of relief.

“Lien… what’s this get up?” he frowned as he ran his eyes up and down on me instead of answering.

“I just wanted to find out who was disturbing my sleep but since it was you, I opened the door. Also, you’ve seen me in this gown many times before, what’s different this time?” I rolled my eyes.

“Maybe that you aren’t wearing underwears?” he raised a brow. Shaking his head, he finally answered, “Whatever, I’m here to take you away for some time. If you really want to hold your wedding this Friday, you should buy a wedding dress, don’t you think? You should reserve a place for the afterparty as well and then-”

“Wait, wait, you’re getting ahead of yourself,” I raised my hands and tried calming him as I took a step back to let him in.

“Don’t be silly, dear. This is a big thing, you can’t leave everything to the last minute!” he exclaimed as he got in the house and closed the door behind himself.

So that’s why Seth didn’t give a shit about the sound, I bet he knew that it was my father. I should practice soul sensing today, it’s harder to do when there are things blocking my sight on my targets. I wonder how far can he see and how many walls would be necessary to block him from sensing a soul. I guess I’ll ask him later.

“Lien? Stop spacing out when I’m talking to you!” Father waved his hand in front of me, catching my attention.

“I’m sorry, I was just thinking about magic. Anyway, we’ve talked about this already last night and Seth will take care of everything today. I also wanted to pick you up along with Anna and Peter once I woke up, but you’ve got so much ahead of me that I didn’t even get to wake up!” I said meaningfully, feeling a bit grumpy for having to wake up.

I was starting to understand why Seth hated when somebody woke him up. It always seemed to happen because of stupid things or things we already knew. “Well, somehow you forgot to tell me about this,” he replied, rolling his eyes.

Rubbing my eyes, I turned around and started walking towards our room as I said, “I’m going back to bed, you can go and watch the TV or something.”

“Are you kidding me?” he reached after me and put his hand on my shoulder.

“No, I’m not,” I replied, turning towards him.

“I can’t believe you. Why’s it so hard to raise a daughter?” he shook his head, pulling back his hand. “You should wear something more proper, what if I was a stranger? I told you when you bought this that you should buy clothes that cover everything instead of ‘cute’ clothes,” he started nagging me.

Starting to be annoyed, I turned around and replied, “Firstly, I wouldn’t have opened the door if you were a stranger. Secondly, it may be October but the weather is still hot, so you can’t expect me to wear stuffy clothes just to cover everything, and I’m not a man, got that?”

“Argh! If only Lana was still around, maybe she’d be able to beat some sense into you!” he grabbed his head and started pulling on his hair.

“I bet she’d side with me!” I shrugged my shoulders, continuing on my way.

“I guess I should talk with Seth about this,” he muttered.

Clenching my fists, I felt the need to turn around once again, “Oh, no you don’t.”

“Hohoo? What’s with that reaction? Maybe I should really talk to him,” he said with a smirk.

Wait, Seth wouldn’t side with him even if he talked to him. I know that he loves my style!

“Do whatever you want,” I waved my hand. Looking at me helplessly, he could only scratch the back of his head. Sighing loudly, he locked the door and then made his way towards the living room.

I wasn’t sure what would Seth think about that I let my father in and then went back to bed, but I felt much more at home here. I wasn’t living for free in someone else’s house anymore. Although I’d have never sold Electric Field for five hundred thousand dollars each, even I could have earned a few millions by selling it.

I knew that the knowledge which was necessary for its creation also came from Seth, but the spell was the result of my own effort. Even without him, I could’ve bought about half of the land and I also took part in building it, so I didn’t feel like a parasyte anymore. I understood that he wanted me to consider everything that was his as mine, but it wasn’t that simple. I knew him well and if he was in my place, he would think the same way about these things.

One of the most beautiful things in life was to work for something and then achieve it with your own efforts. It’d never make me happy if he bought and gave everything to me for free. If he could somehow load all the knowledge he had into my mind, I’d definitely refuse it. Looking at his sleeping face, I couldn’t hold back myself from smiling. He’s been my hero since childhood. He’d never understand how much he gave me, things that had no materialistic value.

Taking off my gown, I raised the blanket and got into the bed. Since I didn’t want to wake him up again, I stayed on the side of the bed, but he suddenly put his arm around my abdomen and pulled me towards himself. Placing his right arm and right leg on my side, he mumbled into my ear, “Are you done talking with him?”

“Mhm, he’s in the living room,” I replied, expecting some sort of reaction, but he just yawned loudly and continued sleeping. Although we were stark naked, I was sure my father wouldn’t barge into our room and the blanket covered us anyway, so I closed my eyes and went back to sleeping. Even if the weather and his body heat was a bit too hot for my comfort, his embrace felt too nice to push him away. I knew I was being a bit of an asshole to my father, but I was too sleepy to bother with him right now. Closing my eyes, I fell back asleep in a few minutes.

---

I was startled wide awake by a sudden rush of air against my back, only to realise that Seth woke up and crept out from behind my back. The only reason I didn’t become pissed of was that I had more than enough sleep and I felt refreshed. Reaching after him, I grabbed his hand and rolled over to my left side, “Heey~ Where are you going?”

“It’s ten o’clock, so I should go and get things done,” he replied.

“And will you leave me alone just like that?” I raised my brows.

“You’re right,” he smiled as he leaned over and kissed my forehead before moving down to my lips. I wasn’t sure why but when he kissed my forehead, it always felt much closer than when he went for my lips. Maybe it was because it had no erotic meaning and it reflected his pure love.

Slowly pulling back, he gazed into my eyes, “Don’t forget what I told you yesterday. Sylvanus should attack the city today or he may come after me directly, so you should be careful. If you get in trouble, I’ll know it, but I hope that you can watch out for yourself.”

“Ok,” I replied and then leaned forwards. Before I could reach his lips which I wanted to taste once again, he turned into a white cloud and slowly dispersed in front of me. “Hmph, trying to be cool?” I pouted. After dressing up, I went to the living room where I found my father snoring loudly on the couch.

So even he was sleepy, I shook my head. I went to the kitchen and made some breakfast before waking up my father. After having breakfast, he took me back to Anna and Peter, though only Anna came with us. Well, Peter surely wasn’t interested in picking wedding dresses. Truth be told, I had a feeling it’d be my mother in law who’d start picking between the wedding dresses. I was kind of excited to get it.

Maybe it was a bit childish and others would laugh at me for it, but it’s been my dream to marry Seth ever since my childhood. I still remembered how happy he looked when I said yes to marriage. Well, the order was certainly unusual, but I was a maximalist. Why’d I agreed to go out with him when I wanted more?

I had no trouble planning ahead and sticking to it, but if this way also made me reach my goal, I had no reason to start going out with him and wait years until he asked for my hand.

While my father was driving us to a store Anna told us about, I was chatting with Seth about some minor details. Humankind had forgotten all about gods and religions, though we knew they existed in the past, even if they were nothing but fairy tales for common people. Certainly, temples weren’t the first things humankind wanted to rebuild after our race almost perished. By the time their lives started stabilizing, they either forgot about it or didn’t want to bother with stuff like that.

Then again, I didn’t think people would have started believing in gods when almost the whole race perished. Even if idiots believed it, some would have asked questions like ‘where was god when’, I believed.

If not for Seth’s sudden revelation, I’d have never thought about religions and gods either. These days marriages weren’t blessed by priests, we just had to fill a marriage form and then hand it to a personnel in the city hall who dealt with these kinds of things. We filled the form yesterday, so Seth just had to hand it over.

Thinking about it logically, I found it a bit strange that marriage and wedding dresses became customary once again, despite the disappearance of priests and temples. Honestly, I didn’t even know where they originated from. I’d lie if I said I didn’t want to dress up for the man I loved, so it probably turned into a custom for the exact same reason. Every woman wanted to look beautiful. I was also hoping that he’d appreciate my efforts, though he always told me that I was beautiful so I wasn’t really worried about that.

I was more worried about him. I knew that he was amazing when it came to magic, but Sylvanus was still another god. I looked up to him, but I wasn’t blinded by my love. He was still only one person and he was much younger than many other incarnations, not to mention that he knew almost nothing about them.

We were still on the way to the store when a wave of energy rushed through the car and our bodies. Frowning, my father looked at me for a moment, “Did you feel this?”

“I did,” I nodded as I turned around and looked behind us. Anna was already looking at the cause of the disturbance, which stood in front of the walls surrounding the city.

“Father… I think that you better step on the gas pedal,” I grabbed my father’s head who wanted to peek at the creature.

It was a Treant, but a kind I’ve never even heard of. Treants were animals made up of ligneous materials. They weren’t that strong most of the time and fire magic was very effective against them, but this one looked like a giant lizard with wings. It had four legs with long and sharp-looking claws of wood, a long tail, and a pulsing green energy could be seen inside its body.

Its whole body was made of wood, but the long lines of wood which looked like vines were packed upon each other like muscle fibers. It looked like a muscular monster without skin since every fiber was visible in its body. The green pulsing energy coursed through its whole body, for some reason making me think that it would regenerate very quickly.

“Seth, can you see that?” I contacted him through Link.

“Yes, dear,” he replied with a calm tone.

“What is that pulsing green energy?” I asked.

“I’ve never seen that sort of energy before either, so it’s either some other form of mana or it’s an entirely different type of energy. I hope it’s the former because the latter would destroy a lot of things I thought I knew, especially the image I have about mana and the world,” he replied.

“Hmm, let me get a bit closer.”

A few seconds later, he continued, “Alright, it has the same kind of feeling as mana, so it’s just discoloured for some reason.”

“Do you have any idea why it’s green?” I asked.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never heard or seen something like this, but I have an idea. I’m sure you’ve noticed that whenever you use an element, mana always behaves a bit differently. For example, it becomes much more explosive when you’re using fire magic,” he said.

“Are you saying that he infused the nature element into his mana and now it has similar properties? If that was the case, wouldn’t it regenerate quickly or heal his body quicker than normal mana? Then would the fire element make my mana more powerful but easier to spend and harder to control? Ahh- this would open so many possibilities in a battle, especially if I could store different types of infused mana in my body. For example, I’d store fire infused mana in my right leg and wind infused mana in my left leg. I could make my movements either explosive or fluent! Or if-”

“Hey, hey, slow down, honey. Yes, that’s what I meant,” he cut into my thoughts and tried to calm me down. It was nothing but a nice try, though. My mind was already wandering elsewhere with all the possibilities this technique held. I was excited to try out my theories, but knowing that not even Seth knew about this sort of usage of the elements, I became even more excited to test things with him. It’d be a dream come true to learn magic alongside him!

I was about to warn him not to use it if possible, but he got ahead of me, “I’m sure you want to try it out, so I’m also going to wait until we meet up again. I imagine you can wait some more? We’ll test it together, you just go and buy that wedding dress in the meantime,” he said.

“I love you! I was about to say the exact same thing!” I laughed.

“Good then.”

“But I don’t think the store will be opened once the owner sees this thing breaking into the city,” I remarked, just as the treant broke through the city walls with a single swipe of its claws. Despite its size, it was so quick that without enhancing my eyes, I could barely follow its movements.

“I have come for you, humans!” a deep voice ran through the city and made the ground tremble. Pushing my hand away, my father looked behind for a moment before turning back and stepping on the gas pedal.

“You were right, Lien. I should have listened to you!” he remarked, sweat already forming on his forehead.

“Hahaha, why are you so nervous?” I laughed.

“You’re too carefree,” he said through gritted teeth. I knew that he was worried about me, but that was really unnecessary. Seth told me that teleportation was very dangerous to use since the one doing it could be intercepted and killed very easily before they disappeared. It also had a limitation since he could teleport only to places within his sight, but he put a spell on us which made it possible to teleport us anywhere near him if there was nobody around.

Basically, as long as nobody was touching me, he could teleport me next to himself even from the other side of the planet. If someone held onto me, it could disturb my materialisation and merge us into a single entity. I didn’t like the idea of merging with some random guy and becoming a four-legged thing. And that was the better option, the worst was that both of us would be torn apart.

There was nobody touching either of us, so if things turned too dangerous, he could teleport us to himself. I felt worried for him, but I refused to believe that some stupid treant would be strong enough to beat him, even if it was more than a hundred years older than him.

“Seth, is that really a treant?” I couldn’t help but ask, seeing it destroying the buildings and the giant wall as if they were paper buildings.

“Nah, I don’t think this could be called a simple treant. Those can’t fly while this came through the air. This one is also much stronger, tougher, and bigger. Also, I’m sure you’ve realised, but this thing is Sylvanus and he should be a Dragon Treant,” he replied, his voice shaking a bit in my mind.

“What are you doing? Your voice was a bit unstable,” I asked.

“Well, I’m using WORD magic and it’s hard to talk, write, imagine, and control mana at the same time,” he replied.

…

“I’m sorry. Please don’t talk then,” I remarked and stopped bothering him.

“It’s fine, it’s good practise!” he laughed, his voice shaking even more this time. If I replied, he’d just keep talking to me to show me that it was alright, so I stayed silent instead. Just as I expected, he stopped talking as well.

“Alright, now I’m done so I’m free to talk,” he said a moment later.

“What did you do?”

“I made myself invisible and hid my soul as well. Unless they use WORD magic to sense me, I can move unnoticed. Thirdly, I made a clone which looks like me and has a fake soul which feels like mine when I’m hiding it,” he replied.

WORD magic was really amazing, I was really envious of him at times like these, but I knew that it was the result of his own hard work. When he told me how his inheritance worked, I felt bad for thinking that he easily learned everything he knew. Well, he still laughed at me when I apologised to him and told me that I was doing something unnecessary…

I didn’t understand why since I basically took his hard work lightly and thought that he just inherited a shit ton of knowledge because he had similar morals compared to Khem. I always thought that it was unfair. I was being a bitch for thinking that, and it hurt my heart more than anything before. I was really sorry for it, but empathy would never make up for our mistakes and he wasn’t the kind of person who cared about it either.

He was a very forgiving person, especially towards me. Although I knew about this side of him, this was the first time that I experienced it as the ‘offender’. Maybe it even bothered me that he wasn’t angry with me for thinking like that and just laughed at the whole thing. It felt as if I backstabbed him and he just shrugged it off as if nothing happened. Where was my punishment?

It seemed to be impossible to make him angry with me and it was hard even with others. Unless somebody attacked him or the people dear to him, he was really impossible to offend. He never bothered with others’ opinions or viewpoints and he never tried to force his ideals on others either. The only exception was when men lusted after me in front of him, that always pissed him off. Actually, I always found it funny.

“By the way, did you hand in the form before Sylvanus reached the city?” I asked, starting to worry about our wedding. I didn’t want a shitty dragon to stop us from officially becoming a couple!

“Yes, yes, don’t worry, though I doubt the people in the city hall are working right now, but it’ll be done anyway,” he replied.

“Yay! Ah, we’ve arrived to the store,” I remarked, seeing my father stopping the car. The dragon was on the other side of the city so if not for the sirens going off not long ago, they surely wouldn’t have noticed that something was amiss. But since it was far away and they couldn’t do anything about it, everyone was doing their business as usual. It was a bit strange to see that one half of the city was in chaos while the other was calm and collected.

Of course, if Sylvanus attacked the city from this side, things would be the same just reversed. I could see many people on the top of tall buildings in the distance, looking towards the monster that threatened to destroy the city.

I was sure they were all hoping that the noble clans would take care of the giant ‘monster’, the nobles they all hated. If last time Seth hadn’t taken out that monster with Electric Field, it’d have been left to the nobles. The only problem was that this Treant wasn’t just an SSS ranked monster, it was a god incarnation which meant that neither of the nobles should be able to win. Well, maybe that wasn’t the case since there were many legends about Jonathan White.

Thinking back, I found it hilarious that both Seth and I found out the name of the ‘legendary’ person who protected our country thanks to a classmate. Everyone was supposed to know his name and his clan, but when Mary introduced herself, I didn’t even know who was the White family. We were really air headed in that aspect. If it wasn’t Elena who we asked about the White family, people would have definitely spread bad words about us.

Still, I was quite sure that Jonathan wasn’t in the league of this dragon treant. While I was thinking about useless things, Anna talked with the saleswoman and picked a few wedding dresses for me.

“Haah, why am I trying wedding dresses when my husband is about to fight a creature that’s scaring the whole city?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Because you must do what you can, I’m also doing what I can. For now, you wouldn’t be able to help me on this side of the things, but you can buy a wedding dress and make me happy the day after tomorrow,” he replied.

“All of that sounds wrong on many levels,” I remarked, giving up on the matter. I knew it was pointless to mention, but still… “By the way, can I go and take a look at it from closer?”

“No, you stay there. You don’t have the power to fight it and you’re supposed to be shopping. Just stay in the store and pretend that you don’t even know about it,” he replied.

“You’re no fun,” I pouted.

“My clone is being followed by some people as well, so you probably have someone observing you. Also, I don’t think I’ll fight unless it’s necessary. I want to play along with Leo’s plans for now,” he added.

“Lien, we’re talking to you. Would you stop spacing out?” Anna grabbed my shoulder and pulled me towards the changing room.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I was… talking with Seth,” I whispered to her.

“Oh, and what were you talking about?” she asked.

Entering the changing room, I started taking off my clothes as I replied, “Well, maybe about the giant monster on the other side of the city?”

“Wait, are you telling me that he’s going to fight that thing?” her face twitched.

I must lie… right? She shouldn’t worry about him. Wait, it’s not even a lie. He said he wouldn’t fight it unless it was necessary.

“No, he’s far away from it,” I shook my head.

“Lien, my dear. Did you know that you’re a bad liar?” she raised a brow, shaking her head.

“I know, but I’m not lying. He won’t do it unless it’s necessary. There are other god incarnations in the city,” I replied.

I’m sorry, Seth, I suck.

“Haah- whatever. It’s not like I could stop my idiotic son,” she shook her head. Smiling at me, she picked up the first dress from the pack, “Now then, let’s start this holy ritual!”

“Oh my god.”

“I’m here,” Seth replied to my prayers.

“Hahaha, that was actually a good one,” I laughed as I realised what just happened.

“I’m glad you liked my joke. What’s up?” he asked.

“Your mother picked up like ten dresses,” I cried out.

“I know, and she’s going to take her time when it comes to making a decision as well,” he laughed at me.

“It’s good that it’s my wedding. If I take a liking to one, I won’t have to try all the others,” I sighed.

“Don’t be so sure,” he remarked and then turned silent. Looking at my mother in law and the super happy expression on her face, I realised what he meant. This was going to be long day, unless something stopped us from taking our time. I had to think of something!

“Anna, don’t you think that what we’re doing is very wrong?” I asked aloud.

“What do you mean, darling? It’s important to pick a wedding dress that’s going to please your husband,” she replied, waving her finger.

“I didn’t mean that. The other side of the city is under attack and we’re here shopping?” I raised my brows.

Placing her hand on my shoulder, she sighed, “People must do what they can. Thanks to the sirens, everyone was alerted and probably ran away before that thing appeared. I definitely can’t fight a monster like that and if things come to the worst, I’d rather run away into the forest with my family. Luckily, even if most of them are terrible people, nobles have amazing power compared to us commoners, and they’re going to stop that creature for sure.”

Even if she was Seth’s mother, she still thought like the others in this city. She thought the power of the nobles was absolute and that they’d be able to stop every monster that attacked the city. In my opinion, that was a very stupid way of thinking. If not for knowing about Seth’s origin, I’d be preparing things to leave the city for the worst case scenario. Nobles were powerful, but humankind has never seen a creature like this one.

Thinking about it, I found it funny how I’d be trying to make Seth and our parents prepare to leave if I didn’t know his secret. I’d definitely make a dumbfounded face if he suddenly revealed his power and killed Sylvanus. Well, I didn’t have to go through that kind of surprise again since he told me everything that could ‘shock’ me.

“Do you know that it’s a god incarnation?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

“It’s a what?” she raised her voice.

“Shh-” I tried to calm her. “It may be as powerful as Seth, so things aren’t as sure as you think,” I continued. I knew my words would make her worry, but I was annoyed by her way of thinking, even if she was my family. I was hoping that she’d change her mind regarding the nobles and think a bit more logically. Just a stray part of WORD magic could erase all of us from the surface of this planet and I’d have no way to stop it.

I felt terrible knowing how useless I was right now. Seth was the only person who could do something about the matter, but seeing how instantaneous WORD magic was, I couldn’t imagine a way to stop it.

“This is terrible! We must hurry up in that case!” she ran towards the wedding dresses to take them back to their place.

“We’re leaving the store for now. I’ve told your mother about Sylvanus,” I contacted Seth.

“Huh? Did she go haywire?” he asked.

“What? No? She’s about to take back the wedding dresses and leave. I’m sure it’d help you as well if we could move in case Sylvanus used something you had no way to stop. I don’t want you to take a hit because we were staying in one pl-”

“Don’t go anywhere for now,” he cut into my words.

“Why?” I asked as I grabbed Anna’s hand to stop her.

“You’re far enough from him and you don’t have to worry about me being hurt. You’ve seen me healing one of our classmates, but that was nothing compared to my own healing ability. I’ve also made my strategy based on your location so it’d be a real annoyance if you started moving,” he replied.

“I’m sorry, I was being rash.”

“No, it was fine to tell her. Did you do it because of the way she thought about nobles?” he asked.

“Huh? How did you know?” I asked in my confusion. “Can you read my mind?”

“Haha, no. I just know my mother…” he sighed.

“Lien?” Anna looked at me.

“I should have known. Well, I’ve got to answer your mother,” I replied and then said aloud to Anna, “You don’t have to run away right away. I was just trying to point out that you shouldn’t trust nobles blindly. If anything like this happens in the future, you should always get away from trouble like this and consider escaping. Seth told me that it was alright to stay here, but I think that it’s better if we finish a bit earlier. We can still stay nearby and leave if things come down to worst.”

“Is that what he said?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Then okay,” she nodded her head. I was amazed by the sudden change of tone. The moment she heard that it was Seth who told me to stay here, she instantly calmed down. I couldn’t help but doubt her faith in her son and think that he brainwashed them. Well, I knew that wasn’t the case, but her trust was really on a different level. It pissed me off that I ever thought that he could have brainwashed me in my childhood, especially after I found out how much time it took for him to learn everything he inherited.

He didn’t even know enough about chemical magic at that time to use mind magic. My only excuse was that I wanted to know for sure that my love for him was real and not something he crafted. I believed most people who had a will of their own would have asked the same question.

Looking through the dresses, I picked up three, “This much is enough. I like these the most so we have to pick from these,” I said.

“Alright, my daughter in law has a good taste, after all,” she chuckled, visibly much calmer.

How can she switch between being scared and being calm so quickly? Seth isn’t even here to say something to her or do something to her mind! I swear this is ridiculous.

Looking at her, I could only shake my head.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s just that I’m always amazed by how easily you can calm down when Seth tells you something,” I replied.

“My dear, has he ever told you that he was a bad person and other similar foolish things?” she asked.

“Mhm,” I nodded.

“Do you agree with him?” she raised her brows, picking up the other six dresses to take them back.

“No. He judges people easily even based on things like their clothes, walking, demeanour, and stuff like that, but he’s judging himself way too heavily, I believe. As I see it, what he thinks is ‘terrible’ is actually common in most people, even if they’re afraid of admitting it. He has his own bad side, but it’s nothing too far fetched for our world,” I replied with a smile.

“But what does this have to do with you?” I frowned.

Smiling at me, she said, “That’s what I think about him as well and I can assure you, he’s very kind to those he cares about. He may lie to people, but he’s way too upstanding to keep his own secrets for too long from his family. You’re alike in that aspect and the reason I brought this up was because I wanted to hear your opinion.”

“Foxy,” I remarked.

Winking at me, she continued, “Regarding my faith in him, I know that he’s a very honest boy, especially when it really matters. There were times when he was way too honest and hurt me with his words, but that’s something I find respectable. Given the current situation and what you told me, if he said that we should stay here, he definitely wasn’t lying or trying to calm us down. I’ve noticed long ago that he was smarter than most kids at his age, even if he tried to hide it.”

“When he first told me that he was a god incarnation, it wasn’t that I refused to believe him. I think it was just easier to shrug it off, but I always knew that he was more than what I was seeing. If you live with someone for many years and even raise that person, you can’t help but notice things like these,” she sighed.

Seeing me staring at her, she started laughing, “If you think about it, neither me nor my husband was overly shocked by the ‘sudden news’, unlike your father.”

Sure enough, some people preferred not knowing things, which was the exact opposite of Seth and me. I was starting to understand what he really meant when he told me that he wasn’t a holder, but a seeker of wisdom. Most people accumulated wisdom by simply living, aging, and experiencing many things, while we sought things that could show us new ways to solve our problems and achieve our goals.

“You’re quite sneaky, aren’t you?” I shook my head.

“Now, now, don’t say stuff like that,” she giggled. “More importantly, I’ve been wondering about it but is it good? What was your first time like?”

“What do you mean?” I forced a smile onto my face. I never understood how could she ask things like these so randomly?

Smirking, she replied, “Don’t play the fool. You’re both young and vigorous, I had the chance to hear you from time to time.”

“Please, kill me now,” I covered my face.

“Hahaha, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You can tell me the details, I swear I’m not going to tell it to anyone, okay? It’s just us women!” she kept pressing on. In the end, I was forced to tell her about our first time. She had a satisfied look on her face when I told her that Seth was gentle with me, though I didn’t tell her that these days he was more like a wild beast and that I loved it. It’d have been way too embarrassing to tell her about our fetishes and luckily, she didn’t go as far as to ask me about them.

When she finally left to take back those wedding dresses, I stared at her back until she closed the door and then started changing. We’ve wasted more than enough time by chatting, even though I wanted to watch the battle.

I was in the middle of dressing when a familiar voice rang in my ears, which belonged to Mary White, “Citizens of Balan, please listen to me! My name is Mary White, but you probably know me by now. I don’t know how powerful this beast is and I’m sure many of you’re scared of it, but fear not for I’ll take care of it with my faithful companions!”

She seemed to be the type of person who was easy to get along with when I first met her, but for some reason, I had a bad feeling about her. Call it female intuition, but I was quite sure that she was a devious person in reality. She probably used wind magic to make her voice reach everyone in the city. I wouldn’t have the power to make it enter even closed rooms like the changing room I was in, so she was definitely better than me in that aspect.

But unlike with Seth, I wasn’t filled with that ‘I don’t stand a chance’ feeling. If I worked hard, I was sure that I’d overcome her one day. Racing was fun only if you could get in the race, and that really wasn’t the case with Seth. He was an overpowered bastard.

“Hoo-, you’re quite daring to stand in front of me and call me a beast. Do you have a death wish?” a deep creaking voice followed hers, which most likely belonged to Sylvanus.

“A stupid beast which can talk? How surprising…”

“A stupid beast? I’m Sylvanus, the same creature that destroyed this area two hundred years ago, you foolish woman!” he roared in his rage, his voice followed by an incredibly powerful shockwave that almost made me fall.

There was only one thing that I found strange. Sylvanus definitely knew that Mary was a god incarnation and Mary must have known about him as well. This made me think that they were working together for some reason, though I couldn’t imagine what could a monster gain from working alongside a human.

From my point of view, it made no sense why’d they waste their mana on sending their voice to everyone in the city. Why didn’t they start fighting instead?

“Nobody remembers you, so you probably didn’t leave much of an impression,” Mary laughed at him. Another shockwave followed her provocation, most likely meaning even more destruction.

“I see, I see. Then I’ll give you humans one more day to remember who I am and when you finally do, I’ll return and take your foolish lives. The one I came here for doesn’t seem to be around anyway,” he replied.

“This is strange,” Seth remarked a moment later.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He left just like that, though you should see this,” he replied. His voice sounded a bit nervous, which made me worry. He was rarely nervous when it came to worldly problems.

After picking a wedding dress, we paid for it and then left the store. The city looked the same on this side, but I had a feeling things were different on the other side. I told my father and Anna to go home alone and then flew to the top of a building nearby.

There were a few people looking into the distance, but upon seeing me flying, many of them turned towards me and made surprised faces. Well, even if I knew telekinesis, flight was supposed to be an advanced spell. Considering that I was visibly young, they must have been surprised by my 'talent’, though I didn't think it was that hard. Seth never taught me telekinesis, so I learned all of it on my own. It felt nice to see that people looked up to me because of something that was purely the result of my own hard work.

As I landed on the edge of the flat roof, I sat down and enhanced my eyes to look into the distance. About a quarter of the city was filled with the debris of the destroyed buildings, even though those two never even fought. The roads were filled with deep cracks and holes, or even entirely missing at other places. If all that destruction was caused by Sylvanus’ physical power alone, then not even Seth would be a match for him in that aspect.

Of course, I could never be sure of things when I was talking about Seth’s abilities. He liked surprising me with all kinds of things. I heard footsteps behind my back, so I turned around but I couldn’t see anyone. In the next moment, that idiot put his arms around my chest and started fondling my breasts. Not minding the people present, he became visible once again and smiled at me. Shaking my head, I turned back towards the destruction in front of me.

He slowly moved his hands down to my belly and put his chin on my shoulder while asking, “What were you thinking about?”

“Was this caused by his physical strength alone?” I asked.

“Mhm, he stomped on the ground in his wrath,” he sighed.

“How can you fight against WORD magic?”

“I’m sure I’ve told you before that you need to know chemistry and physics to use WORD magic, right? Nothing is absolute in the world, much less magic. At the time I used ‘Erase’ in the forest, I just split a few atoms which was enough to destroy everything within my calculated area. If I wanted to stop that, I’d have to stop the atoms from splitting, which would be hard to do with simply controlling things,” he replied.

“Do you mean it’d be impossible?” I raised my brows.

“Haha, yeah. That’s where you need your imagination run wild. Mana will obey your will, and change the rules even if they make no sense. That’s why Magic is amazing. It doesn’t make sense! It’s for lunatics,” he started giggling like an idiot.

“Did you get what you were supposed to?” he asked.

“Mhm, but I’m more worried about Sylvanus right now,” I put my hand on top of his and started caressing him.

“Are you worried?” he took hold of my hand and pushed his chest against my back with even more force.

“I am. Everything that happened today was so strange, as if it was scripted,” I replied, trying to warn him.

“As expected of you,” he laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought as well. Why’d he come here and then leave just like that? And why’d Mary let him leave when she could have damaged him seriously at that moment. We were also ‘dealt with’ so that we wouldn’t be in the way, which makes things even more questionable.”

“The good thing is that while they were chatting, I walked around Sylvanus and checked out his body from up close. There was a small slit on his chest where I saw a brightly shining ball. Treants’ hearts have turned into cores over the years, but it’s still their weak point. I won’t have to look for a weakness next time he appears,” he said.

“Look, weren’t they one of the top ranking students on the trial this year?”

“Yeah, they’ve both got a red star and an invitation to join the White Clan as well. How lucky,” some people started whispering behind us. Turning around, I looked towards the origin of the voice and saw two middle-aged men. They seemed to be around the same age as my father.

“Ah, did she hear us?”

“Nah, she probably just looked around. Haah- my daughter also took part in the trial, but she barely passed. I’m afraid she’ll have to find some common profession and avoid serious battles,” the other man sighed.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing, imagine if she ran into a monster like this one. She’s better off working in the city, even if she’ll earn less money. This is the safest place for humans.”

“You’re right about that. Well, I’m happy with my current life and I’m not that strong either.”

“See? You don’t have to worry about her future.”

“Yeah, but these terrible shockwaves surely damaged our house which will cost money to repair. I hope that the nobles will take care of it.”

“They always do, but I don’t think they’ll do anything about it for now. That thing said that it’d return tomorrow. I hope that the nobles are strong enough to deal with it, it looked very terrifying.”

“Mhm, the young Miss of the White clan is really brave to stand in front of it, though I’m surprised that it wasn’t Jonathan who confronted it.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure you’ve heard her results. She had more than three hundred stars and she had enough time to help others. She may be stronger than Jonathan!”

“Hahaha, don’t be a fool, she’s too young for that.”

“What? You can never know, just look at these two as well. I have a feeling they’re stronger than us,” he laughed.

Well, he wasn’t wrong about that. “Can we go home?” Seth asked.

Grasping his hand, I pulled him down from the rooftop as I turned to look into his eyes. We were mid-way to the ground when we finally used telekinesis and bolted off towards our house. After meeting up with our parents and talking things over about our marriage and Sylvanus’ attack, we decided to hold it early in the morning, tomorrow.

It wouldn’t matter much if the after party was ‘ruined’, it would be the five of us anyway. My grandfather replied to our invitation in a single day and said that he didn’t want to see his son, who chose a noble girl over them. I always thought my grandfather was an idiot for saying things like that. He refused to meet my father for something so ridiculous, not to mention that they had no reason to not support his marriage with my mother.

Regarding Seth’s family, they sent emails today afternoon and said that they couldn’t make it in time because their houses were in the destroyed area and they had to find a lodging for the time being. His father’s brother was the only one who didn’t answer our invitation, but he probably wouldn’t come either. Maybe I was terrible for feeling that way, but I was happy from the bottom of my heart when I heard that they couldn’t come.

I had to admit I didn’t enjoy meeting new faces since they always made me feel a bit awkward around them. I never knew what to say to them or how to handle them. When Seth offered me their empty room, I felt the same way about his parents, though I knew them to some degree so it was nowhere near as bad as with complete strangers. I’ve got used to them quite easily, though I still felt a bit strange around his father since he wasn’t very talkative and he liked his drinks, which I wasn’t fond of.

Well, there were problems in every family, and it wasn’t like Seth’s was without fault. Once we went back home, we took a nice bath together where we also had some fun and then went to bed. I barely closed my eyes when I felt his hands sneaking between my legs.

“No,” I said as I shut my legs on his hand.

“Hmm? But I want more of you, that quickie in the bathroom wasn’t enough,” he replied.

“There’ll be no more sex until our honeymoon,” I said seriously.

“Can I ask you why?” he asked as he pulled back his hand and embraced me around my waist.

“I want to make it more memorable, in every way possible,” I replied.

“Heeh~ That sounds fun,” he laughed one last time, and then went to sleep. Thanks to his cozy and warm embrace, I fell asleep in the blink of an eye.

---

I woke up somewhere in the middle of the night to a sudden rush of cold air on my back. A bit annoyed by the unpleasant feeling, I opened my eyes and turned around, thinking that Seth pulled off the blanket from me by turning around. But instead of seeing him lying next to me on the bed, I found him standing next to it. As I enhanced my eyes, I was met with his usual gentle and loving smile.

“What are you doing?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

“Go back to sleeping. I’ll be back soon, but I have someone to take care of,” he replied.

“Haah? Are you crazy? It’s in the middle of the night,” I sat up instantly. Leaning forward, he put his hand on my face and gently pushed me down.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon,” he repeated his words, this time with more emphasis.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yes. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t want to leave my cute wife alone, I’m not that suicidal,” he chuckled. Leaning forward, he gave me a short kiss and then pulled back before I could start enjoying it, making me want more.

“You’ll get the rest when I return,” he said.

“Then you better come back in one piece. You still have a lot to teach me,” I demanded, clenching my fists. Even if I knew that he was powerful, seeing the destruction Sylvanus left was enough to scare me. I didn’t want to see Seth returning with broken bones and stuff like that. Nodding his head, he walked towards the door and looked back one last time before disappearing in a flash.

I realised only later that night that I’ve seen only the surface of his power, and it wasn’t about his soul or his mana.