Chapter 169: A Strange Switch Was Flipped!
Morning sunlight streamed through the window, making the girl's exposed, pale, shapely calves gleam softly.
Inside a dorm room at Hagun Academy, two people were tightly embracing each other.
One of them had an arm firmly wrapped around the other's neck.
That soft, creamy flesh squeezed away even the last trace of air between their bodies.
Unable to endure Stella's astonishing arm strength any longer, Shiro finally opened his eyes.
'This is... my bed?'
After an exhausting night, his mind was still somewhat foggy.
Then memories of last night flooded back into his head.
For some reason, Stella, who normally blushed from something as simple as accidentally touching hands, had become terrifyingly aggressive last night.
'Was it because her ability awakened?'
Unable to think of another explanation, Shiro eventually blamed Stella's sudden initiative on her nature as a [Dragon].
After all, anyone familiar with legends knew what kind of temperament dragons were famous for.
Shiro carefully pulled his arm out of Stella's embrace.
Even that small movement woke the sleeping girl.
"Mm..."
Stella's nose twitched slightly before her crimson eyes slowly opened.
"Good morning..."
Her voice still carried a lazy softness from having just awakened.
"Morning. How does your body feel?"
Hearing his question, Stella tried to sit up.
However, a sudden ache forced her to abandon the attempt, and her soft body simply collapsed back onto Shiro under gravity.
"No... It still hurts a little. I can't get up at all..."
Feeling the weakness in her limbs, Stella awkwardly remained sprawled over him.
After that strange switch inside her had been flipped last night, she seemed to have gotten slightly too excited and overdone things.
Even now, Stella's legs still felt weak.
And at this moment, she was beginning to regret it a little.
'There's no way I can go outside and face anyone like this!'
'And the game never said it would hurt this much the next day!'
"Can you use your ability to recover directly?"
Shiro asked.
Besides their overwhelming attack and defensive power, dragons were also famous for extraordinary regeneration.
Since Stella could wield the power of a [Dragon], she should have inherited that regenerative ability as well.
"I can..."
"But this feeling is something I'll probably only experience once in my entire life."
"So I want to keep these injuries for a little while."
Suppressing the strange ache throughout her body, Stella revealed a happy smile.
"But you can't stay like this."
"At least ease it enough that you can walk."
As he spoke, Shiro moved his fingers slightly downward and began pressing against Stella's soft, pale abdomen.
The massage could not completely remove her pain, but it could at least relieve it somewhat.
"Mm~ Somehow... mm~ you seem really practiced at this..."
The tingling sensation from her abdomen made Stella instinctively wrap her arms around Shiro's neck.
Soft breaths repeatedly escaped her lips.
"This is a completely legitimate massage."
"Please stop making those strange noises."
"I don't want to either, but it's just... mm~ really comfortable~"
After some time, Shiro reluctantly removed his fingers from her smooth, jelly-soft abdomen.
There was no helping it.
If he continued any longer, they would enter material that could no longer be broadcast.
"Stella, there's something important I need to tell you."
Shiro spoke seriously to the girl whose body was still trembling faintly.
Among everyone around him, Stella seemed to be the only one who still did not understand his relationships.
Admittedly, part of that was because Stella had launched a surprise attack on him.
But now that their relationship had developed this far, there was no longer any reason to hide it.
Rather than letting her discover everything later, it was better for him to explain it himself.
And so, under Stella's curious gaze, Shiro slowly began explaining the relationships surrounding him.
...
Most of Hagun Academy's reconstruction had already been completed.
Aside from a few rarely used buildings, nearly everything had been restored to its original state by Kurono.
Wearing white casual clothes, Shiro stood alone in an open area.
A bright red handprint was clearly visible across his face.
Which was only natural.
Anyone who discovered they had suddenly become one member of someone else's harem would be furious before they happily accepted it.
If anything, the fact that Stella had merely slapped him once before throwing him out was already an impressive display of mercy.
As the second princess of the Vermillion Empire, unless it involved a political marriage, even dating an ordinary person could become a serious diplomatic incident.
Becoming a member of someone's harem was on an entirely different level.
Stella had considerable freedom because she got along extremely well with her family.
But if her father ever learned the truth—There was a good chance he would personally march over with an army the very next day.
So, even for the sake of his future happiness, Shiro needed to become stronger.
With a thought, the familiar ornate gate appeared before him once more.
Unlike before, Shiro did not immediately open it.
Instead, he placed one hand against the gate and wrapped the power of fate around it.
This was an experiment.
If it succeeded, the benefits would be enormous.
At the very least, he would no longer need to worry about accidentally entering a world without magic and wasting an entire week on a round trip.
Under his expectant gaze—The power of fate touched the gate.
Then—Heaven and earth changed.
In Shiro's vision, the distant horizon slowly disappeared.
The sky and earth gradually merged together.
Then the entire world suddenly went dark, as though someone in outer space had draped a gigantic black cloth over the planet.
Shiro felt as though his soul had risen into an entirely different dimension.
Everything around him became confused and returned to some primordial state of chaos.
Hearing.
Smell.
Touch.
Every sense capable of perceiving the outside world lost its function.
The sensation of having even life and death controlled by something else was profoundly uncomfortable.
Shiro tried to speak.
But his mouth could only produce a few scattered syllables whose meaning even he could not understand.
Fortunately, the state did not last long.
Soon, Shiro's intuition suddenly told him—
'Someone is looking at me.'
"Pfft~"
The other party laughed extremely rudely the instant she saw Shiro.
However, that clear, bell-like laughter at least allowed him to confirm that the mysterious person was female.
"Sorry, sorry~"
"It's just been a long time since I've seen something this interesting~"
After laughing for a while, the unknown girl offered an apology without the slightest sincerity.
"Ah, I forgot. You can't speak in your current state."
"Then I'll keep this short."
"You really shouldn't casually mess with that gate."
"If you try altering how it operates without possessing a Gift related to [Boundaries], there's a very real chance you'll become lost in the Outer Universe."
"Hmm... How should I explain this?"
"Right now, every time you travel, you can see [Living Beings], correct?"
"But if you randomly modify the gate without understanding how it works, one day you might suddenly teleport to some random corner outside the Solar System~"
The mysterious girl cheerfully described something absolutely terrifying in her beautiful voice.
"I know you have plenty of questions right now."
"But you're still far too weak."
"If she discovers what you look like in your current state, she might get angry enough to kill you on the spot."
"Once you reach roughly four-digit strength..."
"In terms you can understand, once you can casually destroy the planet beneath your feet, then you can start looking for a way to reach us."
"Don't worry."
"Even if you can't directly control it, the gate will still try its best to search for a suitable world according to what you want."
Finally—
Click—
The sound of a camera shutter rang beside Shiro's ears.
"Then, as payment for answering your questions, I'll be taking this~"
With those words—The girl's voice disappeared beyond the distant edge of the world.
…
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