Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 91

I AM PERFECT!!

Half an hour later, Illumca came into the dorm; Martell, Kim, and her guardian followed behind her.

“Connie! H-how’s Akula?” the Hero of Al-Khemiya approached her with a face full of worry.

“Allenca is treating her right now. We just have to wait,” Connie answered. “Breathe, Kim. Breathe…your breathing is becoming shallow.”

“That’s – that’s good,” the girl took a puff of the usual magical tool and tried to calm herself down. The agitation was not doing her lung any good. “Okay. I’m fine now. Sorry.”

“Connie. H-how was it?” she glanced discreetly at Akira and Hannah, who was awkwardly glancing at the newcomers from their seats before standing up and greeting them as per the etiquettes. They were not close to the Al-Khemiyans and did not know what to speak in such a tense situation.

“Relax. They know about the Charm Gaze,” Connie said briefly. “…and it was very strong. It managed to grab me for a few seconds even though I had prepared myself.”

“Then, are you…okay?” she asked, feeling rather ashamed for falling to his Skill.

Connie let out a bit of a laugh as she took Illumca’s hand; she clasped it between hers and squeezed tight. “I’m fine. The world would freeze over if my Dao could be compromised with something like that,” the blonde-haired girl gave the direction of the female dorm a worried look. “But after seeing the effect of the rejection of the Charm, I’m worried if it would have lasting effect on her mental condition.”

And just after she said those words, Cardinal Deacon Babblebrook came in with Eleanora and Allenca.

“Maiden! Is Akula fine?” Kim asked immediately, appearing rather rude and prudish in the fat Cardinal Deacon’s eyes, but the Maiden signaled him to keep his silence.

“She’s…fine,” the Maiden of Water said. “I haaave…never seen…such vicious…Charm Skill. It…waaas not…simple enthrallment. It gripped deep…in her mind…and have started too…rewrite her…will,” she gave Connie a look. “If iiit…was any…later…the Charm would haaave…become…permanent. I have…healed her…but she must…rest. The mental toll…was immense.”

Everyone gasped at this. Realizing the weight of the situation, Hannah, who had some friends she thought might have been charmed, asked with horror. “M-maiden of Water, pardon me for asking. If, say, a person has been charmed by the Hero of Vorzenny. What would happen?”

The Maiden was not sure how to answer. She looked at Eleanora, who answered for her. “Don’t worry. It will be gone with time. Especially if there is no further application of the Skill.”

The girl seemed to hesitate. She did not like speaking about such vile Skills. “But as for how long it will last, we don’t know. It might be gone in a few days, weeks, or even months. It could even leave lasting effect. That is why orthodox Wizards rarely dabble with the mind. We don’t know what can happen.”

While the worried people talked amongst each other after realizing the possible international ramifications of this incident, Connie and her party were staying apart from them.

“How we saved her was a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Nick offered.

“This kind of meddling with the mind is tricky. I needed him to directly abandon her. Giving her the crack needed for her to fight back,” Connie shook her head. “But that’s done and over with. Now we move to the next stage. Martell, you know what to do?”

“Yes!” Martell grinned as he patted the wooden box he was cuddling as if it was the most precious thing in the world. “I’m going to give the fish the bait he cannot refuse. Ooh, just thinking about it gives me tingles.”

“And you, Nick?”

“Yes, yes. I got it. It’s all ready. We’ll head out as soon as the sun sets. This kind of things should be done after the day is dark. For now, I’m going to take a short nap,” he said before he made himself comfortable and closed his eyes.

Illumca gave the man an annoyed look, then her eye softened as she turned towards Connie. She was rubbing her chin while gazing at nothing.

“Connie, what are you thinking about?” she asked after she noticed her doing it. She was getting used to her subtle habit.

“Mmm…something came into my mind when we were having that bet with the bastard. Tell me, do you know if there is any Skill that can prevent you from getting drunk?”

“A Skill that prevents someone from getting drunk? No. I’ve never heard of it.”

“Hmmm…that’s troublesome,” she said to no one in particular. “I might have to do some modifications to my plan.”

Illumca stared at Connie for a while. She was so lost in thought that she did not feel the intense look in the dark elf’s eye. Losing her patience, Illumca grabbed her wrist.

“W-what is it?”

“Connie, I want to join the fight.”

“No. We’ve talked about this,” the girl gave a short answer.

“I know I can do this. I’ve managed to gain more control of my fire after waking up! I can now even create a clone of my body with Fire!”

Connie rubbed her temples. “You saw what happened. You’ve experienced it yourself. That Skill of his is extremely dangerous,” Connie said. “We can strengthen the body through training and medicines. But to strengthen the mind is not so straightforward.”

“The only reason I managed to fight back is because of I have gone through many things; experienced many setbacks. You are young. Your Dao is still undeveloped. This is for your own good.”

“But…!”

“Enough. This talk is over.”

A tear fell from Illumca’s face at her rejection. Her lips trembled and she stormed out of the dorm, passing through the important personages standing by the door. They looked at the door slammed behind her and then to the helpless looking girl still in twintail left behind.

“Well. You botched that one, Cornelia,” Akira said.

“It’s cruel to make girls cry,” Hannah said, even though she did not particularly like the sharp-tongued dark elf.

“Hhh…This is my second life and still I do not understand women,” she murmured silently to herself.

While she was feeling rather sorry for herself, the towering Kasheem came to her and bowed respectfully.

“Maziri Cornelia. I wish to join you in your fight tomorrow,” he requested bluntly. “Kurosaki Yuuji had shamed Maziri Sooyoung. I will wash that shame with his blood.”

“Oh? Aren’t you tasked with protecting Maziri Sooyoung?” Martell asked from where he was sitting.

“I have asked for leave, and Haynim Abbas fired me.”

“What?”

“He said, “You are dismissed effective immediately. Anything that happens after your dismissal will not have anything to do with Al-Khemiya. I am very angry with you. And very busy. So busy that I might forget why I dismissed you after a week.”

“What a sly man,” Martell commented. It was basically giving this man a free rein.

“Good to have you, then. Kasheem. Our current opponent makes it impossible to have women in our fold. Having more manpower is good.”

“Indeed. Kurosaki Yuuji’s party was not to be trifled with,” the man said with a wary tone. “There is a reason why their party, the Windstorm Blade, is famous throughout Vorzenny,” he paused to glance at Connie. “Regarding the dark elf. You did not do wrong. As a leader, it is right to leave those who might be a hindrance to the fight.”

“…haha…hindrance, eh?” Connie closed her eyes and leaned back. There was a bit of a complicated feeling in her heart. “Sometimes…I hate being me.”

“Yuuji! Please let us in! We know you are in pain, so let’s just talk, aright?” Leida, the party’s wizard was trying to reach out to her lover, who had been secluding himself ever since their return.

“Yuuji! We got food! You must be hungry right? A full stomach makes everything good!” Seine followed after her.

Kamiya watched as Leida’s heartfelt pleas and Seine’s childish coaxing of the sulking Hero failed miserably. It had been going on for a few hours now and their voices had grown hoarse.

The Swordmaster took a gulp of her wine and rubbed her temple in exasperation. Their Hero was strong. This was something she could not refute. However, mentally speaking he was still a child; He was prone to mood swings and bouts of anger.

As his teacher and lover, she had a different kind of love to the kind that the other two had. She wanted him to learn, so she did not coddle him. Instead, she just waited for him to come out on his own.

The Hero of Vorzenny ignored the concerned voices coming from the locked door. Those voices that once would warm his heart now sounded aggravating. Mocking.

He had lost track of time ever since he entered his room and locked the door behind him. He sunk into the depth of self-pity and depression; just like he used to back in his own world.

His steepled fingers clenched so tight that his nails ripped into the skin; the pain did not register in his brain.

Yuuji’s eyes darted this way and that until he happened to catch a glimpse of his reflection on a mirror.

Milky white skin, with a face that would put all men to shame, and hair as lustrous as silk. The flicker of a candle danced in his eyes, illuminating the night within them.

For some reason, his own immaculate look staring back at him made his blood boil. He got up from the bed and ran his head against the mirror.

“AAARGH!!! FUCK!!”

The mirror broke into pieces.

Yuuji could feel the pain when small pieces of the mirror shards pressed deep into the skin of his forehead; yet he sustained no damage. The skin was as pristine as ever.

“Perfect,” the young man gazed into his reflection upon a large piece of the broken mirror that had fallen to the floor. He ran his finger across his cheek and repeated the words as if reciting a mantra. “Yes…I am…’perfect’…”

From the top of his head down to the tip of his toes, he was ‘perfect’.

In his past life, Kurosaki Yuuji was a boy who was born to an average family. Average look, average height, average grade. He lived this way until he fell in love for the first time and was rejected.

It all went spiraling down after that. He became the joke of the class, looked down upon, bullied; finally he could take it no more and chose to surrender his life to the reaper.

When he was awoken within the Summoning Circle, he had become what he always wanted.

Perfect.

That was his ‘cheat’. A gift that he was deprived of in his past life. And because of that ‘cheat’, he became someone ‘perfect’.

Every Skills learned would instantly be at full mastery. Thus, there was no need to practice. Even the Charm Gaze he had was all thanks to that ‘cheat’. Everything about him except for the boundary of his levels was ‘perfect’.

And with his knowledge of the game which he realized that Grea was based on, he aimed for the perfect ending. In which he would drown himself in riches and status and beautiful women. Women who would not even have spared him a glance in his past life. And to that end, he needed to follow the ‘scenario’ of the game down to its utmost detail.

He did it so that no one could reject him; so that he could be loved. But the pursuit of that twisted perfection began to twist his ideals, and he started to see the women who fell for him as his by right.

But now everything had crumbled before him. His perfect ending had been derailed. All because of some stupid girl who was nothing but a ‘Secondary Heroine’.

“Why? Why? Even after transmigrating here, how can a woman not fall to my look and charm?!”

I am perfect! Everything in this world is rightfully mine! And for that to happen, I need to make sure that I get the Perfect Ending!!

“No. I can’t accept this! I won’t accept this!!”

Clunk!!

Yuuji flinched when he heard something outside his balcony. He quickly got out with a sword in hand.

All that was outside was the chilly evening wind and a fist-sized rock wrapped with a piece of paper.

He warily poked the rock with his sword. After finding it safe, he opened the piece of paper and found that there was a message written on it with neat handwriting.

“Come to Serlbez Forest tomorrow noon, beloved. I will give you everything that you want.”

Such letters were not rare for him and he would usually just ignore it. But the name below caught his eyes.

“Cornelia Asterium Steelheart…is this…is this a new ‘scenario’?” Yuuji said to himself.

Yes. It must be. Perhaps the Charm Skill had a delayed reaction?

“Yes. Yes! It must be,” he repeated his conclusion as if to convince himself.

With a smile full of confidence, he came out of his room and hugged his lovers before asking them to come inside his room. He then told them of his plan tomorrow. Leida and Seine quickly agreed. Except for Kamiya, who was skeptical about the whole situation. But after a few bouts of coaxing in bed, she relented.

After all, if the worst comes to pass, their enemy was just a young noble girl with little experience in battle and a young elf who still smelled of trees. Perhaps that veteran they talked about would be of some challenge. But in this kingdom, unless it was someone like Sergio, she would have no difficulty in killing them.

If need be, she would take their heads off before they could do anything bad to her poor Yuuji.

Unbeknownst to him or his lovers, the paper with the message silently burst into flame and disintegrated within seconds. As if it was never there.