“What are you looking at?” Celia followed Ansu’s gaze and peered outward. “Looking for an exit?”
Ansu was indeed looking for the magic gate they had entered through, but he could see nothing but the grand, spacious hall; she had completely closed the space barrier.
“Stop thinking about it. You can’t get out!” Celia smirked wickedly, her flawless white cheek slowly approaching Ansu’s.
“Have you forgotten the mechanics of this Void Corridor? The entrance to the space barrier is locked and hidden by our secret key. Without permission, no one can enter or leave, no matter what!”
“Our... secret key?” Ansu looked at her in confusion.
It sounded like they had moved into a new home and she had kept a new key for herself, but... where was it?
“I originally planned to set it up with you when you returned, since this is our home together...” Celia pursed her lips and said with feigned sorrow, “But, but you have disappointed me so! It seems... I can only keep you completely imprisoned as a punishment...”
“Huh?” Ansu looked at Celia’s strangely ‘sorrowful’ expression, unable to tell if she was being serious or just trying to scare him.
“About that...” He could only struggle to sit up, trying to leave the spacious throne. “Celia, I just woke up today and I’m still feeling a bit unwell... Open the Void Corridor, I want to go out for some fresh air...”
“But there is no need for fresh air here.” Celia lightly raised a hand, and invisible gravity magic pressed Ansu back down.
“This is the gap between the material plane and the spiritual realm, existing in a state of superposition. As long as the mine outside doesn’t collapse and seal itself off, the air here will never run out~”
She stared intently at Ansu, who found it difficult to resist her due to his physical weakness, a faint dark red light flickering in her eyes.
Dangerous thoughts surged in her heart, causing her tone to become strange.
“Ansu... just stay here with me obediently. Don’t ever leave again~”
Hearing this, Ansu’s mind suddenly sharpened.
He stared seriously at the witch whose expression had turned odd, and many terrifying memories suddenly surfaced.
The last time... the Celia who had blackened into a crazy yandere had appeared in this very cave...
This place really felt a bit cursed.
“Wait... are we really doing the dark room scenario!” Ansu struggled again, attempting to stand up. “Celia, you must be joking... right?”
Whether it was an illusion or not, for a split second just now, he really felt that Celia was being serious!
“Guess~” The corners of Celia’s mouth curled up slightly.
Invisible gravity magic pressed him back onto the throne once more. She leaned over, pressing her body ambiguously against his chest.
“If you do something wrong, you have to accept the punishment. Who told you to be so naughty~”
Celia leaned close to Ansu with a smile, her warm breath brushing against his ear. “I finally have time to settle some old accounts with you. Let’s carefully recall exactly where you went wrong...”
“First!”
A slender fingertip poked his chest, and the smile on Celia’s face suddenly turned cold.
“You told Freya about the secret between us!”
How could he tell Freya about something like the hypnosis! That was a very private matter between the two of them. Freya was an outsider! What right did she have to know about it?
“Could it be that the Holy Maiden outside is just that trustworthy? If you can tell her about the hypnosis, do you plan on letting her take her place in our home in the future... so the three of us can live together without any boundaries!?”
She finished speaking with a face full of resentment, expecting Ansu to be filled with guilt or to change the subject as he usually did, but she didn’t expect...
“Wrong!” Ansu suddenly refuted her with a serious face. “My dear Witch, you are dead wrong! That statement of yours is a classic example of a slippery slope fallacy in logic!”
Celia froze for a moment. “Huh?”
Ansu patiently explained to her, “A slippery slope fallacy refers to a logical error where the strength of each causal link in a chain of events is exaggerated, turning a mere possibility into an inevitability, ultimately leading to an unreasonable conclusion!”
Celia immediately furrowed her brows. “Ansu! What are you talking about?”
“What I mean is...” Ansu looked into those beautiful eyes so close to his own and blinked innocently. “You are really overthinking it.”
“I told her to be wary of hypnosis just as a precaution... In case you’re in a bad mood one day and, after hypnotizing her, you hear something you don’t like and get so angry that you kill her and modify her into various unspeakable demonic monsters... wouldn’t that be terrible?”
“You also know that Freya is vital to our cause.” Ansu said earnestly, “You just said yourself that you certainly wouldn't lay a hand on her or make things difficult for her... Isn’t what I did perfectly aligned with our interests? I am in the right!”
“I’m not nearly as extreme as you say!” Celia suddenly felt a bit helpless. “Just because I hear someone say something bad about me, I’m going to turn them into a monster? When did I ever give you that impression!”
“That’s hard to say...” Ansu muttered silently in his heart. After all, he had already seen every possible version of Freya...
Celia suddenly felt a bit annoyed. Somehow, after all that talking, it had turned out to be her fault... Wasn’t she the one ‘settling old accounts’ with Ansu?
“Logic this, logic that! I can’t win an argument against you, so I’ll let this one pass for now! But!” Celia sneered, “This second question—I’d like to see how you explain it.”
Ansu feigned composure. “What question?”
“Ansu... are you hiding something from me?” Celia gazed at Ansu, her eyes becoming strangely complex. “I always feel like you’re hiding a massive secret from me. Something that absolutely cannot be said, something very important that, once revealed, would change everything.”
Ansu’s heart rate accelerated significantly, but he still tried his best to keep his expression unchanged.
“A massive secret?” He shook his head and said helplessly, “Celia... how is that possible? You’re overthinking things again.”
At least for now, Ansu was not going to reveal everything to her, especially not the massive minefield that was his ‘deception’...
“Is that so...” Celia stared fixedly into Ansu’s eyes, her body unconsciously leaning closer to him until she was almost nestled in his warm embrace.
After inheriting this batch of precious ancient texts, Celia actually had countless opportunities to cast black magic on Ansu that was far more powerful and insidious than 【Soul Dominion - Hypnosis】, magic that could make him open his heart to her completely, but...
She hesitated, and ultimately abandoned the idea.
Celia pursed her lips and gave a bitter smile in her heart. Had she really become this indecisive?
Or rather...
Was she afraid of getting a result she didn't want to accept?
“Actually, I’ve had this feeling for a while... After all, you are always so clever and sharp, almost as if you have foresight...”
Celia stopped looking into Ansu’s eyes; she simply lay on his chest and spoke softly. “Everyone is played like a fool by you, Ansu... You really are incredible. Even ancient demons, who are naturally cunning and live by deceiving and beguiling humans, are helpless against you. Even the Goddess of Holy Light...”
Ansu had the confidence to refuse her, to stall her...
If it were anyone else, upon hearing a divine decree from a deity, let alone being fanatical enough to work themselves to death... they would at least be wary of the head of the righteous gods, so nervous and terrified they couldn't sleep, right?
Ansu had far too many secrets, so many that she was a little afraid...
“I do indeed... have a nearly intuitive perception of certain fragments of the future.” Ansu knew that if he kept using his ‘cheats’ like this, the witch would sooner or later become so suspicious she wouldn't be able to sleep, which might even create a rift between them. So, he tried to rationalize it, choosing his words carefully.
“Remember when I dreamed of that bad ending for the two of us in the ancient ruins? That prophetic dream?”
“I remember.” Celia nodded gently.
“It’s like that.” Ansu tried to push this talent onto the mysterious realm of the gods. “Perhaps because of my status as a Chosen One, or for some other reason, when I encounter a major crisis, I always get a sense of deja vu. You know what deja vu is, right? It’s that feeling where you’ve clearly never experienced a scene before, yet in a certain moment, it feels strangely familiar.”
“Then have you foreseen how far into the future...” Celia looked up curiously. “Regarding... our ending?”
“Then I really would be a god.” Ansu couldn't help but laugh. “I’m sorry, but no.”
“Why do I always feel like... this isn’t the final answer I want to know.” Celia lay back on Ansu’s chest and murmured, “I feel like you’re changing the subject again, using a secret I don’t care much about to cover up the secret you truly can’t tell me. Ansu, you are so cunning...”
“In logic, that’s called a hasty generalization.” Ansu continued his serious sophistry.
“My dear Witch, you cannot view a problem one-dimensionally; doing so only leads to erroneous conclusions. How could I possibly deceive you that much? With a mind as sharp and genius as yours, how could you possibly allow me to keep deceiving you from the beginning until now? It’s simply a joke...”
Celia curled her lip and looked up with a bit of frustration. “Ansu, regardless of whether you’ve lied to me or not, your eloquence is as excellent as ever, isn’t it?”
“Hmm?” Ansu blinked and said with a smile, “Eloquence? It’s alright, I suppose...”
When he argued with his sister at home, Vera had never won an argument...
To the point where that little girl would get so frustrated with him that she'd resort to cheap tricks, like pouncing on him to tickle him... He most disdained the use of such underhanded tactics; if you can’t win the debate, you can’t win the debate, so why get angry and resort to physical violence?
“Eloquence is one thing, but I truly haven't deceived...”
Just as Ansu was about to go on another long-winded speech, Celia sneered impatiently and pounced directly onto him.
“Just shut up!”
A fierce and passionate kiss immediately blocked Ansu’s mouth.
Rate on N.U.
