"That Orga Lux chose you. Since your birthday is coming up, we'll give you that Orga Lux as your birthday present."
Her mother, Isabella Enfield, nodded mechanically as she decided on the gift just like every other year.
Claudia didn't refuse.
She had long grown accustomed to following her parents' arrangements, to living a life devoid of self. She didn't feel the need for change—an indifferent existence was fine too.
But this mindset changed after obtaining Pan-Dora.
Pan-Dora was an Orga Lux with an exceptionally vicious personality. It particularly enjoyed tormenting its wielder, creating countless nightmares where its master would experience various forms of death over and over. The nightmares it crafted never repeated, always finding new ways to torture its owner.
The previous wielder had lasted only three days before becoming a gaunt, skeletal wreck.
Yet Isabella gave this as a birthday gift to her own daughter. It was hard to imagine this was the act of a normal mother.
Claudia obtained Pan-Dora—and she held onto it for three years.
In those three years, she experienced over a thousand different deaths.
Not a single day, not a single night passed without torment.
At first, she simply endured.
This was a birthday gift from her mother, proof that her mother had expectations of her. So she would bear Pan-Dora's price and meet those expectations.
But few in this world could face death unmoved, and Claudia was no exception.
As she continuously endured the terror of dying, she finally began to doubt herself—whether her endurance was right, whether her way of living was correct, whether there was any meaning to an existence solely defined by meeting others' expectations.
It seemed she was missing something.
She had thought herself free of desires, that fulfilling her parents' expectations was enough, that no other thoughts were necessary.
But she was wrong.
Deep down, she had always been holding her breath. Every time she met those expectations, her heart would seethe with unwillingness from the strain, craving something else.
It was just that she hadn't understood what she truly wanted before, so she had lived like a doll.
But after confronting death, she began to understand.
What she lacked was obsession—or rather, conviction. The unyielding spirit to pursue a purpose, something many students in Asterisk City possessed, but she did not.
Rather than calmly accepting all inequalities, she longed for emotions as scorching as flames.
This was what she had been missing all along.
But how could she obtain such emotions?
Claudia couldn't find the answer, so she endured Pan-Dora's torment as usual.
Until one night, when an unexpected change occurred in her nightmare.
That was her first encounter with Roy within the dream.
That dream shattered her long-held understanding of Pan-Dora. She had always believed the nightmares were solely under Pan-Dora's control—that she was like a helpless ship caught in a whirlpool, struggling only to sink into the abyss. Never had she imagined someone could invade Pan-Dora's nightmares and even save her within them.
She was overjoyed and frantically tried to find that person.
But in the end, she couldn't locate him at all.
Even with the help of Ginga's intelligence network, she failed to track down the one who had intruded into her dreams. Her mother was surprised that, for the first time, Claudia had something she truly wanted to pursue—and with such stubborn determination, as if she wouldn't turn back until she hit a wall.
Yet, she never found him.
Moreover, after that single dream encounter, Claudia didn't see him in her dreams again for a long time.
Her heart felt like a mess of conflicting emotions—despair, confusion, numbness—all churning inside her.
After months of drifting through life in a daze, she finally encountered Roy in her dreams once more.
Thrilled, she tried to ask for his name, but before she could utter a word, the dream collapsed.
Even Pan-Dora herself must have been baffled, unable to comprehend how someone could invade a dream she had crafted.
Claudia waited with a restless heart.
Several more months passed before she saw Roy again.
So it wasn't that they could never meet—it was just that their dreams only connected at long intervals.
Claudia was elated by this discovery. Every time she entered the dream, she would immediately ask for his name.
Until, in one particular dream, she finally learned it.
Roy.
She immediately began searching for him.
Yet, she still couldn't find him—or the ones she did find were never the right person.
Just as she was growing desperate, another dream finally revealed Roy's whereabouts.
He was none other than the super-class criminal known as the Evil Eye Sorcerer, currently wanted by Ginga worldwide. The revelation nearly made Claudia's jaw drop.
But at that moment, Claudia trembled with excitement.
She had found her chance!
At last, she had the opportunity to experience that emotion she longed for!
Without delay, she sent people to contact Roy and immediately brought him to Asterisk City, enrolling him in Seidoukan Academy.
Everything was for the sake of that moment.
When Yabuki Eishirou informed her that his father had arrived in Asterisk City with a combat force of over two hundred to hunt down the Evil Eye Sorcerer, Claudia felt a long-lost sigh rise in her heart. The moment she had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Alone, she sought out Bujinzai.
She had only one goal.
To die for Roy.
That's right.
She wanted to die for Roy.
What she desired wasn't to receive passionate emotions—but to savor them. And what could be more intense than the emotions born from sacrificing oneself for another?
So, from the very beginning, she had gone there intending to die by Bujinzai's hand.
The moment Bujinzai pierced her heart, Claudia experienced unparalleled happiness.
Then, somehow, things had spiraled into the current situation.
Roy arrived just in time to save her, healed her fatal wound, and even led her to encounter Fan Xinglou—revealing an astonishing secret.
Roy didn't scold her for being selfish or foolish. Instead, he fully affirmed her wish.
"I'm sorry."
Deeply moved, Claudia threw herself into Roy's embrace.
"I won't do it again… Never again…"
The emotions she had longed to feel—she had already experienced them.
And with Roy by her side, the love she could feel would surely be no less intense than those emotions!
Their scorching skin pressed tightly together, the heat radiating from one body to the other until even the temperature in the room began to rise.
"Hold me."
Claudia lifted her head, her glistening, warm eyes misting over as a faint pink tinged the corners.
"Let me feel your love more deeply... Didn't you say you'd punish me properly?"
"You know what you're saying right now, don't you?"
Roy lowered his gaze to the exposed hollow of Claudia's collar, his breathing growing ragged. It had been two months since he arrived here—had he used her Mystic Eyes again today? He could feel his body temperature rising rapidly.
Damn it, Angra Mainyu!
"I know very well. No matter what happens in the future, I won't regret this!"
Claudia panted softly, her limbs coiling around him like an octopus.
With those words, Roy held back no longer, pushing Claudia onto the bed with rough force.
"Be rougher!"
"Fine."
"Even rougher!"
"..."
Roy waved a hand, casting a soundproof barrier.
For your first time, you're being way too bold!
***
Hey readers!
Want to read ahead? 📖 Join my Patreon for early access to 30+ advance chapters! Your support helps me write more and bring the story to you faster.
🔹patreon.com/aarvan🔹