"Ugh, if you wanted a shoulder rub, you could've just said so..."
Even with his hands kneading her neck, Sellen didn't feel the slightest sense of satisfaction—if anything, a strange sense of defeat gnawed at her.
Honestly, the reason she'd gone to such lengths to hint at Lloyd wasn't to mess with her idiot apprentice. Quite the opposite. She'd simply realized she'd been too absorbed in her insurance research lately and hadn't really checked in on him. She'd just wanted an excuse to keep him around and chat for a bit.
But now...
Sellen let out a sigh.
"Forget it. Stop."
The more he rubbed, the more annoyed she got.
"Oh."
Lloyd withdrew his hands and asked, "Anything else?"
Sellen looked up, shot him a glance, and said with a touch of irritation, "What, can't a teacher chat with her student just because?"
As she spoke, she pulled a chair closer and pointed at it.
"Sit here. Keep me company for a while."
"Oh."
Lloyd nodded, sat down, and the two began talking.
At first, it was nothing special—just Sellen asking about his recent situation, whether he needed help, that sort of thing. Lloyd didn't hide anything and gave her a general update: he'd made it to Caelid and was currently waiting on preparations for the Battle Festival.
Sellen had originally planned to warn him to be careful during the festival, but after remembering her idiot apprentice's performance in past battles, she decided to skip it. Instead, she moved on to another question that had been bothering her lately.
"What's your relationship with the Lunar Princess?"
Judging from past events, that princess seemed to trust him quite a bit.
Lloyd paused to think.
"Well, I've met the parents. I get along pretty well with the Queen of the Full Moon."
Sellen: "...?"
Hold on a second—wasn't that a bit too much to drop all at once?
After taking some time to digest that statement, she asked a few more questions and soon had a general grasp of the situation with the Queen and Ranni.
"I didn't expect the Queen to be so lucid. But... that kind of approach definitely sounds like her."
While Sellen didn't care for the Carian faction, she didn't have any real complaints about the Queen of the Full Moon. Honestly, if she were in that position—stuck between two hostile factions and constantly catching the blame—she would've lobbed a fully charged Full Moon Sorcery at the Academy a long time ago.
As for Ranni...
Sure, Lloyd's earlier comment had sounded a bit ambiguous, but Sellen never once thought there was anything going on between him and Ranni. Knowing her dumb apprentice all too well, she took his words at face value.
One was a noble, mysterious Lunar Princess. The other was a clueless idiot who couldn't even catch the hint behind a neck massage.
Add in Lloyd's nonexistent social skills, and honestly, the only reason Sellen could think of for Ranni not offing her apprentice was that she probably couldn't beat him.
Eventually, as the conversation drifted from the Academy to the Queen of the Full Moon, Lloyd casually brought up Thops.
After they talked a bit and he showed her the notebook, Sellen's expression turned subtly complicated.
"Sometimes I really can't tell if you're faking your stupidity or just stupidly lucky. This thing... you actually handed it to the perfect person..."
This technique, well...
Sellen had to admit—if it ever became public knowledge, it would shake the foundations of the current magic system like an earthquake.
But it wasn't like it would spell the end of all Sorcerers.
In the Lands Between, the sorcerers' predecessors were known as Astrologers. But whether you called them Sorcerers or Astrologers, they weren't meant to be frontline warriors—they were researchers, through and through.
Just like she'd once explained to Lloyd:
Glintstone Sorcery was born from the desire to study the stars, and the life of the stars.
Of course, that was the philosophy of the Primeval Current. There were plenty of other schools within the Academy.
But regardless of their affiliation, unless they were one of the battle-mages from Conspectus of Haima who swung giant hammers, most sorcerers, when faced with war, weren't thinking about how to benefit from it.
They were thinking about how to seal themselves away and keep researching from the safety of their shells.
From Glintstone Pebble to Comet Azur, all of these sorceries were, in truth, just by-products of deeper research.
The true strength of a sorcerer doesn't lie solely in the brilliance of their Glintstone Staff—it lies in their mind.
Take now, for instance. Just by glancing through the contents of that notebook, Sellen could already come up with several ways to counter such a force-field defense. Slow-moving area-explosion spells, stone-casting spells laced with physical impact, or even researching force fields herself to create new sorceries that ignore existing ones...
But did that mean this new magic was flawed? Not at all.
If you can research a workaround, why wouldn't your opponent?
You come up with a slow explosive spell? I widen my force field.
You combine physical attacks with magic? I'll develop a barrier that deflects both.
You invent a spell that bypasses force fields? I'll invent one that nullifies your bypassing.
It's foundational.
And that's what makes it so terrifying.
It's like the world's first steam engine—maybe clunky, maybe crude, but it marked the beginning of everything.
Whoever created this spell didn't just make something powerful—they pulled open the curtain on a brand new era of sorcery. That alone is enough to carve their name into history. In fact, from a certain perspective, their contribution might even surpass that of the two great masters.
After all, those two only deepened existing fields. This one opened a door no one had ever thought to knock on.
But...
"If you handed him over to the current Academy faction, he wouldn't last five minutes—and this research would be burned to ash."
Not every sorcerer is devoted to knowledge. If they were, the First Sorcerer's War would never have happened.
Factional strife, resource disputes, academic rivalry...
For sorcerers, conflict isn't limited to theory. It bleeds into everything.
The Academy faction is the obvious example. Right now, they're presenting a united front, suppressing Caria while watching the Cuckoos. But if they actually succeeded in eliminating both, it wouldn't be long before they'd fracture by classroom, launching new disputes under a different name.
Caria? They all claim loyalty to the Queen—but if the Academy and Cuckoos were dealt with, would proud mages truly accept being ruled by royalty?
And the Cuckoos... that flock who love hijacking other nests—how long before they turned on each other the moment victory was secured?
In this battle unfolding across the Lakes of Liurnia, no faction was clean. None were free of internal cracks.
In such a world, no matter which group got their hands on this person—or his spell—he'd almost certainly lose both his life and his work.
Faith, ambition, envy...
There are too many motives and excuses for "accidents."
But the Queen of the Full Moon? She doesn't need any of that.
She's a top-tier researcher in her own right—open-minded, renowned, and currently uninvolved in any major disputes.
As for why she stays out of it all, Sellen could guess.
She's tired. Let it all burn.
After so many years of loyal service—propping up Caria, mediating the Academy's infighting, keeping watch for the next world-ending disaster—she didn't even have time to do her own research. The two masters eventually left. Her sisters married off to distant lands and never wrote. And her husband? He ran off, swallowed by the Golden Order.
And still, they kept fanning the flames.
Fine. Keep fanning the flames. Stoke the chaos you were so desperate to see.
But...
That thought made Sellen suddenly frown.
As a fellow researcher, she could understand why the Queen might've taken in Thops.
But piecing it together with everything Lloyd had said... something didn't sit right.
Because in her memory, while the Queen of the Full Moon had always been someone who might compromise for the bigger picture, she was never the type to hide away in silence after being mocked and belittled.
Too many had forgotten—Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, was once a hero. Just like Radagon.
In the past, she'd led the Academy to victory against the Golden Order itself—on the battlefield, no less—forcing the other side to sue for peace through marriage.
If someone like her had truly lost her mind and withdrawn from the world, that was one thing. But if she was lucid again... even if she didn't want to be queen... even if she resented it...
But looking at the chaos now—and remembering all the humiliations she had once endured for the sake of the greater good—could she really sit back and do nothing?
This was the Queen of the Full Moon we were talking about!
She had once led Caria Manor almost single-handedly in crushing the Academy Faction, and forced the Golden Order—a regime known for eradicating heresy—into a political marriage just to end the war. No one could say how much rage a "hero" like her had buried in the depths of her heart after all that.
Sure, Sellen knew that in terms of raw power, the Queen wasn't some untouchable figure—at most, an overpowered hero-class unit. She could be taken down, if you were willing to pay the price.
But far too many people conveniently forgot that the Queen of the Full Moon wasn't always a queen—she was, first and foremost, a top-tier sorcerer. A researcher of the highest caliber.
And potentially the most dangerous kind of person—one capable of pulling off world-shaking feats.
For someone like her, the title of "Queen" was more a shackle than a crown. It held her back. If she were ever truly unleashed... even Sellen dared not imagine the scale of what she might do.
And now, despite regaining clarity, she had chosen to remain quietly within the Grand Library. Even if people still called her the Queen of the Full Moon, that only proved she had let go of everything else.
What's more, just recently, Lloyd had handed her a pivot point.
That pivot—Thops—held the potential to upend the entire field of sorcery.
And she had accepted it.
This...
When Sellen pieced it all together, her expression shifted.
"You idiot disciple—didn't you say you had a good relationship with the Queen of the Full Moon?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Then could you introduce me? Tell her I'm interested in joining her plan."
Her voice had a noticeable edge of excitement.
Something this interesting? There was no way she wasn't getting involved.
Sure, she and the Queen had clashed in the past, but that was mostly because of Carian faction loyalties and their differing approaches to Primeval Sorcery.
But now? The Queen didn't even bother keeping up appearances for the Carian side anymore. And Sellen herself wasn't exactly tight with the Academy either.
As for the Primeval Current, she'd come to understand its flaws. As long as she applied a few extra safeguards, she figured the Queen would be willing to accept her.
Besides, things were likely still in their early stages. Sellen knew the difference between lending support when it mattered most and showing up once the victory was already won.
Lloyd didn't know what she was planning, but after hearing her request, he just nodded and teleported straight over to ask the Queen.
The Queen of the Full Moon agreed without hesitation and asked when Sellen would be arriving.
"Right now."
So, after a bit of packing, Lloyd brought Sellen to the Grand Library.
There, the two women stood face-to-face.
The Queen looked down at Sellen and smiled.
"Little Sellen, you've killed quite a few Carian loyalists."
Sellen's expression didn't change in the slightest.
"If they'd actually listened to you back then, none of that would've happened—don't you think?"
The Queen's smile deepened.
"Still as sharp as ever."
She nodded with clear satisfaction, then extended her hand.
"I like clever people."
"Welcome back to the Academy, Professor Sellen."
...
Seeing that they were getting along and deep in conversation, Lloyd figured it was a good time to excuse himself. He stopped by the entrance to hand Moongrum some shrimp, then went to check in on Thops, who was still a bit weak from his recovery.
After a few words to make sure everything was fine, he returned to Caelid.
Shortly after he left, the following conversation took place inside the Grand Library.
"By the way—how did your daughter not end up throwing the moon at him?"
Sellen was genuinely baffled. Even she sometimes wanted to smack him with her staff, let alone the ever-elegant Lunar Princess. Whether she could beat him was another matter, but the fact that she could be around him and not lose her temper just didn't match the image Sellen had of her.
But the Queen of the Full Moon didn't answer directly. After a moment of thought, she said something that seemed completely unrelated.
"He gave Ranni a Dark Moon Greatsword."
Sellen: "...?"
Wait, what?
A Dark Moon Greatsword? He gave one? To her?
Seeing the stunned look on Sellen's face, the Queen looked pleased and added, "She accepted it."
Sellen: "..."
Sellen: "???"
...
Elsewhere.
Back in Caelid, Lloyd found Millicent sitting off to the side of the rest camp, quietly cleaning her weapon.
"...Mr. Lloyd."
She turned at the sound of footsteps, a bit wary at first, but relaxed when she saw who it was.
"Do you need something?"
"Same as always. Just checking your condition."
As Lloyd walked over and crouched down beside her, Millicent instinctively leaned in a little closer.
It had been a while since the first examination. In the meantime, Lloyd had performed several follow-up checkups while gathering data to prepare her new arm. By now, she was used to it—there was no longer any resistance, and she even cooperated willingly.
As for why it was a full physical check instead of just inspecting the prosthetic site, it wasn't about Lloyd taking advantage of her.
Combat prosthetics needed to work in sync with the whole body. Unlike simple walking aids, they had to account for coordination, flexibility, and responsiveness. A full examination was necessary.
Millicent had never misunderstood his intent. If anything, she knew Lloyd always provided her with healing during these checkups. And honestly, looking at her own body—riddled with wounds and eaten away by Scarlet Rot—there wasn't anything remotely appealing about it. Anyone else might vomit at the sight.
Still, being touched and examined like this brought a faint sense of shame.
Partly because of the physical contact—no matter how much she understood his kindness or the medical necessity, that instinctive sense of embarrassment lingered.
And partly... it was guilt.
"I'm sorry you have to keep tending to such an ugly, rotted body..."
She meant it. It wasn't just modesty or courtesy.
Even she, long afflicted by Scarlet Rot, felt disgusted looking at the oozing flesh and wounds. If it were anyone else, they might not just throw up—they could even risk being infected.
Yet Lloyd never showed a hint of disgust. Even the parts she found unbearable to touch, he handled for her—calmly, carefully, even more gently than she could manage herself.
It was...
"No need to apologize."
Lloyd didn't even look up as he replied, his voice natural and matter-of-fact.
"I've never once thought you were ugly."
"Forget the rot—in my eyes, that's nothing. Even if it got worse, bad enough to make me frown—though I honestly don't know what would make me frown at this point..."
"It still wouldn't matter."
"No matter how decayed the body becomes, it can't tarnish the soul inside."
"In fact, it's because your soul remains untouched—because it holds onto its dignity despite the rot—that it shines all the more brightly."
"The deeper the corruption, the more clearly that beauty stands out."
"So, yes. I truly think you're beautiful."
"Millicent."
"Your soul. Your dignity. Even your body—they're all beautiful to me."
"You have no reason to blame yourself for any of it."
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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