Damn it, not again...
If the first time she awoke staring at the starry sky brought a sense of tranquility and detachment, then waking up this second time staring at a plain ceiling only filled Theresia with humiliation.
She recognized the layout immediately: this was a dorm room at Eden Academy. Clearly, Linen had dragged her here while she was unconscious.
What does that bastard actually want from me?
Theresia couldn't comprehend his motives at all.
If he truly intended to hand her over to the Shadow Knights' prison, he could have easily done so earlier tonight. On the other hand, if he meant to sell her off to the black market, it made no sense to keep her in his own dorm room, where there were too many eyes around. Sneaking her in might've been lucky, but getting her out unnoticed would be nearly impossible.
An unusual, faint fragrance hung in the air. Just as Theresia puzzled over it, the door opened suddenly. Linen walked in, carrying a plate of steaming fried rice whose aroma quickly overwhelmed that subtle scent.
Seeing her awake, Linen even raised the tray slightly. "Want some?"
"Get lost!" Theresia spat through clenched teeth.
Who could guarantee there wasn't another damned sleeping potion in that rice?!
[Congratulations on being rejected by the heroine. Reward: Mana equivalent to half the total amount of a One-Ring Arcana Mage!]
Linen nearly staggered backward in surprise.
Seriously? Is she that powerful?
He'd spent days dragging out his interactions with Hysteria and had barely managed to fill a quarter of his experience bar, yet this girl managed to fill half of it with a single venomous word.
Unfortunately, her defiant pride lasted less than five seconds before her stomach betrayed her with a loud, awkward growl.
"You say no, but your body's rather honest, Miss Assassin," Linen teased with a grin.
Theresia turned her head away, looking utterly miserable.
After working a full evening as a bartender without time to eat, then being dragged off by Hysteria for a card duel, her mind might have been resilient, but her body was at its absolute limit.
"What exactly are you planning? If you're just torturing me out of revenge, just hurry up and do it directly!" Theresia snapped angrily.
Unexpectedly, Linen laughed gently.
"Why would I torture you? Miss Theresia, we're comrades who share the same goal."
"Comrades?" Theresia scoffed bitterly. "You'd call a woman who tried to spill your blood just hours ago a comrade? Besides, is this how you treat your comrades?"
"That's merely due to a lack of mutual understanding, Miss Theresia. And there are far more precious fluids you could extract from me than just my blood." Linen wagged a finger teasingly. "Your understanding of 'comrade' is far too narrow. Allies don't have to be intimate or friendly. As long as our purposes align, even sworn enemies can cooperate."
"What are you implying?" Theresia frowned.
"Let me be blunt. I don't hate you, Miss Theresia. You're just an assassin doing your job—frankly, just a tool. I'm not foolish enough to hold a grudge against you." Linen inhaled deeply, his expression turning frigid. "Originally, I was just the useless third prince of Zijinghua, content to live out my days enjoying maids in black stockings. But because of a certain organization, my esteemed mother constantly worries that her mighty empire will someday fall to those Arcana madmen. Without awakened dragon blood, the only way I can avoid being discarded is to become a tool with imperial blood who masters the Arcana, prepared at all times to face those madmen whenever they finally strike."
"I don't hate my mother; as a woman, she had no choice. And likewise, I don't hate you, Theresia. My only target is the organization that uses people like you as tools, plunging the world into constant uncertainty—the cancer of this world—the Tower of Chronomancy!"
In that moment, Theresia felt as though the boy in front of her had removed one of his countless masks, revealing genuine anger. But she quickly regained her calm composure, sneering coldly:
"You say you want to destroy my employers, yet claim we're comrades?"
Linen simply narrowed his eyes, looking at her with a mixture of pity and scrutiny.
"But isn't the Tower of Chronomancy the world's largest source of [Forbidden Arcana]? Isn't your goal to eradicate all forbidden spells?"
"Or have you forgotten, Theresia? Have you forgotten it completely?"
"My…goal?" Theresia's pupils shrank. Vivid images flashed before her eyes—villages consumed by flames, people driven mad by forbidden magic, and anguished screams.
"Theresia Rebellia. Born in the southern Zijinghua Empire, daughter of an ordinary peasant woman and a minor mage with negligible Arcana talent—one who made a living doing parlor tricks. Such people, we typically call mere conjurers." Linen's voice carried an almost hypnotic quality, slowly unraveling her past. "You possessed talent far beyond his—thousands, tens of thousands of times stronger—but you hid it, longing only for a quiet life as a simple conjurer like your father. You assumed your father wanted the same."
"But you were mistaken."
"Shut up!" Theresia snapped fiercely, grinding her teeth.
Linen shook his head slightly.
"Your father desperately wanted to be a powerful Arcana mage. If he couldn't achieve it himself, his daughter would suffice. When you hid your talent, he couldn't accept reality. Desire drove him to open a dark door—[Forbidden Arcana]."
"He used forbidden magic to turn an entire village into evil spirits, attempting to reshape your body into a true Arcana prodigy. Official records claim Imperial Knights stopped him in time. But you know the real truth, don't you?"
"I told you to shut up!" Theresia struggled furiously, trying to rise but easily restrained by Linen's hand.
"It was you. That day you discovered your innate Arcana gift for mind manipulation. You forced those twisted spirits to slaughter each other, halting the devastation—and then killed your father, who died smiling proudly."
"Horrified by [Forbidden Arcana], you took your father's bones and the remains of the spirits, grinding them into a powder to create special bullets capable of destroying Arcana circuits. You swore to destroy all forbidden magic—this was the birth of your [Termination Rounds], wasn't it?"
Linen suddenly pulled a bundle of bullets from his spatial ring, weighing them thoughtfully.
"These things represent your nightmares, yet they've made you unstoppable. You're not fighting alone; your family and friends are fighting with you—or at least, what's left of them. You're running low, aren't you?"
"But have you ever wondered…" Linen changed his tone abruptly, his voice icy, "Your father—a mere conjurer who struggled to even cast basic spells—where did he learn such powerful forbidden magic, the materials and inspiration needed to turn people into spirits, and succeed?"
"And while you speak of cooperation, who exactly have you truly been serving all this time, wielding those [Termination Rounds]?"
"The…Tower…of Chronomancy?" Theresia whispered faintly, head lowered in shock.
"Not entirely hopeless I see." Linen nodded slowly, rising to his feet. "Now, would you like to reconsider working together?"
"In your dreams... You're no saint yourself…"
[Rejection successful, experience gained!]
Still stubborn, huh?
Linen shook his head wryly, hearing her firm rejection even as she teetered on the edge of unconsciousness.
Yet, he had foreseen precisely this outcome.
Indeed, this was exactly why he'd agreed to reconcile with Hysteria and bring Theresia to his dorm in the first place.
Compared to painstakingly extracting minuscule rewards from Hysteria, Theresia—who held far greater hatred and determination against him—provided rejections far more easily.
Retrieving the hidden incense made from succubus fluids in the corner, Linen gazed thoughtfully at the girl now collapsed on the floor, drenched in sweat as though she'd fought a desperate battle.
An amused thought suddenly surfaced in his mind:
Still using the traditional Hysteria perpetual motion machine?
Why not try the new and improved Theresia version!