QT: Against My Will-Chapter 625 - 12.05 - Prince Charming

Nora immediately notified Victor, showing him the scene, {She’s absolutely starved for some excitement, and is actually making a move on both of you at the same time."}

Gently, Victor passed Lily into Bertha’s arms, "Could you take Lily to the class?" he asked, his tone a mixture of command and request, "I have some bussiness to talk about with Elera."

Bertha gave a glance at Elera, who nodded silently from the couch. She then led Lily away.

Victor turned back towards Elera’s room and locked the door. He leaned into her body, pressing the heat of his crotch against the curve of her backside and let the softness of her hair tickle the skin of his face and neck.

Putting away her book, Elera had learned to rely solely on herself, growing up in circumstances that demanded independence. But because of Victor, she discovered an aspect of herself that she couldn’t manage alone — her growing lust. His presence ignited a desire within her that was uncontrollable.

Victor reached out, allowing his fingers to trail gently over the smooth surface of her stomach before gliding his hand up along the underside of her breasts, "It’s quite intriguing to see you so... unsettled by my mere presence."

Elera closed her eyes as the rush of need made her heart race, "Well, maybe you should hurry up with whatever you’re planning. I don’t have all day to be...ahh...hnggh..."

Victor began to caress her body, touching her where he knew she wanted to be touched.

Elera’s eyes were wet with anger as her mind continued to race with emotions, "I’m not going to be just another one out of your many lovers."

She pushed the palms of her hands against Victor’s chest, forcing him to release the grip of his arms from her waist. Elera turned away from him. "Leave," she said in a hushed voice. "Go!"

Victor didn’t back away. He gripped the back of her head and turned her face back towards him, forcing her to look into his eyes. He moved forward, wrapping his free arm around the curve of her waist and pulled her close, pressing his chest against hers. Their lips met. It wasn’t a passionate kiss. It wasn’t even a kiss of pleasure, but rather, it was one of necessity, of hunger.

· · ───────── · ⊱❈⊰· ───────── · ·

Nora, whose body had been torn apart during the ambush, had returned to her system’s body. She always chose an appearance that made her look much older. It was to provoke her brother, who had a preference for more youthful looks. They were something like twin flames — deeply connected yet contrasting.

She didn’t mind that she only had secondary soulmates, but Victor always yearned for that deep connection with a primary soulmate, a longing that often led him to fabricate it artificially with other people, for example, Elera.

{Did you refuse to seal your memories because of the dead soul you are still keeping around?} Nora asked, {Victor, we both know that it has already lost its effect.}

Victor looked at the naked Elera, now sound asleep in his arms, and clicked his tongue in frustration. ’Didn’t get my fill again, did I?’ he murmured, a hint of unfulfilled desires in his tone.

{And we both know who is behind it...don’t we, Nora?}

Shina had sucked enough power out of him to demand the dead soul back, and no longer needed him to nurture it, thus taking away its effects.

The part of Olivia’s dead soul had boosted Victor’s capacity to love, his capacity to enjoy life, and his overall engagement with the world around him. (In ch. 8.20, it was revealed that it was due to Bing Shi’s godhood not the dead soul. The dead soul only worked as a conductor.)

’Was this a part of her scheme all along?’ Victor suspected that when he made a wish to gain a shard of Olivia’s soul, she had killed it before offering it to the HQ, who had to make sure to grant his wish.

{Nora, investigate her ties with the HQ. She must have some deeper connection with them than we do.}

Victor was now convinced that she had led him to believe she was a dangerous entity that needed to be erased from his memories, by using her connections with the HQ — a calculated strategy to enhance her powers.

· · ─────── · ⊱❈⊰· ─────── · ·

Lily stepped into Nathaniel’s dorm, the door closing softly behind her. Nathaniel looked at her with a hint of perplexity, "Why are you here again?"

Lily’s response was simple yet earnest, "Lily doesn’t want to disturb mama’s time with uncle Victor."

"What about Bertha?" Lu Kai couldn’t help but recall his son, who would eagerly and perpetually bang on his parent’s bedroom door as if it were his personal drum set.

The mentioned Stinky Bun inside the space sneezed at Ru Quan’s face direction in response, "..."

"Bertha had to do some errands. The ship is short on personnel. Everyone’s really busy, but Shina isn’t doing anything," Lily said, indicating her satisfaction towards Shina, "My mama works all the time. Why doesn’t Shina have to work too?"

Nathaniel picked the little girl and went outside for a walk, "Shina has a lot of people do her work for her. Her team would stop everything on command if someone interrupted Shina’s rest. I know because it happened when I tried to get her to work once."

"But it’s not fair," Lily said. She accepted the banana Nathaniel offered, her small hands gripping it as she took a bite, "Everyone’s teasing me about Shina being my future godmother, all because of you."

Nathaniel, munching on his own banana, couldn’t help but smile at Lily’s cuteness, "Why is that?" Burdened by the weight of the child in his arms, he battled a wave of fatigue while heading to the main dock to take on his job as the chief navigator.

"They say you never pick up fights with anyone but Shina, just to get her attention." Lily couldn’t imagine her kind-hearted Nathaniel to involve himself with someone like Shina, ever, "I always tell them you are going to marry Lily but nobody believes me."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow in mock surprise, "Where did you pick up this idea of marriage, Lily?

"Lily learned from Bertha’s fairy tales," Her eyes sparkled with the earnestness of a child’s imagination, "Since you agreed to be my prince charming, that makes you my future husband like in those stories!"

Nathaniel chuckled, playing along with Lily’s whimsical logic. "Hm? I thought my duties were about slaying dragons and taming wild beasts. I’m also afraid the age gap might be a bit of a hurdle in our fairy tail, Lily."