{...Fine... I suppose... I cannot leave my Master in such a dire position... I shall intervene, only this once... I will create a temporary magic boosting zone around this area, flooding the immediate space with gathered magical energy. This will enable Master to quickly do something useful and escape.}

[Hurray! You finally spoke a full sentence without pausing for an unreasonable amount of time! That is the fastest you have talked in centuries! I was beginning to think you had forgotten how to communicate properly!]

Fact: Tensei has a portal creation ability, one that allows him to tear holes in the fabric of space and step through to another location entirely.

Provided he has enough magical energy and concentration to perform the complex spatial calculations required for safe and accurate travel.

But it would be far too dangerous to use this portal ability while the girls were still physically hogging his body and pressing against him from all sides.

Because the spatial tear did not discriminate between friend and foe — it could easily sever parts of them that were too close to the edge, sending their detached limbs or fingers, or worse, to another location entirely, leaving them maimed, bleeding and screaming on the ground.

So with the temporary magic booster that Stem had created around him, flooding the area with enhanced magical energy far beyond his normal capacity, Tensei strengthened himself physically with raw magical power.

His muscles gained a sudden and explosive surge of strength.

This allowed him to push the grasping women back just enough to gain a small but crucial amount of space between his body and theirs.

Then the ground beneath him opened with a violent and shimmering violet tear, a wound in space that glowed with unstable energy.

Tensei fell inside the portal, dropping through the opening and disappearing from the wooden house.

He appeared somewhere more secluded in the vast expanse of Verdant Spire, a part of the forest that he had not yet explored during his limited time in the village.

Immediately, he collapsed against the trunk of a large tree to catch his breath and calm his racing heart.

He was thankful that he had escaped with his clothing mostly intact and his (imaginary) virginity still his own.

After a few long and shaky minutes of recovery, during which his breathing slowly returned to normal, he began to look around at his surroundings properly.

He took in the sights and sounds of the unfamiliar section of the forest.

That side of the woodland was not inhabited by tree houses or cottages, or any visible signs of Amazon occupation — it seemed to be a wild and untouched area, preserved in its natural state without any interference from the village residents.

However, despite the lack of permanent structures, Amazons still passed through the area on various errands and patrols.

Many of them, in their tall and imposing forms, noticed him sitting there against the tree and waved at him cheerfully as they walked by.

The friendly gestures was a stark contrast to the aggressive grabbing and pinning he had experienced just minutes earlier.

It made him think; "Maybe they are not wholly immoral..."

The trees in this part of the forest where taller and larger. And also very ancient-looking.

Their trunks were thick and gnarled with age, their branches spreading wide and high above the ground, creating a dense canopy that filtered the morning sunlight into soft golden beams that danced on the forest floor.

It was magical and ethereal.

And scattered among the roots, the fallen leaves, and the patches of moss, he could see some animals and small monsters that he had never seen before in his travels — creatures with too many eyes or too many legs that seemed to shift and shimmer in the dappled light.

It was, to him, a peaceful place, despite the lingering adrenaline and anxiety from his recent encounter.

"Beautiful..." he muttered to himself under his breath, his golden eyes sweeping across the landscape with appreciation and wonder.

This more fantasy setting was a bit different than all the mountains, Sakura trees, and Eastern-Asian-like nature.

But as he finally pushed himself up from the tree trunk and turned his body to prepare to find Sakura and Princess Lily--well intending to report his mistreatment and request permission to leave immediately--he encountered something unexpected.

"Ah."

Or rather, someone.

"Oh?"

Indeed.

Tensei, ragged, manhandled, and still slightly disheveled from his struggle with the aggressive Amazons, was standing only some meters away from Benjamin Mark, who had just come out from around a corner of large bushes and thick undergrowth, his blue eyes landing on Tensei’s golden ones in the soft morning light.

"...Sup." Benjamin raised one hand in a casual greeting.

As if encountering a strange man in the middle of a secluded forest with his clothes half-torn and his wings ruffled was an everyday occurrence for him.

"Good morning to you as well, Benjamin Mark-sama..." Tensei squinted his golden eyes suspiciously, his body tensing slightly as he studied the other man’s face and demeanor.

He and Benjamin stared at each other for a long and uncomfortable while, neither of them speaking or moving, or even looking away.

They were just watching themselves as the gentle morning wind blew through the forest and ruffled their short hairs in opposite directions.

"I... heard from some very ’gentle’ ladies, who visited my temporary accommodation this morning, that you were the one who sent them to attend to me and keep me company during my stay?" Tensei finally said, breaking the silence with an edge of accusation in his voice.

"Ah... that explains your somewhat disheveled and squeezed-up appearance, and why you look like you’ve been running from a bear for the past hour," Benjamin eyed Tensei’s ruffled clothing and his slightly panicked expression, connecting the dots in his mind. "Did... they rape you?"

"I did not allow the situation to reach such a conclusion, thank you for your concern," Tensei nodded stiffly, his jaw tight with residual tension. "But I would very much like to ask why you would do such a... terrible and thoughtless thing to a fellow man who has done you no harm, and given you no reason to wish him ill."

"Mhm. I was feeling a bit mischievous this morning, that’s all... I didn’t think they’d actually pin you down, but it’s feasible. I underestimated their enthusiasm and coordination," Benjamin shrugged his shoulders casually, turning his gaze away from Tensei to look at a random deer-sized mouse that was calmly eating grass at one corner of the clearing.

It’s massive incisors grinding away at the green vegetation without any apparent concern for the tension between the two men nearby.

"You know," Benjamin started again, "there are only two men in this entire forest, as far as I am aware. That is a dangerous ratio, do you not think?"

Tensei raised a brow in suspicion. "Two... men?"

"Sorry, I misspoke. There’s... only one man in this forest," Benjamin corrected himself and giggled a little, an odd and unsettling sound in the quiet clearing. "Can I come over there?"

Tensei frowned deeply, his fiery golden eyes narrowing even further with alarm. "I do not think that is a good idea. And I think you already know that too."

"How come? What’s the harm in two people standing a little closer while they talk? We’re not enemies, as far as I know."

"You must feel it too. That wrongness and discomfort, that crawling sensation on your skin when we both look at each other for too long or stand too close," Tensei’s wings shuddered a little behind his back, the feathers ruffling and settling in an involuntary response to some invisible pressure in the air between them.

He continued speaking; "I noticed during your time in Shishi-no-su that you deliberately ignored me and avoided my presence, even when we were in the same room or hallway. And I must confess that I ignored you too. My body moved away from you on its own, as if pulled by some instinct I cannot explain."

"Right..." Benjamin moved a single step forward, testing the invisible boundary between them. "I get the feeling that being together in the same space isn’t good for either of us. That something bad might happen if we get too close."

"Then why are you coming closer to me now?!" Tensei snapped at him, his voice rising with panic and frustration. "Please move back a few more steps! We are not even supposed to be speaking to each other like this, let alone standing at this distance! Every instinct I have is screaming at me to flee from you as fast as my wings can carry me!"

"But you know, I’ve been thinking about this ever since I first noticed the pattern," Benjamin moved two more steps forward. "It definitely might just be paranoia and overthinking on both of our parts. Maybe there’s no real danger at all."

"It cannot be a coincidence that both you and I have consistently refused to communicate directly with each other in this world, despite having multiple opportunities and no logical reason to avoid each other!" Tensei yelled, his wings spreading slightly as if preparing for flight. "There must be a reason for this mutual avoidance, but it is one you and I cannot yet understand.

"We do not have enough information to solve this puzzle. So I strongly suggest that we continue as we have been doing since we first became aware of each other’s existence; let us act as if we are strangers who have never met and have no business speaking to each other. It is safer that way."

Benjamin put a hand on his chin for a while, considering Tensei’s words and the strange tension that crackled in the air between them like static electricity before a thunderstorm.

Then he muttered, almost to himself: "Nah. That is too gloomy for me. I would rather understand the problem than run away from it."

{Master... please do not take his words for it. Do not come into contact with him than you already have. He is dangerous to you, as you are dangerous to him.}

[Stem?! So you feel the wrongness too?]

And as Benjamin watched the other person standing only a few meters away from him, his blue eyes locked onto Tensei’s golden ones, Sys also chipped in with its own analysis and warning, adding another voice to the growing chorus of concern—