"Ariel..."

"Ariel."

"Ariel!"

Ariel opened her eyes again.

There was no sunlight, and no small courtyard.

Only an exquisitely beautiful, familiar face, full of anxious worry.

"Muse... Miss..."

"Don’t sleep, don’t sleep. I’m stopping the bleeding!"

Muen was all flustered. With absolutely no medical experience, once he’d lost the support of healing magic scrolls or magic tools, he looked completely at a loss facing a situation like this.

Thankfully, his strong mental resilience was still there. He forced himself to calm down fast, lifted the clothing at Ariel’s abdomen, exposing that savage wound. There wasn’t even time to admire Ariel’s slender waist. Muen quickly pressed and wrapped it with a large amount of bandages to help her stop the bleeding.

But it didn’t do much.

A wound punched through by something cylindrical was extremely hard to deal with. Unlike a simple blade cut, where pressing it closed could stop the bleeding to a large extent, this wound was too large. No matter how many bandages Muen used, no matter how hard he pressed, he could only temporarily slow the flow of blood.

In the previous battle, Ariel had bled who knew how many times, overdrawn her body who knew how many times.

Even if her physical constitution was strong, who could say how much blood was still flowing inside her at this moment?

Just the bleeding alone was already deadly.

And the reason... was still that Ariel herself was too weak.

No battle qi.

No magic power.

No stamina.

All the potential in her body had been squeezed dry, and on top of that, that last move just now was clearly a trump card she’d forced out by sheer stubbornness. Now she simply had no spare strength left to recover herself.

"No... this can’t go on. There has to be another way. There has to be!"

Muen quickly scanned his surroundings.

The metal walls around them gave off a cold, dim sheen. Bundles of cables were piled in the corners of the narrow corridor, and faintly, there was still a glow of magic flowing within them.

After being teleported into the high tower by the Myriad-Age Cycle branch, they seemed to be in a kind of laboratory area. Instruments made of expensive magic-conducting materials were everywhere on all sides.

"That’s good!"

Muen’s eyes suddenly lit up.

If it was a laboratory, then there was a high chance there were healing instruments, magic tools, or medicine here!

Although this was most likely a relic from a thousand years ago, judging from the faint magical fluctuations flowing through those cables, this place seemed not to have been affected much by time at all.

"Hang on, Ariel. I’ll definitely find a way to save you!"

Muen scooped Ariel up onto his back in one motion. He didn’t even have time to savor her “delicacy.” With Ariel on his back, he hurried through the narrow corridor.

"Muse... Miss... where are we..."

"The tower. We’re in the tower!"

"We... we made it in...?"

"Yes, we made it in. Thanks to your heroic performance, we made it in successfully. We’re safe now!"

"Is that so... then this knight... did I help the beautiful princess?"

"...Yeah."

Muen paused, then said seriously,

"You really, really helped the beautiful princess... a huge amount. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say you saved the princess."

"Is that so... then... that’s... really good..." Ariel smiled. It was a very gentle smile—so gentle it didn’t even quite seem like her usual self.

"It’s good. Very good. So don’t sleep! Stay awake! The beautiful princess hasn’t had time to thank you yet!"

Sensing Ariel’s breath growing weaker and weaker, Muen grit his teeth and accelerated again.

After passing through the long corridor, a thick stench of rot drifted in the air. Muen turned his head and saw that on both sides were culture dishes filled with green containers. Inside those dishes floated all kinds of grotesque living things.

"What is this? Monsters? I wonder if any of them can restore stamina."

Muen directly smashed one culture dish. But as that rotten stench instantly grew several times stronger, he was disappointed.

No.

Whatever was in these culture dishes, no one knew how long it had been dead. It was already a rotting corpse. It only looked “normal” on the outside because it had been soaking in the dish.

"Damn it."

With that hope dashed, Muen continued forward. Along the way he ran into doors blocking him more than once, but he couldn’t be bothered to look for a way to open them—and he didn’t have the time—so he simply drew /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ Elizabeth and forcibly cut the doors open.

The sharpness trait that the old loli had specially applied successfully helped Muen push through obstacle after obstacle that blocked his path.

Finally, after who knew how many hopes had fallen through, the environment before his eyes suddenly brightened.

"This is..."

Under the bright illumination of magic stones, dense vegetation still hadn’t lost its vitality even after a thousand years. In fact, because no one had tended it for so long, this huge courtyard enclosed by a crystal vessel was already filled everywhere with chaotic, overgrown vegetation and thick vines.

"A garden... no, this is a greenhouse!" Muen reacted quickly.

A place full of vegetation specially partitioned inside a laboratory was definitely not a garden meant for viewing. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It was, in all likelihood, a greenhouse meant for research!

There had to be medicinal plants here—what he was looking for!

Muen carried Ariel into the greenhouse, gently set her down on the ground, and quickly yanked some plants from around them.

He didn’t recognize these plants. He’d never even seen them.

If they were carefully grown here, then a thousand years ago they must have been extremely rare crops.

But—

"Ariel, you should be able to recognize these plants, right? Hurry—see if there’s anything that can help treat you!"

Muen held the plants up to Ariel’s eyes.

He couldn’t do it, but Ariel—who carried a “cheat old grandpa” with her, and had been taught from childhood a lot of knowledge that didn’t belong to this era—absolutely could tell!

Even though he didn’t know why that “old grandpa” still hadn’t shown up when Ariel was injured to this extent, now wasn’t the time to get hung up on that.

Time didn’t wait for anyone—especially not for Ariel right now.

"Ariel, hurry!"

Ariel’s eyes were dull and lifeless, as if she couldn’t see very far anymore, so Muen could only bring things as close as possible.

After seeing what was in Muen’s hand, Ariel lightly shook her head.

"Then what about this?"

Shake.

"This."

Shake.

"This!"

Shake.

"And this!"

After more than a dozen kinds, just as the irritation in Muen’s heart was about to boil over, Ariel finally gave a slight nod.

"This... can treat injuries, and... it can help restore battle qi..."

"It can restore battle qi?"

Muen was instantly overjoyed.

Ariel’s biggest problem right now was that she was too overdrawn and too weak. If she could restore battle qi, then even if it didn’t have healing properties, relying on her own recovery ability...

"But..."

Ariel suddenly smiled.

"It’s poisonous."

"...What did you... say?"

Muen’s hand holding the plant trembled slightly. The wild joy in his heart was like having a bucket of cold water dumped on it—instantly extinguished.

"Poisonous... This kind of medicinal herb—Teacher used it a lot to help me temper my body... precisely because... while it can quickly restore battle qi... it’s also highly toxic."

"..."

Muen opened his mouth, his throat dry, not knowing what to say.

The hope that had just risen, just like before, dimmed again.

Highly toxic.

For Ariel in her normal condition, it might not be a big deal. She could even use it to temper her physique.

But for her right now, that toxin... really was a toxin deadly enough to kill!

And besides...

"Yeah. How did I forget."

Muen murmured, utterly dazed.

Because he was too anxious, he’d even forgotten something extremely important.

That was... even if he found a medicinal herb that could treat Ariel, how would she digest its medicinal power?

She was too weak—so weak that Muen didn’t believe she had the ability to directly digest medicinal power from herbs. And as for Muen himself...

He didn’t know how to brew potions at all.

So although this place looked like it was full of rare plants and medicinal herbs, in reality, for Ariel...

It was utterly useless.

"What do I do, what do I do..."

Muen thought fast.

Going back to search for a healing method was definitely too late.

So he had to rely on everything currently available and find a way to break the deadlock.

Think, think, Muen Campbell. The one in front of you is the chosen child destined to save the world—how can you let her die here? If she dies, what will this world do then? At that point, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call you the murderer who destroyed the world!

"Right!"

Muen’s eyes suddenly lit up. In his head, the tangled ball of yarn finally found a loose end.

It was actually very simple. Since Ariel couldn’t digest the medicinal power...

"Then I’ll digest it."

As he spoke, Muen suddenly grabbed the herb from before and swallowed it down whole, like wolfing down dates.

It was bitter, hard. Most of those herbs still had root systems smeared with dirt, and even chewing was difficult.

But Muen barely chewed at all. He forced it down, and then, like a starving ghost, he grabbed more things without caring about anything and stuffed them all into his stomach!

Then, those deep blue irises were once again covered by profound darkness.

His mental strength was still nowhere near recovered, and the black flame shouldn’t have been used at a time like this.

But Muen used it anyway.

Darkness surged up within his body, but it didn’t directly devour everything.

Instead, under Muen’s precise control that ignored the stabbing pain in his mind, it only devoured the toxicity and impurities in those medicines, leaving only vitality and medicinal properties. Then Muen quickly digested that vitality and medicinal effect, flowing it into his limbs and bones.

That was also why Muen chose to swallow the herbs into his stomach—things burned by the black flame would only turn into his battle qi and magic power.

But his battle qi and magic power couldn’t save Ariel.

His vitality could.

In simple terms, he was using his body to refine a dose of medicine!

"Faster, faster, faster!"

Neither the tearing in his mind nor the flame-like searing in his abdomen made Muen waver. The only thing he cared about was time.

No matter how fast he was, turning medicine into vitality still took time.

But what Ariel lacked most was time.

He didn’t know if she could hold out until that moment.

"Ariel, listen to me—don’t sleep, okay?"

Feeling that the medicinal properties he’d taken in were about enough, Muen endured the pain and returned to Ariel’s side. He gently shook her shoulder to keep her awake. Same-sex fanfiction site, your portable library, more than ten thousand volumes. It wasn’t only because people who were heavily injured and lost too much blood would be hard to wake once they fell asleep, but also because no matter how “mouth-melting” the medicine he refined was, Ariel still had to actively digest it.

The vitality in her flesh was almost exhausted, and the skill that could let her recover quickly was an active skill that had to be used while conscious.

"Muse... Miss... are you still here?"

Ariel spoke weakly. Her pupils were growing more and more unfocused, and she didn’t even know where she was looking anymore.

"I’m here. I’m here."

Muen held her hand. "Hold on a little, okay?"

"Muse... Miss, actually I..."

Ariel, as if she hadn’t heard Muen at all, spoke to herself:

"I just... just dreamed of my mom again."

"Your mom? Is she doing okay?"

"That’s strange... even though she’s been dead for ten years... I still dream of her..."

"..." Muen wanted to slap himself. Even though it was urgent right now, he couldn’t just blurt things out in a panic—what if he ended up provoking the injured person?

"Is, is that so? Then what did you dream about Mom?"

"Mom... she asked me that question again."

"A question—what question? Can you tell me? " Muen started carefully following Ariel’s topic.

"Before... when she asked me... I didn’t even know how to answer... but this time... I can at least answer a little bit, right."

"A little bit?"

Muen froze. Answer a little bit—what was that supposed to mean?

No, no, now wasn’t the time to get hung up on that.

"Muse... Miss... I’m sorry..."

"Sorry? You don’t have anything to be sorry to me for."

On the contrary, he... seemed to have a lot of things to be sorry to Ariel for.

"Earlier... I said some weird things... about clearing the air... about opening my heart... strange, right... even though actually, up until now... I don’t even have any dating experience at all... but I was still deceiving myself, acting like some kind of emotional master..."

"..."

Wh-what do I say to that?

Is it really okay for me to know this? Even if Ariel gets saved, once she finds out the truth later, won’t she die of shame and indignation?

Muen decided to muddle through.

"Th-that’s so, huh. Actually it’s nothing. Actually that kind of thing is normal. Normal..."

"Actually."

Ariel suddenly cut him off.

"I was just... scared."

"Hm?"

Scared...?

"That’s right... scared... scared that Muse Miss... would be like before those few times... and suddenly disappear again... so I... said those things."

Ariel’s lips moved. Her voice was very small, but in Muen’s ears, it was incomparably clear.

"I’m sorry... Muse Miss... don’t be mad at me... okay?"

"..."

Muen’s neck stiffened as he slowly lowered his head.

He could no longer ignore Ariel’s eyes, ignore Ariel’s expression.

At this very moment, this girl who carried the mandate of destiny, the phoenix-proud heaven protagonist of the original book who killed gods and Buddhas alike when they blocked her...

was as fragile as an ordinary girl.

She seemed to realize that her vitality was withering away, and that was why she said this at a time like this.

It didn’t sound like something she would say at all.

But—

"Don’t tell me it’s real."

This girl—when it came to Muse Miss—she wasn’t serious, was she?

Otherwise...

Slap.

Muen slapped himself hard across the face.

Bastard.

What the hell am I playing dumb for?

If Ariel wasn’t serious, would she have fought for her life again and again? Would she have taken me without hesitation into danger?

Did I really think she was only playing at knight-saves-princess?

From the start, she never backed down. Instead, it was...

"Damn it. You look so cool—if I were a beautiful girl, I might really fall in love with you."

Muen gave a bitter laugh and turned over, bracing himself above Ariel.

After saying those words, Ariel seemed to have lost all her strength. Even her eyelids began to close slowly.

"Don’t sleep, Ariel."

"..."

Ariel seemed to have completely lost the ability to hear Muen’s voice, and she couldn’t react at all—quiet like Sleeping Beauty in a story.

"So that’s how it is..."

Muen let out a long sigh. His palm lightly brushed Ariel’s cheek, gently combing away the strands of hair that were stuck to her face from fine sweat.

"Since you told me your secret, I’ll tell you mine too."

"..."

"Actually..."

Muen leaned close to Ariel’s ear and whispered softly:

"In this world, there’s no such thing as Muse Miss at all."

"..."

Ariel’s fingers suddenly twitched twice.

Effective. Good. Then keep going.

"And also—not only is Muse Miss fake..."

Muen leaned even closer. His voice sank lower and lower, like a devil’s whisper.

"I’m a man too. That’s right—the kind of man you hate the most."

"..." Ariel’s brows knit tightly, like she was having a terrifying nightmare.

"And more importantly... my real identity is the one you hate the most, Mu—"

"!!!"

Suddenly.

Ariel snapped her eyes open, grief-stricken and furious.

"Shut up!"