"Not yet..."

At that moment, Muen was less than three centimeters away from Ariel. He could see his own reflection in those misty eyes. He could even feel the instant disorder in her breathing...

But in the end, she still raised her hand and stopped him.

Ariel’s face was flushed, her gaze unfocused, as though she too were about to melt into the burning, ambiguous atmosphere inside that cramped cabin, as though that heart as hard as iron were about to soften into silk wound around a finger...

But she did not.

The sturdy shell around her heart ultimately held against Muen’s advance. It did not expose the deepest, softest part she kept hidden away.

Clarity returned to Ariel’s eyes. She let out a long breath and gently pushed Muen back.

Muen did not insist. He straightened up, sat back down, and let out a helpless sigh, looking somewhat disheveled.

All the careful planning, all the effort he had poured in, seemed to have come to nothing... because of that one sentence from Ariel.

"I..."

Watching Muen’s bitter expression, watching that clear flash of disappointment in his eyes—like a golden retriever that had just been scolded by its owner—for some reason, Ariel suddenly felt her chest tighten.

But she still lifted her chin and curled her lip disdainfully. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"I told you. There’s no way you’re winning me over with something at this level."

"Is that so?"

Muen gave a bitter smile.

"Looks like I ended up being part of that five percent after all."

"What five percent..."

Arms crossed over her chest, Ariel turned her head toward the view outside the cabin and muttered, "That data you pulled from who-knows-where was never reliable to begin with."

The Ferris wheel turned soundlessly. Their cabin had already passed the highest point and was slowly beginning to descend.

In the distant city of Belrand, scattered lights were beginning to glow. But it was too far away, too dark. There was no longer much to see.

Muen also looked out the window. It was as though the whole world had been muted again, utterly silent.

And this time, even the heartbeat was gone.

The two of them sat there in silence, and silence, until...

"Don’t do that so suddenly next time, okay?"

"Hm?"

"That sudden..."

Ariel still stared straight out the window, but from the corner of her eye she seemed to glance at Muen now and then. Her fingers kept winding a strand of hair near her temple, and even her tone had turned a little hesitant.

"To be honest, even though my heart really is strong enough not to be afraid of anything, you suddenly doing something like that still kind of startled me..."

"..."

Muen froze.

The way Ariel was acting now... it almost seemed like even if he really had kissed her by force just now, she would not have drawn her sword and cut him down. At most, she would only have cursed him out a few times in embarrassed anger.

Ah. So that was it... Muen finally understood.

Apparently his advance had not completely missed the mark after all. Because when he thought about it carefully, atmosphere ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) was not something one person could create alone.

From another angle, if they had been able to reach that kind of atmosphere, then that meant...

"All right."

The bitterness vanished. Muen shaped his usual clean smile again.

"I’ll be more careful next time."

"T-there’s still going to be a next time?" Ariel glared at him.

"Of course. This date isn’t over yet, is it?"

The cabin touched ground. Muen opened the door, then bent elegantly and extended his hand.

"My beautiful lady, the final ball has already begun. May I have the honor of offending you by taking your hand?"

"T-taking?"

Ariel noticed that Muen had said take, not hold.

"Yes. Taking it."

His hand was right there in front of her. The fingers were clean and long, the palm broad and warm.

Ariel knew that, because she had felt it before.

More than once.

"Then... all right."

She had just rejected Muen once. Ariel felt a little too embarrassed to reject him a second time. And when she thought about it, this was not even the first time they had touched hands, so there was really nothing to be shy about.

And so, with no "it can’t be helped" excuse this time, Ariel still raised her small hand like a princess in a pumpkin carriage and gently placed it in the prince’s palm.

Muen immediately closed his hand firmly around that delicate little hand.

"Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Obviously to the final place for the date."

Muen said, "Did you forget the first thing you saw when you came here?"

"Ah..."

Ariel’s eyes widened slightly.

At that very moment, behind this blond man who had already become so familiar, she saw that crystal palace blazing with incomparable brilliance, as though all the stars and moon of the night had gathered into that palace, waiting only for a girl to pick them with her own hands.

She had had so much fun along the way that she had actually forgotten all about the most eye-catching thing here.

"This is beautiful too, isn’t it?" Muen asked with a smile.

Since he had gone to the trouble of building that crystal palace, it could not possibly have been meant only to sit there as decoration. In Muen’s dating plan, whether he succeeded in the end or not, that crystal palace was always meant to be the final stop.

His final arrangement was waiting there. To complete it, he had paid a great price and poured in a great deal of effort. For him, it had been even harder than tricking two estates out of his old man.

After all, having your head spiral straight into the heavens for half a day was not exactly pleasant.

"Is this also an attraction?" Ariel asked blankly.

"No. This is my gift to you."

Muen said no more. Holding Ariel’s hand tightly, he led her toward the crystal palace.

The visitors had already gone home. The staff were nowhere to be seen. At this moment, this place belonged only to the two of them.

When they reached the crystal palace, Muen merely gave it a light knock, and the massive palace doors swung open with a thunderous boom, as though he had just spoken some magic phrase from a fairy tale. Everything happened with perfect naturalness.

Ariel paused for a moment and looked up at those huge double doors. They really did suit her imagination. After all, only doors this large would let her happily go in and out together with all the beautiful girls she loved... no matter how many there were, it still would not feel crowded.

Though for just two people, they were admittedly a little oversized.

"Let’s go in."

"Mm."

Still holding each other’s hands, standing close, the two of them stepped into the grand palace.

In an instant, all sorts of enchanting light reflected by the clear crystal flooded Ariel’s eyes at once. The crystal dome, the crystal walls, the crystal chandeliers, the crystal stairways... everything here really had been made of crystal. The colored lights joined and layered over one another like countless kaleidoscopes cut into endless intricate forms.

Ariel’s eyes were almost dazzled by it. She felt that nothing luxurious or magnificent she had seen in her entire life could compare to this place.

But beyond that...

"Why is it so empty in here?" Ariel asked in surprise.

Crystal formed the body of the palace. Crystal formed everything in the palace. But aside from that, there was nothing else. Under all that luxurious light, the inside of the crystal palace looked strangely empty.

"Because I still haven’t decided what should go in here."

Muen turned his head and looked into Ariel’s eyes.

"And besides, shouldn’t that be something for you to think about? It belongs to you now, after all."

"Me?"

Ariel scratched her head blankly.

In truth, she also had no idea what was supposed to go inside a crystal palace. In all her past fantasies, it had simply been a place where her beloved beautiful girls lived. She had never thought through any of the other details.

But speaking of beloved beautiful girls... right now she was still sitting at a pitiful zero, and even this crystal palace had been built by the blond menace standing next to her...

Damn it.

Ariel gritted her teeth again in private, feeling an intense sense of grievance.

Was this not humiliation too?

"Still, even if there isn’t much here for now, I did prepare something for you in the deepest part of the palace," Muen added.

His gaze passed over the palace’s empty central hall. There, surrounded by crystal, was a completely ordinary door.

Precisely because it was ordinary, it stood out. Ariel noticed it immediately as well.

"You should know what’s inside by now, right?"

"How would I know what you put in there?"

Ariel curled her lip.

But even as she said it, the scenery she had seen earlier on the Ferris wheel resurfaced in her mind.

The alleys, the bakery factory, the convent, the tree on the hill... those familiar places had stretched from near to far, yet in the layers of her memory they had moved from far to near along that river of time.

With that as a clue, she could already roughly guess what was hidden here, deepest inside the crystal palace...

"If you don’t know, why not go take a look?"

As if seeing through Ariel’s stubbornness, Muen gave her a light push.

"Hmph. Mind your own business."

Ariel shook off his hand irritably, as though deeply offended by his deciding things for her like that.

But in the end, she still walked step by step to the door.

It was wooden, weathered, and old. It looked utterly out of place amid the surrounding brilliance and splendor of crystal.

And yet it was exactly this old, ordinary door—this completely unremarkable door—that Ariel touched without daring to push open for a long time.

Her heart was full of unease, because what lay behind that door was something she had not seen for over ten years...

"My, my, this just won’t do."

Suddenly, a third voice appeared in the quiet crystal palace, cutting straight through Ariel’s memories.

"How can a romantic date like this allow the two of you to let go of each other’s hands halfway through?"

"Who’s there?!"

Muen’s pupils contracted. Almost by instinct, he pulled the now-powerless Ariel behind him.

"Show yourself!"

"Clap."

No one answered for the moment.

What answered Muen instead was a sharp clap.

It came from nowhere he could pinpoint.

Muen’s heart dropped. A terrible feeling flooded him instantly. Although he still did not know what that clap signified, he turned at once without the slightest hesitation and reached out toward Ariel—

But... he was too late.

Rumble!

The entire crystal palace began to tremble. A wall of crystal extended outward with a thunderous roar, separating Ariel from Muen.

"Damn it!"

Muen would not be blocked by mere crystal. He cut through the crystal wall in one slash, only to find empty space on the other side. It was already no longer where they had just been.

The entire crystal palace had changed. Like a twisted puzzle box, amid that roaring motion, Ariel had already been sent off to somewhere unknown.

"See? If you let go, unfortunate things like this happen."

The voice sounded faintly regretful.

"..."

Muen turned back with a dark expression and looked at the elegant, handsome middle-aged man who had appeared inside the crystal palace at some unknown moment.

He wore a perfectly fitted formal suit and a tasteful cologne, as though he had only just returned from a date with his lover. A vivid rose was pinned to his chest.

"Who are you?" Muen asked. "Why are you here, and why do you have permission to control this crystal palace?"

"Honored Young Master Muen, there is no need for alarm. You may call me Parls. As you can see, I was invited here by Lord Oranriel to contribute my humble strength to your great romantic cause... as a master of love."

Parls placed a hand to his chest and bowed respectfully. Just as he had done before Pink Bear, even though he was no noble, there was not a single flaw to be found in his manners.

"Oranriel... Pink Bear?"

Hearing that name, Muen paused before remembering that it was that bastard’s real name.

"So this is that guy’s doing again?"

From the corner of his eye, Muen swept the surroundings. Pink Bear was nowhere in sight, which was only natural. If nothing unexpected had happened, that idiot should currently have been receiving the former Saintess’s loving whipping. After all, Muen had already told her where Pink Bear sourced his dirty little books, and with her temper, there was no way she was letting him off without making him kneel on a ton of rotten durians.

"So what is this? Same as before—another setup with manufactured obstacles to help me make progress?"

The roller coaster explosion. The evil spirit in the haunted house. They were a little clichéd, but Muen had to admit they had helped him to some extent. So was this deliberate separation from Ariel now also meant to—

"No."

Parls shook his head.

"This time is different, honored Young Master Muen."

"Different?" Muen narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Yes, different. Young Master Muen should have realized by now that those earlier methods were meaningless to Miss Ariel. Her defenses are even stronger than you imagined.

"So..."

Parls spread his arms wide, the smile on his face turning feverish and grotesque.

"Why continue such a boring date? Why not let me directly bestow true love upon the two of you instead?"

The crystal palace continued to let out its deep, rumbling groan.

Massive blocks of crystal scraped against the floor, separating and slotting into place. Though the outside of the palace had not changed at all, its interior was undergoing one earth-shaking transformation after another.

Yet even amid that noisy chaos, Muen still heard one eerie whisper with crystal clarity:

I love you.

...

...

"Muen!"

The crystal wall slammed shut, sealing off the space behind Ariel. Her reaction had been fast, but in her current powerless state she could not break through the suddenly risen wall. All she could do was throw herself against it and pound at it uselessly.

"Muen, Muen, can you hear me? If you can hear me, answer me! Hey! Hey!"

There was no response.

The crystal palace continued rumbling for several minutes, but even after the sound finally stopped and silence returned, Ariel still could not hear any voice but her own, nor could she see any figure but herself reflected in the crystal.

"What kind of stupid trick is this now?"

As soon as Ariel realized there was no way she could break through these crystals or contact Muen in her current state, she immediately gave up wasting her strength.

Frowning, she followed the crystal wall with her gaze all the way to its end...

It was sealed off.

The path between her and Muen had been completely blocked. In her present condition there was no way she could break through it, so all she could do was wait passively for Muen to rescue her.

"The same routine as before again?" Ariel murmured.

Put her in danger, then let that guy show up in style and save the beauty... she had to admit, no matter when you used it, this was a time-tested and highly effective trick. Most girls in this world would be unable to avoid falling for the hero who saved them.

But she was different. The first two times had already proven that this vulgar routine had no effect on her. So even if it came a third time...

"No."

A sharp light flashed in Ariel’s eyes.

"Something’s wrong."

Muen had clearly told her there would not be a third time.

Granted, for a playboy, lying was no difficult thing... but Ariel did not think Muen would have lied to her in that moment.

Just as she had said before, she believed him.

"So... something unexpected happened?"

At that thought, a certain instinctive unease began to rise in Ariel’s heart, constantly urging her to leave this place.

That was right—she had to get out. She had to go find Muen. Otherwise...

"Why do you need to go find him?"

A familiar voice asked.

"Wasn’t he the person you hated most?"

"..."

Ariel’s pupils suddenly tightened. Her gaze snapped toward the source of the voice and swept over the smooth crystal walls.

Sure enough, in the crystal wall, she saw... herself.

It was her reflection, a natural phenomenon formed by light. But at this moment, that reflection had slipped free of the body it should have been bound to and begun moving on its own in an eerie, impossible way.

The reflection looked at Ariel with a mocking smile.

"Why would you go looking for someone you hate?"

"...Love God?"

Ariel remained very calm, refusing to be led around by the nose by a few simple words.

"And you still dare show yourself?"

"Love God? I’m not the Love God. How could I be the Love God?"

The reflection first looked surprised, then let out a strange little laugh.

"I’m not the Love God. I’m your heart. You understand that, don’t you... I’m you."

"Shut up!"

Ariel’s face darkened at once.

"Don’t try to fool me with that kind of nonsense. I won’t fall for it."

"Fall for it? Heh... haven’t you been falling for it all along?"

The reflection drew closer. It reached out, seeming to emerge from the crystal, and stroked Ariel’s cheek with false pity.

"How pitiful. Look at you. You’ve already been deceived by that awful blond bastard so many times..."

"Get away from me."

Ariel stepped back warily.

"I’m not interested in talking to you."

"Talking... true, there’s no need for that between us. You and I are one and the same. Since that’s the case, let’s get straight to the point."

The reflection smiled.

"Let’s return to the original question... Ariel, are you really willing to accept this?"

"..."

"Are you willing to let your childhood friend be stolen by Muen Campbell?"

The reflection transformed, taking on Liya’s form.

"Ariel."

With tears in her eyes, Liya looked pitiful and fragile.

"Please save me. Muen is forcing me. The truth is... the one I like is you."

"..."

"Are you willing to let the beautiful girl you set your sights on be stolen by Muen Campbell too?"

The reflection changed again, this time into Celicia. But she had none of her usual coldness. Instead, her face was full of shy affection.

"Lady Ariel, if it were you..."

"..."

"And are you willing to let the Miss Muse you love most be replaced by Muen Campbell in the end, disappearing completely from this world?"

Miss Muse, whom Ariel had thought of endlessly, appeared in the crystal. That long, wavy blond hair was still as dazzling as ever. Every movement, every glance, danced across Ariel’s heart.

"Ariel, I can become Muse..."

"..."

"And your teacher, your sword... they aren’t by your side either. Surely Muen Campbell deceived them too with his sweet words. Are you willing to accept that?"

The forms of the Heavenly Flame Greatsword and her teacher appeared one after another, before the reflection turned back into Ariel once more.

The reflection looked into Ariel’s wavering eyes and raised that black flower of impossible beauty, its roots sunk deep into flesh and blood.

"You’re not willing, are you?"

"Everything you had has been taken away by Muen Campbell. How could you possibly be willing?"

"So come, Ariel. Take this."

The reflection’s voice carried a sweet temptation, like fruit luring someone toward a forbidden path.

"As long as you take this, then go kill that Muen Campbell you hate most, all of it can return to the way it was..."

"I said—shut up!"

Suddenly Ariel exploded in fury and drove her fist into the crystal.

Cracks spread across the crystal, gorgeous as blooming flowers.

But with no aura or magic to protect her, blood also began streaming from between Ariel’s fingers.

Her face was ferocious. Her whole presence had turned into that of a savage beast, her chest heaving with rage.

"Hm?"

The reflection tilted its head. In its lifeless eyes, a trace of confusion appeared.

"Why? Could it be that you..."

"..."

Ariel turned and ran.

Blood was still flowing from her hand. That punch had been too hard—she might even have cracked the bones in it—but she paid it no mind and sprinted forward with her head down.

The cold darkness in her heart was growing stronger and stronger. A tide of blackness spread behind her. Ariel heard an enraged shriek, as though after realizing it could not win by attacking her heart, that reflection had chosen to invade her mind by force.

There had always been cracks in her heart to begin with, and she had already fallen victim to this once before. How could she possibly resist the renewed pollution of an Evil God now that it had returned?

Ariel felt her consciousness growing more and more blurred. Countless whispers echoed at her ears. One pale hand after another seemed to reach out from the darkness, trying to drag her back down once again into an abyss without escape...

Creak.

Suddenly, there came the sound of a door opening.

Ariel saw that door again—that perfectly ordinary door. And now, a crack had opened in it on its own...

【Ah—】

Holy light poured through the gap, briefly driving back the darkness clinging to Ariel like a curse in the bones. She seized the chance and shoved open the broken, weathered door in one motion.

Creeeak—

The familiar and unfamiliar sound at once, the rasp of rusted hinges she had once heard so often and then forgotten over the long years, echoed in Ariel’s ears.

Ariel stopped.

And in that harsh, dragging sound, she fell into a daze without even realizing it.

She even forgot about the pursuit and the corruption from just moments ago. She simply stood there, staring blankly at everything before her.

A little yard overgrown with weeds reflected in her eyes. There was the grape trellis that had long since dried out, the old well covered with stone slabs, the dried persimmons laid out on the low roof... and there was a wooden sword planted in the very center of the yard.

"Ah... so it really is..."

She had already guessed as much earlier. Even so, seeing a place she had not laid eyes on for over ten years—yet one glance was enough to recall every last detail—still sent ripples through that heart of hers that was harder than iron.

The yard.

The yard she had once burned down.

The yard where the weaker version of herself, before she had become strong, had once lived.

And now it stood before her as something real.

"Muen... actually rebuilt this place? And he restored every last detail exactly... this is..."

Ariel drew in a deep breath.

It was incredible.

No matter how you looked at it, it was incredible.

"When I think about it, he’s always doing things I never see coming..."

A small smile, rare and gentle, curved Ariel’s lips.

As a gift for her, this really was worthy of praise.

Ariel decided that after she got out of here, she would stop nitpicking at him and would properly praise him instead.

Her little leather shoes rustled through the dry grass. Standing on tiptoe, Ariel took down one of the dried persimmons and bit into it casually, letting the sweet flavor of sun-dried fruit spread through her mouth.

She had just gone through a truly dangerous moment, but at a time like this, Ariel found herself relaxing without meaning to.

No matter how tense you kept yourself while walking through the world, there was always at least one place that could make you forget everything.

Ariel had lost that place a very long time ago.

And now, at least for the moment, she had found it again.

Though this place would never be whole.

So no matter what dangers might still be waiting outside, Ariel no longer wanted to care. She only wanted, surrounded by all these familiar things, to finally mourn what she had not allowed herself to mourn in so long...

With a soft thud, the dried persimmon fell from her hand.

When the room’s door opened, Ariel stood in the doorway, and what appeared on her pretty face was a kind of shock and confusion that had never appeared there before.

"M-Mom?"

Everything in the room was the same. All the simple furnishings matched Ariel’s memory exactly. Somehow, Muen had recreated everything perfectly.

Perfectly enough that even the figure who should long since have died was now sitting on the bed, looking out at the sky beyond.

That final piece—the final fragment that could make everything whole—had appeared before her so suddenly that she had no time to prepare.

"Ariel?"

The figure turned, revealing that gentle face Ariel had almost forgotten.

"You’re back?"

"M-Mom? You... how are you..."

Ariel almost thought she was dreaming, but the pain from her injured hand was still far too clear.

If it was not a dream, then was it some kind of illusion?

Ariel’s gaze swept quickly across the room, searching for some flaw in it...

And she really did find something wrong.

On the little table in the room sat a clock—a strangely designed one, ancient in appearance.

The old clock ticked as it counted the flow of time, mixed with the faint sound of turning gears—but Ariel knew with absolute certainty that her family back then had been far too poor to afford something like a clock.

She strode over, snatched up the clock, and was just about to inspect it for anything unusual...

Then she noticed the slip of paper underneath it.

In beautiful handwriting, it read:

"This is no dazzling miracle, only an insignificant phantom of the past."

"..."

With slightly trembling hands, Ariel picked up the paper and turned it over.

"Happy first date anniversary, Ariel."

"—Muen"