Astrid waited outside the door as she prayed earnestly for an abundance of offspring.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Roel had no idea what he should do with the bottle. It took a long moment of hesitation before he gathered the courage to walk deeper into the room.

  This room was similar to the one he had woken up in earlier. There was a conspicuous lack of personal possessions around, the clock on the wall had stopped ticking too. The only difference was the abundance of dream spirits fluttering around the room.

  “Senior?”


  He called out lightly, but there was no response.

  Somehow, the knowledge that Lilian wasn’t awake yet came as a relief to him, and his nervous heart calmed down a little. He headed deeper into the room with less reservations than before, and he soon found himself faced with a young lady resting on the bed.

  Her face and lips looked much paler than usual due to her having lost quite a lot of blood, and her jet-black hair was scattered messily around the pillow. Her chest was moving up and down rhythmically along with her breathing.

  Somehow, Roel couldn’t help but think that there was a very different atmosphere around her.

  He was immensely relieved to see that Lilian was safe and sound, but at the same time, her figure left his throat feeling a little parched.

  He took a moment to calm himself before slowly approaching the bed. Just like that night, he pulled a chair over and sat by her bedside, though he was a little apprehensive about carelessly grabbing her hand this time around.

  Looking at her small and delicate fingers, he couldn’t help but recall how she had snapped them to summon Ten Fortresses. Her fingers had already been treated by Astrid, but his heart wouldn’t stop trembling as he stared at them.

  He gently wrapped his hands around Lilian’s and exhaled softly. Despite his light movement, it still roused Lilian’s consciousness, and she slowly opened her eyes.

  “!”


  Lilian’s eyes reddened the moment she caught sight of Roel. The two of them stared at one another intently, but neither of them spoke a word at all. Instead, they allowed their actions to do the talking as they pulled each other into a tight embrace.

  Taking in her warmth and fragrance, Roel felt a lump forming in his throat, and his body began to tremble ever so slightly. Lilian was overwhelmed by a flood of emotions too, but she stroked his back gently to comfort him.

  The fact that the two of them were still alive despite having encountered Priestley, the Origin Level 1 Magician King, was nothing short of a miracle. Roel’s heart swelled in satisfaction, and Lilian thought that she had never felt any more blissful than at this very moment.

  Their rush of emotions spurred the resonance of their bloodlines, melding their embracing bodies into one. Roel quietly listened to her heartbeat as he thought that it was the most euphonious rhythm in the world.

  While fully immersing himself in the joy of reunion, he couldn’t help but silently apologize to Astrid in his heart.

  Without a doubt, Astrid had picked a good time to raise the topic. The two of them were bound to feel a flood of emotions upon reuniting with one another, and she even prepared medicine to heighten the success rate.

  It was just a pity that Roel felt no lust at this very moment.

  Their feelings were far stronger than before after overcoming a crisis, but that was precisely the reason why engaging in intercourse at a time like this only felt crass.

  When one’s heart was already filled with a myriad of emotions, lust would have no choice but to take a back seat. This was the moment that Roel finally understood why people tended to embrace one another at times like this—it brought two hearts closer than ever to one another.

  After a long hug, Roel and Lilian were finally able to compose themselves once more. Lilian was the first one to break the silence.

  “.…… If we’re able to return, let’s spend some time living outside together.”


  “Ah?”


  The sudden request caught Roel off guard. He raised his head to look at Lilian and blinked his eyes in confusion.

  “Senior, what do you mean……”


  “We’ll head to a place where we can spend time together without anyone or anything trying to pull us apart.”


  “!”


  Roel widened his eyes in astonishment. He immediately understood Lilian’s request and reflexively nodded in agreement.

  It was Lilian who felt uneasy about having to part ways with Roel in the past, but after the encounter with Priestley, where Lilian sacrificed herself to save him, the same unease began breeding in his heart too. Perhaps, it might be more accurate to call it a trauma.

  “I’ll hold you to your promise this time, senior.”


  “Of course. I wouldn’t break my promise twice,” replied Lilian with a smile.

  Roel’s lips curled upward too.

  The two of them continued hugging for a while before Lilian finally had the spare attention to examine her surroundings. It didn’t take her long to notice a peculiar bottle sitting on the bedside table.

  “Is that my medicine?”


  “Ah? Medicine?”


  Roel was confused to hear those words. By the time he understood what she was referring to, she was already holding onto the bottle in her hand. His pupils dilated in horror.

  “Wait! Senior, you mustn’t drink that! It’s fertil…… cough cough!”


  “Hm?”


  “No, what I mean is that……”


  Staring at the bottle of fertility medicine in Lilian’s hand, Roel’s face blazed like an inferno. He snatched the bottle over and tried his best to speak as calmly as he could.

  “This is actually mine.”


  “Yours?”


  “Mm. I just woke up not too long ago. I rushed here to check on you after meeting my ancestor, so I haven’t gotten a chance to drink it yet.”


  Roel was just about to place the medicine back on the table when Lilian suddenly grabbed his hand and stopped him.

  “I’m gladdened by your sentiments, but you should prioritize your health above all things. You should drink the medicine now.”


  “.…… Ah?”


  Roel was dumbfounded. He looked at Lilian, who was staring at him as if he was a rebellious little kid refusing to take his medicine, before glancing at the fertility medicine in his hand, and his cheeks started twitching.

  Wait a moment, you’re asking me to drink fertility medicine?

  I guess that it doesn’t really have any effect on men, but still……

  “I saw it when Lord Astrid brought me here yesterday night. That ice ability of yours has side effects.”


  Just thinking about the freezing room Roel was lying in made her frown worriedly.

  While Roel managed to overcome the side effect thanks to Astrid’s abilities, there was a chance that it might have left him with some sort of physical trauma. If so, they ought to get rid of it as soon as possible, or else it could lead to complications.

  “You seem very hesitant to drink it. Are you worried about the medicine?”


  Lilian asked curiously upon noticing Roel’s twitching cheeks. She pondered for a moment before making a proposition.

  “Why don’t I help you check on it? I’ve taken classes on potions before, and I should be able to deduce its effects by tasting it……”


  “!”


  Those words sent a shudder through Roel’s body. Without any hesitation, he popped open the bottle and gulped it down.

  Cheers!

  Roel frantically got rid of the evidence in order to prevent Lilian from realizing what was going on. The latter was surprised by his vigorous movements, but she was heartened that he was drinking his medicine properly, though his conflicted expression afterward bewildered her a little.

  “Why? Does it taste bad?”


  “No. It tastes…… surprisingly good,” replied Roel with a slightly exhausted smile……

  Half an hour later, Lilian fell back to sleep on the bed. Roel continued to hold her hand while looking at the stopped clock contemplatively, pondering over some matters.

  Lilian was not in a stable condition at the moment.

  Roel was in a worse shape in terms of injuries, but Lilian had overexerted herself by summoning the Ten Fortresses, and that was far more difficult to recover from.

  Looking at the sleeping lady before him, Roel’s face couldn’t help but redden. Ro’s words seemed to echo ceaselessly in his ears, and Astrid’s jarring little bottle was sitting right next to him.

  Touching his heart, Roel knew that he did harbor feelings for Lilian, but he didn’t think that it was appropriate for them to do that kind of thing right now.

  For one, he didn’t think that the timing was right—they were still injured, and the feelings they had for one another hadn’t reached that point yet. Trying to force things through when the time wasn’t ripe would only fracture their relationship.

  Aside from that, he was also afraid that doing so would make him lose his fighting will.

  He knew that his main goal was to safely escape from this Witness State with Lilian, and he wanted to focus his attention on it.

  So far, he had pretty much grasped the situation in the Witness State.

  He had been brought into the historical fragment of Leinster four hundred years ago to witness events that were neglected in historical records, almost as if someone had intentionally erased them. In this place where hardly anyone was paying attention to, two Sovereigns clashed with each other over the fate of humankind.

  Based on Astrid’s deduction, Magician King Priestley Maxwell seemed to have already fallen into depravity a hundred years ago, and the reason for that was because he couldn’t bear the reality that he was growing weaker as time ticked by.

  Indeed, the powerful Priestley was already in his waning years despite the prowess he had displayed. His words and actions thus far also showed that he was no zealot; rather, he seemed to have made some sort of deal with the Savior.

  He continued to lie low despite having fallen to depravity, slowly biding his time to uncover the identity of ‘Academic’ and the location of the Chaos Dream.

  The war with the deviants meant that the Savior was in a period where his consciousness was rousing. This forced Astrid to devote more effort and time into the Chaos Dream, putting her in a vulnerable state.

  Priestley grasped this opportunity and ordered the Salvation Brotherhood to launch a coup d’état, which, in turn, justified his return to Leinster from the frontlines so that he could accomplish the final phase of his plan—the destruction of the Chaos Dream.

  With that, he would be able to awaken the Savior.

  Unfortunately, the Saints Convocation noticed that something was amiss and intervened, resulting in further chaos.

  Roel had no idea what Priestley stood to gain from awakening the Savior, and he wasn’t interested to know either. But one thing was for sure—that old geezer would soon launch his next wave of attack, and Astrid would be too busy dealing with the Dream Realm to stop him.

  They were in dire circumstances, no doubt about that, but it wasn’t to the point of despair yet.

  Roel touched the box he had stowed away in his clothes as a plan slowly took shape in his mind. He knew that he needed to pay a visit to a person right now.

  So, he closed his eyes and soon fell into a deep sleep.