I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM - Chapter 669 - 669: Re-evaluating Kraven

Julian’s lips curved slowly into a wide smile.

He had been waiting for that knock.

Rising from the bed, he ran a hand through his hair before walking toward the door. The headache had not completely vanished, but it had subsided enough to be manageable.

He opened the door.

Kraven stood in the corridor.

From a distance—particularly in poor lighting—an observer might have assumed the nobleman had simply come to continue their earlier conversation.

But something about him was wrong.

His eyes were open, directed toward Julian’s face.

Yet they were not seeing it.

They were not seeing anything.

Only the whites were visible.

“Come in,” Julian said quietly.

Kraven stepped inside.

His movements were stiff and mechanical, like a puppet obeying invisible strings. He crossed the room without hesitation and sat on the bed, his gaze lowering to the floor.

Julian closed the door behind him.

For a moment he simply stood there, observing the man in silence.

Then a quiet satisfaction settled over his expression.

The gamble had succeeded.

Despite the cost.

“That’s why I waited,” Julian murmured to himself, “until he was completely consumed by desire.”

The reasoning had been simple.

Soul control at the level of a Grand Mage was expensive—dangerously so.

But the cost depended heavily on the condition of the target’s mind.

A person fully in command of their thoughts required enormous force to influence. Attempting to alter their consciousness was like swimming against a violent current.

But Kraven, in those final moments before he had stood up to leave, had not been in command of himself at all.

His defenses had collapsed.

Desire had flooded his inner world, sweeping away caution and restraint.

The current had already been flowing in Julian’s direction. All Julian had needed to do was reach into that current at precisely the right moment… and redirect it.

The backlash had struck him as well.

But it was survivable.

Julian stepped forward and stopped directly in front of the seated nobleman.

For a long moment he simply studied him.

Kraven, it turned out, was an extraordinarily ordinary man.

Average.

That was the most honest word Julian could find for him.

The realization carried a strange sort of amusement.

Kraven was the son of one of the most powerful nobles in the Hermes Kingdom. According to Mara, his father held the title of duke—one of the great pillars of the kingdom. Through his sister, the current Queen, his family stood even closer to the throne.

It was the sort of lineage that shaped the fate of nations.

And yet—

All of that meant very little in the present moment.

The fine clothes draped over his shoulders.The confidence he had carried earlier that evening.The authority that made servants step aside when he passed.

None of it mattered now.

Because the man wearing those things was currently sitting on stranger’s bed in the middle of the night, his eyes empty and unfocused.

Power was a curious thing.

Julian leaned forward slightly.

Kraven’s face looked younger than it had earlier in the evening. Without the tension of constant calculation and social performance, he was reduced to someone ordinary and unremarkable.

Julian tilted his head, studying him with quiet interest.

The soul control was holding.

He could feel it clearly.

Somewhere beneath the surface of Kraven’s consciousness, Julian’s will was planted like a root.

It was not forceful or violent.

Just enough to keep the currents flowing in a particular direction.

But stability did not mean durability.

Maintaining the control required constant expenditure. Mana bled steadily from Julian’s reserves, feeding the fragile link between their minds.

Julian exhaled softly.

He doubted he had enough mana to maintain the control for an entire day. Not at his current level of strength. The world’s restrictions pressed too heavily on him here.

In the Throne of Gods, such manipulation could have lasted indefinitely.

Here, every moment had a cost.

Julian glanced toward the window, though the curtains remained closed and the outside world was hidden from view.

Night still held the city.

But dawn would come eventually.

And when it did, the situation would become far more complicated.

His gaze returned to Kraven.

The nobleman remained perfectly still, waiting without awareness or resistance.

Julian allowed himself a thin smile.

No.

He did not have unlimited time.

Which meant he would have to make very careful use of the time he did have.

**

Julian stepped forward and reached out, placing his palm flat against Kraven’s forehead.

The nobleman did not react.

Julian closed his own eyes.

For a moment he simply stood there, breathing quietly as he gathered his focus. Then he reached inward—past the surface of his thoughts, past the dull ache still lingering behind his temples—and searched for the thread he had embedded inside Kraven’s soul.

He found it almost immediately.

A thin strand of awareness, stretching from his consciousness into the depths of another.

Julian followed it.

The first thing he noticed was resistance.

Not from the soul control itself.

From the man beneath it.

Julian had assumed Kraven was just a pampered noble—a man who spent his days wandering through bars and city while servants handled the real work of life.

But now that he was truly examining him, the truth became clear.

Kraven was far stronger than he had ever allowed others to see.

The sea of consciousness revealed itself gradually as Julian’s awareness sank deeper.

It was not the shallow, undeveloped pool that existed within most ordinary mages. Those inner worlds were usually fragile things.

However, Kraven’s was different.

Dense.

Alive with power.

Julian felt it immediately.

Mana burned beneath the surface like a restless ocean, and the deeper he pressed, the more pressure pushed back against him. It was compact, surrounded by a boundary of fiery mana that pushed back against any form of intrusion.

Julian probed the edges of it and felt the heat of it even at this level of perception.

His evaluation of the man shifted instantly.

Archmage.

Kraven had already reached the level of an Archmage.

And judging by the density of the boundary surrounding his consciousness, he stood only a single step away from Grand Mage.