Chapter 11: Even Villains Need Dinner

Chapter 11. Even Villains Need Dinner

"Okay, I need to eat..." I muttered.

That was no longer a suggestion.

It was a medical emergency issued directly by my stomach.

The adrenaline from throwing around enough forbidden magic to turn the training chamber into an insurance nightmare had finally worn off, and my body was beginning to remember one very important fact.

I only had eaten one bowl of soup.

One.

After three days of Rey Valen apparently attempting to photosynthesize.

My legs wobbled.

I immediately widened my stance. "No."

They wobbled harder.

"I said no."

My knees, having apparently formed a union with my stomach, disagreed.

-Grrrrrrrlllll...

I slowly looked down. "Traitor."

Another growl answered.

Louder.

Wonderful.

Royal Magus Rey Valen.

Brought to his knees by insufficient food.

History really did leave out the important details.

I leaned against one of the few training pillars I hadn’t damaged and opened my status.

[Forbidden Energy: 10%]

I stared. "Ah."

That explained the magical exhaustion.

The Blackflame Tornado had been expensive.

Very expensive.

Apparently creating a twenty-meter monument to my questionable judgment wasn’t particularly energy efficient.

Who knew?

Still, ten percent wasn’t zero.

And there was one more thing I needed to do before leaving.

I had already converted the six elemental manipulation skills.

But Teleport remained dependent on normal mana.

The single use earlier had dropped my Curse Stability.

That was unacceptable.

Mobility was survival.

Especially for a magus.

A warrior could endure being surrounded.

A magician surrounded by swordsmen had generally made several poor career decisions beforehand.

So...

I lifted two fingers.

[Arcana Injection activated.]

"Teleportation."

Forbidden Energy stirred inside me.

Not much remained, but enough.

My stomach made another noise. "Please don’t add spatial nausea to this."

The spell changed.

I raised my eyebrows.

[Arcana Injection successful.]

[Void Shift]

[Tears through space using Forbidden Energy, allowing the caster to instantly shift to any location within range. Far faster than normal Teleportation, requires almost no preparation, and has no cooldown, allowing continuous consecutive shifts as long as sufficient Forbidden Energy remains.]

I smiled. "Nice."

Very nice.

Regular Teleport was already powerful.

This was faster.

Possibly harder to interrupt too.

I planned to teleport directly into the kitchen.

Steal one or two things.

Maybe three.

Four if they had meat.

I wasn’t above theft.

It was technically my mansion.

Which made it less theft and more aggressive pantry management.

I pictured Rey’s kitchen from his memories.

Large preparation table.

Pantry on the left.

Cold storage behind...

"Rey?"

I froze.

A confused female voice came from behind me.

There were moments when a man knew instinctively that he’d been caught doing something he absolutely shouldn’t be doing.

This was one of them.

I turned.

A woman stood near the entrance.

And...

Oh.

Well.

Hello, wife number three.

She was tall.

Long crimson hair spilled down her back in loose waves, transitioning into a brighter red-orange near the ends, almost as though every strand had been dipped into flame. A few locks framed a beautiful face with sharp, elegant features.

Her eyes were molten gold.

Actually molten.

Not literally, hopefully.

But there was a faint inner glow behind them.

Her skin had a warm ivory tone, and small crimson-gold feathers decorated the sides of her hair near her temples.

Phoenix traits.

Unlike Lily’s softer dresses or Ariel’s flowing aquatic clothing, Seris wore something closer to a fitted combat dress.

Black fabric.

Crimson embroidery.

Golden clasps.

Long slit along one side for movement.

Elegant enough for royalty.

Practical enough to kick someone through a wall.

And yes.

She had legs.

Very nice legs.

My eyes remained on them for approximately half a second longer than academically necessary.

I blamed reincarnation.

Then the system appeared.

[Name: Seris Ignara]

[Race: Phoenixkin]

[Identity: Princess of the Ignara Phoenix Clan]

[Relationship to Host: Third Wife]

[Elemental Affinity: Fire]

[Current Emotional State: Confusion / Concern / Alarm]

[Affection toward Rey Valen: Extremely High]

I stared at the last line.

Damn, Rey.

My brother in historical defamation.

What did you do?

Five beautiful princesses genuinely loved this man while modern Evan couldn’t even get coffee with a woman without eventually hearing ’So... could you introduce me to your brother?’

Life was unfair.

Death, apparently, had decided to compensate aggressively.

Seris’s confusion lasted approximately three seconds.

Then her eyes moved past me.

She saw the chamber.

The shattered targets.

The melted stone.

The black crystal spikes.

The frozen section of floor.

The enormous cracks running outward from where my Blackflame Tornado had formed.

Her expression changed. "Rey."

Different tone.

That was the ’what the hell did you do’ version of my name.

"Yes?"

She hurried toward me. "Why are you here?" Her heels clicked sharply against the stone. "You should be resting."

"I am fine now."

She stopped directly in front of me.

Then stared.

"You said that three times."

I paused.

Rey’s memory helpfully supplied context.

First time, two months ago. He’d collapsed afterward.

Second time, three weeks ago. Mana seizure.

Third time, four days ago. He had apparently vomited blood less than an hour later.

I pressed my lips together. "Fair."

Seris’s golden eyes narrowed.

She stepped closer.

Her gaze moved across my face.

My neck.

My hands.

Then my chest.

Like she expected me to start bleeding from somewhere at any second.

Her fingers came up and touched my cheek.

Warm.

Much warmer than Lily.

"Your temperature is normal."

"That’s good."

"You’re pale."

"Lily said that too."

Her eyes narrowed further.

There was Rey’s cold humor again. Except mine had probably become slightly more annoying.

Seris looked over my shoulder.

Her gaze settled on one of the walls.

Specifically, the wall that had almost cracked apart under Blackflame pressure.

Her expression hardened. "And I detected strange mana. The entire western wing felt it."

Okay... I had underestimated the range.

Note to self ’Gigantic Blackflame Tornados were not stealth magic’.

Seris stepped even closer. "What happened?"

"Minor experiment."

Her eyebrow twitched. "A minor experiment cracked a reinforced training chamber?"

"Depends how strictly you’re defining minor."

"Rey."

I almost smiled.

She was definitely accustomed to dealing with magical nonsense.

Her gaze returned to the damaged room. "That mana felt wrong."

I remained quiet.

"Dense," she continued. "Corrupted."

Her golden eyes snapped back toward mine.

"It was the curse, wasn’t it?"

I already had an answer prepared and opened my mouth.

-GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLL.

Silence.

Absolute merciless silence.

My eyes slowly widened.

Seris blinked.

I stared straight ahead.

Perhaps if I didn’t acknowledge what had happened, reality would show mercy.

It did not.

-Grrrrrrr...

Smaller this time.

Almost like an encore.

I closed my eyes.

Goddammit.

I had survived magical-core destruction.

Became the youngest researcher in history.

Died.

Reincarnated.

Converted the Dark Lord’s curse into fuel.

Created forbidden elemental magic.

And this... This... was how my dignity died?

For one horrifying moment, I considered using Obsidian Earth Manipulation to bury myself.

Just create a hole.

Enter the hole.

Close the hole.

Become a fossil.

Future researchers could excavate me.

Much more dignified.