After saying these words, Will sat down on the chair opposite her, lowered his eyelids slightly, and didn’t even look at Liya, but rather at the leg of the chair she was sitting on.
Liya gazed at his somewhat messy head, his brown hair still as fluffy as before.
He looked… pitiful.
Compared to before, he seemed more “human.”
Liya hadn’t asked him what he did after faking his death, nor what he had experienced during this time, and definitely not what he went through before choosing that particular death.
But, whenever he mentioned the moment from “death” to now, his terrifying aggressiveness would fade.
She never expected…
After being implanted with an inhibitor and given a “mission” by Will, in the end…
He still handed the solution to her. It was like meeting the student who had the best grades in school after graduating for many years; he still, as always, brought problems he couldn’t solve, believing she could figure them out.
“Is it because I agreed to the bug being planted to make you feel more at ease? Classmate Will, you seem less terrifying than you were just now.”
“That’s too much, Teacher Liya. I told you, I did this because I love you.”
Liya could tell he was lying at a glance. When Will told the truth, it was like when he treated people; there wasn’t such a heavy performance.
—Since he still trusted her as his teacher to provide an answer, she certainly wouldn’t disappoint him.
“If you were willing to give me a little more… a little reward… as a teacher, I… I might have a solution that my current body cannot achieve…”
“Hmm?”
“This was given to me by Archmage Meilin, the Witch.”
Liya took out the original text Meilin had given her from her pocket.
The yellowed pages, the dilapidated cover, the unreadable title—just like what a stereotypical “original text” would look like.
“This… what is this?”
Even Will was surprised and stood up from his chair. He was telling the truth; he indeed knew very little about the “future” now, as he had basically gone through most of the original work. He had arrived in a world line where events were all mixed up and didn’t happen according to the rules.
“Meilin—have you heard of her?”
“The one you mentioned once when you were telling me about Ancient Magic? I remember she provided a lot of research materials for the Candle of First Creation’s magic, right?”
“You… you actually remember!” Liya was surprised. “Yes. This original text was also given to me by her. Although… although it felt more like she was giving it to me out of pity… haha.”
Will rubbed the cover with his hand.
Then he realized that the unreadable text on the cover wasn’t due to dust, but rather some kind of dust-like decoration that obscured the title.
“Actually, this original text does not exist within the magic system of the Candle of First Creation. The Candle of First Creation seems to assume we have the ability to process the raw materials of wax blocks and assemble them. So, it’s normal that I didn’t know before, and you haven’t heard of it. Aunt Meilin… cough, Teacher, must have realized the possible bottleneck and found an Ancient Magic from another direction.”
“I see…” Will rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. “So, what is the name of this book… Hmm… the last two characters seem to be Ash Extinguish in Ancient Language? What about the first two?”
Liya shook her head.
“This book is already an original text, but it seems that since I received it, the first two characters have been missing.”
The origins of Ancient Magic original texts are very complex. But most of them were “dug out” directly from dungeons.
Dungeon loot has some special characteristics, and the probability of artificial damage is relatively low. One can only assume that the ancient Mage who wrote this book never intended for its name to be known from the beginning.
“Although Senior Meilin’s translation is very good. But Ancient Magic relies more on intuition. Without knowing the true name, even if I read it all, I wouldn’t understand. Not to mention my magic circuit itself…”
Liya paused and looked at Will.
Originally, she had hoped Will would give her a little… a little “reward” for this.
But…
“It’s already very late today. I wanted to study, but maybe tomorrow.”
“Wh- what…?”
“Rest is a very important part of being a beautiful young girl. Teacher Liya, you should go back first. Shall we meet here at eight tomorrow?”
“Eight o’clock it is… Wait, you, you, you, you… You’re still asking me to go back?”
Liya looked back at the room, then turned to look at Will.
She looked at the room, then looked at Will.
She repeated this three times.
Will still had a “no visitors allowed” expression, with his arms crossed.
—Huh? Huh??? Huh???
—We’re in a cave cabin, alone, a man and a woman, and now he’s naturally asking me to leave?!
“What’s wrong?”
“You… aren’t you… aren’t you the kind of… of hot-blooded beast… who traps a poor little witch in a cave, only to fiercely strip her clothes and insult her with words…”
*Bang.*
Will threw the book at her head, not letting her finish her sentence.
“I can see it now, Teacher Liya… you wouldn’t happen to be…?” He smirked. “Thinking of ‘serving’ me by offering your body as a sacrifice to get a ‘reward’?”
Actually, Liya was just guessing Will’s intentions with the most perverse malice, but…
She looked to the side somewhat guiltily, her hand touching the bug on her neck—and the place Will had touched.
“Th- this… well… just now… when you touched me, for those few seconds, I did… I did have that thought…”
“Don’t make me sound like I’m driven by lust. If I just wanted your body, I would have acted yesterday.”
Will paused, then rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment—
“Hmm… If your magic circuit really got better, it’s probably you who would be sleeping with me, not me sleeping with you, right?”
“… Eheh?”
Liya stuck out her tongue, briefly reverting to her original “annoying witch” persona.
“Th- th- then I’ll leave now—don’t you dare give me a sedative as a punishment, I’m leaving quickly.”
After Will manipulated her magic circuit perception a few times with a flick of his fingers, she now seemed extremely sensitive to Will’s every “reward” and “punishment.”
“Then listen carefully. You are the one asking for ‘rewards’ from me—so you have to do things that satisfy me enough before you can sleep with me.”
Will kicked Liya’s little butt with his foot.
He watched her leave with small steps.
“Alright…”
Will sighed and paced a couple of times in the room.
Liya probably thought this cave was a “cozy little cabin.” She didn’t know that the place she saw, which looked like merely a “living room,” was everything.
“Actually, it’s because there’s no bed here at all… I usually just sleep on the floor…”
“Of course, if Teacher Liya knew, she’d probably pity me and find a reason to take me into the city.”
He scratched his head and sat back down in his chair.
“But if that happened, I wouldn’t be able to maintain the ‘mysteriousness’ and ‘distance’ in her heart.”
Will slumped back in his chair, looked back at the bottle of bloody liquid, and swirled the beaker in his hand.
Then…
Out of sheer boredom, he took out his own little notebook.
On the slightly damp notebook, he looked at the words that weren’t “tasks” but simply memos.
“Okay, I’ve accomplished the first point. She’ll obediently come to see me tomorrow too…”
*\[Sound of a page turning]*
“So then…”
“The next step…”
“Is to make her understand what kind of love I want—”
