The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Within minutes, the Souls had burned away — along with the bottle itself, of course.

"… I should head back," the butler said, then looked in the direction of the manor. "Contact me if you need anything."

I nodded. "For now, just gather all the information you can about the prince, and tell me everything about him — especially his abilities and powers. Now that I think back on it, I should have interrogated those assassins instead of killing them outright. That was a blunder on my end."

"Worry not. I will look into this matter, and report back to you."

"Good. And also… prepare your mindset.. If it comes down to it, we'll need to kill the prince and king both. At that time, if you hesitate, you'll get killed."

"…" The butler fell silent at this, and clenched his fists. "I'm aware."

"Then, sleep well, geezer."

The butler nodded and pulled out a pendant of some sort out of his clothes, handing it to me.

"Take this. It's a private communication device in the Death Realm, called a Necro-Transponder. If you need to speak with me, just talk into that pendant, and I will be able to respond to you whenever I am able to."

I took the pendant in my hands and examined it little. It was a nice black-amber gradient, and in the shape of a heart.

"Huh. Neat."

With that, we parted ways, the butler going back to the servants' quarters and me returning to the manor. Just to be safe, I reinforced the Metal barrier one more time, in case another attack was launched. Of course, such a thing happening was unlikely, but I had always been a careful person. It's how I've survived up until now.

*****

Upon returning to the manor, I was greeted by Axilia, standing right beyond the door. Sighing, I spoke after closing the doors again.

"Just as expected… you heard everything that old butle— er, your grandfather — said, didn't you?"

"Yep," she replied nonchalantly, blinking.

"And… you don't care about it at all?"

"Yep," she replied again, completely indifferent.

"Then… why are you standing here?"

"Hehe~ to thank darling, of course~"

Saying this, she broke into a smile and leaped into my arms, hugging me tightly.

"You protected me, darling. As a reward…" She looked up and licked her lips, purposely showing her cleavage a bit. I raised an eyebrow, thinking she was seducing me again, but then-

"…!"

I felt the sharp tip of a knife plunge into my back.

"Wha…" I slowly looked down at Axilia, whose dazzling pink eyes shone with madness and desire.

"Darling… you know, don't you? About my past."

"N-No…" I groaned, unable to move a muscle. I could feel it — her knife was about to cut through my spinal cord. Any tiny movements, and I would be rendered paralyzed and unconscious.

"Liar," she whispered. "My grandfather… told you everything, didn't he?"

"… Why…?"

"You pity me, don't you, darling? You want to leave me now, don't you, darling? Don't worry… I won't let that happen. After I kill you, I'll kill myself too. That way, we can be together forever… darling~"

Tch… this girl, she-!

Ah, screw it… there's only one thing I can do…

Level Three Time Magic — Chronofreeze.

Stopping time once more, I slowly, carefully, wrapped my hand around Axilia's and pulled the knife out of my body. No blood spilled out just yet, as time was stopped, but as soon as time began flowing again, it would gush out. As such… I needed to recover this wound quickly.

Level Two Blessing Magic — Major Heal.

A faint green pulse emitted from the hand I hovered over my wound, and in the blink of an eye, the cut had healed completely. I tossed the bloodstained knife away, but it didn't fall to the floor due to time being stopped. Then, I slowly walked over to Axilia's frozen figure, and tapped the back of her neck.

Forbidden Magic — Thief's Hand.

I had used this spell on her last time to knock her unconscious, so there was no reason it wouldn't work again.

And just as expected, as soon as time began to flow again, her eyes closed and she fell into my arms, while the knife clattered to the floor. Calmly, I carried her upstairs to her room, then set her down on the bed. After that, I hovered my hand over her forehead, and cast another spell.

Level One Psychic Magic — Amnesia.

I chose the Level One variant since it only made people forget what happened in the past hour — in other words, she now had no idea what happened tonight. Taking a deep breath of relief, I sat by her and stroked her hair carefully.

"I made a promise to you, Axilia… even though you aren't aware of it. I've made the decision to save you, not abandon you. Though the latter would've been easier and saved me a lot more trouble, given your somewhat problematic personality as seen today… we've already gone too far for me to let go now. And besides… I'd probably be labeled as scum by the other girls if they knew what happened."

Now that I think about it… whether I bring Axilia back with me or not, they'll get mad, huh? If I don't bring her back, they'll hate me for what I did to the poor girl, and if I do… they'll get jealous.

Having a harem is not easy. Not easy at all.

Despite it only being a few days since we first met, I've gotten closer to Axilia than any of the other girls, except maybe Qing Yue and Mei Gui. Unlike the others, I knew Axilia's past, bare and naked. And it was a past I could relate to greatly and feel empathetic about. To have your parents killed was one thing, but to have your parents be still alive, but neglect you for all your life… that was an even worse form of torture.

After cleaning up the knife downstairs, I took a shower and returned to the bedroom before crawling into the blankets, pulling Axilia into a close, wholesome hug.

*****

- The Next Morning -

I woke up with a still asleep Axilia in my arms, breathing gently on my chest. She smelled like lavenders, which was a nice scent to wake up to in the morning. I wanted to sleep for a bit longer since I had stayed up so late last night, but I didn't want Axilia to wake up before me either. I still wasn't 100% sure if the amnesia spell really worked or not, even though that number was 99.9%. There was no reason it shouldn't have worked, but I don't want to risk anything by employing the Devil's Proof here.

Yawning, I disabled the barrier around the house as it was consuming my mana and it was no longer needed now that it was daytime and we were both awake, then stepped into the shower and quickly got ready for the day. By the time I was finished, Axilia had also woken up from the noise.

"Good morning… darling…" She murmured cutely, rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning," I replied. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Eh… I keep feeling like I forgot something important, but other than that, yep~!"

I smiled. "Good. Well… are you hungry? Let's go out into the city and get something to eat. It's a good opportunity for me to explore the Death Realm more too."

"Hehe~ rather than that, I have a better proposal~" Axilia giggled happily, leaping off the bed and kissing me on the lips before backing off and winking suggestively. "How about… I teach you how to cook, darling~?"

"Uh… no, I'm good."

I would much rather eat Qing Yue's cooking all the time than learn how to cook myself…

"Eh? But why?" Axilia asked, tilting her head.

"Well, er, you see… another person tried teaching me in the past, and it didn't go so well," I replied, scratching my head.

Yes, that person was Qing Yue.

"Heehee~ that just means that person wasn't skilled enough to teach you, darling~ don't worry, I'll make sure you learn~!"

Uh… was that a threat just now, or am I imagining things?

With a bright smile on her face, Axilia pulled me out of the room and downstairs, telling me to wait there while she showered.

"Oh, but you can join me in the shower if you like, darling~" She added, to which I responded with a firm no, using the excuse of I had already showered. Nice save, me! Obviously, showering before she woke up was calculated. All planned.

While she entered the bathroom and showered, I sighed deeply and sat down in one of the chairs downstairs. There were four around the large rectangular table, but before I came, only Axilia lived in here. The other three were meant to be for the king, queen, and prince respectively, but they never visited Axilia anyway — with the exception of the prince, who lusted after her for whatever reason.

Staring at these empty seats, I couldn't help but feel a bit lonely. Not for myself, but for Axilia.

As I was lost in my thoughts, I heard the sound of knocking on the door.

"… Who's there?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. The prince again? No way.

But the voice that responded was that of a female — and a familiar one at that.

"So… you really were here after all, Xuan Kai."