I wanted to have it patented under the Ashborne name. A monopoly on regrowing arms? I would be richer than the Emperor. But for that, I needed a physical sample to present to the Patent Office. And I didn't want to share the recipe with the Alchemists' Guild because I trusted those old lizards about as far as I could throw them.

And since I have absolutely zero talent in alchemy myself, I was just the GPS guiding the car. Ariana was the driver.

"Okay," I instructed, reading from my mental database. "Now, lower the heat to medium-low. Stir counter-clockwise three times, then add the Starlight Dust. Slowly."

"Medium-low… counter-clockwise…" Ariana muttered, her brow furrowed in concentration.

She reduced the flame. She stirred. One. Two. Three.

She picked up the pinch of glittering dust.

"Now!" I said.

She dropped it in.

The liquid turned a beautiful gold.

"It's working!" she gasped.

"Steady," I warned. "Now, stabilize the mana flow. It needs to be constant."

Ariana closed her eyes, channeling her mana into the cauldron.

But here was the problem. The recipe wasn't just ingredients; it required Grandmaster level mana control.

Ariana's mana fluctuated for a microsecond.

The gold liquid turned an angry red.

Hiss…

My [Detection] skill screamed.

"Get down!"

I grabbed Ariana and pulled her behind the reinforced table.

BOOM!

A cloud of purple smoke erupted from the cauldron, blasting the lid off and covering the entire room in sticky, foul-smelling foam.

Silence returned to the basement.

Slowly, we peeked over the table.

The cauldron was smoking. The walls were dripping with purple slime. Ariana's goggles were covered in goo.

"...I failed again," she whispered, her shoulders slumping. "That's the fifth time today."

"It's fine," I said, wiping a glob of slime off my shoulder. "You're trying to brew a potion that doesn't exist yet. Rome wasn't built in a day, and limbs don't grow back in an hour."

"But the ingredients… they're expensive," she sniffled, looking at the wasted Gryphon blood.

"I'm rich. Don't worry about the cost," I reassured her.

I looked at the mess. Cleaning this up would take hours, and the fumes were starting to make me dizzy.

"Okay, that's it for today," I decided, pulling her up. "We're hitting a wall. We need a break."

"But—"

"No buts. Look at us. We look like we wrestled a slime and lost."

I took the goggles off her face, revealing her clean eyes amidst the purple soot.

"Why don't we go for a little walk outside? The city is finally calming down. Let's get some fresh air before we try again."

Ariana hesitated, looking at her failed experiment, then looked at me.

"Okay," she nodded softly. "A walk sounds nice."

****

We cleaned ourselves up—thankfully, a simple [Cleanse] spell took care of the purple slime and the smell of sulfur—and stepped out of the house.

The evening air was crisp, carrying the scent of roasting nuts and night-blooming jasmine. The capital, despite the recent terror, was resilient. The streets were already bustling again. Mana-lamps flickered to life along the boulevards, casting a warm, amber glow over the cobblestones.

Ariana took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling. She was wearing a simple casual outfit I had bought her—a soft blue blouse and a long skirt that swished around her ankles.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, looking at the lights reflecting off the shop windows.

"It is," I agreed, shoving my hands into my pockets. "Better than the smell of sulfur and failure, right?"

She giggled, nudging my arm playfully.

"Hey, it wasn't failure. It was… progress. Messy, sticky progress."

"Sure. Keep telling yourself that when we're scraping slime off the ceiling tomorrow."

We walked side by side, our shoulders brushing occasionally. There was no agenda tonight. No monsters to hunt, no plots to foil, no potions to brew. Just two students on an unauthorized break.

We stopped at a street stall selling "Cloud-Crepes."

"Two chocolate and mana-berry, please," I ordered.

The vendor handed them over, steaming hot and smelling of vanilla.

We strolled toward the canal district, eating as we walked.

"Mmm!" Ariana's eyes lit up as she took a bite. "Lucien, this is amazing! Not as good as your cooking, of course, but…"

"You don't have to flatter me," I chuckled, wiping a speck of cream from the corner of my mouth. "Street food has its own charm. It's the taste of freedom."

"Freedom…" she repeated the word, savoring it along with the sweet crepe.

She looked around at the people passing by—couples holding hands, children chasing light-fairies, old men playing chess on benches.

"You know," she said softly, "I used to think the world was just… loud. Scary. But walking with you like this… it feels quiet. A good kind of quiet."

I looked at her. The amber light from a nearby lamp caught in her silver hair, making her look like she was glowing.

"I get what you mean," I admitted.

For a villain, silence usually meant plotting. But this? This was peace.

We reached the Stone Arch Bridge, a quiet spot overlooking the central canal. The water below was dark and calm, reflecting the twin moons above.

We leaned against the stone railing, finishing our crepes in comfortable silence.

"Lucien?"

"Yeah?"

She turned to face me, resting her chin on her arms on the railing. Her violet eyes were searching mine.

"What do you want to do? I mean… in the future. After the Academy. After everything."

I paused.

The old me would have said: Survive. Get rich. Kill the Demon King.

But looking at her, those goals felt… insufficient.

"I want to expand the shop. Open franchises all around the world," I said, recalling the empires of fast food back on Earth like McDonald's that became filthy rich. "Open a branch in every major city. Maybe buy a private island where no one bothers me. Make enough money that I can buy the Empire if I feel like it."

Ariana laughed, a bell-like sound that made my chest feel light.

"That sounds like you. Greedy. And what about the County? You are the only heir of the Ashborne family."

"I don't know. Territory management is not my thing," I waved my hand dismissively. "Sitting in a room managing papers, looking after such a large expanse, arguing with vassals… blah, blah. I have seen my father sometimes not come out of his office for days. It looks like prison."

At that, Ariana laughed again. "So true. My father is like that too. Even though I got quite a few moments with him, he was always buried in scrolls."

"See? I am not cut out for so much work. Man, what's the use of saving the world if you can't just rest after that?" I spoke dramatically.

"What do you mean, saving the world? Is the world going to end?" Ariana asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

I grinned. "It is. And I am going to save the world, become a hero, be heralded in the history books, and then retire. Do nothing and just slack off."

"Greedy."

"Ambitious," I corrected. "What about you?"

She looked out at the water, her expression softening as she watched the ripples.

"I want to be become world's best alchemist. I want to become an Alchemist who can fix things that people say are broken."

She turned back to me, her gaze intensifying.

"And… I want to be there when you buy that island. I want to spend my life with you."

My heart skipped a beat.

The playful atmosphere shifted instantly. The air around us grew thick, charged with something heavier than gravity.

She wasn't looking away. She wasn't shying away like she usually did. She was looking right at me, waiting.

I realized then that I was done running. I was done with the excuses, the 'villain' roleplay, the fear of rejection.

I turned fully toward her.

"Ariana."

"Yes?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

I reached out, my hand trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the sheer intensity of the moment. I tucked a loose strand of silver hair behind her ear, my fingers grazing her soft cheek.

She wasn't looking away. She wasn't shying away like she usually did. She was looking right at me, waiting.

I realized then that I was done running. I was done with the excuses, the 'villain' roleplay, the fear of rejection.

At that moment, I made a decision.

My mother's voice echoed in the back of my mind, teasing yet serious: "If you like someone, you have to take the initiative. Make it happen, son."

She was right. I couldn't just wait for the plot to resolve this. I had to decide to do so myself.

I turned fully toward her.

"Ariana."

"Yes?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

I reached out, my hand trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the sheer intensity of the moment. I tucked a loose strand of silver hair behind her ear, my fingers grazing her soft cheek.

She leaned into my touch, her eyes fluttering shut.

"You're wrong about one thing," I murmured, stepping closer.

"What?" she breathed.

"I don't want to be on that island alone."

Her eyes snapped open, wide and shimmering.

I didn't give her time to overthink it. I didn't give myself time to back out.

I leaned down.

She tilted her head up, closing the distance.

Our lips met.

It wasn't explosive. It wasn't like the movies where fireworks went off.

It was soft. It was warm. It tasted like chocolate and mana-berries.

It was the feeling of coming home.

Ariana gasped softly against my mouth, her hands finding their way to my chest, clutching my jacket tight. I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her flush against me, deepening the kiss.

For a moment, the world didn't exist. There were no systems, no points, no impending doom. Just the girl in my arms and the pounding of my own heart.

We pulled apart slowly, breathless.

Her face was flushed a brilliant red, her lips swollen and shiny. She looked absolutely devastating.

"Lucien…" she whispered, dazed.

I rested my forehead against hers, a genuine smile—one without mockery or schemes—breaking across my face.

"Let's go home, Ariana."

She smiled back, radiant.

"Okay."

Hand in hand, we walked back through the sleeping city, leaving the bridge and the moonlight behind, ready to face whatever tomorrow would throw at us.

Together.

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