'Huehue, the time has come!'

"Everyone, stand firm. Don't let the fog carry you away, don't lose sight of your partner."

Awoooo!!.

Boom! Swoosh! Bang!

It's funny how opportunities always arise when there's chaos. It was already the third day since we entered this foggy valley.

And things had gone well overall, since we were a group of over 100 people and, except for me, everyone was at least rank 7, so few beasts would approach our group even if they weren't intelligent.

Even so, sometimes we would enter territories or large groups of beasts, and fighting was inevitable.

Today, in particular, we encountered a gigantic herd of beasts: chimera wolves, a peculiar breed endemic to this valley.

It was a single species, but it had the characteristic of gaining skill and mutations depending on what they ate, so they were very varied in appearance.

Like humans, beasts also possess skill, but this breed has the peculiarity of being able to obtain them.

They were not powerful skill, mostly simple affinities or skill taken from other beasts,

but that in itself was very abnormal and a great subject of study, and the reason why this place would become well known in the future.

But that's not what's important. What is important is the opportunity created by their attack. This valley is always covered in fog, but today it was very thick and you could only see a meter ahead. The mages were doing their best to disperse it, but the fog here was not normal and it was not so easy.

The wolves, although outnumbering us, were intelligent and were using hit-and-run tactics.

It was an intense and highly stressful situation for us—or rather, for them.

"Ughm."

My stressful situation was elsewhere, and I planned to use this situation to end it; so, without hesitation, when the chaos and intense battle began, I grabbed the stinky ball of hair and gagged it.

It was a surprise and treacherous attack, dragging her with me into the fog without giving her a chance to react. ..

.

'Huehuehue, now we're alone.'

I didn't even have to erase our presence: the wolves simply let us pass; for them, getting rid of something rotten was more of a benefit than a problem.

Click!.

"W-what are you... doing, w-why did you bring me here?"

"To end this. Your smell has been driving me crazy all this time. It's time to put an end to it."

"N-no! —I don't want to—"

"Stay there. No casting spells."

"Ugh!."

It seems I expressed myself incorrectly; upon hearing me, she tried to defend herself, and I saw the movement of mana,I noticed that there was no chant and the spell formed quickly and was powerful: it was a poison spell, so it must have been affinity with poison, at least rank A.

She almost cast magic, but unfortunately for her, I was too close, and even though she is two rank higher, she was purely a mage.

I easily stopped her and poked her several times with my fingers, blocking her mana flow.

"Well, you won't be able to throw anything now. You feel it, don't you? You can't move your mana. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase. Sign this, or whatever it is you're thinking I'm going to do to you might come true."

"W-what is it?"

"A contract, so you won't tell anyone what happened here. Sign it or I'll make you disappear."

"D-disappear?"

"Yes, you'll disappear. How I'll do it, I'll leave to your imagination."

I was going to use a great purification and she would clearly notice it and might question my identity; it was my insurance.

I always have a blank contract that I fill out when I need to; after all, that way I can use my second technique of abuse of power.

If she didn't sign it, I would tie her up and throw her into a corner of the dimensional stone and pretend that some wolf with a taste for strong-smelling meat had taken her away.

I preferred to risk attracting attention than to continue smelling her damn scent.

"Y-yes."

Surprisingly, there wasn't much resistance; she signed it without even reading it. I felt silly for hiding some of the clauses in super small print.

It was very easy—too easy to be true. That's when I noticed it. There was something about her; even through that thick layer of hair, I could feel it. It was a familiar sensation coming from her, a strong sense of familiarity that made me realize right away what it was.

She was like Silvia, a pushover, someone who was easy to corner.

'Yes, that's the vibe she gave me at first, too bad she stopped being like that.'

I found that interesting. I mean, Silvia is like that with everyone except me, which makes me feel excluded. And maybe for that very reason, it seemed like it would be interesting to mess with this ball of hair.

'No, that's not relevant; let's get rid of the smell first.'

"Okay. If this doesn't get rid of it, it's definitely because you're the representative."

If what I was about to do didn't work, it meant she was like me: someone with the ultimate blessing of a powerful god.

But it really didn't seem to be the case, so I prepared myself.

"Abite!

Integritas regnet,

Animus purgetur,

Absentia malitiae,

Exsul immunditia, discede."

I was ready to give my best.

Normally, due to my blessing, purification spells are treated as if they were an element, and I possess affinity with it at Ex rank —something that doesn't exist—, allowing me to cast them without chanting or preparation.

But I began to recite the purification spell to make it more powerful, more complete, and reinforced it even further with my affinity for runes.

Not only that, but I was stimulating my blessing to pour into it as much divinity and the pure concept of purification as the spell could withstand.

I even incorporated the white flame I had discovered some time ago, in a moment of crisis.

It seemed like a concentration of purity; it didn't harm anything unless I considered it impure, but it was highly aggressive towards what was.

I was giving it my all, in the most powerful purification I had ever done in this life, to eliminate that damn smell that had been bothering me for two days.

"W-wait, you shou—uek!"

The woman seemed to want to stop me; she was scared and very nervous, even biting her tongue mid-sentence.

I didn't understand the problem. She was a mage; she should have known that my chants, although they included the white flame, were a kind of purification spell that would cause no harm.

'Well, never mind, this will benefit her too. Who wants to stink all the time?'

"Exsul immunditia"(Exile from impurity).

I finally finished it and cast it at her. The result...

"Gyaaa!!"

She literally began to burn, letting out a heart-wrenching scream that seemed to come from the depths of her soul.

"Gyaaa!!"

Yes, that scream didn't sound like the relief after feeling the refreshing sensation that purification spells usually give, and they're not supposed to make you writhe in pain and agony, as if you were being cooked alive... as she is doing.

'Hmm... that's strange, that shouldn't happen...'

..

.

*****

~A few days ago~

"Ah, wait, Elena, this is irrational; I'm within my rights, I didn't do anything wrong."

"My lady, no matter how you look at it: there was no consent. You were unilaterally doing something wrong."

"B-but she's my girlfriend, something like that shouldn't be wrong."

"My lady, I have always told you that, no matter how aberrant and dangerous to society you are, you must have limits and—at the very least—if you want to do something like that, you must have the prior consent of the other party... and it does not appear that Miss Cordelia had given it."

'Damn, I should have asked first, but that would have triggered her Iron Syndrome.'

she not wrong, but I still think it's irrational. I mean, Cordelia and I have been dating for over half a month; I don't see why I shouldn't do it.

The same person isn't against it... but I can't deny that she's not exactly in favor of it either.

I looked in her direction and she was lying on the bed, her hands raised, completely still; if it weren't for her breathing, she would look like a statue.

Because of this, I haven't been able to seal the deal with her, even though I've had more than one opportunity.

Although she is very proactive—she takes my hand, hugs me, and even sleeps with me—the problem starts when I take the initiative; she enters a state that I call Iron Syndrome.

I don't know if her blessing is really to blame, but even if it's not literal, she really does become as rigid as a piece of iron.

Just holding her hand puts her in that state, which can last from a few minutes to an hour.

Once I kissed her on the cheek to see what would happen, and she remained frozen all day; I had to take her to the academy like that and carry her like a statue when we had to move.

I didn't even know what would happen with a real kiss, and I feel like going further didn't seem possible in the short term, unless we found a solution.

And unfortunately for me, I haven't been able to talk to Astrid since we arrived in the middle world.

But putting that aside, today I wanted to satisfy a curiosity I'd had since I discovered I was Astrid's daughter: I wondered if she had inverted nipples too.

Knowing she would freeze, I approached her from behind and took her by surprise. I quickly raised her hands before she could freeze, and just as I was about to take off her clothes, Elena arrived and caught me red-handed.

"What did you do now?"

At that moment, I heard the voice of a possible way out and moved instinctively.

"Silvia-mon, help! Elena is trying to hit me for no reason! Your best friend forever is suffering domestic violence!"

"...Elena, what did she do now?"

"Hey, you have to take my side unconditionally."

"Did she try to abuse Miss Cordelia while she was... unconscious?"

"No! It's a misunderstanding. I just wanted to check if she had inverted nipples."

"That's still just as bad... Well, if she's like you told me, I don't think..."

"Yeah, right? You understand: Elena is irrational, whenever she gets angry she is—. Ah! Now that I think about it, she just wants revenge because I got into her bed this morning and Lys almost caught us. Ah! And that's why you've been so surly all day. It all makes sense now."

"눈_눈, I don't have such petty thoughts, my lady."

"You're lying; you're one of the most petty and vindictive people I know and—"

Bang!.

"ehem!. Okay, I understand it was my fault, and I didn't let you sleep. We'll talk later; I'll give you adequate compensation for damages."

It's not like I was intimidated because she slammed 'George' hard against the floor; it was always better to seek the path of diplomacy.

'Elena, if you're reading my mind, let's make peace and love. Yes, it's true that you're petty, but I still love you.'

"...Just try to avoid doing things like that in the future. I'll go get the food... Miss Silvia, I'll be gone for a moment; keep an eye on her so she doesn't do anything inappropriate."

It seems that my mental message worked, because even though she still had a dissatisfied look on her face, Elena put George away and headed for the exit, but not before turning around and giving me a quick loving glance (she was looking at her coldly and warningly). It seems that we did resolve it correctly.

Besides, it was recorded with Silvia as a witness that she left without specifying what I wasn't supposed to do, so it's not my fault if I do it again.

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