Olivia smiled.
“There must still be something else you wanted to see me about.”
Creis’s face flushed, as if she were recalling something.
“Why?”
“Just a feeling.”
“Can you read my mind?” Creis looked into Olivia’s eyes, the color still lingering on her cheeks.
Of course she wanted to ask Olivia any number of things.
As two people who ought to have shared a beautiful romance from the beginning, their relationship should have been far closer than this.
Olivia tilted her head slightly, covered her mouth, and smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.
“This isn’t mind-reading. This is understanding.”
“I’m worried about what Lartomia intends to do with our daughter. She has prepared for far too long. We still don’t know what connection she has with the Sacred Feather God.”
“I understand you, Creis. No mother fails to worry about her daughter. Right now our daughter’s body is too weak for battle and too weak for long journeys… Even so, I’m rather surprised you actually chose to trust Isa.”
Creis’s voice grew firmer.
“I trust her.”
“Isa is strong. We share the same goal. She will protect me and share important information with me.”
Olivia only smiled and said nothing.
Seeing that, Creis took out the sealing dagger.
The weapon had been modified so that a Heavenly Oracle Envoy’s power could drive it.
It was as if it had been designed specifically for Heavenly Oracle Envoys; it did not even require the legendary fairies to command the relic.
Creis handed the relic dagger to Olivia, and Olivia understood her meaning at once.
“Is this really all right? Right now I could actually defeat you.” Olivia’s gaze turned teasing.
“It’s fine.”
“Is that so? You weren’t like this before. Back then you worshipped personal strength. As long as you were stronger than every Heavenly Oracle Envoy put together, you could become their king without conditions.”
“It’s different now.”
Creis shook her head.
“That day I talked with Isa for a long time. She wants to marry our daughter… Having someone standing behind me, having a gentle girl like Isa as a friend, makes me feel at ease.”
She lifted her head and looked earnestly into Olivia’s eyes.
“Thank you for still being able to believe in me. Thank you for still giving me another chance. I never thought I could receive this kind of feeling.”
“This is something you earned for yourself, Creis. I’m also surprised you would take the initiative to change. I… perhaps I really have been misunderstanding you all along.”
At those words Olivia stared at the relic dagger in her hand and sank into thought.
She did not use it on Creis immediately.
Instead she took Creis by the hand and led her to her own room.
Thanks to sealing arts and various powerful magic arrays, Olivia’s room had excellent soundproofing and was far safer.
Even if they did something, no one would discover it.
It was the best place to set an array.
After they returned to the room, Olivia circulated her mana and checked once more that the surrounding magical seals were intact.
She closed the door and settled Creis on the bed.
Soon Olivia activated the relic dagger.
Only when orange mana wrapped her entire body did they realize it was not a dagger at all, but a metal ring covered in complex orange magic patterns.
Its appearance looked extremely like a collar.
“[Soul].”
Olivia murmured to herself.
A sealing artifact of this level seemed to be technology left behind from the plane where humanity had perished… yet every one of these weapons had been modified by Lartomia and made even stronger.
Originally, one only needed to drive the dagger into the body and [Soul] would instantly change form and wrap around the neck.
The weak would faint on the spot.
Those who were stronger, such as Heavenly Oracle Envoys of Emperor-level and above, would still lose all ability to move.
“Do it to me.”
Creis knelt on the bed, her hands hanging loosely at her sides, and closed her eyes.
Olivia acted.
Creis sat facing her, close enough that their knees could touch.
Those cute cherry lips were only a hair’s breadth from her cheek; she could clearly feel the warmth of the other’s breath.
Creis’s figure was three parts petite and seven parts mature, like a precious delicacy sealed inside a maid outfit.
The slight swell of her chest invited the imagination.
Her delicate face radiated a natural, charming sweetness.
Her slender jade neck and long legs, framed by white lace, formed an elegant line.
Creis’s gaze was a little evasive, yet under Olivia’s passionate stare she also looked seriously into the other’s eyes, caught the gleam in that greedy look, and accepted it gladly.
Then Olivia gently activated the clasp-like mechanism at the back of [Soul] and carefully fastened it around Creis’s neck.
The whole process was quick.
Accompanied by Creis’s faint gasp—”Huff…”—orange power surged wildly, as if it had detected the immense strength inside Creis’s body and was fiercely resisting it.
[Soul] locked around her beautiful jade neck.
Creis was even slightly on the winning side, yet she did not resist.
She did not even struggle.
She calmly accepted everything.
“Olivia, Gabriella is pregnant.”
“Mm, I know. Isa told me you agreed. I can see you really do trust her.”
“I am not a competent mother, nor a competent wife. Gabriella and Isa are qualified as wives and mothers. I believe in them.”
As Creis spoke she smiled.
It was not a stiff, fake smile, but a smile that came from a girl’s heart, as refreshing as a spring breeze—one that could even make Olivia misunderstand.
“I feel at ease. When I see Gabriella and Isa testing each other, looking at each other with affection, I look forward to their romance. Perhaps it’s precisely because I’m not an excellent mother that I think this way… Gabriella will understand me.”
“We will all understand you.” Olivia stroked Creis’s cheek and interlaced the fingers of her other hand with hers.
“Creis, you’re wrong.”
“What?”
“For more than a month now you have no longer been that cold, utilitarian machine. You are my wife. You are Gabriella’s mother.”
Olivia tightened her grip on Creis’s hand, then slowly loosened it and began to climb upward, as if waiting for the other to react, and also as if testing her.
“So…” Olivia’s words stopped.
“Thank you.”
At the same time, in almost an instant, the energy inside [Soul] stopped pulsing.
In its place, purple and black evil power surged from Olivia’s hands and replaced the force on the metal ring.
In a heartbeat [Soul] changed from a relic that sealed power into a relic dominated by shadow.
Unstable shadow, like countless tentacles, eroded Creis’s pale, soft flesh, yet it brought not the slightest pain.
At this moment [Soul] had already become the torture device the apostles of the Evil God used to imprison young women, and Celestial God Creis was the first to suffer it.
“I’m sorry.”
Olivia said in a low voice.