Discovery

I also kiss him, I feel strangely happy to hear him say that he loves me. The kiss soon ends and I avert my gaze in embarrassment.

"I-I..."

"I love you too, Uriel..." I say what has been on my mind this whole time, I can't believe Valac was right about me liking Uriel.

Uriel opens a huge smile when he hears this.

"Ayla..." He kneels in front of me.

"When we return to the kingdom, whether it's by showing the truth to the world or running away from everything, would you accept to go on this journey with me?" What he said is practically a marriage proposal.

"Hehehe, I don't have a ring with me right now but you can be sure that at some point I will formally propose to you," He says with a silly smile as if he had won the whole world.

"I-I will go wherever you go," I tell him with a genuine smile, I never expected to find someone other than Aetheris who really cares for me.

Soon he starts walking through the forest with me, I notice how much more lively his gait is, I think this was always a burden for him.

His declaration also lifted a huge weight that was crushing my heart, knowing that there is someone who sees me as their hope and inspiration, makes me want to be better for Uriel.

After a long walk, we stop, he sets up camp and goes to patrol the area while I decide to read the book, enjoying my newly discovered happiness.

Soon I open the book and everything begins.

[Welcome dear reader, this is chapter 4, you can call me chapter 4 and I will be your guide]

"...Let's go to Aurora" Soon chapter 4 takes me to Aurora, we are in a room I don't recognize while Aurora reads a book, I see the little Valac peeking through the crack in the door.

"I think this one will do..." Aurora says as she disappears, then after a while she appears holding a Kitsune pup.

"Hey chapter 4, this race is a Kitsune, right?" I ask with doubts, looking at the Kitsune that has a strange black coloration. Its fur is so dark and has eerie dark tones while its eyes are purple.

[Correct, it is a mutant Kitsune, its black coloration is one of the proofs of its mutations]

"I see"

Soon Aurora places the Kitsune pup on the table, the pup barely reacts.

"Valac, if you interfere again, I'll kill you," Aurora says to the little Valac who is behind the door.

"Chapter 4, what is she referring to?"

[Valac interfered with one of Aurora's tests, which resulted in failure, so the blame for the failure was attributed to Valac]

Aurora soon takes a knife and cuts her hand, she begins to draw various things on the table and on the Kitsune pup.

"Runes...what kind do you think they are? Chapter 4, what runes are those?"

[Protection, sealing, containment, restoration, control, barrier, seal, restriction, and healing runes, all those runes are one of the methods Aurora thought of to try to maintain her essence in a being]

"Another failure probably..." I watch as she activates, the pup screams desperately as the runes are engraved into its flesh, soon she places a purple sphere on the pup.

"H-Hey, why is he like that, chapter 4?"

[Normally, engraving a single rune on the body would already be problematic, but he has 9 of them being engraved on him, the runes are now permanently engraved on his body and soul, causing severe wounds, and that's why there's the healing seal to prevent his death at the moment]

"It worked...it worked, Hahahaha it really worked," Aurora says excitedly as the smoke dissipates, from the smoke I see a little boy.

He has black hair and pale skin with dull purple eyes, a lazy expression.

"Beelzebub...your name from now on is Beelzebub," I'm not surprised by this, it's obvious that Aurora is responsible for the Demon Lords, so I'll probably see the emergence of all of them.

"..." Honestly, I don't know what to feel, it's sad but I think it's less sad than with Valac, after all, it was Beelzebub's fault what happened between me and Fenrir.

Soon we see pretty much the same, Aurora takes good care of Beelzebub while ignoring Valac and Leviathan, the biggest difference is that every week Aurora engraves new runes on Beelzebub's body while he cries and screams in pain from the sensations.

Beelzebub seems to get along more or less well with Valac and Leviathan, I see that Beelzebub is lazy, he practically doesn't do anything besides lying down or staying with Aurora.

Although Aurora takes good care of Beelzebub, she seems more stressed every day, while she's with him she acts normal, but when she leaves him, she starts muttering things angrily.

Probably related to the runes.

I follow her and listen to what she says.

"It's not working, why do the runes continue...they were supposed to disappear..." soon I realize what she's talking about, runes are not engraved on my body because I'm immortal, so they shouldn't be able to be engraved on Beelzebub either.

"...I-It can't be...or could it be...need to test," Aurora says in a mumble, soon Aurora disappears, the vision changes and we are in a strange place.

"Chapter 4, where is this place..." the sky is white, while the ground is completely black, the horizon has nothing and this place seems infinite.

[It's a reality dome, a space separated from existence, Aurora has several of them, this one in particular was made to test dangerous things]

Aurora soon begins to draw various runes on the ground with blood, we've been here for what seemed like hours, there are already thousands of these runes on the ground, all seem the same but are all different.

Soon she stops drawing and we return to the castle.

"Beelzebub, it's time to engrave the runes..." She calls Beelzebub, who soon appears, he trembles slightly, although he seems to like Aurora, he also fears this moment of engraving runes.

"...Beelzebub, could you sit there in that circle," Beelzebub follows what she asked, soon he begins to twist in pain.

"What is she doing now, chapter 4?"

[She is engraving all those runes you saw all at once on Beelzebub's body]

"T-This won't kill him?"

[Correct, that's the purpose]

"?"

"...He died...it was another failure..." Aurora says as Beelzebub gets up completely fine.

"Chapter 4, why did Aurora say Beelzebub died?"

[There were runes that allowed escape from death among the many runes written, and this rune was used, meaning Beelzebub is not immortal, essentially another failure]

"Is it a problem with the race? Age? Body? Soul? Magic? Why failed again...seals...is it because I sealed my essence in him...haha...I can't believe he's a failure just because of the runes..."

[The runes were intended to seal Aurora's essence so it wouldn't escape, but the sealed essence has no effect, and even if it wasn't sealed, it would have been a failure]

'I guess that explains Beelzebub's outburst of anger when I used runes...'

I start to dissolve, which is strange since it was too early.

"Why did it end already?"

[You've already spent a lot of time here]

"What do you mean?"

[Inside the reality dome, you spent about 300 accelerated years with Aurora, but inside the Reality Dome, time is faster, so not even a second passed in the castle]

Soon I completely disappear and wake up, but I'm not in the tent.

"W-Where a-am I?" An unknown ceiling and an unknown bed.

"Ayla, you finally woke up," Uriel hugs me.

"Huh?"

"You've been sleeping for 5 weeks"

"W-What, 5 weeks..."

"I don't know what you were doing in that relic, but I'm glad you woke up," Uriel hands me the book, which I soon store in my inventory, I spent more time than expected inside the book.

"I carried you to the city, I've been hiding with you in this city for 1 week, I already have several supplies, so we can leave now if you want, but how about we explore the city together a little?"

I decide to accept to get my mind off the fact that I've been sleeping for so long.

"Where's Aetheris?"

"Here," He shows a necklace.

"...?"

"It's an item I picked up from the cabin, your dragon is here and can come out whenever you want, so we avoid attention," Uriel was going to give it to me, but I leave it with him, I think it's better for him to carry Aetheris, imagine if someone steals the necklace.

We go out, I'm covered by a hood to not be seen, and it's exciting to walk through a city, to see civilization after what happened to me is great.

We walk through the corners as he tells me about the city, I see that this city has humans and demons like Uriel said, this city is neutral.

"Oops, couple, would you like a Heart Flower?" An attendant at a stall says to Uriel, I see he sells some foods at his stall.

"...Yes, I'll take two," Uriel buys this "Heart Flower" from him and hands it to me, ironically it's literally a candied apple.

It's delicious, although the sweetness is clearly not sugar, I eat it slowly as we continue our walk, soon the realization hits me.

'I-Is this literally a date?' my face blushes as I think about it.

"Is anything wrong, Ayla?" Uriel asks, seeing me blush.

"N-No," we continue following, the city is much more peaceful than I expected, while the day is great until I hear a ping.

"System?" My system opened by force.

Soon something terrible begins to appear on the system, just like a streaming screen, a "Video" is playing on my system.

"...it's me..." The video shows me being fucked by Fenrir and begging for more. I notice that everyone is watching, while the top shows that the whole world is watching this video.

Soon despair hits me, I never imagined they would be so cruel to me, they revealed this video to the entire planet. I feel the tears fall as I hear the murmurs of the people, I pull my hood even further as if it would protect me.

I don't even have the courage to look at Uriel, what must he think of me, acting like a whore while begging to be fucked by Fenrir.

"Isn't that the princess? I can't believe it"

"She's disgusting, how can she like that?"

"Tsk, and there were people worried about this bitch"

"Who would have thought the pure princess of the kingdom was a slut who likes wolves"

"I don't know how someone like that is part of the royal family"

"A war is going on and this bitch is begging for sex, what a disappointment"

The words of disgust and disapproval invade my mind, while the tears fall. Hearing all these people criticize me hurts, I never asked to end up this way, I didn't do this on purpose, so why do I have to suffer this way.

When I finally had a little happiness, the world collapsed in seconds. Being insulted like this wounds my heart, these people don't know anything about me, how can they judge me based on a video.

They don't know how much I suffered after regaining my sanity, they don't know how much I hated my situation, they don't know how much I wanted to escape that place.

I start running, but everywhere I go I hear murmurs and sounds of disgust and hatred, I try to find some place to hide, then I enter an alley and end up bumping into a boy and falling.

"...H-Hey, t-that's mine... GIVE IT BACK!" I see the boy with my pendant. He soon hides the pendant in his clothes and runs away. He stole it when I bumped into him.

"W-Wait, t-that's important" I get up to run after him.

"I can't be without it..." suddenly everything becomes completely white, and as if everything disappeared, leaving only the purest white.