Chapter 7 - She Will Do Anything

Leo hadn't noticed it at first, but Iris couldn't hide the anxiety she'd felt ever since meeting him. She tried to look cheerful as she played with the phone he had given her, but the unease in her heart was something she couldn't control.

It had been 200 years.

Even for a high elf, who was destined to live forever, being locked in a dark prison with no light, no interaction, and no escape was an unimaginable form of loneliness and suffering.

It wasn't that elves were indifferent to their emotions simply because they lived for so long. Rather, they were deeply affected by the passage of time and the deaths of those they had known, carrying an unshakable sorrow that others might forget in the blink of an eye. Their suffering was endless. Over time, some elves suppressed their emotions, ascending to a transcendent realm, while others became numb and detached.

Even though elves were revered as descendants of gods, they were ultimately a part of humanity in the broad sense of the word. Humanity, after all, was nothing more than a group of social creatures that couldn't survive alone.

So why would a high elf, created by the World Tree, live among her kin, build villages, or run cities? Why would a person live in society, get married, and have children? No matter how difficult it was to live among others, it was far worse to live alone in isolation. Dying alone in a room, with no contact or connection, was one of the worst fates imaginable in modern times.

The past 200 years had been unbearably harsh for Iris, who had once been surrounded by love and admiration. In the end, the loneliness had driven her to consider the extreme option of ending her own life.

Then Leo had appeared before her eyes.

It was the warmth of their conversation, their meeting after what had felt like an eternity. For the first time in 200 years, she was alone with a man who wasn't part of her family. At first, she was wary of him, but as they talked, she realized how weak and harmless he was. That realization brought her a faint sense of curiosity—and a light liking.

She was so moved that she couldn't help but grab his hand. It was an impulsive, shameless act, but Leo didn't seem to mind. His hand was rough and firm, yet warm and reassuring.

"Is it because I let my guard down without realizing it…?" Iris thought as she began to share her story.

Before she knew it, she was telling him everything about her past—things she'd never imagined sharing with someone she'd just met.

At first, she told herself to stop, but the more she opened up, the more relieved she felt. The lump in her chest seemed to ease with every word, and she couldn't stop talking. Even though her story was long and, perhaps, boring, Leo listened attentively until she finished.

In the end, Iris felt genuinely lighter.

"Don't you want revenge?" Leo asked cautiously.

Iris hesitated. There had been times when she had wanted to take revenge on Resa and those who had wronged her. But the fiery emotions that had consumed her 200 years ago had long since burned out, leaving only ashes.

"With what little remains of that anger, I can no longer hope to do anything," she admitted.

In the first place, she doubted whether she could even leave this place. Her gaze drifted toward the stone gate, a constant reminder of her confinement. Even if she escaped, where could she go?

"Who can I blame now?" Iris said softly, her voice tinged with resignation. "Seeing through others' true nature is also a virtue of a monarch... I just didn't have the ability to judge people. Even if I tried to rebel, the World Tree would never allow it."

Her ascension to the throne, she realized, had been approved by the World Tree itself. How could she, a mere creature, go against its will?

"Still... you wouldn't want to stay here forever, right?" Leo asked gently.

Iris's lips trembled slightly.

For the past 200 years, she had lived the same monotonous, unchanging days. But now, things were different.

Leo was here.

He had come to this place where no one had ever visited, offering her warmth and kindness without asking for anything in return. Though she had been wary of him at first, his sincerity had started to melt away her doubts.

"Why are you so kind to me?" Iris finally asked. "I have nothing. I have nothing to give you. So why would you do this for someone like me?"

In her centuries of life, Iris had come to understand that unmerited kindness did not exist in this world. She had learned that all favor came with a price.

But Leo's actions didn't seem to fit that mold.

For the first time in hundreds of years, Iris began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was someone who saw her not as the sinner abandoned by the World Tree, but as someone worth saving.

Without the premise of being chosen by the World Tree, Iris felt as though she had no value. Realizing this harsh truth made Leo's unconditional kindness all the more incomprehensible to her.

Yet, at the same time, it made her incredibly happy.

From a certain point onward, Iris's heart began to pound whenever she looked at him.

Iris, who was renowned as the Great Magician for her outstanding intelligence, found herself utterly confused by the unfamiliar feelings stirring within her for the first time in her life.

However, one thing was clear.

This wasn't such a bad feeling.

The past 200 years had been days she never wanted to experience again. That was why she finally wished Leo wouldn't return to his own world. She wished he would stay by her side forever.

But how?

She had nothing. There was nothing she could offer him that might make him abandon his world and choose to stay with her.

Iris pretended to look at the phone in her hands, but in reality, her entire body trembled, drenched in cold sweat. Just imagining Leo disappearing and leaving her alone again tightened her throat and made her feel like crying.

She made a promise to herself: she would give him anything if he would just stay here, no matter what.

Then, as if to mock her fragile hope, what happened next brought her crashing down.

Iris opened an app called "Gallery" and found several pictures stored there. At first, she assumed they were ordinary photos, as Leo had previously explained that his phone had a "shooting" function similar to magical tools in her world. She thought the gallery was simply a storage space for captured images.

But the quality of the photos surprised her. They were so vivid and high-quality, unlike anything she had seen before.

"What... what is this...?" Iris murmured, flipping through the pictures.

As she continued looking, one image suddenly stopped her in her tracks—a picture of a naked woman.

It was an image of a woman posed provocatively, her undergarments barely qualifying as clothing. Her chest was exposed, her legs spread wide. The sight left Iris speechless, struck by an indescribable shock.

To her horror, she found more: a picture that casually exposed the private parts of a woman—something Iris couldn't even put into words.

The moment her eyes fell on the photo, her brain seemed to go into overdrive.

Born as the daughter of a high-ranking noble, Iris had been taught all sorts of etiquette, as well as the integrity and dignity a woman should possess. It was deeply ingrained in her as instinct.

Chastity was a woman's treasure, something to be preserved for the one she loved most. Exposing more of one's body than necessary felt no different from committing a sin.

The clothes Iris wore, which had been repaired and kept clean every single day through magic, reflected her values. They were always neat, elegant, and modest, yet even those couldn't completely conceal her voluptuous figure.

"This... this is shameless!" Iris muttered, appalled.

A woman shouldn't behave this way, she thought, regardless of her status or position. There were lines that should never be crossed.

She turned the phone over, as if unwilling to look at the images any longer, but what awaited her was even more shocking—a new level of erotic pictures.

Iris felt her mind spiraling into confusion as she stared at the images.

"W-what the... Why did Leo do something like this?"

She couldn't believe it at all.

Iris thought Leo was a good person—she still believed that.

However, the more she looked at the photos gathered in the gallery, the more she began to doubt her own judgment. The faint suspicion that had been blooming earlier was now blossoming into something larger. At the same time, she couldn't deny a strange, inexplicable joy sprouting inside her as she realized that these kinds of photos existed on Leo's phone.

"All of them… these women have really big breasts…" Iris thought, her gaze lingering on the images.

Some of the women were short, some were tall. Some had average looks, while others were stunningly beautiful.

But none of them had small breasts.

And hers… hers were also very large.

Her breasts, which she had lived with for hundreds of years, were so large that she often thought they were unnecessarily big. There had been more than a few occasions when it was difficult and uncomfortable to tighten her corset. On top of that, the moment she removed her clothing, her chest always looked swollen and heavy, no matter what she wore. Her shoulders were often stiff and sore because of it.

She had even thought, at times, that it might be nice to use magic to make them smaller.

"…Leo likes big breasts, right?" she thought to herself hesitantly.

But now, all of those thoughts seemed trivial compared to the growing desire to keep him from leaving. She wanted him to stay—here, by her side—instead of returning to his world.

It was a thought her past self would never have had. No, it was a choice she couldn't have even considered a year ago.

"If it's alright with you… would you like to touch my breasts…?" Iris asked, her voice trembling slightly.

At this moment, she was willing to do anything if it meant he would stay.