The Academy’s Weakest Became A Demon-Limited Hunter
Chapter 355: Side Story — Luce's Case (2)

Luce leaned back expressionlessly on the sofa, stretched out her hand, and looked at the wedding ring adorning her finger.

It was a silver ring with a jewel that occasionally reflected rainbow colors.

“Are you not bored?” I spoke to her because she seemed lost in thought.

She did not take her eyes off the ring.

“Not really. It’s not boring when I’m with you.”

Should I say this is a difference between her and Dorothy?

Dorothy tended to honestly express her feelings when she found something boring, but far from doing the same, Luce didn’t feel the slightest hint of boredom.

She truly didn’t feel bored just by being with me.

“Why?”

“Because you look like a person.”

“Huh…?”

You mean… in a good way, right?

And so the night deepened, and it became dawn.

Luce briefly went to the lab and brought back some other books. Most of them were quickly skimmed through with her eyes.

Luce’s dream was to become the Tower Master. Among them, she aimed for the very top.

Since it was a position that required exceptional intelligence, a memory like Luce’s, capable of recalling every detail she saw, was an essential skill.

What was equally demanded was an overwhelming amount of reading and comprehension.

“You’re working hard.”

How lovely.

I liked seeing someone work hard.

“Do I look pretty right now?” Luce asked without even turning her head.

“Huh? What’s with the sudden question?”

“Because you kept staring.”

“How did you know?”

“Because I couldn’t hear you working.”

I see.

Luce looked at me and gave a gentle smile.

“Shall I make you some tea?”

“You can leave that to the servant…”

“I want to make it for you.”

“Then I guess I’ll take you up on that.”

Luce made some black tea.

Doesn’t she seem oddly proactive?

I wondered if she might have added something strange to it, so I read her psychology.

There was nothing unusual. In other words, this was just plain black tea.

“I should drink it with peace of mind.”

I drank the black tea repeatedly.

Eventually, I finished all the work.

“Ahhh.”

I stretched and looked at Luce. She was still sitting quietly, skimming through her book.

“Luce, am I bothering you?”

“Not at all. I like being with you.”

“Then can I rest a bit?”

“How?”

When I completely covered the lamp on the desk, darkness settled over the office.

Only the lamp in front of the sofa where Luce was sitting cast a soft, gentle glow.

“Huuh.”

I exhaled, releasing the tension in my body, and sat down next to Luce.

Leaning on her shoulder and closing my eyes, a faint, intriguing scent brushed against my nose.

Perhaps because all the urgent tasks were done, my body suddenly felt languid.

Now, I just wanted to relax beside Luce.

“…”

Silence filled the room, and for a while, Luce stared at me intently.

“Do you want to lie down?”

“Huh?”

Luce gently pushed my head down and rested it on her lap.

Her delicate skirt lightly brushed against the back of my head.

“This works, I guess.”

I smiled at Luce. The light from the lamp on the table illuminated her smile.

Closing my eyes again and resting my head on Luce’s thigh, she gently stroked my hair.

“You’ve worked hard, Isaac. Sleep well.”

Her intimate voice tickled the air like an angel’s whisper.

The tenderness in her voice, as soothing as a lullaby, relaxed my body and lulled me into drowsiness.

“Yeah, I’ll sleep for a bit.”

Without hesitation, I fell asleep just like that.

Chirik.

What’s that sound?

Suddenly, the sound of lightning cracking and the clinking of chains oddly intertwined and pierced my ears.

In a daze, I flailed my arms, and the same sound echoed repeatedly through the space.

Is the sound echoing?

The question pulled my consciousness back.

As I slowly opened my eyes, the blurred face of a woman with rose-gold-colored hair came into view.

She was sitting with her knees hugged to her chest.

She sat in front of me, looking at me with a meaningful smile.

“Did you sleep well?”

The aquamarine eyes that captured me were Luce’s.

“Luce…?”

An eerie space.

The brightness was weak. It was dim, but enough to distinguish the surrounding objects to some extent.

The humid air dampened my lungs. The chill in my chest wasn’t just from the humidity.

Suddenly, a conclusion I once feared came to mind, snapping me back to full awareness.

“What is this?”

I opened my eyes wide, regaining my composure.

This place… is one of the closed cellars in the annex.

It was a place where no one came and went.

I felt something foreign on my wrists and ankles. Looking closely, my arms and legs were restrained.

What is this restraint?

It was the first time I had encountered such a sophisticated and solid restraint.

It seemed like a magic tool that had absorbed Luce’s mana to its fullest extent, using it to create its own hardness.

It was as if I could feel Luce’s determination through it.

Did she really develop this herself?

One wouldn’t find something like this on the market.

Even I couldn’t help but be impressed.

She must have made it herself.

If I set my mind to it and applied some force, I could break it, but…

Would Luce not have known that?

There was no way.

For now, I decided to talk to Luce.

“Aren’t you tired of doing this?”

I half-opened my eyes and glared at Luce.

“Not yet. I don’t think I’ll get tired of it.”

That wasn’t the answer I was expecting.

“I remember you said you don’t like this kind of thing… But just for today, I wanted to be alone with you. I had no choice.”

Whether “I had no choice” made sense in this context was unclear.

“If I don’t do this, you’ll go to that leech again, right?”

“Leech?”

What is that?

…That question was immediately answered.

If it was someone I frequently visited in the palace and someone Luce would have reason to be jealous of, it could only be Dorothy.

So she sees Dorothy as a leech…

I remembered how, during our academy days, Luce referred to people around her as fish.

Whether Luce opened or closed her heart to others was secondary, perhaps I was the only one in her eyes who truly qualified as a person.

“Haa… honestly…”

Among my wives, the one with the biggest complaints about my harem was, without a doubt, Luce.

Even if she accepted the harem, the seeds of dissatisfaction wouldn’t have been uprooted. She had merely compromised.

In a way, her actions were understandable.

More importantly, that wasn’t the issue.

But why didn’t I see this coming? I definitely read Luce’s psychology.

A whirlwind of confusion surged through my mind.

Even though I read Luce’s psychology, I didn’t see this coming? Me?

Had my ability weakened? That couldn’t be.

I found it hard to make sense of it myself.

“More importantly, what’s going on? It’s obvious this was pre-planned,” feigning composure, I asked, and Luce, hands pressed to the floor, approached me.

Slowly, like a baby.

She brought her face close, so near that her warm breath brushed my lips, and softly, with her voice laced with her breaths, she said:

“Don’t you think reading people’s minds is rude?”

“…”

My mouth opened slightly.

She knew?

Of course, I had anticipated something like this.

The question, “Since when did you know?” was meaningless. After all, what was bound to happen had simply become reality.

But…

Even so, the timing of this was completely unexpected.

“Whenever you had the slightest doubt, you’d read my mind. I really… hate that,” Luce whispered softly, her tone as calm as a serene moonlit night.

Her tone only intensified the chaos in my mind.

We hadn’t seen much of each other lately, but wasn’t this a bit too dramatic?

“…How did you know?” I decided to ask honestly.

How could this have happened?

“The method was simple.”

“What is it?”

“My head.”

Luce tapped her head lightly with her finger.

“I just had to manipulate it.”

“…What?” not understanding what she meant, I asked again.

In response, purple lightning mana flickered from the index finger she pressed against her head.

“By cleverly applying electrical stimulation to my brain, I made it possible. Memories, emotions, and ultimately, even the mind. I could manipulate abstract concepts however I wanted, though I’m not sure if it would work on others.”

“Makes no sense…”

“I convinced myself that the sleeping drug for the tea was an essential ingredient. Then my husband drank it without hesitation, despite being so cautious with me before.”

I couldn’t keep my mouth shut at such an unexpected response.

Is that even possible?

No, more than that…

Are you in your right mind, Dear…?

Even I couldn’t understand.

The very idea, the method, and the resolve to carry it out…

People were inherently immune to their own magic. Even if they chose to be affected by it, it made no difference.

In other words, Luce was willing to risk brain damage just to avoid my abilities.

“But at some point, Isaac, you stopped using that mind-reading ability often. It made me happy, like I’d become someone you could trust,” Luce whispered again and again, her voice endlessly captivating.

“Why would you… do something like that? It’s dangerous!”

Caught up in building the harem and buried in work all this time, I had overlooked something.

The person I was dealing with was Luce Eltania.

She was a woman for whom it wasn’t surprising to display irrational behavior at any time.

I never expected her to turn my ability against me to put me at ease.

“Isaac…”

Luce’s lips curved into a smile, her eyes filled with joy and emotion.

She buried my head in her voluptuous breast.

“Thanks for worrying about me, but you don’t need to. You know I’m good at controlling my mana. Besides, it’s only effective on partial memories. You don’t have to worry about me forgetting you or damaging my brain. I’m competent, after all.”

“No, that’s not what I mean…”

“But you know, I have something to say.”

Her lovely voice turned cold in an instant. A chilling sensation crawled up my spine.

She pulled my head away from her embrace and took something out.

A crumpled piece of paper.

It was a photo taken outside in the pouring rain.

Inside, it contained a depiction of a man and woman engaged in a physical relationship, their peach-colored forms shown.

Anyone could see it was Dorothy and me.

One photo, then another…

Crumpled like little balls, they unfolded one by one, decorating my vision like a tapestry.

How did she take these? More importantly, how did I not sense it?

At the time, I was swept up in lust and focused entirely on Dorothy…

Even so, there had never been a flaw in my ability before, had there?

“You, this… how?”

“You thought I didn’t know?”

Luce spread the crumpled photos out on the floor.

“I forgot. Because I made myself forget.”

Luce extended her index finger, and zzt, lightning mana flickered along it.

That finger answered everything.

I understood for sure, Luce, who remembered everything, had acquired the ability to selectively forget certain memories.

A nonsensical ability to erase specific memories at will.

“And when the time came, I made sure the photos would find their way to me. Seeing fragments of memory naturally brought the connections back together.”

She managed to bypass [Psychological Insight] like that?

At this point, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Hey, Luce. These photos, you used a magic tool, didn’t you? One that can fly and has a photo-taking function… something you made.”

The angles of the photos made it obvious.

“Yeah, I made it.”

Luce nodded calmly.

If I compared it to my past life, it seemed like she’d built something akin to a “drone”.

“Haa.”

I let out a small laugh of disbelief.

Luce lowered her head, staring at the photos scattered haphazardly on the dingy floor.

“According to the agreement, this shouldn’t have happened before marriage… That senior really has nothing likable about her.”

Luce’s low voice carried a heavy weight.

“I was the one who suggested it.”

“I don’t care. Whether you suggested it first or not, the important thing is that if I show these photos to the other wives, there’s going to be quite a backlash.”

Luce lifted her head again.

In the darkness of the cellar, her aquamarine eyes glowed vividly as she stared at me.

Haa, that’s enough.

“So? You’re asking me to stay like this for today?”

Luce surely knew that such a cute threat couldn’t keep me tied down. At most, it would cause some discomfort.

So, let’s hear what small demand matches this small threat.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? You know what I’ve always wanted.”

Zzzzz.

Thin strands of faint light illuminated the walls of the cellar.

“When did she set that up…?”

I was sure it was lighting that Luce had set up.

Interestingly, the cellar ceiling connected with the structure on the first floor in an oval shape, making all the strands resemble the form of a birdcage.

It seemed intentional. Luce had always subtly desired to trap me like a bird in a cage.

Though it didn’t dramatically brighten the eerie cellar, it allowed me to see Luce’s face more clearly.

Luce wore a cold expression, but her cheeks were flushed.

“Isaac.”

Luce gently stroked my cheek.

“Be mine today.”

Her voice was laced with deep affection for me.

She looked so beautiful that, without thinking, a thought escaped my lips like a soliloquy.

“…You’re adorable.”

As if to silence me from saying anything more.

Luce leaned in, and the moist sensation of her lips enveloped mine.