The cellar beneath Waypoint Ruins was lit by flickering candlelight, stretching the shadows of the two figures long across the walls.
“…So,” Sellen said, her voice completely even, “what you mean is that you want me to replace Rennala and become the new master of Raya Lucaria Academy?”
Loran nodded.
“Yes.”
He looked directly into Sellen’s eyes.
“I believe you can do it.”
Sellen did not answer immediately.
[Affection: 100 (MAX)]
[Status: Evaluating / Weighing Options / Reason Suppressing Emotion]
Sellen was an extraordinarily ambitious woman.
To her, exploring the Primeval Current of glintstone sorcery was the entire meaning of her life.
And Loran’s proposal had undoubtedly placed a broad, open road in front of her.
Becoming the ruler of the Academy would mean gaining access to incomparable resources—
Every book in its libraries.
Every forbidden sorcery sealed away in its cellars.
And the authority to command the Academy’s sorcerers to work for her.
The temptation was powerful enough to temporarily suppress the almost pathological affection she held for Loran.
“This is… a very tempting proposal, Loran,” Sellen said slowly.
“I need the Academy’s resources, and you need a stable force in the Lands Between capable of providing you with protection and intelligence.”
“A fair exchange.”
“But there appears to be one term in this agreement that I cannot accept.”
“You intend to go home?”
Loran’s heart sank.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Emotion finally entered Sellen’s voice.
“Is the Lands Between not enough for you?”
“The mysteries of the stars are here. Endless knowledge waits for us to uncover it.”
“Stay.”
“Stay with me, and together we can reach heights no sorcerer has ever touched.”
“We can witness the origin itself.”
“We can rewrite the order of the stars together!”
“Is that future truly less worthy of anticipation than some ‘homeland’ that has already begun to fade from your memory?”
In Loran’s vision, that pink icon began flashing again.
[Affection: 100 (MAX)]
[Status: Shaken / Possessive / Emotions Surging]
The option labeled [Proposal] appeared above Sellen’s head once more.
And beside it, a new line of text appeared in blood-red letters.
[Route Option: In the end, she will make sure you remain “by her side” forever.]
Immediately afterward, three branching options unfolded before him.
[Option 1: Accept the Confession / Proposal.]
[Effect: Unlock Route — “The New King of Raya Lucaria.” Sellen will seize the Academy for you, but her possessiveness toward you will reach its peak. Any “threat” that might take you away from her will be eliminated without mercy.
Note: Sellen will view Roderika’s feelings for you as a potential threat, with an extremely high chance of provoking an attack.
Your ending in the Lands Between will be permanently altered.]
[Option 2: Reject the Confession / Proposal.]
[Effect: Unlock Route — “The Graven Witch.” Your rejection will be interpreted by Sellen as betrayal. Her extreme love and hatred will completely twist her feelings toward you.
She will use every means available to turn you into a perfect “sorcerer sphere” that belongs to her alone, to admire and caress forever.
Note: Affection will be permanently locked at MAX. You will be unable to lower it by any means.]
[Option 3: ???]
[Effect: Unlock a completely new route — “Steal the Witch’s Stars.”
Note: Prerequisites not met. This option is currently unavailable.]
Cold sweat soaked Loran’s back.
This was no longer a multiple-choice question.
It was a life-or-death question.
Accept, and Roderika might die.
Reject, and he would get turned into a ball.
And the only path that looked remotely survivable—the one hidden behind three question marks—was grayed out and impossible to select.
[Steal the Witch’s Stars]…
The witch?
Ranni?
The name immediately brought to mind that woman Kiro called the blue four-armed weirdo.
But have Sellen replace Ranni?
How could that possibly work?
Ranni was an Empyrean.
Her fate was tied directly to the fundamental laws of this world.
Sellen, no matter how talented she was, was still only a mortal sorcerer.
Logically, it made no sense at all.
“…Loran, what are you still hesitating for?”
Sellen’s voice dragged him out of his desperate thoughts.
She took a step forward.
The mixed scent of herbs and a woman’s natural fragrance washed over him.
“Can you truly not feel how I feel about you?”
Loran subconsciously stepped half a pace backward.
“Give me an answer.”
Sellen gave him no more time to think.
She leaned forward, removed her headpiece, and moved to kiss him.
“Wait!”
In a moment of desperation, inspiration struck.
Loran turned his head aside, avoiding Sellen’s lips, and hurriedly shouted,
“Before you kiss me! Or… before I give you my answer! I want to… give you something!”
Sellen stopped.
Her face was less than a finger’s width from his cheek.
“A gift?”
There was a trace of confusion in her voice.
“Yes!”
Loran forced himself to calm down.
He opened the gift interface and moved his finger toward one of the pieces of junk Patches had sold him.
[Star Fragment]
He could only gamble.
Gamble that the bald scammer had not been lying.
Gamble that this thing really did have something to do with the Eternal City.
[Are you sure you wish to give “Star Fragment” ×1 to “Sellen”?]
[Confirm.]
A small crystal fragment giving off a dim blue glow appeared in Loran’s hand.
He held it out to Sellen.
“This is…”
The instant Sellen’s eyes landed on the fragment, her gaze froze.
“This…”
She murmured under her breath.
“There is no mistake…”
“This presence…”
“The Eternal City.”
At that exact moment, the cold voice of the system rang through Loran’s mind once more.
[Gift “Star Fragment” detected to possess extremely high relevance.]
[Title “Guide of Hearts” passive effect activated: Your persuasion check against target “Sellen” will receive an enormous bonus.]
[Prerequisites for Option 3 “???” have been fulfilled.]
[Route Option unlocked: Steal the Witch’s Stars.]
The option that had been buried beneath gray mist finally lit up.
There were no pink lace borders.
No ominous blood-red letters.
Instead, it glowed a deep indigo, like the background of the universe itself—filled with the unknown and infinite possibilities.
To Loran, it looked like salvation itself.
Without the slightest hesitation, his consciousness pressed down on the only path that seemed to offer a way out.
“I know the truth behind the Night of the Black Knives.”
Loran spoke.
Sellen’s head snapped upward, disbelief written across her face.
“The Empyrean Ranni stole the power of Destined Death,” Loran continued without giving her time to react.
Every word he spoke was a forbidden truth capable of overturning the foundations of this world’s understanding.
“She abandoned the destiny chosen for her by the Two Fingers.”
“She cast aside her role as an Empyrean and turned against the Golden Order—and against the Greater Will itself.”
“What she seeks to begin is an Age of Stars ruled by darkness and cold.”
“An age beyond the control of the Greater Will.”
“A so-called age of ‘freedom.’”
Loran took a step forward and looked directly into Sellen’s eyes.
“But why?”
“Why does that age have to be hers?”
“Why must the ultimate mysteries of the stars be explored beneath laws she dictates?”
“If she can betray her ordained purpose for the sake of her own ambition…”
“Then you, Sellen—a seeker who has devoted her entire life to sorcery, someone who longs to touch the truth of the stars more than anyone else—”
“Why shouldn’t you seize that destiny for yourself?”
“Why shouldn’t you personally rewrite the paths of the stars?”
“Why shouldn’t you be the one to usher in an age…”
“A true age of reason and brilliance?”
The cellar fell into deathly silence.
The candle flames trembled violently beneath the weight of those words, as though even they shuddered at the sheer heresy of his declaration.
Sellen said nothing.
She merely stared at Loran.
Then she lowered her eyes toward the faintly glowing Star Fragment in her hand.
Her body began to tremble.
Yes.
Why?
Why should the sorcerers of Raya Lucaria forever bow beneath the Dark Moon of the Carian royal family?
Why should the final authority over sorcery and the stars belong to an Empyrean who had abandoned the Golden Order?
And why should she—Sellen, a genius whose talent for sorcery was second to none—be exiled by the Academy and imprisoned in a dark underground chamber simply because she dared pursue the Primeval Current?
Loran’s words were like a key.
A key that unlocked the most secret and darkest Pandora’s box buried in the depths of her soul.
What lay inside was not love.
Nor desire.
It was the wildfire known as—
Resentment.
“…Steal…”
“…the Witch’s stars…”
She murmured the words.
Again.
And again.
Tasting each one.
Then—
She smiled.
Before Loran’s astonished eyes, the world in his vision was once again replaced by an exquisite CG.
Loran was nowhere in the image.
There was only Sellen.
She stood alone atop the highest library tower of Raya Lucaria Academy.
Behind her stretched an endless cosmos, deep and boundless, filled with billions upon billions of stars.
There was no uncertainty left in her eyes.
Only a cold, brilliant clarity, like starlight itself.
Slowly, she raised one hand toward the heavens.
Her five fingers spread wide—
as though she intended to seize those countless stars, and with them, the very laws governing the universe itself.
At the bottom-right corner of the image, an indigo signature slowly appeared.
—The Sorcerer Queen’s Ambition
[CG “The Sorcerer Queen’s Ambition” unlocked. Added to Gallery.]
[Ending “Age of Stars” has been closed.]
[Ranni Faction Affection forcibly locked to: Hostile.]