Gardenia’s Heart

The dense, vine-choked forest grew even harder to cross because of the rough terrain and poor visibility. Normally, a proper beacon route would be chosen and a sizeable group of mages would travel together. But lacking both those common-sense precautions, a single girl and a wolf walked through the woods without a care.

The mist interfered with mana-location and flying would be ineffective in such low visibility. Although it would be possible to erect a barrier to locate them, there was no need to waste energy that way when something more practical could be used.

“Can you smell anything, little dog?” Nia asked, barely able to hide a laugh as she looked at her unwanted companion at her side.

With its snout almost touching the ground, the fairy was sniffing for any unfamiliar scent along the various trails they’d passed. Provoked again by the metamorph, Akasha snorted in irritation.

Since leaving the town hall, the smug smile on Nia’s face hadn’t left for a single moment.

Now fully recovered, Akasha was confident they could fight the girl and make her pay for that arrogance. But doing so would go against their master’s primary order. Knowing that perfectly well only made the girl tease them more.

“Keep looking, puppy.”

With a light leap, Nia settled onto the black wolf’s back and then lay down. Folding her arms while her crimson eyes sharpened, the metamorph studied the map unfurled by her tentacles.

She’d managed to gather important information at the town hall, but the time spent there only made her erection stiffer. She needed to finish this quickly, and for that, she had to analyze the situation as thoroughly as possible.

In sheer height, the mountain was tall enough that its silhouette cut through the dense mist, but taking the whole area into account, it was undeniably colossal. Given all the resources at her disposal now, searching the entire region for bandits wasn’t impossible — but the time it would take was something Nia wasn’t willing to spend.

She needed to narrow the search area, and for that, she had to analyze the information she had and identify a reliable zone to investigate.

Nia was sure her wife could have pinpointed the bandits’ hideout precisely with just the fragments of information she’d obtained. Still, given the circumstances, she wanted to handle this herself this time.

She stroked her chin and reviewed everything.

The survivors’ reports made it clear the attackers struck without exposing themselves. Avoiding open areas like beacon sites, the bandits took advantage of the mist to launch surprise attacks in confined spaces like the forest.

Nia doubted Velmont still had many powerful mages under its command — aside from the ones she’d already killed. But overpowering mages wasn’t always about raw strength. In fact, the more she explored the world, the more she realized brute force was the least used option.

For example, if they were outnumbered by a team, even one-star mages would exhaust their mana before managing to defeat everyone.

Whether it was the group that kidnapped Abelia and tried to attack her in the forest, the nobles from the capital who struck at her in the labyrinth, or even the soldiers in the Caligo mines... mages tended to move in packs.

Thus, she imagined this operation was being carried out by at least thirty bandits, maybe more.

The mountaintop was discarded as an option. They would need a constant food supply to feed that many people, and inside the mist—where even farming was difficult—those bandits would have to make repeated trips to nearby villages or even Stardust Spring itself to buy resources. If they wasted that much time on transport, the operation would be unsafe.

Another factor was the bandits’ source of information.

Even after changing the transport route, they were still attacked. That meant the group had a scout watching the mines to track movements and warn the rest which road would be taken toward the city. Therefore, they needed to be close enough for a swift response.

“Lily taught me that bad people like to hide where they can be seen.”

Inside Caligo, Velmont used popular shops, like clothing bazaars, to watch the streets and plan ambushes. By remaining in plain sight, trust grew naturally without a single word being exchanged.

“However, there are those who prefer the dark.”

The girl was a monster.

Born from dark mana, whose initial purpose of existence was to lurk in the shadows and strike at anything that approached, she understood better than anyone how that kind of person might think.

A location on the map caught her attention.

“Puppy, head this way.”

Pointing with a tentacle, the girl tried to guide the black wolf through the trees.

And then, the entire scene around her shifted.

“-!?”

Upside down, Nia’s eyes darted, her mana-location instantly adapting to the sudden change.

She was on the mountainside, about twenty meters above the ground. Her body fell freely for only a second before a black tail caught her, holding her safe.

That’s when the realization struck. It was Nia who told the wolf to obey, and when she pointed out the direction to go, Akasha was only doing its best. Lily’s orders for Akasha were limited to not harming the girl—meaning that as long as no harm was caused, it would still remain within acceptable bounds.

As if saying “hold on if you can,” the black wolf leapt along the mountainside with agility, its claws sinking into the rocks to move as efficiently as possible.

“You...”

There was no logical reason to accept the wolf’s challenge. If she simply left Akasha’s back and began flying, Nia wouldn’t have to endure this. Yet doing so would be the same as admitting defeat.

“Do your best, puppy!”

Twisting her body, Nia slipped free of the black tail. Several tentacles coiled around the wolf’s chest and waist, pulling her back up, allowing the girl to sit again.

She had already undeniably been defeated by the wolf once in the labyrinth, and now, she refused to lose again.

The cold misty wind cut across her cheek. Nearing the end of a rocky trail, the wolf leapt, and in the blink of an eye the entire scenery shifted once more.

“Tsk.” Clicking her tongue, Nia raised a barrier instantly around herself and the wolf.

Branches and roots snapped instantly all around. Having fallen back into the forest, Akasha was about to use its claws to clear the way, but when Nia moved ahead and handled it faster—even amidst the sudden shift—the wolf shot her an annoyed look.

“Over there now.” Pointing with her finger across a small river, Nia widened her teasing smile even more.

Since the metamorph couldn’t enter the frozen world without Lily’s help, there was no way for her to react when the wolf stopped time. For that reason, she tightened her tentacles around herself to stay as fixed as possible during the four seconds she would remain unresponsive.

Like a force of nature, the two pressed on with their challenge along the entire path. Refusing to fall off the wolf again, Nia kept leading the way while they advanced at such speed that part of the forest was left destroyed.

“Do better next time.”

Jumping down from the wolf, Nia planted her feet firmly on the ground, both hands on her waist and her chest puffed out, displaying what was undeniably her victory.

That cute pose—which only made Akasha roll its eyes—might have looked even more adorable had Nia not noticed the bulge of her penis pushing her skirt upward, forcing her to quickly press both hands down to keep it contained.

With urgency to finish the task, the metamorph turned her eyes toward the mountainside they had reached.

Spread across the rocky wall, clusters of white flowers with a faint greenish aura released a powerful fragrance into the air.

“Ivory herb...”

There was no way she wouldn’t recognize such a plant.

Responsible for many of her troubles in Caligo, the flower, capable of unsettling monsters, was something the girl truly despised.

Just as she was about to unleash a rain of ice crystals to destroy them instantly, the metamorph realized she didn’t need to. In a single, literal blink, every herb on the ground had already been obliterated.

“This bothers you too?”

With one hand on her waist, the girl looked at the black wolf, which simply shook its head with indifference, unwilling to admit that it was also unsettled.

Stepping closer, Nia placed her hand against the rocky wall, feeling its grainy surface.

“There seems to be a grotto on the other side. The cave looks natural, but this wall is made of a material different from the rest, so it was created with a spell.”

Several factors had drawn Nia’s attention to this area, but even she hadn’t expected to hit the mark on her first try.

Mapping the area perfectly was difficult in the fog, and even though it was close to the city, being so isolated from trade routes, few people were willing to explore it. Even with the best regional map provided by the city office, this area, along with a few others nearby, remained uncharted.

The reason couldn’t have been more obvious: this place lay right in the middle of several registered monster territories. Turning her eyes to scan the surroundings, the girl spotted the horned bears lurking among the trees.

When she first went to Caligo, those same monsters hadn’t hesitated to attack her. But now, after consuming another of the books and accompanied by Akasha, she could see their huge bodies trembling simply from being in the same part of the forest as her.

Being able to use the ivory herb to repel monsters to some extent and the grotto for concealment, this place was without doubt a perfect spot for a quick-action hideout.

“I can feel many presences in here. Forty-five in total.”

Of all those presences, only a portion had enough mana to qualify them as even minimally competent mages. The rest mostly lacked much mana and seemed like novice warriors; that didn’t change the fact that they carried weapons. And finally, the smallest portion of people wasn’t a surprise to Nia.

“Slaves, huh?” Again, she approved of her choice not to bring Lily along.

Age didn’t seem specific. From children to adults, they appeared to perform household tasks within the hideout. There were a few mages among them—possibly those who hadn’t been able to escape during ambushes—but they were so injured it was difficult even for her to sense the mana in their bodies.

Nia guessed they used small fissures between the rocks to circulate air and breathe. A mage with minimal skill in wind magic could manage that, and with such numbers maybe two or three would take turns.

But in that moment, honestly, it didn’t matter to her.

A portal like a starry sky formed in front of the wall.

Stepping through and followed by the fairy, the purple-haired girl looked down the dark corridor ahead with cold composure, her crimson eyes shining.

Nia didn’t want Lily to remember bad memories, so she would handle this.

“Eliminate anyone carrying at least a weapon. Don’t kill the strongest one—he’s mine.”

---

In a rock-walled room, two voices mixed together.

“Priapus, I’m telling you, we should just march in and force the miners to work for us.”

Waving his hand repeatedly as if to prove his point, a man in cheap leather armor spoke enthusiastically to the person sitting across from him.

“Idiot, that would never work. If we occupied the mine directly anyone could find us. Do you want to put a target on your face and get killed? What are you, a fool?”

Scratching his stubbled beard, he leaned back in his chair, his leather boots propped on the table.

“Besides, ever since I took control of this operation, you will call me Boss, understood, idiot?”

With a penetrating gaze at the man, Priapus felt his subordinate tremble slightly beneath the weight of the mana he released. Unable to hide his delight at the sight, the man raked his black hair; bluish lights from the wall lamps threw their shadows across the rocky walls.

“Unlike any greedy idiot, I have the perfect plan. It’s impossible for them to find this place. We’ll just stay hidden for a few more weeks. When the mages of Caligo come and find nothing, they’ll have no choice but to leave and the miners will be forced to return to the shafts. We’ll attack after that and repeat the process in a few weeks.”

Turning a small knife indifferently in his right hand, Priapus watched his subordinate’s expression tighten with doubt.

Scratching his head a few times, the confused man looked at his boss. “But then they’ll ask for help again, won’t they?”

“Don’t you get it? Of course they will. But just like now, they’ll never find us.”

Unable to contain his laughter, Priapus brought the palm of his left hand to his face, lifting his fringe.

“After several fruitless attempts to seek help, it will become impossible to ask Caligo for aid. The city hall will have no choice but to make a deal with us if they want to continue existing. We’ll start taking part of the city’s taxes in exchange for leaving the stardust alone, and slowly the whole town will have to obey us.”

When he finished his flawless explanation, as expected, his idiot underling’s face lit up with excitement.

“Have you thought this far ahead, sir? Amazing!”

“Of course I did, you idiot. Now go—we need someone to watch for movement in the mines.”

Waving his hand dismissively toward the door several times, Priapus watched the subordinate leave, then let out a long sigh.

“I’m surrounded by idiots.”

Every day was exhausting, and he had to manage more than twenty men perfectly so nothing went wrong. Still, in the end, it would all be worth it.

It was thanks to his bold decision to disobey John’s order to return and wait one more day to search for valuables that he and his crew hadn’t been caught in the Caligo chaos.

He had no idea how the royal family had discovered everything and wiped out so many powerful mages, but honestly, he didn’t care.

“I don’t know why those fools had so many rules about never approaching Stardust Spring, but now that I don’t have to obey them, I can do whatever I want.”

With the fall of his former boss, a new opportunity to rule these lawless lands had opened. Luckily for him, he still had all the useful beacon maps to move quickly, plus a well-trained team that would follow his orders.

Rubbing his temples a few times, Priapus realized he needed to improve his mood.

“Now, where’s my lucky charm?”

Pulling his legs off the table, he sat normally in the chair, his eyes fixed on the wall beside him.

The soft clink of metal echoed. With iron shackles around her ankles, a small girl of no more than eight hunched on the cold floor hugging her knees.

Magenta hair fell to her feet, and long lashes framed eyes of the same color. The linen dress she wore looked roughly sewn, covering only part of her thin frame; her pale, smooth skin was dirtied with soil and dust. On her head, two cat ears trembled slightly, and at the base of her spine a thin magenta tail curled around her exposed waist.

“What’s wrong, Lysette? I’m feeding you properly, aren’t I?”

“...”

Seeing her pink lips remain still, the man couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

By waiting one more day and disobeying orders, Priapus might have gotten into trouble if the little girl and her family hadn’t appeared on his patrol route.

Because they were capable mages and, on top of that, demi-humans, capturing them alive was invaluable. However, when they fought with their lives on the line to save the girl, neither of them stopped fighting until their last breath, and Priapus only managed to take the little girl.

Even if it was a single demi-human child, given her age, it would still be something that might make John forgive him for the delay—his first stroke of luck. But by avoiding capture by the royal family as a result of that raid, the little girl had given him another bit of luck.

As a token of success and fortune, Lysette was now his lucky charm.

“Look, you can’t act like this, understand? If I’d taken you to the mines, you could’ve been sold to someone who wouldn’t even feed you—or ended up as some stupid noble’s whore, sleeping with countless men. Get it?”

Priapus had no sexual inclination that would draw him to a girl so young. Still, if he waited a few more years, he was certain the little girl would blossom into a rare beauty—one he wouldn’t easily find anywhere else.

Like a wine that only grew finer with age, he simply had to wait for her to grow up. With the right training, she could become his ideal woman. That was his take on the current situation.

Crouching down and gripping her chin, Priapus stared into the trembling magenta eyes staring back at him. “How old are girls when they start menstruating again? Well, it won’t be long now, anyway.”

Standing up, he sat back in his chair and gestured with his chin toward a small bucket in the corner of the room.

“Now serve me, okay?”

Shrinking further under his vulgar gaze, Lysette hugged her knees tighter. She didn’t want to do it, but she knew she’d be punished if she refused.

Crawling carefully, she used her small hands to brace against the wall. With slow steps—her ankles swollen from the shackles on her feet—Lysette dragged herself toward the drink bucket.

A small glass bottle of orange liquor sat there, alongside a proper serving glass. Carefully, she hugged the bottle with her whole body. If she dropped another drink, she would be punished.

Not daring to step properly for fear her legs would buckle in pain, she dragged the soles of her feet across the rocky ground as she moved toward Priapus. The rough, granular floor tore at her skin in places, leaving thin red trails marking her path. But knowing that pain would still be lesser than any punishment, the girl clenched her teeth and soon reached the man.

She carefully set the glass on the table, which was taller than her. Standing on tiptoe, she lifted the liquor bottle above her head with all the strength in her arms.

She had to be careful with every step. She couldn’t make mistakes.

Yet, in the end, none of her preparation mattered.

“Eep!” A frightened sob escaped her lips as the glass bottle slipped through her fingers and shattered on the ground.

Lysette trembled. Not from the shards now cutting into her legs. Not from the blood trickling down her skin. But from the piercing gaze of the middle-aged man fixed directly on her.

“Lysette… I’ve already taught you how it’s done. This is the third bottle you’ve broken. Don’t tell me—do you enjoy being punished this much?”

The man’s smile widened.

“That was my last drink, and it’ll be days before I get a new one. How am I supposed to relieve my stress until then?” Priapus twirled the knife in his hand a few times. “How exactly do you plan to entertain me?”

Approaching the girl, the man calmly slid the knife near her thin neck.

“I-I... I...”

Feeling the cold blade brushing against her skin, Lysette began to stammer.

“To tell the truth, I never really liked demi-humans.”

Slowly, Priapus raised the knife toward the girl’s furry ears.

“Trimming the tips won’t make you deaf, right? It would be a problem if you couldn’t hear my orders. Or would you rather I cut off your tail?”

The knife swayed indifferently from side to side. His hand, gripping the girl’s chin, grew damp with the tears falling from her magenta eyes.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Priapus prepared to sever the girl’s tail with a single strike—until...

“What?”

He couldn’t help but exclaim in confusion. In the literal blink of an eye, the girl who had been firmly trapped in his grasp had vanished.

A sudden gust of wind swept through the room, knocking him onto his backside on the liquor-stained floor.

“The hell...?”

Whipping his eyes around, he scanned the walls of the chamber. The chain that had bound Lysette’s feet to the cavern rock had been torn apart, as if shredded by colossal claws.

Carefully avoiding the broken glass shards that threatened to cut his fingers further, Priapus stood up. The room’s door—previously locked shut by his men—was now completely destroyed.

“Hey, what kind of joke is this?” he barked once, but no answer came.

A bead of cold sweat slid down his neck. Something was wrong.

Clutching the knife in his fingers, he stepped slowly toward the door, peering into the corridors beyond.

Darkness. An absolute blackness that should have been impossible with the lighting artifacts now engulfed everything.

Priapus couldn’t understand what was happening. The girl had vanished before he could even react, and every man who should have been guarding this section of the cavern had disappeared.

He was alone.

“Damn it...” he muttered, raising his left fist as a faint blue flame ignited around his fingers, casting just enough light to see the ground ahead.

Priapus wasn’t a fool. He realized immediately that his crew was under attack. In this situation, shouting recklessly would only give away his position. Suppressing his mana so it couldn’t be sensed, he moved as quietly as he could.

The silence was strange. If his men were being attacked, they would be fighting back.

Could they have been lured outside? No—if that were the case, he would have been alerted that something was wrong.

He tested the air in the cavern for traces of poison, but quickly discarded the idea. Even if the ventilation system had been tainted, that wouldn’t explain the extinguished lighting artifacts.

The lack of any reasonable answer only made him grit his teeth harder in frustration.

Priapus knew the structure of his base perfectly, down to the smallest detail, so he knew exactly where the guards should have been stationed.

Turning down the corridor, he prepared to encounter one of his men—perhaps injured, perhaps hiding. But when he took another step forward, a strange sound reached him.

A wet, squelching noise echoed through the darkness.

“...?”

It took Priapus a moment to process what he was seeing. And yet, it was natural—perfectly ordinary.

After all, not even the best surgeon in the world would recognize the crimson mass before him as something that had once been a person.

Pinned—no, crushed—against the wall, a torso clad in iron armor had become an amalgam of twisted metal and exposed flesh. A long, deep cut ran transversely from what had once been a shoulder down to what could, very roughly, be called a waist.

“Blargh... Rgh...”

Priapus’s trembling knees gave out. Collapsing to the floor and clutching his belly, the man vomited the contents of his stomach, bile mixing with what had once been the corpse’s small and large intestines now sprawled on the ground.

His throat and mouth burned; his eyes widened in the total dark as they fought to focus on anything. His body felt heavy, yet his heart hammered so hard it threatened to burst from his chest.

He refused to accept this as real — it had to be a nightmare.

Then a heavy thud forced his neck to face the corridor ahead.

A pair of spectral blue eyes appeared. Then another. And another.

In a single second, in the middle of the blackness, more than a hundred eyes stared back at him.

“S-Stay away! Go away!”

Kicking at the blood- and vomit-slick floor, he forced himself up and began to run from the eyes.

He poured everything into a desperate sprint.

He didn’t want to think, to see, or to hear.

Running with all his strength, he tried to escape into the darkness.

Priapus didn’t need to look to know something horrid pursued him. The cold that slid down his spine, making his legs tremble and his teeth chatter, told him plainly that stopping would mean death.

His fingers tingled and sweat-matted hair clung to his face. Something warm trickled down his legs, making them damp, but without noticing, he kept running.

Then... he stumbled.

His body was thrown forward for several meters, raked with cuts. The rough, jagged rock showed no mercy. Dominated by despair, Priapus tried to force his legs to move, but it was useless. It was as if all his strength had gone—truly gone. Crawling or crawling on hands and knees wasn’t an option.

Pushing himself to lie on his back, he watched the hundred blue eyes slowly approach. The cavern’s shadows thickened.

And then... two crimson eyes appeared amid the darkness.

Truly, Priapus had never felt such terror in his life.

“M-Money? Is that what you want!?”

Tears streamed uncontrollably as he stared at the approaching crimson eyes. All he could see were diamond-shaped pupils staring back at him. The air grew cold, as if winter had descended into the cavern.

“Wait! The stardust! I’ll give you everything. Just—please—let me live.”

He continued to thrash about, desperate to put distance between himself and whatever approached.

“It’s your fault, then...”

A voice—certainly female—echoed.

“Because of you, we still haven’t gone home.”

His whole body trembled at that voice. His throat felt constricted, as if a hand were squeezing his heart and slowly crushing it.

“W-What are you talking about?” he stammered. His teeth chattered so violently from fear that he bit his tongue several times; the metallic taste filled his mouth.

“You will be the perfect specimen.”

The crimson eyes looked down at him while the hundred blue eyes circled.

“I did need someone to test this, so I’ll forgive you for all the trouble you caused me.”

With no strength left, he felt the darkness close in around him.

“T-Test what?”

And in the end, the words that followed were all he needed to know there was no hope left.

“How much fear it takes to stop a human heart.”