The Noble Lady of Lust

Chapter 94: {The Challenge of the Reflected Shadow}, Emergency Actions.

[Welcome to the second examination {Fragmented Reality Passage}. Complete the examinations and prove yourself worthy to reach the top].

I’ve noticed, but gods or powerful people have a fetish with saying things like worthy this, worthy that. Your strength is worthy, your heart is worthy, I don’t know what else.

It’s like they take everything and recycle words when they create these things.

’Well, it doesn’t matter.’

I looked and noticed it was like those mirror mazes you find at fairs, but 1000 times more complicated.

”Hey, Eira, go ahead.”

”Why don’t you go, you piece of shit?”

Well, I tried. I wanted to see the mirrors working , but I already knew more or less what they did and the consequences.

At a glance, there were more than ten paths, or rather, ten mirrors reflecting a path, and they increased the more we walked. Not only that, but they were starting to appear in three dimensions, which made the paths very complicated.

Sometimes you would have to be upside down, and the next moment you would be sideways, and even backwards. All the mirrors reflected a path, and there would come a time when you would have to choose from over 100 paths.

In the end, if we chose the wrong path, it would bring us back to the beginning. If we weren’t careful, we could be trapped for a long time.

But for me, this was a piece of cake. With my eyes of lust, I could see which path was false and which was real. There was only one real one.

Setting aside the ability to see status windows, my eyes could see the weaknesses and weak points of people and things, like barriers or anything that had runes on it.

This would seem like something supernatural, but it was nothing more than a colossal formation made of many interlocking and complicated runes, created with a bit of divine power.

But still, it was an examination, so it should be passable. According to Silvia, the trick was to see the magical flow and find the exit, but I didn’t need to do that, so I just started walking. Lys, Aurora and Selene followed me, and after hesitating, so did Eira.

”Hey, Chris, how do you know the way? And, how come you’re so calm? I mean, you don’t seem surprised by anything,”

Lys asked me. Well, at least it’s not a hard question to answer, like the ones Eira usually asks. Besides, I realized that it was an opportunity to score points; the path had no danger and I just had to take a good look.

”Well, it’s no big deal. You just have to sharpen your magic sense and you can see a faint trail leading the way. It’s not that surprising a thing.”

”Hey! What do you mean it’s not surprising? I don’t detect anything, you’re just making up nonsense. If you don’t know the way, don’t drag us along with you,” Eira said, as if she couldn’t bear to keep quiet. I couldn’t let her make the rest of me doubt.

”Just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t, does it, Auran?”

”Huh? Oh...., yes, that’s right. If you concentrate, you can see a little difference coming from one of the directions.”

”See, maybe you need to improve your magical sensitivity. Being outclassed by a warrior like me leaves a lot to be desired, from a wizard like you..”.

”....”

I noticed that whenever Eira loses a logical argument, she tends to keep silent, which gives me a lot of ideas on how to deal with her in the future.

Back to my conversation with Lys....

”Besides, it’s not like I’m all that calm, but panicking doesn’t help anything, don’t you think?”

”You’re right. It’s true what they say, Chris, you have a knack for being a leader, I wish you had been with us on the previous attack to the academy.”

”Oh come on, you’re embarrassing me, I’m just doing what I need to do. Putting that aside, I saw from the battle against the cristal beasts that you have improved a lot and covered a lot of openings in such a short time.”

”Oh, you noticed! It’s true that fighting Will has helped me cover those gaps.”

I’m glad he’s getting stronger, but I’ve noticed he spends a lot of time with William. Not that I can interfere, since it’s good for his growth....

I wonder if it would be good to start doing more hands-on classes, so I could teach him more closely.

My conversation with Lys continued as I led them through the maze of reflections and mirrors that made you dizzy if you weren’t careful.

Finally, without any interference, after 30 minutes of walking, we arrived at an open space, still surrounded by mirrors on all sides.

[Congratulations on passing the examination of the {Fragmented Reality Passage}. Without failing once you have received a hidden reward: crystal key (2)].

’Phew... that was the requirement. Lucky Eira refused.’

When I asked, I noticed that everyone had heard the previous message, but no one knew what they were for.

The keys were given to me; I guess they are given to those who contributed the most in the examination.

Well, in the end I realized that not only one key could be obtained, but one for each examination. According to Silvia, they only managed to get one, and it was from the following examination.

[Welcome to the second examination: {The Reflected Shadow Challenge}].

’Hey, what happened to the later legend?’ I grumbled at the lack of enthusiasm in the mysterious voice, but in the end I looked ahead and it was a larger room, surrounded by mirrors on all sides, but none of them reflected anything.

It was a strange sight, but there was a rimless mirror in the center of the room, where you could see the reflections of the four of us.

If Silvia didn’t lie to my alternate self, it would be an examination where you would fight against your mirror doubles, who would be perfectly synchronized, with all your abilities, and even bringing out hidden potential you didn’t know you had. I wanted to see if it was true that I would learn things I didn’t even know, or that was the plan, but....

The moment I saw my reflection, I immediately, as if I had flames on my feet, approached the damn mirror in the center, where our replicas were just coming out of the mirror. I gave them no time at all.

”Art of Lust, Third Style: Seductive Touch.”

bamm!!

Without any hesitation or hesitation, with my most powerful attack I could perform immediately, and with all the strength of my stats, I struck my doppelgänger’s forehead, piercing and destroying it, causing it to begin to crack.

So as not to arouse suspicion, I did the same to the rest of the crystal doppelgängers.

”...?”(x4)

They all looked at me without understanding what had happened.

The reason I acted like that was because the appearance reflected in the damn mirror was Seraphina’s and not Christian’s.

That’s why I acted fast and decisive the moment I saw my reflection. Honestly, this was an examination where the clones would fight in coordination and well organized, using your powers even better than you.

And if you brought out a new one, like resonance, they would do something similar. It was a battle of wits where you looked for your own weaknesses and attacked with your trump card at the right time, so they wouldn’t copy it.

But in the end, it was quickly destroyed by me, which was immediately heard in the voice of the messages:

[Co-Congratulations, you have passed the examination {The Reflected Shadow Challenge} in less than three minutes. You get Crystal Key (3).]

’Hey, you bastard, you just hesitated there! Don’t break the mysterious voice character.’

Well, I’d better pretend I didn’t hear your mistake and continue. Only one examination left, and I honestly don’t know what I’m in for, since it’s individual this time.

I looked at the girls, but I didn’t know if their doubtful face was because of my actions or because they noticed my reflection. I just hoped it was fast enough that they didn’t notice anything.

I wouldn’t mind Selene finding out, in fact after this I plan to tell her, even before I tell Alice, since Selene doesn’t seem to care much about that sort of thing.

Luckily, none of them asked. In the end, even the always annoying and unfiltered Eira didn’t say anything. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but I better decided to face the final examination.

Which, by the way, according to my alternate self’s deductions, was a major factor in awakening Silvia’s obsession with William. Honestly, deep down, Silvia being a good friend, I don’t want her to go down that road.

But I also knew it was necessary for Silvia’s growth to come here, and I would not stand in her way of being strong.

In the end, the one who would receive Silvia’s obsession is William. So it shouldn’t affect me, but still, I wanted to keep Silvia from squirming like that.

But after all, it’s something that represents what Silvia is and will be. It’s not like I could just walk up to her and ask:

”Hey, Silvia, how about the possibility of becoming a crazy woman who would kill for William?”

or something like that, and let her choose to come or not. In the end, I decided not to interfere and leave her destiny intact, and let what has to happen happen happen, at least in this.

After all, the plan of [getting the good girls from William’s harem] and the plan of [getting the crazy girls away from William’s harem so Silvia wouldn’t be a crazy yandere] don’t interfere with each other.

My thoughts got there and so the five of us started walking until we reached the end of the room, where, as everywhere else, there were mirrors. But a door had appeared.