Gardenia’s Heart

The golden light of the leaves filtered softly through the living room windows.

“It’s only twelve weeks along, it’s not possible to feel the baby’s movements yet, Nia.” With a gentle laugh, Lily tenderly caressed her slightly rounded belly.

Sitting beside her on the sofa, her face pressed lightly against Lily’s abdomen, a purple-haired girl blushed as she tried to focus on the faint sounds coming from her beloved’s womb.

“I’m just excited. It seems that in just two or three more weeks, we’ll finally be able to hear the first movements.”

Pulling her face away from Lily’s belly, Nia lowered her head between her wife’s thighs, hiding her flushed face.

Watching Nia’s endearing restlessness grow as her belly grew larger was something that brought a warm smile to Lily’s face in any situation these past few weeks. Using one hand to rub her abdomen and the other to run her fingers through Nia’s hair, Lily turned her gaze toward the woman sitting on the opposite sofa.

“Welcome back, Rhei. I hope everything went well.”

Crossing one leg over the other, the woman in a tailored black and golden suit gave a slight bow.

“My apologies for the delay, my King. The work in Lampides ended up taking longer than we expected.”

“It’s all right. Nia and I decided not to actively look for other labyrinths until after the baby is born.” Asking one of the tentacles surrounding her to pour a cup of coffee for the guardian, Lily spoke in a soft tone.

Accepting the freshly brewed coffee, Rhei appreciated the aroma for a moment before taking a careful sip. Every movement—reminding Lily of a noblewoman like Abelia—was precise and refined. Then, setting the cup gently on the table before her, Rhei tucked a strand of her dark-gray hair neatly behind her ear.

“If you’ll allow it, I’d like to construct a teleportation circle from here to the royal palace to make future travel easier.”

“Like the one that takes us into the labyrinth, the one in the outer garden?” Lily asked, tilting her head slightly.

“Yes. Though it’s a much weaker and more limited spell compared to portals, since it takes time to charge with mana and the construction process is slow, it’s still a very useful spell for short-distance travel.”

Rhei’s explanation made perfect sense to Lily. Although she always had Nia’s portals for transportation, having a secondary method would make visits easier for others—like Thelira, Elarielle, or the guardian herself.

“Yes, that’s not a problem. And of course, don’t worry—you can continue living here.”

Since this labyrinth originally belonged to Rhei, Lily didn’t mind in the slightest if she wanted to stay in one of the wings.

Honestly, after exploring it fully, Lily realized her mansion resembled more a small city than a house. There was so much available space that even when considering the neighboring wings, the distance between each one was so vast that it would take nearly an hour on foot to circle through them all.

“I am grateful for such kindness, my King.” Bowing her head once more in thanks, Rhei faced Lily with her pale eyes, her translucent wings gently fluttering. “Now, I imagine you have something you wish to ask me?”

“Sylvan,” Lily said without wasting a second. “Could you tell us more about her?”

Even though she was regarded by many as the greatest mage in history, there was barely any information about her existence left in the world.

After their confrontation with Twilight, the girls had searched through the library of Lampides for any record or story mentioning the mage’s presence, but nothing was found.

Except for Nerine, who was still recovering, Rhei was the only one who could offer them information about the woman known as the Archmage.

“My first encounter with Sylvan was in my hometown, Mellonella — the Golden Hive.”

Even her usually expressionless face couldn’t hide the faint nostalgia that came to her mind. Speaking in a calm tone, Rhei brought one hand to her cheek.

“That woman showed me that I didn’t have to keep following the destiny others imposed on me — that I could pursue my own desires and carve my own path. With her help and protection, I left the hive. I joined her followers and traveled by her side on her journey.”

With a graceful motion, Rhei adjusted her posture on the sofa.

“Her philosophy was that everyone deserved to learn magic. No matter the race, Sylvan welcomed anyone who wished to join her without distinction.” Her dull eyes sharpened. “And that, of course, included demons as well.”

“Demons?” Lily repeated.

“It might sound strange to you, considering you were born after the war, my King, but the widespread hatred toward demons hasn’t always existed. As long as one was willing to follow her on her travels, Sylvan never discriminated. She accepted and protected all who sought her guidance.”

Although she spoke in a gentle tone, Rhei’s voice grew heavier.

“But that doesn’t mean everyone completely abandoned their homelands. When the war became inevitable, many among her followers wanted to join the battle. Countless disputes broke out among us. Many begged Sylvan to help them, to take a side in the war—but she refused.”

Rhei took another sip of coffee.

“Even after everything she had done for them, those who disagreed with her left. Those who shared her vision chose to remain neutral in the conflict.”

Lily never considered herself a good person. She wouldn’t use her magic or risk her life for something that might endanger herself or Nia. Because of that, after hearing the guardian Nox explain Sylvan’s pacifist philosophy, she couldn’t judge the mage for not joining the war.

“Do you know why she didn’t try to mediate the conflict?”

Yet, if Sylvan truly was a pacifist, Lily couldn’t understand why she didn’t use her power to stop the war in some way—or at least attempt to. By choosing absolute neutrality, she had isolated herself and allowed the war to unfold.

A long silence filled the living room after her question. Slowly finishing her coffee, Rhei placed the cup back on the table. Straightening her back, she whispered:

“For the True Magic.”

Lily’s eyes widened.

“Our master told us that this battle was meaningless for both sides and refused to fight. Only by attaining True Magic could the world overcome such conflict.”

True Magic.

She didn’t know much about what that truly was.

Nox had taught her that it was a kind of magic capable of shaping the world itself—altering things that should be impossible to change.

“And… what exactly is that?”

Lily asked nervously, and Rhei simply shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

Letting out a faint sigh as she watched the two girls before her clearly dissatisfied with her answer, Rhei adjusted her clothes in a casual motion.

“Sylvan loved explaining everything, but she never went into deep detail about that. She only said that the path to True Magic began with the control of dark mana—something that was impossible even for her.” The guardian smiled faintly. “Dark mana, the same energy capable of giving life to monsters, was what could lead one to True Magic.”

Her words only deepened the doubts swirling in Lily’s mind. Still, she knew she needed to keep listening, so she nodded for Rhei to continue.

“Our master gathered six of her most devoted disciples and entrusted each of them with one volume of the Book of Truth. Six tomes that she said contained all her knowledge, and that we should only pass them on to those we deemed worthy.” Rhei looked at Nia with a satisfied expression. “According to our master’s words, whoever could truly comprehend the knowledge within those books would be the one she considered her child… even if that being was a monster.”

“So you know, then,” Nia said indifferently, her hands resting more firmly on Lily’s thighs. “It was because of the labyrinth’s barrier, wasn’t it?”

Rhei nodded in agreement.

“Yes, my Queen. Thanks to the labyrinth’s barrier, the moment you entered, I was able to discern that you were a monster—though it took me some time to realize you were a metamorph.”

Turning her head while resting on her wife’s thighs, Nia rolled over, her fingers gently tracing Lily’s belly. The warmth of her touch made Lily let out a soft laugh.

“So the books are really part of the reason I can use dark mana,” Nia murmured softly as her cheeks relaxed, resting her head against Lily’s belly once again. “True Magic, or whatever she was trying to achieve—there’s no information about it in the three volumes I’ve absorbed.”

Curling herself closer around Lily’s stomach, Nia wrapped her tentacles more tightly around her wife.

“If we really want to know more about it, we’ll have to find her,” the metamorph said.

“To protect a sanctuary and guard one of the volumes of the Book of Truth—that was the first and only request she ever made of us,” Rhei continued, a visible trace of sorrow appearing on her face. “Unfortunately, after the control of this sanctuary was fully handed over to me, Sylvan and the others left to build the next one. From that day on, I never saw her—or any of them—again.”

Lily’s mismatched eyes watched as Rhei visibly wavered. That pained expression, even on her nearly emotionless face, fed a thought Lily had been trying to avoid.

“Do you think Sylvan… might already be dead?”

Her question was asked carefully, yet Rhei merely blinked several times before waving a hand dismissively in front of her face.

“No, I’m absolutely certain my master is still alive.”

Rhei stated this with the same casual confidence as someone answering what day of the week it was.

“I’m not being hopeful or sentimental in saying this. Sylvan was human, and centuries have already passed—but even if it breaks all sense of logic or reason, I simply can’t imagine her dying.”

Lily couldn’t help her eyes widening. “What do you mean?”

Resting one hand on her cheek, Rhei made a subtly thoughtful expression, as if pondering where to begin.

“Mages and races with higher mana control generally have longer life spans than those less skilled in handling it. I walked beside Sylvan for at least a century after meeting her, and even after all that time, it didn’t seem like she had aged a single day.”

With a subtle motion, she pointed her palm toward Nia.

“My Queen, for example—you currently possess a mana capacity that surpasses even that of the elven heroine and rivals the Twilight you fought. And yet, I can say with certainty that you don’t even hold half of the total mana Sylvan possessed.”

Pouring a bit more coffee into her cup, the guardian crossed her legs again.

“Sylvan was an anomaly,” Rhei stated plainly. “It was as if the sun itself walked the earth and lived among mortals. I can’t imagine anyone in this world—besides the Demon Lord itself—having even the slightest chance of defeating her.”

Rhei spoke with such calm and certainty that neither of the two girls could maintain their composure. Lily felt her beloved’s tentacles tighten protectively around her body. With a gentle movement, Nia sat up beside her and wrapped her in an embrace.

“I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing right now, but I’m absolutely certain she’s alive.”

As Rhei continued sipping her coffee, Lily found herself lost in thought once more.

If Sylvan was still alive, she couldn’t imagine what the archmage was doing while everything in the world was unfolding. Had she secluded herself to study? Or was she working on something only she could accomplish? Lily couldn’t say.

“Can you tell us more about the sanctuaries?” Lily asked after a brief moment of reflection.

“We built several sanctuaries across the world as safe places to live. All of them are located where dark mana is highly concentrated. While not perfect, by shaping the environment in certain ways, we could influence—at least to a degree—the kind of monsters that would be born there. That’s how we created the floors and used the monsters as a defense system.”

“So that’s how it works…” Nia murmured.

Though the birth of monsters might seem random, patterns could still be found—nests in forests where ice foxes were born, elven woods where emerald spiders existed, even the oceans where leviathans took form. By observing the density of dark mana and other environmental factors, one could manipulate, to some extent, which species would emerge.

Even if she didn’t know all the patterns Sylvan had discovered, Nia made a mental note to remember that for future reference.

“With the exception of the sanctuaries we chose to wait in, following Sylvan’s orders, all the others are merely decoys—filled with worthless artifacts and weapons meant to keep the truly important ones safe.”

The guardian’s dark eyes rested on Lily.

“Unlike all the disposable junk we left behind, the Orb of Fractal Consciousness—the artifact that allows its user to create a second body as an extension of their own existence, which Nox gave you, my King—was one of our master’s personal relics.” Rhei crossed her legs again and adjusted her posture on the sofa. “Since I had Akasha to help me protect the sanctuary, Sylvan didn’t give me an artifact. But I’m certain that in the remaining labyrinths—where my other companions still dwell—lie the rest of our master’s personal relics.”

The guardian let out a sigh.

“I apologize in advance. Aside from Nox’s orb, I honestly don’t have in-depth knowledge of the functions of all my mistress’s personal artifacts. However, even so, besides searching for the remaining volumes of the set, I truly advise you to try collecting these artifacts.”

Lily couldn’t help but swallow hard.

The orb she had consumed — the one that allowed Nia to create a body — was without a doubt an artifact of immeasurable value. Unrestricted by distance, it allowed its user to literally exist in two places in the world at once.

If that object alone wasn’t powerful enough, her mismatched eyes fell to the black wolf resting its head on her feet, curled up beside the couch.

Thanks to the vision granted by the fairies within the labyrinth, the girl had managed to learn temporal magic and stand against the black wolf in battle. However, that also meant that if she hadn’t obtained that power, they would likely have been killed.

Not even Elarielle or Nia could face Akasha in a direct fight, even now. Like a typhoon or a tsunami, the fairy — a being comparable to a force of nature — could bring destruction wherever she pleased.

If Lily considered that there were at least four other objects as powerful as these scattered across the world, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“As one of Sylvan’s followers, you know where the other sanctuaries are, right? Could you tell us their locations, or would that go against one of Sylvan’s orders?”

Lily knew their greatest difficulty at the moment was the lack of information about the labyrinths’ locations.

Abelia and her family had explained that the labyrinths around the capital had already been conquered, so for now, there was no reason to search there.

If Rhei knew where the remaining ones were, it would simply be a matter of going to them.

“Our master never forbade us from sharing information regarding the sanctuaries, but... I only know the locations of the ones I helped build. Not even I know them all.” Resting her cheek on one hand, Rhei let out a long sigh. “And on that subject, even though I can’t help much, there’s still one place you should visit before going after the ones I know.”

“One place?” Lily asked, tilting her head.

Hearing that question, Rhei’s gaze shifted toward Nia.

“My queen, when we first met, you told me you had obtained only one of the books from Nox, correct?”

“Yes, that was the second book I absorbed,” Nia replied, tightening her embrace around Lily.

“And the first book—you simply found it?” Rhei asked.

Tilting her head at the guardian’s question, Nia looked puzzled about what the woman was implying.

“Yes, it was the first one I consumed. I found it on an abandoned battlefield. That’s how I gained my mind and managed to leave that place.”

Upon hearing the metamorph’s answer, Rhei’s lips curved into a thin smile as her gaze sharpened.

“Then, if I understood your explanation correctly, there’s still one place you should go, isn’t there?”

Both girls widened their eyes as realization struck them.

Holding Lily even tighter, Nia felt her heart grow restless, all of her tentacles coiling protectively around her wife as if on high alert.

Throughout their entire journey, there was one place they had never revisited.

A place Nia had left behind and never wished to return to.

Where everything began.

“The cave where I was born...”