Myths Reawakened

August twenty-third.

The green dragon landed near the Balear Islands of Iberia, and Wayne and his three companions arrived at the seaside villa.

In the living room, Auston sat on the sofa playing with his antique silver coin. As for Megan... Today, she stood at quite a distance rather than shadowing Auston like she usually did.

Why are you standing so far away? Is it deliberate or accidental? Speak, have you two explored the truth of life these past couple of days?

Wayne watched them with furrowed brows and cold eyes, his expression one of a son’s righteous fury on his mother’s behalf. He wasn’t starting any trouble; it was reality. He had predicted long ago that Megan had to have used an alternative method to replace Veryl as the head butler of the Lando family.

“You’re late,” Auston said, rising from the sofa. Before leaving Londan, he had asked for a month’s leave from the Queen. It had been more than a week, and he worried that she might discover something back in the city.

Auston had wanted to leave two days ago, but hadn’t dared to. The reason was simple: he had been set up, and with no way of explaining himself, he had no choice but to stay and reassure his wife.

Wayne wasn’t the only one scheming against Auston. Megan was also an accomplice. There had been many misunderstandings that could’ve been cleared up with a simple explanation from her. Still, she remained silent deliberately, quietly awaiting Silvia’s judgment as if she had done something unforgivable.

Auston couldn’t do anything about it. He was someone who greatly valued family, and after all the years they spent together, he had long since regarded Megan as family. He couldn’t bear to repeatedly hurt her with cold rejection.

However, not rejecting her would make it seem like he had feelings for Megan and was using Silvia’s affection for Megan to embrace both women. Weighing the pros and cons, Auston chose silence, trusting that after years of marriage, Silvia would understand his considerations.

Silvia didn’t want to understand. She only knew that Auston hadn’t voiced his rejection, which meant he was up to no good.

He deserved punishment!

“What, we finally have a chance for a family vacation. Can I not travel around the Frozen Land?” Silvia said unreasonably with an eyebrow raised.

“Of course you can. What I mean is that although you were late, it is your right to take a vacation,” Auston said.

At least you aren’t completely hopeless!

Silvia snorted. She was exhausted from the long journey and wanted to take a bath upstairs for a good rest. She was not returning to Londan today. She would continue her holidays in Balear. If Auston was in a hurry, he was welcome to return to Londan right now. She wouldn’t force him to stay.

Auston wasn’t going to say no to that. He chose to stay for a vacation with his wife.

Wayne nodded to himself. It was late August, the height of summer, and the Balear Islands had a pleasant climate with sunshine and nice sandy beaches. He would get to check out the bit—beach[1]. How marvelous!

He turned to Veronica, who instantly read his thoughts and swung her fist with a snort in warning, telling the pervert not to let his mind wander, or he would get a taste of her dragon fists.

It took two to tango, as they said.

They flirted with their eyes. Veronica was feeling shy when she remembered the great enemy nearby, so she took Wayne’s arm and repeated the line Silvia had said earlier: after the exhausting, long journey, she wanted a relaxing bath. With that, she dragged Wayne upstairs.

Auston gave Senna a dark look. Without a doubt, she was the romantic rival Wayne had arranged for Veronica. If he were to make a bolder guess, he would say that she was the archenemy Wayne had arranged for all three young ladies—one they had to join forces to defeat.

Since it was Wayne, Auston boldly hypothesized that even if they banded together and defeated Senna, she would still join the quad in the end.

An even greater enemy would appear!

Senna was a legendary mage with dragon blood, making her a top-tier powerhouse in any church. It would be difficult to find a greater enemy than she was. But Auston believed that Wayne would always find a way. Even if there was no obstacle, he would find one if he wanted to.

It could be Darienne, the Moonlight Knight. She would be an enemy who was more powerful than Senna, requiring multiple people to band together to resist.

Auston sighed at the thought, consoling himself that at least his heir was extremely talented, and he hadn’t misjudged.

After all, Auston had known from the very beginning the kind of person Wayne was. Wayne hadn’t disappointed, whether it was in terms of his strengths or his flaws.

***

Beach, night.

Wearing a white shirt, Veronica crouched by the coastline and drew circles into the sand, refusing to go into the sea no matter what.

The reason was simple: Wayne had given her a swimsuit that was downright indecent by today’s standards. Claiming that it was a private beach at night with no one around to see her, he dragged Veronica over.

As a young lady of a wealthy family, Veronica was conservative. She rarely wore dresses in private settings, and even during intimate moments, she insisted on keeping the lights off. Given their keen eyes, keeping the lights off made no difference, but she still insisted. It was the tsundere’s bottom line!

“Veronica, come on down! I’ve checked. There’s no one nearby. You don’t have to worry about someone peeing in the ocean.” Wayne called out, pausing his night swim to wave at her.

He had designed the swimsuit, blatantly plagiarizing the design from his world and calling it original. Then he brought it into reality with the thoughts of a Gold-ranked mage.

Through the Pale Nest, he had fused the five divine powers in his body and solidified his life and evolution, transforming himself into the Pale Knight. During the process, his Gold rank stabilized.

At the Silver Cross stage, mages wielded mana skillfully and developed several techniques. At the Golden Triangle stage, with life, void, and self in balance, mages could create vitality barriers to isolate their will and reject knowledge from the void.

While rejection was possible, though, one couldn’t refuse knowledge forever. Gold-ranked mages thus had to make choices about their future. They could turn away some knowledge, but not all, and certainly not forever. Therefore, Gold-ranked mages could only temporarily enter the Gate of Truth by conjuring their vitality barriers.

Beyond that, the biggest change Gold-ranked mages underwent was their thoughts. At this stage, mages could form their own dark domains, creating portable storage or establishing a hidden vault in their lairs. The specifics would depend entirely on the strength of the Gold-ranked mage’s thoughts.

As long as one was powerful enough and unafraid of the consumption of thoughts, the Gold-ranked mage could create as big a storage as they wanted.

That only involved magically using one’s thoughts, nothing particularly sophisticated; all Gold-ranked mages could do it.

Going further would be mental reconstruction, which required a high level of talent.

Valkyrie had once mentally reconstructed the Shroud into a black suit, and Senna had reconstructed drake scales into battle outfits. Both had used mental reconstruction.

The difference was that Valkyrie had lost so much of her mind and, in turn, her mental reconstruction power that she simply did it through brute force. That was the root cause of her inefficient reconstruction and why it had taken her so long to make an outfit.

Auston and Megan mentally reconstructed things in different ways. The former was the Darkness Knight, and the latter was a black dragon, so both were able to wield the energy of Darkness with ease.

After advancing to Gold rank, Wayne had tried and mastered the technique on his first attempt, driven by lust.

He would have more tactics in his repertoire and more flexibility in combining them in the future.

Wayne kept waving from the sea, but Veronica firmly refused. On the beach, she drew a trash can and then pressed her fist into the sand, completing her masterpiece for the night. She was pleased with it.

“You’re in the way, girl.”

Senna silently appeared beside Veronica. Looking down and seeing her masterpiece, Senna silently muttered, “Cute.”

It made her want to bully the girl.

She took off her white shirt and tossed it onto Veronica’s head. Veronica’s smile froze when darkness suddenly engulfed her. Tossing it aside, she watched helplessly as the old hag deliberately stepped onto the trash can right in front of her before walking toward the sea.

She had stepped on Veronica’s fist print precisely.

Veronica’s hackles raised. She stalked up to kick away the footprint Senna had left and glared at the old hag’s sauntering back. The bright moonlight shone on the stunning woman, revealing all her curves to Veronica.

Senna had her long hair up. From behind, her beautiful back was as fair as snow, the lines of her elegant shoulders alluring, her slender waist tapered before flaring out at the hips. Her body was incredibly enchanting.

Most deadly were her long, fair legs, perfectly proportioned without a flaw. The perfect ratio made her seem even more statuesque. If the view was this amazing from the back, how much more captivating would she be from the front?

Aside from her terrible personality, the woman was infinitely close to perfect in appearance, figure, and grace.

Gulp!

Veronica swallowed. Hearing Senna’s soft laughter, she tore off the shirt and threw it onto the sandy beach in a fit of embarrassment and helpless rage.

She had wanted to ask: why was Senna wearing the exact same swimsuit as hers? Had the bastard made two?

Out of her trust in Wayne, Veronica didn’t storm off in anger. She quickly walked into the sea and overtook Senna, diving into Wayne’s arms. Once she grabbed onto him, she wouldn’t let go.

Receiving Wayne’s order, Senna turned around reluctantly. She telepathically haggled with her faith right before walking away.

She had put aside her pride to bully a girl. It was reasonable for her to ask for compensation, wasn’t it?

“Senna, we’ll be back in Londan soon. I’ve advanced to Gold rank, and I’m now overflowing with inspiration. Just hold on a few more days. Once my experiment succeeds, I’ll free you from your current predicament.”

It was tempting, but Senna refused. She was satisfied with her current self and didn’t want to return to her old self.

“If you’re so satisfied, why haven’t you returned to the headquarters of the church? You know what those people are like. While you’re away, they have definitely pulled every trick to seize your power. It’s not too late to go back now. The sooner you return, the more you can salvage your situation and minimize losses.”

Nicely said, but Senna’s answer was still no. That was for her old self. Now that she had her faith, she didn’t care about illusory power. It was nice to have, but not necessary. She was indifferent to it all.

Wayne offered a few more words of advice. When Senna stopped in her tracks, intending to turn back and confront Veronica, he had no choice but to agree to her demands. Only then did she leave in satisfaction.

After she left, Veronica let go of Wayne, still reeling from the encounter. She mumbled, “Old hag,” and then snapped at Wayne when he wouldn’t look away from the beach, biting him on the shoulder. “Why are you still looking at her?!”

“I’m only looking,” Wayne shot back mercilessly. “Unlike a certain someone who was gulping.”

Veronica blushed furiously. She argued that women looked at women from a different perspective, so she shouldn’t be lumped together with Wayne. She had just been a little thirsty; there was nothing more to it.

Then came more incoherent babbling about simple appreciation and concealed disdain. Wayne’s cheerful laughter resounded across the seaside.

1. This is originally a pun between looking at dolphins and looking at butts. The second letter of dolphin (海豚), is pronounced tun, which is pronounced the same as 臀, which means bottom. ☜