That evening, Illyan forced himself to smile as he kept them company. However, in the end, the somber atmosphere that permeated the rest of the square doused the group’s enthusiasm.

  This gave Illyan an opportunity to leave as he decided to clear his mind a little.

  He went in front of the citadel where no one was and sat down, his back to the humongous building, closing his eyes and simply feeling the icy wind caressing his cheeks.

  Illyan’s mood was terrible, and he needed time alone.

  Sigh

  He was bewildered as to why he felt such turmoil.

  Instead of thinking over how to overcome the dangers that Korin, Ezekiel, and others could bring him, he thought about the state Aurelia’s body was in.

  It felt like he was going through his childhood all over again. All the acquaintances that he got closer to than necessary disappeared in the flow of time.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. She and I are in a mutually beneficial partnership. If I keep my distance now, I can minimize the losses.’ In the end, Illyan hardened his heart.

  As of now, Aurelia wasn’t close enough to him for Illyan to be too sorrowful. He was indeed feeling demure, but it wasn’t something terrible.

  Instead, he felt rage towards his fate.

  It felt as if a higher power wanted him to suffer. And from his deductions, that may not be a complete delusion.

  However, the disease that Aurelia inherited must have tortured her for a long time for her body to end up in this state.

  Did it mean he couldn’t escape the machinations of fate, or that he was guided to her by destiny?

  If it was the former, everything was predetermined, be it past or future, and it was useless to fight. While if it was the tter, he was forcibly maniputed to fulfill the destiny by those in power.

  Both of these options were something he despised.

  Clenching his fist, he promised himself that he would survive. He would grow stronger and destroy everything that hurt him.

  His eyes opened wide as the cold glint shimmered inside them. He looked towards the sky as if trying to see the beings that made his life miserable.

  ‘I will not give up. No matter how long it takes or how much I will need to suffer in the future, I will live long enough to kill you, even if you are a god or the heavens themselves.’

  Determination filled his body as he made that vow to himself.

  “What are you looking so serious about, mister?” A soothing yet ticklish voice floated into Illyan’s ears as a certain person came closer to him.

  “Vanda…” Illyan, who had spaced out for a bit, saw Vanda standing in front of him, leaning closer to his head. He just sighed, as he was not in the mood to argue.

  “Oya? Our little boy isn’t feeling alright? Do you want me to comfort you a little?” Vanda smiled seductively as she sat down next to him.

  However, Illyan didn’t show any reaction. He knew that she wasn’t hostile for now, so he didn’t bother to keep his distance. Not that he didn’t have his guard up, though. He would never let his guard down, no matter how low he felt.

  “Do you feel sorry for those that died?” When he didn’t say anything, Vanda’s tone changed. It turned slightly indifferent, as if she were asking about the deaths of some insects.

  Illyan noticed the subtle change but didn’t show anything on his face.

  “You don’t? I am a physician, after all,” Illyan said calmly.

  At that, Vanda just snorted in amusement.

  “Me? I couldn’t care less. Those people have nothing to do with me; they are just specks of dust to me. I personally think you are very simir to me. Don’t try to hide behind your profession. Not everyone is as selfless as Vael. Perus, being the finest example. And that is completely fine. People should be selfish, or they wouldn’t be able to survive in this world.”

  Vanda said slowly as she took out a smoking pipe and puffed it.

  Illyan looked at her with a frown, but she just grinned.

  In fact, Illyan had once tried smoking pipes from Kaoran, but he wasn’t exactly a fan of them. He did it only because of the benefits, but they were too negligible, so he stopped.

  On the other hand, if done with bad herbs, it could cause addiction, bad health, breathing problems, and so much more.

  Vanda giggled after exhaling smoke from her mouth as she leaned against the wall before offering the pipe to Illyan.

  “What?”

  “Give it a try. It’s no ordinary herb. Inside, there are a lot of exotic herbs mixed together. The feelings it gives are indescribable.”

  Her eyes were vacant as she spoke to him.

  Illyan could see that she was in a daze and furrowed his brow.

  Did she just offer him some kind of drug that would incapacitate him for who knew how long?

  ‘It doesn’t seem like a trap. But I should still be careful. Fortunately, these kinds of harmful compounds usually dissipate in my body sooner than they could cause any harm.’

  When he felt Vanda force the smoking pipe into his hands, he sighed and puffed a big amount of smoke into his lungs.

  It was a risk, but with his newfound flow and blood energy, he could extract it from his system, even if his regeneration alone couldn’t.

  The taste of the smoke entered his respiratory system, and he felt the world tremble in front of his eyes.

  His eyes opened wide as he looked at the pipe and then at Vanda, who was giggling to herself.

  ‘This is strong! I’ve never felt like this…’

  Illyan just sat there as he watched the gloomy city turn into a colorful mix of real and unreal.

  He could dispel this state, but in fact, he felt the stress he’d accumuted over time slowly dissipate.

  In the end, he and Vanda just wasted several hours there, having hallucinations until the day turned into night.

  Normally, Illyan would be disgusted at the thought of being influenced by this kind of drug, but since it didn’t affect him to the point where he couldn’t fight, he let go of his worries and rexed.

  Vanda next to him did the same. They talked and ughed, though he didn’t even know about what exactly. And he didn’t care. It was mostly just rubbish and nonsense.

  He also tried to extract some information from the intoxicated dy, but she wasn’t as helpless as he thought. She easily avoided all his questions without any problem.

  ‘That, or she’s completely gone,’ Illyan mused.

  In the end, Illyan didn’t even know how it happened, but they vacated the main square and found an abandoned building. Vanda started crawling toward him, kissing him deeply.

  He wanted to push her away, but gave up. It didn’t matter to him. If she wanted to try something harmful, he wouldn’t have a problem smashing her against the ground.

  But nothing like that happened.

  So, he let his mind wander as they continued making out.

  At first, he didn’t know what to do, but as they went on, he gained some minor experience and started kissing her back. He held her lithe body, touching a woman’s body for the first time.

  Her hands were reaching inside his robe.

  “Oh my… You’re quite packing there, huh?” Her teasing voice resounded in his ears, but he ignored it as he tore her clothes.

  “Hiya?~” Her seductive moan filled the air as they id down on the ground where Vanda had pced a bnket for them.

  At that moment, in that small house, the cold day turned warm as the smell of sweat permeated the abandoned building with cries of joy.

  However, despite all that noise, nobody heard anything, as if there had been no sound from the beginning…

  ……..

  Illyan was having a good dream. In fact, it was the most rexed he had felt in forever.

  As he drifted through the chaotic dreamscape, he heard a feminine voice in the distance.

  “I need to go for now, my dear pure fawn… It looks like the process encountered certain problems. But don’t worry, I will come to see you again. This was the first time I felt so... dominated, hehe~”

  Since Illyan didn’t sense any hostility, he didn’t bother to fully wake up, allowing himself to enjoy his dream even after the voice faded away.

  Unfortunately, nothing sts forever.

  Bright sun rays began caressing his face, making him uncomfortable. He tried shifting his body, but the light was too intense.

  It took several minutes before Illyan finally woke up with a sigh.

  He raised his upper body, looking around with a haggard expression.

  “What the fuck…” The words slipped from his mouth subconsciously as he surveyed the mess they had caused during their steamy and passionate night.

  It took only a split second for his memory to return, his mind already feeling recovered. His body too…

  “She’s fucking crazy…” he muttered.

  On the bnket they used, there was blood. In fact, it was more red than whatever the original color had been.

  It wasn’t that she attacked him during their py. No, she had just been too wild, scratching his back with her sharp nails, even biting him until she drew blood!

  That had been a real pain for him. The st thing he wanted was his blood anywhere near people like her.

  Unfortunately, blood ignition was beyond his current ability, so instead, he used his flow yesterday to infuse his blood with it before she could take advantage of it.

  The Varel technique Caleb had taught him was ingenious—he could infuse flow into his own blood and destroy it from within. While it was still his blood, its value was greatly diminished once corroded. But this kind of tactic could only be done when anticipating the attack and being in very close contact with the blood.

  In this manner, Illyan had quietly fought even as they pyed together.

  However, the more aggressive she became, the more strength he used against her. In the end, his first experience was raw and primal, like beasts in heat.

  Illyan certainly hadn’t expected this. In fact, he had never even considered women in such a way. Now that he had finally tasted the forbidden fruit, he could understand why so many people got lost in such pleasures.

  But… it still didn’t feel worth it to him. In his mind, this wasn’t a life-changing event. To him, this was just another experience on his journey. He felt his mind sublimate a little as he reflected on it.

  He also noticed something else. This wasn’t just a night of risk and indulgence in pleasure.

  Illyan had managed to perceive, to a certain extent, the insides of Vanda’s body.

  It was minuscule, almost imperceptible. But even that small observation gave him valuable information.

  Thanks to this, he could now guess that Vanda was, in fact, a magic user. Sneaking up on him with just her physical body would have been impossible.

  But there was another, more solid piece of evidence.

  He had felt his life energy shifting within him when they were connected.

  It had flowed toward her. The movement was so subtle that Illyan nearly missed it—if not for his recent training to detect such shifts in his body. The fact that his body had already recovered from such a small loss didn’t help either.

  ‘She could drain my vitality… Did she want to kill me? No, it was too weak to kill even an ordinary person. She didn’t want to kill me; she just parasitized on me a little.’

  Thinking this, his eyes turned cold. Despite sharing such an intimate experience with her, he wasn’t naive enough to think it meant they were closer.

  She was his enemy.

  Illyan thought this to himself as he stood up and began to fix his appearance.

  His hair sticks had been thrown to the side along with his robe. Fortunately, Illyan had kept his composure st night and tossed them aside as soon as he realized something was about to happen.

  He didn’t want his belongings to be damaged over something so stupid.

  In fact, he had deliberately torn Vanda’s clothes instead of his own. It was a petty form of revenge on her for constantly annoying him. He figured she wouldn’t be too angry, assuming he had been drugged by her.

  Now he wondered how she had managed to leave the pce.

  Her torn clothes were nowhere to be found, meaning she had probably taken them with her. The only thing left behind was the bloodstained bnket.

  Illyan folded it and tucked it into one of his bags, pnning to burn it ter.

  “Sigh… I need to get to work as soon as possible. Then I need to see what Korin and the others are up to…” Illyan muttered to himself as he recalled Vanda’s words from when he was half-asleep.

  Soon, he was completely groomed, his cold, composed visage restored, as he opened the door to the building and stepped out into the morning.