When Lilith got to that point, she suddenly asked Jetri, “Hey, after I was gone, what happened? Why did she let you go too?”

Yellow sand rolled in the wind. As he spoke of the past, Jetri’s gaze turned a little distant. He narrowed his eyes and looked toward the dark forest far away.

“After that... after that...”

—

The Half Elf moved fast. She wasn’t delirious, either. When she left the city, no one stopped her. She went straight back along the road she had come from.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Falana~” The fully ripened Elf sat by Jetri’s bedside, her eyes smiling into crescents.

“Nice to meet you too, Your Grace—could you not touch me like that?” Jetri tried to push the Elf’s hand away.

But Falana’s hand was slender and soft, yet under Jetri’s shoving, it didn’t budge at all.

“Why not? You’re a prisoner now.” The Elf didn’t hide her desire for him in the slightest. Her eyes slowly opened.

They were green eyes like translucent emeralds, like treasures of the world.

Jetri pushed at the mature Elf woman who had already pressed her body onto his.

What a joke.

He couldn’t push her away. He just couldn’t.

Falana clearly looked slender, but what Jetri actually felt was overwhelming fullness.

“If Your Grace only wants to sleep with me, why keep me alive?” Jetri tried asking.

He was almost certain there had to be something on him she wanted, or coveted.

And it definitely wasn’t his body.

Nor was it his face, which could only be called decent-looking at best.

“My, you’re so smart~ I like you even more now. But let’s not worry about that stuff yet. Let’s do something fun first~” This Elven Aunt, who had seemed mature, dignified, and almost like a refined married woman at first sight, had absolutely no intention of being reserved. She started stripping Jetri’s clothes without a care.

“You mentioned the word ‘soul,’ didn’t you?” Jetri kept a straight face while frantically protecting his chastity. His expression and his hands were doing completely different things.

“Oh my...” Only then did genuine surprise appear on the Elven Aunt’s face.

“If you want my cooperation, then shouldn’t you not force me right now?” Jetri tried to reason with her.

“Taking ten thousand steps back, even if you do plan to... force me... shouldn’t you at least wait until I’ve done what you want first?” Jetri said those two words a little awkwardly.

“Ah!!” The Elven Aunt suddenly let out a shriek, hugged Jetri, and rubbed herself all over him. “You’re so smart~ So smart~ Little one, what’s your name? You’re the smartest human I’ve ever seen!”

“Y-Your Grace, my name is Richard Jetri...” Jetri was almost out of breath.

“My... you’re this smart, and your soul is this magnificent... I almost want to throw caution to the wind and eat you up first.”

That was what she said, but the Elven Aunt’s expression finally returned to normal.

“Magnificent... soul?” Jetri didn’t understand.

Soul?

Magnificent?

He suddenly remembered that before he turned sixteen, his memories from before transmigrating had been very vague. He had only been more precocious than others, and only knew clearly that he wasn’t from this world. Most of those memories had only become fully clear when he turned sixteen.

If Jetri hadn’t gone out to subjugate the Demon King, the issue of his own soul alone would’ve been enough to occupy him for a lifetime of research.

“Every living being, including humans, Elves, dragons, and angels, has only one soul.”

“Wait, angels?”

“Yes.”

“There are angels?”

“Yes.”

“But I’ve never seen one.”

“Oh my! So cute! You’ve never even seen an angel! Cute, cute~” Jetri had no idea what switch he had triggered in the Elven Aunt again. She scooped him up and mauled him with affection.

“You’ll see them later. And you’ll see them often.” Falana said with a smile while her hands kept roaming over him.

It was just that the smile was a little indecent.

A lovestruck grin Jetri had never seen on a woman’s face before.

Jetri shivered.

“P-Please continue...” Jetri said with difficulty.

“Mhm. No matter how powerful a creature is, no matter how weak, it can only have one soul. Even in certain ancient magics, where someone stuffs their soul into another person’s body and replaces them, there is still only one soul.”

“The capacity of a soul is limited. Even if... it can keep devouring the souls of other beings, it can never reach the objective strength of truly having two souls.”

“And you—not only do you lack even the slightest bit of that disgusting, fused, devoured deformity, you’re this magnificent!”

Jetri understood.

“Then what do you need my soul for, Your Grace?” he asked bluntly.

“Elven tastes are different from human ones. Elves prefer partners with clean and pure souls. Fallen Elves, meanwhile, prefer strong souls. And the reason, in the end, is still—ah, let me kiss you!” The lustful Elven Aunt suddenly leaned in. Her soft, full lips landed with a smack on Jetri’s cheek when he instinctively dodged.

“Because of offspring.”

“O-Offspring?”

“Yes. Reproduction is an instinct carved deep into every creature’s soul. I’m no exception. But ordinary souls don’t interest me. And ordinary souls can’t endure a Fallen Elf’s reproduction. But you can!”

“Your soul is magnificent and strong, beautiful and pure! We’ll definitely have the best child!”

“O-Of course... but haven’t you had offspring before? Or a partner, maybe...? Wouldn’t he mind?” Jetri tried to awaken this married-woman-faced Elven Aunt’s sense of ethics.

“No, of course not.” Falana’s lips curved as she smiled with poise. “I’ve never had a partner. Would that make you happy? I heard humans all want their partner’s first time. Is this your first time?”

“I-I am...” Jetri said awkwardly.

“Really!?” The Elven Aunt looked delighted. “I thought humans your age had all already reproduced with someone!”

Please stop roasting me...

“R-Really...” Jetri said, lowering his head more and more.

“So cute, so cute~ Little one, let me kiss you~”

“I can reproduce with you, but I’m human. I only have a lifespan of about a hundred years. I can’t stay here with you forever.”

“That’s true. Then what should we do?” The Elven Aunt, who looked so clever, now wore a completely puzzled face, like she had thrown her brain away.

“Uh... I... after I kill the Demon King... I’ll come back...?” Jetri tested the waters.

“Satan... she’s not easy to kill. You can’t even kill me, so if you go kill her, won’t that just be a one-way trip? No!” The Elven Aunt flatly rejected him.

“Then... what if you helped me?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Just a little. A tiny bit of help?” As Jetri said it, even he started doubting where he was getting the confidence from.

How did he even dare?

On what basis?

“Hmm... but she’s the Demon King. She’s my liege.”

“Then if I come back alive, or if I get captured by the Demon King, Your Grace can go ask her for me afterward?” Jetri started retreating in order to advance.

“That could work... no, wait! No! What if that old virgin Satan takes a liking to you? In all these years, you’re the only soul this special and this magnificent I’ve ever seen!” The Elven Aunt was gradually getting less and less smart. “Betraying the Demon King...”

“Fine!”

Before Jetri could say anything else, the Elven Aunt agreed in one bite.

“But, but... I have to return to the human kingdom, you know? Look, after all, I don’t even have a hundred years to live, so, you see...?” Jetri added.

“Aren’t you asking a bit too much?”

“Not at all. You said it yourself—I definitely can’t kill Satan, and even with your help it’d be hard. So if I really can kill the Demon King, then doesn’t that mean I could kill you too?” Jetri said. “Look, even if I could kill you, I’d still be willing to reproduce with you. But I’m not saying you have something about you that my body simply can’t refuse, right?”

“It’s purely voluntary. Pure love.”

The Elven Aunt blinked.

“Little one, you’re very bold.”

“What do you think?”

“Alright. Then let me see just how far you can go~” The married-woman-like Elf smiled and nodded.

Jetri never would’ve dreamed that one day he’d get to cosplay as a beauty who could bring down nations.

Falana kept her promise for quite a while. That was also one of the key reasons the Radiant Star Squad had been able to rise for five years straight and point their blade at the Demon King.

—

Jetri paused there.

He looked at Lilith.

The Half Elf tilted her head. “So why did you kill her in the end?”

“When did we ever kill her?” Jetri smiled casually. “Before subjugating the Demon King, even before killing Chelsey, right?”

“Yes.” The Half Elf nodded.

“She regretted it. Our growth was obvious to the naked eye. She was afraid I’d really grow, just like I said, to the point where she couldn’t handle me however she wanted anymore. Do you remember how, before we killed her, we were all invited to the Fallen Elf Territory?”

“Mhm.” The Half Elf nodded again.

“She used you all to threaten me.” Jetri smiled and shrugged casually. “So I killed her. Well, we killed her together.”

“She didn’t openly break the deal. She just kept implying, both openly and in private, that I should spend one night with her first. At the time, I actually considered giving in. She really was terrifying. But after I calmed down, I figured it out.”

“If I wanted to leave, and if the squad wanted to leave, then we had to break free of her control.”

“One compromise leads to compromise after compromise. Honestly, spending one night with her wouldn’t have mattered that much to me. But being kept under soft house arrest until I died? That I couldn’t accept.”

The Half Elf nodded in understanding.

“Like that Succubus?”

“Can you stop bringing up that Succubus?” Jetri said, speechless.

He knew the whole drawing a magic circle on his ass thing would get brought up for the rest of his life. But if possible, he still didn’t want to hear about it.

At the very least, not with his own ears.

“Last time, killing Falana brought Chelsey over. This time...” Jetri smiled casually. “Do you think we need to make a trip to Falana’s place?”

“I don’t know.” The Half Elf shook her head.

Back then, when it came to why Falana had treated the squad so well, Jetri and Lilith had stuck to the same story: it was because of Lilith’s Half Elf bloodline.

And as for why they killed Falana, they had also said Falana had ulterior motives and wanted to keep everyone confined in the Fallen Elf Territory.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, either.