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I smiled and stood up, shutting the book tightly while using a ruler as a bookmark. Axilia took my hand and pulled me downstairs, where a full-on feast was waiting. It appeared to be hot pot — perfect for the cold weather here in the Death Realm. I swallowed in anticipation, the thick aroma of the soup base filling my nose.

Axilia and I sat down next to each other rather than across, since she wanted to be closer to me. Two hot steaming bowls of rice along with chopsticks were laid out in front of us, which I didn't expect. I never thought the food of the Death Realm would be so similar with back home — I had expected something more along the lines of… I don't know, centipede or something?

Either way, this was a relief. Before I could even move my chopsticks, however, Axilia stuck hers into the boiling hot pot and plucked out what looked like a roll of lamb meat and shook it a bit to get the soup off before hovering it above her hand and in front of my mouth.

"Here, darling~ say ahhh~"

I wasn't too used to getting fed, but I did as told and opened my mouth. Axilia placed the meat into my mouth happily. It was absolutely delicious — comparable to Qing Yue's cooking — but there was just one problem..

"A-Ah! Ow, hot-!"

I spat out the meat as soon as it touched my tongue, since it was far too hot. Axilia, realizing what she had done, hurriedly placed her chopsticks down and shook my shoulders in worry.

"D-Darling, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… mmn…"

"I-It's fine," I said in reply, shaking her apology off. "I should've said something — I'm at fault too."

"I'll get you some water, just wait, darling!"

Axilia got out of her chair and rushed over to the kitchen to pour me a glass of cold water before returning promptly with it in her hands. I took it from her and downed the entire glass in one gulp — nice and refreshing.

"Do you feel better now?" She asked, beautiful pink eyes lined with worry. 

I smiled and patted her head. "Mhm. Thanks."

After that, the two of us ate in peace. Her cooking really was amazing — when I asked her where she learned it from, she just replied with a book. If that's the case, then… she must be really talented at this, to be able to reach such levels through self-taught methods. I wonder what would happen if Qing Yue and her had a cook-off… once again, assuming Axilia didn't just outright kill her.

Later, after the nicest meal I've had for a long time, we both took showers and returned to her room. There, I continued reading the book, while Axilia obediently went to sleep on her own. She had asked if we could have sex again tonight, but I told her I wanted to finish this book. Instead of continuing to bother me like I expected, however… she actually resisted her own urges and just went to bed.

Axilia… I can't understand you sometimes.

Sometimes she's so forceful, yet other times she's so obedient.

Sometimes she's like a crazy psychopathic murderer, yet most of the time she is a kind, innocent, caring, and loyal girl.

Her mind… it's been utterly torn.

But not to the point of no repair. I can still fix it — that will be my payback for all the things she has done for me thus far.

*****

After reading through the whole book, I understood how the Death Realm's inhabitants worked now, and what happened earlier.

Everyone who was born in this place are connected to this land by a bond, so long as they do not travel to other Realms (even if they came back after, this bond would not exist anymore). This bond provides anyone with it immortality, except of natural causes such as disease or old age. When one dies to any other cause of death, only their bodies disintegrate. Their soul, however, will not, and can then take the possession of an empty skeleton to live once more. As such, when people do actually die of natural causes, they are purified and turned into empty skeletons rather than buried.

That was why Auldren did not die earlier when I completely destroyed his body. Souls take on a gas form and can move just like air does but cannot interact with the real world otherwise, hence why Auldren did not try to fight in that form and instead opted to escape through the kitchen's exhaust vents.

However, there was indeed a way to kill someone in the Death Realm without natural causes. That was how death row inmates were executed, and how murders occurred. It was difficult to pull off, but certainly possible.

After killing their real bodies, the person's soul will escape from it and attempt to flee to a special facility in the heart of the capital Mordem called The Symphonia, where the workers there would then help the Soul gain a new life by merging it with an empty skeleton.

However, one can stop this from happening by trapping the soul. Because they are in a gas state, this will have to be done using a bottle or — more commonly — a portable vacuum-like machine called Soul Extractors. These items will capture the soul and prevent it from fleeing to The Symphonia. Once that was done, a special ritual was performed to 'exorcise' the souls. 

Well, they called it that, but really, it was just the waiting game.

When a soul departs from a body, they cannot last long. An hour or two is the most they can survive for without a host. Therefore, as long as the soul is trapped within an item and cannot find a host, it will disperse and disappear on its own. That was how killing worked in the Death Realm.

Had I known this, I would've been able to kill Auldren earlier, but there was no point in crying over spilt milk. He would definitely come back for me just like he said, but there was an adjustment period between a soul and its new empty skeleton of a host. The soul had to claim it as their own, and that process could take several days. Especially for someone like Auldren, who was quite powerful — the process would take longer. It was like uploading data to a cloud — the more you had, the longer it would take for it to complete.

Still… once he did claim the skeleton as his, he would without a doubt come at me again. This time, not alone. He wasn't the warrior-type to fight me one-on-one and with honor. No… he had pride, but it wasn't honorable whatsoever. In order to protect that so-called pride, he was willing to stoop to unbelievably low levels, including sending his entire army at me if he needed to.

"Oops… shouldn't think like that. That'll jinx it," I scolded myself quietly, shutting the book tight and turning around to see Axilia's peaceful sleeping figure in her bed.

I took the candle that I had been using as light to read — since I turned the room's actual lights off to let Axilia sleep better — and headed downstairs, checking the time.

11:45 PM… I should get going.

The meeting with the butler was coming up soon — and I wasn't about to miss it. But just for security reasons…

Legendary Metal Magic — Barrier of Transparency.

Metal Magic had the strongest defensive magic barriers possible, which was why I chose to use this to surround the entire house with. I also made it transparent so that people would only see it if they tried to actually get in, since I didn't want to attract too much attention this way. Axilia's quarters were near the edges of the castle, but that didn't mean it was completely hidden by a long shot.

But in any case… now, no one would be able to harm Axilia while she was asleep. Space Magic didn't exist here, so I didn't need to worry about that. If there were actually going to be invaders, they could try tearing it down, but if they did, I would know and rush back to the house immediately. There was no way I was going to let them hurt Axilia while she was asleep.

Walking back inside the room, I pulled the blankets over her tightly and smiled.

"Don't worry, Axilia… I'll save you soon."

As much as I didn't want this to happen at first… I realized now. I actually… loved this girl. Although the way we met was… somewhat questionable, there was no doubt about it. She was my woman now, and I would take responsibility for her. Maybe it was because I could relate to her so much — none of the other girls, minus Obsidia, were similar to me on this level.

In terms of tragic pasts… Axilia could very well have one that was even darker and harsher than mine.

Sparing one final glance at her sleeping figure, I jumped out of the house through the windows and shut them tightly while using Sky Magic to levitate in the air. Then, I passed through the invisible barrier I had set and hid beneath the shadows of a tree, patiently waiting for the person who I was supposed to meet with to arrive.