Seeing Aozaki Touko return, Utaha felt utterly miserable.
"Lady Touko, why couldn't you have come back a few hours earlier?"
"Hm? Ah!"
Aozaki Touko was still somewhat confused.
But when she noticed the all-too-familiar marks covering Utaha's body, she suddenly understood and broke into a mischievous grin.
"Haha, so that's what happened. Roy's curse flared up again, didn't it? Well, isn't this just fine? It's not like you dislike that kid, right?"
"It's not that I dislike him..."
Utaha's face was full of exhaustion.
But if possible, she would have preferred to reach this point naturally, when the time was right.
Not under such extreme circumstances, with such a terrible first experience.
And especially not while Roy was unconscious.
On top of that, since Roy and Aozaki Touko already had a relationship, Utaha couldn't help but feel guilty, as if she had become a homewrecker intruding on someone else's feelings.
Should she consider herself Roy's lover now? Or should she treat this as repaying a favour and go back to being strangers afterward?
"Oh, don't mind me. Just do whatever feels right for you."
Touko immediately saw through the source of her distress and waved her hand dismissively with a smile.
Her words sounded almost as if there were no romantic feelings between her and Roy at all.
Then what kind of mindset had driven her to sacrifice herself for Roy?
Is this how all magi are?
"Alright, enough about that. Let me tell you some good news."
Touko walked to the garden, slid open the glass door, and sat down on the veranda.
She reached out to Utaha and, under the latter's puzzled gaze, motioned for her to extend her hand.
Finally understanding, Utaha placed her hand in Touko's palm.
But still—were the things she was agonizing over really so trivial in Touko's eyes?
Suddenly, Utaha let out a soft gasp.
She stared in surprise at their connected hands. A faint warmth flowed from Touko's palm into her body, circulating through her before settling as if a switch had been flipped.
"Mmm...!"
Utaha whimpered, her face flushing red.
In that instant, she felt as though something within her had changed.
A warm presence now pulsed inside her.
She could also sense something like nerves abruptly forming within her body.
"Try it. Activate those nerves—imagine them as pipelines transporting oil, drawing the crude oil from the depths of your body and circulating it like this."
Touko smiled mysteriously.
Hearing this, Illya suddenly turned her head, her expression one of utter disbelief.
"Don't tell me...?!"
Utaha didn't fully understand, but she attempted to visualize it as instructed.
Suddenly, the nerves inside her body began operating like factory pipelines, squeezing out a certain energy as if juicing it from her very core.
In an instant, a faint blue light emanated from her skin.
Startled, she lost focus, and the activated nerves quickly stilled and cooled.
"W-What is this? What's happening?"
She panted heavily, staring at her hands in panic.
Her body felt unfamiliar, as if it no longer belonged to her.
"This can't be real!"
Illya shot to her feet, her eyes burning as she glared at Utaha.
The Nakano sisters and Hayasaka, who had been cooking in the kitchen, also turned their attention to the commotion, ears perked.
"Calm down. Your body hasn't changed—it's just gained something new."
Touko smiled faintly, her lips curling as if everything had gone exactly as she expected.
"Gained something new?"
Utaha couldn't help but ask, "What did I gain?"
It couldn't be... some kind of impure fluid, could it?
"Magic Circuits."
Touko looked at her with an amused smile.
"Your body has acquired Magic Circuits. What I just taught you was how to activate them and extract magical energy."
"Magic Circuits?!"
Utaha's eyes widened in shock.
Nakano Ichika, Nakano Miku, and Hayasaka also brightened, their gazes locking onto her with unmistakable anticipation.
"But... I didn't have any Magic Circuits before, did I?"
Utaha remembered Roy conducting tests on her and Hayasaka earlier.
The conclusion had been that neither of them possessed a single Magic Circuit—they were destined to have no connection to magecraft.
Could Roy have been wrong back then?
"You didn't have them before."
Touko pressed her lips together, her expression turning ambiguous.
"But now you do."
Before Utaha could react, Illya was the first to cry out in disbelief.
"That's impossible!"
"Magic Circuits are determined at birth! They can't be increased through later modifications! Besides, Magic Circuits are nerves of the soul—there's no way they could just appear out of nowhere!"
Illya was practically trembling with agitation.
This scene was nothing short of a challenge to her entire worldview as a magus.
If word of this got out, magi across the world would go mad. That was how inconceivable this was.
The impossibility of increasing Magic Circuits post-birth was an ironclad rule in the world of magecraft—an absolute truth with no exceptions!
"And yet, here's the proof right in front of you. If you're a magus, you should face reality and learn to wield it."
Touko casually chastised Illya, whose mindset, in her eyes, still fell short of a true first-rate magus.
"Magic Circuits... I actually have them now?"
Utaha's mind was in turmoil, but she was undeniably overjoyed.
"But... why? How?"
She had previously had zero Magic Circuits in her body. Why had they suddenly appeared now?
Was it because she had spent enough time in this world that her body had begun adapting to it?
"It's simple."
Touko lit a cigarette, her expression turning cryptic.
A strange smile played on her lips.
"Roy's body possesses a unique trait—no, perhaps it's not his body, but his soul. Even he doesn't know about it. I only discovered it recently. That trait is called 'Adaptation.' His body can adapt to modifications that should otherwise be impossible."
"When you slept with him, he must have left his essence inside you, right? That essence is the purest life force of a magus. By receiving it, you adapted to this world."
Touko's words sounded like something out of a fantasy tale to the ears of the women present.
Hayasaka, who had poked her head out from the kitchen, and the others all stared in stunned silence.
So...
Roy was—a genuine Tang Monk?
***
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