Under Melina's silent gaze and Sellen's teasing remarks, Lucian began—with great difficulty, to dress Sellen's body in the Academy's sorcerer robe.
To be honest, trying to put clothes on a body that had completely lost consciousness was an extremely difficult task.
In his previous life, Lucian had seen posts online about how painful it was to maintain and change clothes for life-sized dolls.
But lacking both money and opportunity, he had never experienced that "pain" himself, and had always assumed those complaints were just a form of humblebragging.
Only now, when he was doing it with his own hands, did he realize—
They weren't exaggerating at all. It really was incredibly difficult.
Lucian had no experience dressing other people to begin with. And now, this body was essentially equivalent to a life-sized doll—one that would not cooperate with him in the slightest, which only made things worse.
Unlike dolls with internal frames, a body without a soul was completely limp.
He couldn't even seat her upright on a table and put the robe on properly—at the slightest touch, she would just slump over.
As a result, Lucian had no choice but to support Sellen's body against himself, freeing up his hands so he could lift her arms and slide the robe on.
This inevitably led to postures that looked far too intimate.
Sellen's body leaned against Lucian without any reaction at all, forcing him to rely entirely on sheer willpower to suppress his body's instincts.
Looking at Sellen's refined yet lifeless face, Lucian suddenly understood why Seluvis was so obsessed with creating puppets.
Of course, Lucian still believed Seluvis was extreme and deeply pathological.
He firmly condemned Seluvis's cruel acts of harming others to satisfy his twisted desires.
But…
Life-sized dolls really were something else.
Especially when they were completely passive, able to be arranged at will—there was something undeniably strange and fascinating about the sensation.
That said, Lucian didn't dare entertain any improper thoughts.
After all, even though the room looked like it only contained him, both Melina and Sellen were watching him in spirit form.
It was just that Sellen's soul transfer relied on ritual rather than her own perception, unlike Ranni—so she couldn't see Melina.
Which meant Sellen had no idea that a young girl was standing right beside them, silently observing everything.
After the primal glintstone had been removed, all functions of Sellen's body had ceased. Even the bleeding had stopped—who knew what kind of technique made that possible.
However, the wound that had been cut open across her chest earlier had already spilled a large amount of blood, soaking a wide area of the thin white inner garment.
Earlier, Sellen had even teased Lucian, asking whether he wanted to take off that bloodstained inner layer as well.
Lucian had, of course, rejected the suggestion with righteous indignation.
If he really did something like that, Melina would definitely be heartbroken, and he might just follow Godwyn in being stabbed by a Destined Death Dagger.
At last, under Sellen's verbal guidance, Lucian managed—clumsily and in a panic, to put the robe back onto her body.
Once the clothes were more or less on, Lucian finally let out a long sigh of relief.
The pressure had been immense.
Honestly, this was even more nerve-wracking than stepping onto a battlefield to fight a powerful enemy.
However, at that moment, Lucian suddenly realized something.
"Teacher… I suddenly have a question."
'Mm, go ahead' Sellen's voice replied from the primal glintstone.
"You're going to put the primal glintstone back into your body once we reach the Academy anyway."
"So why did you still have me dress the body now?"
"And the outer robe even got soaked by the blood from the inner garment."
Sellen's soul responded with a question of her own.
'Then why didn't you take it off? I clearly told you to, didn't I?'
'Besides, of course it needs to be worn.'
'What, were you planning to carry my body out like that?'
'Just wearing a single thin layer?'
'I don't really mind—it's just a shell of flesh.'
'But I imagine the tales of the Storm King would gain yet another entry then, hmm~'
Lucian stared blankly.
What kind of logic was that?
Ah—right. Sellen probably didn't know about his spatial disc.
The moment Lucian stored the body into the disc's internal space, Sellen's laughter abruptly stopped.
'…Heh. So you can take it out like that.'
'Then let's just say I was teasing you.'
'In any case, once we arrive, I'll have to trouble you to undress me again~'
Lucian covered his face.
Teacher… was this really necessary?
Still, at this point, Sellen could be said to have completely opened herself up to him—
Both physically, and emotionally.
During lessons, Sellen was extremely serious and meticulous—strict to the point of being frightening.
But outside of teaching, she was gentle, approachable, and deeply caring toward her students, with a strong "older sister" kind of presence.
It was just that now, Sellen seemed to have let herself go a bit too much.
Perhaps it was because she had gone so long without finding someone who truly understood her.
Now that she had such a disciple, she couldn't help but indulge him a little.
…That contrast, honestly, wasn't bad at all.
Compared to deliberately maintaining distance under the guise of being the Graven Witch and a teacher, this felt far more comfortable to Lucian.
Lucian glanced around the underground chamber once more, then suddenly asked Sellen again:
"Teacher, aren't you bringing your staff?"
Inside the primal glintstone, Sellen thought for a moment.
Lucian possessed a space capable of storing items, so in theory, it wouldn't be a problem to bring it along.
However, her staff really wasn't anything special—just something she had picked up casually.
'Forget it. There are plenty of staves in the Academy anyway.'
'Once we get there, we can just take one of good quality.'
Lucian could clearly hear Sellen's disdain for her current staff.
After thinking it over, he did not take out the Lusat's Glintstone Staff he was holding onto.
With Sellen's strength, she should be fully capable of using it.
Still, it would be better to wait until they had dealt with a mature Astel and brought back the golden amber from its body before mentioning anything related to the two great masters.
That way, Sellen wouldn't immediately go off to create mage balls or graven masses again in her pursuit of the primeval current—only to end up turning herself into a ball once more.
Life that merely imitates the stars is, in the end, inferior to life born among the stars themselves.
But right now, he couldn't produce any concrete proof, which made things awkward.
Even if Sellen doted heavily on her disciple, she wouldn't change her entire approach to exploring the primeval current based on just a few empty words—
Off to the side, Melina watched Lucian's interactions with Sellen's body, and for some reason, a faint sense of crisis welled up inside her.
Why did it feel like so many 'peerless powerhouses' had suddenly appeared around Lucian recently?
Had it always been like this before?
First there was Selinsax, who had signed a contract that was practically equivalent to pledging herself to him.
Then there was the "Moon Princess," Ranni, whom Lucian cared about deeply.
And now, this Sellen—who had never shown anything unusual before, seemed to be acting a little strange as well.
At the start, it clearly looked like nothing more than a close bond between teacher and student.
But now… wasn't this getting a bit too intimate?
Although Melina could sense that Sellen was probably just teasing Lucian for fun, she couldn't bring herself to treat it as something trivial.
'Uhh… I was clearly the one who came first!'
Melina felt that her emotions had become somewhat strange.
The desire to monopolize him seemed stronger than ever before.
By her own self-reflection, she shouldn't be feeling this way—yet she couldn't stop such thoughts from surfacing.
She didn't understand what this intense possessiveness was.
In the past, just seeing Lucian would make her happy.
Just staying by his side was enough to make her feel fulfilled.
But after everything that had happened recently, she found herself no longer satisfied with that alone—
Since he was now literally carrying a "living map" in the form of Sellen, Lucian immediately decided to head for the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
However, before formally setting off for the Academy, he deliberately made a trip back to Stormveil Castle.
If, after conquering the Academy, the Cuckoo still refused to submit, then Stormveil's army would march into Liurnia and take it by force.
Over this recent period, Stormveil had raised yet another massive army.
This time, Lucian did not form an elite knightly order like the Drakeblood Knights or the Silver Knights, where every member was a powerful knight.
Instead, he followed the standard Lands Between military structure—knights leading large numbers of soldiers.
Among them were more than three thousand fairly capable soldiers, along with several hundred knight commanders.
All of these soldiers were Tarnished, possessing combat strength far beyond that of ordinary Lands Between troops.
Once the Drakeblood Knights returning from Caelid finished escorting the sorcerers back, preparations to unify the entire Liurnia region could begin.
With such a massive force, fighting the Cuckoo would pose absolutely no problem—they could take them down with ease.
Using a Site of Grace, Lucian teleported to Academy Gate Town in Liurnia.
From here, following the road leading directly to the South Gate of Raya Lucaria, he could use the Academy Glintstone Key to enter the Academy.
After emerging from the Site of Grace, Lucian habitually cast Unseen Form on himself.
He didn't want to alert the enemy ahead of time.
If being discovered led to unexpected complications, that would be troublesome.
Once he used the Academy Glintstone Key and entered the Academy, there would be no need for such caution anymore.
At worst, he could just push through everything head-on.
Lucian searched the area around Academy Gate Town for the main road leading to the Academy.
The town had long since been abandoned and was now used as a garrison by Cuckoo soldiers.
Nearby, one could see quite a few second-generation Albinaurics wandering about.
From time to time, clashes would even break out between Albinaurics and Cuckoo soldiers.
Ever since Raya Lucaria sealed itself off, all Albinaurics had been expelled.
These second-generation Albinaurics were already considered useless by the sorcerers.
As a result, large numbers of them could only wander across the vast waters of Liurnia Lake, searching for new places to live.
Most had already left, moving far away from the Academy and the Cuckoo Knights.
But a small number didn't know where to go, and with their relatively low intelligence, could only linger among the nearby ruins, unwilling to leave.
Academy Gate Town was simply too large.
For the moment, Lucian still hadn't found the road leading to the Academy's main gate.
Although he hadn't found the road—
In a deserted corner of the ruins, he instead spotted two figures locked in a fierce clash.