The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness Chapter 623: Origins

Muen stepped into the sea of flowers.

This artificial area beneath Saint Maria Academy hadn’t changed much after the upheaval in Belrand before. The flawless blue sky still spread out like a painting, dotted with white clouds.

Only the flowers had been replaced. No longer were they multicolored roses, but a deep pink sea of tulips.

"You’re here?"

ra was in the very middle of the flower sea, tinkering with sothing. She noticed Muen’s arrival, yet didn’t even lift her head.

Muen suddenly stopped.

He waited a bit. When he realized ra had only greeted him and then ignored him, he couldn’t help frowning. After a brief mont of thought, he didn’t approach directly.

Instead, with ra as the center, he kept circling her, carefully sizing up this old loli who was still wearing a strawberry pajama set to play cute, while looking extrely wary.

"What are you doing?"

ra finally raised her head. Her amber-red eyes stared at the guarded Muen.

"Sothing’s off..."

Muen looked left and right and said gravely, "Teacher ra, you rarely call over in person. Even if you do, that ans you’re starting a new round of torture. Why is it so peaceful today?"

"That makes sound like so unscrupulous teacher who takes pleasure in her student’s suffering." ra folded her arms.

"So Teacher ra actually has self-awareness?"

Muen stroked his chin, shocked. "That really startled ."

"..."

ra’s brows twitched, and then she suddenly smiled. "You brat, you’re just too sensitive. Have I done that many excessive things to you?"

"Not that many. I just got boiled in a pot, got sliced a few thousand tis with a knife, got my head thrown up into the sky to fly around, and you secretly plotted sothing terrifying without telling anything, that’s all."

Muen counted on his fingers, serious. "Really not that many."

"..."

A strange, eerie air drifted over the flower sea.

But Muen waited for a while, and the thing he expected still didn’t happen. ra only blinked, then suddenly sighed.

"You brat, you have a bit of prejudice against your teacher. I did all of that for your own good."

"Secretly watching my jealous battlefield was for my own good too?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Muen saw a half-eaten waterlon sitting off to the side. Clearly, not long ago, this hateful old loli had been enjoying so gossip here.

"As your teacher, I have to care a little about my disciple’s love life. If one day you get chopped into pieces, I’ll know how to go tidy things up for you. Maybe I can even save sothing and bring it back, right?"

ra suddenly stepped aside, revealing what she had been tinkering with the whole ti.

Muen looked over, stunned for a mont, because no matter how he looked at it, that thing was... a bed?

Not the kind of icy operating table he used to lie on, but one thoughtfully laid with soft bedding. It was printed all over with cute little pink strawberries, fully displaying a certain old loli’s tacky taste.

"Co. Lie down."

ra patted the mattress.

"What are you doing?"

Muen imdiately crossed his arms over his chest, alert. "You thick-browed, big-eyed old loli—so you’re coveting my chastity too?"

"Say one more word and I’ll break your ass."

ra spoke crude words with an innocent face. "Get up here. Now."

"Oh."

Knowing resistance was completely useless, Muen lay down with a nervous heart, inch by inch.

He interlaced his ten fingers and placed them on his chest, like soone in a coffin, waiting for the first shovel of earth to cover him.

But to his surprise, this bed was exceptionally comfortable.

It was like the firmness had been adjusted to his preferences. The mont Muen lay down, he felt his whole body relax automatically. Even his soul seed to find a place to belong, and he couldn’t help letting out a comfortable groan.

"Go on, then. What’s the next torture?"

Muen still forced his face to stay stiff as he said, "Are you going to cut open, or bolt so weird chanical parts onto ? Whatever sche you’ve got, just say it. I can take it now!"

"Don’t talk like I’m so shady quack doctor hiding in an underground clinic."

ra leaned by the bedside. "Does it hurt?"

"Hurt? What hurts?"

Muen froze.

Not because of the random question, but because right now, ra was propped by the bed with her cheek in her hand. Her chubby baby face held a soft smile, and she actually gave off a gentle feeling, like a wife watching her exhausted husband beside her.

"Here hurts."

ra tapped Muen’s glabella.

"Before, you forced that black sun to run without stopping, used black fla, and your mind already overdrew itself to the limit, didn’t it? Even if you used the palace array later to stabilize your ntal power, that was only stabilization. It can’t increase your ntal power, and it definitely can’t repair your ntal space that’s already full of wounds."

"Yeah... I guess it hurts a little."

Muen tugged at the corner of his mouth and smiled, lying back on the pillow.

In truth, that was half true and half false.

Because that agony—your mind nearly dried out, nearly completely crushed—was no different from having your body crushed bit by bit. How could it be called only “a little”?

But Muen had long since gotten used to that kind of pain. Countless deaths in the Black Book, and multiple experiences facing those unspeakable things, had made his mind now—compared to his forr weak self—strong by who knew how many tis over.

"Mmn. Looks like you’re tougher than I imagined."

ra tilted her head and studied Muen for a bit, then suddenly blood into a bright smile like a flower. She gently rubbed Muen’s head and said softly, "But don’t worry. Your dear teacher called you here precisely to help smooth out that pain."

"Is that so..."

Muen let out a breath of relief.

Looks like this ti he’d misunderstood Teacher ra. No matter how vile her personality was, she couldn’t possibly—

"Of course... the process of smoothing out the pain will be just a tiny bit uncomfortable. I guarantee you—just a tiny bit."

ra suddenly raised her thumb and index finger, pinching out a fingertip universe.

"Just a tiny bit."

"What... you!"

Muen’s eyes widened at once. A thought of “as expected,” and an extrely ominous premonition, exploded together deep in his heart.

Of course it was already too late, because that damned old loli had always been faster with her hands than her mouth.

So before the curse words could even co out, Muen’s vision went black, and in an instant... he lost all consciousness.

...

...

"Hey, you pitiful assistant mister, wake up..."

"Wake up. Ti’s almost here..."

"We should go to *&%￥..."

In a haze, Muen heard a faint voice, drifting and echoing around him.

This was...

But when he tried to find the source of the voice, countless speckles of noise and distortion—and so shattered images he couldn’t make out at all—suddenly surged toward him like he was inside the screen of an old television, endless and boundless.

He opened his eyes, and what he saw was...

"Ho. You’re awake."

That punchable baby-fat face of the old loli.

"Mmn... how long was I asleep?" Muen frowned. He forced down the urge to punch her and asked, still a bit dazed.

"By the outside ti, three days."

ra’s gaze swept over Muen. She even pried his eyelids open to check, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Mm. Looks like the effect is excellent. Your ntal power has completely recovered. There shouldn’t be any aftereffects left, either."

"Recovered that fast? Three days... that’s a long ti. I didn’t feel ti passing at all. And ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ what you an by ‘outside’ is—"

Just waking up, Muen had a whole pile of questions jamd in his head.

But when he moved even a little, and suddenly felt that smooth, rounded touch behind his head, every question temporarily vanished.

Because this softness and shape, by Muen’s long experience, could only be—

A lap pillow!

That’s right. Definitely a lap pillow!

But why would he be feeling a lap pillow right now? At a ti like this, whether it was Celicia, Senior Sister, or Liya, it couldn’t possibly—

Muen’s eyes widened.

Don’t tell this old loli finally couldn’t hold back her springti heart, got moved by my handsoness, so—

"You brat, you seem to be thinking sothing weird again."

Before Muen could say anything, ra’s brows lifted, and she grinned mischievously.

"But I still advise you to get up quickly. Otherwise—"

"Otherwise?"

"Otherwise your chastity really will be in danger."

ra moved her head away.

In an instant, when the deliberate concealnt was gone, a huge shadow blocked all the light at once, covering Muen’s vision.

And in the middle of that shadow... was a face.

A face covered in thick flesh and tusks. Drool ran down the corners of its mouth. Tiny eyes locked onto him, full of bestiality and desire.

"This is... what?" Muen asked ra blankly.

"This is an extinct demonic beast from a thousand years ago, called a Tak."

"A Tak?"

"Yes. This demonic beast has a trait. Because the number of males in the species is extrely small, and female Taks have extrely strong desire, well, that. They often capture males of other races. The more handso, the more they like him."

"Then —"

"Ah, that. As my cutest disciple, how could I bear to have you lying on the ground? So when I happened to run into one, I temporarily put you on her thighs."

ra spread her hands, looking like a good teacher thinking of her student.

Muen’s mouth twitched. He slowly turned his head and t the Tak’s tiny eyes, filled with—

"Ugly freak, die!!"

A blade flash blazed bright. Roaring and clamor, along with a furious shout, shattered the stillness of the wilds.

...

...

"Hah... this demonic beast... why is this demonic beast so strong?"

Half an hour later, Muen braced his hands on his knees, panting with an utterly wrecked expression.

"Damn it. I almost couldn’t beat it. It looked like a normal demonic beast..."

"A demonic beast that can casually capture males of other races and still survive isn’t so normal demonic beast."

ra shrugged. "Well, but this thing is already extinct now anyway."

"Extinct..."

Muen straightened. "So what is this? Why am I running into an extinct demonic beast, and this place—"

He looked around.

Red sand and dust swirled with a cold wind that ca from nowhere, making visibility extrely low.

Underfoot was cracked sand and black hard rock. Forget green plants—he couldn’t even see soil, that vessel of life.

As far as he could see, there was no vitality at all. Only dead silence.

"Do you rember the Sacred Tree not long ago? This is sothing I made based on inspiration I got from It, using the Eternal Bell as the foundation."

"A phantom of the past?"

"More or less. Except because I added interference from the Authority of Ti, it’s more real."

ra grabbed a rock, crushed it, and let the fine grit spill through her fingers.

"So... this is a thousand years ago too? The First King’s era?"

"It’s a thousand years ago, but a thousand years earlier than the First King."

ra walked forward and pointed.

"Look there."

Muen’s gaze sharpened. Following where ra pointed, he raised his head.

As the sand and dust thinned a little, what was revealed before Muen was...

A cliff that was almost vertical, dropping straight down, bottomless.

Black-red rock on the outside, smooth and sheer as if split by a blade. A pebble, lightly kicked down, fell and fell—yet for a long ti, there was no echo at all. What shocked Muen even more was the length that cut off the entire ground within his field of view, and...

No matter how he lifted his eyes, no matter how he tried to force his gaze through the vast, drifting sand, he couldn’t see the opposite cliff at all—what that represented was its width.

"This is..."

"The Abyss."

ra answered softly.

"The Abyss now, and the Abyss a thousand years ago."

"This is... the Abyss from legend?"

Muen opened his mouth in shock. He suddenly crouched down and touched the smooth cut face of the cliff.

"Father fought the demon race in a place like this? I thought the so-called Abyss was so more abstract concept. I didn’t think it was literally... a gigantic, unbelievable rift valley?"

"Maybe you’re not wrong. The Abyss itself does carry a bit of an abstract concept."

ra pointed again.

"Look."

As the knife-like wind howled, the drifting sand thinned again, and Muen finally saw it—those warped hollows above the Abyss, appearing and disappearing, like cracks, yet constantly sealing back up.

"So terrifying power nearly tore the space above the Abyss apart, making it, in a sense, truly isolated from this continent. Of course, this kind of spatial tearing can’t isolate every single place, so the Abyss has multiple exits. The one your father guards should be one of them."

"So..."

Muen didn’t dwell on that question for long. After a brief silence, he asked instead, "How did the Abyss co to be?"

"You haven’t heard?"

"No. But I have a bit of a guess."

"Having a guess is already good. Sothing like this couldn’t possibly remain in recorded history."

ra stared at the Abyss. In her crimson eyes, complicated glimrs flickered.

"The so-called Abyss is nothing more than the scar left behind when we campaigned against the First Evil God back then. To put it more simply, this is... a wound of the world."

"The First Evil God... the Demon God?"

"Yes."

"If the Abyss was caused by the Demon God... then the so-called demon race—"

"Of course it’s not like how any beast with demonic power inside it gets called a demonic beast. The demon race... is actually the group of believers who once worshiped the Demon God."

ra lowered her eyelids. Her five fingers made a grasping motion, like she wanted to seize sothing within the Abyss. Her expression grew even more complicated.

"After the Demon God died, the pollution on those believers disappeared, and their minds were no longer affected by the Demon God, but their mutations remained, and the power the Demon God once bestowed remained. So they broke away from the scope of humanity and beca... what people now call the demon race."