"Naoki, when are you going to wake up?"
Merlin's voice sounded.
Reluctantly opening his eyes, what caught Naoki's sight was Merlin looking down at him, and flower petals fluttering everywhere.
"Ugh..... Merlin?"
"Good night, Your Majesty the King, did you sleep well?" Merlin smiled, "If you've had enough sleep, can you get up from my lap? My lap is a bit numb."
Lap?
This soft touch behind his head was Merlin's lap. Although he had seen it many times before, the shape of these legs, Naoki felt he would never get tired of looking at them no matter how often.
"Merlin..... I am..."
"Due to some unexpected situation, Manaka, who was sealed within your body, is now almost out of her seal. And because she forcibly left her seal, your soul experienced a slight shock." Merlin explained, "So you appeared here."
"By the way, the 'me' right now isn't my original body either, just a security measure my original body left within your soul for your safety, only appearing when little sister Manaka wants to cause trouble."
Manaka got out of her seal?
Come to think of it, before losing consciousness, it seemed like... eh?!
"Manaka broke her seal!?"
Naoki suddenly jumped up from the garden: "Why didn't you say so earlier!"
"Who told you to sleep so soundly? Even when called, you wouldn't wake up." Merlin flicked Naoki's forehead with annoyance, "Besides, the reason you lost consciousness was because a part of Manaka's power that left gave you a curse of eternal sleep. If it weren't for me helping you remove that curse, you could have slept until the end of the world."
"A curse? You removed it?"
"Um, after all, it was a curse about sleep, right in my area of expertise."
Patting the flower petals on his body, Merlin stood up: "Alright, since you're awake, quickly go subdue that sulking Manaka and put her back in the dark room."
"By the way, it wasn't the entirety of Manaka that left, only a part of her power came out of the seal, simply put, like an automaton. Although it's a bit troublesome, you should be fine."
"No problem. Thank you this time."
After Naoki finished speaking, he closed his eyes, preparing to return to the real world. Until today, he was already used to how to wake up at his own will.
However, Merlin suddenly patted his cheek: "Just one sentence?"
"Huh?"
"Just one sentence of thanks?" Merlin pouted dissatisfiedly, pointing to her lips with her finger, "Give me a real action."
"Ugh..... there's still a big crisis outside, don't—ugh!"
Before he finished speaking, Merlin herself took a step forward and silenced his mouth with hers.
"Alright, this is enough."
It was just a fleeting kiss.
Merlin retreated to her original spot: "A blessing for the hero who is about to go to the battlefield—a kiss from me still has a little value, right?"
"You just wanted to see me embarrassed, face red, reluctant to kiss you, or after you forcibly kissed me, my face red and my heart pounding like a virgin."
"Ehehe~~~ You caught on?"
Merlin, whose intentions were seen through, chuckled softly: "Then, good luck, Your Majesty the King. I'm supporting you!"
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Consciousness returned to the real world.
Seeing Manaka choking his neck, Naoki instantly grabbed her wrist.
"Have you made enough noise?"
"Ugh!"
Instinctively, Manaka immediately and willingly released the grabbed arm, instantly retreating dozens of meters away.
And after retreating, she suddenly became shocked: "Why did I retreat?"
The current her was just an avatar, at most equivalent to a player-controlled game character. Even if seen by the Mystic Eyes, it wouldn't be affected in any way.
But, the dozens of meters she retreated in an instant...
"It seems you're really afraid of these two eyes of mine."
Throwing away the severed half of his arm in his hand, Naoki carefully picked up the fallen Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
"Clearly just a soulless doll, but because you were once defeated by these two Mystic Eyes, the fear of the eroding soul, you still instinctively want to immediately get out of my line of sight."
"Turns out Beasts can also be afraid?"
The cold sneer made Manaka unconsciously bite her lip.
Afraid?
Yes, she was indeed a little afraid, afraid of those Mystic Eyes. Although this avatar didn't need to be afraid, her original body still didn't want to be seen by those eyes!
"D- don't... don't look at me with those eyes!"
Swinging both her hands, a wave of chaos suddenly formed a jet-black tsunami behind her, pressing down on Naoki from all directions!
Panicked and anxious to the point of losing composure to control the Monster Princess?
Naoki took a deep breath, his hand slightly clenched empty air.
*SWISH!*
A streak of fiery red sword light shot quickly through space.
The wave of chaos dozens of meters high was actually directly split in two from the middle, sweeping past both sides of Naoki!
Manaka instantly froze on the spot.
Not because the wave of chaos was easily split, but because of the object Naoki was holding. Although it was only similar in shape, merely a poor imitation, that shape was undoubtedly...
"Saber's Holy Sword..."
Excalibur.
The Holy Sword of the Planet that could defeat all evil.
"Vixen... Damn it..... you damn vixen!!"
"How dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you! How dare you imitate the Prince's Holy Sword! Just how badly do you want to contaminate the Prince's image in my heart!!"
All the anger instantly swallowed Manaka's sanity. For her, offending even a single part of Arthur was a completely intolerable act!
Naoki's face, which looked more and more like Arthur's, was already making her angry and jealous. Now even the Holy Sword too.....
Unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable!
The Prince was unique! His existence, his power, his weapon, everything about him! Everything was unique and the most perfect in this world!
A poor imitation that marred that perfection shouldn't exist!
"—Vanish completely! Vixen! From this world! Vanish forever!"
Manaka's anger instantly triggered a riot of the wave of chaos. Like the entire ocean boiling, violent wave after violent wave continuously surged, forming an extremely powerful vortex centered on Manaka.
And the next moment—
"GAAAAAAAAAAA!"
A wingless dragon (serpent) of pitch-black color spurted out from the vortex, letting out a deafening roar of anger into the sky!