This was paradise, a sanctuary overflowing with spiritual energy.
A blonde girl walked toward one of the small houses, carrying a tray of food in her hands. Her steps were purposeful, measured, but there was tension in her shoulders that hadn't been there before.
Suddenly, a muscular man with a grinning face stepped into her path.
"Hey! Our lady saint, can you spare something delicious? I haven't had food this good in ages!" Heracles' booming voice carried across the compound.
"No. You should hunt your own animals and cook your own barbecue," Jeanne replied curtly, already moving to step around him.
She had more important things to do than entertain Heracles' appetite. The food she carried wasn't for him.
"Come on! Don't be so cold! We're comrades, aren't we?"
Heracles scratched his head, genuinely puzzled. Sure, he wasn't as handsome as the pretty boy she was taking care of, but he was still a fine young man in his prime! Couldn't she at least spare him a little consideration as a fellow Hero Faction member?
"Would you like to face punishment from the Divine Dragon Slaying Sword, Heracles?" Jeanne asked, her eyes flashing with warning.
The muscular man actually took a step back, raising his hands in surrender. When Jeanne got that look in her eyes, it was best to back off.
"Alright, alright, Jeanne! No need to get so serious, right? You go take care of your savior!" He scratched his head again, deflating slightly.
He really did think he was pretty reliable, so why did he always pale in comparison to that unconscious pretty boy?
"If you're hungry, ask Georg to take you to that fast food restaurant you like," Jeanne suggested, her tone softening slightly.
After delivering this concession, she continued toward the small house.
If she didn't hurry, the food would get cold.
Watching her retreating figure, Heracles sighed dramatically.
Ah, Jeanne's temperament had gotten even more volatile lately. She used to be more easygoing, but ever since bringing back that unconscious guy, she'd become increasingly short-tempered.
Of course, her irritability was mostly directed at him specifically.
"You know exactly what Jeanne's attitude toward that person is. Why do you keep provoking her?"
A teenager's voice came from beside him. Georg pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and patted Heracles on the shoulder.
"Say, Heracles, do you want to go to that KFC you usually visit? If you're willing, I can take you. But just so we're clear, you're treating me."
Georg understood the situation perfectly. He knew the identity of the young man Jeanne had brought back: the heir to Mahatma Rama's bloodline, and the man who'd managed to deceive Jeanne not once, but twice.
Despite being tricked repeatedly, Jeanne didn't seem to care about those past deceptions. She'd been taking care of the unconscious boy with single-minded devotion ever since they'd returned to base.
Well, Georg could understand it. When he'd arrived at the agreed-upon meeting point to pick up Jeanne, he'd been shocked by the severe injuries on both the boy and Jeanne herself.
After learning that the boy had suffered such grievous wounds protecting Jeanne, it made sense that she'd want to care for him so diligently.
What was strange, though, was that when he'd asked what kind of enemy they'd faced, Jeanne couldn't give him a straight answer. She'd only said it was an extremely powerful god.
That vague response had naturally piqued Heracles' interest. The muscular warrior had immediately wanted to track down this mysterious opponent after hearing Georg's report.
"Let's go! I'm feeling pretty frustrated today! I want to eat until I'm stuffed!" Heracles slapped Georg's thin shoulder enthusiastically.
Forget about that woman! Men understood men better anyway!
"Alright, let's go then."
A burst of crimson mist enveloped the two of them, and they vanished from the stronghold.
Meanwhile, the blonde girl entered the simple room. Though the space was sparse, it looked considerably more refined than the other quarters in the compound.
She gazed at the young man lying quietly on the bed, the one who'd rescued her from that overwhelmingly powerful god.
"I've already used Phoenix Tears on you, so why haven't you woken up yet?" she murmured, frustration coloring her voice.
According to consultations with the little girl named Zhuge Liang, the strategist Cao Cao had recruited, Takeyo's condition involved damage to his origin itself.
Jeanne didn't fully understand what "origin damage" meant. She only knew that this type of injury couldn't be healed even by Phoenix Tears.
"Tap."
Gently, Jeanne set the food down beside Takeyo and gazed at the boy quietly.
"How many secrets are you hiding from me? How many more times do you plan to lie?"
Like completing daily homework, Jeanne voiced her dissatisfaction aloud to the unconscious figure.
She'd noticed that during the battle, Takeyo hadn't used the power of Rama that he'd claimed to possess. Instead, he seemed to wield the power of dragons and other abilities she couldn't identify.
But regardless of what powers Takeyo had actually used, the fact remained that he'd come to save her despite overwhelming odds. She would never forget the scene of him still protecting her with his body even when facing an incredibly powerful god.
Since she didn't know the true relationship between Takeyo and Vishnu, she'd very subjectively attributed Takeyo's behavior to protecting her specifically.
A brave warrior using his body to shield a maiden, rebelling against the gods themselves, fighting a deity to the brink of death... What could be more epic and romantic than that?
In short, Jeanne had completely fallen for the beautiful narrative her imagination had constructed.
"Maybe I really do owe you, you big liar," Jeanne said softly, gazing at Takeyo once more.
She skillfully scooped up some of the food and placed it in her mouth.
Then she gently leaned toward Takeyo's head.
Giving water to someone unconscious wasn't a problem, but solid food required a different approach, it needed to be in liquid form.
Of course, that alone wouldn't be enough to properly feed someone, which was why she'd resorted to this method.
"Mm..."
Jeanne worked carefully to transfer the liquefied food from her mouth to his, ensuring the young man could receive adequate nutrition.
She didn't realize that Takeyo's physique had undergone earth-shattering changes. Even without consuming food, he could freely absorb and filter the spiritual energy in the air to sustain himself.
However, since the girl didn't know this, her well-intentioned efforts were understandable.
"Mm..."
Another mouthful of liquid food. The girl approached it like finishing her daily tasks, doing everything in her power to repay the young man's kindness.
Whether that gratitude had evolved into something else entirely, only the girl herself knew.
"Hm?"
Jeanne suddenly noticed something different during the feeding process.
"Did his... did his tongue just move?" She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but she could have sworn Takeyo's tongue had shifted slightly.
"Never mind, I'll just continue."
Perhaps it was force of habit from so many days of this routine, but she didn't think there was anything particularly unusual about their lips meeting anymore.
"Cough! ... Cough!"
Suddenly, the boy on the bed coughed violently!
"You're awake? You're finally awake!" Tears glimmered in Jeanne's eyes.
Finally! He was okay at last!
"Wait, I should call that little girl!"
Jeanne immediately pressed the alarm-like device on the bedside. Zhuge Liang had told her to press this button if anything happened.
"Cough!"
Just as Jeanne was activating the alarm, the boy lying on the bed suddenly bolted upright.
"Pff!"
A mouthful of golden blood spurted from the boy's mouth, flowing slowly from the bedside to the floor.
The golden color of the blood indicated that it was fundamentally different from before, his body had undergone tremendous changes.
A few minutes earlier.
As if in the chaos before the world's creation, a young man walked through endless primordial mist.
"Where is this? It feels like... an unopened world. Everything is chaos and formlessness," Takeyo murmured, confusion clouding his thoughts.
What was he doing here? Why was he in this place?
"Huang, "
In this boundless chaos, a golden light suddenly appeared and poured into Takeyo's body!
"This is...!"
Takeyo tried to locate where the golden light that had just entered his body had gone, but he couldn't find any trace of it.
However, this was only the beginning.
One, two, three! Countless rays of colorful light poured into Takeyo's body!
"This... this feeling..."
Takeyo immersed himself in this sensation of fulfillment, like returning to the warmest, most primordial cradle imaginable!
Surrounded by this endless light, Takeyo gradually regained consciousness.
"Huh? What?"
Having just recovered his senses, Takeyo felt a strange sensation in his mouth.
It seemed to be something warm touching his lips.
Instinctively, Takeyo moved his tongue slightly, then immediately recoiled after touching whatever it was.
He forced his eyes open and finally saw the girl before him.
Blonde hair fell across his face, carrying a faint, pleasant fragrance.
"Mm..."
However, just as the girl was about to take another bite to feed him, his body experienced an unprecedented abnormal reaction!
Blood rushed violently through his entire body, surging especially powerfully through his abdominal cavity.
A mouthful of golden blood burst uncontrollably from his mouth.
"Are you alright? Are you okay?" Jeanne, having just finished calling for help, immediately panicked.
Should she do something? What should she do? She'd tried healing magic before, but it hadn't worked at all!
"Ah, I should be fine. The external injuries are healed, at least," Takeyo said after another cough.
He'd just checked his body's condition. In terms of pure power, he was stronger than ever before!
But the damage was also unprecedentedly severe.
"So it's internal injuries? Wait just a moment, she'll be here soon!" Jeanne calmed herself down slightly.
Then she suddenly remembered something that made her heart race.
Now that Takeyo was awake, that meant her method of feeding him had been exposed, didn't it?
She'd originally assumed Takeyo would wake up at some other time when she wasn't actively feeding him!
Thinking about how his tongue had moved just moments ago made her heartbeat accelerate dramatically.
He... he didn't notice, did he?
"So, did you bring me here?" Takeyo asked weakly.
Though he now possessed the power to leave this place directly, no one could stop him at this point, he had no plans to depart just yet. After all, no one here could actually threaten him anymore.
"I'm sorry for bringing you here without your permission, but it's safe. You can recover peacefully," Jeanne explained hurriedly, as if afraid Takeyo might misunderstand her intentions.
"Well, thank you, Jeanne," Takeyo said with a smile.
With his expertise in psychology and micro-expressions, how could he not see what Jeanne's current feelings toward him were? Should it be called... unintentional seduction?
He truly had been in a situation where he couldn't afford to keep Vishnu alive, and Jeanne really had been saved by him. Those were the facts.
"No... no need to thank me. I should be the one thanking you," Jeanne said, her eyes reflecting an emotion she'd never shown before.
That look might be called admiration, or perhaps something deeper.
"Anyway, I've mostly recovered now. Don't worry about my physical condition. The coughing up blood is just because my origin was too severely damaged," Takeyo explained.
Despite his pale complexion, unprecedented confidence radiated from him.
Because he'd completed it, the second King-level sign-in, bringing a qualitative transformation in his strength!