Chapter 82: A Chaotic Reunion

“Ah, I always figured that sweeping up every piece of merchandise was only possible for someone outrageously wealthy. I wondered where that money could have come from—only to realize it was all my taxes! What a damn outrage!”

Lara charged straight at Karlahee. The unexpected assault left both Mikhail and Karlahee, as well as the briefly overlooked young demon, utterly flustered. But before they could even react, everything erupted into chaos.

“…Pea?”

Lara was sprawled over Karlahee’s body, and he couldn’t ignore the sight of his face—sunglasses removed—revealing Rahi’s bare, unmasked features he’d hidden until now.

“…How could Pea…?”

“Human woman! I simply can’t come down right now…”

Frowning fiercely as he tried to shove Lara off his back, Karlahee glanced upward when a droplet landed on his cheek. Peering past the ceiling, he saw a tearful woman’s face: familiar, warm, and dearly cherished.

A near-forgotten memory almost surfaced, halting Karlahee in his tracks. The darkness within him, which had long controlled his actions, began to recede under the weight of impending recollection.

‘A precious… existence…?’

Karlahee closed his eyes—no, he opened them wide—and within the obsidian depths of his inner being, he saw nothing but darkness.

Who was he? The emperor of the earthly realm, the man who wielded magical power, the one destined to rule all. But did any of that really matter? He questioned what ‘precious’ truly meant.

In the empty void, faint fragments of light began to appear one by one. Karlahee focused every ounce of his consciousness on these drifting shards that steadily pushed the darkness aside.

‘…Rahi. Our crown prince. So clever.’

‘…Rahi… you are my proud son.’

‘…Rahi, regarding the new volume of Magical Girl Lilica…’

Those were memories—the recollections of an existence once held dear.

The hazy shards of light gathered slowly until they merged into one brilliant point, erupting into radiant luminescence. All the darkness that had grasped his mind faded, revealing at last the face of that cherished presence he had long forgotten. In the center of a square silhouette, she beamed a cute smile—

‘Ah… my Dakimakura!’

Karlahee’s eyes snapped open. This was back to reality: the biting cold air against his skin, and his blurred vision now dominated by a woman’s face. He saw Lara, seated above him with a finger pressed against his philtrum.

“I’m sorry, I had a runny nose.”

Karlahee nonchalantly brushed away the droplet on his cheek with the back of his hand. It was, after all, the secretion of someone he held dear—better than blood, he mused. Producing a fresh handkerchief from his coat, he handed it to Lara.

“Use this to wipe up and make sure you wash it later.”

It was a handkerchief he recognized. Curious, Lara flipped it over to reveal a tiny twinkling star next to an image of Lilica striking a V-pose.

It was official merchandise. To think they’d hand over such a precious handkerchief for wiping a runny nose—although he did own a Lord Robes handkerchief, he’d been too fond of it to use.

“…Sniff, thank you.”

“I wasn’t even planning on blowing my nose.”

He almost thought his tone had dropped a notch.

“More importantly, Lara, we have a crisis. It looks like the Dakimakura has gone missing from the temple…! Why did it only just occur to you, hm?”

“That’s huge. We need to move quickly—and since everything’s already out in the open, you can drop the otaku act.”

Lara managed a wry smile. The person he adored was a total geek, and that geek happened to be the Emperor, the one he’d been mistakenly calling ‘Pea’ all along—who was, in fact, His Highness.

“Exposed, you say…?”

Karlahee frowned at Lara’s comment before suddenly realizing his glasses had slipped off. The clear imprint they left on his nose now stung.

“I’m the Emperor….”

“Yes, and you were once a discarded child, weren’t you…?”

Lara scratched her head before rising from Karlahee’s back. Still not fully grasping her meaning, Karlahee blinked slowly, worried that concealing his true self might have disappointed her.

Before he could speak, Lara softly chuckled and broke the silence.

“Come on, let’s go. We have important business to attend to.”

“I know, but Lara, I….”

Yet before he could finish, a massive magical circle burst into existence on the floor. Enveloped in a swirling black aura, the circle swallowed Karlahee whole while emitting a flash of reddish-purple light.

“If you’re pressed for time, we must send you off. We can’t stand to see our homeland abandoned without its master any longer.”

Mikhail, offering a kindly smile, returned Karlahee to the ground. The moment the magical circle vanished, his face contorted with the first pangs of agony.

“Ugh!”

“I’ll grab a handkerchief!”

“No, it’s fine…”

Dabbing cold sweat from his brow, Mikhail forced a relaxed grin that barely masked his concern; his blue face had turned an alarming shade that made Lara worry.

“Looks like you’re bleeding more than usual… Overnight recovery should do it; I’ll be right back!”

“…Tch, just stay here.”

“But still…”

“It’s just your heart taking a hit. A day’s rest should set things right.”

“Your heart? Not your bladder?”

“Are you trying to make me puke?”

Lara’s characteristic irritability resurfaced, and for a moment Mikhail felt a small relief. Something felt off, yet he chalked it up to his imagination.

“Anyway, Rahi… I mean, His Highness, where did you send him?”

“I sent him to the Forbidden Imperial Palace. And really, Lara, didn’t you notice? You didn’t even realize he lost his glasses. How utterly oblivious are you?”

“Ah… His Highness?”

Lara managed a vague smile. She tried to laugh it off, but her face kept stiffening—not out of betrayal, grief, or disappointment, but because that long-forgotten kiss flashed unbidden through her mind.

Kissing Pea—that is, His Highness’ kiss—turned out to really be a kiss with Rahi.

‘I think I finally get the feel of Lilica and Lord Robes’ first kiss. It didn’t send bells ringing or taste overly sweet, but it was warm and soft…’

Realizing that he was the other half of Rahi’s first kiss, he couldn’t help but obsess over his own lips. His mouth twitched uncertainly, alternating between a slight smile and a frown.

Mikhail, convinced that Lara was silently crying inside, murmured in a low voice,

“In the end, I suppose I’ve deceived you into thinking this was our entire relationship. Cheer up—you’re engaged, after all.”

‘An engaged woman isn’t the issue. It’s that in his heart, there’s already another beloved…’

Lara longed to confess that, but she held back. At last, she understood why he had come to Daeshin Shrine with the Magical Girl Lilica Dakimakura to swear an oath of eternity.

‘Perhaps he needed to steady his heart before formally engaging in a ceremony with Lady Elina I.’

Lara exhaled a relieved sigh, grateful that she had abandoned her duty to assist the divine. A geek falling for a human was impossible—no human could ever beat a 2D lover; after all, 2D romance was eternal truth.

“Is your heart really that tangled?”

Mikhail interpreted her sigh in his own way, lowering his head. His sky-blue eyes had slowly taken on a deep, red hue.

“I’ve never hidden anything from you. I’ve laid bare every weakness and secret. With you by my side, I feel complete—why isn’t that enough?”

“Mikhail?”

Before he could reply, a large hand clutched his arm tightly. Lara tried to pull away, but the grip was relentless. When the hand twisted his arm a full 360 degrees, he finally groaned in pain.

“He may have put you in danger, but I’m different. I’m here to save you.”

“Thanks, but what you’re saying sounds like a line straight out of a dark sub-character reveal. Is something wrong?”

“Enough. After all, I’m right here with you. With things nearly resolved, let’s head back to Daeshin Shrine.”

“Huh? But I need to go home…”

Just as Lara sensed something was amiss and tried to step away, her vision spun and she collapsed. Before her fragile body could shatter on the hard floor, a strong arm caught her in the nick of time.

“You’re coming with me—forever.”

Mikhail lifted Lara into his arms and looked upward. His eyes, reminiscent of a striking red moon, sparkled as he conjured a teleportation circle in midair. Though he could have carried her inside, his strength alone wasn’t quite enough.

They say a person weighs more when they pass out—perhaps that’s just their true weight.

‘Heavier than he looks…’

Mikhail muttered softly, his crimson eyes fixed downward as his arms trembled under Lara’s weight. Reluctantly, he set her momentarily on a carpet, feeling his muscles protest the strain.

He summoned the teleportation circle once more and began pushing Lara into it. The carpet came along, a necessary inclusion to prevent her from scraping against the ground. Halfway through, a demonic soldier burst in, drawn by the commotion.

“Oh man, what’s all this about? Moving out, huh?”

“Something like that.”

Mikhail attempted to defuse the situation with a casual remark, but the demon soldier wouldn’t step back and instead edged closer.

“You look like you could use some help moving—need a hand? Ha ha.”

Before a kindly image of a moving crew could form, potent magic ensnared the soldier, binding him in place.