Chapter 19 : I guarantee it

The moment Ceres lost consciousness—

“We just met!”

“And you go and collapse because of these bastards?!”

“Why are you making my heart ache again?!”

Chaos erupted once more.

Alios, Hames, Viol.

All three rushed toward Ceres at once.

Sibellius, who had been supporting him, couldn’t help but think:

‘What kind of goddamn nonsense is this?’

It was absurd—
And yet, there was a flicker of reluctant admiration too.

‘He managed to make all three of them fall for him.’

All three had power, status, and fame.

Not one of them was lacking.

And their personalities? A handful at best.

And yet here they were, acting like they’d gladly rip out their own liver and gallbladder for his sake.

‘Is it just because he’s that pretty? At this level, it’s practically a divine power. In the East, don’t they call someone like this a beauty that could ruin a nation?’

Considering the country had just almost been destroyed due to the fight between Viol and Alios…
Yeah, “ruinous beauty” was fitting.

‘…I owe him.’

Even if Ceres was the cause of the chaos, He was also the one who stopped it.

If he hadn’t stepped forward and claimed he could handle it, that fight would’ve kept going.

‘It’s not like they ever listen to me anyway. I would’ve ended up fighting too, trying to break it up by force… and if—’

‘If someone had accidentally died in the process…’

Just imagining what would’ve followed was horrifying.

Unintentionally, Sibellius found herself in Ceres’s debt.

“Everyone, step back.”

Even though she didn’t exactly like him, she still tried to help.

“Standing around shouting over an unconscious patient won’t help at all.”

Repeating herself, she calmed the three down.

“I’m going to investigate how to treat him now. So don’t get in the way. Just wait here.”

“Can’t I come in with you?”

It was Alios who spoke up this time.

She hadn’t seen Ceres in so long and was obviously worried.

She insisted on following.

But it was Viol who blocked her.

“Are you a doctor? What good’s it going to do to follow in there?”

“Ugh!”

“Watch yourself. I’m holding back from killing you right now only because of Ceres.”

“That’s my line!”

They glared at each other, bloodthirsty like wild beasts—

But neither could actually make the first move.

They couldn’t go against what Ceres had said earlier.

Watching the two snarl but not fight, Hames let out a sigh.

“Just go. I’ll keep watch here.”

“…Understood.”

Sibellius left the scene in Hames’s care and quickly returned inside.

“This time for sure…”

She laid Ceres back on the bed and activated a variety of magical tools.

Running a full magical diagnostic took time.

After waiting more than ten minutes, she suddenly felt hungry.

‘It’s not even mealtime yet… Is it because of that scent?’

The scent coming off Ceres was stronger now, probably because it was just the two of them in this small room.

It was a pleasant smell—

But for some reason, it kept triggering her appetite.

She pinched her nose.

‘This isn’t going to work. I need to eat something first.’

Leaving the magic to run automatically, Sibellius headed to the kitchen.

‘Meat would be good. Those sausages stuffed in pig intestines…’

In the capital, there were all kinds of rumors about her, Saying that she, as a half-demon, ate humans.

Complete nonsense.

Even full-blooded demons didn’t only eat humans.

Sure, they were monsters that devoured people—

But only to absorb the energy within the flesh and grow stronger.

Most lived on ordinary food.

Sibellius was no different.

She grilled some sausages like usual, plated them, and brought out a bottle of wine.

But as she ate—

“…What the hell?”

No matter how much she ate, the hunger didn’t go away.

It was like eating clouds—something that didn’t fill her stomach at all.

An eerie sense of emptiness gnawed at her.

‘No way…’

Suddenly alarmed, she rushed back to where Ceres lay.

The moment she stepped into the room and was surrounded by that scent again, the hunger eased—just a little.

‘Holy shit. What the hell is he wearing on his body?!’

There was no doubt about it.

That strange scent coming from Ceres was the cause of the effect.

‘No wonder. It was too pleasant. Too… delicious.’

Had he sprayed some kind of weird magical perfume?

Sibellius frowned at the thought.

‘A perfume strong enough to affect me? Is that even possible?’

Even if it was…

Where the hell did he find something that powerful, and why did he wear it every day?

She remembered Viol mentioning how the scent was always the same.

Then Hames’s words surfaced too—

That Ceres didn’t wear perfume at all.

That it was just his natural scent.

She had dismissed it as ridiculous before—

But now, it hit her like a brick.

‘…Could it be real?’

After Ceres woke up and had a conversation, Sibellius began to get a sense of what kind of person he was.

A strange idea crossed her mind.

“He’s such an unusual human… maybe it’s not impossible for him to naturally smell like flowers.”

She leaned in closer to sniff.

A sweet and pure scent.

It wasn’t cloying or heavy—gentle, yet intense.

‘Just like the Emperor Viol said… a refined floral scent.’

It was hard to believe a scent like this could come from bare skin.

‘Is he even really human?’

Sibellius bent down toward Ceres to smell him more deeply, bringing her face close.

Almost entranced, she began to unbutton his top, trying to confirm whether the scent was truly coming from his bare skin.

And then—
Ceres opened his eyes and met hers.

The moment he came to, there she was again.

And what she was doing was… very strange.

She was in the middle of opening his clothes and leaning in with her face.

“…What are you doing?”

He asked, deadpan.

She immediately backed away.

“…I was checking your condition.”

“Why are you taking off my clothes to do that?”

You could literally check me with magic without touching me—

In fact, you are currently using magic to examine me.

When he pointed that out, Sibellius cleared her throat.

“Ahem! Please let me finish. This was separate from the health check. I was trying to confirm the strange scent coming from your body.”

“What scent?”

“A floral one. What is it?”

I don’t know either!

That scent has always naturally come from Ceres’ body.

Every time the male leads meet her in the original story, they describe a fragrance emanating from her.

It’s never explained why—maybe it’s just because she’s the female lead in a romantic fantasy novel.

“I don’t know the reason. But yeah, there’s a scent. So what?”

“No reason, it just bothered me.”

Sibellius tried to brush it off casually.

But Ceres found her reaction even more suspicious.

Now that he thought about it, didn’t Sibellius mention something about Ceres’ scent specifically in the original story?

“You do realize this is sexual harassment, right?”

Ceres warned her, starting to suspect something.

“You promised me. That you wouldn’t fall in love with me.”

“I was just trying to investigate something odd!”

Sibellius denied it firmly, insisting he was misunderstanding.

“I don’t appreciate this weird suspicion. Let’s drop it. …More importantly, I want to know how you’re feeling.”

She narrowed her eyes, assessing him.

“You’re speaking more comfortably now. Are you better?”

“Better than earlier, yeah.”

Still in pain, but manageable.

It felt like something that had been blocked was suddenly cleared.

Maybe shouting and pushing myself earlier had actually helped.

“Hmm, sounds like forcing yourself to move while your mana was rampaging ended up forcing open your internal mana pathways.”

As Ceres described his state, Sibellius quickly grasped the situation.

“In a way, it achieved what it was originally supposed to do.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Take a look at this.”

She dismissed the magic circle floating around his body and instead conjured a report-like projection filled with complex characters.

“This is the analysis of your body. Can you read it?”

Not at all.

Even though he could read this world’s language ever since being possessed, this document was packed with technical jargon.

“In short, a high-efficiency mana training technique is currently running inside your body.”

When Ceres just stared blankly, Sibellius gave him a look like she was explaining to an idiot.

“Your mana has become compressed and more powerful. It’s circulating through your entire body, multiplying your training efficiency several times over.”

“Wait, hold on.”

Ceres was flustered.

It would’ve made more sense if she said he had a terminal illness.

This was just too random.

“Why is something so amazing happening inside my body?”

“I was going to ask you that.”

Sibellius looked him up and down.

“You’re using mana in a very unusual way. You’ve discarded all of mana’s natural benefits, instead using it to counteract something inside your body.”

“I was trying to heal myself.”

“To protect yourself from some kind of suppressive force inside you?”
He nodded.

But then came the shocking response.

“That method is incorrect.”

“…What?”
“Even if you use mana to protect your internals, it doesn’t make the pressure itself go away. In the end, even your mana becomes suppressed.”

What the hell?

This was the method he used in the original story—

To hear the creator of that method say it was wrong left him reeling.

“…Then what would you have done?”

“If it were me, I’d have used mana the same way for protection, but structured it so that it neutralized the pressure naturally. In exchange, I’d have given up physical reinforcement.”

Damn it!

Hearing the explanation, Ceres realized his misunderstanding.

When the original story said “use mana to protect the body,” it didn’t mean dumping it in like an idiot.
The real method was more like mixing dangerous chemicals to neutralize each other.

What he did, in comparison, was like trying to resist poison by just boosting his physical strength—a dumb brute-force method.

“Do you understand now? Because you used the wrong method, you’re now experiencing an unintended side effect.”

Sibellius explained:

Since the pressure itself wasn’t gone, the protective mana also got suppressed.

And in the process, it transformed—like it had undergone elite mana training on its own—becoming purer and more refined.

“Think of the aura that swordmasters use. It’s mana compressed to the extreme.
So some warriors had this idea: what if they trained with already-compressed mana from the start?”

“And how’d that turn out?”

“Most ended up crippled or barely recovered.”

“That’s like doing a workout that’s supposed to be good for you, but it ruins your body.”

“As a man, you might not fully understand this, but—overexerting yourself doesn’t always lead to improvement.”

Actually… he could understand.

Even regular exercise doesn’t work unless it’s systematic.
That’s why people need trainers to guide them.

Letting mana flow through your body was probably even more intense.

In martial arts terms, this was a deviation—like going into “qi deviation” (주화입마).

“You destroyed yourself internally by overtraining.”

“Exactly. And you were only able to survive that because the pressure inside you also happens to auto-heal. Otherwise, it would’ve been much worse.”

She gestured toward him, now able to speak despite still being in pain.

“So what now? How do I fix this?”

“You said it got a little better when you pushed yourself, right?
That may have acted like training, partially correcting the flawed technique.”

“You’re telling me to keep training with this already-damaged body?”

“This whole mess came from a wrong training method, so now you need a different kind of training to correct the side effects.”

Ceres frowned, clearly displeased.

Sibellius added:

“It’s not all bad. I guarantee you— If you succeed, your body won’t just heal. You’ll keep the benefits of that high-efficiency training method and become much stronger.”