Why is that man here?

Having composed her mind and body, Helen glared at me.

“…So, since I’ve become an accomplice as you said, I can’t say Yuris saw something so wicked.”

“You understand well.”

“To be outwardly proper while looking at something so lewd… I’m disappointed, Yuris.”

Her face completely flushed, she took a step back while adjusting her clothes.

“…You didn’t see it, did you?”

“See what?”

“…That. The illusion I saw.”

“Would you like to hear the truth? Or would you prefer a little embellishment?”

“…No. Don’t answer. I know exactly what you’re going to say.”

“Understood.”

Indeed, perhaps because she was intelligent, she was a quick-witted woman.

She seemed to have immediately realized that I had indirectly experienced her illusion.

“I hope Miss Silvesta becomes a regular at our store. As you can see, we don’t have many customers.”

“Wh-why would I ever come back to a place like this?”

“Didn’t you enjoy it?”

“D-don’t be ridiculous! I didn’t enjoy it at all!”

“For someone who didn’t…”

“What?”

I stopped speaking at Helen’s attitude, as she hastily cut me off and tried to argue.

“Never mind.”

There was no need to provoke her further here.

I didn’t know if it was to her taste, but it was true that she had quite enjoyed it at the end.

The fact wouldn’t disappear just because I didn’t say it out loud.

However, if I provoked her any more than this, she would become hostile towards me.

It was right to pass it over in silence for now.

“Anyway, please come anytime. We’ll offer you a 50% discount on your second visit.”

“I’ll never need it. Because I won’t come.”

“Then it can’t be helped if our service was unsatisfactory.”

There were many points to improve.

But at least it was certain that Helen was satisfied.

‘Even though she wasn’t originally into that kind of thing, she enjoyed the situation of herself collapsing.’

For someone who had always been successful, defeat was bound to be an unfamiliar feeling.

And the more unfamiliar that feeling was, the greater the shock would be when it came.

Defeat in reality drives people to the edge of a cliff, to ruin.

‘But defeat in an illusion has no such risks at all.’

Just the unfamiliar sensation of collapsing.

That sensation could be an addictively thrilling sensation for someone.

Like Helen now.

“Anyway, please keep our customers’ information confidential. Sir Yuris is also a valued customer to us.”

“…Alright. But you know, right?”

“Of course. Today, Miss Helen was never here.”

“You know it well.”

Hmph!

Helen snorted and paid the bill before rushing out of the store.

I watched her leave.

The process was rough, but the result was satisfactory.

I was able to suppress her reporting our store to the radical reformers of the Goddess Church, and her finding out Yuris’s weakness and threatening her.

She seemed satisfied herself, so she wouldn’t try to ruin this place.

‘Although she insisted that she wouldn’t come again.’

I thought as I watched Helen flee.

She would definitely come again.

Just like Yuris had.

“I need to prepare thoroughly for the next customer.”

To be honest, it wasn’t a perfect illusion video.

I had extracted the image of the loser she hated most based on her memories, but I couldn’t honestly say that I had perfectly recreated it.

Well.

‘There’s too little information about that loser guy.’

Only a humble family name was known.

She didn’t even know the man’s name.

She didn’t properly know his personality or grades either.

So, I imprinted the image of the loser through Professor Simonde, who existed firmly in her memory.

That was why.

She made unreasonable claims that I had forcibly manipulated her memories, or that they had liked each other.

Since the information was limited, the relationship between the loser and her was bound to be limited.

‘This requires preliminary investigation.’

I needed to gather information on exactly what kind of person the loser was, and how he was treated.

For a realistic video, proper historical research was necessary.

“I’ll be visiting the Imperial Academy for the first time.”

Thinking that, I started preparing for the next illusion video.

***

“Welcome back, young lady.”

Helen, having returned to the mansion, felt relieved as she saw the maids and butler welcoming her as the Silvesta heiress.

‘I haven’t been abandoned.’

The stories she had seen in the illusion were all lies after all.

She had been so nervous.

What if, just in case, she had really been abandoned by her family?

She wouldn’t have been able to bear it.

“Butler, I missed you.”

“Hehe, for the young lady to say such a thing, did something happen at the academy today?”

“No. Nothing happened. It’s just…”

The image of the loser who had forcibly suppressed her came to her mind.

The expression on the illusion’s loser’s face as he sneered while pressing down on her.

“Young lady?”

“Ah, no. It’s nothing… I’m just tired.”

“Shall I prepare a bath? We have newly arrived aromas and bath salts. There’s nothing better for relieving stress. The young lady will like it.”

“Please.”

A bath with plenty of bath salts and aroma oils was one of Helen’s favorite hobbies.

The pleasant sensation felt whenever the soft aroma and bubbling foam brushed against her body was indescribably good.

She liked the moment when she realized again that she was a precious person every time the fragrant scent enveloped her body.

But now, she couldn’t easily smile at those words.

“Then I’ll tell them right away. Please rest in your room.”

“Thank you.”

The butler, noticing her changed demeanor, took a step back.

“Butler.”

“Yes, young lady.”

“What if… what if I lost my spirit abilities?”

“What do you mean? Regardless of your spirit abilities, you are still you. The proud duchess of Silvesta.”

“Really?”

But in the illusion…

Get a grip.

It’s just an illusion.

An illusion that man made up as he pleased.

Why are you being swayed by it?

But you know.

It was too realistic of an illusion to just dismiss.

As if it were real…

Illusion magic was said to deceive the senses, so no matter how much you pinched yourself, you wouldn’t feel any pain.

But his illusion was different.

‘I felt everything.’

Even the pleasure she didn’t want to feel was vividly felt.

That was why.

It kept sticking in her head and wouldn’t go away.

“If I lose my abilities, won’t the head of the family, or rather, my father, abandon me?”

“Why would you say such a thing…? You know he’s not that kind of person.”

The butler’s confident voice suddenly brought her to her senses.

“That’s right. Father wouldn’t do that.”

It’s just an illusion.

Just an illusion…

‘Let’s forget it. I need to forget.’

Resting in her room, she closed her eyes and called out to the spirits.

-O free wind and land of discipline, come forth and fulfill the contract.

The spirits of wind and earth appeared.

-Shaaaa~.

-Puuu.

The wind spirit in the form of a lynx and the earth spirit in the form of a muscular ape stood before her.

Unlike in the illusion, she could properly use her powers now.

Her spirit sensitivity was still there.

Helen breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the spirits who had contracted with her in the spirit realm answering her call immediately.

My sensitivity is still there.

It really was an illusion.

In relief, she bit her lip.

“Why didn’t you answer earlier?”

-Shaaa?

-Puu?

The high-ranking spirits tilted their heads as if they didn’t understand.

“…No, never mind. Go back. I just called you to check.”

At her words, they returned to the spirit realm without complaint.

“Young lady, the bath is ready. The maids will assist you.”

Having finished preparing the bath, she entered the bathroom and undressed with the help of the maids.

The mirror was reflecting her body, which was not wearing a single thread.

Normally, she would have admired her flawless beauty and reaffirmed the greatness of Silvesta.

However, Helen, with the memory of the illusion remaining like a scar, recalled the image of her being violated in the illusion as soon as she saw the mirror.

That unsightly appearance of spreading her legs like a crab and masturbating.

“Gasp!”

“Young lady, is there anything wrong?”

“No. It’s nothing…”

The maids asked her in alarm.

It wasn’t their fault.

It was just her problem that she hadn’t escaped from the illusion yet.

Feeling her body heating up, Helen bit her lip and hurriedly entered the tub.

If she had been even a little later, the maids would have noticed that a female fluid had come out of her vagina.

Apart from the embarrassing imagination, the bath salts and aroma were too fragrant and soft.

‘I can shake off that sticky illusion for a while.’

Helen let out a faint sigh.

“It’s good. It’s really good.”

The warm bathwater, the fragrant bath salts and the soft bubbles created by them, and the aroma oil she applied to her body after the bath.

She savored the feeling of being pampered by the maids’ devoted hands, and thought:

‘Something’s missing.’

That’s what she thought.

***

After a terrible day, Helen went to the academy with a fresh mind.

‘I need to forget it now. That day’s memory was just bad luck.’

Helen thought that trying to find Yuris’s weakness had only increased her unnecessary thoughts.

Sighing, she entered the school and saw a familiar man in the classroom.

Originally, he should never be familiar, but the memory of yesterday had made him stick in her mind.

A loner, a loser.

And the thugs surrounding him.

For some reason, the thugs were bullying the loser.

“S-stop it…”

“Stawp it~. Look at him. Hey, do you think we’ll listen just because you say so?”

“Th-that’s my allowance for a week.”

“Well, that’s none of our business. You have to pay protection money if you want to attend, you know? We’re protecting you well, so you’re attending the academy without any problems, right?”

“B-but…”

“Either get beaten by us, or hand over this money.”

“That’s…”

The thugs all had familiar faces.

The men who had laughed at her in the illusion, saying she had lost her family, and slapped her cheeks.

Just thinking about it made her blood boil.

“Why don’t you stop?”

Normally, she would never have interfered.

Was it because of the experience in the illusion where they sneered at her and slapped her cheeks?

She glared at the thugs and said.

“Lady Silvesta?”

“Stop it. Aren’t you ashamed as students of the Imperial Academy?”

“…”

“As nobles, maintain your dignity.”

Realizing who she was, the thugs clicked their tongues and stepped back.

“Tch, fine.”

There were few nobles who dared to stand up to Silvesta.

As the thugs retreated and returned to their seats, the loser hesitated and looked at her.

“Th-thank you.”

“Ah.”

Helen met his eyes as he looked up, and she flinched without realizing it.

It was a reflexive reaction from her body due to yesterday’s experience.

Her body was briefly afraid of that loser.

But the loser didn’t seem to notice her reaction at all.

“I-I’ll definitely repay you for what happened today.”

The loser’s mumbling thanks quickly cooled her flustered heart.

Ah, that’s right.

This is reality, isn’t it?

“What do you mean, repay?”

“H-huh?”

“I guess you forgot who I am. I’m Helen of the Silvesta family. You can’t do anything to someone like me, a man from such an insignificant family.”

“Ah, s-sorry…”

“A loser should just cower without making a sound. Don’t even think about talking to me.”

A sharper tone than usual came out of her mouth.

She saw the loser shrink at her barbed words.

Yes.

That’s how it should be.

This was her and that loser’s position.

A relationship where he had to be at her beck and call with a single word from her.

She almost made a mistake because of that brief moment in the illusion.

She almost thought she was on the same level as this loser.

“Don’t get the wrong idea about being helped, and never talk to me first in the future.”

“Y-yes…”

She didn’t even listen to the loser’s words and went to her seat.

‘It’s different after all.’

He couldn’t be the same person as the loser in the illusion.

‘What was I expecting?’

She shook her head and tried to dismiss the rising fantasies.

There wasn’t much time left before class.

I need to prepare quickly.

And as she prepared for class, she saw.

“Why is that man…”

An familiar man entering through the main gate of the Imperial Academy.

It was that illusion mage.