“It’s been fifteen days since you were gone. That’s three-and-a-half months for the students here. The time flow increased a bit for some reason. Now, their second semester is coming to a close!” Alison said with a bewildered expression.

“Oh, that’s…fast.” Varian was equally shocked. He just started the academy two or three weeks before he left, right? They’re about to finish the first year already?

“You have no idea! With the new ingredients from Hortus as well as ruins, the alchemists and scientists from all races have joined hands to create groundbreaking potions! We’ve not only recovered the strength of the civilization pre-war but also surpassed it slightly.” Alison’s eyes were glowing brightly.

Varian could see the genuine joy in her eyes.

Thinking back, Alison aka Blue Flash was someone who always worked for the greater good of the human race. Even though cooperating with Enigma could end up exposing her identity and bringing her to death, she was fearless.

That was the time when the entire world saw Enigma as the head of a terrorist organization. Even when things grew worse and everyone called for the death of the so-called ‘Alien’, Alison firmly stood with Enigma.

Enigma herself didn’t notice it, but she too never doubted Alison to betray her even after two key members from Shadow Guardians did and nearly pushed her to death.

‘Thank heavens she’s a human.’ Varian smiled lightly.

“Hm? Are you happy with the progress?” Alison tapped the desk between them and leaned forward from her chair, grinning like a child who just caught her friend laughing at her favorite show.

“Not me. It’s you who’s laughing like an idiot.” Varian raised his hand and materialized an ice mirror to show her grinning reflection.

Alison saw the woman in the reflection and covered her mouth. With an embarrassed expression, she coughed. “Apologies. I really wanted to share this info with you, everyone else is super busy.”

“Even the two?”

“Oh, they’ve been the busiest! I tried to Enigma once, but she was pissed off when I mentioned you. You pissed her off or what?”

“What about Sia and Sarah?”

“I saw Sarah only once in this half year. They are competing with each other. But for some reason, they were almost even. But for some reason, Sia’s practice speed suddenly increased and she broke through.”

“Already? That’s impressive.” Varian nodded.

Alison looked at him like he was some big hypocrite. Then she glanced around for a moment before she leaned over the desk like a colleague about to gossip and gossip she did.

“After advancement, Sia went to the Nymphs.”

“W-Wait, what?”

“All the young Nymphs who wanted to be your concubines were beaten up, hanged on trees with their own clothes, or buried head first into the ground.”

“What?!”

“The older ones had it worse. They were all shaved bald.”

“What the fuck?” Varian’s jaw dropped and he slammed his desk.

“Sia wanted to do something more to the celestial ranking Nymphs but it didn’t work out since she couldn’t win them. But she backed off only after challenging them for a battle in the future.”

Varian rubbed his forehead. “I rejected the Nymphs completely, so why? Does she not trust me?”

“She’s just pissed off that these women openly disregarded the Queens and tried to  get a hand on you.” Alison shrugged.

“How bad are the ties with Nymphs now? Any conflicts?” Varian asked in a heavy voice as he clasped his hands and rested his chin on them.

They were recently incorporated into the Human Empire. Now, Sia just went ahead and beat a lot of their people. Even the big powerhouses were humiliated.

No matter what the reason, they’d be pissed off. Varian didn’t want a secessionist movement but an insurgency against the evil Human Empire seemed imminent.

“Er…I don’t know how to say this,” Alison’s face showed awkwardness instead of solemnity.

“With your mouth, please,” Varian said dryly. “Unless you can speak through your nose.”

Alison rolled her eyes and spread her hands like she had given up. “They were pissed off, yes. But instead of going down the route of insurgency, they took it as a challenge and doubled down. In their own words,

‘The flower that’s protected the fiercest tastes the sweetest. The more you defend, the more we attack. The nectar of the sweetest flower shall wash the lands of Nymphs sooner or later.'”

“Wait, wait, did they seriously describe me as a flower?” Varian’s jaw dropped in shock and he poked at his own chest. “Me? A flower? Me? A fucking flower?”

Alison nodded.

Varian took three deep breaths before standing up. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where?”

Varian rubbed his fists with a fierce expression. “Flower my ass! Those bald donkeys need to taste some real pain.”

Alison blinked at his words and ended up laughing. “Hahahaha!”

“This isn’t funny, Imperial Secretary.” Varian crossed his arms.

“I…I’ve never seen, hahaha, so pissed, Your Majesty~”

“I’ve received many insults, plenty in fact. I can take them all without a care, but comparing me to a flower? Now that’s going overboard!” Varian said with an indignant expression.

Alison patted her chest and blocked him from going away. “It’s best not to poke them anymore.”

“Why?”

“If you beat them too much, they’ll reach a state where they’ll start enjoying the pain. They’re tricky to handle as of now, don’t make them twisted.”

Varian tilted his head and looked at Alison with a strange gaze. Then, he nodded and sat back down.

“D-Don’t give me that gaze! I just learned about it from the psychology classes!”ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

“I didn’t say anything,” Varian said so but dragged his chair back and increased the distance between them.

Alison gave him a resentful stare. “I’m pretty sure you’re enjoying the situation, aren’t you, Your Majesty? A race of female beauties are all trying to get into your bed. All you have to do is nod and say it’s just a physical relationship, even the Queens would acquiesce.”

“Yeah, I’ll take their whole race and start repopulating the millions lost in the war. Perfect idea, Miss Secretary.” Varian clapped as he said with deep sarcasm.

Alison’s lips twitched. Couldn’t she ever one-up her boss?

“Now that you mention it, if your essence is sold, I’m sure millions, no, tens of millions would become mothers. You can indeed repopulate. We had big losses after all.”

Varian looked at Alison’s long blue hair and grinned. “Looks like you too want a bald shave by Sia.”

“…I didn’t say anything.” Alison raised her hands in surrender. “But the population is indeed an issue. You said you’re going to return after the ritual, so I’m not telling anything serious.

But something should be done about the population. Even though the policies are in place, the people are too traumatized by the war to have children now.”

“Looks I’ll have to sacrifice myself and proceed with the Nymph population plan.” Varian tapped the table with a serious expression.

Alison widened her eyes.

“Just kidding.” Varian laughed.

Alison snorted. “You obviously like the Nymphs fawning over you. I’ve studied men’s psychology.”

‘My psychology is that if I have a choice, I’d rather stay at home even if the Nymphs fawn over me than go outside and meet that scary woman.’ Varian’s body involuntarily shuddered as the feeling of death in the presence of that veiled woman resurfaced. 

The whole Nymphs episode was just an amusing drama for him. But that woman…Varian touched his heart and it indeed skipped three beats. 

“Let’s go. Work is calling.” He snapped his fingers and they teleported from the Spring Palace to the forbidden area of space-time.

An airtight red prison came into view.

Varian tapped in the air. A hole appeared in the prison and sixteen powerful rank 1 auras shot up into the sky.

“W-What?!” Alison hid behind Varian and looked at the prison with a pale face. “S-Sixteen cel—Holy Heavens! I’ll call for an evacuation! And prepare for spaceships to take survivors out of the solar system, and there is—”

“Shhh!” Varian patted her like she was a child and gestured for her to check the prison once again.

ραпdα -n૦νe| , c૦m

The sixteen rank 1 celestials were all sprawled on the ground, their bones twisted and their postures in strange alignments.

“Hiss!” Alison sucked in a breath of cold air and looked at Varian like he was some ghost. “You beat them all?”

“Or who? You?” Varian asked back.

“Arghh! Being your secretary will be the death of this old lady!” Alison screamed, but her shoulders relaxed and her chaotic breath normalized.

“W-Wait, you had me call sixteen veterans of body path and sixteen on backup. Is it for this?” Alison looked at him with wide eyes.

“Indeed.” Varian nodded and snapped his fingers.

A beam of light fell from the sky and swallowed the red prison. Then, the sixteen drug dealers went unconscious and floated into the beam.

Varian snapped his fingers again and the sixteen veterans waiting near the Spring Palace also appeared in the light beam.

The space-time forbidden region shook along with the order-chaos forbidden region. Invoking some of the deepest laws of creation, the powers of the drug dealers were being slowly stripped away and planted into the veterans.

Instead of instantly powering them up, the power was stored in them. During practice, the stored power would melt and quickly become theirs.

Varian tried for 90% efficiency but only managed to transfer 70% of the power. Even then, at least half of these veterans would hit low rank 1 and the rest would just break through to celestial ranks.

“Do you also want a transfer?”

“Y-Yeah? No. They are the veterans who sacrificed so much already. They deserve it more.” Alison shook her head and carefully poked his arm while the ritual continued.

“Hm?”

Swallowing her saliva, she spoke in a low voice. “S-Say, Your Majesty. How many civilizations did you exterminate to find so many celestial rankers? Now that sixteen celestial rankers are killed, does that mean sixteen star systems are emptied for us to occupy and take resources from?”

Varian turned to Alison thinking that she was trolling and saw that she was really asking with a genuine expression. Indeed, for her, a celestial ranker essentially represented the peak of civilization, the ruler of all.

With a weird expression, he revealed. “They are no rulers.”

“If they’re not rulers, these celestial rankers must be someone great! Chiefs of Staff? Prime Ministers? Admirals? Next Rulers? Or maybe they belong to a council that implements law and order for other civilizations! They must be so influential that killing them is going to be a prob—”

“Drug dealers.”

“…Eh?”

“Those sixteen are drug dealers on a city planet. They sell illegal drugs, are addicted to drugs themselves, and are part of a gang that operates in the piss poor part of the city planet.”

“Ah-Hahaha. You’re really growing more and more humorous, Your Majesty.” Alison chuckled awkwardly at his words.

But seeing his face deadly serious, she asked in a trembling voice. “R-Really? A-Are these c…celestial rankers just d-drug dealers?”

Varian nodded.

Imperial Secretary Alison, the Iron Lady who didn’t even flinch when standing against the world with Enigma, fainted.

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