Chapter 318: Golden Bomb 2



Rose should have known better. She should have controlled the emotions surging within her. Cold, calculated logic and unwavering truth-those were the essence of a great mage.

Those were the very foundations of what made her the prodigy she was.

And yet… at heart, she was still just a young maiden.

Her actions were impulsive, reckless even-forceful in a way that defied all the discipline she had honed over the years.

But for someone like Rose, who was both innocent and ignorant of her own power, her own emotions, nothing she did could ever be truly meaningless.

Haah~

As their kiss deepened, as their breaths intertwined, she could feel it-the turbulence within her heart settling, the storm of confusion she had been drowning in finally beginning to calm.

And yet, paradoxically, the mana inside her flared with an intensity she had never experienced before.

‘Yes… this is it…’

With each fleeting moment, every time she opened her eyes between stolen breaths, she saw it.

No-she felt it.

The colors.

The radiant, iridescent hues brimming around Riley.

The only person in her bleak, monochromatic world who possessed color.

And now, those colors were seeping into her.

Flowing into her very being.

Filling the emptiness inside her.

Shading her grayscale existence back into something alive.

It was beautiful.

It was mesmerizing.

A kaleidoscope of warmth and familiarity-nostalgia. A world she had long forgotten, now slowly returning to her.

She ignored everything else.

The sharp intake of breath from the Emperor.

The stiffened body of the man before her.

The frustration, the resistance, the emotions swirling in Riley’s eyes.

None of it mattered.

Because for as long as their lips remained locked together, for as long as she could feel his presence, Rose allowed herself to indulge.

To sink into this fleeting moment of solace.

Relationships were always complicated.

No matter how much one tried to dissect them, analyze them, or rationalize their existence, there was no absolute way to truly understand them.

Because, at their core, they were dictated by emotions-irrational, unpredictable, and entirely subjective.

And Rose…

She was the most whimsical and impulsive character in the game.

Her actions often bordered on pure randomness, and that unpredictability was precisely what made her unique.

No matter which route the player took, Rose’s presence always found a way to interconnect with the main heroines, threading their fates together in ways no other character could.

She never moved with calculated thought or careful planning. Instead, she acted purely on intuition on what felt right to her in the moment, on what she found amusing or intriguing. That was simply how she was.

So, in hindsight, I should have expected something like this.

As the kiss dragged on-far longer than I had anticipated-I felt it.

Her mana.

It was stabilizing.

And then I saw it.

[Skill: True Sight]

A glimpse into the underlying reason behind her sudden, unexpected actions.

The turbulent mana inside her, the unstable force that had been twisting within her heart and mind, was now smoothing out.

A magic circle-one that had only just begun forming-was settling, becoming more natural, more refined.

They say mana is deeply tied to emotion, amplifying and boosting one’s prowess depending on their state of mind. And for Rose, that logic seemed to apply more than ever.

I narrowed my eyes.

Snow must have really pushed her past her limit.

Because the way she was acting now…

It reminded me of Liyana.

The deep-seated red, blue, and black mana coiling near Rose’s heart-once a chaotic storm of raw emotion-was now steadily stabilizing.

Like a Bomb that had finally fulfilled its purpose, the turbulent emotions fueling her actions had run their course.

What remained now were the shockwaves, rippling outward in the aftermath.

And I could already feel the tremors.

The very ground beneath me-the craters she had formed from her uncontrolled outburst- began to splinter and crack, faint fractures snaking outward as residual mana continued to

pulse through the air.

But more than that, more than the physical destruction, I could feel the weight of something

far worse pressing down on me.

A heavy, suffocating presence.

The emperor.

Even without turning to face him, I knew.

I knew that the complex web of emotions swirling inside him was anything but stable.

And when I finally dared to glance his way again, my suspicions were confirmed.

His face-normally so composed, so authoritative-was frozen in pure, undiluted shock.

His blue eyes, wide and unblinking, stared at me as if his mind was desperately trying, failing,

to process what he had just witnessed.

‘He looked worse than before the kiss started…’

And then as our eyes locked on…

I heard it.

It hasn’t arrived in reality yet…

But in my mind, as clearly as if the words had already left his lips:

“HOW DARE YOU CHEAT ON MY DAUGHTER?!!!”

…Yeah.

My day was about to get so much worse.

As if my situation wasn’t already bad enough, I had to remember-this wasn’t just any

overprotective father.

This was the Emperor.

And to make matters even worse?

Not only was I officially dating his daughter… I was also betrothed to Liyana-his beloved niece, the one person he greatly cared for.

Which meant that right now, as he stood there, still reeling from the sheer absurdity of what he had just seen, his mind was probably laying out an extensive, well-documented list of all

the reasons why he should hate me.

And fate, ever the cruel mistress, was handing him that list on a silver platter.

This had to end-now-while I still had even the slightest chance to speak, to regain control

of this spiraling situation.

-Hnn~

As our lips finally parted, a thin, glistening bridge of saliva stretched between us before

breaking.

I found myself staring into Rose’s half-lidded, hazy eyes, her flushed face still carrying an expression of deep, unfiltered satisfaction.

Her breath, warm and uneven, ghosted against my skin.

“More~”

She mumbled the word so softly, so vulnerably, as if completely intoxicated by whatever overwhelming emotions were surging through her.

But I couldn’t allow her to indulge any further.

If I did—if I let this continue even a moment longer-then we’d be stepping past a point of

no return, one neither of us could ever come back from.

Her mana was still in the process of stabilizing, the chaotic storm of her emotions finally

settling into something calmer, something more controlled.

And that was my chance. Summoning every ounce of willpower I had, I forcefully moved my body, ignoring the

stiffness in my limbs.

The celestial restraints binding me were still in place, but I could feel it—their hold on me

was weakening. Rose’s mana, once ironclad in its grip, had begun to soften.

Because she had lost focus, too lost in the moment, she had let her emotions override her

logic.

I ignited the mana inside me, pushing against the celestial chains wrapped around my body.

The spell cracked in response, fractures splintering across its once-impenetrable surface like

shattered glass.

Rose’s eyes widened slightly, realization dawning far too late.

By the time she tried to tighten her hold-

Crack!

The first magic circle shattered, disintegrating into fading embers of light.

Then another.

And another.

Each collapse sent a pulse of energy back toward her, the remnants of her own spell

rebounding against her body.

Even if her mana no longer had the same firm grasp over me, the connection was still there.

Which meant she’d take damage from the forced unraveling.

It wouldn’t be severe-nothing fatal.

But it would hurt.

Rose squirmed slightly, a faint tremor running through her body-a clear sign of the backlash

from her own magic.

She likely felt a sharp, concentrated headache, the kind that came from forcibly disrupting a high-tier celestial spell.

But despite that, despite the discomfort and the obvious strain, she still tried to move. Whether it was sheer determination or something more obsessive, she lunged forward again,

her golden eyes glazed over with an intoxicated haze.

Like an addict craving another hit, she desperately sought my lips once more, blindly reaching

for me as if I were the only thing grounding her in this moment.

Her obsession was terrifying.

And if I didn’t stop her now, I wasn’t sure I ever could.

With my hands finally free, I acted.

I caught her shoulders, firmly pushing her back.

Even then, it was hard to gauge just how much strength I should use.

Rose’s mana was still amplified, her body reinforced by the sheer force of her own dense

mana.

If I applied too little, she’d break free. If I applied too much…

‘I didn’t want to hurt her even further…’

So, I let my instincts take over, holding her steady but unyielding.

“Ah…”

She let out a pained sound, a soft whimper that might’ve made me hesitate under normal

circumstances.

But I ignored it.

Because even after all that, even with the backlash of her own magic rattling through her, she

still wasn’t stopping.

Her fingers curled slightly, her body tensing as if she were about to try again.

“Rose.”

[Skill: Divine Will] → [Activated!]

“Enough….”

A surge of energy spread through me, radiating outward in an almost imperceptible wave, as

the effects of my skill began to take root…

Silence settled in the room once more.

Soon light began to return on her dimmed golden eyes, as they spread wide open, and her lost

reasoning began to take over.

As our eyes met…

“R-Riley….?

It was the first time; I ever saw Rose looked at me with a face full of fear….

“I-I’m so sorry… I just—”

I guess…

‘I was angrier than I thought…’

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