Chapter 261 (1): In Terms of Beauty, You Can’t Beat Me

Wayne’s scummy declaration left Vera stunned and at a loss. Yes, he was greedy. Yes, he was shameless. And his imagination was vivid and active.

In summary, he was being a bastard.

Since he was her first love, Vera decided to give the bastard a chance. From now on, no more giving herself away. Wayne had to pursue her actively, letting her enjoy the experience.

If he couldn’t... she would pull out of the competition gracefully despite his reluctance, congratulating Veronica and Kristen on becoming happy single mothers.

After dinner, Wayne sat on the living room sofa, recounting his adventure to Vera and Kristen. He had taken careful steps on thin ice with ill-intentioned enemies coming at him on all sides. He almost didn’t make it back.

By the end of the tale, both his arms were being clutched. The story was full of twists and turns, and every time he mentioned how he nearly lost his life, tremendous pressure would press against his arms.

When he finished the story, it was already ten o’clock at night.

Kristen dragged Vera to another room. She was so kind that while she could’ve driven away her rival by bedding Wayne, she chose otherwise, unable to bear seeing Vera sad.

“You only have to be a little louder to make Vera leave. You must have destroyed the world in your past life, Senior, which is why you met me in this life.”

What goes around comes around. I’m your retribution!

Wayne returned to his bedroom alone to practice magic, conserving energy and stockpiling seeds for Mona and Filomina.

Meanwhile, two girls huddled together and chatted quietly.

“You’re nice, Senior.”

“What do you mean?”

“Although you stole my boyfriend from me, I won’t hold it against you given how kind you are.”

“Vera, love doesn’t work under the first-come, first-served principle...”

“Senior, you don’t need to make excuses. I’m not blaming you. What I want to say is that while you have an advantage, it’s not significant. Listen to me. Let’s form an alliance and defeat Veronica first.”

“Liar, you just want to steal my boyfriend from me!”

“I claimed him first.”

“I gave him mana. I also claimed him first.”

“Without me, you wouldn’t have even known him!”

“Hm, I’m not sleeping here. I’m going to the other room to sleep with my boyfriend.”

“Senior, I’m sorry...”

***

The next day, Wayne took the two magical girls out in the morning. One of them could hardly be called a girl anymore, but that was beside the point. Many had gotten familiar with a tentacle monster and still called themselves magical girls in public.

Their outing destination was a seaside city near Londan, where the Lando family owned a villa by the beach. It was private property, so they could enjoy the sunshine and sandy beach to their heart’s content. The scenery was excellent.

The posterior views were excellent, he meant.

***

High Reverend’s manor, Western District, June sixth.

Filomina carefully applied night cream, giving her reflection in the mirror a flirtatious wink. Perfect. She phoned Wayne’s residence and found out that her young boyfriend was returning to Londan tomorrow. She cleared her schedule, planning to pick him up at the airport and deliver him a sweet surprise.

Suddenly, she detected unusual activities outside the manor. Someone was infiltrating her property, using a concealment technique that made them seem like part of the environment. The incredible skill made her feel inferior.

Who could it be? Another traitor from the Ministry of Magic?

Her expression suddenly changed, and she relaxed her battle stance, coming up to the window with her heart bursting with joy. She threw herself into the infiltrator’s embrace.

“Bastard, playing tricks just to scare me.” Filomina’s eyes curved. Although she called him a bastard, she wasn’t angry at all.

“I wanted to give you a surprise!” Wayne put his arms around her. “I came back a day early and immediately visited you after getting changed. Surprise?”

“More like a fright. My heart’s still pounding. Feel it.” Filomina rolled her eyes at him, but the seduction in her eyes belied the dignity of a high reverend. She was the kind of stereotypical priestess who was secretly debauched.

Wayne gulped, the loud sound giving Filomina great satisfaction. She grabbed his collar and led him into her dark domain.

When they turned around, darkness faded, and moonlight cascaded across the land like water. Wayne looked up at the dark moon, waning moon, waxing moon, and full moon in the night sky. With his perception manipulated, he saw four Filominas with different temperaments in the moons.

“Mina, you’ve advanced to Legendary rank?” Wayne asked in surprise.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“It’s impressive, isn’t it?” Filomina held him from behind, her fragrance intoxicating.

The two-meter-tall elf carried herself with elegance, her long hair running down like a waterfall. Her facial features were delicate and graceful, and her skin glowed softly and enchantingly like the world’s purest pearl. A few patterns of faith magic adorned her cheeks. With her silver eyes, she looked stunning to the point of appearing holy.

Wayne wasn’t about to back down. With a flicker, he transformed into a noble, perfect elf.

“Mina, in terms of beauty, you can’t beat me!”

Filomina said nothing, staring at the perfect elf before her, entranced and intoxicated. Her eyes glinted with an obsessive longing.

Finally breaking out of her reverie, she pinched Wayne’s face and said, “What’s going on? Your elven form has changed, and there’s this... strange charm about you.”

How did you become an incubus after a trip?

“I obtained some new formulas...”

Wayne told the exciting story of the trip. Filomina’s heart clenched as she listened, breaking into a cold sweat for him even though she knew that he was fine. It was too dangerous. He almost died multiple times.

“With dangers come opportunities. I seized the opportunity and benefited plenty. This perfect elven form, for example...” Wayne’s expression grew serious. “The earliest Life Alliance had more than three faiths. The Goddess of Darkness and the Goddess of Death were also part of it. To become the perfect elf, one must learn Darkness’s and Death’s faith magic, too.”

Since it was a major secret, he told Filomina to keep it to herself.

Filomina was shocked and skeptical at first, but after Wayne demonstrated his ability to communicate with nature, she became half-convinced. She said with a frown, “The Life Alliance and the Goddesses of Death and Darkness are enemies now. A period has been erased in history.”

The two of them shared their speculations and made bold hypotheses.

Filomina shook her head with a wry smile. “As my power grows greater and as I acquire more knowledge, I become more and more confused about my faith. You shouldn’t have told me this.”

Then switch faith. How about me?

Worship me from now on in addition to Nature. More faiths aren’t going to weigh you down—I may be on top of you sometimes, but faith itself won’t be a burden. The more the merrier.

Wayne swallowed his comments. Thinking of Senna’s predicament, he didn’t dare to let Filomina go down the same path. He said, “Let’s not talk about depressing things today. Just think about the magic. Do you want to learn it? I can teach you now.”

“Darkness and Death...”

Filomina admitted that she desired Wayne’s body and wanted to become more perfect, but the education she had received since childhood made it hard for her to accept hostile faiths.

“It’s not about faith, but pure information. The goddesses are tolerant. They don’t care if you are devout.”

Wayne grabbed her hand and transmitted the power of Darkness and Death to her. Like remembering with a feeling of deja vu, Filomina easily accepted the two powers.

She found it strange. She had never studied the faith magic of Darkness or Death. Why was she able to learn it on the first try? Well, that wasn’t exactly it. It was just that she could easily accept the knowledge Wayne taught her. Her body and thoughts showed no trace of resistance.

A moment later, she concluded that it had to have something to do with his original bloodline. Something did seem off, but...

Her young boyfriend wasn’t going to harm her.

With one boldly teaching the magic and one boldly learning everything, Filomina took no time to master the formulas. With her internal balance resetting, she was unable to cast magic temporarily.

“These formulas... integrate mine. This is extremely clever. I don’t think you’ve included someone capable of this in your story.”

Filomina’s eyebrows raised. “Speak. What’s going on? Why did you leave out the legendary mage? Who is he? No... who is

she

?”

She enunciated her words clearly, demanding an explanation.

Wayne rolled his eyes. “I knew you would overthink, which is why I didn’t mention her. Look at you, not even showing any trust in your man.”

“I don’t care. You have to give me an explanation today.” Filomina huffed. So she was being petty, so what? She didn’t react like this to anyone else when there were so many men in the world, did she?

“The formulas come from my master’s master, Senna Castellana, a legendary mage and an Oracle High Reverend of the Church of Nature.”

“Is she pretty?”

“That’s not the point. She’s my master’s master!”

“Is she pretty?”

“...”

“Answer me!”

“She’s an old woman.”

“How old?”

“Not sure. She didn’t say. I think she’s at least a hundred.”

“That is quite old.”

Filomina huffed, finally satisfied. If it was his master’s master, it was fine. That legendary mage had to see Wayne as a grandson and a student, which would explain the dedication.