## Chapter 545 – #114_R’Lyeh Nukelavi (3)
#545
1.
Another week has passed.
Finding a new path is never easy.
It requires countless experiments and trials and errors before one can take even a single step forward, which is the very essence of the magical arts.
In that sense, the ‘trials’ prepared by the previous Nukelavi were excellent stepping stones.
They allowed me to engage in life-or-death battles against opponents who had maximized their potential, without any burden.
Especially for Siwoo, who could recharge his magic power repeatedly, it was the perfect power-up event.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity, he engaged in the trials five times a day for a week straight, meaning he had already undergone thirty-five trials.
“Hoo…”
After finishing today’s last trial, he rose, his body drenched in cold sweat.
The familiar feeling of exhaustion and fatigue enveloped his entire body.
But there was no time to rest.
The fleeting inspiration was like a volatile liquid.
The endless stream of thoughts that seemed to flow when they were inside would vanish like a mirage the moment he tried to put pen to paper.
So, after roughly wiping off the sweat with a towel, he had to pick up his pen and paper.
“…What was it again….”
The pen, which had been gliding smoothly across the paper, suddenly stopped, and a wave of fatigue washed over him again.
“Let’s call it a day.”
When he came to his senses, there were dozens of papers scattered on the table.
So many papers were being used in a single day that he could already bind them into a thick book, filled with magical formulas.
Of course, simply observing wasn’t enough to imitate everything the Black Knight did.
It was like watching a pianist play and not being able to immediately replicate it.
Moreover, the magic the Black Knight manifested was beyond the calculation capabilities of humans.
It was easier to think of it as magic created for a supercomputer.
Nevertheless, sparring with his subconscious, reorganizing magic based on the data extracted from it, and then verifying the reorganized magic by engaging in trials again—this routine of three steps was paying off with remarkable growth.
It felt like spending a corporate salary on a game he had been playing free-to-play his whole life.
The results achieved by imitating, modifying, and optimizing the Black Knight’s magic were incomparably more efficient than the times he had struggled alone.
The average time he spent fighting the Black Knight had also dramatically increased to between 10 and 15 minutes.
With his already overflowing motivation combined with the soaring results, he had practically been living on this sunken passenger ship for the past few days.
It was also why he had acquired all sorts of furniture and even a sofa to rest on.
“Hmm, is it fun?”
As soon as he put down the pen he had been scribbling with for a couple of hours, R’lyeh, who had been lounging on the sofa, spoke as if she had been waiting for him.
There hadn’t been any dramatic changes since they had inadvertently intertwined a week ago.
Aside from R’lyeh hanging around him a bit more, their relationship was surprisingly normal.
It was just like R’lyeh; she didn’t seem to be conscious of what had happened the night before, so Siwoo was able to treat her normally as well.
“Yes, I’m very grateful for giving me this great opportunity.”
“This is not fun for me.”
As Siwoo focused on the trials, R’lyeh, bored, rolled around on the sofa with her mouth pouting out.
It was amazing how she could take so many different poses on that narrow sofa.
If she was so bored, she could just watch a movie; there were still plenty of movies left to watch.
Yet, she insisted on following him to the trials and whining like this.
But she didn’t interfere either, so her purpose was mysterious and strange.
“Aren’t you going to try the trials, Your Majesty?”
“I am busy devising strategies.”
“……”
“It is said in military strategy that a great general only goes into battles that he has already won.”
R’lyeh, flipping through a piece of paper that hadn’t made any progress since this morning, spoke proudly.
Her magic power was already sufficient, so the reason she was holding back was purely because she didn’t feel like it.
He wasn’t R’lyeh’s guardian, and he had no intention of forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do…
But seeing her just leeching off his efforts like this, he wanted to make sure the original owner also benefited.
“Shall I help you?”
“Help? Me?”
“I just thought it would be better if we did it together.”
R’lyeh’s reaction to that was…
She was indifferent, as if she didn’t care.
She had seemed so determined before, but…
R’lyeh changed her mind so quickly that he just accepted it.
Still, he tried to persuade her a bit more.
“Of course, in terms of hierarchy, Your Majesty is at a much higher level… but I think combat is essentially a numbers game. You need to prepare various plans in advance for different situations. That’s what I’ve been doing lately.”
In fact, when he first heard that R’lyeh had repeatedly failed in the trials, the first thing he thought was that her approach was wrong.
At that time, they weren’t that close, and he didn’t want to get on her bad side by speaking carelessly, so he kept quiet.
After all, realistic advice could be a bit grating to hear, right?
But R’lyeh, who had even generously forgiven their forceful first experience, didn’t seem like she would get angry over something like that, and he thought it might be good to give her some constructive advice.
“I’ve learned something while undergoing the trials.”
“What is it?”
“You said that the trials push the individual’s potential to the limit, right?”
“That is correct.”
“From what I’ve seen, the measurement standard for that ‘potential’ seems to be fixed at the first time magic power is injected.”
“What?”
When was the potential measured?
This was quite important information.
It was also information he had obtained thanks to R’lyeh.
If the potential that the Cradle of Dreams reproduced was updated with each challenge, the Black Knight should have used R’lyeh’s magnetic magic.
If Siwoo ejaculated inside her, a portion of the brand would inevitably be copied.
But the Black Knight didn’t use any of the Deep Sea Witch’s magic.
On the other hand, Siwoo had begun to apply a small amount of her magic to his swordsmanship.
“In other words, if Your Majesty establishes new magic or analyzes the trial patterns well and prepares a strategy that suits them, the trials won’t be difficult.”
No matter how overpowered a boss is, once its patterns are analyzed, it can be easily hunted.
In Siwoo’s case, the Black Knight was an irregular subconscious, so he had been struggling, but R’lyeh’s trials could be solved if she just took the right approach.
She was just scared.
He didn’t need to bring up her past failures, but if he said this much, she would understand.
“……”
R’lyeh stared at Siwoo.
Contrary to his expectations that she would be impressed, praise him, or at least pretend to be surprised by this important information, R’lyeh looked uncomfortable.
As if to prove it, her uneasy voice followed.
“After finishing the trials, you’re still talking about the trials?”
“Yes…?”
“That’s enough. You can challenge them to your heart’s content alone.”
R’lyeh turned her back on the bewildered Siwoo.
She suppressed the urge to glance back over her shoulder to see what kind of expression he was making.
But Siwoo didn’t try to stop R’lyeh until they returned to Akula.
It was only natural that R’lyeh’s mouth pouted out even more.
“He didn’t even follow me. How infuriating!”
Siwoo was so buried in the trials that he wasn’t taking care of his duties properly.
Seeing him like that made her feel annoyed.
It wasn’t that it was causing any direct harm to R’lyeh, or that she was feeling insecure like before.
“He wasn’t like this before… He’s changed.”
But the Shin Siwoo who used to praise her for even the smallest things, be amazed, and endlessly bombard her with questions was gone.
There was only the Shin Siwoo who was madly engrossed in the trials, as if he were addicted to them.
R’lyeh had even restricted his meals as a form of punishment, so they didn’t even have time to talk.
R’lyeh had thought it would be okay after a day or two, but she ended up showing her displeasure like this.
“You sea squirt, sea anemone, sea cucumber…!”
He wasn’t stupid, so why couldn’t he realize that R’lyeh Nukelavi, who was so busy with her duties, was sticking by his side almost all day?
If she had been giving him hints for a week, he should have noticed.
Wasn’t she doing this because she couldn’t directly ask her subordinate to spend time playing with her as a queen?
R’lyeh still wanted to do many things with him.
She wanted to watch movies together, play arcade games that could be played with two people.
She wanted to play pool, which they had stopped doing before, and she wanted to discuss national affairs while sharing a drink.
“And, I need to try that again too…”
And this was actually her biggest concern.
The memory of the fiery first experience had left her with a burning curiosity about the bed games.
She had been half out of it, between fainting and climaxing, but she clearly remembered the sweet pleasure that had penetrated her body.
She couldn’t even imagine how much greater the pleasure would be if she took the reins a bit more.
“…Hmm.”
If it were anyone else, she wouldn’t even think about so easily allowing them to touch her again.
But Shin Siwoo was obedient, handsome, had a good body, and was a loyal subordinate.
Above all, his passionate confession of love for her.
His sincere confession that his outlook on life had changed after meeting R’lyeh was enough for her to open her heart wide.
Even though she had given him a stern warning, if he knelt down, bowed his head, and begged for a night, she was willing to indulge him.
But Siwoo himself didn’t seem to have any intention or desire to do so…
“He’s like a guy who’d live off grass.”
She couldn’t understand why the man who had been so aggressive like a hungry beast that night was now so timid.
“Hmm?”
As R’lyeh grumbled to herself, she noticed something strange.
It was a contradiction in her own actions.
Clearly, Shin Siwoo was R’lyeh’s subordinate.
And to briefly summarize the circumstances of their first night together, R’lyeh had gone to his chambers and attacked him.
So, nothing had changed since then.
If R’lyeh wanted a night of fun, she could just command him as she had done before.
But she didn’t.
It was as if that option had disappeared, and she was just foolishly circling around him without saying a word.
Why was that?
Was it simply because she hadn’t thought of it?
Because he was busy with the trials?
“Your Majesty.”
Just then, Siwoo, who had arrived late in a submersible, called out to her.
There was a saying that one should strike while the iron is hot.
If she had realized the strange self-contradiction, she should immediately correct her actions.
R’lyeh turned around briskly and placed her hands on her hips.
“Shin Siwoo, tonight I…”
But the moment she looked at his face and tried to say the words she had prepared, she felt the word ‘sex’ crawl down her throat.
“I… I… I…”
R’lyeh stammered, flustered by the sudden phenomenon.
Why? Why did she suddenly feel so embarrassed?
“Your Majesty?”
Feeling Siwoo’s gaze, which seemed to be questioning her, R’lyeh finally blushed.
